Girl gangs with a noble cause
Anjali Singh
There is no power like girl power. This can’t ring more true when it comes to empowering young adolescent girls in rural India.
What began as self help girl group, a unique concept taken up by UNICEF Lucknow, today is one of the most powerful tools young adolescent girls are using to protect themselves against exploitation and fight for their rights.
Called 'Kishori Sabhas' or 'Samuhs' these groups are so popular that they have even managed to do away with practices like child labor and child marriage in the villages.
How was this possible?
According to experts at UNICEF and the NGOs working to promote the concept, they had just decided to launch it as an initiative to combat girl child exploitation . But little did they realize that it would turn out to be more than that.
Not only has Kishori Sabhas managed to empower young village lasses who were forced to live a life of subjugation by their male dominated societies but it has also turned into a role model to be replicated in most villages needing to be shaken out of the orthodox social system they are living by.
Sample this: When Aarti and Ranu took the lead in forming adolescent girls group in the village Reechpura Birdha, a small district in Uttar Pradesh they pledged that they would not allow any girl to be married before she is 18 years of age. So when 16 years old Rajbai, a fellow student of theirs was being forced into marriage at an early age the Kishori Samuh girls intervened. The girls decided to meet Rajbai’s parents and urge them to postpone the marriage. As a back up plan if the parents did not pay heed to their request then the girls decided they would lodge a complaint in the nearest police station. A step that was never taken till now by anyone in their village until now. The girls mustered enough courage and met Rajbai’s parents and told them that their daughter is not ready for the marriage and she would like to study instead. They further argued that child marriage is illegal and Rajbai is only 16 years old, she can get pregnant and early pregnancy will endanger the life of both the mother and the child. The argument the girls gave to their parents was so strong that they were forced to give in and call off the wedding.
While that may have sounded easy to do, things are not so always for the feisty girls who have come together to form such adolescent groups. Committed to their cause they not only campaign and educate each about their rights but take a stand against the family and the village social system aswell which does not always meet with success. But do the girls groups give up? Read on.
A ten member group of the Ambe Kishori Samuh, at Lalitpur UP was up against all odds when they tried to call off the wedding of their underage friend. 16 year old Angoori, the official secretary of the group, announced that her family has fixed up her marriage and the groom’s side had also printed invitation cards for the ceremony. The girls reached Angoori’s house and met her father, but the meeting failed to draw any positive response from the family. But they tried again approached Angoori’s house and so forceful were these girls that despite being a difficult decision the bride’s father called off the wedding.
But what makes these Kishori Sabhas unique is the fact that after they campaign against the marriage of the underage girls they also provide monetary backup to those families who cannot afford to send their daughters to school.
Explains Sanjay Sharma of Sarathi Development Foundation a NGO working with these groups, “The girls are taught the importance of a savings and are motivated to open up accounts in which they save as little as Rs 10 per member. This money is then used to support the education of any underprivileged girls in the village. The Kishori Samuhs have been facilitated from within the community it has gradually built up their analytical skills, knowledge and capabilities to communicate effectively with their parents, community and service providers . The 735 Adolescent girl groups have proven their capabilities not only in integrated village planning but have also mobilised their families for behavior change in prevention of early child marriages, exclusive breastfeeding, adequate nutrition to girl child, enrollment and retention of girls in schools and their mainstreaming for further education, accurate knowledge on HIV/AIDS and hand wash practice.”
Adds Vasudev, Block Coordinator of the Bal Bandhu Programme which selects and trains the girls to form Kishori Samuhs, “In 2007 when we started the forming Kishori Samuhs we knew that the problems to be addressed ranged from lack of education in the villages, iodine deficiency, child marriage, infant mortality etc. So we were on the look out for girls who were confident, believed in changing the existing the system and had good convincing powers. Once the groups were formed the change they brought in the system is unbelievable.”
The added plus of such a community initiative has been its utilisation in Meerut, a city which has grown to acquire a dubious reputation as a flourishing hub for child trafficking. The only fool proof way to combat this trend, the NGOs working to prevent child trafficking feel has been setting up of Kishoris Sabhas in villages.
Explains Atul Sharma, Director Sankalp, an NGO working to bring down child trafficking for use in sex trade in Meerut, “Since children are the easiest to target the traffickers are making the most of the limited enforcement to develop a flourishing business of buying and selling children in Meerut due to its strategic location.”
But Atul maintains that they have been able to manage the situation owing to the adolescent girl groups that are functioning in Meerut and its surrounding areas. “ The Kishori Sabhas was developed as a target group of young girls for whom it would serve as a platform of information sharing or discussions both on personal and educational issues. As these girls have been taught to make healthier choices and resist negative pressures to avoid risk behavior, now even if a known person encourages them to indulge in anything that they know is wrong the young girls resist it. They also serve as a bank of informers to us if a girl has been bought or sold by traffickers thus enabling us to rescue her immediately.”
Organised every fortnight the Kishoris Sabhas has been running successfully in 32 villages in Meerut, Hastinapur, Mawana and other villages vulnerable to child trafficking. It has also helped educate girls about their legal rights and laws that exist to protect them.
Indra, a 65 year old group coordinator who was among the 64 coordinators selected in 32 villages in villages around Meerut district, calls it a ‘god sent’ initiative. She runs a Kishori sabha from her home and has empowered many young girls through it.
“I have seen how girls are treated like a piece of land here in Hastinapur, even if we wanted we could not raise our voice against it. Our daughters were forced into mis-matched marriages, forced for feoticide against their wishes and some were even sold off for money and we could do nothing but silently watch them suffer. But when I was contacted by a NGO in Meerut and they expressed their wish to start a Kishori sabha in villages to help women bond and get empowered, I instantly applied for the post of group coordinator. Since then my home is used as a sabha meeting place and the results are phenomenal. I am glad young girls are being made aware of their rights and no longer can be exploited.”
Agrees Rekha, a group coordinator who works with Indira and is responsible for answering queries through the little girl talk that most girls are curious about as adolescents.
“I have been rebel my self and married my brother-in-law against my parents wishes due to which I have had to face a lot of harassment by my own family and the village society. So I understand what a young girl has go through if she speaks her mind or expresses her wish in matters related to marriage and education. Through the Kishori Sabhas I now counsel them about these matters and help them make decisions that will benefit them, instead of falling prey to unscrupulous people out to exploit them.”
Among one of the favorite group coordinators, Rekha is sought out by girls ready to make the transition into adulthood as well. “Through the Kishori Sabhas sex education is also provided which has made it powerful knowledge forum in making the adolescent girls more self reliant when they step into adulthood. The girls in the villages are no longer vulnerable as they are aware of risk involved, sexual exploitation and harassment at home or outside and speak up against it. The sabhas have also helped us sensitise women about AIDS and STDs apart from other health hazards as well.”
Adds Rajib Ghosal, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF UP, “The best way to target a issue and prevent a problem is to motivate the community to turn into vigilant groups based on voluntary action. These self help groups not only have a higher success rate in achieving the desired aim where projects and schemes been launched for the welfare of the community have failed. In fact the Kishori Sabha s have been able to bring almost a 80% reduction in child marriages in the villages they have been launched in. In Meerut too the initiative worked when it came to child protection and that too with no financial strings attached. A completely voluntary effort the response the girl groups have elicited is way beyond our expectations which has fortified my belief in community being the real harbingers of change both in attitudes and mindsets.”
Anjali Singh - Citizen News Service (CNS)
(The author is a senior journalist and Director of Saaksham Foundation. Email: saakshamforchildrights@gmail.com)
Published in
Counter Currents
Asian Tribune, Sri Lanka/ Thailand
Op-Ed News (OEN), USA
Two Circles
Citizen News Service (CNS)
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea
Scaling up clinic-based tobacco cessation in India
Scaling up clinic-based tobacco cessation in India
The smoke-free policies in India were enforced since 2 October 2008 and different states are at varying levels of its implementation, yet the tobacco cessation services are still limited to very few clinics in India.
A lead article published in The Economist (7-13 March 2009) says: "tobacco is more addictive than virtually all of them [narcotic drugs]."
With tobacco being highly addictive, it is clear that for a successful implementation of the smoke-free policies, the scaling up of high-quality and reliable tobacco cessation services can no longer be ignored.
"Large areas in central and north-east India have more than 65 per cent tobacco use" said Dr Pratima Murthy, who is the Professor of Psychiatry and Chief, De-addiction centre, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. She was speaking at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) which recently concluded in Mumbai (India). About 57 per cent men and 19 per cent women in rural areas use tobacco, both these figures are far more than the percentage of men and women who use tobacco in urban areas. Incidentally, most of the tobacco cessation services in India, are confined to urban areas. It is vital to expand tobacco cessation services in rural areas as well.
With support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, in the year 2002, thirteen tobacco cessation clinics (TCC) were established across the country in primarily cancer, psychiatry, surgical, cardiology and some non-governmental organization settings. These include the TCCs at the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (upgraded King George's Medical College) in Lucknow, Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, and such premier healthcare institutes in India. Five more TCCs were added in the year 2005 at each of the regional cancer centres in India. Apart from delivering high quality and reliable tobacco cessation services, these TCCs were also mandated to develop intervention model for tobacco cessation for both smoking and smokeless tobacco users.
Each of these TCCs was well equipped with regular and uninterrupted drug supply, equipments like the CO monitor, and a well-trained staff in tobacco cessation. Over the past years, step-wise effective strategies for tobacco cessation evolved in these TCCs apart from providing tips to quit, behavioural counseling and pharmacotherapy.
The main sources of referral were other doctors and media. Since the year 2002, 34,741 cases were registered across the eighteen TCCs in India, and baseline details were available for 23,320, said Dr Murthy. 92 per cent of those registered in the TCCs were men, and 8 per cent were women. 65 per cent of those registered used smokeless forms, and 35 per cent used smoking forms or both (smoking and smokeless forms of tobacco). The mean age of those seeking tobacco cessation services was 37 years. About 50 per cent of those registered for seeking tobacco cessation services at the TCCs in India, had the average monthly income of about Rs 3000 per month (about USD 60).
Majority of those seeking help to quit tobacco didn't receive drugs - rather behavioural therapies, education, tips to quit, motivation to change and relapse prevention counseling were deemed most appropriate for 69 per cent tobacco quitters. About 31.1 per cent of those who registered for quitting tobacco, had successfully get rid of the deadly addiction. About 49.5 per cent of them had significantly improved by reducing the tobacco intake by over 50 per cent (compared to their baseline data). Only 8.7 per cent of those registered reported no change of tobacco cessation therapies on their addiction.
Improvement was significantly associated with being male, younger, using smokeless tobacco and receiving combined behavioural counseling and pharmacotherapy, said Dr Murthy. "Women – don't do badly but are unable to come for follow up" further explained Dr Murthy.
Dr Murthy outlines some limitations of the tobacco cessation programme in India. She says, very small number of population is covered by these TCCs in India. Most of these clinics are predominantly urban based and follow-up is variable in different TCCs. She also highlights another limitation that the use of tobacco quitting services is very limited among young people who are in varying stages of initiation.
The learnings are clear: tobacco cessation services need to be provided from a range of diverse clinical settings. The tobacco cessation service model needs to be extended in the community. There is also an urgent need for trained human resources to provide cessation services. Dr Murthy also emphasizes on the need to retain the people who want to quit tobacco use by improving follow-up.
She recommends that tobacco cessation training should be a part of the undergraduate training of medical professionals. Also there is a need to focus on basic training of all health professionals. She suggests a community based model to strengthen tobacco cessation services in India.
Bobby Ramakant
The smoke-free policies in India were enforced since 2 October 2008 and different states are at varying levels of its implementation, yet the tobacco cessation services are still limited to very few clinics in India.
A lead article published in The Economist (7-13 March 2009) says: "tobacco is more addictive than virtually all of them [narcotic drugs]."
With tobacco being highly addictive, it is clear that for a successful implementation of the smoke-free policies, the scaling up of high-quality and reliable tobacco cessation services can no longer be ignored.
"Large areas in central and north-east India have more than 65 per cent tobacco use" said Dr Pratima Murthy, who is the Professor of Psychiatry and Chief, De-addiction centre, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India. She was speaking at the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) which recently concluded in Mumbai (India). About 57 per cent men and 19 per cent women in rural areas use tobacco, both these figures are far more than the percentage of men and women who use tobacco in urban areas. Incidentally, most of the tobacco cessation services in India, are confined to urban areas. It is vital to expand tobacco cessation services in rural areas as well.
With support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, in the year 2002, thirteen tobacco cessation clinics (TCC) were established across the country in primarily cancer, psychiatry, surgical, cardiology and some non-governmental organization settings. These include the TCCs at the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (upgraded King George's Medical College) in Lucknow, Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, and such premier healthcare institutes in India. Five more TCCs were added in the year 2005 at each of the regional cancer centres in India. Apart from delivering high quality and reliable tobacco cessation services, these TCCs were also mandated to develop intervention model for tobacco cessation for both smoking and smokeless tobacco users.
