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Sunday, December 09, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
DAWN - Editorial; November 20, 2007
DAWN - Editorial; November 20, 2007
Going the Gandhian way?
By Murtaza Razvi
WHO ever dreamt of the Gandhian spirit finding a home in Pakistan 60 years after the people of this part of the subcontinent had dismissed it as melodrama by the Hindu Bapu in favour of their Muslim Quaid�s rejection of mixing religion with politics?
Exactly that many years down the road Pakistan is an autocratic Islamic republic and India a democracy not ruled by Hindutva. History has its own way of rebounding.
Today, as thousands of educated Pakistanis resist the red-eyed monster of emergency rule yet again, with all its colonial trappings of state violence unleashed against law-abiding, unarmed civilians, the comparison cannot be lost on a people waylaid on the path to their promised destiny � one of independence from oppressive rule. The generation matured over the past decade marked by media freedom and rejection of obscurantist Islam is ill-equipped to understand the realpolitik associated with successive dictators who have ruled Pakistan since independence.
The Gandhian non-violence associated with the people�s ongoing struggle for the restoration of the rule of law is history in the making. This is a generation that has not seen the cunning antics of Ziaul Haq at the height of the Afghan jihad against Soviet occupation forces there, nor the shrewd maneuvering earlier by Ayub Khan of America, which propped up the two dictators against the then home-grown opposition, with Leftist leanings, in the Cold War years. The fear in Washington, then, of Pakistan falling to communism was as unreal as the threat today of Al Qaeda/ Taliban getting their hands on our nukes.
What brought the Soviet Union down was an erosion from within; what will burst the bubble of the Islamists here will be the lack of public support for their medieval agenda.
Despite the regime�s overstatement of emerging threat from fundamentalists, the fact remains that in a country dotted with millions of mosques and thousands of madressahs, there has only been one Lal Masjid and no more. Why? Because the Lal Masjid was allowed to go to the extreme it went to; a similar strategy has been at work behind what appears to be an Islamist insurgency in Swat now, when in reality it was born of tribal smugglers being subjected to state law.
The MQM�s popularity with the urban middleclass in Karachi and that of the secular PPP, the ANP and a host of nationalist parties elsewhere in the country are natural barriers against any feared advance by Islamists. The latter were able to appropriate only such territories where the state had willingly ceded its authority to them, ostensibly to keep the West in fear of an Islamist advance; and where the state is now seen as fighting America�s proxy war against its own people. The millions inhabiting the rural hinterland ridicule the mullah today just as much as can be found in traditional folklore and even the classics in national languages.
The students agitating for civil liberties on elite-school campuses in our cities, holding placards with pro-democracy slogans written on them and arranging candlelight vigils for those the regime has put behind bars, are truly global citizens. They cherish the same values of personal and collective freedom and their right to know as their counterparts elsewhere in any civilised society. Peaceful hunger strike camps are reminiscent of Gandhi�s braths (fasts) which morally defeated the brute force of the colonial state. That same state backed by its oppressive, arbitrary laws is brought back to life in Pakistan every time emergency rule is imposed.
When peaceful youngsters today see unarmed lawyers, rights activists and politicians being roughened up, humiliated and arrested for demanding what the Constitution guarantees them, they add their voices to the emerging new consciousness against dictatorial rule. The crackdown on those who believe in non-violence as a means to pursue their political ideals and a right to decent life contrasts sharply with the tolerance the regime has shown towards those who have taken up arms against the state, all in the way of God, and to subjugate the people to their own narrow-minded, puritan interpretation of religion.
Something has to give, for never before was this kind of informed, urbane consciousness brought to street protests. These people have not taken the law in their own hands, even though the law, as we knew it before the Nov 3 PCO and the imposition of emergency rule, has been thrown to the wind and the pitch queered for the forthcoming elections.
The protesters do nor carry firearms or even latthis; they intend no harm to public or private property. Many just stand in the street, with their lips taped, not even shouting angry slogans against their tormentors. The state�s furious response to this civilised way of registering protest exposes the gap that exists today between a modern public sensibility and the medievalism inherent in autocratic rule.
Erstwhile government ministers and PML-Q leaders are facilitated by the official machinery to run their election campaigns, while opposition leaders are barred from holding similar rallies. Seeking to restore order out of this state-orchestrated chaos entails living in a fool�s paradise and pretending that all is well, and will end well. The emerging new sensibility among the youth attaining the age of 18 this election year, and wishing to exercise their right to vote, cannot be insulted for long. If the conspiracy is to incite peaceful civilians to violence and then call off elections, because �the country is more important than democracy�, then the people�s resolve to stick to non-violent means of protest so far has damned and doomed that plot.
Will the bearded brigade, acting on cue from their backers and benefactors, now rise up to the occasion and bring violence to street protests? The decision earlier by Benazir Bhutto not to join the APDM, with its heavy rightwing component, was right. The motley crowd that makes up the movement failed miserably to even show up on Sept 10 when Nawaz Sharif was swiftly packed off to Saudi Arabia following his brief transit at Islamabad airport. Secular parties should be looking at the emerging student bodies who, even without a central or a local leadership, are keeping up their peaceful protests for regaining the pre-Nov 3 freedoms.
The biggest disappointment for these young people, like that for the generation before them, is to see America soft-peddle and go along with an anti-democracy, anti-people, regime � one that unashamedly relies on brute force to curb dissent. The closure of independent news channels, the packing up of a judiciary not seen as a partner in perpetuating ill-gotten power, the arbitrary arrests of dissidents and threats of clamping down on the press, are all trappings that hark back to the colonial state.
What remains to be seen is that whereas the pre-independence colonial might began to melt before the high moral stance taken by Gandhi�s non-violent movement � or closer to our time, Nelson Mandela�s similar weapon against the apartheid tyranny � whether the emerging non-violent struggle for civil liberties in Pakistan will have the desired effect on our junta. The process can be delayed and more hardship endured by the people in its course, but in the end, it is the unarmed people who win, and the guns which are confounded.
Going the Gandhian way?
By Murtaza Razvi
WHO ever dreamt of the Gandhian spirit finding a home in Pakistan 60 years after the people of this part of the subcontinent had dismissed it as melodrama by the Hindu Bapu in favour of their Muslim Quaid�s rejection of mixing religion with politics?
Exactly that many years down the road Pakistan is an autocratic Islamic republic and India a democracy not ruled by Hindutva. History has its own way of rebounding.
