THE CAUSE of senior citizens is the most neglected. Elderly are the most ignored segment all over the world. Like many other things, technology and computers are not the things that old people take to easily.
To make elders a part of mainstream and upgrade them with technology, knowledge of computers and other electronics will help them to stay updated and connected to common man and issues. Seniors should move towards 21st century with information and communication technology (ICT).
This will give them confidence and will fight Ageism – discrimination against the aged.
We at Silver Innings promote this concept for seniors to be technology friendly and through this medium give them skill, knowledge, confidence and dignity. We want elders to be part of 21st century and make them active contributors in society till the time they would be able to do so.
According to census 2001, population of people aged 60 years and above was 7, 66, 22,321: 7.5 per cent of total population.
The projected population of India in 2008 is 1,147,677,000 that mean roughly at rate of 7.5 per cent the population of elderly will be 8, 60, 75, 775
According to UN by 2050, nearly 20 per cent of India’s population will comprise of people over the age of 60 years
The Internet enriches many seniors’ lives, but most websites violate usability guidelines, making the sites difficult for seniors to use. Current websites are twice as hard to use for seniors than for non seniors.
Seniors are one of the fastest growing demographics on the web. America alone has an estimated nine million Internet users over the age of 65 as of September 2004. Indeed, all industrialised countries have huge populations of senior citizens, many of whom have substantial assets. Although they are typically retired, seniors lead very active lives and often have great interest in modern technologies such as the Internet, which gives them another method to communicate and stay informed.
Read in Detail: http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=148091&catID=4&category=Technology
We at Silver Innings have taken intiative to create a gateway of information and comprehensive website for Seniors : www.silverinnings.com
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Ten things (just ten!) that every nonprofit executive needs to know about information technology
1. Very little technical knowledge is required in order for nonprofit CEOs to participate actively in strategic IT planning.
As long as you thoroughly understand your organization's overall mission, strategy, and tactics and (are willing to learn a little bit about the technology), you can keep your information technology infrastructure on target.
Example: Your mission is to save the whales (not to maintain a local area network)! In order to save the whales, you need a strategy: to stay informed and inform others about the issues, lobby for policy changes, to issue action alerts, to raise money, and to maintain relationships with various legislators, constituents, communities, donors, potential friends, and allies. Keep pressing for tactics that will help you achieve your desired outcomes (saving whales); this will enable you to hold your own in most discussions with technical experts.
2. Your board of directors should be calling for and participating in your strategic information technology planning.
If they're not, it's time to recruit some board members who are techies. For example, your region probably has an internet service provider, a high-tech corporation, or a large retail firm with an extensive IT department. Perhaps you can recruit representatives from these organizations to serve on your board as part of their community benefits program.
3. A tremendous number of high-quality resources for strategic IT planning are available to nonprofits at no charge. Free advice, products, and services make it possible for nonprofits to lower the risk of trying new technology - but in the long run you'll have to pay real money to have precisely the right tools for supporting your mission.
4. You can keep an eye on innovations in IT, and think about possible uses for them in the nonprofit sector, even if you don't have a technical background.
If you regularly read the technology columns of a good daily newspaper, and a few general interest magazines such as "PC Monthly," "MAC User," or "Network World," you will soon catch on to the basic concepts and terminology. (Don't worry if it seems over your head at first - you'll catch on! Everybody has to start somewhere.)
Example: You work for a nonprofit organization with five employees and four non-networked computers. It's time to link them up so that you and your colleagues can share information and regularly back up your work. As you read articles on wireless networking, and look at the building where you work - which is a pre-electricity Victorian house only somewhat successfully retrofitted for its current functions - you see that you may actually save money by going wireless. You ask your IT vendors for estimates on drilling and running cables through the building, and find that the cost of labor, support, upgrades, future expansion, and maintenance for a more conventional network will exceed that of a simple wireless network.
5. Information technology, no matter how strategically you apply it, will probably never save your nonprofit organization any money.
It will, however, enable you to work more effectively. You will probably be able to do more work, of higher quality, with fewer person-hours. But don't be surprised if this raises the bar of expectations on the part of the board, the community, the clients, the constituents, and the donors!
6. You need an in-house IT committee.
Convene an Information Technology team or working group, within your nonprofit, and make sure that you meet regularly to give input to the senior management on strategic IT issues. The team should include a cross-section of staff - administration and finance, programmatic, secretarial. Be sure to include staff members who are overtly or covertly technophobic; their concerns should be addressed.
7. Secretaries and administrative assistants should be the lynchpins of your IT infrastructure.
Budgeting for IT training for these employees can be one of your best investments.
Which staff members are more likely to be there when problems arise, to know about the technical abilities (and phobias) of their colleagues, and to be know where the (paper or electronic) files are? Professional development that includes IT training is likely to increase job satisfaction and employee retention. Don't forget to revise job descriptions and job titles as your secretaries and administrative assistants move into IT management responsibilities!
8. In the long run, IT training and support will make up about 70% of your IT budget. The more obvious line items - such as hardware, software, and network services - will comprise about 30%.
This is a highly counter-intuitive fact of nonprofit life. However, there is research on the "Total Cost of Ownership" that bears this out.
9. Donated hardware, software, and services can cost a nonprofit more than purchased products or services in the long run.
The cost in person hours of using and maintaining non-standard or sub-standard configurations is astonishingly high, and donated equipment tends to be in non-standard or sub-standard. Likewise, donated services will cost you a great deal of time in support, supervision, and ongoing maintenance. Beware of the web site design services donated by a close relative of the chair of your board! You may end up with something that you don't like, can't use, or can't easily change.
10. In a nonprofit organization, most strategic IT problems are actually organizational development problems.
Is it a CEO who is resistant to technical innovations? A board of directors that hesitates to make the commitment to raise the money need for the IT infrastructure? Line staff who are already stressed and overworked, and can't stop to learn and implement new technologies? An inability to make outsourced IT consultants or in-house IT staff understand organizational processes? All the information technology in the world won't resolve these issues, if you don't address them at the organizational level.