Each of these TCCs was well equipped with regular and uninterrupted drug supply, equipments like the CO monitor, and a well-trained staff in tobacco cessation. Over the past years, step-wise effective strategies for tobacco cessation evolved in these TCCs apart from providing tips to quit, behavioural counseling and pharmacotherapy.
The main sources of referral were other doctors and media. Since the year 2002, 34,741 cases were registered across the eighteen TCCs in India, and baseline details were available for 23,320, said Dr Murthy. 92 per cent of those registered in the TCCs were men, and 8 per cent were women. 65 per cent of those registered used smokeless forms, and 35 per cent used smoking forms or both (smoking and smokeless forms of tobacco). The mean age of those seeking tobacco cessation services was 37 years. About 50 per cent of those registered for seeking tobacco cessation services at the TCCs in India, had the average monthly income of about Rs 3000 per month (about USD 60).
Majority of those seeking help to quit tobacco didn't receive drugs - rather behavioural therapies, education, tips to quit, motivation to change and relapse prevention counseling were deemed most appropriate for 69 per cent tobacco quitters. About 31.1 per cent of those who registered for quitting tobacco, had successfully get rid of the deadly addiction. About 49.5 per cent of them had significantly improved by reducing the tobacco intake by over 50 per cent (compared to their baseline data). Only 8.7 per cent of those registered reported no change of tobacco cessation therapies on their addiction.
Improvement was significantly associated with being male, younger, using smokeless tobacco and receiving combined behavioural counseling and pharmacotherapy, said Dr Murthy. "Women – don't do badly but are unable to come for follow up" further explained Dr Murthy.
Dr Murthy outlines some limitations of the tobacco cessation programme in India. She says, very small number of population is covered by these TCCs in India. Most of these clinics are predominantly urban based and follow-up is variable in different TCCs. She also highlights another limitation that the use of tobacco quitting services is very limited among young people who are in varying stages of initiation.
The learnings are clear: tobacco cessation services need to be provided from a range of diverse clinical settings. The tobacco cessation service model needs to be extended in the community. There is also an urgent need for trained human resources to provide cessation services. Dr Murthy also emphasizes on the need to retain the people who want to quit tobacco use by improving follow-up.
She recommends that tobacco cessation training should be a part of the undergraduate training of medical professionals. Also there is a need to focus on basic training of all health professionals. She suggests a community based model to strengthen tobacco cessation services in India.
Bobby Ramakant
Tobacco cessation can piggy-back ride on health services
Tobacco cessation can piggy-back ride on health services
The importance of integrating tobacco cessation with the existing healthcare services was emphasized by Professor (Dr) Rama Kant, Head of the Department of Surgery, CSM Medical University, Lucknow and a World Health Organization (WHO) Director General’s Awardee (2005). He was speaking at the ongoing 14th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health (WCTOH) in Mumbai. He firmly believes that we can use the existing vast healthcare n
etwork of our country in tobacco control, simply by better management and utilization of the existing healthcare staff, at no extra cost. Involvement of health care workers is a major tool in curbing the tobacco epidemic.
Studies have shown that even a brief counseling by health professionals on dangers of smoking and the importance of quitting goes a long way in reducing tobacco consumption. This method is cost effective too and has been successfully tried in some parts of the state of Uttar Pradesh, informed Prof (Dr) Rama Kant. He felt that it was essential for all the primary and community health centres in the rural areas to join hands with the district hospitals/medical institutes in the urban areas to be part of this tobacco control activity.
The health professionals need to have adequate knowledge and a proper attitude in order to put the plan into practice. Proper training (by way of lectures and audio visual programmes) of the doctors, paramedics, nurses and all others involved in patient care is very essential. This should be coupled with a proper attitude. Lack of time is often cited as an excuse. But even a cursory remark by the doctor like – ‘do you take tobacco?’ may have a tremendous cessation outcome. A study has revealed that smoking cessation interventions during physician visits were associated with increased patient satisfaction. Patients are bound to feel that the doctor cares for them. Even one minute spent with the patient, results in an abstinence rate of 11% which increases to 17.5% if contact time is 3 minutes.
A ‘vital signs stamp’ for every patient is maintained and updated at every visit. This piece of paper records various parameters like weight, blood pressure etc. of the patient, along with his/her tobacco use status. Once the status of the patient’s tobacco usage is known, the next vital step is to advise every tobacco user in a clear and personalized manner to quit.
If the person is willing to quit then a personalized quit plan is developed or else the patient is referred to a cessation clinic. If the person is unwilling to quit, then motivational intervention should be provided. In either case, follow up action is essential.
The Slip of Out-Patient’s Department (SOPD), which is made for each patient visiting the hospital, can carry an anti-tobacco message and information about its use being prohibited in the hospital. All baseline workers including ‘anganwadi’ workers, village ‘panchayats’ and other such opportunities where programmes can benefit from synergizing, have to be part of the national tobacco control campaign.
“Strong and repeated information dissemination to the public about hazards of tobacco, legal issues involved and availability of cessation facilities will go a long way in making the programme a success. With persistence and perseverance, we are bound to succeed” said Prof Kant.
Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service (CNS)
(The author is the Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS) and also teaches physics at Loreto Convent. Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org)
The importance of integrating tobacco cessation with the existing healthcare services was emphasized by Professor (Dr) Rama Kant, Head of the Department of Surgery, CSM Medical University, Lucknow and a World Health Organization (WHO) Director General’s Awardee (2005). He was speaking at the ongoing 14th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health (WCTOH) in Mumbai. He firmly believes that we can use the existing vast healthcare n
etwork of our country in tobacco control, simply by better management and utilization of the existing healthcare staff, at no extra cost. Involvement of health care workers is a major tool in curbing the tobacco epidemic.Studies have shown that even a brief counseling by health professionals on dangers of smoking and the importance of quitting goes a long way in reducing tobacco consumption. This method is cost effective too and has been successfully tried in some parts of the state of Uttar Pradesh, informed Prof (Dr) Rama Kant. He felt that it was essential for all the primary and community health centres in the rural areas to join hands with the district hospitals/medical institutes in the urban areas to be part of this tobacco control activity.
The health professionals need to have adequate knowledge and a proper attitude in order to put the plan into practice. Proper training (by way of lectures and audio visual programmes) of the doctors, paramedics, nurses and all others involved in patient care is very essential. This should be coupled with a proper attitude. Lack of time is often cited as an excuse. But even a cursory remark by the doctor like – ‘do you take tobacco?’ may have a tremendous cessation outcome. A study has revealed that smoking cessation interventions during physician visits were associated with increased patient satisfaction. Patients are bound to feel that the doctor cares for them. Even one minute spent with the patient, results in an abstinence rate of 11% which increases to 17.5% if contact time is 3 minutes.
A ‘vital signs stamp’ for every patient is maintained and updated at every visit. This piece of paper records various parameters like weight, blood pressure etc. of the patient, along with his/her tobacco use status. Once the status of the patient’s tobacco usage is known, the next vital step is to advise every tobacco user in a clear and personalized manner to quit.
If the person is willing to quit then a personalized quit plan is developed or else the patient is referred to a cessation clinic. If the person is unwilling to quit, then motivational intervention should be provided. In either case, follow up action is essential.
The Slip of Out-Patient’s Department (SOPD), which is made for each patient visiting the hospital, can carry an anti-tobacco message and information about its use being prohibited in the hospital. All baseline workers including ‘anganwadi’ workers, village ‘panchayats’ and other such opportunities where programmes can benefit from synergizing, have to be part of the national tobacco control campaign.
“Strong and repeated information dissemination to the public about hazards of tobacco, legal issues involved and availability of cessation facilities will go a long way in making the programme a success. With persistence and perseverance, we are bound to succeed” said Prof Kant.
Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service (CNS)
(The author is the Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS) and also teaches physics at Loreto Convent. Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org)
International Community Demands Big Tobacco Comply Swiftly with Health Treaty
International Community Demands Big Tobacco Comply Swiftly with Health Treaty
U.S. CONGRESS CONSIDERS BILL TO REGULATE TOBACCO DURING GLOBAL CONFERENCE
MUMBAI, INDIA: At the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in India this week, governments and civil society are demanding tobacco corporations comply swiftly with new treaty guidelines preventing industry interference in health policy.
Big Tobacco has long interfered in public health laws and regulations that might threaten its profits. The industry has done everything from offering contributions and "partnerships" with governments and drafting tobacco control laws to planting its representatives in tobacco control bodies.
The global tobacco treaty, formally known as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), slams the door on such tactics. At a treaty enforcement meeting in South Africa last November, ratifying countries unanimously adopted a set of guidelines to protect against tobacco industry interference. The treaty is in force in more than 160 countries, home to over 85 percent of the world’s people.
"Philip Morris International and other tobacco giants have a history of working at cross-purposes with the letter of the law and public health," said Kathy Mulvey, international policy director for Corporate Accountability International. "This gathering of governments and civil society is a critical opportunity to forge the institutions and grassroots movements essential to spare our children from the tobacco epidemic we face today."
At the conference, Corporate Accountability International and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) will be exposing Philip Morris International’s interference in Mexico’s efforts to implement the global tobacco treaty. Under the treaty, “corporate social responsibility” by the tobacco industry is treated as what it is: a form of advertising, promotion and sponsorship – and therefore subject to a comprehensive ban. PMI is currently sponsoring and promoting the Marlboro MXBeat concert series, which appeals primarily to youth.
The organizations will be working with allies to generate photo petitions to PMI’s top decisionmakers, demanding a stop to the corporation’s meddling in health policies around the world.
But the conference will also be an opportunity to spotlight the impact new treaty guidelines are already having on untangling the industry from tobacco control policy. The Chinese government, which had nominated several state-owned tobacco corporations for awards recognizing their philanthropic contributions, withdrew nominations in light of the new guidelines. In the conference’s host country, the government recently severed ties with a conference on tobacco that included industry representatives.
"Across borders and ideology, the global community has a united understanding of what needs to happen to save lives from tobacco addiction," said Bobby Ramakant of ASHA Parivar, a NATT member in India. "Preventing the tobacco industry from interfering in lifesaving efforts is at the heart of the solution."
And while the U.S., which has not yet ratified the global tobacco treaty, has been notably sidelined in the international tobacco control arena, last week legislation calling for FDA regulation of tobacco was reintroduced in the House of Representatives.
The World Conference on Tobacco or Health was first held in 1967 in New York, where Robert F. Kennedy gave the keynote; it was held most recently in Washington in 2006. India, the host country this year, is the world’s second largest producer and consumer of tobacco. Organizers view India’s hosting as an opportunity to raise the visibility of the epidemic and effective tobacco control strategies.
Published in
The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea
Op-Ed News (OEN), USA
Citizen News Service (CNS)
Media for Freedom, Kathmandu, Nepal
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
U.S. CONGRESS CONSIDERS BILL TO REGULATE TOBACCO DURING GLOBAL CONFERENCE
MUMBAI, INDIA: At the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in India this week, governments and civil society are demanding tobacco corporations comply swiftly with new treaty guidelines preventing industry interference in health policy.
Big Tobacco has long interfered in public health laws and regulations that might threaten its profits. The industry has done everything from offering contributions and "partnerships" with governments and drafting tobacco control laws to planting its representatives in tobacco control bodies.
The global tobacco treaty, formally known as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), slams the door on such tactics. At a treaty enforcement meeting in South Africa last November, ratifying countries unanimously adopted a set of guidelines to protect against tobacco industry interference. The treaty is in force in more than 160 countries, home to over 85 percent of the world’s people.
"Philip Morris International and other tobacco giants have a history of working at cross-purposes with the letter of the law and public health," said Kathy Mulvey, international policy director for Corporate Accountability International. "This gathering of governments and civil society is a critical opportunity to forge the institutions and grassroots movements essential to spare our children from the tobacco epidemic we face today."
At the conference, Corporate Accountability International and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) will be exposing Philip Morris International’s interference in Mexico’s efforts to implement the global tobacco treaty. Under the treaty, “corporate social responsibility” by the tobacco industry is treated as what it is: a form of advertising, promotion and sponsorship – and therefore subject to a comprehensive ban. PMI is currently sponsoring and promoting the Marlboro MXBeat concert series, which appeals primarily to youth.
The organizations will be working with allies to generate photo petitions to PMI’s top decisionmakers, demanding a stop to the corporation’s meddling in health policies around the world.
But the conference will also be an opportunity to spotlight the impact new treaty guidelines are already having on untangling the industry from tobacco control policy. The Chinese government, which had nominated several state-owned tobacco corporations for awards recognizing their philanthropic contributions, withdrew nominations in light of the new guidelines. In the conference’s host country, the government recently severed ties with a conference on tobacco that included industry representatives.
"Across borders and ideology, the global community has a united understanding of what needs to happen to save lives from tobacco addiction," said Bobby Ramakant of ASHA Parivar, a NATT member in India. "Preventing the tobacco industry from interfering in lifesaving efforts is at the heart of the solution."