Today, as thousands of educated Pakistanis resist the red-eyed monster of emergency rule yet again, with all its colonial trappings of state violence unleashed against law-abiding, unarmed civilians, the comparison cannot be lost on a people waylaid on the path to their promised destiny � one of independence from oppressive rule. The generation matured over the past decade marked by media freedom and rejection of obscurantist Islam is ill-equipped to understand the realpolitik associated with successive dictators who have ruled Pakistan since independence.
The Gandhian non-violence associated with the people�s ongoing struggle for the restoration of the rule of law is history in the making. This is a generation that has not seen the cunning antics of Ziaul Haq at the height of the Afghan jihad against Soviet occupation forces there, nor the shrewd maneuvering earlier by Ayub Khan of America, which propped up the two dictators against the then home-grown opposition, with Leftist leanings, in the Cold War years. The fear in Washington, then, of Pakistan falling to communism was as unreal as the threat today of Al Qaeda/ Taliban getting their hands on our nukes.
What brought the Soviet Union down was an erosion from within; what will burst the bubble of the Islamists here will be the lack of public support for their medieval agenda.
Despite the regime�s overstatement of emerging threat from fundamentalists, the fact remains that in a country dotted with millions of mosques and thousands of madressahs, there has only been one Lal Masjid and no more. Why? Because the Lal Masjid was allowed to go to the extreme it went to; a similar strategy has been at work behind what appears to be an Islamist insurgency in Swat now, when in reality it was born of tribal smugglers being subjected to state law.
The MQM�s popularity with the urban middleclass in Karachi and that of the secular PPP, the ANP and a host of nationalist parties elsewhere in the country are natural barriers against any feared advance by Islamists. The latter were able to appropriate only such territories where the state had willingly ceded its authority to them, ostensibly to keep the West in fear of an Islamist advance; and where the state is now seen as fighting America�s proxy war against its own people. The millions inhabiting the rural hinterland ridicule the mullah today just as much as can be found in traditional folklore and even the classics in national languages.
The students agitating for civil liberties on elite-school campuses in our cities, holding placards with pro-democracy slogans written on them and arranging candlelight vigils for those the regime has put behind bars, are truly global citizens. They cherish the same values of personal and collective freedom and their right to know as their counterparts elsewhere in any civilised society. Peaceful hunger strike camps are reminiscent of Gandhi�s braths (fasts) which morally defeated the brute force of the colonial state. That same state backed by its oppressive, arbitrary laws is brought back to life in Pakistan every time emergency rule is imposed.
When peaceful youngsters today see unarmed lawyers, rights activists and politicians being roughened up, humiliated and arrested for demanding what the Constitution guarantees them, they add their voices to the emerging new consciousness against dictatorial rule. The crackdown on those who believe in non-violence as a means to pursue their political ideals and a right to decent life contrasts sharply with the tolerance the regime has shown towards those who have taken up arms against the state, all in the way of God, and to subjugate the people to their own narrow-minded, puritan interpretation of religion.
Something has to give, for never before was this kind of informed, urbane consciousness brought to street protests. These people have not taken the law in their own hands, even though the law, as we knew it before the Nov 3 PCO and the imposition of emergency rule, has been thrown to the wind and the pitch queered for the forthcoming elections.
The protesters do nor carry firearms or even latthis; they intend no harm to public or private property. Many just stand in the street, with their lips taped, not even shouting angry slogans against their tormentors. The state�s furious response to this civilised way of registering protest exposes the gap that exists today between a modern public sensibility and the medievalism inherent in autocratic rule.
Erstwhile government ministers and PML-Q leaders are facilitated by the official machinery to run their election campaigns, while opposition leaders are barred from holding similar rallies. Seeking to restore order out of this state-orchestrated chaos entails living in a fool�s paradise and pretending that all is well, and will end well. The emerging new sensibility among the youth attaining the age of 18 this election year, and wishing to exercise their right to vote, cannot be insulted for long. If the conspiracy is to incite peaceful civilians to violence and then call off elections, because �the country is more important than democracy�, then the people�s resolve to stick to non-violent means of protest so far has damned and doomed that plot.
Will the bearded brigade, acting on cue from their backers and benefactors, now rise up to the occasion and bring violence to street protests? The decision earlier by Benazir Bhutto not to join the APDM, with its heavy rightwing component, was right. The motley crowd that makes up the movement failed miserably to even show up on Sept 10 when Nawaz Sharif was swiftly packed off to Saudi Arabia following his brief transit at Islamabad airport. Secular parties should be looking at the emerging student bodies who, even without a central or a local leadership, are keeping up their peaceful protests for regaining the pre-Nov 3 freedoms.
The biggest disappointment for these young people, like that for the generation before them, is to see America soft-peddle and go along with an anti-democracy, anti-people, regime � one that unashamedly relies on brute force to curb dissent. The closure of independent news channels, the packing up of a judiciary not seen as a partner in perpetuating ill-gotten power, the arbitrary arrests of dissidents and threats of clamping down on the press, are all trappings that hark back to the colonial state.
What remains to be seen is that whereas the pre-independence colonial might began to melt before the high moral stance taken by Gandhi�s non-violent movement � or closer to our time, Nelson Mandela�s similar weapon against the apartheid tyranny � whether the emerging non-violent struggle for civil liberties in Pakistan will have the desired effect on our junta. The process can be delayed and more hardship endured by the people in its course, but in the end, it is the unarmed people who win, and the guns which are confounded.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Citizen Direct at India Together: SC committee says no to Vedanta refinery
Citizen Direct at India Together: SC committee says no to Vedanta refinery
SC committee says no to Vedanta refinery
Nityanand Jayaraman
6 October 2005
SC committee says no to Vedanta refinery
Nityanand Jayaraman
6 October 2005
The Supreme Court's Central Empowered Committee on Forests issued a report on 21 September 2005 recommending the revocation of environmental clearances given to Vedanta Alumina Ltd's 1 million tonne aluminium refinery in the Niyamgiri forests in Lanjigarh, Orissa. The CEC found that Vedanta had falsified information to obtain clearances (received one year ago, on 22 September 2004) from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). The CEC also found that the firm had destroyed more than 10 hectares of forest land and begun construction work onsite without obtaining separate and necessary clearances under the Forest Conservation Act. Vedanta is a UK-based mining company owned by NRI billionaire Anil Agarwal.
The refinery project is integrally dependent on the availability of 3 million tonnes of bauxite ore from the densely forested Niyamgiri hills. Referring to the Niyamgiri forests as "an ecologically sensitive area," the CEC recommended to the Supreme Court to consider revoking the environmental clearance granted to M/s Vedanta, and directing them to stop further work on the project.
