Death, illness and daughter's marriage push families to poverty

Death, health and social shocks identified as key reasons for households falling into poverty; People falling into poverty undermining impact of anti poverty measures

World Bank Report 'Moving out of Poverty : The Promise of Empowerment and Democracy in India' analyses questions like How do poor people define poverty? Who is poor and who isn’t? What factors, according to the poor, help them escape poverty and what push them into it. The Report brings together voices of more than 30,000 women and men from 300 villages across Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal between 1995 and 2005. It focuses on poor people’s interactions with local level institutions, social, political and economic and how these facilitate or hinder attempts to move out of poverty.

According to the study, poor people in the four Indian states cited well-functioning local democratic structures such as rural panchayats as critical in helping them move out of poverty. People in Uttar Pradesh reported that an improvement in the local government’s attention to citizens’ concerns increased their likelihood of moving out of poverty by 6 percent. By contrast, they felt that an increase in a household head’s education level, from illiteracy to primary schooling or from primary to secondary schooling, improved the family’s chances of moving up by only 3 percent.

Among the factors that depressed their chances of moving out of poverty, corruption was rated by them as lowering the likelihood of moving out by 10 percent. Jobs (26.6%), individual initiatives in agriculture (19.8%), individual initiatives in non-agriculture (13.7%) and multiple sources of income (12.0%), were cited as the key reasons for families moving out of poverty. Interestingly, a large number of youth interviewed, showed low preference for agriculture as a future career, opting instead for business and government jobs. In Uttar Pradesh, 41% wanted to start a new business, while 37% of the youth showed preference for government jobs. In West Bengal and Assam, these two options together accounted for 76% and 83% respectively. The study also explored the various triggers for households falling into poverty.

According to the people interviewed, death and health shocks (34%) followed by social shocks including family divisions and expenses towards marriages of children (27%) and financial setbacks such as high debt or the failure of crops (18%) were some of the main reasons for descents into poverty. Even in the household survey data, such shocks along with a decline in the overall state of the local economy emerged as strong associates of falling. Many of the poor people covered by the study reported that their initiatives to change their conditions often came up against blocked opportunities. Local democracies, they said, made a difference only to a chosen few as governance at the local level often descended into no more than a contest for spoils. Who benefited and who lost – in terms of access to markets, business licenses, jobs or support - depended largely on the local context. In Uttar Pradesh for instance, the local people suggested that caste affiliations played a role, while in West Bengal, they considered membership in the ruling party to be critical. The report finds that while India has continued to record steady progress in reducing poverty in recent decades, vulnerability remains a major issue. Focusing only on aggregate data can lead to sub-optimal policy actions as it masks the process of churning at the grassroots, where some people manage to climb out of poverty while others fall into it.

The study finds that when responsive local governments and economic opportunities match individual initiative and hard work, poor people’s journey out of poverty can be greatly facilitated. A combination of fair elections, improved access to information about local government programs, and collective action through organizations like women’s self-help groups can go a long way in unleashing the power of local democracy. The research also stresses the importance of reducing the rates of fall into poverty and underlines the urgency of devising new strategies to do so – including social and health insurance programs as well as improved access to savings and credit instruments.

India's H1N1 situation update

Press Information Bureau release, June 13, 2009 - World Health Organization has reported 29,699 laboratory confirmed cases of influenza A/H1N1 infection from74 countries as on 12th June 2009. There have been 145 deaths. (No further update is available from WHO). Health screening of passengers coming from affected countries is continuing in 21 International airports. 47339 passengers have been screened on 13.6.2009. Around 26482 passengers were from affected countries. 221 doctors and 111 paramedics have been deployed to man 76 counters at the above airports.

The six year old girl child who travelled from New York reflected in yesterday’s report has also tested positive at NIV, Pune. One and half year old brother of this girl who travelled in the same flight has also tested positive. Both children remain admitted to the identified health facility and are stable. So far samples of 240 persons have been tested of which seventeen have been tested positive for novel Influenza A [H1N1]. Of these, two are indigenous cases who got the infection from the positive cases traveled from abroad. The rest of the samples have been found negative for the novel virus. Among the 240 tested, 82 were identified through health screening at International Airports and the rest were samples from persons who have self reported. Of the 17 cases nine have been discharged. Rest of the passengers are all stable and remain admitted to the identified health facility. The situation is being monitored.

After Aila, cyclone in North Indian Ocean will be called Phyan

The next cyclone to hit countries in the north Indian Ocean region will be called Phyan. The one which hit West Bengal and Bangladesh was called Aila. Aila was name given by Maldives while Phyan is a name given by Myanmar.The practice of naming cyclones began years ago in order to help in the quick identification of storms in warning messages because names are presumed to be far easier to remember than numbers and technical terms.

Cyclones derive their names through a systematic procedure laid out by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Met officials in fact have decided the names of cyclones till 2009-end. Eight north Indian Ocean countries - Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand - have prepared a list of 64 names. When a cyclone hits these countries, the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RSMC), housed in the IMD office in New Delhi picks up the name next on the list. The RSMC has been set up in Delhi by the WMO for forecasting tropical cyclones in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Since 2004, the eight countries have faced 19 cyclones. The countries take turns in naming the cyclones. The last six were: Sidr (named by Oman), Nargis (Pakistan), Rashmi (Sri Lanka), Khai-Muk (Thailand), Nisha (Bangladesh) and Bijli (India).

All these countries meet once in two years and review the progress of cyclones and how many cyclones there were. Every country reports its assessment of the cyclones and then they arrive at a mutual plan of action, which includes creation of a database for the names to be given to tropical cyclones.

Ragging: Can we ever solve this problem?

Harsh Agarwal

In July 2008, CURE analysed the ragging incidents of past 5 years and did a comparative study with the cases reported after the Supreme Court judgment in May, 2007. It was shocking to know that even after the SC judgment, 11 cases of death due to ragging and 5 cases of attempted suicides were reported by the media and there was no significant decrease in ragging. After making so much effort to curb ragging, whenever a fresh case is reported it makes everyone think as to why we are still not able to successfully deal with this menace? It makes us feel disappointed to comprehend the fact that the most educated section of our society is involved in one of the worst form of human rights abuse. Let us understand some of the important fundamental issues associated with ragging which are essential to be understood and addressed if we really want to get rid of this social menace. These are the issues which have been ignored or have not been addressed with the right spirit.


Anonymity of the Complainant: This is the first step to solve the menace and one of the key elements if we want to encourage the fresher to report any incident of ragging. There is tremendous fear in the minds of the freshers and huge possibility of backlash because of which the fresher decides to tolerate ragging and as a result almost 99.99% of the ragging cases go unreported and problem remains suppressed. Provisions like putting a compliant box or expecting the fresher to report the incident to anti ragging cell/committee don’t work because such provisions fail to convince the fresher of complete anonymity and his /her safety.

The best way to tackle this problem is by making it mandatory for every college in the country to do a weekly/fortnightly anonymous survey of the entire first year batch to find out if any sort of ragging is taking place in their college. The idea is to encourage the students by approaching the entire batch and maintaining absolute anonymity rather than waiting for a whistle blower to come forward and report the incident. Unless we make this important provision, the college authorities will continue to live in oblivion and feel that ragging is not a problem in their institution.

Awareness: This is another key element in solving this problem. Ragging is still not considered as social evil and law cannot help in doing so but awareness can. Though ragging has been banned but since the time it has been banned there is an atmosphere of confusion prevailing in the campus. There is confusion as to what is ragging what is not; what will happen to the senior–junior interaction in the absence of ragging. Reason as to why ragging has been banned, what are the ill effects of ragging, what is its origin? Where did it come from? – These questions have not been answered and can never be answered by simply distributing pamphlets giving details about the provisions of punishment or about the contact details of anti ragging committee members. Perhaps that is why several students still believe that this ban has been unnecessarily imposed on them. It is therefore very important to disseminate right information about ragging, about its origin, highlight its ill effects, and why is it irrelevant in today’s time. Also, we need to introduce alternative and healthier methods of interaction to replace ragging to break the ice between the seniors and freshers.

Psychological Menace: Ragging is more of a psychological problem than anything else. Ragging is perhaps the only Social and Human Rights problem in the world in which the victim himself/herself becomes the perpetrator of this crime in a short span of one year. This problem can best be solved by going into the roots of this menace and understanding its psychology. Psychological concepts like Stanford Prison Experiment, Miligram Experiment, Stockholm syndrome, which have close similarities with the psychology of ragging need to be studied carefully to understand this problem and look for appropriate solution.


Role of Media: Be it publishing a front page picture of a Delhi University boy giving rose to a girl to portray ragging or writing only about the provision of FIR or quantum of punishment with regard to ragging, media has failed to disseminate the right information and essential knowledge about ragging. Since the Supreme Court judgment in 2007, the role of the media with regard to ragging has been more to spread sensation. Though there is a long list of guidelines made in the Raghavan Committee report but media chose to highlight only few sensational ones. Today all that the country knows about the Raghavan Committee report is about provision of filing an FIR or about provision of sending director of a college to jail but is completely ignorant about the dozens of other important recommendations/guidelines which can be key to solve the problem of ragging.


Hard Approach: This provision should be used as deterrence and as the last resort when all the other softer efforts fail to curb ragging. Firstly, we need to look from a 17-18 year old fresher’s perspective and understand that a young student who joins the college with a dream to become a doctor or an engineer will find it extremely fearful to use the provision of FIR and later get involved in a court case. Secondly, gathering evidence to prove any ragging incident has always been very difficult as nobody comes forward to testify. Thirdly, we need to ask ourselves that is it easy to de-recognize an institution or stop its fund if it is several decades old and there are several hundred students studying in it? What will happen to the future of those innocent students who were not involved in ragging? What will happen to several hundred crores of the public money spent on building that college? And when ragging is so rampant in our country then how many Medical or Engineering colleges will we de-recognize? How many Directors of such institutions would we send to jail? Fourthly, successful implementation of hard approach depends largely whether various stakeholders of ragging are convinced that it is bad. Presently ragging is seen as an age old ritual by the college community, there are conflicting views about ragging, for some it is a painful torture whereas for others it is a healthy interaction or a personality development exercise. When knowledge about ragging is so low then how will we be able to implement these harsh measures?

Unless and until we act on the above issues seriously, college authorities will continue to label ragging deaths as suicides due to academic pressure; majority of the ragging incidents will continue to go unreported; seniors and teachers will continue to believe that ragging is a healthy interactive and personality development exercise; media will continue to report only sensational stuff about ragging; parents, relatives and society will fail to understand the pain of the ragging victim, and as a result of all this, the harsh provision to curb ragging might soon loose its deterrent effect and we may never be able to solve this problem.

(Harsh Agarwal is a Co-founder of Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education CURE www.noragging.com and a former consultant to Raghavan Committee on Ragging and can be reached at harsh.agarwal@noragging.com)

Let’s stop ragging

IANS reports that hundreds of people marched and held candle-light vigils in New Delhi and Himachal Pradesh's Tanda town on Saturday evening to demand justice for Aman Khachroo, a medical student who died after ragging. Aman died on March 8 after he was beaten up in the name of ragging allegedly by four final-year students of his medical college in Tanda. Police said he died of wounds in head and other parts of body. Relatives, friends of Aman, and their hundreds of supporters marched from the Jantar Mantar observatory near Connaught Place on the Parliament Street in the Capital and on the college campus and within the Himachal town.

"I am thankful to everyone present here for their support. The movement for justice will continue not only for Aman, but also for other victims of ragging," said Aman's father, Rajender Khachroo, in Delhi. The protesters also demanded the implementation of existing laws and passing of an anti-ragging law. Meanwhile, a team of the Medical Council of India (MCI) is visiting the medical college next week to inquire about the incident and the steps taken by college authorities to check ragging.

Man donates rare Gandhi photo for just Rs 500

This story is in today's Times of India, and has been written by Ragini Bharadwaj from Ahmedabad. It is great one hence we are putting this on the blog.

On a day when liquor baron Vijay Mallya doled out US $ 1.8 million in New York to bag five belongings of Mahatma Gandhi, an antique collector visited the Sabarmati Ashram, once the abode of the apostle of peace, and walked away with a Rs 500 note. Initially, he refused to take the money from Amrit Modi, director of Gandhi Smarak Sangralaya, in exchange for a rare photograph of Gandhiji in his early teens. But then Radheshyam Ajmeri (55) is made of stuff different than those who are trying to make money out of Gandhi memorabilia. “After much cajoling, he took the token amount. He has been bringing a lot of Gandhi-related articles to the ashram in the past,” said Modi. The framed picture, presumably clicked in a studio, shows a young Gandhi donning a Kashmiri topi and posing with two friends.

Ajmeri spotted this rare picture at the weekly Gurjari Bazaar held every Sunday on the banks of Sabarmati. A regular visitor at this scrap market, where he looks around for hidden treasures, he bought it along with two paintings of Gandhi for Rs 200 last Sun-day. The seller didn’t realise this was a Gandhi photograph. “I am a regular visitor to the ashram where there are many photo-graphs of Bapu in his young days. So I could identify Gandhiji eas-ily,” Ajmeri told TOI.

Ajmeri supplies plastic bags for a living and says it is his hobby to collect articles of historic importance. “I donate articles related to Gandhiji to the Sabarmati Ashram because it would add value to the thousands of Gandhi fans who visit ashram,” he says. A visibly excited Modi said, “This picture is rare. Even the inno-cence of childhood is evident on Gandhiji’s face.” The photograph of the teen-aged Gandhi’ is now an addition to the ashram’s collec-tion of around 8,000 photographs of Bapu.

West Bengal and UP to get premier medical institutes

Indian government sanctioned Rs.16.46 billion ($340 million) for setting up two more premier referral institutes on the lines of the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.

Government also sanctioned Rs.7.50 billion for upgrading five existing government medical colleges. The five government medical colleges being upgraded are located at Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh), Amritsar (Punjab), Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Tanda (Himachal Pradesh). The new referral institutes, to be established at a cost of Rs.8.23 billion each, will be located at Raiganj in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district and at a site to be chosen by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Each institution will have a 960-bedded hospital, with 500 beds for the medial college hospital and 300 beds for its speciality and super speciality departments. This apart, 100 beds will be set aside for the ICU and accident trauma department, 30 beds for physical medicine & rehabilitation departments and 30 beds for the Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) departments.

AIIMS became functional in 1956 as an autonomous institution through an act of Parliament, to serve as a nucleus for nurturing excellence in all aspect of health care. In 2005, the government had approved five similar institutes at Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand).

Nine-year old Singaporean kids writes iPhone application

Reuters report that Lim, a student of fourth grade, writes applications for Apple's popular iPhone. His latest painting program called Doodle Kids, already has had 4,000 downloads times from Apple's iTunes store in last two weeks, as per the same report. The program lets iPhone users draw with their fingers by touching the iPhone's touchscreen and then clear the screen by shaking the phone. Lim, who is fluent in six programing languages, started using the computer at the age of 2. He has since completed about 20 programing projects.

His father, Lim Thye Chean, a chief technology officer at a local technology firm, also writes iPhone applications. The boy who enjoys reading books on programing, is in the process of writing another iPhone application - a science fiction game called "Invader Wars."

Dolphin rescued by villagers in East Midnapore, West Bengal

This January 13, a 12-year-old dolphin had strayed into an irrigation canal in West Bengal's East Midnapore district, when villagers rescued it. People of village stood guard overnight to ensure that the mammal reached its habitat. Dolphins straying into irrigation canals from rivers in West Bengal's East Midnapore district was common and the forest department was virtually dependent on villagers for rescue of the Schedule-I endangered mammal.

Divisional Forest Officer, East Midnapore, Rabindranath Saha lauded the role of villagers in Tilkhoja area and said to media that it was remarkable that the mammal was in perfect health despite spending over 24 hours in a pond after local people rescued it from an irrigation canal. Saha said the Gangetic dolphin had separated from its group and possibly strayed from Rupnarayan river into an irrigation canal and was stuck there because of low tide.

Villagers rescued the dolphin and put it in a pond while standing guard all night before the forest department personnel took over and eventually released it 42 km away next morning.

Nano laptop’ set to take computing to rural India

DAY BEFORE yesterday, I was at Purulia in West Bengal and met Sakina Khatun, Ruksana Khatun and Tyab. These children were trying out their little fingers on a laptop. Though it was not theirs but belonged to the assistant labour commissioner of the district, who was happy to share his laptop with these kids. These children are part of child activist programme being run by district labour department, district administration and Zila Parishad, which is providing an opportunity to voices of children who were once child labour but are now back in school. But in the coming days things may change, may be they have a laptop of their own.

This has been made possible by National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology. It is set to unveil on Feburary 3, a ’nano laptop’, which will cost only Rs 500. A boon for many in India and will help in taking the power of computing to interiors of the country. This has been made possible due to efforts of students of Indian Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras and Semiconductor Complex, a Public Sector Undertaking. Though it may take some time till the dreams of the little kids may get realised but nevertheless, it is a great hope in coming days.

The National Mission on Education through ICT has been envisaged as a centrally-sponsored Scheme to leverage the potential of ICT, in providing high quality personalised and interactive knowledge modules over the Internet/intranet for all the learners in Higher Education Institutions in anytime, anywhere mode. The mission plans to extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 18,000 colleges in the country and growing appropriate e-learning procedures, providing facility of performing experiments through virtual laboratories, online testing and certification, online availability of teachers to guide and mentor students

Contributed by Anil Gulati

Photoblogging getting trendier

- Anil
If you feel you have a ‘photo-bug’ in you, photo-blogging on the internet could be your way to show the world what you are. It is about sharing and publishing photographs on specific themes on the blogs. It is expressing oneself through photographs..

BUT IT does not mean that it is without text. Text accompanies photographs but is all about the photograph or supports the photograph. It is the photograph which is essentially conveying the message; be it nature, pets, flowers, birds, travel, city or street food. If you feel about something passionately, photo blog is your way of sharing that feeling. Thanks to digicams and mobo phones, photo blogging is getting trendier. There are many ways one can photo blog.

One can have one’s own domain weblog; alternatively, one can create a free photo blog on sites like blogger.com or wordpress.com. Now with many social websites offering numerous options one has immense potential for photo sharing. Sites like flickr, merinews, fotothing and fotolog come to one’s mind. Uploading is easier and faster but one has to upload in a size recommended by the site. There are some theme-based sites like trekearth.com which are devoted to nature. On many of these sites, one can contribute only one picture a day, but they attract visitors with similar interests who comment on your creativity. With an individual blog, how much and how frequently you want to load and control the layout and display is for you to decide. You can load the photograph in its original size too but you will need a broadband connection. If one has an individual domain one needs to make it popular and push it on search engines so as to attract traffic to it.

With packages like piccassa and many others available on the net, you can easily work on your photographs, make them look better. With options provided by blogging and social sites it is getting simpler and popular. One other reason why it is getting trendier is that it has the power to showcase your talent or just share your feelings on the net not only with your friends but also many others you do not even know about. Some caution and ethics are needed for photoblogging. So you have to take the consent of the subject of the photograph, if you are taking his or her photographs and using them. Sites like photoblog.org, coolphotoblogs.com and technorati.com help you share your photoblogs with others and make them popular. As it happens, no rule applies to blogging; probably its success owes it to this major factor. So it is not that photo blogs will use only photographs; any blog or any entry may use photographs but to be listed on various photoblog sites and marketed as photoblog, one needs to use photographs as the central theme.

Stress!! You must be joking!!

So they had a stress management workshop for all the army wives in the cantonment the other day (in Bhopal, capital city of Madhya Pradesh, India). A noted psychologist was invited to speak on the occasion. All the ladies of the station were invited except the separated families!!

I felt these are the ones who needed the workshop first and the foremost. These are the ones who spend long, lonely, anxious hours day and night. But no! this time again I missed the point!! I have a friend whose husband is posted in Siachen. Few days back when we met she was having severe hypertension which resulted in endless sleepless nights. She was upset because due to security reasons her husband and his men were supposed to sleep in bunkers. Siachen has low oxygen levels plus staying in a bunker reduces them further as a result he was pretty unwell. It seems for all our serving officers and their better halves here in the station thought that she actually didn’t need a stress management class!!

There’s another lady who has not been able to talk to her husband for the past ten days due to difficult terrain. He is deployed at a far off mountainous post. She has two daughters one of whom is a severe case of asthma. The authorities very rightly felt that this mother didn't need a stress management class either!!

