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| Hot issues of Today |
- Feb 28, 2007
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| Mar 02, 2007 |
Adolescent girls clubs started by an NGO are changing lives slowly, in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand
Ramakrishna Sarda Math and Mission (RSMM), is successfully administering the Adolescent Reproductive Sexual Health programmes The youth clubs and SHGs have also been linked to the horticulture programme of the government.
Durga Kumari, Pinky and Manju are 17 years of age and members of the adolescent girls club in Katbhanga Village of Katkamsandi Block of Hazaribagh District. After joining the club and learning about Adolescent Reproductive Sexual Health, the girls decided that no member of the club would get married before 18. It was a quiet resolution taken after learning about their own reproductive health
But in September 2006, Durga Kumari's father announced that he had met a wonderful boy who had a good job with Coca Cola and Durga would marry him. Durga immediately told her mother she was not prepared to marry till she was 18 at least. Her mother spoke to her father but he was adamant. "You don't get good boys easily and in any case my responsibility for you will be over once you are married," he said.
Durga then shared her dilemma with her club members. A group of girls then approached both parents and requested them not to go ahead with the marriage. They used all the knowledge they had acquired as club members to get the parents to change their mind. It took a whole week of repeated visits to convince the parents. Durga's elder brother also supported her. Fortunately the date for the marriage had not been finalised. The father then spoke to the boy's parents and they agreed to hold back the marriage till Durga was ready for it.
A quiet battle had been won because of the collective determination of enlightened, ambitious young adolescents. Durga is determined to finish her graduation in commerce, work for a couple of years before honouring her parents' commitment. "But I will work where ever I go," she says.
Pinky is the peer educator of the village. She started the adolescents club with five members in 2003. Then the numbers swelled to 18. Three girls from the group have got married but all were over 18. At the club, where they meet regularly, they discuss a range of health issues.
Manju has done a course in tailoring and embroidery and is now doing the beautician's course. With two members of the adolescent club she wants to set up a beauty parlour in the village.
When a girl of the club gets married, she has to report back to her club on how she is using the knowledge acquired at the club`85this could be anything from use of contraceptives to a discussion with her mother-in-law on why she has not produced a child a year after marriage. This information can be shared either through a letter or on her visit home.
Girls are better at sharing confidences and their problems than the boys of the adolescent boys clubs, says Mamta of the Ramakrishna Sarda Math and Mission (RSMM), which is administering the ARSH programmes in Katkamsandi block.
But the programme has come a long way since it was started in 2003. Sadhna Kumari, 20, peer educator of Patha village, recalls how the girls of the Radha Kishori Club would hide the material on adolescent reproductive and sexual health from their parents when the club was started and material distributed.
But Sadhna has innate leadership qualities which are also being honed as a peer educator of the village. She has 25 members of 12 to 20 years in the Kishori Club. Her claim to fame is that she has motivated five women of the village who had two to four children for sterilisation. Initially nine women consented to laprascopy operations but four backed out at the last minute. In one case, the husband objected though he had four sons and in other case it was the mother-in-law who put her foot down. The women were taken to Sadar Hospital. After the successful surgery, others are approaching Sadhna for sterilisation. The young girls of the village, all members of the Radha Kishori Club are playing a stellar role in health and hygiene of the village and determining the size of families.
Sadhna is doing her intermediate in arts with maths, economics and history. After becoming a peer educator she feels she should have chosen medicine. But I can finish my arts course and do a science course that would prepare me for medicine, she says. Sadhna's mother is a school teacher, her two brothers are still studying and her father stays at home, reversing the male/female role in this traditional, still seen as backward district of Jharkhand.
The more conservative Muslim population of Katkamsani has not been left behinf. At Devura village, Afsana Khatoom, 16, is the peer educator of the village. She proudly introduces you to Hamida Pervez, also 16, who she has rescued from an early marriage and Mohammed Basit Ali, a 16-year-old peer educator of the boys clubs. Ali is equally at home with the girls and boys because in this village the boys and girls adolescent clubs meet regularly and work together on various issues.