Hinting at complicity of the Union Ministry of Environment and the Orissa Government in the violations, the CEC has written that "The casual approach, the lackadaisical manner and the haste with which the entire issue of forests and environmental clearance for the alumina refinery project has been dealt with smacks of undue favour/leniency and does not inspire confidence with regard to the willingness and resolve of both the State Government and the MoEF to deal with such matters keeping in view the ultimate goal of national and public interest."
Environmentalists, tribal activists and human rights proponents have welcomed the CEC report and expressed the hope that the Rs. 4000 crore project in the adivasi-dominated Niyamgiri region will be abandoned.
Tamilnadu groups in the meantime have said they will petition the Supreme Court and other appropriate authorities to order investigations into collusion by the State Pollution Control Boards and the Union Environment Ministry to favour Vedanta group companies, including Sterlite and MALCO, despite violation of environmental regulations.
Vedanta also operates a controversial copper smelter in Tuticorin through its subsidiary Sterlite Industries India Ltd. Till date, the Tuticorin complex operates without requisite clearances and consent. As against a permitted annual production of 40,000 tonnes of blister copper, the company was openly manufacturing more than 1,70,000 tonnes of copper anodes. Further, it has constructed a new smelter, refinery, cathode rod plant and captive power plant - all without clearances from the MoEF or consent from the Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board. The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on Hazardous Wastes visited Tuticorin on 21 September, 2004 and observed the violations. The SCMC had recommended that the TNPCB stop construction work and close the Sterlite operation in Tuticorin. The TNPCB has not acted on those directions.
MALCO - another Vedanta subsidiary - operates an aluminium smelter and refinery in the Mettur dam area. In July 2003, a report by Justice (Retd) Akbar Kadri, chairman of the Indian People's Tribunal investigating human rights violations by the company, found the company guilty of endangering the environment and public health. The company dumps "Red Mud" - a toxic by-product of bauxite processing - on the banks of the Mettur reservoir that supplies drinking and irrigation water to seven districts of Tamilnadu.
Chennai-based Human Rights Tamilnadu Initiative and Tuticorin-based Veeranganai women's movement have said that the CEC's report demonstrates clearly the modus operandi of Vedanta/Sterlite, and the company's reach within state and central governments. They feel that the Tuticorin smelter is an even more blatant violation that reveals the extent to which corruption has set in amongst our environmental regulators. "We demand that the illegal Tuticorin smelter be shut down immediately and a CBI enquiry initiated to investigate the complicity of the Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board and the Union Ministry of Environment in condoning the illegal expansion and endangering environment and public health," they said.
Nityanand Jayaraman
6 Oct 2005
Nityanand Jayaraman is Chennai-based independent journalist covering issues of corporate crime. Working through a voluntary collective called Corporate Accountability Desk, he volunteers support for a number of campaigns against pollution and corporate crime.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
WATER INITIATIVES ORISSA(WIO) an NGO in Orissa states that:
"Coming back to impacts of climate change in Orissa, only seven of the last 25 years have normal or more than normal rainfall, others are deficient rainfall years. Rainfall has become more uneven and less compatible to agricultural schedules. Floods have wrecked havoc in many less than normal rainfall years too. Disasters have spread to new areas. Drought prone districts like Balangir, Kalahandi, Koraput etc. are facing recurrent flash flood furies and heat waves have begun hitting coastal regions. Similarly, WIO has also cautioned that while the average maximum recorded temperature in various centers of Orissa have gone up by up to 6 degrees Celsius the average minimum recorded temperature have come down by over 5 degrees Celsius in the last decade alone."
"All these climatic changes have resulted in an overwhelming bearing on the agricultural production and land quality. In thirteen years more than 7 percent of total geographical area has turned barren and unfit for agriculture. "
"WIO has come out with analysis on how agriculture production of all major crops, including paddy, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables are gradually falling in spite of high external inputs in the shape of chemicals, fertilizers and use of machineries. With all these worrying indicators, WIO has already cautioned that if things deteriorate at the present rate then in another 150 years Orissa will be a desert. "
contact:
Ranjan K Panda
Convener, Water Initiatives Orissa
C/O: MASS, Dhanupali, Sambalpur, 768 005, ORISSA
Phone:
+91-663-2520962
/ 2404974
Cell:+91-94370-50103
Email: waterinitiativesorissa@gmail.com / ranjanpanda@gmail.com
"Coming back to impacts of climate change in Orissa, only seven of the last 25 years have normal or more than normal rainfall, others are deficient rainfall years. Rainfall has become more uneven and less compatible to agricultural schedules. Floods have wrecked havoc in many less than normal rainfall years too. Disasters have spread to new areas. Drought prone districts like Balangir, Kalahandi, Koraput etc. are facing recurrent flash flood furies and heat waves have begun hitting coastal regions. Similarly, WIO has also cautioned that while the average maximum recorded temperature in various centers of Orissa have gone up by up to 6 degrees Celsius the average minimum recorded temperature have come down by over 5 degrees Celsius in the last decade alone."
"All these climatic changes have resulted in an overwhelming bearing on the agricultural production and land quality. In thirteen years more than 7 percent of total geographical area has turned barren and unfit for agriculture. "
"WIO has come out with analysis on how agriculture production of all major crops, including paddy, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables are gradually falling in spite of high external inputs in the shape of chemicals, fertilizers and use of machineries. With all these worrying indicators, WIO has already cautioned that if things deteriorate at the present rate then in another 150 years Orissa will be a desert. "
contact:
Ranjan K Panda
Convener, Water Initiatives Orissa
C/O: MASS, Dhanupali, Sambalpur, 768 005, ORISSA
Phone:
+91-663-2520962 / 2404974Cell:
+91-94370-50103Email: waterinitiativesorissa@gmail.com / ranjanpanda@gmail.com
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Justifications - Documentary and Statistical:
(1) ECOR GM Shri Surendra Singh Khurana in his Independence Day address (available at http://eastcoastrailway.gov.in
“With only 4% of the track of Indian Railways, we cater for about 12% of total loading of Indian railway and about 7% of total earning of IR.”
(2) From http://finance.groups.yahoo
For the 2003-2004 and 2004-05 the working expense as part of gross earnings of the ECOR zone is the second best at 66.64% and 61.75% respectively.