Another separated army wife was forcibly made to vacate the accommodation only because of the reason that some serving officers in the station were still living in temporary accommodation. While she a meagre separated wife with two small kids was living in a permanent one!! How could she? Her husband was not serving in the station but at the country’s border, how can she claim to live in a huge comfortable house!! No not done. Plus whats the need to need a stress management class! So let’s see who all need stress management class.

Firstly, are the ones who play mah-jong in the mornings to tear away the previous night’s party’s strain. You know how stressful it is to sleep late and get up late! Second are the ones who need to show off the brand new dress, oh! It can become really stressful when you don’t have an occasion to show that latest addition in your wardrobe.

Third are the ones whose hubby’s promotion is due and you just can’t apprehend how stressful it is if the boss’s wife doesn’t smile back!!Yes! I think these ladies need a stress management class more then seperated ones. You see army is never wrong!!

Contributed by Ambreen from her blog http://weddedtotheolivegreen.blogspot.com/

Smoking ban in India ?

India has banned smoking in workplaces from October 2 onwards. The aim is to discourage smokers, to make them reduce or quit smoking. Those flouting the ban will face a fine of Rs 200. The law is impressive, but would it work?.

OCTOBER 2 onwards, India has banned smoking in workplaces, public places, hotels and restaurants, offices, courts, banks, schools, colleges, libraries, cinemas, auditorium, restaurants, shopping malls, parks, monuments, railway stations, airports, bus stops, buses, taxis.

The new Smoking in Public Places Rules 2008, which was notified this month come into effect from October 2, birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The only places where one can smoke will be smoking lounges at airports, restaurants with over 30 seats, smoking rooms and of course or your own home. The fine for violating the ban is Rs 200.

Though an appeal was filed before the Supreme Court, it upheld the government ban on smoking in public places from October 2. The government of India had earlier tried to control tobacco use through Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply, and Distribution Bill, 2003. Key provisions of the law include prohibition on direct and indirect advertisements of tobacco products, prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors and prohibition of smoking in public places. But one can see many who smoke in public places. Also cigarette packets sold in India are required to carry pictorial warnings along with the text saying smoking is injurious to health and smoking causes cancer in both Hindi and English. But I still have not seen any pictorial warnings.

India is good in making laws, they look good when drafted and announced, but somehow implementation of these laws is a major challenge. It is not about one sector or area, it is across board.

India had banned children below 14 years of age from work, but go to any state, any city one can see children working in dhabas, restaurants, petrol pumps,brick kilns and as domestic labour etc. Hardly anyone gets punished! India has banned sex selection under Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostics Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) (PCPNDT) Act, but the reality is quite different.

Tobacco laws have been there in India, but still more than 250 million people in India use various tobacco products like gutka, cigarettes and bidis and millions of them die, many suffer with heart and lung diseases because of this habit. The data says one in two Indian men and one in seven women use tobacco in the country. Tobacco causes 40 per cent of all cancer disease in India.

So the fact is that law is good, but the issue is of implementation. I am not sure if we have the manpower to implement this law. Do we have necessary structures, people, mechanisms in place who can implement the laws or will it remain as yet another good policy level declaration, which is not implemented on ground.

Contributed by Anil Gulati

WHO’s World Malaria Report, 2008

The advent of long-lasting nets and artemisinin-based (artemisinin is the miracle drug of Malaria) combination therapy plus a revival of support for indoor residual spraying of insecticide, presents a new opportunity for malaria control..

A WHO (World Health Organisation) report (called the World Malaria Report 2008) released recently speaks of not only the progress made in controlling malaria but also the challenges posed by it. The global burden of malaria remains enormous, though progress in malaria control has accelerated dramatically since 2006. The report states that half of the world’s population is at risk of malaria. An estimated 247 million malaria cases out of the 3.3 billion people at risk in 2006 caused nearly a million deaths, mostly of children under 5 years of age. Malaria was endemic in 109 countries in 2008 and 45 of them were within the WHO African region. 86 per cent or 212 million (152–287 million) cases were from the African Region. 80 per cent of the cases in Africa were detected in 13 countries and over half were in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tanzania and Kenya. Among the cases that occurred outside the African region, 80 per cent were from India, Sudan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan.

The World Malaria Report 2008 describes the global distribution of cases and deaths. It also explains how the WHO-recommended control strategies have been adopted and implemented in Malaria-endemic countries, the sources of funding for malaria control and recent evidence that prevention and treatment can alleviate the burden imposed by the disease. The report states that the advent of long-lasting insecticidal nets and artemisinin-based (artemisinin is the miracle drug of Malaria) combination therapy plus a revival of support for indoor residual spraying of insecticide, presents a new opportunity for large-scale malaria control. Some salient features and points raised in the report are:

1. It talks of renewed efforts to control malaria worldwide; elimination in some countries is founded on the latest generation of effective tools and methods for prevention and cure.

2. The report raises concern that little children remain by far the most likely to die of the disease.

3. It puts forward policies and strategies for malaria control - the various national malaria control programmes have adopted many of the WHO-recommended policies on prevention and cure, but with variation among countries and regions.

4. It talks about prevention of malaria – it says that despite big increases in the supply of mosquito nets, especially of long-lasing insecticidal nets in Africa, the number available is still far below the requirement in most countries.

5. On the issue of treatment of malaria, the report says that the procurement of anti-malarial medicines through public health services increased sharply between 2001 and 2006, but access to treatment, especially of artemisinin-based combination therapy, was inadequate in all the countries surveyed in 2006.

6. It states that funding for malaria control in 2006 was reported to be greater than ever before, but it is not yet possible to judge from NMCP budgets which countries have adequate resources for malaria control.

7. It also brings out the impact of malaria control - some countries that have implemented aggressive programmes of prevention and treatment in Africa and other regions, have reported significant reduction in malaria incidence. For the first time, three African countries reported dramatic reduction in malarial deaths - by 50 per cent or more. Eritrea, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe achieved this result between 2000 and 2006/2007 through a mix of bednet (protective netting) distribution, indoor spraying, improved access to treatment and advances in disease surveillance.

Contributed by Anil Gulati

Orissa floods - situation grim while R & R stepped up

Situation remains grim in the flood-hit 17 districts of Orissa, while rescue and relief operation were stepped up including air dropping of food packets and essentials for people affected by the deluge that had claimed 16 lives.

Describing the floods as that of "rare severity", a senior official that nearly 20 lakh people in 110 blocks in 17 districts were affected by the calamity.The situation continued to be grim as Mahanadi and its tributaries which were in spate for the last four days caused at least 32 breaches.Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who undertook an aerial survey of the affected areas, has asked the Centre to declare the floods as a 'National Disaster' and immediately release Rs 1500 crore assistance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund for relief and rehabilitation.The government machinery geared up to intensify relief work and and air dropping of relief materials, medicines and water pouches in different flood affected areas, the sources said.Describing the recent flood as the most furious in last 55 years, the engineer-in-chief of water resource department H C Behera said the maximum flow of water at Munduli near Cuttack was this time recorded at 15.81 lakh cusec against the previous highest of 15.80 lakh cusec in 1982.Water level in the Hirakud dam near Sambalpur in western Orissa stood at 629.50 feet this morning as against its maximum capacity of 630 feet, they said.

22 lakh affected due to floods in Orissa

220,000 people have been affected in villages of Orissa in 17 out of 30 of its districts as incessant rains caused a river to breach its banks in several places. The breaches on the embankments of Mahanadi and its branches in the delta have affected people in these 17 districts. Indian Army has been asked to stand by for rescue and relief work. As many as 46 of the 64 sluices of Hirakud dam had been opened to discharge over 6.93 lakh cusec water even as Angul, Kendrapara, Puri, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur districts faced the deluge. The road link between Bhubaneswar and Puri as well as Cuttack and Paradip was disrupted due to major breaches at several places. Light vehicles and two wheelers were not allowed to ply on Puri-Bhubaneswar road due to a breach by Debi river near Pipili, media reports quote.

Indian corporates promote brands online

Internet is an inseparable medium for acquiring information. Several Indian companies have started using websites as effective venues for promoting their brands (products or services). They are also supporting online portals for consumer education.

With Increasing reach of Internet and our dependence on it for information, companies are using websites as a medium for promoting their own brands. In addition to online promotion and by hosting one’s own site, corporate houses are also supporting online sites for consumer education, which also subtly pushes their brands in the market that is already getting crowded. Pepsi and Coca Cola are already in this segment. Coca Cola’s website myenjoyzone is its version for teens wherein one has to be a member get to games, jokes and snap shots of movies etc. Pepsi’s pepsizone is for young ones wherein one can see and download Pepsi Deepika, Ranbir and Shahrukh on your desktop.

New websites to come up in this segment are from Hindustan Lever, the consumer goods company that is in segment of home, personal care products, food and beverages. It has set up a new portal called cookitup. As per the website, it endeavours to make cooking a pure pleasure for women and men who’d like to cook it up for their families, friends and for themselves.
Off course, it has recipes, cooking tips, contests, some tools for help in kitchen like how to plan a weekly menu and obviously it has links to Hindustan Lever Limited products.

Meanwhile, Buchanan Group, a global company in third party branded advertising is now in India with its website called brandpower wherein corporates can advertise products.
But, it is different from traditional advertising as it focuses on providing rational information about the products. As per the company, the aim of brandpower is to provide customer facts and value through information. As of now products like Stayfree, Pepsodent, Cadbury, Bournvita, Surf Excel, Domex and Hamam Abhyanga Snan are being profiled and reviewed on the site.
But, whenever one talks of these portals, one needs to remember that they are promoted by corporates for brand promotion.

Website like these, give consumer an online platform to speak out, write and read reviews about products, services. One can also compare the product they intend to buy with others, which gives power to the consumer.

By Anil Gulati

India gets bronze in wrestling at Beijing - a repeat performance after 1952

Sushil Kumar free style wrestler of India won the bronze medal after beating Kazakhstan's wrestler in a play-off in the men's 66 kg freestyle wrestling through repechage round at the Beijing Olympics. This gave India its second medal in the on going Olympics. Earlier, Sushil Kumar lost to Ukrainian Andriy Stadnik on points after being pegged down 3-8 on technical points. This is repeat performance after 1952 when Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, who gave the country its first individual Olympic medal, something which has been repeated this year in Beijing.

Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav or KD Jadhav was independent India's first individual [[Olympic Games when he won the wrestling bronze medal at the 1952 Helsinki games. Since 1900 when Norman Pritchard won 2 silver medals in athletics, India had won gold medals only in field hockey, a team sport. In fact many don’t know about KD Yadav, now when media will talk about Sushil’s achievement they will remember him too and give him some recognition. This medal will also help to revive wrestling in India, wherein India can do wonders.

Cocaine use among young in UK soars

Cocaine is a naturally occurring alkaloid usually extracted from the leaves of the coca shrub and is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug. Its popularity is growing among teenagers and young adults, which is a point
of concern for British society
ALMOST TWO million people take illegal drugs at least once a month. A Britain newspaper The Independent quotes government sources for these shocking figures. Cocaine popularity is growing majorly among teenagers and young adults, which is a point of concern. In fact, recent report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), a UN agency has stated that how film actors, sports stars and rock musicians influence young people and it states that use of cocaine by celebrities is encouraging more young people to take the drug. This is an area of concern not only in United Kingdom (UK), but across many countries.

For UK report of The Independent, adds that two million people in Britain take illegal drugs each month while one in three adults has tried banned substances, but what is of concern is that one in four school-aged children has used drugs. The reports state how commonplace drug use has become in modern Britain, which has some of the highest levels of abuse in Western Europe. More and more people are using cocaine or ecstasy at the weekend, and this number is growing.
Cocaine is a naturally occurring alkaloid usually extracted from the leaves of the coca shrub and is powerfully addictive stimulant drug. The drug is a strong central nervous system stimlant and its abuse affects include constricted blood vessels, dilated pupils, increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Experts state that if the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, it may lead to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia. This can result in a period of full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the user loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations. Plus there is many more complication including cardiac, affect on respiration and even gastro-intestinal tract. Cocaine abuse during pregnancy is an important public health issue. Recent research states that neonatal exposure to cocaine causes neocortical cytoarchitectural and neurobehavioural alterations in the developing brain.

The media report quotes government data, which showed that the number of under-25s admitted to hospital with mental and behavioral problems linked to illegal drug use has risen by around a fifth in a decade, something which is associated with the drug abuse. It is high time that world agency needs to do something concern to reverse this trend or we are moving ahead in tough times, with the way its drug use in soaring.

Contributed by Anil Gulati Source www.merinews.com

Food safety a concern to prevent diseases

Food safety is a major concern. With increased debate on avian influenza this area gets more focus, for which serious steps are been taken by WHO in increasing awareness and educating people, including children on safe food handling.

RECENTLY MEDIA reports state on the need for creating awareness about food safety and services. There have been reports on making Goa a "safe food town”. Food safety is a major concern with increased debate on avian influenza this area gets more focus. Not only avian influenza even diarrhoeal diseases alone kills an estimated 1.8 million children annually, and most of these illnesses are attributed to contaminated food or water.

Proper food preparation can prevent most foodborne diseases. As per World Health Organisation (WHO) food safety is a public health priority, millions of people fall ill every year and many die as a result of eating unsafe food. Serious outbreaks of foodborne disease have been documented on every continent in the past decade, and in many countries rates of illnesses are increasing significantly. With increase in trade, imported products are getting common in countries and the fear of spread of contamination due to lack of food safety is crossing borders.

WHO states that disease-causing organisms in food are transmitted far and wide by today’s interconnected global food-chains - escalating how often and where foodborne illnesses occur. Rapid urbanisation worldwide is adding a risks to it, as urban dwellers eat more food prepared outside the home that may not be handled or prepared safely - including fresh foods and fish, meat and poultry.

Key global food safety concerns include -- spread of microbiological hazards (including such bacteria as Salmonella or Escherichia coli-e. coli); chemical food contaminants, assessments of new food technologies (such as genetically modified food) and strong food safety systems in most countries to ensure a safe global food-chain.

WHO has developed a global food hygiene message with five key steps that promote health, and the five keys to safer food are
-Keep clean-Separate raw and cooked food
-Cook thoroughly
-Keep food at safe temperatures
-Use safe water and raw materials
It also states that increasing awareness and educating people, including children on safe food handling behaviors will help in preventing food borne diseases today and in the future.

Contributed by anil

The unwelcoming Delhi

Commonwealth Games are just a couple of years ahead. But is Delhi ready to play the good host when, everyday, new arrivals to the national capital get an unsavory welcome by overcharging auto rickshaw and taxi operators..

IF YOU land up in Delhi from outside by train, the autos and taxis of Delhi may have unwelcoming surprise for you and for some it could be a nightmare. This happens to not only the one who is ‘not a Delhiites’ but with everyone. Delhiites have got used to it and can navigate with them and bargain. For a non-Delhiites, it could end up scaring them for a lifetime.

For example, at Nizamuddin railway station, one of the main railway stations of Delhi, there is no pre-paid service available for hiring taxi, which in effect means that you are at the mercy of the private taxi operators. One will have to bargain on the astronomical rates quoted by them. And if you ain’t aware of the routes, you are the one who may get ‘robbed’, a robbery for which you even cannot complain. This is not rare but a routine occurrence. For a taxi fare of Rs 100 by meter, you can end up paying something between three hundred to five hundred, that too if you are lucky. Pre-paid for auto rickshaw is available but that too for namesake. You can buy a pre-paid ticket but may not get an auto. But in case you are willing to pay their desired rate, which is more than double the normal fare, only then will they agree to move. Alternatively, in case you allow them to get one or two more unknown extra passengers on-board on the same auto then they may agree on your pre-paid price. Worst is - even if you complain to police personnel manning the pre-paid booths, they hardly listen except if you are real vociferous and can shout and make them hear.

Though there is a complaint number ‘painted’ on each auto but it is only for namesake. No one picks up the number, especially in the early morning and late night. This is the reality of the national capital of India - New Delhi, which is planning to host the prestigious commonwealth games in year 2010!

Power shortage in MP, for whom ?

Backside of call centre in Indore
This is recent picture of back side of a call centre in Indore which is meant to service 'global customers'. State of Madhya Pradesh may feel happy to bring in centres like these as part of their Global investment agenda, but they take away major share of electricity which is for 'people of the state' when they run on a/c's like these to service 'overseas clients'. Madhya Pradesh has a requirement of 3,500 Mega Units per day and the availability is only 2,400 Mega Units. State is deficit on electricty front and the major burden of the same is borne by people in the rural region of the state not by centres like these as they get the major share of the power generated as part of State's committment to attract global investments ?

Derogatory advertisement by Wipro Smartlite CFL

WIPRO SMARTLITE compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) is a brand of Wipro consumer care and lighting that is a business unit of Wipro Limited. It has a range of products from toilet soaps, hair care soaps, baby care products and lighting products.

Wipro CFL has established its presence CFL (lightning market) in India. To promote Wipro Smartlite, CFL Company has roped in celebrity, Paresh Raval, and the advertisement is on air on television now a days. It tries to educate consumers about savings through switching from bulbs to CFL. The ad promotes CFL manufactured by Wipro and tries to dissuade the customer for not using inferior quality, which the ad says consumes more energy. The product is positioned as ‘money saving device’ and itself will act as a savings account (money) for the house.

The advertisement may be right and powerful, but the words used by Rawal do not reflect the same. He says a ‘metric fail’ to the person who is not using CFL or using inferior quality CFL. It is a derogatory word and he does not agree to it. A person who is metric fail can be smart enough too, he adds.

Though the spirit of Wipro places respect of individual and sensitivity at its highest vision and quotes on its website as ‘believe in a society where each citizen sees the ethic of equity, the essentiality of diversity, the ethos of justice, and is thus driven to social action. It is seeing each of us is inextricably embedded in the same social fabric’.

Which parameters did Wipro and its advertisement agency use to define that being ‘metric fail’ meant for not being smart? They are wrong here and probably should withdraw the same from the advertisement. In India, businessmen, though not being formally educated in school and colleges, have made it big in their business. Many big industrial houses of today have been set up by business men who were great, smart and probably have had, owing to some reasons, less formal educational qualifications.

As per many experts, smartness is an essential personality factor to manage things. Interestingly, business schools today tell their students that the current job market does also need being ’street smarts’. This use of word in its tagline by Wipro is wrong, and by the means of this piece I would like to draw the attention of other fellow citizen journalists and of advertising standards council of India towards this advertisement.

Politics stand with collective, which can make a difference

Getting grass root issue within the construe of political discourse is a big challenge. Though simple issues like primary education of children, high infant mortality, increasing crime against dalits women, malnutrition, no roads in SC/ST villages etc. Though these issues impact people, and it is not that political leaders are not aware of them. They are, especially the local ones, but it hardly affects them. Why as it does not impact them, their image and above all their voting constituency. And if the issues impact weaker sections, children, women, it will never make it to political discourse until and unless someone pushes it. System systematically or authoritatively makes sure that they cannot raise their voice and in case it happens, the system will try to curb that voice. Issues like these are not raised in the place they should be – i.e. state assemblies or parliament. But why? Political discourse is polemical. It speaks for collective a ‘polis’. So if the issue impacts that collective it still does not become part of that discourse. Reason is that it does not threaten the existence and values of that collective and does not impact existence its political leaders. Yes the day that threatens them, it will become part of the discourse. It is but natural that collective that votes for them and brings them to power gets so much affected and impacted that it impacts their voting pattern, - which is life line to their existence – the issue will become political. They will find way to make it political but that too for their advantage? It is clear that it is that collective of people which makes votes can make a difference. The need is to bring some together and catalyze that ‘collective’ on the issue which impacts them. But how, that is not easy – this collective has lot of aspects like distribution of power; interests of people involved, formal and informal rules that govern the interaction among different players in the process. It needs recognition of the power of collective, empowerment, and collective to understand the problem, may be solution and how they together can raise concern to seek solution of the problem which is workable and suitable.

SC/ST atrocities highest in MP

5,711 cases under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 have been registered in Madhya Pradesh in the year 2006, while in Rajasthan the number was 4,877, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday. Madhya Pradesh has registered largest number of cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes closely followed by Rajasthan.