BONUS ITEMS: Hands-on IT skills that the CEO, CFO, and COO of every small nonprofit ought to have:
* How to compose, send, read, and delete email, using the organization's standard application.
* How to create and save a simple text document, using the organization's standard application.
* How to do the daily back up of the system.
* How to bring down and bring up the network server.
By Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Courtesy: http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2004/12/29/222355.html
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
As long as you thoroughly understand your organization's overall mission, strategy, and tactics and (are willing to learn a little bit about the technology), you can keep your information technology infrastructure on target.
Example: Your mission is to save the whales (not to maintain a local area network)! In order to save the whales, you need a strategy: to stay informed and inform others about the issues, lobby for policy changes, to issue action alerts, to raise money, and to maintain relationships with various legislators, constituents, communities, donors, potential friends, and allies. Keep pressing for tactics that will help you achieve your desired outcomes (saving whales); this will enable you to hold your own in most discussions with technical experts.
2. Your board of directors should be calling for and participating in your strategic information technology planning.
If they're not, it's time to recruit some board members who are techies. For example, your region probably has an internet service provider, a high-tech corporation, or a large retail firm with an extensive IT department. Perhaps you can recruit representatives from these organizations to serve on your board as part of their community benefits program.
3. A tremendous number of high-quality resources for strategic IT planning are available to nonprofits at no charge. Free advice, products, and services make it possible for nonprofits to lower the risk of trying new technology - but in the long run you'll have to pay real money to have precisely the right tools for supporting your mission.
4. You can keep an eye on innovations in IT, and think about possible uses for them in the nonprofit sector, even if you don't have a technical background.
If you regularly read the technology columns of a good daily newspaper, and a few general interest magazines such as "PC Monthly," "MAC User," or "Network World," you will soon catch on to the basic concepts and terminology. (Don't worry if it seems over your head at first - you'll catch on! Everybody has to start somewhere.)
Example: You work for a nonprofit organization with five employees and four non-networked computers. It's time to link them up so that you and your colleagues can share information and regularly back up your work. As you read articles on wireless networking, and look at the building where you work - which is a pre-electricity Victorian house only somewhat successfully retrofitted for its current functions - you see that you may actually save money by going wireless. You ask your IT vendors for estimates on drilling and running cables through the building, and find that the cost of labor, support, upgrades, future expansion, and maintenance for a more conventional network will exceed that of a simple wireless network.
5. Information technology, no matter how strategically you apply it, will probably never save your nonprofit organization any money.
It will, however, enable you to work more effectively. You will probably be able to do more work, of higher quality, with fewer person-hours. But don't be surprised if this raises the bar of expectations on the part of the board, the community, the clients, the constituents, and the donors!
6. You need an in-house IT committee.
Convene an Information Technology team or working group, within your nonprofit, and make sure that you meet regularly to give input to the senior management on strategic IT issues. The team should include a cross-section of staff - administration and finance, programmatic, secretarial. Be sure to include staff members who are overtly or covertly technophobic; their concerns should be addressed.
7. Secretaries and administrative assistants should be the lynchpins of your IT infrastructure.
Budgeting for IT training for these employees can be one of your best investments.
Which staff members are more likely to be there when problems arise, to know about the technical abilities (and phobias) of their colleagues, and to be know where the (paper or electronic) files are? Professional development that includes IT training is likely to increase job satisfaction and employee retention. Don't forget to revise job descriptions and job titles as your secretaries and administrative assistants move into IT management responsibilities!
8. In the long run, IT training and support will make up about 70% of your IT budget. The more obvious line items - such as hardware, software, and network services - will comprise about 30%.
This is a highly counter-intuitive fact of nonprofit life. However, there is research on the "Total Cost of Ownership" that bears this out.
9. Donated hardware, software, and services can cost a nonprofit more than purchased products or services in the long run.
The cost in person hours of using and maintaining non-standard or sub-standard configurations is astonishingly high, and donated equipment tends to be in non-standard or sub-standard. Likewise, donated services will cost you a great deal of time in support, supervision, and ongoing maintenance. Beware of the web site design services donated by a close relative of the chair of your board! You may end up with something that you don't like, can't use, or can't easily change.
10. In a nonprofit organization, most strategic IT problems are actually organizational development problems.
Is it a CEO who is resistant to technical innovations? A board of directors that hesitates to make the commitment to raise the money need for the IT infrastructure? Line staff who are already stressed and overworked, and can't stop to learn and implement new technologies? An inability to make outsourced IT consultants or in-house IT staff understand organizational processes? All the information technology in the world won't resolve these issues, if you don't address them at the organizational level.
BONUS ITEMS: Hands-on IT skills that the CEO, CFO, and COO of every small nonprofit ought to have:
* How to compose, send, read, and delete email, using the organization's standard application.
* How to create and save a simple text document, using the organization's standard application.
* How to do the daily back up of the system.
* How to bring down and bring up the network server.
By Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Courtesy: http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2004/12/29/222355.html
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
The Barefoot College a place of learning and unlearning
The Barefoot College is a place of learning and unlearning. It's a place where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher. It's a place where NO degrees and certificates are given because in development there are no experts-only resource persons. It's a place where people are encouraged to make mistakes so that they can learn humility, curiosity, the courage to take risks, to innovate, to improvise and to constantly experiment. It's a place where all are treated as equals and there is no hierarchy.
So long as the process leads to the good and welfare of all; so long as problems of discrimination, injustice, exploitation and inequalities are addresssed directly or indirectly; so long as the poor, the deprived and the dispossessed feel its a place they can talk, be heard with dignity and respect, be trained and be given the tools and the skills to improve their own lives the immediate relevance of the Barefoot College to the global poor will always be there.
