Haryana launches Village Mentoring Project to improve education, healthcare

Haryana Government has launched a Village Mentoring Project to improve healthcare and education of the villagers with a special emphasis on girl child.

The project would create awareness among the villagers about various issues including educating girl child, health, financial matters etc, Deputy Commissioner of Panchkula Vivek Atray said after launching the project from Rajjipur village near Panchkula.

He said the project has been commenced in the state from Panchkula district in association with Indian School of Business (ISB), Mohali whose faculty and students would visit the village. The students and the staff of ISB presented a street play on the theme of ‘Continuing girl education, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition’ and conducted a counseling session with village residents. “This is a unique initiative wherein ISB would mentor village residents towards adopting a more progressive approach in the upbringing of the girl child. Healthcare related and educational parameters would be the focus of the intervention,” Atray said. 

According to PTI, Director External Relations of ISB DNV Kumara Guru said the ISB community comprising its staff, students and their families are spearheading this initiative by undertaking various activities across a span of six months along with the District Administration Panchkula. The activities will include street plays, counseling sessions and health camps, engaging with the school kids, mentoring and more, he said. 

The Village Mentoring Project is the first of its kind in Haryana under which villages in the state would be mentored by leading corporate houses, educational institutions and other organizations. Each of the 22 districts in the state would be launching the project in a phased manner in around five villages each, an official spokesman said. 

Source: http://social.yourstory.com/2015/06/haryana-village-mentoring/ 

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Bright minds and Dark Angels

Being a 5-pointer proves to be too much for these bright students and they fail to deal with the pressure.

Dad – sorry I couldn't be a better son to you… all you asked was my betterment of my career and future and I couldn't give it to you… I have failed you dad and I am so sorry about it. I cannot show my face to you

Mom – Sorry mom, I really did love you more than dad….

I was weak I thought I could become strong but I was weak, I was so so so weak the fault is my own. The fault is my own. Hope something good happens with my death. Firestallion has left the building…

I wish to donate my eyes and internal organs…. At least somebody can be benefitted with my death.

In another 2 min it will be 3:13 both my fav numbers. awesome time to die 

These were Nitin Kumar Reddy's last words in an email he sent to his father. The final-year M.Tech student at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras hanged himself from a ceiling fan in his hostel room after he got a semester extension.

Straight out of Raju Hirani's blockbuster 3 Idiots, Nitin aka Firestallion aka Swamy was on the verge of completing his final-year project, but could not meet the deadline. Unable to face the embarrassment of not graduating with his batch, he “left the building”.

'' I had told him not to worry; I would sort it out,'' says Nitin's father, Lakshmana Moorthy, who was to land in Chennai by the first flight the next morning. “I had left my office to attend a meeting. I got a call telling me that Nitin had sent a disturbing email. By the time my friend read out the email, he was gone.”

The pressure cooker description given by the media certainly does not go with the IIT Madras campus, located within a 620-acre natural forest with a magnificent lake and a wide range of flora and fauna.

However, in the last three years, the campus has witnessed six suicides—the highest number across IITs. This year eight IITians killed themselves across India, and IIT Madras leads this list, too, with two students, both from the mechanical engineering department, killing themselves.

In February, V. Anoop, 25, a final-year M.Tech student at IIT Madras, hanged himself in his hostel room, as he could not complete his course in time.

His father, Vijay Kumar, says Anoop had trouble with his guide, who “wasn't happy that Anoop did not consult him enough”. Anoop had requested a change, and it was granted. “His new guide had assured him that he would complete the project in time…. But we got a letter from the institute asking us to re-register. I got a call that midnight that he was gone,” he recalls.

And more recently, in September, B. Gowri Shankar, a second-year postgraduate student at IIT Madras was found dead in his room. It is suspected to be a case of suicide, though forensic experts are yet to confirm it.

According Nitin's friends, he had finished the major part of his project: simulation. “He had trouble fixing the engine,” they recall. “He asked his guide for help. He was told to approach the lab technicians, but they apparently were unable to help. Nitin tried fixing it himself, which did not happen. Finally on the day when he had to submit the thesis, the engine wasn't ready.”

And that meant Nitin had to repeat a semester. His plum placement plans bid him goodbye, and he bid goodbye to life.

