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| Feb 09, 2007 |
Crackdown on corruption in anganwadis
India has one of the largest and oldest schemes to tackle malnutrition in children under six - the Integrated Child Development Services or the ICDS.
But the scheme, which is run through a large network of anganwadis all too often falls into a black hole - corruption and neglect proving to be the biggest stumbling blocks.
India's oldest battle is against hunger and poverty. For the last three weeks, NDTV launched a massive campaign to highlight this essential reality that India cannot grow leaps and bounds if half of its population is struggling to eat.
There are many who are now working to turn the tide against hunger.
In Jharkhand, Chief Minister Madhu Koda inspected an anganwadi for the first time after NDTV's report on the state of hunger in Jharkhand.
The report also showed how anganwadis in Dhanbad city are not opened most of the time. The Chief Minister made a surprise visit there and suspended the Child Development Programme Officer or the CDPO in charge.
Reports highlighted the lack of weighing machines across Jharkhand's anganwadis as an impediment in keeping track of children's growth. The chief Minister has stated that this is being facilitated on an emergency basis.
NDTV 's campaign Republic of Hunger as being the source that woke up the state administration to the state of extreme hunger amongst children under six in Jharkhand.
Its report on the UP government's failure to reach food to vulnerable children in Varanasi district compelled the administration to take action.
The report exposed the shocking callousness of ICDS staff, who despite thousands of kilos of food grain reaching villages, failed to distribute it to children.
Anganwadis in the district are now opening and closing on time, the attendance of children has increased dramatically and the children are getting the 80 gm of ready to eat mix daily.
"NDTV's campaign on ICDS worked as an eye opener. It had a great impact on the public since it made them aware of the government's programme," the DM of Varanasi said.
"At the same time it helped to rectify the mistakes. We conducted an inquiry into the role played by transport contractors and officials. And now the needy people are getting the allocated food quota".
Growing support
There are many messages from viewers asking how they can get involved in the battle against hunger.
Students Vinod Sharma and Ashish Tripathi put their management skills to use by doing extensive surveys of the anganwadis and how efficiently they work in the districts around Jaipur and Baran.
They have also made a map of the areas showing where the anganwadis are and keep following up on the data they have collected contacting officials at each stage alerting them to the problems and urging them to find solutions.
They have now decided to spend two years after they graduate working on the issue with the People Union for Civil Liberties in Jaipur.
In Rajasthan, anganwadi worker Geeta Godaran has worked hard to get her village to claim the anganwadi programme as theirs. She's also the rallying point for other anganwadi workers who are fighting corruption and harassment they face from higher officials.
The reports in Mumbai showed that malnutrition is as high in this glittering city as it is in the remote tribal traditional hunger spots of India largely because the anganwadi programme does not reach the floating migrant population.
The ICDS commissioner of Maharasthra has appealed for the ground realities to be factored into this government scheme.
http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?category=National&id=100629
Jharkhand tribals wish to protect traditional art forms from extinction
Amadubi (Jharkhand), Feb.8 (ANI): For many generations, the tribal artists in Jharkhand have nurtured the art of scroll painting which has long been used during story telling performances by them. Today, this art form known as 'Paitkar' painting is struggling for survival
Fearing extinction of this art form, a group of artists in Jharkhand's Amadubi village has vowed to revive it.
The otherwise shy and reclusive tribals are now trying to rally younger generation to infuse life into the dying style of paintings that depict folk songs, legends and religious epics on canvas.
"Paitkar painting is a traditional style of paintings that we work to keep alive for the benefit of the people. It has a colourful history and steeped in Bengali culture. It involves worship of the Goddess Mansa, the tradition of giving alms and performing yajna (fire ritual)," said Anil Chitrakar, the painter who uses the scrolls to narrate a tale."The tribals sit through out the story-telling session which involves scroll paintings and it is supported by traditional songs. These paintings give a philosophical view about life and death," said Anil.
Anil's mission is to hold an open-air school for the village children and teach them how to create the Paitkar paintings in scroll form.
According to the local keepers of the story telling tradition through Paitkar paintings dates back to around five centuries. It involves the depiction of tales of Indian mythology or local folklore on paper that run on a scroll.
This narration is now done on paper and it is derived from traditional wall paintings.
The handmade paper is treated with earth and glue, and the designs are brushed on in water-based paint made from natural pigments.
The designs get a different touch and texture as artists use unusual medium like a comb through the paint. Typical subjects include animals, birds, and plants.