- The profit making zones in those years were
- South east central (62.8% and 56.1%),
- ECOR (66.64% and 61.75%),
- North central (76.33% and 66.71%),
- Central (80.29% and 82.48%),
- South eastern (81.24% and 83.51%),
- South Central (85.72% and 83.62%),
- West Central (80.99% and 84.08%),
- South Western (91.35% and 86.15%),
- Western (93.21% and 90.85%),
- Northern (91.08% and 92.89%) and
- East Central (93.65% and 98.9%).
- The loss making zones were:
- metro Kolkata (247% and 264.38%),
- North Eastern (151.93% and 160.88%),
- Northeast Frontier (147.98% and 159.45%),
- Eastern (161.3% and 152.84%),
- Southern (118.55% and 120.79%) and
- North Western ( 106.26% and 104.98%).
(3) Based on (1) and (2) above ECOR probably makes about 10% of Indian Railways profit.
(4) The above raises the following questions:
Why does not ECOR have the track length commensurate with the earnings it makes?
Why are no serious efforts being made to correct this; especially with many planned lines being given only minimal annual budgets which in many cases are less than the annual inflation.
(5) (Using the data in
http://www.indianrailways.gov
In terms of rail density: the average rail density (2004-05) for India is 19.13; the rail density is highest in Delhi (138.2) followed by West Bengal (43.4), Punjab (41.6), Haryana (36.1), Bihar (35.9), Uttar Pradesh (35.8), etc. while Chhatisgarh (8.6) and Orissa (14.6) are among the states with low rail densities.
(6) The data from (1-3) and (5) show that while Indian Railways is making a lot of revenue and profit from ECOR (big part of which is in Orissa) and also SER (part of which is in Orissa), both ECOR and Orissa have been grossly neglected. This is true about the past; what about the future?
(7) From http://www.thehindubusinessline
Mr V. N. Mathur, Member (Traffic) of the Railway Board is reported to have said:
“We’ve submitted to the Planning Commission a Rs 251,000-crore proposal for implementation by the end of the Eleventh Plan. We’ve indicated mobilisation of Rs 90,000 crore from within and 29 per cent of the projected estimate by way of market borrowing. For the balance, we may have to approach the government for support. But then nothing has yet been finalised.”
(8) Many expensive and highflying plans by Indian Railways for the 11th plan, but most bypass Orissa and ECOR.
(8A) Freight Corridor: Various news reports suggest that the 11th plan (next 5-7 years) will take up the western and eastern corridors.
http://www.indianexpress.com
Western Corridor: 1,483-km Delhi-Mumbai route
Eastern Corridor: 1,280-km Delhi-Kolkata route
http://www.hindu.com/2006/09
(8B) High Speed Corridors:
http://zeenews.com/articles
“Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, Mumbai-Baroda-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore and Howrah-Asansol-Patna -- were announced in the current rail budget.”
(8C) Metro Rails and rapid transit systems: From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
The following are the existing or under construction/expansion metro rail projects.
- Delhi Metro
- Hyderabad Metro
- Kolkata Metro
- Kolkata Suburban Railway
- Lucknow MEMU
- Chennai Metro
- Mumbai Suburban Railway
- Bangalore Metro
- Mumbai Metro •
- Thane Metro
- In planning:
- Ahmedabad Metro
- Kochi Metro
- Goa
- Pune
(9) In essence revenue and profit generated in ECOR is being ploughed into other parts of India, which by itself is not wrong as Orissa is a part of India, but lets analyze who are the losers: the adivasi and backward areas of Orissa (and hence of India) who are backward partly because lack of proper connectivity, and this neglect continues to keep them backward and prevents them from catching up.
Am I making this up?
No, here are the data and following it is what planning commission teams have themselves said.
(10) The tribal population percentage of the KBK districts are as follows:
Malkangiri 58.36% (+19.96% SC), Rayagada 56.04% (+14.28% SC), Nabarangpur 55.27% (+15.09% SC), Koraput 50.67% (+13.41% SC), Nuapada 35.95% (+13.09% SC), Kalahandi 28.88% (+17.01% SC), Sonepur 22.11% (+9.5% SC), Balangir 22.06% (+15.39% SC). Two adjacent districts also have high tribal population. They are Kandhamala 51.51% (+18.21% SC) and Gajapati 47.88% (+8.77% SC). Tirbal percentage of Mayurbhanj is 57.87% and Sundergarh is 50.74%.
(11) The literacy rates in the KBK districts are abysmally low. Malkangiri 31.26%, Nabarangpur 34.26%, Rayagada 35.61%, Koraput 36.2%, Nuapada 42.29%, Kalahandi 46.2%, Balangir 54.93%, Sonepur 64.07%. Two adjacent districts also have low literacy: Gajapati 41.73% and Kandhamala 52.95%. The state average is 63.1%.
(12) Population below the poverty line in southern Orissa (of which KBK is a part) is reported to be 89.17% of the people according to the 1999-2000 NSS data and 72% of the families according to the 1997 census.
(13) From http://www.mainstreamweekly
Table 1 provides State level data on poverty ratios during 2004-05. The lowest poverty ratio was 5.4 per cent for Jammu and Kashmir and highest poverty ratio was for Orissa (46.4 per cent). States with poverty ratio of less than 15 per cent were Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. As against them, States with poverty ratio above 30 per cent were Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Orissa.