Students who knew Nitin say he had initially faltered with his time-management. “His project guide should have noticed this and helped him fast-track his work,” says a student. “Indeed, many professors fail to pay enough attention to projects, as they are busy with researchers under them.”

While extensions pushed Anoop and Nitin to the extreme, the latest IITian to give up on life—Mehtab Ahmed, a first year student in IIT Kanpur—had been on campus just for a couple of months. The youngest in his family, Ahmed hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his hostel room on September 22.

The reasons being cited were many, including love affair and homesickness. The end result, however, was scrawled across the wall of his room in pencil: “I am tired of IIT-Kanpur.” This was the ninth suicide in IIT Kanpur in five years. 

Concerned about the spike in the number of students killing themselves, the IIT Council headed by Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has recommended setting up of a task force—consisting of teachers, parents and students—to study the issue.

Eight suicides across India in an annual combined batch of 10,000 might seem, as one professor in IIT Madras put it famously, “statistically unimportant''. But when the country's brightest students decide to end their lives, it does call for, if nothing, introspection.

Life@IIT

What makes these brilliant students crack? Boman Irani as the heartless professor may have been the chief reason for many students to give up in 3 Idiots, but in real life, it is much more complicated.

And it is not that IITs are like Nazi camps. Majority of the graduates say IIT was the best part of their lives. Even current students agree: “It is fun; the pressure is part of it,” says an IIT Madras B.Tech student. “We booze once in a while, we have ‘unofficial' inter-hostel competitions, and we have our own share of masti, besides plenty of sports and recreational facilities.”

Read in Detail: The Week | Bright minds and Dark Angels

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

After the Slutwalk

I’m sitting in London and the BBC is reporting that hundreds walked Delhi’s streets on July 31 to protest sexual harassment – although, it noted, there was “little of the skimpy dressing that has marked protests elsewhere” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14357443). They write: “Most of the marchers in Delhi were soberly dressed in jeans and T-shirts or traditional shalwar kameez.” (Someone tell the BBC that even jeans and T-shirts are controversial in India – especially when young women wear them, provoking calls to ban women from wearing jeans every few years.) This would have left Indian media rather disappointed, having spent considerable airtime and vocal energies in the last few weeks anticipating with rising excitement what girls participating in Delhi’s SLUTwalk would wear. It’s that word that has caused all this excitement and disappointment, the debate, the sermonising, the distancing, the embracing.  

I’m at first relieved that Delhi’s Slutwalk march (also called Besharmi Morcha in an attempt to localise the march) did take place after all without any scuffle from rightwing hoodlums. I’m impressed that 19- and 20-year-old women pulled off organising it and articulating their thoughts to a paparazzi-like media. While I’m not sure if there really were ‘‘hundreds’’ of people on the street (and if there were, I don’t doubt that half of them were media) but just the fact that young girls and boys, a common public, not attached to women’s groups or political parties, came out onto the streets on a Sunday morning to protest against sexual harassment of women is to me, a critical turn in sexual politics. 

The resistance to the word ‘slut’ though is more difficult to understand. So a police officer in Toronto said in January 2011 that ‘‘if women don’t want to be raped they shouldn’t dress like sluts’’. So what? It’s not new to Indian ears. Our rape law was born from one such judgment – the Mathura case in which a young girl was sexually assaulted by two policemen, but the court did not find the policemen guilty, saying that Mathura was ‘‘habituated to sexual intercourse’’. The judgment led to outrage from women’s organisations, which called on the government to reform rape laws, which it did in 1983. Many cases have followed in Mathura’s wake: all of them have shown us that the state machinery routinely attributes blame for violence against a woman to her ‘character’ or lack thereof – insinuating of course sexual impropriety – or in other words, ‘sluttiness’.

The central idea behind the Toronto police officer’s comments is therefore not new to us even if the word ‘slut’ is. Just as the Mathura judgment enraged women’s organisations here in the early-1980s, the police officer’s comments enraged a young generation of women who decided to march the streets in their skimpiest clothing, making the point that whatever women wear, they cannot be violated – that a woman’s clothing has nothing to do with rape or sexual harassment. Within months women mobilised to hold mass demonstrations from Toronto in April 2011 to Chicago in June 2011 and in between in smaller towns like Dallas, Asheville, Ottawa, Boston, Denver, Calgary. Fuelled by social media outrage and videos and ideas going viral in cyberspace, it quickly outgrew Canada, sliding into neighbouring USA and even crossing the shores to Delhi – demonstrating the resonance that such an idea has across cultures.  