For the last 34 years the long term mission of the Barefoot College has been to work with the marginalized, the exploited and the impoverished rural poor living on less than $ 1/day and lift them with dignity and self respect over the poverty line. The dream was to establish the first and only rural College in India built by the poor and exclusively for the poor.
The mission was to show the importance and relevance of Mahatma Gandhi’s message in the 20th Century. His ideas and beliefs have been practiced in the Barefoot College for over 34 years. His central beliefs that knowledge, skills and wisdom found in the villages should be used for their own development: that technology should be demystified and decentralized to the hands of the rural poor: that there is a difference between Literacy and education: that marginalized women should be given equal opportunities to learn; and that we should not waste are reflected in the activities of the College.
The activities cover the basic minimum needs required for the poorest of the poor to improve their quality of life: drinking water (rain water harvesting), lighting (solar electrification), health (preventive-tackling malaria, TB, Aids, water borne diseases), housing (geodesic domes), education (night schools), employment (marketing of traditional handicrafts), the empowerment of women (barefoot solar and water mechanics) and protecting their environment.
The history of the Barefoot College covers 38 years. It started with 4 urban based professionals coming to a small village called Tilonia doing a ground water survey of 100 villages (1972 to 1977). Five years later the priorities changed to identifying the skills available and applying them for the development of poor communities. The barefoot professionals were recruited from the villages as teachers, solar and water engineers, health workers, drillers, communicators and this resulted in a great deal of conflict because paper qualified engineers, teachers and doctors were objecting to the barefoot workers providing a professional service.
From 1980 to 1990 the consolidation of the impact of the College across India took place when it was basically agreed and indeed effectively shown that conflict of ideas and approaches led to fundamental change in the mindset of the poor. For once they were offered choices of depending on skills from outside or developing the capacity from within.
The important milestones in the history of the College could be identified as follows
1975- Installation of hand pumps and training of barefoot hand pump mechanics
1986 -Construction of the first roof top rain water harvesting structures in schools. The same year the Barefoot College was fully solar electrified by barefoot solar engineers.
1990- Training of barefoot rural men and women solar engineers, architects, women mechanics repairing hand pumps.
The Barefoot College has learnt from the rural poor how to live, work and act sustainable. For the last 20 years the College has demonstrated how to live without using fossil fuels (diesel and kerosene) for lighting and cooking: how to practice the age old technology of the people of collecting rain water without over exploiting ground water for drinking water and sanitation. It is a College only for the poor, built by the poor for the poor. It is a College where the sustainable ideas and the practical knowledge of the poor has been put into practice .The respect the community has for water (rainwater harvesting) the sun (solar electrification) and the need to preserve the traditional desert culture (architects) is really a simple message easily replicated in poor neglected and backward communities all over the world.
The Barefoot College has shown what is possible if the very poor are allowed to develop and organize them. Very ordinary people written off by society because they are labeled as poor. Primitive, backward and impoverished are doing extraordinary things that defy description. Over the last 35 years several thousand poor young unemployed and unemployable rural youth, both men and women have been trained as barefoot professionals. The rural youth selected by the community have to be impoverished. Illiterate, semiliterate or barely literate and who barely have one meal a day. The idea is once they are trained (as slowly as they can absorb) they will never leave their village or community because no government or private agency will ever employ them.
Thus barefoot educators-doctors, night school teachers, solar engineers, water drillers, architects, designers, midwives masons, communicators, hand pump mechanics, computer programmers and accountants by the thousands have passed through the College and are productive, responsible members of rural society.
Visit : http://www.barefootcollege.org/enroll1.htm
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
So long as the process leads to the good and welfare of all; so long as problems of discrimination, injustice, exploitation and inequalities are addresssed directly or indirectly; so long as the poor, the deprived and the dispossessed feel its a place they can talk, be heard with dignity and respect, be trained and be given the tools and the skills to improve their own lives the immediate relevance of the Barefoot College to the global poor will always be there.
For the last 34 years the long term mission of the Barefoot College has been to work with the marginalized, the exploited and the impoverished rural poor living on less than $ 1/day and lift them with dignity and self respect over the poverty line. The dream was to establish the first and only rural College in India built by the poor and exclusively for the poor.
The mission was to show the importance and relevance of Mahatma Gandhi’s message in the 20th Century. His ideas and beliefs have been practiced in the Barefoot College for over 34 years. His central beliefs that knowledge, skills and wisdom found in the villages should be used for their own development: that technology should be demystified and decentralized to the hands of the rural poor: that there is a difference between Literacy and education: that marginalized women should be given equal opportunities to learn; and that we should not waste are reflected in the activities of the College.
The activities cover the basic minimum needs required for the poorest of the poor to improve their quality of life: drinking water (rain water harvesting), lighting (solar electrification), health (preventive-tackling malaria, TB, Aids, water borne diseases), housing (geodesic domes), education (night schools), employment (marketing of traditional handicrafts), the empowerment of women (barefoot solar and water mechanics) and protecting their environment.
The history of the Barefoot College covers 38 years. It started with 4 urban based professionals coming to a small village called Tilonia doing a ground water survey of 100 villages (1972 to 1977). Five years later the priorities changed to identifying the skills available and applying them for the development of poor communities. The barefoot professionals were recruited from the villages as teachers, solar and water engineers, health workers, drillers, communicators and this resulted in a great deal of conflict because paper qualified engineers, teachers and doctors were objecting to the barefoot workers providing a professional service.
From 1980 to 1990 the consolidation of the impact of the College across India took place when it was basically agreed and indeed effectively shown that conflict of ideas and approaches led to fundamental change in the mindset of the poor. For once they were offered choices of depending on skills from outside or developing the capacity from within.
The important milestones in the history of the College could be identified as follows
1975- Installation of hand pumps and training of barefoot hand pump mechanics
1986 -Construction of the first roof top rain water harvesting structures in schools. The same year the Barefoot College was fully solar electrified by barefoot solar engineers.
