http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j7Y07Ph0bGVrQjBWmcWAF4Yf9aXg
We all have read some about the mess that has been going on in Kashmir for years. There is no question it is a very sticky situation where multiple groups have very personal interested at stake. What I have never understood though is how life goes on in Kashmir with the constant fighting. Well this article basically says life isn't going on in Kashmir. With days long curfews enforced with sometimes lethal tactics life has ground to a halt. The article talks about how tourism has been decimated in a place known for its beauty. Not to mention that every day events like going to the market to get food has become a scary proposition. What really stands out though is the story about a wedding that has basically been ruined. "Normally Kashmiri weddings are night-long affairs with hundreds of guests. But no celebrations had been organised for Ahmed and his new wife." Sounds like a wedding I would have loved to attend. Sounds like a celebration that this couple deserves. Ruined by a social situation that would be seen as unacceptable in the "Western World."
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Is India Doing Enough For Its Children?
Is India Doing Enough For Its Children?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2020256,00.html
This article addresses concern if India, especially in the poorer and marginalized locations, is doing enough for its newborns. Giving statistics such as: India accounting for 20% of the world’s child mortality and of the 26 million children born each year nearly two million still die before age five. Half of those deaths occur within a month of birth from preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhea and pneumonia.48% of Indian children under the age of 5 are malnourished.
The article was published just in time for the UN summit that is taking place this week. There will be discussion of the Millennium Development Goals, which prompted me to look at India’s progress within each goal. Reducing child mortality is currently “off track.”
http://www.mdgmonitor.org/country_progress.cfm?c=IND&cd=356
The article also touches on areas in India, like the state of Kerala, where the under-5 mortality rate is 14 deaths per every 1,000 (compared to 92 per 1,000 in Madhya Pradesh). It also tells us that results from a recent survey showed that 80% of Indians were unaware of the large number of children dying every year. This is alarming, and makes me wonder, what is happening in Kerala that leads them to have a better child mortality rate, makes them better educated, be better fed, have longer life spans, and just have a better quality of life in general? Clearly they are doing something right in the south, so why can’t the rest of India follow in that example. Alarming it is, when India is climbing the charts on economic power in the world and is emerging as one of our world leaders. Let us learn on this trip how our villages, or how NGO’s in Kerala are helping their women become better educated in maternal health and how they are able (or struggling) to feed their children everyday.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
India, the ‘nation of villages’, faces an urban future
This Financial Times special report discusses the urban growth in India. As the fastest addition of urban population in history outside of China, India is on the verge of urban transformation as it moves toward development and economic ascent. The report also discusses the challenges of this growth to include land acquisition as an obstacle among housing issues. There are also environmental concerns. However, is India ready for such a transformation?
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9670af02-c50f-11df-b785-00144feab49a.html
Cheers,
Lourdes
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9670af02-c50f-11df-b785-00144feab49a.html
Cheers,
Lourdes
Technology for the masses
Recently, The Economist published an article, entitled “The next billion geeks” regarding the rising use of technology, particularly with mobile phones in developing countries. Highlighting India, the article states that only 81 million Indians (7% of the population) use the internet on a regular basis. However, there are over 507 million mobile phones in the country. In fact, the counties known as BRICI (Brazil, Russia, India, China and Indonesia) hold a combined population of over 3 billion people, but can only boast 440 million PCs. Why? With mobile phones costing as little as $0.0006 per minute, it is an expense that even the developing world can afford. And many are choosing to purchase a phone over a computer.
In addition to affordability, the social issue surrounding literacy also comes into play. Besides texting, owning a mobile phone does not require the owner to be literate (unlike a PC would). But purchasing a mobile phone may still bring the same technological appeal as a PC. With 40% of Indians still illiterate, owning a mobile phone allows the average Indian man or woman to hold and use a little piece of modernism. This appeal, along with the inexpensive costs allows mobile phones to be bought by those at the bottom of the pyramid. The rise of mobile phone use runs are parallel with the rise of economic development—a 2009 World Bank study shows that every 10% increase in mobile-phone use leads to an extra 81 percentage points of annual economic wealth. The more mobile phones there are, the more likely the economic development of such region is prospering and the more Indians are socially connected to each other and the world.
http://www.economist.com/node/16944020?story_id=16944020
In addition to affordability, the social issue surrounding literacy also comes into play. Besides texting, owning a mobile phone does not require the owner to be literate (unlike a PC would). But purchasing a mobile phone may still bring the same technological appeal as a PC. With 40% of Indians still illiterate, owning a mobile phone allows the average Indian man or woman to hold and use a little piece of modernism. This appeal, along with the inexpensive costs allows mobile phones to be bought by those at the bottom of the pyramid. The rise of mobile phone use runs are parallel with the rise of economic development—a 2009 World Bank study shows that every 10% increase in mobile-phone use leads to an extra 81 percentage points of annual economic wealth. The more mobile phones there are, the more likely the economic development of such region is prospering and the more Indians are socially connected to each other and the world.