Each club has about 25 members and on Eid and during the Chaat puja, they come out as a group to sweep and clean the roads. At village shaadis too the girls and boys come to help families. At club meetings everyone contributes a rupee and from this small but growing fund, money is found for giving birthday and wedding presents. So Babli got a diary and cake on her birthday and Gita, bangles, the henna decoration on her hands and feet and a sari on her wedding.
Since Devura is a Muslim dominated community, it was a challenge winning confidence of the community. The programme began with a meeting of parents and Mamta and Shamshad of RSMM and Afsana, the local peer educator seeking their permission to get the girls to come to the youth clubs. The difference in the way society treated girls and boys was depicted through photographs showing the different jobs being done by girls and boys. While the boys took pictures of girls at work, the girls took pictures of boys at work. The gender gap was immediately apparent and parents slowly accepted that a correction was called for.
Eighteen was the age determined for girls and earning a livelihood for boys which meant not before they were 21/22 years. It was the girl's club that interceded with Hamida's parents against her early marriage. When they would not listen to the adolescent, some of the parents of the adolescents approached Hamida's relatives.
Today girls and boys of the club go together to counsel newly married couples about delaying the birth of the first child, spacing methods and importance of nutrition and cleanliness.
The RSMM has some excellent resource material for the sexual and reproductive health and education classes. It also has games like snakes and ladders, carom and ludo for giving the right messages on HIV and AIDS, gender and health. In carom the coins have various messages on HIV and have to be hit into the right pouch on how it spreads and how it does not. In snakes and ladders, the player goes up a ladder when he hits the right message and down when he is gender insensitive.
The adolescent girls and boys clubs are affiliated to the Nehru Yuvak Kendra which has plenty of funding and sufficient projects. Sixty girls and boys were able to do the six months computer course of the NYK on a scholarship of Rs 300 a month.
The youth clubs and SHGs have also been linked to the horticulture programme of the government. In fact there is a demand for an information centre where information is provided on courses, jobs, loans etc. This is being done through the Continuous Education Centres. These linkages have ensured the sustainability of the adolescent youth programmes.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070225/society.htm#1
Jharkhand to electrify all villages by 2009
Jharkhand will electrify all the villages in the state by 2009, Governor Syed Sibte Razi announced Friday while opening the 21-day budget session of the state assembly.
'We are determined to complete the electrification of our villages by 2009. Under the Rajeev Gandhi Rural Electrification (RGRE) scheme we have sought Rs. 27 billion from the central government. It has already approved Rs. 11 billion under RGRE,' said Razi.
'In the 11th five year plan, we are hopeful of setting up a 2000 MW power plant through state-sponsored schemes, a 3000 MW power plant under the central government scheme and a 4000 MW power plant by private investors,' he said.
Razi enumerated the efforts taken by the state government to increase fish and food grain production, improve the irrigation system and promote marriage schemes for girls from poor families.
The governor announced that an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) would be opened next year in the state.
http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20070302/41731.htm
He has a 'Vision 2020' for Bihar!
AHMEDABAD: At the tender age of three years, polio arrested his body growth but not his dream.
At 26, Nirmal Kumar, a Post-Graduate Programme in Management student of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, is a great example of grit and resolute character.
Kumar belongs to a remote village Risuara in Siwan district of Bihar. After clearing CAT in the first attempt and entering the impressive Louis Kahn plaza of IIM-A, which he had never heard of during his college days, was a dream come true.
"Vision 2020", written in bold red in his dorm room looks quite like a target Nirmal set for himself. "I aspire to become a rural king, owner of India's most respected organisation," he says.
Determined not to take any million dollar job offers, Nirmal has decided to become a rural entrepreneur and go back to his roots.
"I have seen people in rural areas deprived of basic needs of education, health and entertainment. My idea is to develop a one point source for all these facilities at realistic prices. I want to take the advanced technology revolution to their doorsteps and address their problems," he says.
For this, he set up a business venture Community Information and Communication Centre (CICI), a one point service provider on healthcare, education and entertainment.