In Uttar Pradesh, 4,838 cases were registered, 4,579 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,918 in Karnataka, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. Northeastern states of Meghalaya and Mizoram registered zero cases of atrocities against SC/STs and similar was the case with Lakshwadeep and Puducherry, she said.

Jano Re Abhiyan resents RTI amendments in MP

'Jano Re Abhiyan' is a civil society movement being supported by various NGOs pushing to create awareness on Right to information in the state of MP. Recently in Madhya Pradesh some changes have been made in Right to Information act. In which the provisions for BPL have been altered .The state government has made changes in fees and appeal rules. The amendment states that photocopies of document upto only 50 pages would be provided to the BPL applicant if the information seek by them were not directly related to them .It will now be very difficult for an uneducated and illiterate rural person to argue with a government official for proving the legitimacy and relevance of the information being seeked by him.

Janu re abhiyan is resenting the same. They say that that the amendment will now provide an excuse to the government on the pretext of above changes. The genuine rights of the poor and marginalized of the country will be denied.

Keep up the pressure !

If social organizations want they can make the issue of people to bring it to attention of eyes and ears of people in power. No doubt it is tough and requires a sustained effort, but it is possible.

Recently survivors of Bhopal gas tragedy who had been continuously pushing the impact of the suffering of the people impacted by Bhopal Gas Tragedy went on a 38 days of padyatra from Bhopal to New Delhi and then had to sit on 20 day "dharna" at Jantar Mantar to rake up conscious of the GOI over their pathetic plight of children who are suffering from by ground-water contamination in Bhopal as impact of Bhopal gas Tragedy. This campaign was organized by three NGOs namely Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha and Bhopal Group for Information and Action working for the survivors of Bhopal disaster.

Finally they were able to meet the Group of Ministers in GOI who had assured them that it would endorse and forward their demand for a special commission to address rehabilitation, and for legal action against Dow and Union Carbide, to the Prime Minister. In the meeting while emphasising that it had never conceded the Madhya Pradesh government's request for inclusion of 20 additional municipal wards in Bhopal as gas-affected, the GoM members clarified that it had requested the State government to submit data on gas-related deaths and injuries in the 20 wards. But no such data had been submitted till date. Chemical and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan who met the delegation, assured that the government would continue its efforts to make the Dow Chemical pay Rs. 100 crore as advance for environmental remediation. Hopefully it will bring some results, but one would need to keep the pressure till the time people get justice.

Indore traffic chaos solution - PIL

After hearing Public Interest Litigation rightly done by a citizen about the rise in encroachments and roaming animals which cause immense traffic problems in Indore. Indore is the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the Mayor and other top police and administrative officials for alleged mismanagement of the city, with increasing encroachments and animal menace causing problems for the locals. Indore has a major problem over parking of vehicles on wrong sites, issues of encroachments and it his high time that district administration tale some steps.

Hopefully some steps on issues of parking arrangements, but am not sure if major issue of encroachment will see any action (Pressure from the big – wigs f the city !) or may be more PIL’s will be needed to make sure that traffic of Indore can breathe easily.

Public health infrastructure in MP needs an urgent attention

The State of Madhya Pradesh has the highest rates of malnutrition among the children in India. As per the latest National Family Health Survey 60 % of its children in age group of 0 – 3 years are under nourished. Madhya Pradesh has the highest infant mortality rate and 3rd highest maternal mortality ratio in the country. 76 out of every 1000 children born in the state die before their first birthday and approximately 24 women die everyday in the state. Though the state has introduced many schemes to help combat the same, but is not yielding the desired results for children and women. As per state's health department web site Madhya Pradesh for its population of 60.38 million (as per 2001 census) has the following health infrastructure:

- District hospitals 48
- Civil hospitals 54
- Community health centers 270
- Primary health centers 1149
- Sub health centers 8834
- Sanctioned beds in district hospitals 8945
- Sanctioned beds in civil hospitals 2775
- Total licensed blood banks by state 41

Activists have been strongly advocating to call attention on the issues of maternal and infant survival in the state. An analysis taken by civil society organizations on rural health infrastructure versus the population in the state reveals that there is just 'one bed per 5.6 villages' in the state which indeed is alarming!. It is not only the issue of beds or buildings. Even where there are structures or health centers they lack basic minimum facilities as needed and defined by rules and are not sufficient enough to save lives or provide for better health care to its people.

As per Reproductive and Child Health District level household survey (2004) data, out of the 386 primary health centre's surveyed in the state only 224 had drinking water facility. This means that only 58.3 percent primary health centre's had drinking water while others have no such facility. Similarly in case of community health centre's out of the 46 surveyed only 10 had facility of drinking water. In case of vehicles like ambulances out of the 386 primary health centers surveyed only 35 had vehicles which were in running condition and out of 46 community health centre's surveyed 31 had vehicles in the running condition.

Infrastructure investment does not only mean building equipments etc. It does includes human resource, which is the core in health, and needs to be focused upon. State needs to fulfill vacancies of doctors, para-medics, and nurses but also provide them with facilities to support them to provide care for the people. The State needs to peg health of its people as priority number one, transform on immediate basis which is not only limited to public proclamations and announcing schemes but also delivering results at ground level.

The dangerous roads ?

Driving on Indian roads is not an easy call. Every day, many lives are lost on roads all over India. The number of people, who die on road accidents, has been increasing every year. However, this can be prevented by adopting some safety measures

The World Road Statistics, 2006, which provided the data for the year 2003 in respect of India, indicated that the number of persons killed per lakh of population in India was 8.08. As per the preliminary tentative data shared by KH Muniyappa, minister of state for shipping, road transport and highways, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, as per the press note released by Press Information Bureau on December 6, 2007, which covers the majority of States and Union Territories, the number of deaths due to road accident is estimated at more than a lakh (1,01,439) during the year 2006, as compared to the figure of 94,968 deaths for the year 2005. This clearly indicates that Indian roads are perilous.

Looking at the data for year 2005, the capital city of India, Delhi, had reported 1,717 deaths on its roads in year 2005, which was highest in India. Among other cities, which reported the highest number of deaths on roads was Chennai, the second highest behind Delhi with 1,055 deaths, followed by 835 in Bangalore, 787 in Mumbai, 598 in Kanpur, 577 in Hyderabad, 495 in Jaipur and 484 in Kolkata. It may be pertinent to note here that two third of people, who died on road in the year 2005, were in the 15-44 age bracket, meaning we are loosing lives at young age. And it is not that only heavy vehicles, which are responsible for this, data revealed that smaller vehicles, like cars and two wheelers contribute virtually as much as heavier vehicles like trucks.

But it is not that we cannot respond to this and let people die on its road. China has been able to bring down its road death tally. In the year 2005, 98,738 people died on road accidents in China, which came down to 89,455 in year 2006. China has reported a drop of 10.8 per cent in road accidents for last four consecutive years staring from 2003, despite registering a growth in the number of privately owned cars. This means it is possible, maybe something we can learn from them.

This issue raises concern on how lives get wasted in India, which can be prevented. It is matter of roads, road safety; emergency services available post accidents on roads, safety standards, condition of vehicles on road, drivers behind wheels, visibility on the road etc, meaning we need a sustained and multi pronged approach to address this. But the bigger question is that who will do it? Governments of India, passes on the buck to state that this issue fall under state domain, while the state says that it has limited resources and cannot do beyond. Whosever domain it may fall, fact is that India needs to prevent this to happen and guarantee its citizens certain amount of life security on the road and there needs to be accountability for the same.

Bhopal bloggers meet..

'Bhopal bloggers' - this is name to a group of bloggers who blog from city of Bhopal. They met for the first time last Wednesday at Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism, Bhopal.It was chance to share, show one's blog, meet and learn from each other's experience. Even the introduction was different, instead of name and organisation etc.. it was by one's name, name of blog and may be blog's short history.

Not many blog in and from Bhopal, but interest is increasing, so is the numbers and new ones to join in include are students of journalism who are getting on it and joining in the league. Bloggers who participated and shared their experiences were -

Shaishanu Mukherjee, he who blogs at www.bhopale.blogspot.com and has a lot of information on and about Bhopal, its history and what is happening in and around Bhopal.

CNN IBN's Hemendra Sharma blogs on IBN live blogging platform and his blog is called 'IN CONVERSATION' which has many of his personal experiences during his professional career. His blog is on an open platform where many had commented including critiqued on his posts.

Shela Masood shared her experience on her blog www.letzchangedrulz-miracles.blogspot.com and how many whom she did not knew ever had got in touch due to this blog.

Manisha Pandey who blogs in Hindi on www.bedakhalkidairy.blogspot.com and shares her thoughts, ideas and feeling on women whom she says are left out 50 % percent population on her blog.

Their are many theme blogs from Bhopal like one on agricuklture www.khetkhaliyan.blogspot.com blogged by Shiv Narayan, who feels that this will serve as a resource base in hindi on issues linked to agriculture which are real important in this part of India.

Other theme blogs include www.safemotherhood.blogspot.com on maternal mortality and www.foeticide.blogspot.com

Raju who writes his poetic feelings on www.suratehal.blogspot.comshared on he started it like 'something' as a past time and now it brings you back. He adds that it indeed is becoming an important web platform to share.

Department of journalism, Makhanlal University of Journalism now has its own blog www.dojmcu.blogspot.com which not only helps us to share information on what is happening on the campus but also helps students to network with our alumni,' adds P.P. Singh, Head of Department of Journalism.

Vedvat Giri of www.mynews.in shared about his citizen journalism site and how his site can be important platform to blog. He did offer to all 'Bhopal bloggers' - though some of them are already a part, to be citzien journalist of mynews and they could share their blog stories with the site.


Students of journalism like Siddarth Bhardawaj who blogs on www.siddharthbhardwaj.blogspot.com and many other like Shiv who blogs on scam24.blogspot.com were present and shared their experiences.

Solar Cooking ki Duniya !

Barli Development Institute for Rural Women, is an non governmental organisation at Indore in Madhya Pradesh. It is helping empower young rural and tribal women to become agents of social change. The institute was started and is managed by the ‘J duo’s’ – Janak and Jimmy McGilligan, both of them, committed Bahai’s.

At the institute everything is cooked on solar cooking systems. Their kitchen, water heating system all is powered by solar energy. Be it a tea,lunch,dinner, or heating of water all is done by harnessing solar energy. It is simply great to see such an extensive and productive use of solar energy.

It was probbaly 1988 when they got the first soolar cooker installed there and since then they not only use solar energy for themselves but serve as laboratory for use of solar energy and propogate the same. Institute also manufactures and establishes solar kitchens for other NGOs. ‘They have to feel the need of the same and have ownership of the same then only it works’ Jimmy adds emphatically. They have established four solar cookers in Dhar and Jhabua .

I have heard a lot on use of solar energy but when one visits the Institute one feels and see the same in practice how it happens and how it can deliver and help conserve energy…..

contributed by anil

Ambulance at doctors residence !

This is the photograph of Ambulances parked at residence of Block Medical Officer of the block hospital in Obdullahganj, Hoshangabad. Though it is in premises of the hospital but still is not allowed. Hope the keys are with hospital staff ?. Need of ambulance can happen at any time and can be crucial in saving one' life.....it should be in the hospital and always available on call.......

Children seek protection of rights of Tibetan children

Hundreds of children from India and Tibet joined hands to demand protection for the rights of children in Tibet. Children from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh marched on to the streets of Delhi carrying the plank cards with the specific demands- "Peace for Children and Children for peace", "Ensure free and quality education for all children in Tibet", "Restore rights freedom dignity and education of Tibetan children". Later on they participated in dharna and peace march at Gandhi Smadhi Rajghat and raised their concern on safety of rights of Tibetan children. The demonstration was organised under the banner of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) with the support of other like minded organisations.

Ducks, rice root cause of bird flu: Study

Chickens are no more the root cause behind bird flu outbreaks, but it is ducks, rice and people, says a study by a UN agency.

According to a new study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), ducks, rice and people are the most significant factors in the spread of avian influenza in Thailand and Vietnam.

Through the use of satellite mapping, researchers looked at a number of different factors, including the numbers of ducks, geese and chickens, human population size, rice cultivation and geography, and found a strong link between duck grazing patterns and rice cropping intensity. In Thailand, for example, the proportion of young ducks in flocks was found to peak in September-October; these rapidly growing young ducks can therefore benefit from the peak of the rice harvest in November-December.

These peaks in congregation of ducks indicate periods in which there is an increase in the chances for virus release and exposure, and rice paddies often become a temporary habitat for wild bird species, the agency said in a news release.

The study also found that these factors are probably behind persistent outbreaks in other countries such as Cambodia and Laos. In addition, with virus persistence becoming increasingly confined to areas with intensive rice-duck agriculture in eastern and south-eastern Asia, evolution of the H5N1 virus may become easier to predict.

The findings can help better target control efforts and replace indiscriminate mass vaccination, the release said. FAO estimates that approximately 90 per cent of the world’s more than 1 billion domestic ducks are in Asia, with about 75 per cent in China and Vietnam.

Neglect of agriculture hits poor - UN- ESCAP

Chronic neglect of the agricultural sector in Asia and the Pacific is condemning 218 million people to continuing extreme poverty, and widening the gap between the region’s rich and poor, according to the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008, launched at multiple locations today throughout the region by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

The Survey is ESCAP’s flagship publication. It examines the Asia-Pacific region’s key short- and medium-term prospects and challenges in macroeconomic and selected social areas, especially from the point of view of minimizing human suffering; be it from economic hardships or social inequality. In addition, the Survey explores critical long-term development issues relevant to all developing countries in the region. This year’s issue also marks the 60th anniversary of the Survey, first published in Shanghai in May 1948.

This year’s Survey, entitled “Sustaining Growth and Sharing Prosperity,” says 218 million – a third of the region’s poor, largely living in rural areas – could be lifted out of poverty by raising agricultural productivity. The Survey also calls for a comprehensive liberalization of global trade in agriculture, as this would take a further 48 million people out of poverty in the region.


ESCAP’s focus on the agricultural sector comes amid signs of rising food prices, pressured by soaring demand for biofuels. The Survey says that biofuels are not only hurting poor consumers in Asia and the Pacific through high food prices, but they are also failing to help the region's poor farmers who do not have the resources to adapt their land to the biofuel crops.

The Survey proposes a strategy to ensure agriculture is both economically and socially viable, contributing to efforts to eradicate poverty in the region and returns agriculture to its rightful place in reducing poverty and inequality.

Agriculture needs revitalization. This requires a market orientation with a focus on improving agricultural productivity. Also needed are reforms in land policies, connecting the rural poor to cities and markets, and making it easier for farmers to access loans and crop insurance. Along with this approach, diversification of skills should complement agricultural development – by empowering the poor, particularly women, improving skills to tap labour market opportunities and by promoting rural non-farm activities and regional growth centres.

Assam launches free cancer treatment scheme

The Assam government on Tuesday launched free cancer treatment facilities, including chemotherapy and anti-cancer drugs. Launching the scheme, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that it was a part of the state government's endeavour to improve the healthcare system through a slew of initiatives undertaken in the past couple of years. The Chief Minister said that with the availability of chemotherapy drugs free of cost in the Cancer Institute equipped with the state of art technology, the patients need not go outside the state for treatment. The Assam Government plans to
launch a host of new initiatives which include free post-operative kidney transplant treatment, spectacles and hearing aids to poor people in the coming months.

Does smoking makes you look cool? Think again...

Recent survey has revealed that teenagers, who pick up smoking at early stage, are more likely to develop hearing disorders and they will have difficulty concentrating in their studies. Smoking at teenage will also hamper the growth of their brain.

As per an article published in the ‘New Scientist’ titled as ‘Teenage smokers risk badly wired brains’, quotes the study of Leslie Jacobsen of Yale University School of Medicine and his colleagues who had used diffusion tensor imaging, which measures how water diffuses through brain tissue to study the affect of smoking in teens. The study reveals that the development of the brain could be hampered due to smoking in teenage.

Researchers found that young smokers, particularly boys, are more likely to suffer from hearing disorders. Brain is particularly vulnerable to the effects of tobacco during adolescence, the time when it is rapidly maturing. Some young smokers suffer from hearing problems and also find it hard to concentrate in their studies. The teens studied were a group of young students, aged between 14 and 19. The changes found in the regions responsible for relaying signals to the ear, were greatest in the smokers, suggesting the brain is at heightened risk while maturing during adolescence.

Study also points out that teenagers who smoke, or whose mothers smoked during pregnancy, are also more likely to suffer from auditory attention deficits, meaning they find it difficult to concentrate on what is being said, when other things are happening at the same time. It may be pertinent to mention here that smoking and chewing tobacco contribute to some eight lakh deaths in India every year.

Issues like portrayal of smoking as cool, easy availability of cigarettes around educational institutions, message of smoking getting reinforced in films, advertisements, attracts many young ones towards smoking. In fact, many surveys carried out by many NGOs across India have time and again reflected the issue of increasing trend of smoking among youngsters and teen smokers picking up their first cigarette very early in age and its impact on them. The above study once again brings the same issue in debate and calls for some action. Though study has been carried out in US and not in India, but still it corroborates the fact that we need stringent action on issue of smoking, especially among teens

Contributed by anil gulati

MP gets 14 thousand crores

Annual Plan for Madhya Pradesh for the year 2007-08 was approved today by Planning Commission today at a meeting between the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Delhi.

As per Government of India press release the Plan outlay agreed is to the tune of Rs.14182.61 crores which include one time additional central assistance of Rs.150 crores for projects of special interest to the State. Montek Singh Ahluwalia while commenting on the plan stressed for more attention on human development. He said that social sector needs priority and efforts should be aimed at improving human development index with policy initiatives for creating investor friendly environment.

He added that State Government should avail benefits available under various social sector schemes. Efforts should be made to improve performance in various programmes under Bharat Nirman and priority should be given to schemes related to Bundelkhand area. Power sector should get focused attention as achievement of higher growth rate in Eleventh Plan could be constrained due to power shortage.

The Chief Minister of MP informed the Commission that thrust areas of development policy would be eliminating hunger, mal-nutrition and abject poverty. Livelihood opportunity would be created through generating economic activities based on natural resources. A number of new initiatives have been taken to improve social protection. These include Mukhya Mantri Mazdoor Suraksha Yojana, integrated livelihood programme and Din Dayal Antodya Upchar Yojana.

Fiscal reforms are being pursued with focused attention to ensure good governance. State Government is working to facilitate investments and creating more physical and social infrastructure.

He while stressed that needs of disadvantage including women, SCs/STs and disabled is on the prioty agenda of the government. Efforts are on to reduce dependence on agriculture in rural areas and for this purpose allied areas are being given priority.

Culling in Malda

With less than 50 per cent of the targeted 44,000 diseased chicken having been culled, authorities here have decided to continue the operation for two more days in two municipal areas of Malda district, plagued by bird flu for the second time.

Official sources said 30 animal husbandry department teams, each having six members, were involved in the operation in Englishbazar, Old Malda town municipal areas and adjoining Sahapur, which was earlier scheduled to be over on March 23.

While 15,000 fowls have so far killed in state-run firms, over 5,000 birds were culled in privately-run poultries in nearby areas since Thursday, sources said.

The culling operation slackened due to the weekend festivities, the sources conceded adding the operation will now get momentum. Meanwhile, mopping drive will take place in areas where culling has been completed, from tomorrow, sources said.

Although culling was underway within three-km radius of the affected areas, surveillance was on a ten-km stretch. Blood samples from the two areas sent to Bhopal Laboratory had tested positive on March 19. An avian influenza scare gripped the district following the death of 1,100 birds in a state-owned poultry farm located within the Malda municipal area's ward no. II since March 12.

Malda is the second district after Murshidabad to be declared bird flu-hit in fresh outbreak in last nine days. Avian flu had been reported from two blocks in Murshidabad. The first bird flu attack was reported in the district's Chanchal-1 block in January.

Rains play havoc in Kerala

PTI reports that three children have slipped to death in a swollen river in Wayanad district on Saturday as heavy rain continued to lash kerala, taking the toll to 11 since the onset of the current spell seven days ago. Three boys, who were fishing on the banks of the Varadoor river near Panamaram town in Wayanad, slipped into the swirling waters and drowned as the embankment caved in, police said.