Over the last month, the chatter around Delhi’s planned Slutwalk has been phenomenal. Five thousand people have associated themselves with their Facebook page and even bothered to write a comment and engage with the issue. I have read debates on a feminist listserve, watched in amazement a whole page of newspaper dailies devoted to the event and listened quite agog to the special debates on the issue on news channels. The usual grouses have been shared widely: that it is a Western import– which it is but so was Take Back The Night and the 16 Days of Activism that takes place every November; not about poor women – which is not a necessary condition for the validity of a protest march; culturally insensitive and contextually misplaced – an old grouse. Women young and old, but especially young, from around the country have analysed, discussed and critiqued various aspects of the chatter: the problems with the word ‘slut’; the politics of clothing; strange justifications as to why men sexually harass women and so on. The discourse just got wider, more populated with opinions and just turned into a dynamic landscape over the last few months. 

Will there be any more Sluttalking now that the Delhi Slutwalk is over? Who knows, but beyond the chatter, I think we missed talking much about the elephant in the room: women’s sexuality and how younger women today are expected to be somewhat ‘sexy’ if they want some social currency. In a recent research study I was part of which explored what middle class women experience online, the majority of young women explicitly stated the desire to represent themselves as ‘sexy’ in pictures they put up online, believing that it increased their social status amongst peers and raised their own self-esteem. Their own definition of ‘sexy’ was very broad and hardly controversial – anything from fitted jeans or a sleeveless top or even styled so that they looked like a movie star. 

It is complicated: we now have a bevy of cheerleaders in IPL (usually women who are conspicuously not Indian), advertisements and popular culture replete with sexual and sensual references (especially positive affirmations by women themselves – think Sheila, Munni and so on) but still dressing ‘slutty’ (which, the Indian media tell us, means wearing ‘‘fishnet stockings and micro minis’’), as the subtext of debates on Slutwalk tell us, is crossing cultural boundaries. We are still hypocritical about acknowledging women’s sexuality and how it is really all around us today, and in flux.  

To be fair though, I have met many sex workers and women in prostitution, and have never seen them wear anything more or less than any other poor, marginalised women. But perhaps we would also like to be able to dress ‘like sluts’. Or wear red lipstick. Or a flower in our hair, a shiny nosepin. Just on any day, not just our wedding day when it is legitimate for a young woman to acknowledge her sexuality without the fear of being raped or being assumed to be a slut. I’ve never worn fishnets and a micro mini on the streets but now I know I probably can’t because the discussion around Slutwalk has made it clear that certain boundaries cannot be transgressed.

The division between good women/bad women is one of the deepest divides amongst women. An initiative like Slutwalk strikes a feeble but important blow at this iron wall (at least the way it has manifested in the West). Women not only spend their lives trying not to get raped but also trying not to be called sluts. This is of course difficult given that it takes very little to be called one, especially in our context: this one laughs too loudly, this one smokes, this one drinks wine, this one comes home late from work, this one is a dancer, this one talks to boys, this one leaves her hair open, this one wears lipstick, this one wore a sleeveless blouse, this one wears jeans… you get my drift. 

In our case, we were still distancing ourselves from sluts, not only not- embracing the word, but also the concept. A Slutwalk won’t reduce the number of rapes or directly reduce the number of cases of harassment on the streets – for that we will need sustained political will, convictions, safer cities, public attitudes, embracing women in the public sphere and many other things. But that isn’t the point (perhaps the most repeated refrain by people defending the initiative). A few weeks ago a man bludgeoned his daughter (in fact, try Googling ‘man bludgeons daughter’ to realise the volume of cases out there) to death because she went to the mall with boys (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com). The point is what basic message the Slutwalk initiative gives out: in their website the Toronto organisers state that the reason for Slutwalk is ‘‘because we’ve had enough’’. 

Because, really, we have had enough.

Source: http://infochangeindia.org/women/third-wave/after-the-slutwalk.html

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) : India Resource

 Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971.

Today, MSF provides independent, impartial assistance in more than 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. MSF also reserves the right to speak out to bring attention to neglected crises, challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.