And while the U.S., which has not yet ratified the global tobacco treaty, has been notably sidelined in the international tobacco control arena, last week legislation calling for FDA regulation of tobacco was reintroduced in the House of Representatives.
The World Conference on Tobacco or Health was first held in 1967 in New York, where Robert F. Kennedy gave the keynote; it was held most recently in Washington in 2006. India, the host country this year, is the world’s second largest producer and consumer of tobacco. Organizers view India’s hosting as an opportunity to raise the visibility of the epidemic and effective tobacco control strategies.
Published in
The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea
Op-Ed News (OEN), USA
Citizen News Service (CNS)
Media for Freedom, Kathmandu, Nepal
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
In The Spirit Of Freedom ( From Tobacco)
In The Spirit Of Freedom ( From Tobacco)
The 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) got an official kick start on the 8th of March, at the National Centre Of Performing Arts in Mumbai. The programme started with the typical Indian invocation to Lord Ganesha and goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati (may be in keeping with the International Women’s Day), to help make the conference a success for ‘more things are wrought by prayers than this world can ever dream of’. In his inaugural address, the Honourable Governor of Maharashtra, Mr SC Jamir called for specific corrective measures to save the people, especially the youngsters, from the perils of tobacco. He lamented the fact that 90% of all oral cancer cases in South East Asia are linked to tobacco consumption.
The problem is more complex in India, where tobacco is consumed not only in the form of cigarettes, but also as chewing tobacco, gutkha, paan masala, etc. It is sometimes argued by vested interests that tobacco industry provides employment to many people. But the fact is that these people always remain poor and also suffer from various diseases arising out of tobacco handling. The only ones to benefit from it are the tobacco multinationals. These companies target young men and women and lure them to smoke more and more cigarettes, driving them closer to death and disease. So it is high time that some strong measures are taken against them. The Governor appealed to sports organizations not to accept any sponsorships from tobacco companies.
Remembering the anti tobacco campaigns of his youth, he favoured the novel idea of forming ‘Temperance Committees’ in schools and colleges, which should deal with the negative aspects of, not only smoking, but other behavioral aberrations too. Smoking, drinking alcohol, speaking nasty words, eating and sleeping too much—all these contribute to a poor physical and mental health. He felt that the ‘Thou Shalt Not Do This’ diktat is bound to make the youngsters retaliate by doing ‘It’ still more. So it is better to say, ‘Yield Not To Temptation’.
The Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, in his characteristic style, felt proud that India was one of the first countries in the world to ban smoking inside airplanes. He lauded the country’s preventive health initiatives of banning smoking in public places and restricting the sale of tobacco products as positive steps in the right direction. But what is rightly required is voluntary compliance of such laws and not just the fear of fines. He blamed the tobacco industry for stalling other legislative curbs on tobacco due to their strong political/non political lobbying. As 40% of all our health problems are tobacco related and as more and more youngsters are taking to tobacco, he thought it imperative to scare the hell out of our teenagers as far as tobacco use in any form was concerned. Tobacco and alcohol are like a double jeopardy for them.
Dr. Ramadoss also wanted the film industry to behave in a more socially responsive way, by not glamorizing smoking on screen. In the past, generally villains were shown smoking, but now most of these scenes are filmed on heroes--- who are venerated as role models by our glamour hungry teenagers. So the emulate them without blinking an eyelid. In fact, one study revealed that 52% of the child-smokers had their first puff after seeing their heroes smoke on the screen. He rued the fact that a silent majority of 85% (who are against smoking) is being systematically overpowered by the noisy minority of the tobacco industrialists.
Mark Twain had once said, ‘India is the one land that all men desire to see’. It is this land which today has the world’s largest child population of 400 million below 18 years of age. A large percentage of them are under privileged and well into the trade of buying as well as selling tobacco. Very often they are initiated into this habit by being given free samples of paan masala and gutkha. Salaam Bombay Foundation, one of the hosts of the 14th WCTOH which is headed by Padmini Somani, has impacted the lives of 1.8 million such children in a very positive way.
This conference, which has more than 2000 delegates from over 130 countries, needs to succeed to drive back the noisy minority of death peddlers. A collective spirit of the people is needed to shape actions and take decisions for a better future for our children so that they do not get lost in smoke.
Shobha Shukla
(The author is the Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS) and also teaches physics at Loreto Convent. Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org)
The 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) got an official kick start on the 8th of March, at the National Centre Of Performing Arts in Mumbai. The programme started with the typical Indian invocation to Lord Ganesha and goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati (may be in keeping with the International Women’s Day), to help make the conference a success for ‘more things are wrought by prayers than this world can ever dream of’. In his inaugural address, the Honourable Governor of Maharashtra, Mr SC Jamir called for specific corrective measures to save the people, especially the youngsters, from the perils of tobacco. He lamented the fact that 90% of all oral cancer cases in South East Asia are linked to tobacco consumption.
The problem is more complex in India, where tobacco is consumed not only in the form of cigarettes, but also as chewing tobacco, gutkha, paan masala, etc. It is sometimes argued by vested interests that tobacco industry provides employment to many people. But the fact is that these people always remain poor and also suffer from various diseases arising out of tobacco handling. The only ones to benefit from it are the tobacco multinationals. These companies target young men and women and lure them to smoke more and more cigarettes, driving them closer to death and disease. So it is high time that some strong measures are taken against them. The Governor appealed to sports organizations not to accept any sponsorships from tobacco companies.
Remembering the anti tobacco campaigns of his youth, he favoured the novel idea of forming ‘Temperance Committees’ in schools and colleges, which should deal with the negative aspects of, not only smoking, but other behavioral aberrations too. Smoking, drinking alcohol, speaking nasty words, eating and sleeping too much—all these contribute to a poor physical and mental health. He felt that the ‘Thou Shalt Not Do This’ diktat is bound to make the youngsters retaliate by doing ‘It’ still more. So it is better to say, ‘Yield Not To Temptation’.
The Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, in his characteristic style, felt proud that India was one of the first countries in the world to ban smoking inside airplanes. He lauded the country’s preventive health initiatives of banning smoking in public places and restricting the sale of tobacco products as positive steps in the right direction. But what is rightly required is voluntary compliance of such laws and not just the fear of fines. He blamed the tobacco industry for stalling other legislative curbs on tobacco due to their strong political/non political lobbying. As 40% of all our health problems are tobacco related and as more and more youngsters are taking to tobacco, he thought it imperative to scare the hell out of our teenagers as far as tobacco use in any form was concerned. Tobacco and alcohol are like a double jeopardy for them.
Dr. Ramadoss also wanted the film industry to behave in a more socially responsive way, by not glamorizing smoking on screen. In the past, generally villains were shown smoking, but now most of these scenes are filmed on heroes--- who are venerated as role models by our glamour hungry teenagers. So the emulate them without blinking an eyelid. In fact, one study revealed that 52% of the child-smokers had their first puff after seeing their heroes smoke on the screen. He rued the fact that a silent majority of 85% (who are against smoking) is being systematically overpowered by the noisy minority of the tobacco industrialists.
Mark Twain had once said, ‘India is the one land that all men desire to see’. It is this land which today has the world’s largest child population of 400 million below 18 years of age. A large percentage of them are under privileged and well into the trade of buying as well as selling tobacco. Very often they are initiated into this habit by being given free samples of paan masala and gutkha. Salaam Bombay Foundation, one of the hosts of the 14th WCTOH which is headed by Padmini Somani, has impacted the lives of 1.8 million such children in a very positive way.
This conference, which has more than 2000 delegates from over 130 countries, needs to succeed to drive back the noisy minority of death peddlers. A collective spirit of the people is needed to shape actions and take decisions for a better future for our children so that they do not get lost in smoke.
Shobha Shukla
(The author is the Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS) and also teaches physics at Loreto Convent. Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org)
Youth against cross-border tobacco advertising in films
Youth against cross-border tobacco advertising in films
Youth from 27 countries that met at the 2nd Global Youth Meet (GYM) in the lead up to the 14th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health (WCTOH) in Mumbai, India, expressed their common ire against cross-border tobacco advertising in films.
Satellite televisions, cinema theatres, CDs, DVDs are some of the ways movies made in any part of the world and dubbed in local languages, reach the youth. Despite of ban on smoking in films at the country level, there is no effective way to curb this channel of films made elsewhere portraying tobacco use in them.
Internet was another medium that was identified by the youth that is difficult to control by country level laws against tobacco advertising on internet.
In January 2009, the Delhi High Court had overturned a government ban on showing smoking scenes in films. The court said that the ban violated the fundamental right of film-makers to freedom of speech and expression. "The director of films should not have multifarious authorities breathing down their necks when indulging in creative art," had said Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
Tobacco is reported to kill more than a million people in India alone every year.
"One of the easiest ways to significantly bring down number of children and youth who get initiated to tobacco use in India, without any budgetary allocation for this public health exercise, is to remove depiction of tobacco use in films and TV", had rightly said Dr Ramadoss at the last World Conference on Tobacco or Health in USA.
One of the major influences on the uptake of teen tobacco use is the glamourisation of tobacco use in movies and on television. This has been well documented by comprehensive research studies in India and US. On-screen or smoking in public view by bollywood film-stars will influence young minds to smoke.
In an earlier study done by World Health Organization and Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2003 it was revealed that 76% of Indian movies had tobacco use shown in them. In 1991, where 22% of top box office movie hits had lead characters using tobacco on-screen, in 2002, this escalated to 53% tobacco use depiction by lead characters in Indian movies. This study also demonstrated that 52.2% of children in India who had their first smoke were influenced by tobacco use depicted in movies.
A repeat follow-up study conducted by WHO and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India on top box office movie hits during 2004-2005 demonstrated that tobacco use depiction in movies has become more aggressive as compared to previous years. During 2004-2005, 89% of all movies analyzed contained tobacco use on screen and 75.5% movies depicted leading stars using tobacco on screen. Moreover 41% of movies screened had clear and distinct tobacco brand placement.
Dr Ramadoss says categorically that stopping depiction of tobacco use in films is an evidence based public health measure.
India, says Dr Ramadoss, has the world's largest film industry rolling out over 900 films per year. Through cinema theatres, these movies reach 60 million people and through cable television network, they further reach another 70 million people in India. "Influence of cinema is paramount in India" says Dr Ramadoss.
Exposure to tobacco use in movies is clearly linked to youth tobacco use. Simply put, more must be done to ensure that tobacco use in movies is removed from films seen by our nation's youth. We have within our power one simple and effective way to jump start the decline in youth tobacco use - delete tobacco use in films from the list of influences that rob our youth of longer and healthier lives by removing tobacco use from movies, unless they clearly depict the negative health effects.
The influence of film-stars on the youth is paramount and let us hope the currently ongoing 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH), shall give an impetus to authorities to re-impose the ban on portrayal of smoking in films.
Bobby Ramakant
Youth from 27 countries that met at the 2nd Global Youth Meet (GYM) in the lead up to the 14th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health (WCTOH) in Mumbai, India, expressed their common ire against cross-border tobacco advertising in films.
Satellite televisions, cinema theatres, CDs, DVDs are some of the ways movies made in any part of the world and dubbed in local languages, reach the youth. Despite of ban on smoking in films at the country level, there is no effective way to curb this channel of films made elsewhere portraying tobacco use in them.
Internet was another medium that was identified by the youth that is difficult to control by country level laws against tobacco advertising on internet.
In January 2009, the Delhi High Court had overturned a government ban on showing smoking scenes in films. The court said that the ban violated the fundamental right of film-makers to freedom of speech and expression. "The director of films should not have multifarious authorities breathing down their necks when indulging in creative art," had said Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
Tobacco is reported to kill more than a million people in India alone every year.
"One of the easiest ways to significantly bring down number of children and youth who get initiated to tobacco use in India, without any budgetary allocation for this public health exercise, is to remove depiction of tobacco use in films and TV", had rightly said Dr Ramadoss at the last World Conference on Tobacco or Health in USA.
One of the major influences on the uptake of teen tobacco use is the glamourisation of tobacco use in movies and on television. This has been well documented by comprehensive research studies in India and US. On-screen or smoking in public view by bollywood film-stars will influence young minds to smoke.
In an earlier study done by World Health Organization and Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2003 it was revealed that 76% of Indian movies had tobacco use shown in them. In 1991, where 22% of top box office movie hits had lead characters using tobacco on-screen, in 2002, this escalated to 53% tobacco use depiction by lead characters in Indian movies. This study also demonstrated that 52.2% of children in India who had their first smoke were influenced by tobacco use depicted in movies.
A repeat follow-up study conducted by WHO and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India on top box office movie hits during 2004-2005 demonstrated that tobacco use depiction in movies has become more aggressive as compared to previous years. During 2004-2005, 89% of all movies analyzed contained tobacco use on screen and 75.5% movies depicted leading stars using tobacco on screen. Moreover 41% of movies screened had clear and distinct tobacco brand placement.
Dr Ramadoss says categorically that stopping depiction of tobacco use in films is an evidence based public health measure.