While there was a let up in rains in Southern districts during the day, the Northern and Central parts of the state continued to be battered by heavy rain.Large stretches of ready-to-harvest paddy had been lost and the abnormally severe summer rain posed a grim threat to cash crops as well. According to the government, the loss suffered by the farm sector alone would come to at least Rs 100 crore and had sought Central help to tide over the situation.

Media matters : In dark for 60 yrs, MP village gets power

Hemender Sharma / CNN-IBN

Kajrai Society, a Dalit village in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh, lived in darkness for the past 60 years. The telecom revolution touched the village like nowhere else. But as there was no electricity, the villagers travelled 20 km to neighbouring Mandi Bamora to get their mobile phones charged.

In December 2007, CNN-IBN showed how these powerless villagers braved odds to stay connected with relatives and friends. And within three months, it's a different story today after three months — the village has been electrified.

"We did not have electricity for the past 60 years. We complained to everyone, approached everyone. But no one listened to us. We had phones. CNN-IBN took it up and showed our plight, and now, within three months the village has been electrified," a villager, Deshraj Ahirwar, narrates.

"We could not study. But thanks to the media, now we have electricity and can study now," another villager, Santosh Ahirwar, states. The district administration admits that electricity is being supplied to the village on a priority basis after reports in the media.

"We are trying to provide electricity to every village and this would be done soon. Village Kajrai Society was electrified on a priority basis as the media had highlighted it," Sagar collector Hira Lal Trivedi said. The villagers have seen the light, but now they want roads, drinking water and other amenities as well. Thanks to the mobile phone for connecting them with development.

(With Sandeep in Sagar)

Bird flu scare in Malda,West Bengal

PTI reports - Over 700 chicken died at the National Poultry Farm here during the past few days, triggering a bird flu scare in the district. Official sources said here Tuesday that 145 chicken died during the past 24 hours and the toll is increasing steadily.

This was for the first time that farm chicken have died due to bird flu symptoms in West Bengal as the earlier outbreak of the disease was confined to backyard poultry.

Blood samples have been sent to High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal and the report would take about 12 to 14 days to reach here, the sources said, adding selling of chicken and eggs from the Farm had been banned.

The Farm has about 15,000 chickens, district Animal Resources Development Department said.

Human Proteinpedia – a new portal to promote sharing info on human proteins

Efforts of 71 laboratories of genetics and proteomics worldwide have given rise to a novel, online resource of scientific information called 'Human Proteinpedia'.

www.humanproteinpedia.org is a community portal for sharing and integration of human protein data. It allows research laboratories to contribute and maintain protein annotations. It has Human Protein Reference Database (HPRD) which integrates data that is deposited in Human Proteinpedia along with the existing literature curated information in the context of an individual protein. All the public data contributed to Human Proteinpedia can be queried, viewed and downloaded. Registered users will be able to include, retrieve and share data about sequences, structures or mutations validated by experimental evidence. Only those people will be allowed to modify original information who have contributed to that piece of data.

The information deposited in the Human Proteinpedia forms an unprecedented database that helps comparing and interpreting protein sequences supplied by the scientific community. It is believed that this tool will permit to make progress in the study of genes and of the proteins involved in human pathology.

China has world's largest number of internet users

China has edged past the US in terms of the number of Internet users to reach the number one slot, a research firm said.

China had reported the number of Internet users at 210 million by the end of last year, very close to 216 million of the US.

But, "according to our calculations, China has already replaced the US as the country with most Internet users by the end of last month," Liu Bin, an analyst at the Beijing-based research firm BDA was quoted as saying by the state-run China Daily.

The US remained at the topmost position since the inception of the internet in 1969 as a network of computers under the auspices of the US Department of Defence. BDA Chairman Duncan Clark said Chinas Internet population was driven by buoyant economy, massive investments in broadband infrastructure and a strong consumer demand for online applications.

Government-backed research institution China Internet Network Information Centre said China moved to the second position by the end of 2002, when the number of its internet users exceeded 59.1 million.

However, CNNIC said Chinas Internet penetration was a mere 16 per cent last year, lower than the world average of 19.1 per cent.

Safe Homes above Water

The Bangladesh Cyclone in 2007 damaged over 920,000 houses in 39 districts
of the country. Most of the houses were damaged as a result of water levels
rising over five feet.)

In response to the damage, Humanity in Habitat (HFH) proposed to build
houses on stilts that would raise the houses above water levels. Bamboo
columns were inserted in the foundation of the houses. The emphasis was on
using recycled and indigenous materials such as bamboo reinforced with
recycled tires, a fill with adobe blocks and sand for stability against
running water.

The houses were elevated on pre-cast stilts to as much as 2.30 meters above
the ground. Bamboo panels were used for the walls and thick bamboo strips
for the deck of the house. Wall panels were made of jute attached to bamboo
and covered with earth plaster or stabilized mortar mix. Implementation of
these houses were done through mobile Habitat Resource Centers (HRCs) which
provided guidance on construction technology, repair/renovation support and
worked with local communities. These mobile centers were successfully used
by the organization for reconstruction work even in Pakistan after the 2005
earthquake.

These houses which have been constructed in Bhuapur, Bangladesh are now
safe from flood. It just takes three days to build a bamboo house over a
stilt. In no time 120 bamboo houses were completed.

For further details:
http://www.devalt.org/taranet/websitepages/basinSaDefault.aspx?catalogid=133&page=GenericLayoutBasinAlert.aspx?CatNavbarID=4492

This has been contributed by Habitat for Humanity,Bangladesh.

After Gandhi, Shahrukh gets the honour at Grevin wax museum

In recent times, it is two Bollywood stars and their wax statues, which are making news. Both of them are Khans and have their names starting with ‘S’. These wax statues are also reflection of growing global popularity of these two Khans.


Earlier in the year 2007, Shahrukh Khan had unveiled his own wax statue at Madame Tussauds wax museum and the latest buzz is that he will have his second wax statute coming up in France. Paris’ Grevin wax museum will have King Khan’s wax statue in coming weeks. This is almost a year before his wax statue was unveiled at Madame Tussauds, London. He will be the first Bollywood icon to have two wax statues in the two world’s most prestigious wax museums.

This year in January, another Bollywood Khan ‘Salman Khan’ had his wax figure unveiled at Madame Tussauds. Tussauds website states that “Salman brings with him an exotic flavour of the East and adds a little extra spice to Madame Tussauds.”

These wax statues are also reflection of growing global popularity of these two Khans. Shahrukh is quite popular and well recognised in France; earlier French government had felicitated him with the prestigious French honour, The Order of Arts et des Lettres and now his statue in Grevin. Shahrukh will be the second Indian celebrity after Mahatma Gandhi to have a wax statue in Grevin.

A 19th century French journalist Arthur Meyer conceived Grevin’s wax museum. He collaborated with Alfred Grevin, a cartoonist, sculptor and costume designer to work on the project. Wax museum was open to the public in June 1882, and it became a grand success. Some of the wax statues in the Grevin collection include Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Pope John Paul-II, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.

Salman’s growing popularity internationally and his fan following got his statue a place in special Bollywood section along with Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan in Madame Tussauds museum. They hope that this will result in attracting more Asian visitors both in Britain and international tourists to the museum.

Contributed to anil

Meet the butterfly woman

ANI, Jamshedpur: When the tourists arrive at Butterfly Park in Jamshedpur to take a close look at the hundreds of the winged wonders flitting across flowers in their cages, they more often than not come across a spindly woman moving diligently in the enclosures checking out the foliage there. She checks the leaves and the flowers, collects a few samples and then moves on.

Meet Malti Majhi - the tribal woman who shoulders the responsibility of breeding butterflies for the Tata zoo. A dedicated worker, Malti devotes her time wholeheartedly for the breeding of the winged creatures. She collects eggs found on the leaves of the vegetation in the park and transfers them to small baskets at a larvae-breeding chamber. When the larvae grow into pupae, she shifts them to the butterfly breeding house.

It is her responsibility to see that the creepy larvae take the right food at the breeding house. For this, she arranges for over a dozen species of green plants. She also prepares a mixture of honey and water in the right proportion for the butterflies to feed on. The cycle of breeding eggs to putting butterflies for exhibition has to go on without a break.

And she does it with a smile on her face. The Tata zoo management has even felicitated Malti for her good work. "Here I was taught how to nurture butterflies. I had to learn a lot of things fast as the Butterfly Park had to be readied for inauguration.

I am happy that I can now handle the work myself," Malti said. "I have a knowledge of butterflies as I am a garden worker.But I had did not worked in a laboratory kind of an environment. This is the first time I have learnt to nurture butterflies in-house.

I am happy that the park authorities have entrusted me with the responsibility," she added with a smile. "She is very dedicated and puts in hard work from morning to evening at the Butterfly Park. Breeding over a dozen butterfly species is not easy. There are various factors like temperature and humidity that also have to be taken care of.

Malti showed her keen interest in the job, and she did it with success," Dr M. Palit, veterinary officer of the zoological park said.

"When the plan for the Butterfly Park was first mooted, we looked for a suitable hand for the job. But we did not find any, as male staff members of the zoo do not have knowledge of butterflies. We chose Malti for her knowledge in the subject and her dedication," Dr Palit added.

Can ‘Maaza’ really replace mangoes?

A TV ad promoting a mango drink – Maaza – is also impeding the importance of real mangoes. An advertisement should promote a commercial product but that must not end up disadvantaging use of a product that is an important part of our ecosystem.

COCA COLA, in its new communication for its mango drink - Maaza, talks about the experience of tasting a mango, without its seed. The buzz theme in the advertisement is ‘Bina guthli wala aam’ (ie seedless mango), which is on air on various TV networks.

Maaza, the ‘Bina guthli wala aam’ has Satish Shah in the lead playing a mango expert. In the ad, a child questions Shah, ‘the mango expert’, for a seedless mango. Shah, in an attempt to look for seedless mango, dwells into books, travels, but all in vain and in turn, end up learning from the kid that the ‘Bina guthli wala aam’ is nothing but ‘Maaza’ – the Coca Cola drink. At the end of the ad, he starts offering his clients two kinds of mangoes – with and without seeds.

Not undermining the importance and with full advantage of creativity to Leo Burnett and Coca Cola, I hope this ad does not, in any way, play a role in undermining importance of mango seeds within evolving young minds that watch and consume this drink.

Mangoes can be grown from seeds, though better and commercially are grafted or budded onto seedling rootstocks. In addition to it, mango seeds indeed have its importance. These are quite valuable in diarrhea. Seeds collected, dried in the shade and powdered can be used as a medicine. Mango seeds are considered useful in certain disorders connected with women’s reproductive organs. Also, spongy tissue in Alphonso mango - one of the widely known and considered as the ‘king of the mangoes’ – was traced to its seed, which due to its recalcitrant nature, switches over to germination mode during fruit ripening phase drawing nutrients from the mesocarp.

In any case, if we don’t have mango seeds, may be we will also not have on earth the ‘mango seed weevil’ (sternochetus mangiferae). It is, though, a pest species, but breeds only in mango seeds and cannot survive in other fruits.

So, we can have an advertisement to promote a commercial product but that must not end up disadvantaging the use of a product that is needed and is an important part of our ecosystem. The advertisement also shows kid with no interest in mango but in Maaza, probably something, which should not be promoted. Maaza can, in no way, replace the real mangoes. Mango is Mango, and is not Maaza.

Contributed by anil

Bird flu resurfaces in West Bengal - fresh cases in Murshidabad villages

Fresh cases of bird flu have been detected in two Murshidabad villages. This is a month after authorities had said that they had contained the virus and had lifted the state-wide ban on selling chickens and ducks.

Bhopal’s High Security Animal Disease Laboratory reported fresh bird flu cases in West Bengal. The laboratory confirmed that the blood samples sent from Nayamukundapur in Raghunathgunj Block II and Dohapara village in Murshidabad-Jiagunj block were infected with the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu virus.

The two areas- where about poultry birds died in the past week. 60 rapid response teams would start culling chickens and ducks in the affected areas soonest said state official.

In West Bengal, the H5N1 virus that causes avian influenza had hit parts of 13 out of 19 districts. About 1.8 million people stay in the affected areas, Rahman had said.

Bird flu was confirmed in West Bengal on January 15. The affected districts were South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Burdwan, Bankura, Malda, Cooch Behar, Purulia and West Midnapore.

India has not reported any human bird flu cases, but the earlier outbreaks had badly hit poultry businesses in West Bengal and had a limited effect on poultry sales elsewhere in the country.

‘Nano’ is no longer with Tata’s

‘NANO’ suddenly has become one of the most popular words this year, which any brand would envy for, though generic brand name now is no longer with Tata’s anything that is small (and economical – not necessarily) is being called as Nano.

Nano suddenly has become one of the most popular words this year, which any brand would envy for. Though ‘Nano’ is not a new word, it has been taken from the Greek word ‘Nanos’ - meaning ‘dwarf’. This is also a prefix, which is used in the metric system to mean 10-9 or one billionth (1/1,000,000,000). But recently, with the launch of world’s most economical car named as ‘Nano’ by Tatas, this word has hit headlines across the globe. From a generic word, it has become one of the most popular international brands, a prestigious one, a brand, which has made a mark in the field of automobile engineering. Since then, it has become a worldwide hit. It has become the drive to big dreams. The car still has to hit the roads but it is a big name to reckon with today.

Though words like ‘nano technology’ - the application of our ability to manufacture atomically precise devices and control processes on the nanometer scale, ‘nanolithography’ - writing on the nanoscale like ‘small writing on rocks’, ‘nanomachine’ - mechanical devices so small that the parts are single molecules etc. were being used in science and arts, but with the unveiling of Tata’s Nano, the word ‘Nano’ got instant and huge popularity, that it no longer was left within realm of Tata’s. It has become a brand for anything small, not necessarily ‘nano’ size but small in its product category and which you want to have immediate attention on. A tactic used by advertisers to leverage advantage gained by someone else and ride on the bandwagon for commercial gains, and which happens. A mini laptop becomes ‘Nano laptop’ or ‘Nano-top’, ipod becomes ipod nano. And not to be left behind were garment retailers who too are associating brand nano with small size, and of course, smart looking garments. But the best one which I saw was ‘Nano paan’ - cheap, small and gives you the same taste in your mouth, which a big one would!

contributed by anil

TV channels on the Bollywood bandwagon

What are today’s news channels up to? To outshine others, these channels are serving only (mainly) Bollywood, cricket, crime and politics – strictly in that order. What about other happenings that hold more importance but are overlooked?

Bollywood is a fascination, which helps to promote everything, right from fabric to soaps to potato chips to cold drinks and even sells magazines and newspapers. Not to be left behind are our TV news channels. For these, it is the news stories (and of course, the gossips), which are needed to push their Television Rating Points (TRPs).

Prime Hindi TV news channels are more prone to this phenomenon. Sanjay Dutt and Manyata hook up stories, with all the ‘spicy’ details, were a special saga for a full day, as if nothing else had happened in the country that day! Story of Saif-Kareena, their possible link-up or break up, was an exclusive story for the news channels at a time when lot else was happening in India but got weaned away in this Bollywood glamour.

If something is close to or after Bollywood, it is cricket that takes away the limelight. Next is crime, which now has special late night editions, and of course, politics. In fact, when one sees all this, one gets impression that India is shining, all is going great. But in the race of escalating the TRPs by showing such stories, scores of other stories in this country hardly get any needed space on the prime Hindi TV news channels.

In a country where still a majority earns less then two dollar a day, many die every minute, every second child is malnourished, and we still have starvation deaths – life is not as rosy as it looks on these channels! But for media, Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwaraya Rai marriage was like a mad frenzy. Yuvraj’s rumoured affair with Deepika Padukone hit the headlines for many days. Bollywood with cricket, two big ‘news selling products’ packed in one gossip! Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) has launched Indian premier league, wherein Bollywood stars have franchised two teams. Shahrukh Khan has a team from Kolkata and Preity Zinta has a team from Mohali. Let’s see what would this killer combination bring to the fold for TV news channels.

Stories of malnutrition among children, infant deaths, maternal deaths, poor state of primary education, water scarcity, hardly get any major space on these prime Hindi TV news channels. Recently, a president of parents’ teacher association (PTA) of a primary government school in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh (MP) had burnt himself in protest for want of school building for the students. Except few not many covered it, inspite of being a first incident of its kind in India when someone had given his life for the cause of school building for children. Though some are conscious and do cover developmental stories and sometimes exceptionally good ones. But here the worry is that with the growing competition, issues of people might get left behind.

Contributed by anil

'Barli Ke Dunia' champion gets MP state social service award

Dr Janak Palta McGilligan is being honoured with Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Social Service Award-2007 by the Madhya Pradesh State Government. The same was announced by the State Government yesterday on the occasion on International Women's Day.

Janak Palta McGilligan, Director of Barli Development Institute for Rural Women, Indore ('Barli Ke Dunia', as we like to call it) has rendered dedicated service since 1985 for tribal and rural women'empowerment and has been trying for their all round development.

The story of the Bahá'í Vocational Institute for Rural Women, now known as the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women, is, in fact, the story of many whose lives have been transformed by their experience at the Institute. For the last 23 years she has been imparting six-months to one-year practical training to women with a view to empowering them. Priority is given in these programmes to economically weaker sections like scheduled castes and tribes, other backward class, physically challenged women, orphans, widows and other women who have been dishonoured. She has made this service the sole objective of her life. She had been giving importance to scientific research in her training sessions. These trainees are being further helped by making them appear at the exams of National Institute of Open Schooling.

The women trained by her are employed as trainers also. She also encourages and certifies the works of empowered women by visiting rural areas. In this way the social services rendered by Dr Janak Palta McGilligan proved to be very meaningful. Dr Janak was honoured with an award by All India Women's Conference in 1992 for rendering services for tribal and rural women. She was also awarded by UNEP New York in 1992 and Rio de Janeiro.

She in her own words states - “All the problems relating to the status of women are not only the problems, these are the symptoms of a disease, the root cause is one fundamental barrier, i.e., the attitude of discrimination against women and their devaluation on the basis of gender. To know what is ethical is not enough; the individual must put this knowledge into action in order to become a moral person.” -Janak Palta McGilligan

Poor in 429 cities to benefit from health mission

Kounteya Sinha,Times of India, Times News Network

NEW DELHI: A National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), which will monitor and improve the health of 22 crore people living in urban slums in 429 cities and towns, will be launched in May. The health ministry on Tuesday submitted the project's final proposal to the finance ministry and sought Rs 8,000 crore for the mission during the 11th Plan.

Designed on the lines of UPA's flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) which provides healthcare to the most backward villages, NUHM is aimed at providing accessible, affordable, effective and reliable primary healthcare facilities, especially to the poor and homeless urban population.Health ministry sources said the project had already received an in-principle approval from the Planning Commission.

NRHM's unutilized funds will also go into executing the NUHM. Union health minister A Ramadoss told TOI that the "programme will start a unique insurance medical scheme under which 5.5 crore of the 22 crore people will get an insurance cover of Rs 40,000-50,000 for basic medical care and outpatient facilities in both private and government hospitals. The premium will be paid by the government."

For the remaining population, the government will pay the first instalment of Rs 600 per person a year. The insurance money will go directly to government hospitals, which could use it for improving infrastructure and health facilities. "Those not covered by the insurance policy can avail of it by paying a yearly premium of Rs 600 and get the same medical facilities," Ramadoss said.

According to the minister, the proposal, which is presently with the finance ministry, would soon go for cabinet clearance. "The mission aims to address the primary health needs of those living in slums in cities and towns with a population of one lakh and above and district headquarters irrespective of their numbers.

February 29th is more than just an ordinary day

Shishir Srivastava

FOR THE unfortunate few who were born on this day (February 29), it means that their next birthday would fall after a gap of four years. Try explaining this to a young kid, who sees his friends celebrate their birthday parties every year but has to wait himself for four long years to throw a big one. Hospitals all over India and the world see an increased number of children being born on February 29 than the other days of the year. Either it is Mother Nature’s way of playing around with the kids or it stands for really poor planning on the parents’ parts. Whichever way you look at it, the poor kid will continue to resent his mom for a long time to come. “Why couldn’t she just hold me for a few more hours?”