1990- Training of barefoot rural men and women solar engineers, architects, women mechanics repairing hand pumps.
The Barefoot College has learnt from the rural poor how to live, work and act sustainable. For the last 20 years the College has demonstrated how to live without using fossil fuels (diesel and kerosene) for lighting and cooking: how to practice the age old technology of the people of collecting rain water without over exploiting ground water for drinking water and sanitation. It is a College only for the poor, built by the poor for the poor. It is a College where the sustainable ideas and the practical knowledge of the poor has been put into practice .The respect the community has for water (rainwater harvesting) the sun (solar electrification) and the need to preserve the traditional desert culture (architects) is really a simple message easily replicated in poor neglected and backward communities all over the world.
The Barefoot College has shown what is possible if the very poor are allowed to develop and organize them. Very ordinary people written off by society because they are labeled as poor. Primitive, backward and impoverished are doing extraordinary things that defy description. Over the last 35 years several thousand poor young unemployed and unemployable rural youth, both men and women have been trained as barefoot professionals. The rural youth selected by the community have to be impoverished. Illiterate, semiliterate or barely literate and who barely have one meal a day. The idea is once they are trained (as slowly as they can absorb) they will never leave their village or community because no government or private agency will ever employ them.
Thus barefoot educators-doctors, night school teachers, solar engineers, water drillers, architects, designers, midwives masons, communicators, hand pump mechanics, computer programmers and accountants by the thousands have passed through the College and are productive, responsible members of rural society.
Visit : http://www.barefootcollege.org/enroll1.htm
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
How climate change will impact agriculture
As the earth warms, it is likely that crop-producing areas will expand northwards to ice-bound regions in Greenland, Canada and Russia. At higher latitudes, global warming will extend the length of the growing season, with a shorter snow-bound period. This could allow for earlier planting of crops and the possibility of two crops instead of just the one, as is now being practised. On the other hand, crops adapted to the temperatures and day lengths of the plains and lower latitudes may not respond well to the changed conditions.
In the warmer plains regions, increased temperatures may speed up the rate at which plants release carbon dioxide in the process of respiration, resulting in less than optimal conditions for net growth. When temperatures exceed the optimal for biological processes, plants respond with a drop in yield. If minimum night-time temperatures rise significantly -- as is expected from greenhouse warming projections -- higher night-time respiration may also reduce potential yields. Another important effect could be accelerated physiological development, resulting in premature maturation and therefore reduced yields.
Photosynthesis is the foundation of plant growth. It is the process by which energy from sunlight converts water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air into sugar, starch and cellulose, making plants grow. Carbon dioxide enters a plant through its leaves. Greater concentrations of CO2 in the air result in higher CO2 uptake and greater conversion to carbohydrates.
Crop species vary in their response to CO2. Wheat, rice and soybean are called C3 plants and respond readily to increased CO2 levels. Corn, sorghum, sugarcane and millet are C4 plants that follow a different pathway and are more efficient photosynthetically than C3 crops. So far, these distinctions have been demonstrated only under experimental conditions such as growth chambers and greenhouses. Experimental studies on the long-term effects of CO2 in realistic field settings have not yet been done on a comprehensive scale.
Higher levels of atmospheric CO2 also induce plants to close small leaf openings known as stomata through which CO2 is absorbed and water vapour is released. Thus, under greater CO2 conditions, crops may use less water (by closing their stomata) even as they produce more carbohydrates. This dual effect will likely improve water-use efficiency, which is the ratio between crop biomass and the amount of water consumed. At the same time, climatic effects such as higher temperatures and changes in rainfall and soil moisture could either enhance or negate the potentially beneficial effects of enhanced atmospheric CO2 on crop physiology.
Water stress will be a critical feature of climate change and global warming. It will modify rainfall, evaporation, surface runoff and soil moisture storage. If temperatures and rainfall patterns turn adverse, soil moisture stress will result from increased evaporation from the soil and accelerated transpiration in plants. Moisture stress during flowering, pollination and grain-filling is harmful to almost all crops, but the most susceptible crops are corn, soybean and wheat which are likely to suffer the worst damage when there is a shortage of soil moisture. The predictable response to this eventuality is to develop crop varieties with greater drought tolerance, those that can withstand moisture stress.
Another problem will be more pests and a wider range of these pests. Insect pests proliferate more readily in warmer climates since conditions for growth and multiplication are more favourable compared to cooler conditions. The incidence of other crop diseases like fungal and bacterial infection is also likely to increase if the climate gets warmer.
In temperate areas, longer growing seasons will enable insects to complete a greater number of reproductive cycles during the spring, summer and autumn. Warmer winter temperatures may also allow larvae to survive the winter in areas where they are now limited by cold, thus causing greater infestation during the following crop season.
Storms and hurricanes and changed wind directions are likely to alter the spread of both windborne pests and of bacteria and fungi that are agents of crop disease. Crop-pest interactions may shift as the timing of development stages in both hosts and pests is altered. Livestock diseases may be similarly affected.
For agriculture-dependent economies like India and other countries in Asia, it is very important to start planning both mitigating and adaptive strategies to minimise the risks to agricultural productivity and the livelihoods of rural people.
A number of adaptive actions may be taken to minimise the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture. Farm-level adjustments may include the introduction of very early- or late-maturing crop varieties to beat the vulnerable period. Changing varieties and crop cycles, adjusting the timing of field operations and conserving soil moisture through appropriate tillage methods are other steps to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Some options like changing crop varieties may be inexpensive, but others like rainwater conservation and technologies for conservative use of water will involve major investments.
An additional economic aspect is adjustments in regional production centres and adjustments of capital, labour, and land allocations. For example, commodity production could move to regions where there is better comparative advantage. Studies show that, in general, market adjustments can indeed moderate the impact of reduced yields, but these shifts are likely to work against the interests of developing countries.