| Table 1: Number and Percentage of Population Below Poverty Line (2004-05) based on URP Consumption |
| Rural | Urban | Combined |
| State | % of Persons | No. of persons (in lakhs) | % of Persons | No. of Persons (in lakhs) | % of persons | No. of persons(in lakhs) |
| S.No. | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) |
| 1 Jammu & Kashmir | 4.6 | 3.7 | 7.9 | 2.2 | 5.4 | 5.9 |
| 2 Punjab | 9.1 | 15.1 | 7.1 | 6.5 | 8.4 | 21.6 |
| 3 Himachal Pradesh | 10.7 | 6.1 | 3.4 | 0.2 | 10.0 | 6.4 |
| 4 Goa | 5.4 | 0.4 | 21.3 | 1.6 | 13.8 | 2.0 |
| 5 Haryana | 13.6 | 21.5 | 15.1 | 10.6 | 14.0 | 32.1 |
| 6 Delhi | 6.9 | 0.6 | 15.2 | 22.3 | 14.7 | 22.9 |
| 7 Kerala | 13.2 | 32.4 | 20.2 | 17.2 | 15.0 | 49.6 |
| 8 Andhra Pradesh | 11.2 | 64.7 | 28.0 | 61.4 | 15.8 | 126.1 |
| 9 Gujarat | 19.1 | 63.5 | 13.0 | 27.2 | 16.8 | 90.7 |
| 10 Assam | 22.3 | 54.5 | 3.3 | 1.3 | 19.7 | 55.8 |
| 11 Rajasthan | 18.7 | 87.4 | 32.9 | 47.5 | 22.1 | 134.9 |
| 12 Tamil Nadu | 22.8 | 76.5 | 22.2 | 69.1 | 22.5 | 145.6 |
| 13 West Bengal | 28.6 | 173.2 | 14.8 | 35.1 | 24.7 | 208.3 |
| 14 Karnataka | 20.8 | 75.0 | 32.6 | 63.8 | 25.0 | 138.9 |
| 15 All-India | 28.3 | 2209.2 | 25.7 | 808.0 | 27.5 | 3017.2 |
| 16 Maharashtra | 29.6 | 171.1 | 32.2 | 146.3 | 30.7 | 317.4 |
| 17 Uttar Pradesh | 33.4 | 473.0 | 30.6 | 117.0 | 32.8 | 590.0 |
| 18 Madhya Pradesh | 36.9 | 175.7 | 42.1 | 74.0 | 38.3 | 249.7 |
| 19 Uttarakhand | 40.8 | 27.1 | 36.5 | 8.9 | 39.6 | 36.0 |
| 20 Jharkhand | 46.3 | 103.2 | 20.2 | 13.2 | 40.3 | 116.4 |
| 21 Chattisgarh | 40.8 | 71.5 | 41.2 | 19.5 | 40.9 | 91.0 |
| 22 Bihar | 42.1 | 336.7 | 34.6 | 32.4 | 41.4 | 369.2 |
| 23 Orissa | 46.8 | 151.8 | 44.3 | 26.7 | 46.4 | 178.5 |
| Note: States have been arranged in the ascending order on the basis of combined poverty ratio in 2004-05. Poverty line: Rs 356.0 in rural areas and Rs 538.6 in urban areas (Per capita monthly expenditure). |
| Source: Planning Commission, Press Release, March 2007. |
Five States, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa accounted for 166 million poor (about 55 per cent of the total poor estimated at 302 million). This shows the high concentration of poor in these five States.
(14) Planning Commission: The Planning Commission in its report comparing the development status of economic infrastructure of Orissa, especially the KBK region, vis-Ã -vis the country says:
(See http://planningcommission.nic.in
"Railways have always played an important role in economic development and rapid social transformation in all parts of the globe. It is one of the key economic infrastructures. However, it is most unfortunate that in a poor and backward state like Orissa, development of rail networks has received much less attention of the Central Government in the post-independence period. There are as many as seven districts like Boudh, Kandhamal, Deogarh, Nayagarh, Kendrapara, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur out of the 30 districts of the state, which do not have any railway line passing through them. In the year 1998-99, the density of railway route length per 1000 sq. km of area in Orissa was only 15.03 km as against 42.66 km in West Bengal and 19.11 km. at all-India level”.
(15) What we are asking with respect to KBK and adivasi areas of Orissa?
We are asking the current PM and the current planning commission to pay attention to what the planning commission report says in (15) and the data in (11)-(14).
In particular, we would like the following lines to be completed during the 11th plan.
- Khurda - Balangir (This brings Railways to districts of Boudha, Sonepur and Nayagarh and bring Balangir – a part of KBK- closer to the state capital. This line of 290 km, initially budgeted at 700 crores, has all the necessary studies done, and its survey was complete before May 2004. It should be targeted to be completed within the next 2-3 years.)
- Gunupur-Theruvali (The Orissa govt. is ready to use PPP for this. This should also be done in 2-3 years together with the broad gauge conversion of Naupada-Gunupur line)
- Lanjigarh Rd – Bhawanipatna – Junagarh – Nabarangpur- Jeypore – Malkangiri – Bhadrachalam Rd in Andhra Pradesh. (The first phase of this Lanjigarh Rd – Junagarh is 56 km with an estimated cost of 120 crores. 15% of it was completed before May 2004. This should be completed immediately within 1-2 years. This line lies completely within the KBK districts and when finished will bring Railways to the districts of Nabarangpur and Malkangiri. Moreover, the Malkangiri-Bhadrachalam Rd part could go through a bit of Chhatisgrah. This line will create a shorter and alternative Ranchi-Hyderabad route and bring connectivity to an area that is currently havited by many extremist groups. Not much has been done beyond Junagarh, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11th plan.)
- Talcher – Bimlagarh (This is 154 km long and was estimated at Rs 727 crore. This will bring the tribal district of Sundergarh much closer to Orissa, connect a dangling line, and will bring passenger rail to big parts of Sundergarh. This should be completed in 3-4 years.)
- Bangiriposi-Gurumahishasini and/or Buramara-Chakulia.
(These lines connect dangling lines and will bring passenger rail to big parts of the tribal district of Mayurbhanj. Not much has been done, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11th plan.)
- Badampahar-Keonjhar (This line also connecst dangling lines and will bring passenger rail to big parts of the tribal district of Mayurbhanj. Not much has been done, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11th plan.)
(16) Impact of just 1-3 in (16) above.
- Parlakhemundi, the district headquarter of Gajapati (part of KBK+) will be on Broad gauge rail and will be 305 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
- Sonepur, the district HQ of Sonepur district will be on connected by rail and will be 259 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
- Boudh, the district HQ of Boudha district will be connected by Rail and will be 217 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
- Nayagarha, the district HQ of Nayagarha district will be connected by Rail and will be 84 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
- Bhawanipatna, the district HQ of Kalahandi district (part of KBK) will be connected by Rail and will be 450 kms from Bhubaneswar via Balangir and 504 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital) via Gunupur.
- Malkangiri, the district HQ of Malkangiri district (part of KBK) will be connected by Rail.
- Nabrangpur, the district HQ of Nabrangpur district (part of KBK) will be connected by Rail.
- Balangir, the district HQ of Balangir district will now be 309 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 397 kms.
- Nawapara Rd, near the district HQ of Nawapara district will now be 459 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 547 kms.
- Rayagada, the district HQ of Rayagada district will now be 419 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 502 kms.
- Koraput, the district HQ of Koraput district will now be 573 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 676 kms.
- Titlagarh, a major junction will now be 373 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 461 kms.