In the context of our country, February 29 will stand for more than the yearly budget. Yes, P Chidambaram has been at it and will again come up with a people’s budget so that this government stands tall in the upcoming elections next year. An addition of a day means an addition of $2.74 billion to the Indian economy. Since Mother Nature was generous enough to make this day fall on a Friday, people would be expected to go about their daily work as they normally to. Hopefully, Chidambaram will not throw up anything catastrophic with the petrol or the diesel prices, so people would still afford to go to office without burning a hole in their pockets.
The concept of leap year is itself a tricky one. It wasn’t something, which was taught in school to us. The leap year problems used to be the simplest for calculations. Just divide by four and if you don’t get a remainder, then there is a leap year. Who needs to be a PhD in Mathematics to figure that out? But throwing some light on numbers, not every year divisible with four is a leap year. 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500 are not leap years though they are divisible by four.

Well, the rule is that for all centuries or for the year ending with 00, it has to be divisible by four hundred to be regarded as a leap year. Hence, 2000, 2400 are leap years. But 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500 are not, since they are not divisible with four hundred. This is only in the case of centuries. Now if you really want to know about this strange rule, contact the people who created the Gregorian calendar. And no, you will not find their helpline numbers on the calendars sitting pretty on your desk.
A leap year has an additional day, but what does an additional day mean to us? For a year that has 365 days packed into it, what difference is a single day going to make? 1 day out of 365 days is just 0.0027 per cent. So, probably 0.0027 per cent extra income that year for employers or 0.0027 per cent increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) of every country. Not very impressive.

In India, February 29 brings a smile on the faces of all investors and economists. The Indian GDP registers its maximum growth in the first quarter that is the January-March quarter, and hence an addition of a day would imply more than a 0.0027 per cent increase in the GDP of our country in a leap year. It will not be the same for a country like the United States (US), where the economic growth is in the last quarter every year that is the October-December quarter.

Thus, whatever the advantages may be, the fact remains that this day does not come often in our lives. Just about 15 to 20 times in an average lifetime. Even at Merinews, we will see February 29 making its debut. But hopefully, there will be many more such days to come. We need to make the most of them.

Source : www.merinews.com

India has 1645 Gharials

Breeding of Gharials in captivity has been successfully standardized and as and when required, captive bred Gharials are released in wild also. As per the last census conducted in 2007, the estimated number of Gharials in various Sanctuaries has been about 1645.

Around 105 Gharials have been reported dead during the period between 8.12.2007 and 21.2.2008. No particular reason could be attributed to this mortality of Gharials. However, possibility of nephro-toxin entering via the food-chain could not be ruled out.

The Government has taken steps to check the Gharial mortality which are as follows:

(i) The Ministry of Environment & Forests has constituted a Crisis Management Group to coordinate the efforts to control Ghariyal mortality.

(ii) Expertise of international experts has been obtained for the investigation purpose. Tissues/Blood samples have been sent for laboratory investigations.

(iii) Immediate financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 12. 08 lakhs has been provided to the State of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh for mitigation of Gharial mortality apart from grant of Rs. 27.295 lakhs for the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary, for the year 2007-08.

(iv) All efforts have been made by the State Governments to stop illegal sand mining thus avoiding any damage to the habitat of Gharials. Further, inter-state collaboration amongst the States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are taken up for conservation & management of Gharials and their habitats.

India’s economic survey projects 8.70 % growth rate

The Economic Survey tabled today at the Parliament by the Finance Minister of India states that the Indian economy will grow at 8.7% in 2007-08, compared to 9.6% in the previous fiscal year. The Survey, a report on the state of India's economy with suggested policy prescriptions in areas ranging from government finances to external trade, was tabled today in Parliament. The survey highlighted a slew of other challenges facing India to put it on track to higher growth. It added that new roads are urgently needed to help ease transport bottlenecks seen as a big impediment to growth, it said. There is also a major need to boost crop productivity to help contain food prices, the survey said. Farm growth in the current year is seen falling to 2.6 percent from 3.8 percent the previous year. The farm sector is crucial as it provides a living for two-thirds of India's population.

Press Information Bureau, a Government of India press release states that if India can get the skill development act right, the country will be harnessing a “demographic dividend”. It adds -

In India the “demographic dividend” which manifests in the proportion of working age group of 15-64 years will be increasing steadily from 62.9 per cent in 2006 to 68.4 per cent in 2026. For actual tapping of the “demographic dividend”, it is necessary not only to ensure proper health care but also a major emphasis on skill development and encouragement of labour intensive industries. The projected decline in the dependency ratio (ratio of dependents to the working age population) from 0.8 in 1991 to 0.73 in 2001 is expected to further decline sharply to 0.59 by 2011. This decline sharply contrasts with the demographic trend in the industrialized countries and also in China, where the dependency ratio is rising. Low dependency ratio gives India a comparative cost advantage and a progressively lower dependency ratio will result in improving competitiveness.

The Survey says that a thrust is required on creating a pool of skilled persons in appropriate numbers with adequate skills in line with the requirements of the ultimate users such as the industry, trade and service sectors. Such an effort is necessary to support the employment expansion envisaged as a result of inclusive growth including in particular, the shift of surplus labour from agriculture. However, the Survey cautions that if skills are not adequately created India could well be facing a “demographic nightmare.”

Bird flu outbreak in Bangladesh

The authorities in Bangladesh have culled nearly 70,000 fowls and destroyed 2,35,408 eggs in Mymensingh, Pabna and Chittagong districts following detection of the deadly bird flu virus, PTI reports. According to the report, at least 69,862 fowls were culled and 2,35,408 eggs destroyed in the last two days in Mymensingh, Pabna and Chittagong districts after detection of Avian influenza virus.

The administration in the districts have been put on high-alert after the detection, official sources said. The livestock department personnel culled 58,130 chickens including 37,000 chicks and destroyed 2,26,813 eggs from one single poultry farm in Mymensingh. The infection was detected at a farm, Keari Hatchery Process Ltd, in Trishal on February 23, the Daily Star reported quoting bird flu control room sources. Since February last year, 10,58,778 fowls have been culled and 14,56,551 eggs destroyed in 44 districts of the country, according to sources.

In Boalkhali subdivision of Chittagong, a team from the livestock department culled 2,333 chickens, pigeons and ducks from a farm owned by Shahidul Islam. The team also destroyed 140 eggs from neighbouring houses, the bird flu control room sources added. According to another report from Pabna, 2,804 fowls and 8,455 eggs were destroyed from a farm in Atghoria subdivision.

164 tehsils drought hit in Madhya Pradesh

As many as 164 tehsils spread over 39 districts in Madhya Pradesh have been declared drought-hit so far with seven more tehsils in four districts notified in the list.
Shahpur tehsil of Betul, Teekri tehsil of Badwani, Agar, Barod and Susner tehsils of Shajapur and Kannod and Khategaon tehsils of Dewas were also notified by the Revenue department as drought affected, official sources said on Saturday.

Many districts particularly in Bundelkhand region received scarce rains this monsoon, resulting in severe drought. The state government had sought Central assistance of Rs 1500 crore for drought relief works, besides a special package of Rs 24,000 crore to create permanent assets for irrigation.

India to popularise tribal folk medicine

India will document, validate and popularise folk medicine practices of tribals across the country and even start institutes for their study to save these traditions from extinction. There are over 130 tribal groups in India, many from north eastern states.

As per official of the health ministry of GOI it has been decided to establish a North Eastern Institute of Folk Medicine at Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh. The state government has already given over 40 acres of land for the purpose and the institute will come up at a cost of nearly 330 million. The institute will dedicate itself to the cause. Research and scientific validations will also be done there. The institute may soon have branches in states like Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh among others.

Water crisis in MP warrants immediate attention

Chhatarpur is one of the 37 districts of Madhya Pradesh, which are reeling under a water crisis and facing drought. This is winter and the worst is yet to come - the summer is yet to set in.


BHARAT SINGH of village Doriya, in Chhatarpur district, had to sell the land to repay a loan he had taken last year for buying seeds and fertilisers. He sold off two bigas of agricultural land for Rs 80,000. The money he got was divided into three parts, as three brothers, including Bharat, jointly owned the land. He used his share of the money to repay the loan he had taken earlier. The stock of food grains in his house will hardly last for a month. He is unsure of his future. His sons have migrated to other cities to earn, which hopefully will help him and his family survive the present crisis, but what will happen in the months ahead? Chhatarpur is one of the 37 districts of Madhya Pradesh, which are reeling under water crisis and facing drought (The state boasts of 48 districts). This being winter, the worst obviously is yet to come during the summer. According to information available on the website of the relief commissioner of Madhya Pradesh, 151 tehsils in the 37 districts have been declared as affected.

But this is not an abrupt development. Media reports and reports coming in from various parts of the state had anticipated the crisis. But urgent action from the government has been conspicuous by its absence and now the push has come to shove.

Recent media reports have expressed grave concern over the water crisis in Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Damoh and Panna districts. Rabi crop in the said districts will be definitely affected and a shortfall in wheat production is feared. If one interacts with the village communities of these districts, this is evident. Farmers are sowing pea, chickpea and mustard, which require lesser water. They are not sure even raising these crops will be possible given the water crisis. The rich and the powerful would be able to survive this crisis but the poor are already suffering and for them, the worst is yet to come.

Migration has started, though many interpret it as the usual migration, which these districts witness. But this time, the problem it is more acute and many are migrating to towns owing to financial problems occasioned by the drought. Children somehow don’t get noticed but are amongst the first and the most affected by the crisis. Uday Bhan, a young student who studies in eighth standard in a school in Chhatarpur district, is worried about the water shortage his village is facing. His family sold off part of the land to survive through the crisis. His parents may migrate in search of jobs, which could help in keeping the wolf from the door. He may not go with them since he wants to attend school, but some of his friends have already migrated and hence dropped out of school. He misses them. He is still lucky as many in Panna and Tikagrah districts have moved out with parents and hence have dropped out of school. Kids not only drop out of school but also get uprooted from their natural environment. They have to rebuild their lives in the new environment they find themselves in.

Khusboo, a second standard girl, may not speak much but her little eyes do. Before going to school she has to fetch drinking water from the hand pump in the company of her mother, if possible, for the entire family. It is water, which worries her more than her studies. Though the state has provided some relief and sought relief from the centre, communities, especially the vulnerable ones including women and children, are suffering. Some intervention from the powers that be is needed to tackle water and food shortage. There is a need to address long-term issues too. The situation warrants urgent attention else the State may be heading for a crisis that could impact millions.

Contributed by Anil Gulati

Say NO to eggs from hens in battery cages.

Across India, approximately 100 million laying hens are living out their lives in small, wire battery cages. These cages are so tiny that the birds cannot fully stretch their wings, walk, or engage in many other natural behaviors. The majority of the eggs produced by these suffering birds are destined for the plates of middle and upper class consumers in urban areas. Consuming battery eggs is cruel and unnecessary.There are less inhumane, cage-free systems for producing eggs. There are also many vegetarian alternatives to consuming eggs. You can help stop the use of battery cages and greatly reduce the suffering of millions of egg-laying hens.Sign the "no battery eggs" pledge and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Working together, we have the power to make a difference for animals.

Contributed by Ragini

Youth take to smoking under Family Influence : Study

PTI reports - As the government mulls pictorial warnings on tobacco products, a new study has shown that most people take to smoking in their youth under the influence of family members. In fact, 35 per cent have one or more parent who smoke thus conditioning their mind towards a casual attitude towards smoking, according to the study by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Another 6.1 per cent may feel encouraged to smoke in the company of friends who smoke. Besides the tobacco advertisements on bill boards and smoking in movies are the main influencers. The data shows that smoking prevalence amongst youths in 2000 was 4.8 per cent which catapulted upto 15.9 per cent in 2006. The study estimates that at least 30 per cent of future cancer burden is potentially preventable by tobacco control.

"Given that teenagers are the most likely victims of tobacco addiction and that the risks of tobacco use are the highest among those who start smoking early and continue for prolonged periods, it is of paramount importance that successful prevention efforts are implemented," according to Dr P C Gupta, Director, Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health.

India reports 8,00,000 new cancer cases every year with tobacco related cancer itself contributing 40-50 per cent of the cases. "Children are the worst sufferers from exposure to tobacco smoke. They suffer from the disease when they are children and are at an increased risk of cancer when they reach adulthood," Gupta said.

"We urgently need smoke-free adulthood to prevent cancer and other diseases and smoke free childhood even more urgently because children cannot protect themselves," he said. Though there is no direct evidence to link smoking in children with cancer, studies show that kids who are from smoking families have the highest risk of succumbing to cancer later in life.

"The studies are based on the National Data Base and show that cancers of lung, kidney and bladder are the highest in people who were exposed to passive smoking in their childhood," Dr Deepak Sarin, cancer surgeon with the Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon, said.

According to him, apart from cancer, there are a host of problems associated with children who come from smoking families. "Some of these are lung diseases like asthma and other Upper Respiratory Tract diseases". Such children also have chances of five times more presence of toxins in their body than normal children, he added.

150 jobs cards but no jobs in a village in Chhattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh

It is reported in media that in implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme State of Madhya Pradesh is said to be doing better than many other states, probably is on the top of the ladder. As per the NREGA website funds amounting to Rs 1361.31 core have being spent to give employment to 37.08766 Lakhs households in the state and 224320 are the total works taken up under NREGA in the state. National Rural employment Guarantee schemes is an Act to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household

But somehow the impact of this Act has not been able to reach communities of village Chokhra in Nowgaon block of the Chhattarpur district of the State of Madhya Pradesh. About 150 households in the village have jobs cards. They were issued to them quite some time back, but till date none of these cards ever had a single entry. All were just blank. As per people of the village none of them had ever had got any jobs inspite of holding proper job cards. They questioned the credibility of the card. Though rule says that household having job card will have to make an application for getting an employment. Raja Ram, a community member from the village said ‘quite vocally’ ‘that they have done it number of times but is of NO use’.

At present the village is facing acute water crisis, all of its wells have gone dry. They are in hour of crisis which is going to augment and create major hardships in coming months which means that the need of the job is more than ever before. The people of village Chokhra have got missed out in the process and are not even on records, not sure what will happen to them?.

NREGA website on status of implementation of NREGA in District Chhattarpur reports that more than 1.52 lakh households had demanded the work under NREGA and 100 % of households had been provided with the same. Rs 94.53 crores have been spent by the district from the available NREGA funds and 8838 works have been competed. But none of this has reached Chokhra village which need the same except job cards. A fact which needs immediate reversal..

Contributed by Anil

One primary health centre services forty two thousand people in rural MP

Health infrastructure in the state of Madhya Pradesh needs urgent attention as the state endeavors to bring down its high rates of infant and maternal deaths. Though state has introduced many schemes, and has number of programmes in this regard but they are not enough, until and unless it has adequate infrastructure to support its implementation.

State of Madhya Pradesh in its recent human development report provides data of health infrastructure based on the year 2006 records. State has 103 district and civil hospitals and each hospital serves more than six and half lakh people of the state, which is huge to be managed by one hospital. The exact figures provided in the report are 668079.

In rural areas primary health centre (PHC) is crucial health facility and there is lot of dependence on it particularly by weaker section which cannot anyway afford the private facilities. The data provides that rural population served per Primary health centre is 42665 and there are 1152 PHC’s in the state. In Madhya Pradesh in last twelve years the number of PHCs has gone down, the reason cited for it that it is because of conversion primary health centres into community health centre. This change has brought down the population serviced by each community health centre from over 3.6 lakhs in year 1994 to 2.6 lakhs in year 2006, thus leading to some improvement but that is not adequate. As per Government of India prescribed norm for the population served per primary health centre is 30,000 which also is debated as more by many especially since India has high rates of infant and maternal deaths. While in Madhya Pradesh we exceed the norm substantially, indicating that we have adequate health infrastructure for rural people of the state.

In fact we look at the health institution together in the state vis a vis at population served per health institution it is 6645 which is far less than what is needed. Their also is shortage of quality manpower and other basic facilities at the health centre and even at hospitals. In fact the human development report categorically state that state needs to do something innovative to improve access and quality of health care for its people. Though State proclaims to reduce and infant and maternal deaths rates as its first priority, and has introduced many schemes and pushing for increasing awareness among communities but needs to strengthen its supply side and fasten pace for increasing its infrastructure both physical and human resources immediately.

Anil Gulati

India : NE potential risk zones of bird flu

PTI reports that a "prediction map" has been prepared by research associate Dr Dibyendu Adhikari and Arun Chettri of the Department of Botany, North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), which was made public on Wednesday, claimed that some areas in Northeastern region were vulnerable to the H5N1 virus. The map also highlighted areas in West Bengal, which has already been affected by the out break of the virus, and most districts of Bangladesh which had a "suitable environment for proliferation of the bird flu". Though the map covers potential risk zones of bird flu in almost all northeastern states, including Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram, the hilly areas in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have been identified as lower-risk zone.

Adhikari and Chettri said the prediction map of the potential risk areas of bird flu in the Northeastern India was made through the technique of Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM).

ENM involves using artificial intelligence algorithm called Genetic Algorithm for Rule-Set Prediction (GARP) along with the Geograhic Information System (GIS) technology, they said. They called for precautionary measures like proper monitoring of the areas visited by migratory birds in Assam to check spread of avian influenza in the region. In earlier studies, the technique successfully predicted the prevalence of infectious diseases like ebola, chagas, human monkeypox, malaria and dengue in different parts of the world, Adhikari and Chettri said.

Tribals forced to eat human excreta in Betul - Act a blot on humanity

This story was reported in today Hindustan Times, Bhopal Edition & Rajya Ki Nai Dunia. It is total violation of human rights, an act which not only needs to be condemned by all but needs immediate reaction by the State. This is blot on HUMANITY and should not be accepted at any cost.


Betul,Madhya Pradesh: Six persons, including the husband of a village "sarpanch" were arrested for allegedly forcing two tribals to consume human excreta in full public view, police said.While the police claim the act was preformed by the accused over the dispute related to theft of wood, the tribals, who were admitted to the hospital, alleged the treatment was meted out to them as a punishment for demanding job cards under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes (NREGS).

The victims, Nathuram alias Dhannu and Mainu Adivasi, claimed they had approach Mannu Gond, husband of the village sarpanch who handle all her official affairs, and sought their job cards under their scheme. Infuriated by their demand, Gond and five others forced them to consume human excreta in front of the villagers, they alleged.

Cases were registered under various section of IPC against six person for forcing Dhannu and Mainu to consume human excreta.

No new bird flu reports from West Bengal

No reports of avian flu have come in from new districts in West Bengal. As of now 13 have been affected. The culling of 22 lakh birds in areas affected by the disease so far was expected to be completed by Tuesday, Anisur Rahaman, Minister for Animal Resources Development, told media. The culling target was revised to 25 lakh birds in the wake of the more recent spread of avian flu and should be met within the next two days, the Minister added.

Indonesia Reports 100th Bird Flu Death

Meanwhile AP reports from Indonesia a nation which has beeb hardest hit by bird flu, that it has recorded its 100th human death as the virus picks up speed across Asia. Health officials are bracing for more possible outbreaks during the upcoming Lunar New Year, when massive numbers of people and poultry are on the move. In Indonesia, the H5N1 bird flu virus killed a 9-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman from the outskirts of Jakarta, said Joko Suyono of the National Bird Flu Center AP reports.

The boy fell ill Jan. 16 and died Sunday in Jakarta after testing positive, Suyono said. The woman developed symptoms Jan. 19 and died in a hospital. Two other Indonesians in their 30s, who also tested positive, were being treated in the capital, Suyono said. Indonesia has recorded nearly half of the 222 human deaths from bird flu detected worldwide since the virus began decimating poultry stocks in late 2003.

13 districts affected in West Bengal due to Bird Flu

South 24 Parganas and Paschim Medinipur have been struck

Parts of two more districts South 24 Parganas and Paschim Medinipur have been struck by avian influenza and spread now is across blocks in the 13 districts of West Bengal. About 15.75-lakh poultry birds have been destroyed. Reports of fresh outbreak in new areas keep pushing upwards the targets set for culling. State as per media report have stated that health authorities prepared to meet any eventuality. The total loss is estimated at more than Rs. 150 crores.

Meanwhile death of 17 cows since Saturday night triggered panic in some West Midnapore villages. Villagers of Rajarbagan, Bisripat, Pathra, Hatihalka and Gobindopur are scared that now the avian influenza have affected their cattle. The samples have been sent for tests to a Kolkata laboratory. The district officials as per media reports feel that the cattle could have been affected by anthrax.