A major adaptive response will be the breeding of heat- and drought-resistant crop varieties by utilising genetic resources in the form of traditional crop varieties. These contain a range of genes that could be selected for their ability to withstand extremes in atmospheric conditions and bred into new crop varieties. Collections of such genetic resources are maintained in germplasm banks. These must be increased in number, particularly in diversity-rich regions where there is high diversity of crop germplasm. Such banks must be made accessible to farmers and breeders.
Adaptation has limits and it is not as though these formulae will lead to guaranteed success. Sometimes it may be difficult for better adapted new crops to find ready markets. If, for instance, major shifts are to be made from grain to fruit and vegetable production, farmers could find themselves more exposed to marketing problems and credit crises brought on by higher capital and operating costs.
While changes in planting schedules or in crop varieties may be readily adopted, modifying the types of crops grown does not ensure equal levels of productivity or nutritional quality. Nor can it guarantee equal profits for farmers. Expanded irrigation may lead to groundwater depletion, soil salinisation and waterlogging. Increased demand for water by competing sectors may limit the viability of irrigation as an adaptation to climate change. Expansion of irrigation as a response to climate change will be difficult and costly even under the best circumstances. Mounting societal pressures to reduce environmental damage from agriculture will likely foster an increase in protective regulatory policies that could further complicate the process of adaptation.
Coping with climate change and its impact on agriculture and rural livelihoods is going to be a long haul. It’s an irony that those who have caused global warming -- the high-emission polluters in developed countries -- are going to be the beneficiaries of climate change not its victims, as far as food production is concerned. The world community needs to come together to discuss mitigation and adaptation strategies to counter global warming and climate change, so that the poor are not made to carry the full burden of this man-made disaster.
By Suman Sahai , a PhD in genetics. She is the Director of Gene Campaign, a leading research and advocacy organisation working on farmer and community rights, bio-resources, IPR, indigenous knowledge and GE food and crops.
Source: http://infochangeindia.org/200811077461/Agriculture/Analysis/How-climate-change-will-impact-agriculture.html
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
In the warmer plains regions, increased temperatures may speed up the rate at which plants release carbon dioxide in the process of respiration, resulting in less than optimal conditions for net growth. When temperatures exceed the optimal for biological processes, plants respond with a drop in yield. If minimum night-time temperatures rise significantly -- as is expected from greenhouse warming projections -- higher night-time respiration may also reduce potential yields. Another important effect could be accelerated physiological development, resulting in premature maturation and therefore reduced yields.
Photosynthesis is the foundation of plant growth. It is the process by which energy from sunlight converts water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air into sugar, starch and cellulose, making plants grow. Carbon dioxide enters a plant through its leaves. Greater concentrations of CO2 in the air result in higher CO2 uptake and greater conversion to carbohydrates.
Crop species vary in their response to CO2. Wheat, rice and soybean are called C3 plants and respond readily to increased CO2 levels. Corn, sorghum, sugarcane and millet are C4 plants that follow a different pathway and are more efficient photosynthetically than C3 crops. So far, these distinctions have been demonstrated only under experimental conditions such as growth chambers and greenhouses. Experimental studies on the long-term effects of CO2 in realistic field settings have not yet been done on a comprehensive scale.
Higher levels of atmospheric CO2 also induce plants to close small leaf openings known as stomata through which CO2 is absorbed and water vapour is released. Thus, under greater CO2 conditions, crops may use less water (by closing their stomata) even as they produce more carbohydrates. This dual effect will likely improve water-use efficiency, which is the ratio between crop biomass and the amount of water consumed. At the same time, climatic effects such as higher temperatures and changes in rainfall and soil moisture could either enhance or negate the potentially beneficial effects of enhanced atmospheric CO2 on crop physiology.
Water stress will be a critical feature of climate change and global warming. It will modify rainfall, evaporation, surface runoff and soil moisture storage. If temperatures and rainfall patterns turn adverse, soil moisture stress will result from increased evaporation from the soil and accelerated transpiration in plants. Moisture stress during flowering, pollination and grain-filling is harmful to almost all crops, but the most susceptible crops are corn, soybean and wheat which are likely to suffer the worst damage when there is a shortage of soil moisture. The predictable response to this eventuality is to develop crop varieties with greater drought tolerance, those that can withstand moisture stress.
Another problem will be more pests and a wider range of these pests. Insect pests proliferate more readily in warmer climates since conditions for growth and multiplication are more favourable compared to cooler conditions. The incidence of other crop diseases like fungal and bacterial infection is also likely to increase if the climate gets warmer.
In temperate areas, longer growing seasons will enable insects to complete a greater number of reproductive cycles during the spring, summer and autumn. Warmer winter temperatures may also allow larvae to survive the winter in areas where they are now limited by cold, thus causing greater infestation during the following crop season.
Storms and hurricanes and changed wind directions are likely to alter the spread of both windborne pests and of bacteria and fungi that are agents of crop disease. Crop-pest interactions may shift as the timing of development stages in both hosts and pests is altered. Livestock diseases may be similarly affected.
For agriculture-dependent economies like India and other countries in Asia, it is very important to start planning both mitigating and adaptive strategies to minimise the risks to agricultural productivity and the livelihoods of rural people.
A number of adaptive actions may be taken to minimise the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture. Farm-level adjustments may include the introduction of very early- or late-maturing crop varieties to beat the vulnerable period. Changing varieties and crop cycles, adjusting the timing of field operations and conserving soil moisture through appropriate tillage methods are other steps to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Some options like changing crop varieties may be inexpensive, but others like rainwater conservation and technologies for conservative use of water will involve major investments.
An additional economic aspect is adjustments in regional production centres and adjustments of capital, labour, and land allocations. For example, commodity production could move to regions where there is better comparative advantage. Studies show that, in general, market adjustments can indeed moderate the impact of reduced yields, but these shifts are likely to work against the interests of developing countries.