- There will be an alternate shorter path from Ranchi to Hyderabad via Titlagarh-Bhawanipatna-Nabrangp
ur-Jeypore-Malkangiri-Bhadracha lam Rd
(17) Is the Indian railway under the UPA government neglecting Orissa than the previous government?
Yes. Here is why?
(18) In the 2004 railway budget given at http://pib.nic.in/release
(18 A) Following is the exact wording, in items 35 and 37 of the 2004 Railway budget.
* 35. Railways have a large shelf of over 230 projects worth about Rs. 43,000 cr, for construction of New Lines, Gauge Conversion, Doubling, Electrification and Metropolitan Transport Projects. Even with the enhanced budgetary support, non-budgetary initiatives under National Rail Vikas Yojana and other cost sharing mechanisms apart from Defence funding of some projects of strategic importance, there will still be projects valuing Rs. 20,000 cr which would remain unfinished even after the next five years. A large number of these have been sanctioned on socio economic considerations with the intention of connecting remote and backward areas with the rail network. However their progress is very slow on account of inadequate funding, which causes dissatisfaction. Connecting these areas with the rail network will facilitate the economic and social development of these areas and will provide major employment opportunities during construction and thereafter. Keeping these factors in mind, it has been decided to speed up the execution and completion of these projects also in the next five years. I am happy to inform the House that this would be done through an ambitious 'Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana', with an additional outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore.
*
* 37. This decision to accelerate the completion of all projects in five years is expected, on a broad estimate, to provide yearly employment to about 3 lakh persons during the construction period. Once opened for traffic, these lines would also require about 18000 persons per year for normal maintenance and operations, on incremental basis. Apart from this, it is expected that there will be scope for indirect employment of nearly 55000 persons per year. The 'Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana' will go a long way in changing the economic and social scenario of the remote and backward regions of the country and bringing the people of these areas into the mainstream. Further, the demand for steel, cement, rolling stock, fittings, components, plant and machinery will also be generated, boosting the economic growth of the entire country.
(18 B) World Bank:
http://info.worldbank.org
/etools/docs/library/240060
June 2006 report (page 70 above Table A8)
The second project envisaged by the railways was announced in the interim Budget of 2004- 05 and is called Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana (RARSY). This involves executing and completing hitherto sanctioned projects related to connecting remote and backward areas with the rail network till 2010. The total investments in these projects is valued at Rs.200 billion. Presumably this is to be entirely funded by budget
support.
(18 C) http://164.100.24.208/ls
Railway Standing Committee Report 2005-06
Page 19:
To bridge this gap and considering the slow progress, projects especially in backward, underdeveloped and remote areas due to constraint of resources, Government had
announced "Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana" (RARSY) in the Interim Budget
2004-05 which envisages investment of about Rs.20,000 crore in a period of 5 years on ongoing projects taken up on socio-economic considerations. However, the funds for the Yojana are yet to be tied up. Government in has attached priority to infrastructure development. Keeping this commitment in view, a proposal has been mooted for creation of Remote Area Rail Infrastructure Fund for financing the RARSY. If the Government approves the funding of this Yojana, all the ongoing projects will get completed in five years. The yojana is being processed in consultation with the Ministry of Finance for approval of the Government duly identifying the funding sources. A note in this regard is under process in the Ministry for consideration of Government.
3.10 Giving the details of the new initiatives to address the foregoing funds constraints, the Chairman, Railway Board stated as under:-
"Over the last few years, certain initiatives have been taken to see how we will fund over projects so that the pace of adding new lines, gauge conversion and doubling speeds up. We have introduced funding through defence for strategic lines. We have got some of the projects declared as the national projects where the funding is given directly by the Government. We have also initiated private participation in some cases, we have also
launched the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited which is generating funds through various sources including the market borrowing. Our need was to generate about Rs.47,000 crore to take care of the projects on the shelf. Out of this, we found that we can generate about Rs.12,500 crore or so out of the normal Budgetary support as per the past trends. We would be generating about Rs.18,000 crore due to the new initiatives that have been taken in the past few years. It still leaves us a gap of about Rs.17,000 crore to take care of the projects which are by and large non-remunerative projects but they are on the shelf. These are the projects which are connecting distant areas, backward areas. They were sanctioned on socio-economic considerations and so many other considerations. Even for the sum of Rs.17,000 crore, which is our requirement, in the year 2004, in the Interim Budget, a scheme of Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana was introduced. We are yet to finsalise the funding pattern under this scheme. The effort is to involve the State Government's participation into this scheme as also through other means. We are yet to give it a final shape."
3.11 In response to the concern of the Committee as to why the completion targets of the projects are not being fixed, the Chairman, Railway Board stated as under:-
"most of these projects will not be completed in the next few years. In fact, the projects where target has not been given is because normally we give targets for projects which are going to be over in the next two to three years. But where it is going to be a distant period and where we do not know as to how much funds would be allocated for these projects, we do not give targets for those projects. So, wherever targets are given these are the projects which will take more than two to three years to get completed depending on how much funds are given. On our part, we have tried to revive the CapitalFund to see that we can put in more money.
Page 22: Talks about National Projects
3.12 In the absence of adequate internal generation of revenues by the Railways,
the following projects has been declared by the Government as the national Projects in the National interest. The funding for these projects are ensured by the Central Exchequer in the form of additional Budgetary Support to the Railways.
(18 D) Summing up this point:
In summary, based on earlier planning commission report as excerpted in (14) the 2004 Rail budget had the scheme RARSY which would have completed KBK connectivity lines like Khurda-Blangir. But the UPA government has buried that plan and has talked about burdening the state government for these lines, which since they can not afford, basically means abandoning these lines. This approach needs to be reversed and while India and Indian Railway marches ahead it must not forget the backward and adivasi areas of India and Orissa; especially when it makes money from transporting freight (minerals) from these areas.
(19) What are we asking overall?
We want Indian government, currently ruled by UPA, and Indian Railways under the UPA government to be fair to Orissa and ECOR. We want SER to be fair to the parts of Orissa that is covered by SER. We now describe what these entails.
(19.1) Since Indian Railways has submitted a proposal of 251,000 crores for the 11th Five year plan. We ask that based on ECOR’s 7% revenue and almost 10% profits at least 7% of the budget which is 0.07 X 251,000 = 17,570 crores must be spent in ECOR.
Similarly, the appropriate amount to be spent in SER must be calculated, and Orissa must get its fair share for the SER part of Indian Railways that passes through Orissa. This must be calculated transparently as SER often neglects Orissa.