India, says Dr Ramadoss, has the world's largest film industry rolling out over 900 films per year. Through cinema theatres, these movies reach 60 million people and through cable television network, they further reach another 70 million people in India. "Influence of cinema is paramount in India" says Dr Ramadoss.
Exposure to tobacco use in movies is clearly linked to youth tobacco use. Simply put, more must be done to ensure that tobacco use in movies is removed from films seen by our nation's youth. We have within our power one simple and effective way to jump start the decline in youth tobacco use - delete tobacco use in films from the list of influences that rob our youth of longer and healthier lives by removing tobacco use from movies, unless they clearly depict the negative health effects.
The influence of film-stars on the youth is paramount and let us hope the currently ongoing 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH), shall give an impetus to authorities to re-impose the ban on portrayal of smoking in films.
Bobby Ramakant
Youth refuse to be 'targetted' by the tobacco industry
Youth refuse to be 'targetted' by the tobacco industry
More than 80% of the tobacco use begins before the age of 18 years. The tobacco industry loses more than 5.4 million of its best customers every year as they die of causes attributed to tobacco use. Documents recovered from the tobacco industry reveal that the tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship campaigns are targetted to encourage young people and women to begin tobacco use.
Youth refuse to be targetted anymore by the tobacco industry, was the take-home message from the 2nd Global Youth Meet (GYM) held in the lead up to the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH), in Mumbai, India (6-7 March 2009). The GYM 2009 is being organized by Health-Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth (HRIDAY) and Salaam Bombay Foundation.
There are more than 160 youth from 27 countries and nine Indian states who are participating in the GYM 2009.
These youth from around the world convened for two days to come up with country-specific action plans on effectively implementing the smoke-free policies and ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in their respective countries. They also came up with a regional action plan to respond to issues that require a regional response and cannot be addressed at a country level.
All people have a fundamental right to breathe clean air. Smoke-free places are essential to protect non-smokers and also to encourage smokers to quit. That is why youth came up with action plans that they can work upon to enforce smoke-free policies when they return back to their own countries.
"Tobacco industry has been knowingly promoting a product that kills" said a presenter in the plenary session on the second day of GYM 2009. That is why the youth at GYM 2009 demanded total ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in their countries, regions and the world. Partial bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, do not work because the industry merely redirects its resources to other non-regulated marketing channels. Only a total ban can reduce tobacco consumption and protect people, particularly youth, from industry marketing tactics. Only 5% of the world's population currently lives in countries with comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
These young people shall also be participating in the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) which is being convened in Mumbai, India from 8-12 March 2009. During the WCTOH, these youth are organizing many advocacy events on issues around tobacco control like public marches in Mumbai, signature petition campaigns, and other such initiatives.
V Regunathan, who comes from Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu is committed to mobilize more than 10 million youth to sign on a petition demanding effective implementation of tobacco control policies.
Let us hope the voices of young people don’t get drowned in the noise by the misleading tobacco promotion of the tobacco industry. At least the youth at the WCTOH, have refused to be the targets of the industry, anymore. The struggle continues.
Bobby Ramakant
Published in
The World Conference on Tobacco or Health to open in India
The World Conference on Tobacco or Health to open in India
India is a host to the global conference on tobacco control for the first time in history. Also it is after a span of 12 years that the world conference on tobacco control is being held in a developing country. The 14th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health (WCTOH) is going to take place in Mumbai from 8th to 12th March 2009. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Global Tobacco Control: Multi Sectoral Approach To Tobacco Control—Policies, Pathways, Partners and People'.
The hosts for this conference are Salaam Bombay Foundation, ACT India, Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, Health Department of Maharashtra Government, Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco consumption. The World Health Organization is the technical sponsor for the conference and will actively facilitate discussion and implementation of successful tobacco control strategies.
It has come to a developing nation after 12 years, at a very opportune time when tobacco industry giants are busy establishing a foothold in the developing world. Multinational tobacco companies are presently engaged in an aggressive campaign to capture and convert India’s 250 million tobacco users, especially the youngsters.
India ranks second in the world, after China, in the consumption of tobacco products. About 230 million men and 11.9 million women consume tobacco in India . 17.3% males and 9.7% females in the age group of 13-15 years are smokers. The corresponding percentage in the 18-49 years group is 32.7 for males and 1.4 for females. A large number of youngsters are increasingly becoming addicted to smoking and chewing of paan masala and gutkha, with about 5 million Indian children below the age of 15 years being addicted to smoking. Tobacco consumption is growing in India at an alarming rate of 5-7% annually. It is the cause of 800,000 thousand deaths every year and is estimated to kill 1 million people annually from 2010---being responsible for one in five of all male deaths and one in twenty of all female deaths in the age group 30 to 69 years. Thus, India ’s future generation is at a grave risk and there is need to tackle the threat posed by tobacco consumption on a war footing.
According to a recent study conducted jointly by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation, the use of tobacco drains around 350 billion rupees from the Indian economy in the form of health care costs and productivity losses. So there is an urgent need to frame a long term and clear cut programme to phase out tobacco, not only from India , but from the entire world.
We are fortunate to have a proactive health ministry headed by Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, who has achieved successes on many fronts in implementing the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (2003) and is appealing to the cine stars who are generally role models for the youngsters to refrain from smoking in films, (and not send wrong signals to the youth). Yet, laws alone cannot rid us of this menace. A change in the attitude and will of people is of paramount importance. We need to build a new generation of anti tobacco advocates across the world to carry on the anti tobacco advocacy movement with renewed vigour.
This conference is going to provide an extraordinary opportunity to a diverse assemblage of tobacco control advocates, educators, policy makers, civil society members and scientists from all over the world to interact with each other. It will surely go a long way in advancing tobacco control in developing countries and providing a global perspective on tobacco control issues.
Shobha Shukla
(The author is the Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS) and also teaches physics at Loreto Convent. Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org)
India is a host to the global conference on tobacco control for the first time in history. Also it is after a span of 12 years that the world conference on tobacco control is being held in a developing country. The 14th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health (WCTOH) is going to take place in Mumbai from 8th to 12th March 2009. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Global Tobacco Control: Multi Sectoral Approach To Tobacco Control—Policies, Pathways, Partners and People'.
The hosts for this conference are Salaam Bombay Foundation, ACT India, Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, Health Department of Maharashtra Government, Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco consumption. The World Health Organization is the technical sponsor for the conference and will actively facilitate discussion and implementation of successful tobacco control strategies.
It has come to a developing nation after 12 years, at a very opportune time when tobacco industry giants are busy establishing a foothold in the developing world. Multinational tobacco companies are presently engaged in an aggressive campaign to capture and convert India’s 250 million tobacco users, especially the youngsters.
India ranks second in the world, after China, in the consumption of tobacco products. About 230 million men and 11.9 million women consume tobacco in India . 17.3% males and 9.7% females in the age group of 13-15 years are smokers. The corresponding percentage in the 18-49 years group is 32.7 for males and 1.4 for females. A large number of youngsters are increasingly becoming addicted to smoking and chewing of paan masala and gutkha, with about 5 million Indian children below the age of 15 years being addicted to smoking. Tobacco consumption is growing in India at an alarming rate of 5-7% annually. It is the cause of 800,000 thousand deaths every year and is estimated to kill 1 million people annually from 2010---being responsible for one in five of all male deaths and one in twenty of all female deaths in the age group 30 to 69 years. Thus, India ’s future generation is at a grave risk and there is need to tackle the threat posed by tobacco consumption on a war footing.
According to a recent study conducted jointly by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation, the use of tobacco drains around 350 billion rupees from the Indian economy in the form of health care costs and productivity losses. So there is an urgent need to frame a long term and clear cut programme to phase out tobacco, not only from India , but from the entire world.
We are fortunate to have a proactive health ministry headed by Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, who has achieved successes on many fronts in implementing the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (2003) and is appealing to the cine stars who are generally role models for the youngsters to refrain from smoking in films, (and not send wrong signals to the youth). Yet, laws alone cannot rid us of this menace. A change in the attitude and will of people is of paramount importance. We need to build a new generation of anti tobacco advocates across the world to carry on the anti tobacco advocacy movement with renewed vigour.
This conference is going to provide an extraordinary opportunity to a diverse assemblage of tobacco control advocates, educators, policy makers, civil society members and scientists from all over the world to interact with each other. It will surely go a long way in advancing tobacco control in developing countries and providing a global perspective on tobacco control issues.
Shobha Shukla
(The author is the Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS) and also teaches physics at Loreto Convent. Email: shobha@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org)
For the people by the people, finally!
For the people by the people, finally!
Anjali Singh
Lucknow:The democratic process may finally find expression politically if the newly constituted forum of social activists taking up people’s causes has its way.
Called the People’s Politics Front (Lok Rajniti Manch), it held its first national convention at Lucknow at the Ganga Prasad Memorial Hall in Aminabad. The convention saw a huge turn out of supporters from UP and its surrounding states including Kushinagar, Agra, Hardoi, Sitapur, Sultanpur, Faizabad, and even Samaspur Bihar and New Delhi.
Mooted by well known columnist Kuldip Nayar, People's Politics Front has been formed to build a political alternative in the country so that people's issues can be brought to center-stage.
Says Nayar, “The aim is to bring organizations working for people’s causes at grass root levels under one forum. The vision I have for PPF is to see it take the shape the Green Party did in Europe. There is so much that is not right with the political scene in the country today so the effort of PPF will be to expose the dominant model of mainstream political parties which rely on muscle power, money power and unscrupulous ways for winning elections so that this practice can be rejected. We don’t have a symbol or a flag but our presence will be felt and soon.”
Lamenting on the filmy touch that political leaders have given the elections today Nayar further added, “Everything today has become so filmy be it politicians, the electoral process or even the newspapers and news channels that cover them. But now Bollywood has joined us too to play its positive role to help bring in that change. Mahesh Bhatt too is a part of PPF now and will do his part in the entertainment arena as a representative of Lok Rajniti Manch. “
But while the PPF will participate in the electoral process their involvement will be just that of a supporting hand to contestants wanting to fight the elections. This will be done by fielding candidates from the masses itself.
Explains Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee and a well known social activist, “We will provide a platform to local leadership who have earned the love and trust of the people by taking up their causes. If they wish to contest the elections PPF will support them in every way. Therefore instead of having a party president we will have a presidium which will reflect the people’s views and choices."
Agrees Sunil, a member of Samajwadi Jan Parishad from Maharashtra who is apart of the forum, “Post independence promises were made that every child would be provided education within a year. So many decades have passed since then but these promises remain unfulfilled. But why only education promises made for health, employment, equality all have been broken. Today those who call themselves ‘daliton ka neta’ have crores to spend on their b’day celebrations but don’t bother about several thousands who are starving. This system will have to change and PPF can provide that forum for change.”
A fact which most candidates who will be contesting from the platform being provided endorse.
Like 28 year old Neel Kamal, a electoral candidate from Misrik Sitapur who is up against BSP’s Ashok Rawat and BJP’s Ram Prakash Rawat. But he is confident that he will be victorious as the issues he will pick up are people’s problems.
“Mera koi muddaa nahin hai sirf logo ki awaaz ko uthana hai. I will voice their concerns, their pains and their problems and if they feel I am right they will support me. “
And this direct and in your face attitude of these young contestants is already creating ripples as inform members of Project Vijay, a youth organization formed by students of Lucknow, Allahabad and Bundelkhand University as well as IITians , who have taken up cudgels against corruption and the corrupt.
Say Himanshu Swarkar and Mahendra Pratap Singh who are also part of PPF now, “We have filed Right to Information (RTI) applications against 13 well known political leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Raj Babbar, Salim Sherwani, Kamla Prakash Rawat, Bhanu Pratap Verma, Raja Bhaiya, Sanjay Dutt to name a few. The information received is shocking as no one is clean as they project themselves to be. All this has to be exposed and we will do it.”
But as upbeat as that sounds, will the problems of the masses find a voice in the parliament?
“Why not?” says Nayar, “The candidates who win will be representing PPF in the Rajya and Lok Sabha. They will have the support of activists like Medha Patkar, Aruna Rai, Rajendra Sacchar, Yogendra Yadav and many more who are members of PPF.”
But how far that would help only time will tell.
Anjali Singh
(The author is a senior journalist based in Lucknow, India. Email: saakshamforchildrights@gmail.com)
Published in
Anjali Singh
Lucknow:The democratic process may finally find expression politically if the newly constituted forum of social activists taking up people’s causes has its way.
Called the People’s Politics Front (Lok Rajniti Manch), it held its first national convention at Lucknow at the Ganga Prasad Memorial Hall in Aminabad. The convention saw a huge turn out of supporters from UP and its surrounding states including Kushinagar, Agra, Hardoi, Sitapur, Sultanpur, Faizabad, and even Samaspur Bihar and New Delhi.
Mooted by well known columnist Kuldip Nayar, People's Politics Front has been formed to build a political alternative in the country so that people's issues can be brought to center-stage.