A major adaptive response will be the breeding of heat- and drought-resistant crop varieties by utilising genetic resources in the form of traditional crop varieties. These contain a range of genes that could be selected for their ability to withstand extremes in atmospheric conditions and bred into new crop varieties. Collections of such genetic resources are maintained in germplasm banks. These must be increased in number, particularly in diversity-rich regions where there is high diversity of crop germplasm. Such banks must be made accessible to farmers and breeders.
Adaptation has limits and it is not as though these formulae will lead to guaranteed success. Sometimes it may be difficult for better adapted new crops to find ready markets. If, for instance, major shifts are to be made from grain to fruit and vegetable production, farmers could find themselves more exposed to marketing problems and credit crises brought on by higher capital and operating costs.
While changes in planting schedules or in crop varieties may be readily adopted, modifying the types of crops grown does not ensure equal levels of productivity or nutritional quality. Nor can it guarantee equal profits for farmers. Expanded irrigation may lead to groundwater depletion, soil salinisation and waterlogging. Increased demand for water by competing sectors may limit the viability of irrigation as an adaptation to climate change. Expansion of irrigation as a response to climate change will be difficult and costly even under the best circumstances. Mounting societal pressures to reduce environmental damage from agriculture will likely foster an increase in protective regulatory policies that could further complicate the process of adaptation.
Coping with climate change and its impact on agriculture and rural livelihoods is going to be a long haul. It’s an irony that those who have caused global warming -- the high-emission polluters in developed countries -- are going to be the beneficiaries of climate change not its victims, as far as food production is concerned. The world community needs to come together to discuss mitigation and adaptation strategies to counter global warming and climate change, so that the poor are not made to carry the full burden of this man-made disaster.
By Suman Sahai , a PhD in genetics. She is the Director of Gene Campaign, a leading research and advocacy organisation working on farmer and community rights, bio-resources, IPR, indigenous knowledge and GE food and crops.
Source: http://infochangeindia.org/200811077461/Agriculture/Analysis/How-climate-change-will-impact-agriculture.html
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Maharashtra notifies dedicated children's courts
The state of Maharashtra in India will set up special courts to try crimes against children up to the age of 18. The Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act that came into force in January 2006 had mandated such courts, but it has taken the state three years to release a notification to this effect.
According to the statistics provided by the Maharashtra government, 2,707 cases of serious offences against children were registered in the state last year.
The special courts will ensure speedy justice to children who often reach adulthood by the time their cases come to trial in the excruciatingly slow Indian judicial system. Every district will have a children’s court with one judge and one public prosecutor.
Child rights activists hope that the special courts will be more sensitive to the needs and requirements of children who may be asked to give testimony or be cross-examined. The Supreme Court has laid down guidelines on how to record the testimony of a child; they include restricting direct testimony from a child victim, allowing for a screen between victim and accused, and using simple language. Activists have been asking for judges who conduct trials involving young children to be specially trained, and for testimony to be given via video-conferencing.
The special courts will need to be stronger on crimes like child prostitution as well as sexual abuse of children within families, social groups and in underprivileged situations such as in orphanages, and by tourists.
Sexual abuse of children is compounded by the fact that there are no specific laws against it. It is also a sensitive issue that occurs much more frequently than is reported. In 2005, Tulir, an organisation working in this field, did a survey of child sexual abuse among school-going children in Chennai; 42% of those surveyed had undergone some form of child abuse.
Children in conflict with the law come under the Juvenile Justice Board which consists of a metropolitan magistrate or a judicial magistrate of the first class, and two social workers, and is governed by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2006.
Source: The Hindu, November 2, 2008
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
According to the statistics provided by the Maharashtra government, 2,707 cases of serious offences against children were registered in the state last year.
The special courts will ensure speedy justice to children who often reach adulthood by the time their cases come to trial in the excruciatingly slow Indian judicial system. Every district will have a children’s court with one judge and one public prosecutor.
Child rights activists hope that the special courts will be more sensitive to the needs and requirements of children who may be asked to give testimony or be cross-examined. The Supreme Court has laid down guidelines on how to record the testimony of a child; they include restricting direct testimony from a child victim, allowing for a screen between victim and accused, and using simple language. Activists have been asking for judges who conduct trials involving young children to be specially trained, and for testimony to be given via video-conferencing.
The special courts will need to be stronger on crimes like child prostitution as well as sexual abuse of children within families, social groups and in underprivileged situations such as in orphanages, and by tourists.
Sexual abuse of children is compounded by the fact that there are no specific laws against it. It is also a sensitive issue that occurs much more frequently than is reported. In 2005, Tulir, an organisation working in this field, did a survey of child sexual abuse among school-going children in Chennai; 42% of those surveyed had undergone some form of child abuse.
Children in conflict with the law come under the Juvenile Justice Board which consists of a metropolitan magistrate or a judicial magistrate of the first class, and two social workers, and is governed by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2006.
Source: The Hindu, November 2, 2008
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
NGO's working for Senior Citizens in Delhi
Helpage
C-14 Qutab Institutional Area
Ph: 011 41688955-56
E-mail: headoffice@helpageindia.org
Website : http://www.helpageindia.org/
Agewell Foundation
M-8A, Lajpat Nagar-II, New Delhi-110024,
Ph.:091-11-29836486, 29840484
Fax: 011-29830458
E-mail: agewell@bol.net.in
Website: www.agewellindia.org
ARDSI (Alzheimer's socierty of
163 Kailash Hills
(Ground Floor Back Portion)
Tel: 91 11 26922940, 91 11 64533663
Email: ardsi_dc@hotmail.com ; bogra30@aol.com
Website: http://alzheimersdelhi.org/index.htm
International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) Representative for India & South Asia
POSTAL ADDRESS: D 104 Anand Niketan,
Email : malakapurshankardass@hotmail.com
Anugraha
B-33, Arya Nagar Apts.,91, I. P. Extension, Patparganj,
Ph. 011-22234969
E-mail: anugrahaindia@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.anugrahaindia.net/
Source: www.silverinnings.com
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Friday, October 31, 2008
India's asbestos time-bomb
A new study titled ‘India’s Asbestos Time Bomb’ takes a hard look at the integrated global system that mines, processes and exports asbestos, and delves into the dark, shadowy world of the asbestos industry which thrives on political patronage.