(19.2) The above should easily cover the lines that connect KBK and adivasi areas of Orissa. We earlier mentioned this in (16), but let us repeat it for emphasis. (THIS IS OUR HIGHEST PRIORITY.)
- Khurda - Balangir
- Gunupur-Theruvali
- Lanjigarh Rd – Bhawanipatna – Junagarh – Nabarangpur- Jeypore – Malkangiri – Bhadrachalam Rd (Andhra Pradesh)
- Talcher – Bimlagarh
- Bangiriposi -Gurumahishasini and/or Buramara-Chakulia.
- Badampahar-Keonjhar
(19.3) Port, Industry and Mine connectivity: For these Orissa government can find supporting resources and plans to share the cost via PPP vehicles.
- Bhadrakh-Dhamara port
- Connectivity to Gopalpur Port
- Haridaspur-Paradip port
- Talcher-Sukinda (mines)
(19.4) Commuter rail around Bhubaneswar and appropriate facilities for the commuters
The Bhubaneswar area commuter railway consisting of the following segments need to be operationalized with MEMUs and appropriate stations in the Bhubaneswar area to help the commuters without creating jams.
Bhubaneswar-Khurda Rd – Puri – Vedanta U – Konark (Past Puri would be new)
Bhubaneswar – Barang – Naraj-Dhenkanal (exists)
Bhubaneswar-KhurdaRd - Khurda-Nayagarh (part of Khurda-Balangir)
Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Paradeep (exists)
Bhubaneswar-Khurda Rd – Balugaon-Berhampur (exists)
Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Jajpur Rd-Bhadrakh (exists)
Bhubaneswar-Naraj-Salagaon (exists)
Bhubaneswar-Khurda Rd – Khurda-Naraj (Khurda-Naraj will be new and make it a loop)
(19.5) While the above are finished during the 11th plan, we will patiently wait for the 12th plan
- for the 2nd phase of freight corridor involving Howrah-Chennai that will pass through Orissa;
- for high speed rail between Howrah-Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatna
m, Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad, and Visakhapatnam-Chennai; - for a metro rail for greater Bhubaneswar; and
- additional lines such as Jaleshwar-Digha, Berhampur-Phulbani, Bargarh-Nawapara Road and Talcher-Berhampur.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Friday, August 03, 2007
Solar Flashlight Lets Africa's Sun Deliver the Luxury of Light to the Poorest Villages
By WILL CONNORS AND RALPH BLUMENTHAL; WILL CONNORS REPORTED FROM FUGNIDO, ETHIOPIA, AND RALPH BLUMENTHAL FROM HOUSTON.
At 10 p.m. in a sweltering refugee camp here in western Ethiopia, a group of foreigners was making its way past thatch-roofed huts when a tall, rail-thin man approached a silver-haired American and took hold of his hands.
The man, a Sudanese refugee, announced that his wife had just given birth, and the boy would be honored with the visitor's name. After several awkward translation attempts of ''Mark Bent,'' it was settled. ''Mar,'' he said, will grow up hearing stories of his namesake, the man who handed out flashlights powered by the sun.
Since August 2005, when visits to an Eritrean village prompted him to research global access to artificial light, Mr. Bent, 49, a former foreign service officer and Houston oilman, has spent $250,000 to develop and manufacture a solar-powered flashlight.
His invention gives up to seven hours of light on a daily solar recharge and can last nearly three years between replacements of three AA batteries together costing 80 cents.
Over the last year, he said, he and corporate benefactors like Exxon Mobil have donated 10,500 flashlights to United Nations refugee camps and African aid charities.
Another 10,000 have been provided through a sales program, and 10,000 more have just arrived in Houston awaiting distribution by his company, SunNight Solar.
''I find it hard sometimes to explain the scope of the problems in these camps with no light,'' Mr. Bent said. ''If you're an environmentalist you think about it in terms of discarded batteries and coal and wood burning and kerosene smoke; if you're a feminist you think of it in terms of security for women and preventing sexual abuse and violence; if you're an educator you think about it in terms of helping children and adults study at night.''
Here at Fugnido, at one of six camps housing more than 21,000 refugees 550 miles west of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Peter Gatkuoth, a Sudanese refugee, wrote on ''the important of solor.''
''In case of thief, we open our solor and the thief ran away. If there is a sick person at night we will took him with the solor to health center.''
A shurta, or guard, who called himself just John, said, ''I used the light to scare away wild animals.'' Others said lights were hung above school desks for children and adults to study after the day's work.
Mr. Bent's efforts have drawn praise from the United Nations, Africare, Rice University and others.
Kevin G. Lowther, Southern Africa director for Africare, the largest American aid group for Africa, said his staff was sending 5,000 of his lights, purchased by Exxon Mobil at $10 each, to rural Angola.
Dave Gardner, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, said the company's $50,000 donation in November grew out of an earlier grant it made to Save the Children to build six public schools in Kibala, Angola, a remote area of Kwanza Sul Province.
''At a dedication ceremony for the first four schools in June 2006,'' Mr. Gardner said in an e-mail message, ''we noticed that a lot of the children had upper respiratory problems, part of which is likely due to the use of wood, charcoal, candles and kero for lighting in the small homes they have in Kibala.''
The Awty International School, a large prep school in Houston, has sent hundreds of the flashlights to schools it sponsors in Haiti, Cameroon and Ethiopia, said Chantal Duke, executive assistant to the head of school.
''In places where there is absolutely no electricity or running water, having light at night is a luxury many families don't have and never did and which we take for granted in developed countries,'' Ms. Duke said by e-mail. Mr. Bent, a former Marine and Navy pilot, served under diplomatic titles in volatile countries like Angola, Bosnia, Nigeria and Somalia in the early 1990s.
In 2001 he went to work as the general manager of an oil exploration team off the coast of the Red Sea in Eritrea, for a company later acquired by the French oil giant Perenco.
But the oil business, he said, ''didn't satisfy my soul.''
The inspiration for the flashlight hit him, he said, while working for Perenco in Asmara, Eritrea. One Sunday he visited a local dump to watch scavenging by baboons and birds of prey, and came upon a group of homeless boys who had adopted the dump as their home.
They took him home to a rural village where he noticed that many people had nothing to light their homes, schools and clinics at night.
With a little research, he discovered that close to two billion people around the world go without affordable access to light.
He worked with researchers, engineers and manufacturers, he said, at the Department of Energy, several American universities, and even NASA before finding a factory in China to produce a durable, cost-effective solar-powered flashlight whose shape was inspired by his wife's shampoo bottle.