In 1999, MSF received the Nobel Peace Prize.


India Resource - See Excellent Stories and work of Doctors Without Borders in India:  
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/allcontent.cfm?id=33
 

World wide Offices :
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/offices/?ref=nav-footer






Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

4th Annual National Essay Competition 2011 : World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD)

On occasion of 6^th Annual World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) 15^th June 2011 Silver Inning Foundation a NGO working with senior citizens and their family members in association with INPEA (International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse) Indian Chapter through Development, Welfare and Research Foundation (DWARF) and 'Little Things Matter Initiatives' (LTMI); SSS Global; FESCOM (Mumbai) ; 1298 Senior Citizens Helpline, Mumbai; AISCCON  & Harmony for Silvers Foundation will be commemorating Elder Abuse Awareness Day from on May 20^th to June 20^th 2011 . It has taken the initiative to create awareness among civil society and Government to eliminate elder abuse at both micro and macro level.

SILVER INNING FOUNDATION invites an Essay of maximum 2000 words in following category and topics:

1)    For all age group:

Can Elder abuse be prevented, if not eliminated? If yes how? If no why not?

2)    For School Students - Class 5^th to class 10^th:

Grandparents are the best Friends

3)    For Students - 1^st year College to Post graduation :

Youth are important link towards Elderly friendly society       

What is Elder Abuse?

Elder abuse is an under-recognized problem with devastating and even life-threatening consequences. Elder abuse is often defined as a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an ‘expectation of trust’ which causes harm or distress to an older person.

Types of Elder Abuse:

1. Physical abuse
2. Sexual abuse
3. Emotional or psychological abuse
4. Financial or material exploitation
5. Neglect
6. Abandonment
7. Self-neglect

All of us know that we will be elders one day and join the ever increasing percentage of senior citizens in the global population! And yet some of us continue to show gross indifference and disrespect to our elders in our own families and in the society! Each of us might have countless reasons, logics and excuses for this behavior but this could be due to a combination of many problems. Let us try to put into a right perspective these various problems and what we could do to keep our elders happy.

Remember, by helping our elders stay physically fit and mentally happy, we are only helping ourselves and our future. If we fail to give proper care and respect to our elders at home now we will get the same ugly treatment from our children later on in our lives!

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 15^th June ,programme aims to increase society's ability, through various programmes to recognize and respond to the mistreatment of older people in whatever setting it occurs, so that the latter years of life will be free from abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Prizes:

The First (1^st) best in each category will be given Prize of Rs.500/- by Indian cheque only, to each 1^st winner and Certificate.

The Three (3) best essays in each category will be given Certificate each and their essay will be published on Blogs: http://peopleforsocialcause.blogspot.com/ ; http://silverinnings.blogspot.com/  and best Ten (10) in each category, with India postal address will be given Participation Certificate.

  

All the essays will be property of and used by Silver Inning Foundation as database/Talk / Reference / Lecture / Book/ Paper presentation for its strategy to Tackle Elder Abuse and issues of Elderly. The verdict of management of Silver Inning Foundation & Silver Innings for selection of best essay will be final.

Silver Inning Foundation consists of a dedicated team of professionals contributing to the cause of the elderly. Silver Inning Foundation conducts seminars, camps, lectures, awareness modules, advocacy, networking, Dementia management services and also has support groups for home based advice. At Silver Innings we are working towards creating Elder Friendly World where Ageing becomes a Positive and Rewarding Experience.

The Last date for submission of Essay is 20^th June 2011.

Email your essay with complete Postal Address, Telephone Number and Date of Birth on or before 20^th June 2011 to info@silverinnings.com and copy to silverinnings@gmail.com . Only soft copy by email i.e. email entries will only be accepted for this competition.

The winners will be announced online by email after 15^th July 2011. For further information please call on Tel no. 09987104233 – Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm.

Terms and Condition:

• Essay should not be more than 2000 words
• Essay should only be in English language
• Essay should be sent by Email only (soft copy only)
• No hard copy will be accepted
• It’s open to all Indian Residence / POI / NRI
• People from other country can also participate, but they will not be part of competition and they will be given virtual participation certificate.