Unless one really thinks about it, asbestos does not appear to be a part of our everyday lives. But it exists in a range of items, from corrugated sheets to floor tiles, from brake linings to fire protection. Finely powdered asbestos has even sneaked into our lives as an adulterant in perfumed talc and as a whitener in ‘extra white basmati’ rice. Shockingly, it is neither suited to the skin nor a delicacy!
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Unless one really thinks about it, asbestos does not appear to be a part of our everyday lives. But it exists in a range of items, from corrugated sheets to floor tiles, from brake linings to fire protection. Finely powdered asbestos has even sneaked into our lives as an adulterant in perfumed talc and as a whitener in ‘extra white basmati’ rice. Shockingly, it is neither suited to the skin nor a delicacy!
Instead “it is a time bomb that is slowly ticking away,” contends a just released study edited by David Allen and Laurie Kazan-Allen. Titled ‘India’s Asbestos Time Bomb’, the study takes a hard look at the integrated global system that mines, processes and exports this life-threatening product, and delves into the dark shadowy world of the asbestos industry that thrives on political patronage. The study is published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS).
Without this patronage, a product that is banned in the European Union, Australia, Japan and New Zealand could not have been imported with such impunity in India. The slashing of import duty on asbestos from 78% in 1995 to 15% in 2004 only adds more grist to the conspiracy mill. No wonder cumulative asbestos imports have touched a whopping 7 million tonnes, up from a low annual import of 40,000 tonnes in 1960 to over 250,000 tonnes in 2006.
The report begins with the testimony of workers who echo the pain of thousands of people earning a livelihood in the unregulated asbestos industry. Ravindra Mohite may have worked to create resistant textiles by interweaving asbestos fibre with polyester, but not without getting asbestosis in 2004. Like 36 of his co-workers, Mohite awaits the court’s direction on compensation from the Ghatkopar factory in north Mumbai.
Illustrating the grim reality of asbestos exposure both through personal accounts and research papers, the study notes that while mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer are recognised around the world, they are rarely reported in India. “This is no surprise as cancer is not a notifiable disease,” argues Dr V Murlidhar, one of the study’s 15 contributors.
Examining the role of the medical community, the study stresses that “occupational
health is a neglected subject, with students rarely having access to standard radiological plates, mandatory for asbestosis diagnosis, even in the top medical colleges… thereby lacking the expertise to diagnose asbestosis unambiguously, often certifying an X–ray as normal when it is not”.
This has resulted in the failure of medical professionals to diagnose asbestos-related illnesses, leaving victims with no option but to die a slow, painful death. It is quite another matter that way back in the first century AD, the Greek geographer Strabo and Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder noted that the material damaged the lungs of slaves who wove it into cloth!
The trouble with asbestos is that its fibre is rarely destroyed, justifying the Greek derivation of the word which means ‘inextinguishable’. It is therefore not surprising that while its sale is banned in Canada, that country is the second largest exporter of asbestos after Russia. In fact, there is evidence that Canada has pressurised countries, including Chile, not to impose an asbestos ban. India accounts for 30% of Canada’s asbestos exports.
In addition to quantifying issues related to diagnosis, treatment and compensation, the study also puts into perspective political and trade-related dimensions of the asbestos crisis. Devoting a chapter to the illegal trade in asbestos waste, despite the existing ban, the study argues that permission granted to asbestos-waste-laden ships like the Blue Lady highlights how entrenched the asbestos industry has become with the powers-that-be.
This nexus is further corroborated by the fact that, along with its Canadian counterparts, the Indian asbestos lobby has been consistently successful in blocking a United Nations move to impose health information disclosures on exports of chrysotile asbestos. The health of millions of asbestos workers will be at stake at the upcoming Conference of the Parties of the UN Rotterdam Convention in Rome, on October 27-31, 2008.
Laurie Kazan-Allen, co-editor of the study, says: “Ineffective regulation on asbestos use and its illegal waste trade makes India vulnerable to a much larger and devastating epidemic. Because it can take 30 years or more for asbestos-related cancers to become full-blown, India faces an inevitable and sharp escalation in cancer cases over the next three decades. No one is safe!”
While Gujarat is an asbestos hotspot, with its busy ship-breaking industry and power plants, Maharashtra is a veritable time-bomb, with scores of asbestos factories located in Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Kalyan, Nashik, Thane and Aurangabad. India has undeniably become the backyard for toxic dumping by the industrialised West.
This study is a timely contribution to the pathetic state of the occupational health of India’s industrial workers. That medical ignorance and government intransigence have allowed this time-bomb to slowly tick away in our backyards should be a matter for serious debate among the public.
The authors and editors of the study argue that it does not aim only to expose corporate malfeasance and government apathy but also to reiterate what Mahatma Gandhi said: that commerce without morality, science without humanity, and politics without principle are amongst the deadly sins that must be overcome.
Source:
http://infochangeindia.org/200810307448/Environment/Books-Reports/India-s-asbestos-time-bomb.html
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Engaging with the media : Advocacy
Media advocacy is a way of getting an important issue adequate and accurate coverage. An initiative in Bangalore showed how media advocacy highlighted the issue of a dying river and resulted in questions being asked in the state assembly.