Says Nayar, “The aim is to bring organizations working for people’s causes at grass root levels under one forum. The vision I have for PPF is to see it take the shape the Green Party did in Europe. There is so much that is not right with the political scene in the country today so the effort of PPF will be to expose the dominant model of mainstream political parties which rely on muscle power, money power and unscrupulous ways for winning elections so that this practice can be rejected. We don’t have a symbol or a flag but our presence will be felt and soon.”
Lamenting on the filmy touch that political leaders have given the elections today Nayar further added, “Everything today has become so filmy be it politicians, the electoral process or even the newspapers and news channels that cover them. But now Bollywood has joined us too to play its positive role to help bring in that change. Mahesh Bhatt too is a part of PPF now and will do his part in the entertainment arena as a representative of Lok Rajniti Manch. “
But while the PPF will participate in the electoral process their involvement will be just that of a supporting hand to contestants wanting to fight the elections. This will be done by fielding candidates from the masses itself.
Explains Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee and a well known social activist, “We will provide a platform to local leadership who have earned the love and trust of the people by taking up their causes. If they wish to contest the elections PPF will support them in every way. Therefore instead of having a party president we will have a presidium which will reflect the people’s views and choices."
Agrees Sunil, a member of Samajwadi Jan Parishad from Maharashtra who is apart of the forum, “Post independence promises were made that every child would be provided education within a year. So many decades have passed since then but these promises remain unfulfilled. But why only education promises made for health, employment, equality all have been broken. Today those who call themselves ‘daliton ka neta’ have crores to spend on their b’day celebrations but don’t bother about several thousands who are starving. This system will have to change and PPF can provide that forum for change.”
A fact which most candidates who will be contesting from the platform being provided endorse.
Like 28 year old Neel Kamal, a electoral candidate from Misrik Sitapur who is up against BSP’s Ashok Rawat and BJP’s Ram Prakash Rawat. But he is confident that he will be victorious as the issues he will pick up are people’s problems.
“Mera koi muddaa nahin hai sirf logo ki awaaz ko uthana hai. I will voice their concerns, their pains and their problems and if they feel I am right they will support me. “
And this direct and in your face attitude of these young contestants is already creating ripples as inform members of Project Vijay, a youth organization formed by students of Lucknow, Allahabad and Bundelkhand University as well as IITians , who have taken up cudgels against corruption and the corrupt.
Say Himanshu Swarkar and Mahendra Pratap Singh who are also part of PPF now, “We have filed Right to Information (RTI) applications against 13 well known political leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Raj Babbar, Salim Sherwani, Kamla Prakash Rawat, Bhanu Pratap Verma, Raja Bhaiya, Sanjay Dutt to name a few. The information received is shocking as no one is clean as they project themselves to be. All this has to be exposed and we will do it.”
But as upbeat as that sounds, will the problems of the masses find a voice in the parliament?
“Why not?” says Nayar, “The candidates who win will be representing PPF in the Rajya and Lok Sabha. They will have the support of activists like Medha Patkar, Aruna Rai, Rajendra Sacchar, Yogendra Yadav and many more who are members of PPF.”
But how far that would help only time will tell.
Anjali Singh
(The author is a senior journalist based in Lucknow, India. Email: saakshamforchildrights@gmail.com)
Published in
Resume dialogue between India and Pakistan
Resume dialogue between India and Pakistan
We believe that the resumption of dialogue process between Indian and Pakistani governments is crucial in resolving issues that threaten peace.
To maintain peace between the two nations, it is important to strengthen democracy in Pakistan and support the democratically elected government so that it can effectively control terrorist forces.
It is vital to take proper action against terrorist forces in both nations. Pakistan should take stern action against the terrorism strikes that have occurred in India.
Recently an Indian peace delegation that went to Pakistan had found that there was an agreement for a full and transparent investigation of the Mumbai terror attacks along with speedy conviction of the guilty. This was matched by a strong desire for peace with India particularly as the Pakistani themselves are facing terrorist attacks all over their country.
The delegation stressed that this would be attainable provided that action by the Pakistan government was taken to its "logical conclusion". The Taliban and extremist groups have spread their hold over the SWAT and FATA areas. Pakistanis now are very concerned that they will move further in to the heartland of Pakistan and eventually pose a real danger to India too.
There was an agreement that terrorism is a common danger and that both India and Pakistan need to work together to contain this increasing threat.
We also condemn the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team players in Pakistan.
In these troubled times, it is all the more compelling to maintain peace and harmony in South Asian region by strengthening the movement for nuclear disarmament and visa-free south Asia.
The terrorist forces are attempting to derail us from restoring peace and normalcy between the two nations and we should refrain from becoming influenced by their ill-intentions.
We extend our support to all those forces that are committed to establishing and strengthening democracy, peace and harmony in the South Asian region.
Karamat Ali (PILER), Dr Sandeep Pandey (Magsaysay Awardee 2002), Mohammad Wasi Siddiqui, Arundhati Dhuru (National Alliance of People's Movements - NAPM), Irfan Ahmed (Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy - PIPFPD, UP Chapter)
We believe that the resumption of dialogue process between Indian and Pakistani governments is crucial in resolving issues that threaten peace.
To maintain peace between the two nations, it is important to strengthen democracy in Pakistan and support the democratically elected government so that it can effectively control terrorist forces.
It is vital to take proper action against terrorist forces in both nations. Pakistan should take stern action against the terrorism strikes that have occurred in India.
Recently an Indian peace delegation that went to Pakistan had found that there was an agreement for a full and transparent investigation of the Mumbai terror attacks along with speedy conviction of the guilty. This was matched by a strong desire for peace with India particularly as the Pakistani themselves are facing terrorist attacks all over their country.
The delegation stressed that this would be attainable provided that action by the Pakistan government was taken to its "logical conclusion". The Taliban and extremist groups have spread their hold over the SWAT and FATA areas. Pakistanis now are very concerned that they will move further in to the heartland of Pakistan and eventually pose a real danger to India too.
There was an agreement that terrorism is a common danger and that both India and Pakistan need to work together to contain this increasing threat.
We also condemn the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team players in Pakistan.
In these troubled times, it is all the more compelling to maintain peace and harmony in South Asian region by strengthening the movement for nuclear disarmament and visa-free south Asia.
The terrorist forces are attempting to derail us from restoring peace and normalcy between the two nations and we should refrain from becoming influenced by their ill-intentions.
We extend our support to all those forces that are committed to establishing and strengthening democracy, peace and harmony in the South Asian region.
Karamat Ali (PILER), Dr Sandeep Pandey (Magsaysay Awardee 2002), Mohammad Wasi Siddiqui, Arundhati Dhuru (National Alliance of People's Movements - NAPM), Irfan Ahmed (Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy - PIPFPD, UP Chapter)
Engaging lower income countries in climate change mitigation efforts
Engaging low-income countries in climate change mitigation
Dr Rahul Pandey
With Obama administration adopting a progressive outlook toward climate change, a consensus seems likely this year among the high income countries about post-Kyoto mitigation commitments. With growing realization that drastic and early greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cut will be necessary in order to achieve Carbon di-oxide (CO2) stabilization level of 450 ppmv (or 550 ppmv CO2 equivalent of total GHG), CO2 mitigation targets of 20-30% by 2020 and 50-70% by 2050 (compared to 1990 level), besides the call for ‘low carbon society’, are being heard in the various international forums for more than a year now. Several countries of the European Union and Japan have already begun taking serious actions. The next Conference of Parties, to be held later this year, will most likely witness a formalization of this consensus.
As the high income world is coming out of its internal differences, the focus of heated international debate on climate change is now shifting to the lower income world whose countries are often referred by ideologically loaded labels of ‘less-developed’, ‘developing’ and ‘emerging’ economies. The uppermost concern on everyone’s mind is to figure out a way to get the lower income countries, especially the major ones like China, India and Brazil, to make concrete commitment. The reasons for this overarching concern are simple – Economic growth and resultant emissions of these countries are growing at a rapid pace; China and India are already among the top five GHG emitters; and even if the rest of the world stabilizes its emissions at 1990 level while China and India continue to grow as expected, the world emissions cannot stabilize anywhere close to 450 ppmv in this century.
India and China have so far argued, with reason, that the high income world is responsible for most of the historical rise of GHG emissions. Despite high growth the per capita emissions of the lower income nations will remain much below that of the high income nations for several decades in the future. In addition, they argue, that more critical domestic economic imperatives of growth and poverty reduction will be compromised by aggressive climate change mitigation efforts. These concerns are as valid as those outlined in the previous paragraph.
This begets the question: what kind of strategies and commitments can the lower income countries make that will satisfy the two sides? It is now widely accepted that even if these countries do not make reduction commitments in the near future, they cannot escape from the responsibility of undertaking drastic emissions cut in the longer run, say, after two decades when, by conservative estimate, their per capita GDP would be over three times and emissions more than twice the current levels. In the absence of any commitment in the next two decades, their economies would become locked into high emissions and unsustainable development trajectory. On the one hand, the cost of reversing the trend will become prohibitively high then. On the other hand, it would be foolish if we do not learn from both the past folly and current but belated corrective efforts of the West.
Therefore, the practical questions is: even if the lower income countries do not make direct GHG mitigation commitment in the short run, what preparatory actions can they commit to that will lay the platform for them to transit to a drastic mitigation path in the longer run? And what support can the high income world guarantee them to facilitate such laying of platform and smooth transition?
These are two interlinked parts to the solution. First, to identify near-term strategies and implementation roadmap for the lower income countries that would enable them to move on to a drastic mitigation path in the longer term without compromising domestic development goals. Second, to work out a package of support that they would receive from the high income countries for this purpose. The near-term (say, 2020) post-Kyoto targets for the lower income countries must derive from such a solution for them to be acceptable to all the parties.
In the next couple of decades, countries like China and India have two sets of domestic goals to meet – (i) Economic goals, like economic prosperity and poverty eradication, and (ii) Environmental-ecological goals, like local pollution control and sustainable use of natural resources. The government, non-government and private agencies are going to invest significant resources towards various economic and social ends. The policy challenge is to channel those investments in such a way as to meet the above two sets of goals simultaneously with the third one, i.e. to put the economy on to a low carbon path in the longer run.
The strategies that lie at the intersection of these three goals – economic, local environment-ecological, global climate change – will meet the challenge. The following paragraphs will illustrate such strategies with examples relevant for India.
As one example, the government spending for infrastructure, especially the infrastructure of road and rail (as part of public transport systems), decentralized water supply and decentralized electricity supply systems in the rural areas, can meet multiple objectives of rural employment generation, recovery from economic downturn, sustainable resource use, and greenhouse gas mitigation. Laying of road and rail transport infrastructure to rural areas will facilitate supply of modern products and services to rural markets. Simultaneously establishing services of installation, maintenance and financing of clean and efficient technologies in rural areas will remove barrier to diffusion of such technologies. Using such infrastructure and services to push efficient end-use technologies like energy efficient architectures, compact fluorescent lamps and efficient electric pumpsets, and decentralized and clean energy supply systems like solar PV, solar thermal, wind, small hydro and biomass gasifier can benefit both the economy and the environment.
As another example, planning new and expanding urban areas in such a way as to build in features like waste management and recycling of waste and water, use of solar thermal and PV systems for houses and commercial buildings, use of eco-friendly architectural designs, expanding public transportation, creating pedestrian and bicycle-friendly pathways, and co-locating work places with residences, can cut energy use drastically besides improving the quality of life. Training and engaging the urban poor in the management of resultant new services like waste management and recycling, supply of solar systems and public transport systems, can simultaneously create employment opportunities. Such economy and environment friendly urban designs can be easily planned and implemented from scratch in the new urban concentrations that countries like India and China will witness as part of rapid urbanization in the next few decades.
As yet another example, building R&D and innovation capability in the lower income countries in new technology systems that are radically efficient and environment friendly, will add to competitive advantage of their industries besides helping to mitigate climate change. The governments of these countries have a major role to play in catalyzing such innovative capability creation, for instance, by supporting initial R&D investments in both public and private organizations, creating initial demand, and helping establish the supply chains for making new innovations reach the markets efficiently. However, the rich countries and the international agencies have the responsibility to put in place certain mechanisms that facilitate transfer of not only technology but also innovation capability to the lower income countries. Although several CDMs have been implemented in countries like India and China, they have mostly led to incremental efficiency improvement. This was because CDMs have been passive instruments of technology transfer and do not offer opportunities for building real innovation capability and core competence in industries in the lower income nations. For them to be meaningfully acceptable and contribute to drastic mitigation, CDMs need to be integrated with active international industry collaborative arrangements.
These examples are merely to illustrate the feasibility of innovative strategies that can help the lower income countries meet both domestic economic and environmental goals and global climate change mitigation goals. The workable strategies have to be specific to each country depending on its domestic policy imperatives and resource endowments. Both high and lower income countries need to jointly work out these strategies for the latter, implementation roadmap, measures of performance, periodic (post-Kyoto) targets and monitoring mechanisms. The implementation roadmap must include actions on the part of both domestic (lower income nations’) governments and high income nations. The measures of performance, in order to be comprehensive, need to cover both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the implementation process.