This Programme is supported INPEA (International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse) Indian Chapter through Development, Welfare and Research Foundation (DWARF) and 'Little Things Matter Initiatives' (LTMI); SSS Global; FESCOM (Mumbai) ; 1298 Senior Citizens Helpline, Mumbai; AISCCON  & Harmony for Silvers Foundation

Together, we all have the power to prevent elder abuse

My World…  Your World…Our World…Free of Elder Abuse

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

SC denies plea for enhanced punishment for Bhopal gas tragedy accused

The Indian Supreme Court, on May 12, 2011, threw out the curative petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking enhanced punishment for top officials of Union Carbide, the multinational at whose Bhopal plant an accident led to a massive leak of poisonous gas that killed over 4,000 people instantly and disabled many thousands more.

The deadly leak occurred on December 4, 1984. Compensation for the victims, negotiated by the Government of India, was paltry by any standards and has been hotly contested for more than 25 years by groups fighting for the victims. In a 1996 judgment, the Supreme Court diluted charges against the accused from Section 304 (II) of the Indian Penal Code (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) to Section 304 (A) (criminal negligence). In 2010, a Bhopal court convicted seven accused who were sentenced to two years in jail. All seven secured bail immediately. The then Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson, also accused in the case, was declared a fugitive in 1992.   

The sessions court verdict and sentence was criticised strongly by civil society and the media, and a group of ministers was set up to look more closely into the matter. The GoM recommended stricter punishment for the seven officials. The CBI filed a curative petition against the light punishment and sought direction from the SC for framing of charges against the accused for culpable homicide not amounting to murder that carries a maximum imprisonment of 10 years (curative petitions have only been allowed since 2002). 

A five-judge bench including Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia dismissed the CBI’s petition saying it was based on a “wrong and fallacious plea”, and filed after 14 years. It said there was not enough reason to build a case of culpable homicide. “The materials produced do not meet the requirement (for homicide),” Kapadia said.

However, the court said that its 1996 judgment in no way prevented the trial court from framing charges under the stringent provisions of the Indian Penal Code. 

It said the Bhopal sessions court was free to examine the charges against the accused and decide, if the evidence available so warranted, that they could be tried for a more serious offence such as culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The SC bench clarified that the 1996 judgment was based on evidence presented before it at that time, and it was wrong to assume that it was binding on the trial court when additional facts and material were forthcoming.

On May 13, a day after the SC judgment, the Indian government said it would ask the CBI to move the sessions court in Bhopal for an early hearing of its revision application and appeal filed by the Madhya Pradesh government for stricter punishment for the accused. 

Source:  http://infochangeindia.org/environment/news/sc-denies-plea-for-enhanced-punishment-for-bhopal-gas-tragedy-accused.html

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Regulation of Surrogate Parenthood in India

 The advances in human reproductive sciences have made it possible for couples and others to have biologically their own children who otherwise cannot for a number of reasons. This has given rise to the concept of surrogate mothers. Surrogacy is a method of assisted reproduction. More common form is IVF/Gestational surrogacy in which the surrogate child biologically belongs completely to the social parents. The other type is gestational surrogacy where the surrogate child is genetically related to the male parent and the surrogate mother.

India has emerged as a favourable destination for surrogacy and its Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) industry has evolved into a 25-billion rupee business annually, with Law Commission describing it as “a gold pot”. The phenomenal rise in surrogacy in India has been due to it being cheap, socially accepted. Moreover, surrogacy has emerged as a preferred option because of complicated adoption procedures.

Foreigners including NRIs seeking surrogacy for various reasons, both medical and personal, have also contributed to the rise of the Indian surrogacy industry predominantly because of it being at least ten times cheaper than in their respective countries. No statistics exist on the number of foreign couples coming to India to have a child. But ART clinics say that their numbers have been appreciably growing.

In India surrogacy heralded with the delivery of its first surrogate baby on June 23rd, 1994, but it took eight more years to draw world attention to it when an Indian woman in 2004 delivered a surrogate child for her daughter in the U.K. Surrogacy as a medical process has matured over the years. India has become a booming centre of a fertility market, partly surreptitiously, and today there are an estimated 200,000 clinics across the country offering artificial insemination, IVF and surrogacy. They call it Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART).