A tiny news item on the front page of the Bangalore edition of The Times of India dated January 18, 2008 was headlined ‘UK not to use “War on Terror” term’. The news brief went on to state: ‘The UK has distanced itself from the US “War on Terror” with the British ministers dropping the term and deciding to use jehadis as mere ‘criminals’ rather than an ideology-ridden group of desperadoes.’
Page 15 of the newspaper carried a more detailed news report with the headline ‘UK drops “War on Terror”’. The news report explained the rationale behind the position and why it was significant. ‘As you disrupt radicalisation, you must be aware of how you describe it and must not do so in a way that is inadvertently inflammatory’ it said.
This is a telling example of the way in which opinionmaking is encouraged through the use of terminology and language. Past instances of similar nature are also evidence of different efforts to promote appropriate terminology. This is evident in efforts to stem stigma and discrimination in people with HIV/AIDS, disability, mental health and now terrorism. Therefore, when ‘naxalite-infested area’ is replaced by ‘naxalite-occupied area’, the change in the media language indicates real moves within the media to enable a change in attitude while communicating to the reader.
This is indeed a part of advocacy through the media.
Defining media advocacy
Broadly understood as the strategic use of mass media for advancing a social or public policy initiative, media advocacy is not new. Here, the advocacy makes use of a set of techniques drawn from public relations, advertising, news reports, investigative journalism, letters and grassroots lobbying to influence or change public opinion. For, often, it is through the media that non-profit organisations can contribute to the processes of framing public policy issues and actively enter and participate in public debate. Newspapers and television are important players in this effort.
Another approach is networking or working with members of other organisations with similar objectives. Through networking, the membership base of the issue and the critical mass required can broaden to reach out to inform a larger group of people about the change that is desired. Formation of coalitions and alliances can also provide platforms for shared work and planning.
A third area is creating and distributing media independently. The mobile and internet services are handy tools for this. These platforms help to relate direct experiences and explain the issue from a perspective that is appropriate. In other cases, too, creative and low cost media options can complement mass media content.
The importance of building media partnerships is perhaps the starting point in this cycle towards social equity and justice. Recent years have shown several innovative efforts to engage with the media. Short-term issue-based sensitisation programmes, seminars, trainings and awards are some of the more conventional approaches. Bursaries, fellowships and small grants have also been instituted to enable journalists to follow a story through.
Read in detail:
http://infochangeindia.org/Media/Related-Analysis/Engaging-with-the-media.html
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wanted a Manager- Resource Mobilization/ Corporate Partnerships for NGO
Wanted a Manager- Resource Mobilization/ Corporate Partnerships for Population Services International (PSI) - Mumbai,India.
Key tasks include:
Associate Knowledge Manager
Third Sector Partners-India
Tel:+91 22 6660 3558/59
Email:divya@thirdsectorpartners.com
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Population Services International (PSI) is a non-profit, Indian Society. It is affiliated with PSI in
The CONNECT project focuses on Karnataka and coastal Andhra Pradesh and four port cities of the country (including Mumbai). Successful implementation of the project will require engagement with industry to encourage uptake of good workplace policies and practices in support of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support. A hallmark of the program will be the contribution of additional resources by commercial firms, either in cash or in-kind, for support of community-level responses targeting those most at-risk of contracting and transmitting HIV/AIDS.
Duties and Responsibilities for the position:
Lead the development and implementation of a marketing plan to raise financial and in-kind resources from Indian industry in Mumbai/Maharashtra.
Key tasks include:
- Analyzing corporate CSR contributions and identifying possible market segments to target
- Directly approaching industry for contributions
- Developing concept proposals to solicit funding from industry
Individuals with 4 plus years of experience in marketing and fundraising send your application to psi.application@gmail.com
Associate Knowledge Manager
Third Sector Partners-India
Tel:+91 22 6660 3558/59
Email:divya@thirdsectorpartners.com
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Inequality rising in Indian cities, says UN-HABITAT
Indian cities are undergoing an inequality trend as a result of economic liberalisation and globalisation, says the State of the World’s Cities Report 2008/9: Harmonious Cities. In 2002, the income gain of the richest 10 per cent of the population in India was about four times higher than that of the poorest 10 per cent, adds the report, released on Thursday by UN-HABITAT. This, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, is the U.N. agency for human settlements.
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
The study finds that the most egalitarian cities in the world are in Western Europe. Apart from economic performance, the regulatory and distributive capacity of the European welfare states are cited as reasons for this.
In comparison, cities in the United Sates do not fare well. Race continues to be an important factor in determining levels of inequality. Sub-Saharan Africa has 62 per cent of its population living in slums in urban areas, the highest level in the world. In the developing world, one out of three people living in cities is in a slum. Dhaka emerges as the fastest growing mega-city, with an annual growth rate of 4.4 per cent. Mumbai, followed by Delhi, will become the most populated cities after Tokyo in 2025. Chennai will be the 26th largest city in the world by that point.
In the last two decades, an average of three million people a week has been added to the urban population of the developing world. By 2050, the study estimates, 70 per cent of the population in the developing world and 55 per cent of that in India will be urban. The report puts the current ecological footprint of humanity as 2.2 hectares per person, while the earth’s biocapacity remains at 1.8 ha. China and India have ecological footprints that are twice their biocapacity. In other words, what the population consumes in a year, their area of earth will take two years to produce.
Other challenges facing cities are mobility, waste management and environment. The report says a number of cities in Asia have a high rate of car ownership. In this context, it cites the World Health Organisation’s estimates that more than a billion people in Asia are exposed to air pollution levels that exceed its guidelines. This is considered to be a reason for the premature death of half a million people annually. Cities in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand lead the world in the number of passenger cars per 1,000 persons. In western European cities, non-motorised modes of transport account for 50 per cent of all urban trips. The report urges cities to minimise wastage, reduce fossil fuel use and maximise reuse of energy, water and materials.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/27/stories/2008102757452000.htm
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
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