Its pilot project will be in Chhapra, Siwan, and Gopalganj before he takes it to all the BIMARU states. This venture will be at the grassroots level, be financially self-sustainable and can be replicated.
"Rural market needs have huge business potential which I want to explore", says Nirmal. So far, Nirmal has given over 30 presentations to IAS officers, financial institutes, banks and venture capitalists.
His main supporter has been Prof P K Sinha from IIM-A. Kumar got rave views for his novel idea from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who held a closed room interaction with students of Bihar during his visit to IIM-A last year.
"My physical disability has never come in between my aim and my approach towards life," says Kumar.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/He_has_a_Vision_2020_for_Bihar/articleshow
/1709696.cms
Shahabuddin gets two-year jail term
SIWAN (Bihar), March 2: Controversial RJD MP Md Shahabuddin was today sentenced to two years imprisonment by a special court here for wrongful confinement and assault of a CPI-ML worker about nine years ago.
Shahabuddin, who was convicted in the case yesterday, was awarded two-year jail term and a fine of Rs 1,000 under Section 147 (rioting) and Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of IPC by special judge Mr Vishwa Vivhuti Gupta.
He was also sentenced to one year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 under Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 438 (mischief described in Section 437 committed by fire or explosive substance) of IPC. The MP from Siwan was also sentenced to one month imprisonment and a fine of Rs 100 under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint). All the sentences would run concurrently. The judge, however, granted Shahabuddin bail to appeal, but he would remain in judicial custody in other criminal cases. Shahbuddin, who is in judicial custody for the past several months in Siwan, faces disqualification of his Lok Sabha membership after conviction.
Shahabuddin faces 34 cases including those of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and violation of the Foreign Exchange Act and Arms Act.Chargesheets have been filed in all the cases. It is for the first time that the MP, who was arrested in Delhi in November 2005, has been convicted in a criminal case. This case relates to an attack on CPI-ML's office at Khurmabad in Siwan on September 19, 1998 in which Shahabuddin and his armed supporters exploded bombs, damaged furniture and brutally assaulted office secretary Mr Keshav Baitha. The Siwan administration had twice booked him under the Crime Control Act on 18 February, 2005 and 6 October, 2005.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=148665
Tax from prostitutes? No thanks, says West Bengal
KOLKATA (Reuters) - West Bengal on Friday rejected a proposal by prostitutes to pay tax to the government in return for stopping police raids on brothels and checks on soliciting clients.
Officials said since prostitution was illegal, the government could not tax sex workers.
"Tomorrow, criminals will say we will pay taxes so don't catch us," Raj Kanojia, a top state police officer, said.
On Thursday, the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) -- an umbrella group of 65,000 sex workers in West Bengal -- announced that prostitutes would charge clients extra to help them pay tax.
"Even if we collect one rupee from each client it would boost the exchequer," Smarajit Jana, DMSC's chief adviser, said. "Let the government collect taxes legally, as prostitutes in any case pay the police hefty amounts to get away."
About four million clients visit red light areas under the control of DMSC every month in West Bengal.
Sex workers say they are harassed by police and picked up from brothels, hotels and nightclubs and jailed. They often have to pay bribes to officers to continue working.
Under law, sex workers cannot solicit customers in public. Authorities tolerate brothels in some areas although police often raid them to rescue minors or to prevent women from being forced into the profession.
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-
03-02T143944Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-289784-1.xml
Bengal looks for PPP model in agri-retail on eve of Reliance entry
Kolkata, March 1 Following Kerala's footsteps but with a twist in the tale, West Bengal's Left Front government has firmed up plans to enter the agri-retail business even as it has rolled out the red carpet to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd for its retail venture in the state.
Kerala's Left government, threatened by Reliance's entry as part of a Rs 25,000-crore national rollout, has decided to form a government-owned horticulture development authority that will mimic Reliance's initiative with the backing of subsidies.
West Bengal, on the other hand, will adopt the public private partnership (PPP) model, which has been a success in the state's housing sector. The government here will adopt Reliance's hub-and-spoke model, but has not yet decided whether to challenge Reliance the way Kerala aims to do.