These are the hard challenges of the post-Kyoto negotiations. The sooner the nations realize these realities, the better it will be for everyone and for the humanity.
Dr Rahul Pandey
(The author is a former faculty member of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow.
He is currently a founder member of a start up venture that develops mathematical models for planning and policy analysis. Some of the key points of this article were presented by the author in a workshop on climate change organized by the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan in Tokyo in late February 2009. He can be contacted at rahulanjula@gmail.com)
Published in
Dr Rahul Pandey
With Obama administration adopting a progressive outlook toward climate change, a consensus seems likely this year among the high income countries about post-Kyoto mitigation commitments. With growing realization that drastic and early greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cut will be necessary in order to achieve Carbon di-oxide (CO2) stabilization level of 450 ppmv (or 550 ppmv CO2 equivalent of total GHG), CO2 mitigation targets of 20-30% by 2020 and 50-70% by 2050 (compared to 1990 level), besides the call for ‘low carbon society’, are being heard in the various international forums for more than a year now. Several countries of the European Union and Japan have already begun taking serious actions. The next Conference of Parties, to be held later this year, will most likely witness a formalization of this consensus.
As the high income world is coming out of its internal differences, the focus of heated international debate on climate change is now shifting to the lower income world whose countries are often referred by ideologically loaded labels of ‘less-developed’, ‘developing’ and ‘emerging’ economies. The uppermost concern on everyone’s mind is to figure out a way to get the lower income countries, especially the major ones like China, India and Brazil, to make concrete commitment. The reasons for this overarching concern are simple – Economic growth and resultant emissions of these countries are growing at a rapid pace; China and India are already among the top five GHG emitters; and even if the rest of the world stabilizes its emissions at 1990 level while China and India continue to grow as expected, the world emissions cannot stabilize anywhere close to 450 ppmv in this century.
India and China have so far argued, with reason, that the high income world is responsible for most of the historical rise of GHG emissions. Despite high growth the per capita emissions of the lower income nations will remain much below that of the high income nations for several decades in the future. In addition, they argue, that more critical domestic economic imperatives of growth and poverty reduction will be compromised by aggressive climate change mitigation efforts. These concerns are as valid as those outlined in the previous paragraph.
This begets the question: what kind of strategies and commitments can the lower income countries make that will satisfy the two sides? It is now widely accepted that even if these countries do not make reduction commitments in the near future, they cannot escape from the responsibility of undertaking drastic emissions cut in the longer run, say, after two decades when, by conservative estimate, their per capita GDP would be over three times and emissions more than twice the current levels. In the absence of any commitment in the next two decades, their economies would become locked into high emissions and unsustainable development trajectory. On the one hand, the cost of reversing the trend will become prohibitively high then. On the other hand, it would be foolish if we do not learn from both the past folly and current but belated corrective efforts of the West.
Therefore, the practical questions is: even if the lower income countries do not make direct GHG mitigation commitment in the short run, what preparatory actions can they commit to that will lay the platform for them to transit to a drastic mitigation path in the longer run? And what support can the high income world guarantee them to facilitate such laying of platform and smooth transition?
These are two interlinked parts to the solution. First, to identify near-term strategies and implementation roadmap for the lower income countries that would enable them to move on to a drastic mitigation path in the longer term without compromising domestic development goals. Second, to work out a package of support that they would receive from the high income countries for this purpose. The near-term (say, 2020) post-Kyoto targets for the lower income countries must derive from such a solution for them to be acceptable to all the parties.
In the next couple of decades, countries like China and India have two sets of domestic goals to meet – (i) Economic goals, like economic prosperity and poverty eradication, and (ii) Environmental-ecological goals, like local pollution control and sustainable use of natural resources. The government, non-government and private agencies are going to invest significant resources towards various economic and social ends. The policy challenge is to channel those investments in such a way as to meet the above two sets of goals simultaneously with the third one, i.e. to put the economy on to a low carbon path in the longer run.
The strategies that lie at the intersection of these three goals – economic, local environment-ecological, global climate change – will meet the challenge. The following paragraphs will illustrate such strategies with examples relevant for India.
As one example, the government spending for infrastructure, especially the infrastructure of road and rail (as part of public transport systems), decentralized water supply and decentralized electricity supply systems in the rural areas, can meet multiple objectives of rural employment generation, recovery from economic downturn, sustainable resource use, and greenhouse gas mitigation. Laying of road and rail transport infrastructure to rural areas will facilitate supply of modern products and services to rural markets. Simultaneously establishing services of installation, maintenance and financing of clean and efficient technologies in rural areas will remove barrier to diffusion of such technologies. Using such infrastructure and services to push efficient end-use technologies like energy efficient architectures, compact fluorescent lamps and efficient electric pumpsets, and decentralized and clean energy supply systems like solar PV, solar thermal, wind, small hydro and biomass gasifier can benefit both the economy and the environment.
As another example, planning new and expanding urban areas in such a way as to build in features like waste management and recycling of waste and water, use of solar thermal and PV systems for houses and commercial buildings, use of eco-friendly architectural designs, expanding public transportation, creating pedestrian and bicycle-friendly pathways, and co-locating work places with residences, can cut energy use drastically besides improving the quality of life. Training and engaging the urban poor in the management of resultant new services like waste management and recycling, supply of solar systems and public transport systems, can simultaneously create employment opportunities. Such economy and environment friendly urban designs can be easily planned and implemented from scratch in the new urban concentrations that countries like India and China will witness as part of rapid urbanization in the next few decades.
As yet another example, building R&D and innovation capability in the lower income countries in new technology systems that are radically efficient and environment friendly, will add to competitive advantage of their industries besides helping to mitigate climate change. The governments of these countries have a major role to play in catalyzing such innovative capability creation, for instance, by supporting initial R&D investments in both public and private organizations, creating initial demand, and helping establish the supply chains for making new innovations reach the markets efficiently. However, the rich countries and the international agencies have the responsibility to put in place certain mechanisms that facilitate transfer of not only technology but also innovation capability to the lower income countries. Although several CDMs have been implemented in countries like India and China, they have mostly led to incremental efficiency improvement. This was because CDMs have been passive instruments of technology transfer and do not offer opportunities for building real innovation capability and core competence in industries in the lower income nations. For them to be meaningfully acceptable and contribute to drastic mitigation, CDMs need to be integrated with active international industry collaborative arrangements.
These examples are merely to illustrate the feasibility of innovative strategies that can help the lower income countries meet both domestic economic and environmental goals and global climate change mitigation goals. The workable strategies have to be specific to each country depending on its domestic policy imperatives and resource endowments. Both high and lower income countries need to jointly work out these strategies for the latter, implementation roadmap, measures of performance, periodic (post-Kyoto) targets and monitoring mechanisms. The implementation roadmap must include actions on the part of both domestic (lower income nations’) governments and high income nations. The measures of performance, in order to be comprehensive, need to cover both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the implementation process.
These are the hard challenges of the post-Kyoto negotiations. The sooner the nations realize these realities, the better it will be for everyone and for the humanity.
Dr Rahul Pandey
(The author is a former faculty member of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow.He is currently a founder member of a start up venture that develops mathematical models for planning and policy analysis. Some of the key points of this article were presented by the author in a workshop on climate change organized by the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan in Tokyo in late February 2009. He can be contacted at rahulanjula@gmail.com)
Published in
National convention of People's Politics Front in Lucknow
National convention of People's Politics Front in Lucknow
The first national convention of People's Politics Front (PPF) shall be convened in the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, on 5-6 March 2009.
"People's Politics Front has been formed to build a political alternative in the country so that people's issues can be brought to center-stage and the dominant model of mainstream political parties which rely on muscle power, money power and unscrupulous ways for winning elections can be rejected" said Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay awardee (2002) for emergent Leadership and senior social activist.
"PPF is slowly but surely rising from its inception stage" remarked Arundhati Dhuru, the firebrand leader of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM).
On 5 March 2009, a public meeting shall be held in Ganga Prasad Memorial Hall, Aminabad, Lucknow, and on the second day, 6 March 2009, a meeting of social activists shall be convened in the Common Hall, B Block, Darul Shafa, opposite Vidhan Sabha, Lucknow.
"People's issues highlighted through various people's movements are sadly not at the centre-stage in the elections," said Dr Sandeep Pandey.
NAPM, the largest network of grassroots people's struggles in India, had come up with People's Politics Front before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. PPF gives voice and a platform to grassroots activists to participate in the electoral process.
"PPF is trying to increase representation and meaningful participation of the most underserved communities. It is within this context that the role of people's movements becomes imperative. The movements have been 'in politics', as they have been shaping and trying to change the power structure and decision making processes within society. That is what politics is all about. Electoral politics is one of the dimensions of the larger political sphere" explained Arundhati Dhuru, who apart from leading NAPM, is also a Narmada Bachao Andolan frontline veteran activist, who is actively working on Right-to-food, RTI (Right to Information) and NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) all across the UP state.
"Even within electoral politics, the people's movements have been participating in various capacities, either by pressurising existing political parties to integrate peoples' issues into their agenda, creating awareness among the voters, trying to weed out corruption and malpractice, and supporting suitable political parties. Contesting the election by the members of people's movements is again one of the ways of direct intervention into electoral politics."
Keshav Chand, another grassroots leader from Deoria, said that "people's movements must have a say in policy making. Right to work and food for work must be made fundamental rights."
There are many grassroots leaders who are likely to attend this national convention, including: Mahesh Kumar Pandey from Kanpur, Ram Sagar Verma from Hardoi, Keshav Chand from Deoria, Jaishankar from Chandauli, Prem Kumar from Moradabad, Nandlal from Varanasi and others.
"Corporatisation and criminalisation of politics is a major concern," said Dr Sandeep Pandey. "The PPF's decision to enter electoral politics was aimed at changing the nature of politics," he said.
The first national convention of People's Politics Front (PPF) shall be convened in the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, on 5-6 March 2009.
"People's Politics Front has been formed to build a political alternative in the country so that people's issues can be brought to center-stage and the dominant model of mainstream political parties which rely on muscle power, money power and unscrupulous ways for winning elections can be rejected" said Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay awardee (2002) for emergent Leadership and senior social activist.
"PPF is slowly but surely rising from its inception stage" remarked Arundhati Dhuru, the firebrand leader of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM).
On 5 March 2009, a public meeting shall be held in Ganga Prasad Memorial Hall, Aminabad, Lucknow, and on the second day, 6 March 2009, a meeting of social activists shall be convened in the Common Hall, B Block, Darul Shafa, opposite Vidhan Sabha, Lucknow.
"People's issues highlighted through various people's movements are sadly not at the centre-stage in the elections," said Dr Sandeep Pandey.
NAPM, the largest network of grassroots people's struggles in India, had come up with People's Politics Front before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. PPF gives voice and a platform to grassroots activists to participate in the electoral process.
"PPF is trying to increase representation and meaningful participation of the most underserved communities. It is within this context that the role of people's movements becomes imperative. The movements have been 'in politics', as they have been shaping and trying to change the power structure and decision making processes within society. That is what politics is all about. Electoral politics is one of the dimensions of the larger political sphere" explained Arundhati Dhuru, who apart from leading NAPM, is also a Narmada Bachao Andolan frontline veteran activist, who is actively working on Right-to-food, RTI (Right to Information) and NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) all across the UP state.
"Even within electoral politics, the people's movements have been participating in various capacities, either by pressurising existing political parties to integrate peoples' issues into their agenda, creating awareness among the voters, trying to weed out corruption and malpractice, and supporting suitable political parties. Contesting the election by the members of people's movements is again one of the ways of direct intervention into electoral politics."
Keshav Chand, another grassroots leader from Deoria, said that "people's movements must have a say in policy making. Right to work and food for work must be made fundamental rights."
There are many grassroots leaders who are likely to attend this national convention, including: Mahesh Kumar Pandey from Kanpur, Ram Sagar Verma from Hardoi, Keshav Chand from Deoria, Jaishankar from Chandauli, Prem Kumar from Moradabad, Nandlal from Varanasi and others.
"Corporatisation and criminalisation of politics is a major concern," said Dr Sandeep Pandey. "The PPF's decision to enter electoral politics was aimed at changing the nature of politics," he said.
Vitamin A supplements reduces child mortality by over 20 per cent
Vitamin A supplements reduces child mortality by over 20 per cent
The vitamin A supplementation of infants and children can potentially reduce child mortality by over 20 per cent, said Howard B. Schiffer, founder and President of Vitamin Angels in an interactive
community health literacy programme organized hardly 25 kilometers away from the state council house of Uttar Pradesh in India. I wonder if the policy makers in the state parliament were aware that a cost-effective intervention like vitamin A supplementation can reduce child mortality by over 20 per cent!
The state of Uttar Pradesh qualifies for this vitamin A supplementation programme because of chronic malnutrition, high vitamin A deficiency prevalence, and high rates of infant and child mortality, informed Howard.