http://www.economist.com/node/16944020?story_id=16944020
Women in poverty in rural India
This week I chose to post a video and a website of an organization that is working to improve gender inequalities in India. The organization called Reach India, which is supported by the parent organization Reach Global, focuses on providing a variety of services and information for women living in poverty. On their website, Reach India explains that there are about 450 million people in India still living in absolute poverty, and the majority are women living in rural areas. Reach India has created a system of self-help groups for rural women. Women and girls are placed into groups in order to support each other. Basic information on health issues, education, and finances is gradually integrated into the group meetings. Adolescent girls without knowledge on these issues will continue to live in poverty and eventually raise their own families in poverty. Reach India hopes that through these resources and self-help groups, women will be able to stop they cycle of poverty.
After reading through different resources on gender inequality in India, I found the concepts of Reach India particularly intriguing. Reach India combines the social issues of poverty and gender inequality and gives women a special role in creating solutions. Through these programs, women are able to support and learn from each other in order to improve their living conditions and the future of their families. Participation in self-help groups allow women to connect, develop confidence and skills needed to successfully contribute and gain respect in their societies.
Website: http://www.reach-india.net/india/index.cfm/about-reach-india/
Video: http://www.twitvid.com/4HCPD
Another video about the importance of empowering girls: http://www.girleffect.org/video
After reading through different resources on gender inequality in India, I found the concepts of Reach India particularly intriguing. Reach India combines the social issues of poverty and gender inequality and gives women a special role in creating solutions. Through these programs, women are able to support and learn from each other in order to improve their living conditions and the future of their families. Participation in self-help groups allow women to connect, develop confidence and skills needed to successfully contribute and gain respect in their societies.
Website: http://www.reach-india.net/india/index.cfm/about-reach-india/
Video: http://www.twitvid.com/4HCPD
Another video about the importance of empowering girls: http://www.girleffect.org/video
Monday, September 20, 2010
Hiring India's Future Workers
A recent article from the Economist explains how the number of workers in India is about to explode. In the next 10 years, the number of workers in India will increase by 80 million. But that's assuming that only 3 in 10 women opt to work instead of staying home. Should that trend shift, India could be looking at attempting to employ more like 110 million people. Where will they all go? Some experts say Chinese companies are looking to India as a future, cheaper labor market. But they will have to contend with the burdensome labor laws, some 55 regulations from the central government and another 150 depending on which state you are in.
It will be interesting to see whether India's labor market is able to attract companies from other Asian countries. Otherwise, its possible India may experience a mass exodus of skilled, white collar workers to Japan, China and other developed countries to find jobs. Despite the excitment regarding the potential economic impact, the labor laws are still decidedly pro-business in many areas. Modifications to laws in some states merely resulted in compies moving and taking away work from local residents. The future of workers' rights in India is still uncertain.
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=6899464&story_id=16743035
It will be interesting to see whether India's labor market is able to attract companies from other Asian countries. Otherwise, its possible India may experience a mass exodus of skilled, white collar workers to Japan, China and other developed countries to find jobs. Despite the excitment regarding the potential economic impact, the labor laws are still decidedly pro-business in many areas. Modifications to laws in some states merely resulted in compies moving and taking away work from local residents. The future of workers' rights in India is still uncertain.
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=6899464&story_id=16743035
HIV/AIDS and religious prostitution
HIV/AIDS and religious prostitution
“Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases” is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. In India, the HIV epidemic shows a declining trend from 2.73 million in 2002 to 2.27 million of 1160 million population in 2008, according to the UNAIDS India-2010 Country Progress Report. http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2010/india_2010_country_progress_report_en.pdf
The primary drivers of the HIV epidemic in India are unprotected paid sex/commercial sex work, unprotected anal sex between men, and IDU. It is noted that long-distance truckers and single male migrants form a significant clientele of sex workers. By state, Maharashtra recorded the highest HIV prevalence in 2007.
Most of sex workers did not take up that profession by choice but out of poverty. This poverty is the cause of the continuation of the devadasi system (religious sex workers) especially in southern part of India. The devadasi system of dedicating children to temples goes back to around the 4th BC in which time religious prostitution was a common factor in many civilizations. During the medieval period devadsis were regarded as a part of the normal establishment of temples. They occupied a rank next to priests. The popularity of devadasis grew around 10th and 11th century. However their popularity was devolved with the fall of Hindu temples. The destruction of temples by invaders from the northwestern borders, which spread through the whole of the country later devoured their prestigious life. As the temples became poorer and lost their patron kings, and in some cases were destroyed, the devadasi's were forced into a life of poverty, misery, and later to prostitution.