There is at present no law governing surrogacy in India, eventually the activity including renting a womb (commercial surrogacy) is considered legitimate. In the absence of any law the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in 2005 issued guidelines for accreditation, supervision and regulation of ART clinics in India. But the need for legislation became pressing with ICMR guidelines being often violated and reportedly rampant exploitation of surrogate mothers and even cases of extortion.

At the instance of the Indian government an expert committee has drafted a legislation known as Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2010 for legalizing surrogacy. The proposed legislation earlier floated in 2008 envisages legalizing commercial surrogacy as well. It defines a ‘couple’ as two persons living together and having a sexual relationship and as such, following Delhi High Court’s verdict on homosexuality, gives gays besides the singles the legal right to have surrogate babies. It also stipulates the age of surrogate mother to be within 21-35 years and limits her deliveries to five including her own children. The surrogate mother will have to enter into a legally enforceable surrogacy agreement as per the proposed legislation.

Foreign couples including NRIs seeking surrogacy in India will have under the proposed law to submit certificates that their country recognizes surrogacy as legal and also that the surrogate child after birth would get their country’s citizenship. The Law Commission of India in its 228th Report on “Need for legislation to regulate assisted reproductive technology clinics as well as rights and obligations of parties to a surrogacy,” has by and large supported surrogacy in India, but is not favourable towards commercial surrogacy. The Commission said, “It seems that wombs in India are on rent, which translates into babies for foreigners and dollars for Indian surrogate mothers.”

But according to an infertility specialist in Mumbai the Commission favouring altruistic surrogacy only may not be the solution either. “It will be very difficult to get altruistic surrogates and relatives could end up being pressured to become surrogates,” says the specialist. This could be a reality in view of poverty, illiteracy and the lack of power that women have over their own lives in India.
But many legal experts are of the view that the draft Bill is a step in right direction as it will end the present confusion and help regulate the functioning of the IVF centers and ensure quality check and accountability of ART clinics. It is expected to protect the interests of both the surrogate mother and child and help the commissioning parents to realize their dream of having their own baby more or less hassle free.

There are worries too as to what impact it will have on the society in terms of commercialization. Poor illiterate Indian women with the lure of money could be forced into repeated surrogate pregnancies risking their lives. There are also ethical and moral issues as well as the human dignity involved besides questions about the rights of surrogate mother. As such the draft legislation on surrogacy needs to be debated threadbare in social, legal and political circles as well as by the civil society before it becomes a law.

By M.L.Dhar

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of PIB or WBRi.

Source: http://www.washingtonbanglaradio.com/content/52569911-regulation-surrogate-parenthood-india

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

The lower odds for female births in India

India's 2011 census report has many heartening things to say. More educated men and women indicate a surge in literacy. People are living longer than ever before. Stability can be seen in the size of family; couples are having fewer children.

One exception to this hunky-dory picture is the steep fall in the number of girls. There are only 914 girls, 6 years old and under, for every 1,000 boys­ — not shocking if one considers that as many as 60,000 girls go missing every year. To use the word missing is a misnomer: The girls are killed often as soon as they are born in a society obsessed with boys. Many are aborted in the womb.

According to statistics, the sex ratio in India may be less slanted than it is in China. But while China's ratio has stabilized, India's is showing a disturbing trend. The gap between the number of boys and girls is widening alarmingly.

Social activist Sabu George, who has been working on gender issues for a quarter century, says that the murder of girls is nothing but "gendercide." More than 8 million girls have been killed in the last decade alone, pulling the sex ratio from 927 in 2001 to 914 in 2011.

"We will soon have the dubious distinction of being the nation eliminating the largest number of girls every year — along with being a place that has the largest number of starving children and the highest maternal mortality," George said. "In the coming decade, over 10 million girls will be killed if something is not done immediately to stop this massacre."

Although the government is well aware of the problem, it has done precious little to curb gendercide. And what is scary is that the economically well-off states like Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat have been in the forefront of murdering the girl child.

Equally frightening is a widely prevalent misconception that sex selection will check population explosion. However, the truth is something else. Of the 5 million fetuses aborted in the last decade, 3 million were girls and 2 million were boys. So, it was a clear case of going in for a sex determination test merely to have a boy. Limiting the size of the family appears to have been the second priority.

Unlike in China, where the one-child policy has been ruthlessly enforced by the dictatorial regime, India's democracy — except during the Emergency in the 1970s — has never involved coercing its population to go in for smaller families.