Vitamin A deficiency does its worst damage during childhood and is a major contributor to child mortality and illness. The most commonly known effect of vitamin A deficiency is blindness. Less well known is that vitamin A is also essential for functioning of the immune system. “Even before blindness occurs, vitamin A-deficient children are at risk of dying from infectious diseases such as measles, diarrhea and malaria” said Arulmony Thangaswamy, the President of Believers Church.
However when the Vitamin Angels began this initiative to save lives more than a decade ago, particularly of young children, they weren’t aware of the impact of this intervention – they knew the significance of providing vitamin A supplementation but the global mandate came only last year at the Copenhagen Consensus.
At the Copenhagen Consensus 2008, more than 50 economists have worked to find the best solutions to ten of the world’s biggest challenges. During the last week of May 2008, an expert panel of 8 top economists, including five Nobel Laureates, sat down to assess the research. Combating malnutrition among the 140 million children who are undernourished was ranked number one. Providing micronutrients for 80% of the 140 million children who lack essential vitamins would cost just USD 60 million per year, according to the analysis. More importantly, this action promises yearly benefits - in the form of better health, fewer deaths, increased future earnings, etc - of more than USD 1 billion. Each dollar has a return of USD 17 - making this an incredible investment for donor nations and organizations.
Vitamin Angels is committed to eradicating childhood blindness due to Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) on the planet by the year 2020, which is referred to as Operation 20/20.
Vitamin A is critical for vision, bone growth and normal bodily development, and plays an active role in supporting a child's immune system. Today, half of the children who go blind from Vitamin A deficiency die each year from opportunistic infections and otherwise non-life-threatening illnesses.
“In addition to the vitamin A, all the children will receive de-worming medicine to improve the absorption of the vitamin A and help combat intestinal parasites” informed Howard Schiffer. Delivering vitamin A capsules and de-worming tablets together makes sense for health reasons:
* Parasites will consume the vitamin A before the child can absorb it.
* Worm infections and vitamin A deficiency both have serious health repercussions for a growing child and cause infection and disease.
The evidence demonstrating how worm infections damage a child’s health is unambiguous: worm infections are associated with a significant loss of micronutrients. It can cause significant vitamin A mal-absorption, which can aggravate malnutrition and anemia rates and contribute to retarded growth. A child’s physical fitness and appetite are negatively affected and his/ her cognitive performance at school is compromised. The constant and life long immune activation due to worm infections reduces the body’s capacity to resist other infections. Therefore to complement the impact of these simple health interventions, vitamin Angels are providing vitamin A supplementation along with the de-worming tablets.
Jojo Mathews, from Believers Church in Lucknow where the health camp was organized, had contributed immensely in mobilizing people from the neighbouring communities to benefit from this health initiative. Many children were administered vitamin A and de-worming pills. Hundreds of people from neighbouring area were benefiting from this initiative. Hardly half-a kilometer away from this church which was catering to the health needs of the community, stands the majestic premises of a state-of-the-art super-speciality medical institute. This indeed poses a question whether our health programmes are meeting people’s need, and investing resources optimally?
Bobby Ramakant
Published in
Media for Freedom, Kathmandu, Nepal
Citizen News Service (CNS)
The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
The vitamin A supplementation of infants and children can potentially reduce child mortality by over 20 per cent, said Howard B. Schiffer, founder and President of Vitamin Angels in an interactive
community health literacy programme organized hardly 25 kilometers away from the state council house of Uttar Pradesh in India. I wonder if the policy makers in the state parliament were aware that a cost-effective intervention like vitamin A supplementation can reduce child mortality by over 20 per cent!The state of Uttar Pradesh qualifies for this vitamin A supplementation programme because of chronic malnutrition, high vitamin A deficiency prevalence, and high rates of infant and child mortality, informed Howard.
Vitamin A deficiency does its worst damage during childhood and is a major contributor to child mortality and illness. The most commonly known effect of vitamin A deficiency is blindness. Less well known is that vitamin A is also essential for functioning of the immune system. “Even before blindness occurs, vitamin A-deficient children are at risk of dying from infectious diseases such as measles, diarrhea and malaria” said Arulmony Thangaswamy, the President of Believers Church.
However when the Vitamin Angels began this initiative to save lives more than a decade ago, particularly of young children, they weren’t aware of the impact of this intervention – they knew the significance of providing vitamin A supplementation but the global mandate came only last year at the Copenhagen Consensus.At the Copenhagen Consensus 2008, more than 50 economists have worked to find the best solutions to ten of the world’s biggest challenges. During the last week of May 2008, an expert panel of 8 top economists, including five Nobel Laureates, sat down to assess the research. Combating malnutrition among the 140 million children who are undernourished was ranked number one. Providing micronutrients for 80% of the 140 million children who lack essential vitamins would cost just USD 60 million per year, according to the analysis. More importantly, this action promises yearly benefits - in the form of better health, fewer deaths, increased future earnings, etc - of more than USD 1 billion. Each dollar has a return of USD 17 - making this an incredible investment for donor nations and organizations.
Vitamin Angels is committed to eradicating childhood blindness due to Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) on the planet by the year 2020, which is referred to as Operation 20/20.
Vitamin A is critical for vision, bone growth and normal bodily development, and plays an active role in supporting a child's immune system. Today, half of the children who go blind from Vitamin A deficiency die each year from opportunistic infections and otherwise non-life-threatening illnesses.“In addition to the vitamin A, all the children will receive de-worming medicine to improve the absorption of the vitamin A and help combat intestinal parasites” informed Howard Schiffer. Delivering vitamin A capsules and de-worming tablets together makes sense for health reasons:
* Parasites will consume the vitamin A before the child can absorb it.
* Worm infections and vitamin A deficiency both have serious health repercussions for a growing child and cause infection and disease.
The evidence demonstrating how worm infections damage a child’s health is unambiguous: worm infections are associated with a significant loss of micronutrients. It can cause significant vitamin A mal-absorption, which can aggravate malnutrition and anemia rates and contribute to retarded growth. A child’s physical fitness and appetite are negatively affected and his/ her cognitive performance at school is compromised. The constant and life long immune activation due to worm infections reduces the body’s capacity to resist other infections. Therefore to complement the impact of these simple health interventions, vitamin Angels are providing vitamin A supplementation along with the de-worming tablets.Jojo Mathews, from Believers Church in Lucknow where the health camp was organized, had contributed immensely in mobilizing people from the neighbouring communities to benefit from this health initiative. Many children were administered vitamin A and de-worming pills. Hundreds of people from neighbouring area were benefiting from this initiative. Hardly half-a kilometer away from this church which was catering to the health needs of the community, stands the majestic premises of a state-of-the-art super-speciality medical institute. This indeed poses a question whether our health programmes are meeting people’s need, and investing resources optimally?
Bobby Ramakant
Published in
Media for Freedom, Kathmandu, Nepal
Citizen News Service (CNS)
The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
Evidence is key in improving health responses during financial crisis
Evidence is key in improving health responses during financial crisis
The study of causes, distribution, spread and control of diseases in populations, epidemiology, is a fundamental science and an integral part of public health. Epidemiology has helped address old public health challenges and continues to be a tool to investigate new challenges by providing evidence required for sound public health action.
Efforts to strengthen epidemiology should remain a priority of Member States even when plagued by the challenge of climate change, an energy crisis or a global financial crisis.
"To address each of these challenges, what we need is the information or the evidence or data not only for developing of our strategies and policies, but also for advocacy," said Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia at the inauguration of a "Regional Meeting on Application of Epidemiological Principles for Public Health Action" in New Delhi.
The two-day meeting is aimed at formulating an agreed framework for action, both within WHO and in Member States. This would help to strengthen epidemiological capacities in the Region and to apply this know-how and skills to overcome current public health challenges such as those arising from the current financial downturn, climate change and from emergence of new pathogens.
"The main idea behind this meeting is to ascertain how we can together strengthen and focus our attention on the application of epidemiological concepts and principles in national health programme development and management of health problems," said Dr Jai P. Narain, Director, Communicable Diseases, WHO SEARO.
More than 50 eminent epidemiologists are attending this two-day regional meeting.
Published in
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
Citizen News Service (CNS)
The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea
The study of causes, distribution, spread and control of diseases in populations, epidemiology, is a fundamental science and an integral part of public health. Epidemiology has helped address old public health challenges and continues to be a tool to investigate new challenges by providing evidence required for sound public health action.
Efforts to strengthen epidemiology should remain a priority of Member States even when plagued by the challenge of climate change, an energy crisis or a global financial crisis.
"To address each of these challenges, what we need is the information or the evidence or data not only for developing of our strategies and policies, but also for advocacy," said Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia at the inauguration of a "Regional Meeting on Application of Epidemiological Principles for Public Health Action" in New Delhi.
The two-day meeting is aimed at formulating an agreed framework for action, both within WHO and in Member States. This would help to strengthen epidemiological capacities in the Region and to apply this know-how and skills to overcome current public health challenges such as those arising from the current financial downturn, climate change and from emergence of new pathogens.
"The main idea behind this meeting is to ascertain how we can together strengthen and focus our attention on the application of epidemiological concepts and principles in national health programme development and management of health problems," said Dr Jai P. Narain, Director, Communicable Diseases, WHO SEARO.
More than 50 eminent epidemiologists are attending this two-day regional meeting.
Published in
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
Citizen News Service (CNS)
The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea
Mr RB Sreekumar - a tireless crusader for social justice
Mr RB Sreekumar - a tireless crusader for social justice
The Indian Administative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) are considered among the crème-de-la-crème of the Indian bureaucratic arrangement. Despite all kinds of socio-political changes, people belonging to these services still have public respect and public faith towards them, though for many reasons, a kind of visible erosion is being perceived and there is a perception that the so-called Steel frame is no more of the same sterling quality it used to be.
Yet there are persons whose acts and whose deeds make one think twice before arriving at such a conclusion. The Gujarat incidents of 2002 threw up many such heroes whose tales of courage, conviction and dedication towards service have made it into the folklores. One such person is Mr RB Sreekumar, the then Additional Director General of Police, heading the Intelligence Department in Gujarat during those troubled times.
This is what Teesta Setalvad, a noted social activist, said about Mr Sreekumar during her acceptance speech of the Nani A Palkhivala Civil Liberties Award, 2006-
“But only one man has remained a stoic and principled dissenter until today, refusing to cave in even as weeks lapsed into months and months into years. This man that I dedicate today’s honour to. His only quality-- that many but his co-travellers have seen as a fault-- is that he refused to sit by and let the mass crimes planned at the highest level go unchallenged. He suffered for these acts by being denied due promotion to the post of Director General of Police, Gujarat, the highest post in his field that as a policeman and thrice Presidential Award winner for bravery, he would and should aspire to. Mr RB Sreekumar, Additional Director General of Police, the state of Gujarat, I salute you.”
While it is true that the person whose speech has been produced here has earned lots of controversies in her enthralling and eventful journey, having earned an equal number of admirers and detractors but when she praises Mr Sreekumar in no uncertain words doesn’t it fill the hearts of all the fellow IPS officers with pride? If this is not true valour and heroism, what else is?
Mr Sreekumar later compiled his experiences in a book named "The Diary of a Helpless Man" where he termed the State government as "cruelly communal" and its officers "sophisticated sycophants" but everyone knows that there is not much bravery and valour in writing books after retirement because the fear of persecution is much diluted. But what makes Mr Sreekumar stand out in the crowd is the fact that he refused to toe the line expected of him even during the service where he had to undergo through a Departmental enquiry and finally got his promotion only through the intervention of the Court. This 1971-cadre officer and a person holding Post-graduate degrees in three subjects got superceded in the aftermath of his depositions before the Nanavati panel.
An Article in 'The Hindu' dated Sunday, 4 March 2007 titled- "Sreekumar retires from service, but not his battles" portrays the turmoil he had to go through- "He, however, scored a victory of sorts with the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) ruling in his favour against the Government's "refusal" to grant him promotion. But the CAT order came only a few hours before 1971-batch IPS officer ended his innings in the State police cadre on February 28. Also, the order could not be implemented as a related case is still pending in the Supreme Court. His pension will not be cleared until the court order is received.” As per the report in Hindu, he was denied promotion on the ground that a charge sheet against him, related to the period he was Superintendent of Police (SP) in Kutch way back in 1987, was pending in court. The high court later found the order illegal and reinstated him as Director General of Police (DGP) on May 3, 2008, with retrospective effect from February 23, 2005. He now lives in Gandhinagar and is working actively for justice to the victims of Gujarat genocide.
Our due regards to this brave officer of the Indian Police Service.
Amitabh Thakur
(The author is a senior police officer serving as Superintendent of Police (Intelligence), and can be contacted on mobile phone: 94155-34526)
The Indian Administative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) are considered among the crème-de-la-crème of the Indian bureaucratic arrangement. Despite all kinds of socio-political changes, people belonging to these services still have public respect and public faith towards them, though for many reasons, a kind of visible erosion is being perceived and there is a perception that the so-called Steel frame is no more of the same sterling quality it used to be.