The indigenous paintings have been handed down from generation to generation.
The practitioners of the art of 'Paitkar' painting are individuals coming from some specific families in Amadubi village.
"This art is vanishing and our gurus (teachers) learnt it from their elders. That is why we have come ahead, learnt it ourselves and are now egging on the younger generation to take it up, learn it so that it does not vanish," said Vijay Chitrakar, who has enrolled himself for a trainingession in Paitkar art form.
Vijay says none of the raw material is easily available, and is expensive and often, they must travel deep into jungles to obtain it.
"We use natural colours instead of modern dyes or colours. There is the ochre colour derived from a certain kind of earth. Then, there are colours we obtain from crushed stone, leaves of certain trees, and their beans. None of these are easily available, are expensive and often, we have to travel deep into jungles to obtain them. Then the method of extraction is also tedious, as we grind them to derive the required dyes," Vijay added.
Those making efforts to propagate the traditional art form are confident that they will be able to carry the torch ahead. (ANI)
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/112248.php/Jharkhand-tribals-wish-to-protect-traditional-art-forms-from-extinction
Government to amend Damodar Valley Corporation to infuse professionalism
The Union Cabinet today approved the proposals for amending the working of the Damodar Valley Corporation. The amendments are being introduced to infuse professionalism and to broad base the corporation.
The amended act will allow the corporation to have a Chairman, a member each from the technical and finance sector, one representative from the Central Government, two representatives one each from Jharkhand and West Bengal Government.
Three independent experts one each from the field of irrigation, water supply and generation or transmission of electricity will also be the part of corporation.
The amended act will also allow the Central Government to appoint the Chairman and members in consonance with the State government views.
Damodar Valley Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2006 containing such amendments will be introduced in the next session of Parliament.
The corporation was emerged as a culmination of attempts made over a whole century to control the wild and erratic Damodar River. The river spans over an area of 25,000 sq. kms covering the states of Bihar (now Jharkhand) and West Bengal
The corporation was fromed on July 7, 1948 with the objective of flood control, irrigation, supply of water for domestic and industrial use, generation and distribution of electricity, eco-conservation and afforestation, social and economic uplift in the area. (ANI)
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/112325.php/Government-to-amend-Damodar-Valley-Corporation-to-infuse-professionalism
Survey to sustain dying art forms
Jamshedpur, Feb. 8: With an objective to sustain the dying traditional art forms of Jharkhand, the state industries department has begun a state-wide survey of people engaged in such practices.
The industries department has started an innovative project, under which a committee formed of Union and state industries representatives and NGOs are currently visiting earmarked places to formulate a list of potential artistes native to those areas.
"Our survey is an attempt to identify artistes who can carry forward the art forms characteristic to their place, as we would need to ensure a bulk production of handicraft along with maintaining the quality of finished products," said Dhirendra Kumar, special secretary of the state industries department.
The industries department is working towards the revival of Dokra, Sohrai, Jadupatia and Pyatkar paintings, terracotta products and also the promotion of rust-free iron, which is used to manufacture utility products.
While Dokra has serious practitioners in Ranchi, parts of East Singhbhum, Hazaribagh, Dumka and Latehar, the state department has identified Hazaribagh, which boasts of an abundance of artistes practising Sohrai. Terracotta items are mostly manufactured in Ranchi and East Singhbhum districts with Dumka and Deogarh being the places for Jadupatia, a popular form of tribal painting in the state.
Confirming the completion of the first phase of the survey, industries department officials said they have plans to train artistes to cater to markets outside the state.
The department is also in the last stages of finalising talks to collaborate with established names to ensure a viable market for the finished products, along with promoting them through the state's own corporation.
Various non-government organisations in the state have also been roped in to carry the initiative forward.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070209/asp/jamshedpur/story_7369703.asp
West Bengal and Bangladesh should heed the Tata route to 'Amaar Shonaar Bangla'
Some years back Tata Steel ran a creative ad campaign with a cryptic slogan: 'We also make steel'. It claimed, quite legitimately, that apart from its main business activity, the company also ran the best-managed industrial township in Jamshedpur, encouraged sports and supported other corporate social responsibility initiatives. In other words, steel-making was sought to be projected almost as a byproduct of the company's larger commitment to the nation.
In the context of the Tata Group's proposed investments in West Bengal and Bangladesh, I am tempted to speculate: if the road blocks to these investments are cleared, and the Tatas set up the small-car plant in Singur and the steel-power-fertiliser complex in Bangladesh, might these enterprises some day prove to be byproducts of a larger endeavour, namely, economic reintegration of the two divided halves of Bengal?