This leaves open the possibility of Reliance being invited to join the state for its retail foray.
ML Meena, West Bengal's food processing secretary, said the Union cabinet committee on economic affairs has cleared plans to set up a terminal market each at Dankuni, Barasat and Baruipur as part of a national horticulture mission.
The state will invite expressions of interest (EOIs) next week from private parties for the markets, to be built on the PPP model.
Officials agreed that this also leaves room for Reliance to join hands with the state but the "government must have a strategic outlook".
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's decision to invite Reliance retail is being opposed by Front members like the Forward Bloc, which controls the agriculture marketing department in the state.
Reliance is looking for 11 locations in the state with carpet area of 500- 20,000 sq feet entailing investment of Rs 1500-2500 crore.
Officials said that the government's terminals markets would be built over 100 acre, complete with infrastructure like cold stores, but much would depend on what the private partners propose in their EOIs. Investment and other details would be decided later.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=156519
Hungry kya? Yes, say many country cousins everyday
NEW DELHI: A significant part of Bharat is still struggling to get two square meals even as India is the second fastest growing economy. The problem seems to be acute in the Left-ruled West Bengal. The percentage of rural households 'not having enough food everyday in some months' is highest in West Bengal ( 10.6%) followed by Orissa (4.8%), says an official survey.
The situation is even worse in Assam. "In rural area, Assam reported the highest percentage of households ( 3.6%) 'not getting enough food every day in all months of the year' followed by Orissa and West Bengal (1.3%)," it said. The survey of household consumer expenditure in India has been carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) for the period July 2004-June 2005.
It is based on a randomly drawn sample of 1.24 lakh households spread over 7,999 villages and 4,602 urban blocks across the country. In urban India food scarcity in some months of the year is noticed in another Left-ruled state. Kerala reported "maximum percentage of dissatisfied households in urban areas ( 1.7%) followed by Bihar (0.8%)," the survey said. About 2.1% of households reported that they did not get enough food in any months of the year in Assam followed by Bihar. Haryana and Rajasthan emerged as the least effected by food inadequacy .
According to the survey, 2% households in the country do not get enough food everyday for some months of the year. The percentage of households not getting enough food everyday in any month of the year is 0.4%. The report, compiled recently, is based on three premises; 'getting enough food throughout the year' , 'not getting enough food in some months' and 'not getting enough food everyday in any
month of the year'
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Hungry_kya_Yes_say_
many_country_cousins_everyday/articleshow/1713305.cms
Oriya girl gets UN assignment
Bhubaneswar: Dharitri Patnaik of Orissa has joined United Nations as a consultant in New York. In her new job, she will be supporting UN's fund for women on gender equality and women's empowerment.
UN is trying to bring all its various agencies under one roof and her work will be to support that process too, family sources said here on Friday.
Dharitri who had successfully served with Action Aid and CARE in U.K. and U.S.A. is the eldest
daughter of eminent social worker, visionary a nd Congress leader Late Dhiren Patnaik who founded
popular newspapers such as `Khabarkagaj' daily and `Tuesday' weekly and had established Capital city's
well-known college for women, Kamala Nehru Women's College.
Dharitri is the first girl from Orissa to get such a coveted post in the United Nations.
Earlier, Dharitri worked in the Ersama area of Orissa's Jagatsighpur district after the 1999 super-cyclone. She was also there in Sri Lanka to work for the survivors of the Tsunami disaster.
http://www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news/20070302_Oriya_girl_gets_UN_
assignment.htm
With Naxalites around, cops here have no time to track missing kids
Days before Holi in 2003, 5-year-old Anju went missing while playing with friends outside her home. Ever since, Sushila and Anil Tandi, her parents, have been making daily rounds of the Khamardih police station. Sushila now doesn't let her other two children out of sight. Anil has searched Nagpur, Bhopal, Gwalior, even Delhi but has had no luck. "Whenever I approach the police, they tell me, 'Tumhari beti ko dhoondhne ke alawa aur koi kaam nahi hai kya hamare paas' (Do you think we have no other work than to look for your daughter?)". So whenever Anil manages to save money, he sets out in search of his daughter himself.