MP may soon have steel bullock carts !

newswhichmatter team

Madhya Pradesh may see new model of bullock cart on its roads in rural areas. Costing around Rs 10,000, this cart is made of stainless steel and has capacity of two tonne. This cart was designed in Bhopal-based Agricultural Engineering Institute. On receipt of feedback from this sample cart, the Institute decided to manufacture 720 such carts that would be distributed to farmers in the state. This sample bullock cart was displayed in Vidisha, Hoshangabad, Indore and Dhar Melas (fetes). Madhya Pradesh Agro-Industries Corporation has been made nodal agency for distributing these carts with a subsidy of Rs 5,000. Senior Engineer of the Institute JP Sharma told that this is entirely new concept brought in the state. Stainless steel hollow square bars have been used in this to reduce its weight. The overall weight of the cart is distributed on both the wheels and thus, the bullock would have less weight on its shoulder. He said, "This cart has been designed in view of condition of roads and requirements of farmers. After going through the response from the farmers, the bulk production of this innovative cart would commence."

Media raises concern on Bird Flu in West Bengal

Media reports on bird flu

Amarnath K. Menon and Swagata Sen in India today in their piece titled as 'Crying fowl' point out that the Bird flu in West Bengal is steadily getting worse and could easily spin out of control if it acquires a virulent form. The latest outbreak of the avian influenza sweeping West Bengal is the most serious India has ever faced—with grim portents of affecting the nation’s poultry business. The media report says that spread could have been contained had the state taken timely preventive measures. It points out as preparations for Eid were in full swing at Margram in Birbhum district, on December 15 last, Murshida Bibi, a small-time chicken farmer, noticed her flock of 33 behaving in a strange manner. The birds would go into a stupor, totter drowsily and fall. By the next morning her entire flock was dead. The village panchayat, on instructions from the local block development officer, said: “It is winter, chickens die of cold.” It also bring out an issues of communication that villagers blame the Government for not informing them about the hazards of bird flu even as many admit to roasting and eating the dead birds. Some tried to smuggle chicken, even to Bihar, to avoid losses.

Meanwhile AFP reports from Kolkatta that West Bengal, and calls it as country's worst outbreak of deadly bird flu, say that State Government has appealed to the federal government to send "all possible help to defeat" the virus. The call by state animal resources minister Anisur Rahaman came as authorities struggled to stop the disease spread. "We have to control the disease immediately as the deadly H5N1 virus has been spreading fast," Rahaman said to AFP, adding "avian flu is knocking on the doors of Kolkata," the eastern state's congested capital of 13.5 million people. "I'm urging the federal government to send all possible help to defeat the virus before it affects the humans," he told AFP.

Meanwhils PTI Reports that unseasonal heavy rains has slowed down the culling of poultry in the bird flu-affected districts of West Bengal and has also raised hopes of containing the flu virus, Animal Resources Development Minister, Anisur Rehman, said Saturday. "It has to be admitted that the culling operation is being affected in some places due to the rains. But scientists say that the rains also prevent spread of the virus," Rehman told PTI from Murshidabad.He said to PTI that there was no report of any fresh outbreak of the disease from anywhere in the state on Saturday.

Bird flu spreads to 11 districts in West Bengal

Sify reports that authorities of West Bengal Government on Friday had confirmed the spread of the diseases in two more districts of Purulia and Howrah. "The High Security Animal Disease Laboratory of Bhopal has confirmed positive result for Avian Influenza (H5) in respect of samples from the Sankrail block of Howrah district and Santuri block of Purulia district," an agriculture ministry statement said in the capital. The ministry further said that avian influenza strains have been found from the samples of Mayureswar -II and Khoyrasole blocks of Birbhum district, the epicentre of the current outbreak, in eastern India. Kandi block of Murshidabad too have been found positive.

With this confirmation the diseases now has spread to over 11 districts - Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Burdwan, Bankura, Malda, Hooghly, Cooch Behar, Purulia and Howrah.

The outbreak of bird flu was confirmed on Jan 15 in two districts (Birbhum and south Dinajpur) of West Bengal. No human infection has been reported so far. All nine human samples tested in Delhi and Kolkata have been found negative.

10th district in West Bengal affected with Bird Flu

Media reports say that Purulia district became the tenth district in West Bengal to be declared affected by the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. District Magistrate Deepak Ranjan Kar said bird flu surfaced at Ramchandrapur village under Santuri block in the district for the first time. Samples from the district sent to central laboratories tested positive, he said to media. Culling operations would begin in the village on Saturday, he added.

Nine of the 19 districts of West Bengal - Bankura, Burdwan, Cooch Behar, Hooghly, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, Dakhin Dinajpur and Birbhum - have already been affected by the avian influenza. Meanwhile West Bengal has nearly culled over one million poultry birds in the past 10 days even as the avian influenza continues to cause havoc in the state and impact its rural economy.

Avian Influenza in nine districts of West Bengal in India

Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Govt. of India has notified Avian Influenza in poultry in a number of blocks spread over nine districts, namely Birbhum, Dakshin Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia, Bankura, Malda, Cooch behar, Burdwan and Hoogly.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India has initiated a series of actions to assist the state in the containment operations and restrict further spread of the disease. The contingency plan of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been implemented in affected districts. Seven Central Rapid Response Teams are assisting the State in containment operations. In all the affected areas, active human surveillance is being undertaken in the 0-3 Km zone and being further stepped up in 3-10 Km area. Persons having Upper Respiratory Infection [URI]/ Fever are being monitored. Health care facilities have been identified with isolation ward and critical care facilities for management of human cases of Avian Influenza. The animal health staff involved in the culling and sanitization operations and those involved in human health surveillance are being provided chemoprophylaxis and their health status is being monitored. No suspected human cases of Avian Influenza have been detected. Five samples tested so far have been reported negative.

MOHFW has supplied 1,20,000 capsules of Oseltamivir, 5000 personal protective equipments, 5000 N-95 masks and 5 ventilators. This is in addition to 10 ventilators and 10 semi automatic analyzers supplied earlier. An additional supply of 1,00,000 capsules of Oseltamivir, 100 bottles of Oseltsamivir syrup and 5 ventilators have been sent on 23.01.2008. There is adequate stock of Oseltamivir and Personal Protection Equipments to meet further requirements.

States of Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam that share a common border with West Bengal have been instructed to ban and prevent any entry of poultry or poultry related products from West Bengal into these States. Other States have also been put on alert. Central teams have been deputed to the states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and other North Eastern States to review the level of preparedness and fill critical gaps. The preparedness of the districts bordering West Bengal is also being reviewed through videoconference with state/ district authorities.

MOHFW has initiated a campaign to sensitize the community through the visual and print media. A control room is functioning from the Emergency Medical Relief division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in New Delhi from 8.00 AM to 8.00 PM. The control room number is 23061469.

Humans safe from Bird flu in WB , 20 lakh birds to be culled

PTI reports : Fears of bird flu spreading to humans in West Bengal were laid to rest with eight persons showing clinical symptoms of the disease medically cleared while authorities on Tuesday, raised the target of culling poultry to 20 lakh in the next one week.

Blood samples of the eight sick persons from the bird flu affected districts of South Binajpur and Birbhum were tested negative for the deadly disease by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases giving much wanted relief to a harried state administration.

NICD Director Shivlal told the media in Delhi that three samples which had been sent to NICD, New Delhi,had tested negative on Monday and its Kolkata branch , which tested five samples, confirmed on Tuesday that all of them are negative for the presence of Avian Influenza.

The state administration set a daily target of culling three lakh birds over the next seven days from tomorrow in the seven affected districts Birbhum, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur, Burdwan, Nadia, Bankura and Malda. Three lakh birds have been culled since the outbreak of the disease last Wednesday. After Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss slammed the West Bengal government saying its delayed action contributed to the rapid spread of the disease.

"It could have been handled better", Ramadoss told reporters in Delhi but added that "things have now been put on track." Union Animal Husbandry Secretary Pradip Kumar said in Kolkata that another 100 teams would be added for the culling operations taking the total number of teams to 600 amid fears that bird flue may spiral out of control. He said West Bengal's border with neighbouring states have been sealed.

Bird flu update - Bird flu spreads to sixth district in West Bengal

PTI reports that Bird flu in West Bengal spread to a sixth district Bankura and poultry deaths were reported on Sunday from new areas of the state including in northern districts of Darjeeling and Cooch Behar. Meanwhile culling of birds is stepped up in the West Bengal. The Centre has also sent a team to neighbouring Jharkhand and Bihar to monitor the ground situation there. Teams will be also sent to Mumbai and north-eastern states.

As per the report of HSADL, Bhopal, the sample from Bankura has also tested positive. Further more samples from Nadia, Birbhum and Mushidabad districts have also tested positive," the Union Animal Husbandry Department said. The Centre said that more samples have been sent to the HSADL, Bhopal, from Howrah, South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Kolkata, Burdwan, Malda and West Midnapore.

Bird flu update - No human being has been affected by bird flu in India

No human beings had been affected by bird flu in India so far and no cases have been reported, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss shared with media on Sunday, as PTI (Press Trust of India) reports from the state. In its report PTI says that he told reporters here on the sidelines of a function that "Not even a single case has been reported so far" His remarks come in the wake of the outbreak of bird flu in five districts in West Bengal. Since its outbreak on Jan 15 in Birbhum, the bird flu has spread to western and Northern areas of the state. The government has also stepped up culling operations. The Health Minister said people in Tamil Nadu need nor harbour any fears about being affected by the disease as no cases of bird flu had been reported in the state.

The five districts of West Bengal which have been affected with H5N1 virus are Birbhum, South Dinajpur, Murshidabad, Nadia and Burdwan.

IANS reports from the state that around 1,00,000 poultry birds have been culled in West Bengal since Wednesday as the dreaded bird flu virus engulfed five districts, and the State government staved off criticism over its handling of the crisis. "We have culled around 1,00,000 birds in the first four days and the culling operation is on in full swing. Now we have 250 Rapid Response Teams, each team comprising five people," West Bengal Animal Resource Development Minister Anisur Rahman told IANS.
The State government has allocated Rs 3 crore as compensation for those losing their poultry birds. Farmers were being handed over tokens at culling sites and asked to contact their panchayat or village block offices for the money. The payment is Rs 40 for a country chicken, Rs 30 for a broiler and Rs 10 for a chick. Meanwhile broiler chicken and egg prices have crashed by 25-30 per cent in various parts of the country following the confirmation of bird flu in West Bengal. Consumption of poultry and egg has come down by about 25 per cent, leading to a crash in prices of these products.

As this blog is seen by many in media too, we are hereby listing some contacts in the State - (The info is as per state web site)

Animal Resources Department

Sri Anisur Rahaman
Minister – Animal Resources
Writer’s Building
Kolkatta – 700 001
Tel – 221 40564, 22145600 extnb – 4236/4502
Fax – 221 45213
Email: micard@wb.gov.in

Principal Secretary Animal Resources
Writers’Buildings,
Kolkata-700001
Tel 22143690 Fax: 22145006 Email: secard@wb.gov.in

Health and Family Welfare

Dr. Surjya Kanta Mishra
Minister Health and Family Welfare
Swastha Bhavan,
GN-29, Sector-V,
Salt Lake
Kolkata-700091
Tel 2357-3600;
Fax: 2357-7910
Email: michealth@wb.gov.in

Additional Chief Secretary
Swastha Bhavan,
GN-29, Sector-V,
Salt Lake
Kolkata-700091
Tel 23575899 Fax: 23577907
Email: sechealth@wb.gov.in

Bird flu spreads in two more districts of West Bengal

Bird flu spread to two new districts in West Bengal as State government steps up its bird culling and awareness-building drive. The H5N1 virus was found in dead birds in Burdwan and Nadia, taking to five the number of infected districts in West Bengal. India, which is witnessing its fourth bird flu outbreak in poultry since 2006, has not reported any human infection.

This time a major shift from protocol is being done to help prevent its spread Centre has now asked the government of West Bengal to initiate culling operation of poultry even in areas where the virus is "suspected" to have struck. Though as per protocol, birds are culled in and around the infected area only after the presence of the deadly H5N1 Avian Influenza (AI), or bird flu virus, is established. The state government aims to slaughter 4 lakh birds in a 5 - 10 kilometre radius of the affected areas by Monday, after which cleaning up and disinfection operation will start.

State is also asking panchayats to advise people in the affected areas not to either consume chicken or trade it. However there is need to there was a need to increase awareness so that people did not dump dead birds in ponds or wells, which act as the source of water for villages. Bird flu has begun taking a toll on India's poultry business with Oman banning the import of all Indian poultry products. Domestic sales have also been affected.

PTA president gives his life for want of school building in Madhya Pradesh

Shiv Prasad Ahirwar was president of Parents’ Teacher Association of a primary government school in Bhagwanganj area of the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. He had burnt himself in protest and frustration on January 7, 2008. This was not for any of his own personal demands but for want of school building for the children of the school of which he represents. He had suffered 80 per cent burns and then he succumbed to death in the Bhopal government hospital. This incident is probably first of its kind in India when someone had given his life for a cause of school building for children.

In this case, money had been approved for the school building, in fact had lapsed twice but the problem was that land could not be allocated. Why? Probably the district did not have any government land to be allocated for the school in the area, because of which he protested. Majority of children in the school are harijans and his point was that if the land could be provided for other buildings then why not for a school, a point which leaves all of us to ponder. Hope his sacrifice does not goes unnoticed, and brings light to problem of poor children in this area and across India in years to come.

At a time when government of India spends more than 32,000 crores on primary education and a special cess of 2 per cent is levied on citizens of India for making sure that each and every child of India goes to school, this incident bring us back to the question of implementation of the much pronounced schemes and the kind of glitches which get into the way of providing each child the basic right to education. Let his fight which he has started not get lost but ignite more momentum to civil society and media to push hard for the implementation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Let’s not allow more Shiv Prasad Ahirwars to place their life at stake for need of a school building. It may be important to mention here that this is not the only one school in the district, which does not have a building, but as per District Elementary Education Report Card popularly known as DISE report, 6.9 per cent children are enrolled in schools without a building in Sagar district. It is also reported that more than 46,000 schools in India don’t have a school building, one of the basic minimum needs for making sure that all children go to school to gain knowledge.

anil gulati

Nano’s entry brings Indian paradox into focus

Anil Gulati

MEDIA IS full of interesting features and articles on the ‘Nano’, the world’s cheapest car, unveiled just a few days back in India. It is a statement of pride and an engineering marvel, no doubt. It is said that Nano will change the way people travel in India, particularly rural India. Hope it also helps in changing the rural infrastructure, like roads. Better roads will not only help Nano make inroads into the Indian market but also contribute to better connectivity for delivery of services like health. Better roads facilitate quick access to hospitals and the overall health delivery system; it can bring down the high infant mortality rates and maternal mortality rates. Rural India, with its impassable roads (the records state otherwise!) is the litmus test for Nano; many villages in India still don’t enjoy any road connectivity.

Media reports quoting Crisil Research state that Nano’s entry into the Indian transport sector could translate into a 65 per cent increase in the number of families that can afford a car. This would bring down the cost of ownership of an entry-level car in India by 30 per cent, making a new car affordable to families with an income of Rs 2 lakh per annum. The frenzy aside, we may also like to ponder over the plight of the other but bigger chunk of India which still subsists on less than a dollar a day and ekes out a living.

Recent media reports quoting World Bank, say 80 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion people live on less than two USD a day, meaning more than a third of the world’s poor live here. One out of every three Indians lives on less than one USD a day, meaning they are extremely poor. This brings to the fore India’s paradox and the major divide - many out of the 200 million, constituting the Indian middle class will go overboard to buy Nano; the other, which unfortunately is in a majority, will still struggle – something to ponder over, even as we celebrate Nano’s entry!

source - www.merinews.com

Teen smoking impacts concentration

As per an article published in the ‘New Scientist’ titled as ‘Teenage smokers risk badly wired brains’ quotes a study of Leslie Jacobsen of Yale University School of Medicine and colleagues who had used diffusion tensor imaging, which measures how water diffuses through brain tissue, to study the affect of smoking in teens. The study reveals that the development of the brain could be affected due to smoking in teenage. Researchers found that young smokers, particularly boys, are more likely to suffer from hearing disorders. Brain is particularly vulnerable to the effects of tobacco during adolescence, the time when it rapidly matures. Some young smokers suffer from hearing problems and also find it hard to concentrate in their classes. The teens studied were a group of young students aged between 14 and 19. The changes, found in the regions responsible for relaying signals to the ear, were greatest in the smokers, suggesting the brain is at heightened risk while maturing during adolescence.

Study also points out that teenager who smoke, or whose mothers smoked during pregnancy, are also more likely to suffer from auditory attention deficits, meaning they find it harder to concentrate on what is being said when other things are happening at the same time. It may be pertinent to mention here that Smoking and chewing tobacco contribute to some 800,000 deaths in India every year.

Request to media on reporting about Satna case

There has been a very sad incident of crime by Juvenile today in the District Satna of Madhya Pradesh. It will be reported but request to media is to kindly consider the provisions of Juvenile Justice Act when reporting about the incident which are as follows -

As per Section 21 of the Juvenile Justice ( Care and Protection of Children ) Act, 2000 ( 56 of 2000 ) as amended by the Juvenile Justice ( Care and Protection of Children ) Amendment Act, 2006 ( 33 of 2006 )., states that: “Prohibition of publication of name, etc., of juvenile or child in need of care and protection involved in any proceeding under the Act-( 1 ) No report in any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or visual media of any inquiry regarding a juvenile in conflict with law or a child in need of care and protection under this Act shall disclose the name, address or school or any other particulars calculated to lead to the identification of the juvenile or child shall nor shall any picture of any such juvenile or child shall be published: Provided that for any reason to be recorded in writing, the authority holding the inquiry may permit such disclosure, if in its opinion such disclosure is in the interest of the juvenile or the child. ( 2 ) Any person who contravenes the provisions of sub-section ( 1 ), shall be liable to a penalty which may extend to twenty-five thousand rupees”.

Chhattisgarh ban's sale of 'Gutka'

January 1, 2008 onwards State of Chhattisgarh has imposed a five year ban on manufacturing and sale of gutkha (chewing tobacco) and polythene bags which are less than 20 micron thickness. The state’s media release said 'Those who violate the decision will be imprisoned from six months to three years, besides economic penalty under provisions of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954,'

The State Government in its media statement said that it had banned gutkha as school and college children were increasingly being found chewing gutkha which has immense risk to their health. According to an official estimate, around Rs.100 million worth of gutkha is sold in the state every month. The State Government of Chhattisgarh in order has also banned the use of polythene bags with a thickness of less than 20 micron, saying it was causing great damage to the environment.

The major challenge which state will face will be of enforcement of this ban. Need will be to launch an awareness drive simultaneously to educate people about health implication of use of tobacco and the ban or else this ban will not have much impact but may illegal sale of 'gutka' at higher prices from neighboring states.

According to data, more than 250 million people in India use various tobacco products like gutka, cigarettes and bidis and millions of them die, many suffer with heart and lung diseases because of this habit. The data says one in two Indian men and one in seven women use tobacco in the country. Tobacco causes 40 per cent of all cancer disease in India.

Amitabh Bachhan, Preity Zinta and John Abraham in the movie ‘Welcome’ !!

The three stars support awareness campaign against human trafficking which is shown before the start of ‘Anil-Nana-Akshay-Katrina’ starring ‘Welcome’ movie

‘Welcome’ is a comedy movie which stars Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Paresh Rawal, Feroz Khan and Mallika Sherawat. The film is based on Hollywood’s ‘Mickey Blue Eyes’, and is directed by Anees Bazmee, produced by Feroz Nadiadwala and written by Rajiv Kaul and Praful Parekh duo. But there is surprise after its initial censor board certificate; one sees Amitabh, Preity and John there. They are in it to make public service announcements for UN.GIFT, the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking. This inbuilt video spot in the film is part of UN’s awareness initiative with Indian Film Industry and is produced by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office for South Asia.

This two minute spot which is part of the movie is on the crime of human trafficking in India. One Life, No Price precedes every show of the movie ‘Welcome’. The spot aims to sensitize millions of movie-goers to this form of modern-day slavery and galvanize action to prevent and combat human trafficking by civil society and law enforcement partners. The spot powerfully shows how children get affected by trafficking and how it exposes them to abuse, and reason to focus on the issue.