Of late, though, educated, elite Indians have been voluntarily having fewer children. They also have the money to get expensive scans done. If a couple already has a girl, they tend to get rid of the second child if the fetus happens to be a female. Sometimes, several female fetuses are aborted in this way.

In the impoverished regions of India and among the poor, the birth of a girl is not welcome. It is looked upon with not just trepidation but a sense of doom. To start with, girls cannot be married without huge dowries or bride prices, and they are of little use to their own parents once they leave home. Girls once married are hardly expected to take care of their parents. Boys do, and their brides could bring home dowries — an attractive proposition in a nation of 1.3 billion people where 75 percent live in abject or semi-abject poverty.

In the final analysis, such a warped sex ratio can have serious repercussions. Rape, for instance, tends to increase in a community that has an unusually large number of single men. Other social maladies also rise.

The 2003 Indian film "Motherland: A Nation Without Women" examined the impact of female feticide and female infanticide on the gender balance, and consequently on the stability and attitudes of society. Its plot bore some resemblance to real-life instances of gender imbalance and economics resulting in fraternal polyandry and bride-buying in some parts of India. The picture was grim and disturbing.

Yet, there is hope. With rising female literacy and employment, girls are not considered as burdensome as they once were. There is some societal reflection on the issue.

The government needs to encourage more girls to attend school and provide financial incentives to those willing to bear and nurture girl babies. State subsidies for their education may be an added motivation to cherish girls.

By Gautaman Bhaskaran ,a freelance journalist based in Chennai, India.

Source: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20110425gb.html

 

STOP KILLING GIRLS , LETS PROTECT THEM 

 

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

India Population Reaches 1210 Million as Per Latest Census 2011

 The population of the country as per the provisional figures of Census 2011 is 1210.19 million of which 63.72 million (51.54%) are males and 586.46 million (48.46%) are females. The provisional figures of Census 2011 were released in New Delhi today by Union Home Secretary Shri G.K.Pillai and RGI Shri C. Chandramouli.

The major highlights of the Census 2011 (Provisional figures) are as under ;-

• The population of India has increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001-2011.

• Percentage growth in 2001-2011 is 17.64; males 17.19 and females 18.12.

• 2001-2011 is the first decade (with the exception of 1911-1921) which has actually added lesser population compared to the previous decade.

• Uttar Pradesh (199.5 million) is the most populous State in the country  followed by Maharashtra with 112 million.

• The percentage decadal growth rates of the six most populous States have declined during 2001-2011 compared to 1991-2001:

-                      Uttar Pradesh (25.85% to 20.09%)

-                      Maharashtra (22.73% to 15.99%)

-                      Bihar (28.62% to 25.07%)

-                      West Bengal (17.77 % to 13.93%)

-                      Andhra Pradesh (14.59% to 11.10%)

-                      Madhya Pradesh (24.26% to 20.30%)

·         During 2001-2011, as many as 25 States/UTs with a share of  about 85%  of the country’s population registered an annual growth rate of less than 2% as compared to, 15 States/UTs with a share of about 42% during the period 1991-2001.

• 15 States/UTs have grown by less than 1.5 per cent per annum during 2001-2011, while the number of such States/UTs was only 4 during the previous decade.

• The total number of children in the age-group 0-6 is 158.8 million (-5 million since 2001)

• Twenty States and Union Territories now have over one million children in the age group 0-6 years. On the other extreme, there are five States and Union Territories in the country that are yet to reach the one hundred thousand mark.

• Uttar Pradesh (29.7 million), Bihar (18.6 million), Maharashtra (12.8 million), Madhya Pradesh (10.5 million) and Rajasthan (10.5 million) constitute 52% children in the age group of 0-6 years.

• Population (0-6 years) 2001-2011 registered  minus (-)3.08 percent growth with  minus (-)2.42 for males and –3.80 for females.

• The proportion of Child Population in the age group of 0-6 years to total population is 13.1 percent while the corresponding figure in 2001 was 15.9 percent. The decline has been to the extent of 2.8 points.

• Overall sex ratio at the national level has increased by 7 points to reach 940 at Census 2011 as against 933 in Census 2001. This is the highest sex ratio recorded since Census 1971 and a shade lower than 1961. Increase in sex ratio is observed in 29 States/UTs.