• Six-year-old Sonia Rao went missing on August 14 last year while on her way home from school in Raipur.She was later found in Nagpur, where she had been sold by child-lifters within hours of her abduction. But it wasn't the police who sniffed her out. Sonia's mother, Sharda Rao, led a crowd from her colony to the Collectorate and police station for two days to mount pressure on the administration. "I was shattered but knew that if I didn't act quickly chances of seeing my daughter again were slim." The pressure tactics worked, teams went out and Sonia was traced to an orphanage in Nagpur where she had been kept by the Maharashtra Police. Three persons were arrested on charges of involvement in trafficking. It's another matter that the Chhattisgarh Police learnt of Sonia's return almost six days later.
The police do not maintain records on the number of children missing in Chhattisgarh. However, there seems to be a pattern in the disappearance of children there. Social activists confirm that most of these abductions are linked to the flesh trade and most of the victims are minor girls. "A majority of these children are taken to nearby towns where they are thrown into prostitution," said Dr Ilina Sen, member of the Committee Against Violence on Women. "We have often demanded that policing should be increased in certain vulnerable areas of the state. However, the authorities plead there is a shortage of manpower,"
NGOs involved in women and child welfare estimate that only 10 per cent of kidnappings are registered with the police. Which means that the actual numbers could be much higher than the police figures of around 650 children missing during 2006 and about 620 in 2005. "As most complainants in tribal areas are illiterate, they cannot differentiate between lodging a complaint and a First Information Report. All that the police do is make a daily diary entry and issue the complainants non-cognisable receipts, telling them that a 'case' has been registered. Since an FIR adds to the crime statistics, the police tend to nip the trouble in the bud," Anita Gupta, a social activist, alleged.
According to the police themselves, there are gangs in the state that lift children to be sold to brothels in other towns. The recovery of Sonia was a case in point. Tehrunissa, Sheikh Maksood and Ramesh, members of an inter-state trafficking gang, were arrested for kidnapping and selling Sonia. They confessed during interrogation that they were active in Chhattisgarh for the past couple of years. "The accused used to abduct children from Raipur and sell them in the red light districts of Nagpur and in other cities," a senior police officer said. Since the arrest of the three, police have also decided to increase their interaction with their counterparts in neighbouring states to check the trafficking.
That may be an important step forward since there is no Chhattisgarh Police cell to deal with cases of missing children. The Chhattisgarh Police claims that its priority is the Naxal menace and child recovery isn't high on their to-do list. This despite the Chhattisgarh Police circulating the Supreme Court guidelines on missing children, which directs the local police to act immediately in such cases. "Currently the local police has been entrusted with the job of locating missing children and we don't think there is any need for a specialised cell to deal with the issue," said Additional Director General of Police (CID) S K Paswan. He claimed that they were in the process of compiling the statistics and said the information would be available "shortly".
When The Indian Express tried to seek the version of DGP O P Rathor, he refused to speak on the issue, firmly saying that no data could be provided on missing children in Chhattisgarh. "I do not want a Nithari-like panic in my state," Rathor retorted.
Despite the constant reference to the chilling happenings at Nithari and the increasing incidences of crimes against children in Chhattisgarh, Home Minister Ram Vichar Netam also felt that there was no need for the creation of a separate cell to deal with such cases. "We need to understand that the local police is competent in handling the situation," he said.
It is no wonder then that over 5,000 children have gone missing in Chhattisgarh in the past decade, an alarming 70 percent of them girls. The parents of the victims get very little help from the administration and the search for missing children is almost entirely a family pursuit. A lot of parents, especially in the lower rungs of society, have learnt to cope with the danger in the only way they can; they seldom allow their children to venture out alone.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/23390.html
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| Hot issues of Today |
- Feb 28, 2007
- Feb 27, 2007
- Feb 26, 2007
- Feb 25, 2007
- Feb 24, 2007
- Feb 23, 2007
- Feb 22, 2007
- Feb 21, 2007
- Feb 20, 2007
- Feb 19, 2007
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