UNGIFT is the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) which was conceived to join forces and coordinate the global fight on human trafficking in March 2007 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). UN.GIFT provides a framework for, and action by, all stakeholders—governments, business, academia, civil society and the media—so that they can support each other, work in partnership, and create effective tools to fight human trafficking.

The Global Initiative is based on a simple principle: human trafficking is a crime of such magnitude and atrocity that it cannot be dealt with successfully by any government alone and needs many stakeholders.

Contributed by Anil Gulati

Advertisers need to respect human rights, a learning from year 2007

This year August in Intel, the computer chip maker, had rightfully withdrawn an international advertisement which was criticized as racist. The ad, which was for a new generation of micro-processors, showed six black sprinters crouched in the start position in front of a white man wearing a shirt and chinos in an office. Above the image was a slogan which read: "Multiply computer performance and maximize the power of your employees. Blogs were quick to spot the same, resent and Intel had pulled it back.

An advertisement in India of ‘Happydent teeth whitening gum’ was on various TV channels this year and had displayed worst for human right violation, and is still there. May be call to action. The ad was shot in princely environment of Rajasthan and lights apparently consuming no energy resource but human resource to illuminate the city. By the way if the advisement is really true, which is not then sparkling white teeth could be used by all of us to light our houses by switching on a smile and save energy which is the call of the day. The ad displayed worst form of human exploitation. The 80-second ad with Muskura le, jagmaga le begins with a man in a dhoti and turban cycling furiously. His front tyre falls in the river and he tries to take a ride from a passing car and car has two human headlamps. The driver doesn't stop and the man rushes on. Entering the palace grounds, he passes lamp-posts with men hanging where the bulbs should be. Inside the palace, too, are men in place of light bulbs. The man reaches a balcony from where he swings onto a chandelier and is up other men already on chandelier. Right under the chandelier is the dining table and the ‘king’ is ready to begin his meal. Our man pops a piece of gum into his mouth and smiles, song "tera dil roshan, tera man roshan" comes up and all the "bulbs" in the ad are human chandelier, which light up.

This advertisement may be to promote oral dental chewing gum but also portrays worst from of human rights violation, portrays ‘zamindari’ system which exploited rights of being human being and should be condemned. It promotes discrimination and exploitation. Am not sure what did the ad maker wanted to show via this advertisement but issue is what it is promoting inadvertently and what message we are giving it our young ones on our history. May be this ad is ‘out of the box’ in advertising world but promotes human right violation something which we should be watchful and resent. Companies to have their social responsibility and they should not be promoting use of human like this.

Urgency needed in tobacco control in India

According to data, more than 250 million people in India use various tobacco products like gutka, cigarettes and bidis and millions of them die, many suffer with heart and lung diseases because of this habit. The data says one in two Indian men and one in seven women use tobacco in the country. Tobacco causes 40 per cent of all cancer disease in India. An urgent call to take action is needed in India to focus more and more on the issue.

At present, the issue to publish pictorial warnings on tobacco products is being debated in the country. Several researchers of the World Health Organization (WHO) and others stated in a special report in the Lancet medical journal that widespread efforts to cut salt intake, curb smoking and to ensure those at risk of heart disease take needed drugs could prevent millions of deaths each year. They looked at prevention efforts in 23 low and middle income countries including China, India, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, Poland and Nigeria in which 80 percent of global deaths from chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes occur. The study said that implementing tobacco control measures, reduction of salt intake and strengthening public awareness efforts would prevent nearly 14 million deaths over the coming 10 years.

The Government of India has tried to control tobacco use through Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply, and Distribution Bill, 2003. Key provisions of the law include prohibition on direct and indirect advertisements of tobacco products, prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors and prohibition of smoking in public places.

The Government is planning to revise its Packaging and Labelling Rules, 2007, wherein grim pictures like cancerous tumours or an ailing infant may be printed on the packet on smoking and non-smoking forms of tobacco. In revised guidelines a tobacco product can now carry the warning ‘tobacco kills’ along with a picture that shows one of the following ‘smoking causes cancer, your smoking kills babies, tobacco causes painful death and tobacco causes mouth cancer.’

But in India the conflict between the tobacco lobby and the government is essentially a conflict between economic interests and health priorities and moves to control tobacco get diluted. This recent move to make pictorial warnings on tobacco products mandatory which was just one of the step has too been stuck in litigation.

Though use of pictorial warnings on tobacco products have been proved to be effective in 15 countries across the world where tobacco consumption has drastically gone down, especially in Thailand, which has now become a model for its success in curbing smoking. But In India this alone may not be sufficient and it needs to be backed up by a powerful public information campaign and many other means. Issue like smoking needs more stress in India. Increasing trend among young generation to get on to smoking in early age too is a matter of great concern. A recent survey conducted on college students in Delhi, showed that two per cent of them smoked their first cigarette before attaining even 10 years of age.

Exposure to smoking activities, easy availability of cigarettes in and around educational institutions, message of smoking getting reinforced in films, advertisements, attracts youths towards smoking. Another survey, carried out among youths with support of WHO and Centre for Disease Control in Madhya Pradesh in year 2003, showed that the tobacco habits including smoking take start at very early stage in life. The survey says that the prevalence of tobacco use in young ones in the Madhya Pradesh was observed to be 12.8%. Out of the total of 1,692 students, which participated in the survey, one in six students (16.5%) had ever used tobacco in any form.

That was the story of year 2003 and now after our years, the ’anti-tobacco’ activists say that tobacco prevalence has increased among young generation. They say it is not only smoking but even use of tobacco has significantly increased. Same survey added that some of the psychological factors mainly leave impact on youths to start tobacco use. They start tobacco habit after watching people surrounding them (Parents and friends) using tobacco. Bidi smoking is one another area, which can be attributed to around 32 per cent of tuberculosis deaths in India, needs more stress.

This is the main reason why several people in IndiaIndia. But how it would be possible is the biggest question, when one gets stuck on every step in this direction. There is a need of multi pronged approach to fight with this problem. But more than this, the issue needs recognition of urgency not only by one person or group but also by large base of people especially who make decisions and influence the process of implementation. advocate for taking different preventive strategies for different target groups if they wish to bring down tobacco use in

Contributed by Anil Gulati

Fiery red chilli…..at Bhopal's bittan market

This one at today’s Bhopal’s Bittan vegetable haat market was special. Red Chilli especially for those who enjoy fiery Bharwaa Laal Mirchi Ka Achaar (stuffed red chilli pickle). They say it is easy to make !! Bhopal haat markets are flooded with winter vegetables like carrots, peas, cabbage, raddish, cauliflower, beet root, turnip etc.. though they still remain expensive and have not come down at the last year’s level, inspite of the competition within vendors.

Delhi’s metro train is now five year’s old

Delhi's traffic capillary - the metro train is now five year's old

It has been now five years ago since Delhi wala’s were introduced to this new experience of Delhi metro. In Year 2002 it was just between Shahdara and Tis Hazari and six stations which now have expanded to 59 stations. Construction is on to add 79 stations and 500 trains to the Delhi Metro network. The day it was inaugurated about 12 lakh people landed up to travel on this small metro and with the much hyped inaugural it had a tough time. Trains broke down, ticket counters were not open and escalators stopped midway. But today Delhi metro five years hence, it is still relatively clean, it has now expanded to three lines network has a total length of 65 km, 59 stations and is transporting thousand every day in Delhi.

According to a study conducted by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), the metro system would have saved Delhi over Rs 20 billion (approx $507 million) by the end of this year. The amount was calculated by quantifying various indicators like the amount of fuel saved, reduction in the commuting time and cost of maintenance of vehicles. According to experts, any new public transport system for commuting not only has to be successful in shortening the transportation time for passengers but also has to be an effective engine for economic growth. Though, one major complaint against the Metro has been its high average fares, compared to buses, making it not so appealing to the poor. Delhi Metro, with its limitations, is certainly not the magic wand to solve the ailing public transport crisis in the capital but is helping Delhi to ease out with its traffic congestion, may be with incoming new expanded network it may help further…

Is it safe ?

Pitching ghat, District Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, India.

More than twenty people on board on just one motor boat crossing Narmada River with absolute no safety equipments, life jackets, nothing on - board ? A call to action.

Local Ingenuity

(In picture - young boy on the Sethani Ghat holding magnets tied to a rope)

Hoshagabad District in Madhya Pradesh have famous Sethani ghat which are popular for sacred bath along the banks of holy river Narmada. As part of their prayers devotees immerse coins, coconuts etc in the holy river Narmada. About fifty local young men and boys have their own ingenuity to collect the coins being immersed by the devotees. They use number of magnets tied as one and then to a rope to collect the coins. Coins of rupees one, two and five get stuck to the magnets, when they are thrown in the waters of the river. This is part of their earnings for themselves and their families. Rajesh, one of them told the blog that they normally earn about Rs 100- 150 a day which may varies and also increase during or after the time mela is held. We are about fifty of them who earn by this way while some others dive in the river to collect coconuts as immersed by devotees as part of their prayers, he added.

Missing guides of Sanchi !

“Hindustan ka Dil Dekho”, is one of the brilliant eye catching advertisement undertaken by the State of Madhya Pradesh to bring in more tourists to the state’s rich cultural heritage. But on other hand, state lacks infrastructure which can match the tourism growth. Apart from bad connectivity, places to stay in tourist destinations, what tourism in Madhya Pradesh is also lacking is limited number of well-trained guides to help tourists in understanding the rich heritage of the State. Interesting figures have come up in media from Sanchi, which eight officially licensed tourist guides but only three are normally available rest five are always missing. Sanch is the stupa village, situated 45 km away from Bhopal and is World Heritage Site. The locals say that the license was given to guides who are not the locals and are hardly there to guide tourist visiting the heritage. Also they don’t know much about the stupa. Stupa is visited by large number during winters and needs to match by equal number of tourist guides. A tourist guide not only leads groups of people around the venue and provides a commentary on the features, history of the destination but contributes considerably to the perception of the destination. Tourist guide helps in promoting the cultural and natural heritage and also helps to ensure its sustainability by making visitors aware of its importance and vulnerability.

In fact CII in its reports on tourism lays special importance on tourist guides and a need to train them. Guide's knowledge of local stories, history and culture adds value to the interest of the visiting tourist and which one remembers for years to come

Schools without teachers in Betul

December 18, 2007 Dainik Jagran, Bhopal edition in its column ‘Letter to the Chief Minister’ had carried a letter written from Malkapura, Betul district. The letter raises an important concern and informs that 54 middle school and 14 primary schools in Betul district don’t have teachers. The person writing from the district also brings up another important issue that even if there are teachers, rather then being in school, they are attached to other departments and are undertaking administrative work. This letter to the head of the State calls for immediate reversal of the same. It rightfully questions that if schools don’t have teachers then who will teach?

It may be pertinent to mention that this blog had written about ‘the column namely letter to Chief Minister’ in two newspapers of Bhopal which gives space to people to raise concern with the political head of the state. This is one such example. Now more important is that this letter is noticed and immediate action is taken. This problem is not only in Betul but in all districts of the state. Numbers of teachers are less, if they are their many times they are compulsorily engaged in other jobs except teaching. Here it a call to media, here is the hard story, please do the needful, students of the state will benefit. A call to developmental agencies working in the State to keep raising this issue and bring teachers back to school, and then only we can expect students to be back.

Teachers are meant to teach, it is important that all schools should have teachers as needed and they should be teaching and imbibing education to students or else there is no point of saying school chalein hum!

Youth using edu-phone in red ribbon express parked at Habibganj

Dec 17- 18, 2007 - Red Ribbon express, a seven coach HIV awareness train flagged on Dec 1, 2007 is at Habibganj Railway Station in Bhopal and is attracting thousands. This is initiative
of National Aids Control Organisation, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and is being supported by State Aids Control Societies, UNICEF, Indian Railways and NYKS.


In picture (photo credit - Anil Gulati) - A youth using edu-phone - a way to educate the young ones on right information on HIV.

PM expresses his concern over rural – urban divide and inter regional divide

Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh while speaking at the inaugural of Golden Jubilee function of the Institute of Economic Growth on Saturday expressed concerned about imbalances that persist in our growth process. He said that the performance of Indian economy has certainly improved in recent years but rural-urban divide and inter-regional divide are the areas of concern. He added that Government has initiated several policies aimed at bridging the rural – urban divide. The investment being made in rural infrastructure, rural education and healthcare and in promoting non-farm employment in rural areas and it should help. But, the task is Himalayan and there is much that State governments will have to do in this regard. He added that Inter-regional imbalances in developments have both economic and political causes and consequences.

He sought support from people at the meeting to look at newer and creative and rational solutions to this problem of imbalances and growth. He said that What are then the other pathways to progress? How can we reduce the persistent imbalances in development? How can we increase rural incomes and modernise the rural economy? How can we empower our farming community and invest in its capabilities and productivity? ‘I think we need a new wave of creative thinking on these issues. Old ways of thinking seems to have run their course.’ Can we find more rational solutions to the problems of imbalances and inequities in growth?

India per capita income still very low: ADB

India which despite being a trillion dollar economy which now has increasing number of billionaires in the country, has a growing sensex, has been ranked low and is behind four countries in Asia in terms of per capita income, a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) report said. Brunei topped the list of Asia's richest economies by per capita income and Hong Kong emerged as the biggest spender. Nepal, meanwhile, was the region's poorest by both measures. The report is part of the World Bank’s 2005 International Comparison Programme (ICP), a data standardization project for 146 countries that will make evaluating incomes and expenditures across the globe easier.

Brunei is followed by Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Apart from Nepal, the poorest countries include Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos and India. The study covered 23 economies, excluding Japan, South Korea and East Timor.

The latest study, in which India and China took part together for the first time, uses the Hong Kong dollar as the base currency and 2005 as the base year. China meanwhile, ranked above average with its per capita income of 23,267 Hong Kong dollars ($2,986).

The study has ranked countries in terms of per capita gross domestic product (GDP), actual final consumption expenditure (AFCE) and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF). AFCE is the sum of consumption expenditures by households and government, and according to ADB is the best available measure of household living standards; GFCF measures the investment levels in the economy.

Kerala CM to intervene in retaining British library in T'puram

Sharing concerns of book lovers over the British Council's decision to close down its British library in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala's Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan has promised to take up the matter with the authorities. On a visit to the library on Saturday, Achuthanandan said to media that the Council's decision to wind up the library, a part of the city's culturescape for over four decades, by the end of next March, has come as a blow to students, academics and the public at large.The Chief Minister said he would take up the matter with British Consulate officials. The government was also ready to offer whatever contributions it could make for the continued functioning of the library.The British Library was set up in the city of Thiruvananthapuramin in year 1964 and it has over 6,500 members now.

Bhopal's British Library to close down

British Library Bhopal will be officially close its operations in Bhopal on February 29, 2008. The blog had covered the story where people in Bhopal and media had expressed anguish and shock. Above is photograph of the poster pasted across British Library Bhopal. This is one of the hundreds pasted there after the announcement of its closure this week. In fact students of Bhopal have started a blog www.savebclbhopal.blogspot.com to express their concern while another popular web site www.scratchmysoul.com his having live debate on its web site on the issue.

Members of British library and many others feel the need of debate on this decision, i.e to debate on the reasons of it closure. Many feel that State Government should intervene. Bhopal media for last three days has been carrying out stories of shock and anguish expressed by people. British Library on other hand has stated that this decision is part of their strategy to continuously adapt to range of services which it offers to ensure that resources are directed into news areas as they emerge. The closure of this library does not signal the end of a relationship. The public will be able to access the services of British Council and it will be holding seminars and briefing for perspective students. The British Council is changing the nature of its work and its reiterates its commitment to people of Bhopal and will remain in close contact.

Though many in the state had offered to take it over, not sure, if this is possible, may be a remote. Looking at the condition of other libraries in the city this was 'the best', professionally managed, well maintained, had a decent collation of books and off course great staff ! Kudos to the staff members of the Library who were always helpful to its members and readers who used to visit the Library. The events and happening at the library used to make it very live.Bhopal will surely miss this asset, after Feb 29, 2008. May be if someone has 'will ' and resources it could set up a similar business model.

Is Bhopal Van Vihar safe for animals?

Gautam, a five year-old male tiger died on last Thursday at Van Vihar, National Park of Bhopal, in Madhya Pradesh. This is not the first death this year, if we look at figures two tigers and one white tiger have died this year in Van Vihar. Particularly disturbing is that deaths of these ‘big cats’ have being happening in regular intervals since from October 2006. A total of six ‘big cats’ have died here. This includes two white tigers, one tigress, two tiger and one lion. In the post-mortem report conducted on Gautam’s body and as shared with media states that the main reasons of the death was vector borne disease. Now this raises another question about safety of other animals in Van Vihar. Though as a precautionary measure, blood samples of the other carnivorous animals of the park have been sent for testing. But is that enough?

Van Vihar, Bhopal national park is kind of pride of the state and host number of animals, including white tiger, panther, lion and tigress. But deaths in last year and half have raised a concern in the state, among wild life experts, media and many others who love and care for animals, that there is a need to increase steps to prevent these deaths to happen. Madhya Pradesh is tiger state some wild life experts feel that there is a need of wild life health centre in the state and also build capacity within the state on the knowledge levels on wild life. Gautam’s deaths has once again brought this discussion to forefront, but hope this remains and some steps are taken in this regard or lest we forget Gautam’s death and till next time which may or may not even give us this opportunity ?

India's progress report on MDGs - GOI

In September 2000, the member States in the United Nations unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration in the meeting of the General Assembly. The Millennium Development Goals commit the international community to an expanded vision of development, one that vigorously promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries, and recognizes the importance of creating a global partnership for development. The goals have been commonly accepted as a framework for measuring development progress. Following consultations among international agencies, including the World Bank, and the specialized agencies of the United Nations, the General Assembly recognized the Millennium Development Goals as part of the road-map for implementing the Millennium Declaration. Following are the eight millennium development goals, which are to be achieved by 2015 -

Goal 1 – Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2 – Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3 – Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4 – Reduce child mortality
Goal 5 – Improve maternal health
Goal 6 – Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Goal 7 – Ensure environment sustainability
Goal 8 – Develop a global partnership for development

These are goals pledged by 189 Heads of States to adopt measures in the fight against poverty, hunger, illiteracy, gender inequality, disease and environmental degradation. The eight goals are divided into 18 targets comprising 48 indicators. The achievements with regard to various goals for India as per press note of Press Information Bureau Government of India which was released on December 6, 2007 are given below

Goal 1: As per Planning Commission estimates, the poverty ratio declined from 36 per cent in 1993-94 to 27.5 per cent in 2004-05. Regarding hunger, according to Report of the NSSO entitled, “Perceived Adequacy of Food Consumption in Indian Households 2004-05”, in the rural areas, the percentage of households where all the members reported enough food everyday throughout the year rose from 94.5 per cent in 1993-94 to 97.4 per cent in 2004-05. For urban areas the percentage of households who reported enough food everyday throughout the year increased from 98.1 per cent in 1993-94 to 99.4 per cent in 2004-05.


Goal 2: The number of out of school children declined from 32 million in 2001-02 to 7.1 million in 2005-06. The literacy rate increased from 52.2 per cent in 1991 to 64.9 per cent in 2001. The gross enrolment ratio in primary education crossed 100 per cent mark for both boys and girls.

Goal 3: Female-male proportion in primary education improved from 71:100 in 1990-91 to 88:100 in 2004-05. Similar proportion in secondary education improved from 50:100 to 71:100 during the same period. The gross enrollment ratio of girls increased by nearly 20 percentage points in the period, 2000-01 to 2004-05.

Goal 4: Under five mortality rate (U5MR) declined from 125 deaths per thousand live births in 1988-92 to 98 in 1998-2002. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) declined from 80 per thousand live births in 1990 to 58 in 2005.

Goal 5: The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) declined from 407 per 100,000 live births in 1998 to 301 during 2001-03. The proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel increased from 33 per cent in 1992-93 (National Family Health Survey – I (NFHS-1) to 48.3 per cent in 2005-06 (NFHS-III)

Goal 6: The prevalence of HIV among pregnant women declined from 0.74 per thousand pregnant women in 2002 to 0.68 in 2006. The death rate associated with TB declined from 42 deaths per 100,000 population in 1990 to 29 in 2004. The prevalence of Malaria declined. The proportion of TB patients successfully treated increased from 81 per cent in 1996 to 86 per cent in 2005.