• Three major States (J&K, Bihar & Gujarat) have shown decline in sex ratio as compared to Census 2001.

• Kerala with 1084 has the highest sex ratio followed by Puducherry with 1038, Daman & Diu has the lowest sex ratio of 618.

• Child sex ratio (0-6 years) is 914. Increasing trend in the child sex ratio (0-6) seen in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and A&N Islands. In all remaining 27 States/UTs, the child sex ratio show decline over Census 2001.

• Mizoram has the highest child sex ratio (0-6 years) of 971 followed by Meghalaya with 970. Haryana is at the bottom with ratio of 830 followed by Punjab with 846.

• Literacy rate has gone up from 64.83 per cent in 2001 to 74.04 per cent in 2011 showing an increase of 9.21 percentage points.

• Percentage growth in literacy during 2001-2011 is 38.82; males : 31.98% & females : 49.10%.

Literates constitute 74 per cent of the total population aged seven and above and illiterates form 26 per cent.


Source:  Press Information Bureau 31-March-2011 14:5 IST
 

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

INTENSIVE PRACTICAL TRAINING PROGRAM IN PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELLING

The Heart to Heart Counselling Centre has now organised a six-week intensive practical training program in Psychological Counselling along with Sensitivity training during April - May 2011 at Heart To Heart Counselling Centre, 10 Jerbai Baug, Ambedkar Road, Near Gloria Chuch, Byculla (East), Mumbai 27, INDIA. Next Batches begin on 4th & 8th April 2011.

This course is an intensive professional level certificate course in counselling based on Robert Carkhuff Model of Counselling - an offshoot of Carl Roger’s Client Centered Therapy. This professional training is rooted in Humanistic Psychotherapy where you learn the scientific, contemporary and internationally most widely accepted Methodology of Counselling by an international trainer Dr.Minnu R. Bhonsle. It is ideal for those who are or want to be in people-oriented professions such as Psychologists, Counsellors, Social workers, NGO Volunteers, Medical, Paramedical & Psychology students, Teachers, Doctors, Therapists, Healers, Yoga Teachers, HR Personnel, Leaders & Trainers in Corporate world and Management Trainees

Venue: Heart To Heart Counselling Centre, 10 Jerbai Baug, Ambedkar Road, Near Gloria Chuch, Byculla (East), Mumbai 400027, INDIA .

Duration: Six Weeks. Total 20 sessions of two hours each on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Timings: Morning Batch (11.15 a.m. to 1.15 p.m.), Afternoon Batch (2.45 to 4.45 p.m.) & Evening Batch (5.45 to 7.45 p.m.)

The prospectus of the course can be read on-line by clicking on any of the following hyperlink ~

http://www.hearttoheartindia.net/courses/certificate-course-in-counselling/

Admissions for these three batches are NOW OPEN. Interested candidates can contact on the following address & telephone numbers for registration.

Prof. Dr. Rajan Bhonsle, M.D.(Bom)
(Hon.Professor & Head of the Department
KEM Hospital & G.S. Medical College, Mumbai)Director, Heart To Heart Counselling Centre
10 Jerbai Baug, Ambedkar Road,
Near Gloria Church, Byculla (East),
Mumbai 400027, INDIA
Tel : 23778624 / 23755866 / 22184528
Mobile: 9821093902
Website: www.hearttoheartindia.net

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.

Urgently wanted Coordinator for Helpline in Mumbai

 Organization: Ziqitza Health Care Limited- '1298' Women's and Senior Citizen's Helpline

Description:

1. The applicant is expected to maintain cordial relations with the existing NGOs dealing with women and senior citizens
2. Applicant is expected to deal with calls daily which are based on various cases related to women and senior citizens
3. Applicant would be required to maintain monthly review meetings and updates

Requirement:

• Well versed with Hindi, English and Marathi
• Soft spoken, empathetic
• Good networking skill
• Female applicants only

Experience: 2 years with NGOs working on women issues and Senior Citizens will be of advantage

Type of Employment: Contract 

*Candidate can work from home but would be expected to come to office twice a week

Location: Mumbai

Last date of Application: 10-03-2011 

Contact: Ruchika at  contactus@zhl.in 

Website: http://zhl.org.in/

Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.