Yet there are persons whose acts and whose deeds make one think twice before arriving at such a conclusion. The Gujarat incidents of 2002 threw up many such heroes whose tales of courage, conviction and dedication towards service have made it into the folklores. One such person is Mr RB Sreekumar, the then Additional Director General of Police, heading the Intelligence Department in Gujarat during those troubled times.
This is what Teesta Setalvad, a noted social activist, said about Mr Sreekumar during her acceptance speech of the Nani A Palkhivala Civil Liberties Award, 2006-
“But only one man has remained a stoic and principled dissenter until today, refusing to cave in even as weeks lapsed into months and months into years. This man that I dedicate today’s honour to. His only quality-- that many but his co-travellers have seen as a fault-- is that he refused to sit by and let the mass crimes planned at the highest level go unchallenged. He suffered for these acts by being denied due promotion to the post of Director General of Police, Gujarat, the highest post in his field that as a policeman and thrice Presidential Award winner for bravery, he would and should aspire to. Mr RB Sreekumar, Additional Director General of Police, the state of Gujarat, I salute you.”
While it is true that the person whose speech has been produced here has earned lots of controversies in her enthralling and eventful journey, having earned an equal number of admirers and detractors but when she praises Mr Sreekumar in no uncertain words doesn’t it fill the hearts of all the fellow IPS officers with pride? If this is not true valour and heroism, what else is?
Mr Sreekumar later compiled his experiences in a book named "The Diary of a Helpless Man" where he termed the State government as "cruelly communal" and its officers "sophisticated sycophants" but everyone knows that there is not much bravery and valour in writing books after retirement because the fear of persecution is much diluted. But what makes Mr Sreekumar stand out in the crowd is the fact that he refused to toe the line expected of him even during the service where he had to undergo through a Departmental enquiry and finally got his promotion only through the intervention of the Court. This 1971-cadre officer and a person holding Post-graduate degrees in three subjects got superceded in the aftermath of his depositions before the Nanavati panel.
An Article in 'The Hindu' dated Sunday, 4 March 2007 titled- "Sreekumar retires from service, but not his battles" portrays the turmoil he had to go through- "He, however, scored a victory of sorts with the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) ruling in his favour against the Government's "refusal" to grant him promotion. But the CAT order came only a few hours before 1971-batch IPS officer ended his innings in the State police cadre on February 28. Also, the order could not be implemented as a related case is still pending in the Supreme Court. His pension will not be cleared until the court order is received.” As per the report in Hindu, he was denied promotion on the ground that a charge sheet against him, related to the period he was Superintendent of Police (SP) in Kutch way back in 1987, was pending in court. The high court later found the order illegal and reinstated him as Director General of Police (DGP) on May 3, 2008, with retrospective effect from February 23, 2005. He now lives in Gandhinagar and is working actively for justice to the victims of Gujarat genocide.
Our due regards to this brave officer of the Indian Police Service.
Amitabh Thakur
(The author is a senior police officer serving as Superintendent of Police (Intelligence), and can be contacted on mobile phone: 94155-34526)
Right-to-Information (RTI) movement brewing in UP
Right-to-Information (RTI) movement brewing in UP
-RTI Service centres will be set up in UP.
-200 computer cells will be constituted aswell in various districts to provide assistance to people wanting to get information online.
-Govt staff will be trained to update and feed the websites providing information of various departments.
The Right to Information Act (RTI) may be in place but is it actually translating into answers for those seeking them under it? Most who have used the act respond with a resounding NO. But then all hope is not lost as a movement in UP is now brewing amongst the people in the state capital which plans to ask for information under the RTI Act and get it too.
People like Urvashi Sharma who is a house wife and a mother of two but she displays an amazing awareness of her rights as a citizen of India. Better still she prefers to call herself a social worker and RTI activist.
"I have seen my husband being harassed for no fault of his and being accussed of harbouring and instructing his dalit students to speard communalism. A a mountain of paper work to terminate him from his post of a lecturer has been initiated by the departments he was posted to and if it wasn't for the RTI Act he would have been forced to live with such grave accusations. We demanded transparency provided to citizens under the act and were able to counter all charges. But this would not have been possible had we not joined the people's movement for the right to information," she says as she prepares to attend a dharna being organised by a group of citizens she has joined up to campaingn for issues under the RTI Act.
The movement she talks of is a group of local citizens for whom it all began as a personal battle for their rights and transformed into a community movement called the Action Group For Right To Information (AGRI). Not only does the group spearhead the cause of many who have sought for information under the RTI Act but also is now coercing the state governments to expedite measures to facilitate quick redressals of the cases that come to the State information commission.
But that is easier said than done claim most RTI activists in Lucknow.
Explains Afjal Ansari, the Chief Co-ordinator, AGRI, "Since the concept is based on what we call the participatory democracy in which the common man becomes a major part of the governance as well, asking for information is usually seen as accusations of corruption and not responded to. A right reserved only for the legislatures, politicians and bureaucrats until until now. But the RTI Act now provides a direct reach of a citizen to any part of the entire set up of the government system to ask for answers of actions taken, what can be more empowering than that. Anyone who has been in authority until now and has been conditioned to refuse permission to access files related to departmental issues, will resist all to attempts enhance accountabilty and transparency. So challenges do arise and we have to take them into our stride. As changing an age old system does not happen overnight and corruption is one such system."
Adds Azhar Ahmed Ansari Convenor, AGRI,"What is lacking is the training of the clerks and babus who are to function as per instruction of Public Information Officers (PIOs). Most are not even aware of the basics points mentioned in the act. Thus delays occur when they don't respond to the applicant within the stipulated 30 days. Making matters worse is the fact that these delays are costing the state government a whopping 2-5 lakhs in terms of TA/DA per hearing as no less that 250 cases come every month and deferred time and again. The concerned departments have to depute officers to represent their case on every new date given. Its not worth it as the penalty of Rs 25000 is usually paid by the PIO from his salary if delay is proved in responding. While the babu and the clerks get away completely. This must change and accountabilty must be for all."
But will things change?
"Of course, previously there were people woes related to the railways, passport office and even land alottments were many, but after RTI Act came into being things have really changed. It will take time but sustained efforts will usher in the change we desire atleast that's what we plan to ensure through AGRI," avers Ansari.
A fact which is seconded by most RTI Activists who also rue harassment of the applicant to discourage any queries.
Says Urvashi Sharma,"Seeking Information under the RTI Act is interpreted by the heads of the department against which an RTI has been filed as being directly accused of corruption. So no co-operation is extended to the applicant, and they are harassed with FIRs filed against them as trouble makers. Some even have to face a lot of humiliation at the hands of clerks and babus which discourages the applicants from filing RTIs. This is one major challenge we have to face when it comes to making optimum use of the RTI Act. But we started forming a base of all such cases and will address them under Section 19/1 or Section 19/3 under the RTI Act."
In addition AGRI has managed to address many more issues related to the act at a recent conference organised in Lucknow. Not only was the seminar attended by Chief Secretary, Atul Kumar Gupta, Chief Information Commissioner, Government of India, Wajahat Habbiullah, Retd Justice Kamaleshwar Nath, President of Transparency International but some, decisions were also taken to help iron out problems faced by the common man when making use of the act.
Among those were an initiatives like making all deparmental information available online. As per the Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission, Wajahat Habibullah the emphasis will be more on providing information over 20 years old online. With the World Bank pitching in a impressive Rs 23 crores for the project, the websites with all such public information will be ready by April 2009.
An added plus says Manish Sisodia, RTI Activist in the city, is that "people can phone in through phone booths and get information from any department. The system is based on the lines of phone booths in Bihar. If this works in UP a lot of backlog of files seeking information under the RTI and unnecessary harassment of people can be cut down."
Amen to that!
Anjali Singh
(The author is a senior journalist based in Lucknow, India. Email: saakshamforchildrights@gmail.com)
Published in
Central Chronicle, Madhya Pradesh/ Chhatisgarh
Asian Tribune, Thailand/ Sri Lanka
The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea
Pakistan Christian Post, Karachi, Pakistan
Citizen News Service (CNS)
Media for Freedom, Kathmandu, Nepal
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
-RTI Service centres will be set up in UP.
-200 computer cells will be constituted aswell in various districts to provide assistance to people wanting to get information online.
-Govt staff will be trained to update and feed the websites providing information of various departments.
The Right to Information Act (RTI) may be in place but is it actually translating into answers for those seeking them under it? Most who have used the act respond with a resounding NO. But then all hope is not lost as a movement in UP is now brewing amongst the people in the state capital which plans to ask for information under the RTI Act and get it too.
People like Urvashi Sharma who is a house wife and a mother of two but she displays an amazing awareness of her rights as a citizen of India. Better still she prefers to call herself a social worker and RTI activist.
"I have seen my husband being harassed for no fault of his and being accussed of harbouring and instructing his dalit students to speard communalism. A a mountain of paper work to terminate him from his post of a lecturer has been initiated by the departments he was posted to and if it wasn't for the RTI Act he would have been forced to live with such grave accusations. We demanded transparency provided to citizens under the act and were able to counter all charges. But this would not have been possible had we not joined the people's movement for the right to information," she says as she prepares to attend a dharna being organised by a group of citizens she has joined up to campaingn for issues under the RTI Act.
The movement she talks of is a group of local citizens for whom it all began as a personal battle for their rights and transformed into a community movement called the Action Group For Right To Information (AGRI). Not only does the group spearhead the cause of many who have sought for information under the RTI Act but also is now coercing the state governments to expedite measures to facilitate quick redressals of the cases that come to the State information commission.
But that is easier said than done claim most RTI activists in Lucknow.
Explains Afjal Ansari, the Chief Co-ordinator, AGRI, "Since the concept is based on what we call the participatory democracy in which the common man becomes a major part of the governance as well, asking for information is usually seen as accusations of corruption and not responded to. A right reserved only for the legislatures, politicians and bureaucrats until until now. But the RTI Act now provides a direct reach of a citizen to any part of the entire set up of the government system to ask for answers of actions taken, what can be more empowering than that. Anyone who has been in authority until now and has been conditioned to refuse permission to access files related to departmental issues, will resist all to attempts enhance accountabilty and transparency. So challenges do arise and we have to take them into our stride. As changing an age old system does not happen overnight and corruption is one such system."
Adds Azhar Ahmed Ansari Convenor, AGRI,"What is lacking is the training of the clerks and babus who are to function as per instruction of Public Information Officers (PIOs). Most are not even aware of the basics points mentioned in the act. Thus delays occur when they don't respond to the applicant within the stipulated 30 days. Making matters worse is the fact that these delays are costing the state government a whopping 2-5 lakhs in terms of TA/DA per hearing as no less that 250 cases come every month and deferred time and again. The concerned departments have to depute officers to represent their case on every new date given. Its not worth it as the penalty of Rs 25000 is usually paid by the PIO from his salary if delay is proved in responding. While the babu and the clerks get away completely. This must change and accountabilty must be for all."
But will things change?
"Of course, previously there were people woes related to the railways, passport office and even land alottments were many, but after RTI Act came into being things have really changed. It will take time but sustained efforts will usher in the change we desire atleast that's what we plan to ensure through AGRI," avers Ansari.
A fact which is seconded by most RTI Activists who also rue harassment of the applicant to discourage any queries.
Says Urvashi Sharma,"Seeking Information under the RTI Act is interpreted by the heads of the department against which an RTI has been filed as being directly accused of corruption. So no co-operation is extended to the applicant, and they are harassed with FIRs filed against them as trouble makers. Some even have to face a lot of humiliation at the hands of clerks and babus which discourages the applicants from filing RTIs. This is one major challenge we have to face when it comes to making optimum use of the RTI Act. But we started forming a base of all such cases and will address them under Section 19/1 or Section 19/3 under the RTI Act."
In addition AGRI has managed to address many more issues related to the act at a recent conference organised in Lucknow. Not only was the seminar attended by Chief Secretary, Atul Kumar Gupta, Chief Information Commissioner, Government of India, Wajahat Habbiullah, Retd Justice Kamaleshwar Nath, President of Transparency International but some, decisions were also taken to help iron out problems faced by the common man when making use of the act.
Among those were an initiatives like making all deparmental information available online. As per the Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission, Wajahat Habibullah the emphasis will be more on providing information over 20 years old online. With the World Bank pitching in a impressive Rs 23 crores for the project, the websites with all such public information will be ready by April 2009.
An added plus says Manish Sisodia, RTI Activist in the city, is that "people can phone in through phone booths and get information from any department. The system is based on the lines of phone booths in Bihar. If this works in UP a lot of backlog of files seeking information under the RTI and unnecessary harassment of people can be cut down."
Amen to that!
Anjali Singh
(The author is a senior journalist based in Lucknow, India. Email: saakshamforchildrights@gmail.com)
Published in
Central Chronicle, Madhya Pradesh/ Chhatisgarh
Asian Tribune, Thailand/ Sri Lanka
The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea
Pakistan Christian Post, Karachi, Pakistan
Citizen News Service (CNS)
Media for Freedom, Kathmandu, Nepal
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
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