The light, or sun torch, has a narrow solar panel on one side that charges the batteries, which can last between 750 and 1,000 nights, and uses the more efficient light-emitting diodes, or L.E.D.s, to cast its light. '' L.E.D.s used to be very expensive,'' Mr. Bent said. ''But in the last 18 months they've become cheaper, so distributing them on a widespread scale is possible.''
The flashlights usually sell for about $19.95 in American stores, but he has established a BoGo -- for Buy One, Give One -- program on his Web site, BoGoLight.com, where if you buy one flashlight for $25, he will buy and ship another one to Africa, and donate $1 to one of the aid groups he works with.
Mr. Bent, who is now an oil consultant, lives in Houston with his wife and four young children. When he is not in the air flying his own plane, he is often on the road.
Traveling early this month in Ethiopia's border area with Sudan, Mr. Bent stopped in each town's market to methodically check the prices and quality of flashlights and batteries imported from China.
He unscrewed the flashlights one by one, inspecting the batteries, pronouncing them ''terrible -- they won't last two nights.''
On his last day along the border, Mr. Bent visited Rapan Sadeeq, 21, a Sudanese refugee who is something of a celebrity in his camp, Bonga, for his rudimentary self-made radios, walkie-talkies and periscopes.
The two men huddled in the hut, discussing what parts would be needed to power the radio with solar panels instead of clunky C batteries. ''Oh, I can definitely send you some parts,'' Mr. Bent said. ''You can be my field engineer in Ethiopia.''
Fake drug market flourish - Newindpress.com
Fake drug market flourish - Newindpress.com
Fake drug market flourish
Tuesday July 31 2007 02:16 IST
Fake drug market flourish
Tuesday July 31 2007 02:16 IST
BHUBANESWAR: The recent expose of the proliferation of spurious drugs across Orissa, more particularly the tribal and backward KBK regions, has underlined the urgency to make sweeping changes in the monitoring and regulatory system.
That an apathetic Government and a corrupt administration has helped the fake drug market flourish in the State is no more a secret. And this calls for taking some definitive steps like establishing the National Drug Authority (NDA) on the lines of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of US and implementation of the Haathi Committee and Mashelkar Committee reports, experts said.
In year 2002-03, the then Union Health minister had convened a meeting of 13 states including Orissa where the respective state health ministers were asked to actively strike against the spurious drug manufacturers and the market.
A report had then pointed that Orissa could be a big spurious drug centre in years to come ostensibly for three glaring facts: high illiteracy especially in tribal and rural areas, corrupt health administration and geographically contagious to spurious drug capitals like Bihar, MP and Andhra Pradesh.
The weak health profile of Orissa with high malaria and waterborne diseases incidence also added to the concerns as spurious drugs mainly cater to anti-malarial drugs and antibiotics.
However, when the Union Government proposed for the establishment of NDA Orissa was one of the states vehemently opposed to it. Presently, the states have the licensing power which is vulnerable to corruption. If NDA takes shape then it will take powers on to itself.
According to ASSOCHAM report, in states like Orissa 40 percent of the drugs supplied to the public health centres were spurious. As high as 60 percent of drugs did not have the active ingredient, 19 percent had the wrong ingredients while 16 percent had harmful ingredients.
The Haathi committee report recommended one drug inspector for every 100 retail outlets and so for every 25 manufacturing units along with formation of intelligence cum legal cells.
Even, the Mashelkar committee report submitted in 2003 asked the high risk states to set up special courts to try spurious drug cases, making it a non-bailable offence and empowering the police to prosecute the offences.
Given the dire facts, the Government's knee-jerk reaction to the fake racket is not going to yield any salutary results unless it goes on for a massive sample survey to figure out the spread of fakes and immediately act on the Haathi committee and Mashelkar committee reports.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
More Indians in 'city of widows'
By Jyotsna Singh
BBC News, Delhi
<http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/999999.gif>
Women in India
<http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43044000/jpg/_43044297_indiawomen1.jpg>
Widows are seen as a drain on resources
The number of young Hindu widows seeking refuge in India's holy city of
Vrindavan - nicknamed "the city of widows" - is rising, a study says.
The study, funded by the United Nations women's organisation Unifem, found
it was poverty, and not spirituality, that was driving women to Vrindavan.
The report said that poor and helpless women went to the northern city to
escape "humiliation and dependence".
Nearly 15,000 widows are believed to be living on the streets of Vrindavan.
Widows are traditionally ostracised in India and the new study shows their
plight remains pretty much unchanged.
Unaware of help
It says that almost 80% of the widows who come to Vrindavan - in the state
of Uttar Pradesh - are from West Bengal, and a large number of them are very
young.
All this is despite the fact that West Bengal has one of the highest pension
schemes offered by the government for widows, almost $20 (£10) a month.
A well-known journalist, Usha Rai, carried out the research. She said that
widows go to Vrindavan because often they are not aware of government
policies to help them.
She said charities in Vrindavan are relatively well-off as they receive huge
donations.
She recommended "rehabilitation and skilled training" for widows so that
they are not dependant on charity alone.
But these women are often driven away because their families see them as a
drain on their finances.
By Jyotsna Singh
BBC News, Delhi
<http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/999999.gif>
Women in India
<http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43044000/jpg/_43044297_indiawomen1.jpg>
Widows are seen as a drain on resources
The number of young Hindu widows seeking refuge in India's holy city of
Vrindavan - nicknamed "the city of widows" - is rising, a study says.
The study, funded by the United Nations women's organisation Unifem, found
it was poverty, and not spirituality, that was driving women to Vrindavan.
The report said that poor and helpless women went to the northern city to
escape "humiliation and dependence".
Nearly 15,000 widows are believed to be living on the streets of Vrindavan.
Widows are traditionally ostracised in India and the new study shows their
plight remains pretty much unchanged.
Unaware of help
It says that almost 80% of the widows who come to Vrindavan - in the state
of Uttar Pradesh - are from West Bengal, and a large number of them are very
young.
All this is despite the fact that West Bengal has one of the highest pension
schemes offered by the government for widows, almost $20 (£10) a month.
A well-known journalist, Usha Rai, carried out the research. She said that
widows go to Vrindavan because often they are not aware of government
policies to help them.
She said charities in Vrindavan are relatively well-off as they receive huge
donations.
She recommended "rehabilitation and skilled training" for widows so that
they are not dependant on charity alone.
But these women are often driven away because their families see them as a
drain on their finances.
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