(Religious Prostitution – Sacrifice to tradition – Par I and Part II. Dec. 2008)
http://living.oneindia.in/kamasutra/spheres-of-life/religious-prostitution.html
http://living.oneindia.in/kamasutra/spheres-of-life/religious-prostitution-partii.html
Today, despite anti-devadasi laws, dedication of children as devadasis was still going on secretly. At least half of all devadasis ended up as prostitutes in rural as well as urban areas. According to the Indian Health Organisation, a Mumbai-based NGO, at least 15,000 children are still being dedicated as devadasis in southern India each year, in the four states (Maharastra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh), an estimated one million women and children, including some eunuchs, operate in the sex trade and at least one-fifth of sex workers in the four states are estimated to be former devadasis, and in Mumbai, half or more of them are HIV positive.
Here is a story of a girl who served as devadasi in Karnataka from age 2 to 18. With two illegitimate children she had no choice but became a prostitute in a village near Mumbai. She died with HIV/AIDS at the age of 33.
(Tragic plight of India’s young temple girls. March. 2010) http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100319/FOREIGN/703189870/1103/NEWS)
“Effective prevention requires an integrated and all-inclusive approach than a compartmental AIDS prevention centered approach. Close co-ordination between the governmental, non-governmental, international and community-based organizations in implementation of intervention programmes may prove to be cost effective and cost efficient. AIDS is less of a medical problem but more of a social, culturel and developmental problem. These include steps toward removing social injustice and inequality, improving economy and achieving overall development, efforts to increase the status of women in the community and development of safe and effective primary prevention interventions like vaccine or vaginal microbicides.” (HIV/AIDS epidemic in India: risk factors, risk behavior & strategies for prevention & control. April 2005)
http://icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2005/April/0412.pdf
The story of devadasi may sound unreal but I actually met and talked with sex workers in Gokak, Karnataka when UNESCO Japan, NGO based in Tokyo with which I worked, implemented a program which provided literacy/health education and assisted sex workers to organize a self-help group.
“Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases” is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. In India, the HIV epidemic shows a declining trend from 2.73 million in 2002 to 2.27 million of 1160 million population in 2008, according to the UNAIDS India-2010 Country Progress Report. http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2010/india_2010_country_progress_report_en.pdf
The primary drivers of the HIV epidemic in India are unprotected paid sex/commercial sex work, unprotected anal sex between men, and IDU. It is noted that long-distance truckers and single male migrants form a significant clientele of sex workers. By state, Maharashtra recorded the highest HIV prevalence in 2007.
Most of sex workers did not take up that profession by choice but out of poverty. This poverty is the cause of the continuation of the devadasi system (religious sex workers) especially in southern part of India. The devadasi system of dedicating children to temples goes back to around the 4th BC in which time religious prostitution was a common factor in many civilizations. During the medieval period devadsis were regarded as a part of the normal establishment of temples. They occupied a rank next to priests. The popularity of devadasis grew around 10th and 11th century. However their popularity was devolved with the fall of Hindu temples. The destruction of temples by invaders from the northwestern borders, which spread through the whole of the country later devoured their prestigious life. As the temples became poorer and lost their patron kings, and in some cases were destroyed, the devadasi's were forced into a life of poverty, misery, and later to prostitution.
(Religious Prostitution – Sacrifice to tradition – Par I and Part II. Dec. 2008)
http://living.oneindia.in/kamasutra/spheres-of-life/religious-prostitution.html
http://living.oneindia.in/kamasutra/spheres-of-life/religious-prostitution-partii.html
Today, despite anti-devadasi laws, dedication of children as devadasis was still going on secretly. At least half of all devadasis ended up as prostitutes in rural as well as urban areas. According to the Indian Health Organisation, a Mumbai-based NGO, at least 15,000 children are still being dedicated as devadasis in southern India each year, in the four states (Maharastra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh), an estimated one million women and children, including some eunuchs, operate in the sex trade and at least one-fifth of sex workers in the four states are estimated to be former devadasis, and in Mumbai, half or more of them are HIV positive.
Here is a story of a girl who served as devadasi in Karnataka from age 2 to 18. With two illegitimate children she had no choice but became a prostitute in a village near Mumbai. She died with HIV/AIDS at the age of 33.
(Tragic plight of India’s young temple girls. March. 2010) http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100319/FOREIGN/703189870/1103/NEWS)
“Effective prevention requires an integrated and all-inclusive approach than a compartmental AIDS prevention centered approach. Close co-ordination between the governmental, non-governmental, international and community-based organizations in implementation of intervention programmes may prove to be cost effective and cost efficient. AIDS is less of a medical problem but more of a social, culturel and developmental problem. These include steps toward removing social injustice and inequality, improving economy and achieving overall development, efforts to increase the status of women in the community and development of safe and effective primary prevention interventions like vaccine or vaginal microbicides.” (HIV/AIDS epidemic in India: risk factors, risk behavior & strategies for prevention & control. April 2005)
http://icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2005/April/0412.pdf
The story of devadasi may sound unreal but I actually met and talked with sex workers in Gokak, Karnataka when UNESCO Japan, NGO based in Tokyo with which I worked, implemented a program which provided literacy/health education and assisted sex workers to organize a self-help group.
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