Goal 7: As per assessment made in 2003, the total land area under forests is 20.64 per cent. The reserved and protected forests constitute 19 per cent of the total land area. The percentage of households having access to safe drinking water (water supplied from a tap, hand-pump/tube-well) increased from 62.3 per cent in 1991 to 78 per cent in 2001. The proportion of households having toilet/bathroom facilities within the house increased from 23.7 per cent in 1991 to 36.1 per cent in 2001.

Goal 8: The overall tele-density increased from 2.86 per cent in 2000 to 18.31 per cent in March 2007. Use of personal computers increased from 5.4 million in 2001 to 19.6 million in 2006 and there are 3.5 internet users per 100 population in March 2006.

The Government has not drawn any separate programme to meet the Millennium Development Goals. However, the Millennium Development Goals are quite similar to the objectives and targets laid down in the Five Year Plans. In fact, some of the targets as specified in the Approach Paper to the Eleventh Five Year Plan relating to poverty alleviation, infant mortality, maternal mortality, school enrolment, etc. are more ambitious than the ones specified in the Millennium Development Goals.

Bhopalities express shock and anguish on Bhopal’s British library closure

Bhopal's British Library will close for the public from February 29, 2008. Red Pryde Regional Director of British Council disclosed this to journalist yesterday at Bhopal. This has come as a shock to people in Bhopal and even the staff members of the library. People in Bhopal have expressed their anguish and concern on the sudden decisions. It is big loss to students and people of Bhopal said a young student who was an active member of the library. It is one of the finest libraries of the town and I don't understand the reason for this decision added another. May be it is call to people who allowed this decision to happen and to media or else will repent and miss this in Capital of MP.

New website from heart of India

www.mpnewsflash.com is a recent entry on web wires. It is a news based web site with focus on news from dil of India - Madhya Pradesh. It is updated daily, not only gives you news with tadka but also raises issue of social concern which sometimes get lost in the mainstream.

264 languages in India spoken by less than 10,000 people

As per information compiled by Registrar General of India (Ministry of Home Affairs), from 2001 Census, there are 264 languages in India which are spoken by less than 10,000 people each.

The future of these languages is threatened due to limited number of speakers. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has, therefore, initiated steps to formulate a new scheme for Preservation and Development of Languages not covered by 8th Schedule (Bharat Bhasha Vikas Yojana). The scheme is based on the recommendations of Working Group on Languages and Book Promotion under XIth Plan set up by Planning Commission.

Madhya Pradesh may get a central university while Bihar, Raj. and A.P. may get IIT

It is proposed that in eleventh Five Year Plan, that each of the 16 States which do not have a Central University so far, namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand to have one during the eleventh Plan period. This information was shared by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, D. Purandeswari in a written reply to a question by Uday Pratap Singh in Rajya Sabha as per Press information bureau press release today.

Meanwhile Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh on the occasion of the 60th Independence Day had announced the setting up of eight new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. As per Press Information press note Central Government have received requests from various State Governments including Governments of Uttar Pradesh & Orissa to set up new IITs in their States. Based on the recommendation of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, under the Chairmanship of Prof. C.N.R. Rao, the Government has already decided to establish three new IITs, one each in Bihar in the East, Rajasthan in the West and Andhra Pradesh in the South, during the 11th Plan period. Decision on the location of the remaining Institutes has not yet been taken.

No to upgrade Gwalior’s Institute to IIT

But on another question on issue to upgrade Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management, Gwalior (ABVIIITMG) as an IIT raised by Maya Singh in Rajya Sabha. Minister of State for Human Resource Development, D. Purandeswari in a written reply to this question said that ‘Madhya Pradesh is already having various centrally funded technical educational institutions viz. Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Bhopal; Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (ABV-IITM), Gwalior; Pt. Dwarka Prasad Mishra Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing (PDPM-IITDM), Jabalpur and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Indore. Further, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) has been approved to be established in Bhopal. Planning Commission has given its ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up a School of Planning and Architecture in Bhopal. At present there is no proposal to upgrade Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management, Gwalior (ABVIIITMG) as an IIT’.

Dec 3, 2007 - 23 years after Bhopal Gas Tragedy, and thousands still suffer ?

'Call to action for people who suffer even today - 23 years after the tragedy. This is painted on wall opposite the carbide factory gate, in Bhopal.

Jan 1- Second line of treatment for PWH will be availble in India

On the eve of the World AIDS Day that the government announced that from January 1 it will launch the life saving second line Anti-retroviral Treatment (ART) for those affected. National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) will be providing the same.
As per estimates India has about 2.5 million people affected with HIV/AIDS and among them only over 1,00,000 are currently receiving first line Antiretroviral AIDS Treatment (ART).

The first- line drugs are highly active and cost effective and is recommended by WHO and adopted by many government ART roll out programmes. But the second- line drugs are more advanced. Many are in urgent need of second- line treatment due to the failure of their first-line treatments, there are a million people in India that need, or will soon need, basic first-line anti retroviral treatment, Dr Mahesh Ganesan, advocacy co-ordinator for AIDS Health Foundation (AHF)/India Cares shared with media.

Dr Chinkholal Thangsing, Asia Pacific Bureau Chief for the AHF while talking to media said that as far as the accessibility of these anti-retroviral drugs for both the regimens was concerned, they are available and accessible. The first line treatment is available at retail vendors and through the ART centers of the government.

MP needs strong resolutions to counter HIV spread

Let it not remain as one another AIDS day, and let’s make strong resolution for the state this day.

December 1 across India and world is marked as World Aids Day. Madhya Pradesh, central part of India will also hosts number of functions and events in its capital city Bhopal and many other districts to mark this day. Madhya Pradesh was earlier classified as HIV low prevalence state in India by National Aids Control Organization on the levels of HIV prevalence in the state which has now being reclassified as ‘high risk’. Whatever term is used, more than the term the fact is that more than 11,500 persons living with HIV are within the state. This figure has a basis and it is based on the surveillance data as shared in the recently held (Nov 21 & 22, 2007) State Level meeting on HIV/AIDS by Madhya Pradesh State Aids Control Society. There could be a debate on this data too by many in civil society as it is based on the estimates collated from government hospitals and many a times misses out people which depend on the private sector. But without entering into that debate for many of us, these numbers are not just numbers but are families which get impacted by this virus. And out of these only 1300 as of now are being able to avail the support of Anti Retroviral Therapy i.e. drug treatment being offered by the State’s in its two medical collages of Indore and Jabalpur. May be not all need as this is decided by the medical professionals and it should be given under their medical supervision only but may be many more be needing it, may be this could be one resolve to understand and provide for the treatment, care and support of all persons living with HIV in the state, not just few, for namesake. This should be first resolve.

Many seminars, rallies, events are conducted to mark this day which aid in spreading awareness on the issue, which is needed. But more importantly then these events, this momentum which is seen on this day should not remains limited to one day and need would be to let this talk and focus on the issue flow after December 1st. As of now it remains within realm of World Aids day; What after it ? We are way behind a time when this is mainstreamed and is integral part of programmes being managed by various sectoral departments like health, women and child development, social welfare, Panchayati Raj not only limited to State Aids Control Society. One of the major objectives to mark this day is to bring attention of people and media to the issue and raise concern for increased focus on the issue. But we in our state are way behind on this front, may be our second resolve is to keep the discussion going on the topic. The discussion is far behind the levels when it can be debated normally within communities in the state. Stigma, discriminations and hype which get associated with it, both positive and negative make it a topic of few. Probably that is the reason many have expressed cynicism when we talk on this issue, which will wean away slowly but if the debate on the HIV happens within larger spectrum and with much more openness. There is not only lack of access and understanding of right information on the issue only within the departments but even within those who make decisions, both at state and local level, which needs to be strengthened.

Third resolve could be to help make sure that right formation reach all, meaning all especially communities in interiors of the state in the language and manner which is simple and easy to understand. National family heath Survey data reveals that in Madhya Pradesh only 45.3 % women and 68.3 % men had ‘heard’ (please mark the word) about AIDS in the state, and if one looks at urban / rural bifurcation this level of awareness is still limited to urban areas indicating need to strengthen efforts of communication so that we can reach at least certain level of acceptable information in the state. May be that should be our third resolve.

There is lot of talk on awareness but may be the above three resolves tried to look beyond the same and if put practice with commitment will help us fight with the spread of virus by engaging all, which is needed as of today.

Contributed by Anil

Aid paid, zero for AIDS

While patients are discriminated, condemned and left to their fate, the AIDS awareness campaign is a catchword that means nothing, even in public hospitals, despite millions being spent on government-sponsored programmes

Farah Aziz Delhi, HARDNEWS

A debate is raging on the number of HIV/AIDS patients in India. It could be anywhere between 5.7 or 2.5 million. However, these are just numbers. Somewhere, we forgot to talk about people. Issues of injustice and discrimination against the counted ones are often neglected.

Sadanand (name changed), 40, can’t see with his left eye: the result of a sudden rise in blood pressure. When he approached a hospital in Delhi, he was denied operation. Why? He was HIV positive.

His travails lasted for almost a year. On August 8, 2006, Sadanand visited the Guru Nanak Hospital in Delhi, where Dr B Ghosh advised him an immediate operation to save his eyesight. As a date for the operation was being fixed he informed that he was HIV positive, and showed his prescriptions to the doctor, thinking that his HIV positive status should come for consideration in his treatment. Dr Ghosh asked him to come back after a few days.

Consequently, when he went to the doctor on August 15, he was kept waiting for hours. He was asked to come after 15 days. A desperate Sadanand visited the doctor again on September 1. He told the doctor that he was being discriminated because he is HIV positive. At this, the doctor warned him not to visit him again as he could infect other patients. However, Dr Ghosh finally agreed to an operation, scheduled for September 25, after Sadanand threatened to file a police report.

On the day of the scheduled operation, Sadanand waited outside the operation theatre the entire day. At around 5 pm, Dr Ghosh declared that he would not conduct the operation.

Sadanand gave up and went for private treatment at Shroff Hospital, Daryaganj, in New Delhi. The operation was not entirely successful since by then it was too late. Sadanand can now see partially with his right eye, his left eye lost forever. He had to pay Rs 16,000 for his treatment at Shroff Hospital. He works as a counsellor for voluntary organisation, his monthly income is Rs 8,000, he lives in a rented flat, looks after his mother and spends at least Rs 2,000 a month on his treatment.

An agitated Sadanand filed an FIR against Dr Ghosh. The police, instead, sent him to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), saying that cases of discrimination by government officials do not fall under their jurisdiction. So he approached the NHRC as the last resort and got a case filed against Dr Ghosh on October 26, 2006, the receipt for which (Registration number 3006/30/2006-2007/OC) he got on December 15. On February 1, 2007, the NHRC informed Sadanand that his case has been referred to the then health secretary, Delhi, DS Negi, for further action.

“As I presented my case before Negi, his attitude seemed dubious. He gave me a vague assurance that he will look into the matter, and that he had asked his personal assistant to talk to the doctor,” says Sadanand. He kept on visiting the secretariat. Twice, he claims, he was wrongly informed that the secretary was not present, although Sadanand could see him sitting inside. After about four or five futile visits, Sadanand finally got to meet Negi on July 25, a day before he was transferred from the department.

“I have accepted my fate,” Sadanand says. “I know the new secretary will also show the same attitude and nothing will be done. Dr Ghosh will never be convicted because he is a government official. Who can touch him? My health is more important to me. I have to fight for my living now, not the case of blatant victimisation.” Ironically, Sadanand was the first HIV positive person to have been registered for free medication under the HIV/Aids programme of the government of India.

Another case is that of Savitri (name changed), 38, a housewife based in Nehona in Bihar. After being suspicious of her symptoms, she visited a doctor in Safdarjung Hospital. She complained of recurrent fever, headache, irregular menstruation and weight loss. The doctor recommended a list of tests been registered for — urine, stool, blood and ultrasound tests, and asked Savitri to get them done from private pathological labs, as the handwriting of the lab attendants in Safdarjung Hospital was illegible, and the reports unreliable. Savitri got the tests done from outside. They cost her around Rs 2,500. “I thought if I disobeyed the doctor's orders I too would get AIDS like my husband, who did not go for tests even after the doctors told him to,” she says.

After submitting the test reports, Savitri complained of vaginal irritation. The doctor suspected a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and asked Savitri to lie down so she could take her vaginal fluid. During the conversation, Savitri disclosed that her husband is HIV positive. The doctor immediately pulled back her hand and scolded Savitri for not informing her earlier. The doctor refused to take the vaginal sample and asked Savitri to get an Elisa test done.

After examining the report, which declared Savitri positive, the doctor refused to treat her and referred her to Dr Ravindran. He recommended fresh tests; Savitri had to spend another Rs 2,000. It was only later that Dr Ravindran got to know about Savitri's travails and accused the earlier doctor of discrimination. This, however, made things worse for Savitri, as Dr Ravindran went on a long leave, and Savitri had to again go to the doctor who had rejected her. Losing all hope and heavily in debt, Savitri and her husband returned to their home in Nehona in, Bihar.

Contrast this human tragedy to the lavish financial reality of the HIV/AIDS programme in India. Among the major national health programmes, finances for HIV/AIDS is second only to malaria. It has been occupying a prominent place since the beginning of the Ninth Five Year Plan, 1997. By the end of the Plan, the financial allocation for the HIV/AIDS programme was almost equal to that of the programme on malaria eradication. While the total outlay on malaria eradication has been Rs 9,630 million during 1997-2002, that of the HIV/AIDS programme has been Rs 7,280 million. According to the ministry of health, over the years, the financial allocation to the HIV/AIDS programme has recorded the highest growth (approximately 100 per cent rise during 1997-2002) among all national programmes.

Nearly 75 per cent of the total funds procured by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) is officially diverted to prevention and awareness. Rs 40 billion has been spent in the National AIDS Control Programme or NACP-I and NACP-II since 1998 — towards prevention and awareness alone. A budget of Rs. 11,585 crore has recently been announced for NACP-III, of which a little over 75 per cent is towards prevention measures. (See table) Besides the major sources, there are several smaller organisations, national and international, involved in awareness-building and other prevention mechanisms through internal funds.

The question is — Are these massive expenditures and efforts towards prevention, and especially awareness, fulfilling their objectives? Especially when doctors, and that too of public hospitals, discriminate against HIV positive or AIDS patients? There must be hundreds of cases similar to those of Sadanand and Savitri. Christy Abraham, head of ActionAid's HIV and AIDS project in India, sums it up. “NACO's approach towards HIV/AIDS is narrow. We don't need to take AIDS as an enemy to combat. The focus should be on combating discrimination,” she says.

PK Hota, former secretary in the Union ministry of health, admits that NACO may have failed to utilise its funds properly. He claims that they have succeeded on the awareness front.

When a major chunk of the AIDS funds have gone to awareness generation, at the cost of care and treatment, how come the doctors have remained so unaware? What is the point of even doubling the funds allocated to the HIV/AIDS programme if doctors and public hospitals continue to be so brazenly insensitive and inhuman?

Active mothers raise active children

BMJ study

Parents who are active during pregnancy tend to raise more active children, finds a study published on bmj.com. Children born in autumn are also more likely to be athletic, the findings suggest. The researchers found that it wasn't biological factors at play that influenced a child's athleticism. Instead, the researchers said active pregnant women were likely to continue to exercise during their child's impressionable pre-school years. The example set by their parents influenced the children and encouraged them to get into the habit as well.

The researchers from Bristol University in England gathered data on 11- and 12-year-old children's activity over the course of at least three days. Each child was asked to wear an accelerometer for seven days, which recorded minute by minute the intensity and frequency of physical activity.

They analyzed the data against several factors, including how active mothers were during pregnancy. They found the children of those mothers who regularly exercised while pregnant ended up three to four per cent more active.

Another factor that influenced activity was season of birth. The authors say the association is difficult to explain, but may be linked to school starting age.

Myanmar reports bird flu

Myanmar has reported an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus at a chicken farm in the northeast, as reported in state media and international media. Unusual deaths of chickens at a farm in a village in Shan State's Keng Tung township were reported on Nov. 18, and laboratory tests confirmed that H5N1 was detected in some of them, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported. Authorities have imposed control measures including a quarantine on the farm, limits on movement of poultry in the area, and disinfection of affected premises. H5N1 began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, leading to the death or slaughter of millions of birds. The virus has also killed at least 206 people worldwide. Myanmar has reported no human H5N1 cases.

HIV infection estimate go down

As per report released by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WH0)reveals that the number of people around the world living with the virus that causes AIDS is actually nearly seven million fewer than previous estimates, according to the United Nations.

Better information from more countries prompted the groups to revise the 2006 estimate of 39.5 million people living with HIV to 32.7 million, according to a statement from UNAIDS.

The single biggest factor in the reduction, the report said, was the "recent revision of estimates in India after an intensive reassessment of the epidemic in that country."

Other factors include the revision of estimates in Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, the statement said.

But that said so, there is a need to further improve the representativeness of the underlying data and expand disease surveillance systems to better track the sub-epidemics in risk populations within each county added an official.

Current figures show 33.2 million people living with HIV in 2007 -- with 22.5 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa, according to 2007 statistics from the report.

That region also accounts for 1.7 million new HIV infections for 2007 -- of a global total of 2.5 million new infections -- and eight countries in that area account for nearly one third of the 2.1 million AIDS deaths, the report said.

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MP Ki Safai Dekho

Madhya Pradesh’s manual scavengers who want to quit their inhuman trade are forced back under pressure from State and society.

SHURIAH NIAZI


Rekha Bai used to carry nightsoil in Tonkakala village of Dewas district in Madhya Pradesh. She had inherited this illegal trade from her mother-in-law, and unwillingly continued it for 15 long years. Finding it detestable, she finally decided to give it up, and stayed away from this work for sometime. To her horror, she quickly discovered that no other means of livelihood was available to people like her, and had no choice but to resume the work due to society's pressure.

The inhuman practice of the cleaning dry latrines and transporting of human excreta manually has been around for ages, but it has been officially banned since 1993. The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, makes the employment of scavengers or the construction of dry latrines that are not connected to a drainage system a punishable offence, that can result in imprisonment up to one year and/or a fine of Rs 2,000.

Those found guilty of the offence are also liable to prosecution under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Yet, in several villages of interior Madhya Pradesh, as in several other remote parts of the country, the practice continues to this day. It is noteworthy that 98 percent women and only two percent man are in this line of work. But the government assistance for those leaving the trade is provided mostly for jobs meant for men.

"I did not like this work. But I was forced to do this to make both ends meet. There was no alternative," says Rekha Bai, who has now once and for all given up the trade after being persuaded by social activists. Her case is not very different from that of hundreds of others, mostly women, who find themselves forced to do this work in the absence of other means of livelihood. Like Rekha Bai, Laxmi Bai of Devgarh village also had earlier quit the trade, but had to resume work after staying away for two months. Vimla Bai and Dhanna Lal of the same village too faced a similar dilemma.

But today all of them have given up this work thanks largely to the efforts of activists and social organisations. While the practice has almost completely stopped in MP’s Dewas district, but it continues unchecked in several other districts of the state. But quitting the trade is the easier part; most of them still face the almost insurmountable problem of finding alternative means of livelihood. Many have tried to get work as farm labourers to sustain themselves, but most find themselves in the position of Vimla Bai, who says, "It is not easy to get any other job after giving up this work. People do not want to employ us due to untouchability."


In Ujjain district, the carrying of nightsoil is done by members of the Hindu Valmiki community or the Muslim Haila community. Many also do several other tasks for their employers, for which they do not get any payment. Most of them get Rs 20 to 30 per month from each household they serve, besides some roti and old clothes on the occasion of festivals.

Officially at least, Islam has no place for untouchability, but in reality, most Hailas face severe social discrimination. But things are changing here too. Says Taslim of Kayatha, "I did not like carrying night-soil. But there was so much pressure of the family and the society that I had no other option. However I decided to give up this work after the social workers persuaded me. It is my endeavour that no other woman of the area may have to do this work."

According to Asif, who heads Jan Sahas, an organisation working to help the manual scavengers, especially women find alternative employment, says