This possibility is within the grasp of the people and politicians of India, especially of West Bengal, and Bangladesh, to close the chapter of artificial division and open a new one of cooperation and co-prosperity. Yes, it is within our grasp if only we care to listen to the great call of 21st-century Asia and also to the centuries-old music of the spiritual-cultural-social unity of Bengalis on both sides of the border.
It is not difficult to know why some sections of Bangladesh's political and intellectual establishment — since its creation in 1971, the country has received only $3 billion of FDI — have fiercely opposed the Tatas' offer to invest nearly $3 billion in the country's core industrial sectors. The main reason lies in the rise of anti-India sentiments, stoked by the rising power of foreign-funded Islamist forces. These forces are also the principal opponents of India-Bangladesh cooperation to harness the latter's considerable natural gas reserves. India-locked on three sides, Bangladesh simply cannot use its natural gas except within a framework of cooperation with India. Yet there is an entrenched mindset in Bangladesh that resists such a move.
What is appalling, however, is to see that some forces in our own Bengal seem determined to keep it industrially underdeveloped, economically stagnant and thus incapable of opening new avenues of employment and wealth-creation. Until recently the communists themselves were responsible for Bengal's de-industrialisation. But now that the CPM has finally realised its mistake, its opponents are using the traditional communist methods to oppose a project that promises to become the harbinger of the state's re-industrialisation.
How ironic. With due respect to Mamata Banerjee, who is spearheading the opposition to Singur, I have to say that her agitation militates against both West Bengal's immediate interests and India's long-term interests. She has many admirable qualities, but if she wants to be taken seriously as the potential successor to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, she has to look beyond her party's rural base for the next panchayat elections. She must expand her vision to see the big opportunity that India has not only to accelerate economic growth in our eastern and northeastern states, but also to pull our estranged eastern neighbour into a new paradigm of sub-regional cooperation, which alone can make Tagore's dream of 'Amaar Shonaar Bangla' for undivided Bengal come true.
Today, regional and sub-regional cooperation is the axis around which the wheel of economic growth is turning. The nay-sayers to new investments in West Bengal and Bangladesh should glance eastwards to see how this wheel has turned in the direction of poverty alleviation, employment generation and shared prosperity. Not long ago, undivided Bengal was more advanced than several countries in Southeast and Far East Asia. Kolkata itself was ahead of Shanghai. Today, if Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and, lately, even Vietnam, have left West Bengal and Bangladesh far behind, it is primarily because they
realised the virtue of economic cooperation. Fifty-five per cent of Asia's trade is now within the region, and this figure is rapidly rising. No wonder, America and Europe have had to confront the truth, which was unimaginable earlier: their domination of the world's economy, and hence politics, is nearing an end.
Every vibrant centre of enterprise has a demonstration effect on the neighbourhood, eventually leading to a symbiotic way of collective growth. Thus, Singapore spurred Malaysia's success. Japan's miracle influenced China, and today China's growth sustains the Japanese economy. In spite of the political problems between the two neighbours, today there are 35,000 Japanese companies operating in China, employing 10 million Chinese. There are also 100,000 Japanese working in China. Goods and capital are moving almost freely here. The Asean and East Asian region have been transformed into an integrated manufacturing plant, in which some components are made in one country, others in another country and the final product is assembled in and exported from a third country. Can we not envision a similar transformation in our eastern region? Is it impossible that an economically vibrant West Bengal will not open the eyes of Bangladeshis, just as the success of Narendra Modi's 'Vibrant Gujarat' initiatives have opened the eyes of many communists, whether they admit it or not?
What India and Bangladesh need are visionary leaders in politics, business and public life. Leaders who refuse to live in the past and are determined enough to script a new future for our children whose grandparents were, after all, once part of the single family of undivided India. In this endeavour to re-integrate our two countries economically and socially, we should learn from the EU. Last week some Auroville-based European devotees of Maharshi Aurobindo organised a seminar in honour of Jean Monnet, a French statesman regarded as the architect of European unity. From the ashes of World War II, he extricated the golden idea of economic cooperation. He began with something as mundane as establishing the European Coal and Steel Community with Germany and France, bitter rivals in the war, as its core members. The idea evolved and engendered the EU. It now has 27 member-countries, which have broken down walls that divided them in the 20th century. Shouldn't India and Bangladesh pull down the 'narrow domestic walls' keeping them apart to the detriment of both?
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/22805._.html
Wipro centre in Orissa soon
After big names like Infosys ,TCS, MindTree, Hexawire, Satyam and the country's biggest BPO Genpact, Wipro is now looking at Orissa.
Wipro is treating Orissa as its second base in this part of the country and has decided to open a centre in Orissa by April 2007.
Sources at Wipro's Bangalore headquarters said opening of Wipro's centre at Bhubaneswar was in its final stages.
A Wipro spokesperson from Bangalore told Business Standard that preparations for opening of an office were progressing, adding, "Wipro views Kolkata and Bhubaneswar as priority venues in eastern India for East and South East Asia. These are the only two cities in our radar in western India where the company plans to expand and develop in a big way."
The Orissa government has offered around 27 acres in the Info City near Bhubaneswar with a SEZ status to Wipro.
Initial plans for an office would be completed in a month.
Wipro would take 18-20 months for starting full operations in Bhubaneswar.
The Orissa government has been trying to get Wipro here from the time it opened its centre in Kolkata.
Wipro would set up a Development Centre and expansion and development work were likely to be completed by April 2007.
The Wipro spokesperson said the company would initially spend around Rs 3 to 4 crore for starting its operations.
This sum included hiring of people.
The manning would be done with an eye on the eastern and north-eastern markets. Wipro would hire around 5000 persons over the next few years.
This figure could go up if its business in the eastern and north-eastern Indian markets and overseas in East and South-East Asia expanded.
A highly-placed government official said, "So long Orissa had Infosys - now with Wipro's entry, our desires are fulfiled ".
Wipro had been offered land at the city's Info Park quite some time back, but the company had not responded initially.
This had the government worrying.
Only a few days ago did the government receive a positive feedback from Wipro.
Most big IT names were setting up centres in Bhubaneswar.
The Orissa government expected Rs 1000 crore investment from the IT/ITes sectors.
Currently, about 100 IT companies were registered with the Department of Information Technology (DIT) promoted Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).
Most of these were SME sector players with high attrition rates.
According to government estimates, Infosys and Satyam accounted for almost 85 per cent of the software market with the former being the largest player by far. Wipro would be competing with Infosys, TCS and Satyam for manpower here.
http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/storypage.php?leftnm=8&subLeft=1&chklogin=N&autono=274046&tab=r
Chhattisgarh's Hispanic connection
Chhattisgarh and Texas have something in common. Both have Hispanics whose learning abilities are quite similar, according to a survey conducted by the Chhattisgarh government.
Though historical evidence is scanty, it is believed that people of Spanish descent reached Chhattisgarh 300 years ago as workers, probably with the British. They settled in small hamlets in remote parts of tribal Chhattisgarh and even today follow age-old Mexican traditions, according to a Chhattisgarh government official.
For the first time, a similarity was traced between them and Hispanics in Texas via a radio-learning programme. "It was not intentional but accidental," the official conceded. After the results of a pilot project in Bastar and Kanker districts were finalised it were matched with similar study in Texas in the early 1990s. "The results were strikingly same," he informed. Texas has huge population of Spanish descent.
The idea of a pilot project to gauge the learning ability of Hispanics was formulated in 2005 after the success of 'English for Fun' programmes in the state. "We wanted to know whether radio lessons improve learning ability or not. Those who were of Hispanic origins were chosen as literacy among them is higher then other tribals and they could speak both English and Spanish," said Vijay Kumar Ratre, a local coordinator of the project.
The government prepared 120 radio lessons on food, hygiene and nutrition in English and Spanish with bits and pieces of local culture thrown in. "If the lesson was on how to make better tortillas, we kept in mind the way tortillas are cooked in Bastar or Kanker district of Chhattisgarh," said a regional coordinator of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, which was also part of the project.
The English version was broadcasted for five days a week on All India Radio and in Spanish on a radio station provided for Bastar and Kanker. Of the 175 Hispanics, 51 per cent spoke who both English and Spanish and the rest who spoke only Spanish, listened to the radio lessons.
Similar project in Texas in the early 1990s had comparable findings. "Fifty five-minute radio episodes increased awareness of chronic disease among Hispanics in Texas, and 39 per cent of them acted to improve their health, similar to the trend recorded in Chhattisgarh," said Ratre.
Education through radio has been largely successful in four states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. Two levels of 'English is Fun' have already been broadcasted through AIR stations.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1913645,000900030012.htm
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