3rd July 2009
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30th June 2009
Posted: Jun 30, 2009 at 0452 hrs ISTDear Editor,
Patients’ Rights will go a long way in improving health care. I am glad to see growing support for this in Maharashtra and I hope that it will pave the way for the country. I hope that we as a society can also recognize the value of learning more about our health and health care options so that we can exercise these rights confidently and responsibly.
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27th June 2009
Dear Editor,
It is a shame to see the living conditions that the Koya families of Chhattisgarh are facing, after braving all odds and finally escaping the war zone of Maoists and Salwa Judum. At the very least we must extend basic humanitarian services, starting with ICDS “on a war-footing basis to all the displaced tribals” as you have reported.
Though in Andhra Pradesh the Koya tribal families are called Gutti Koya (”slave of Koya”) they call themselves Koyas and in fact have the right to return to their homes and lands in Chhattisgarh. Till the government of Chhattsigarh follows the Supreme Court directive to compensate tribals for damages and to ensure safe return and rehabilitation, this right will remain only on paper. Wherever they are, they are Indian citizens, and their right to food cannot remain on paper.
Malnutrition stalks Gutti Koyas

K. Venkateshwarlu
| Caught in crossfire of police, Maoists and Salwa Judum, they flee Chhattisgarh |

HYDERABAD: A majority of primitive Gutti Koya tribal children, adolescent girls and lactating mothers who have escaped from conflict zone in Chhattisgarh and settled down in some of the border villages of Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh continue to suffer from severe malnutrition and other related diseases.
They suffer despite a two-month old missive from the Principal Secretary of Women Development and Child Welfare Department, Chaya Ratan directing local officials to extend Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) on a war-footing basis to all the displaced tribals.
Ms. Ratan gave the direction on April 14, after the Solidarity Committee on Internally Displaced Tribals and other prominent social activists brought to her notice the pathetic condition of the Gutti Koyas, especially women and children in the makeshift settlements in Palvoncha and Bhadrachalam divisions.
These tribal families were forced out of conflict situation in Chattisgarh where they were caught in the cross fire of police, the Maoists and the vigilante force Salwa Judum. Acute food shortage, hunger, malnutrition and anaemia stalk these tribals.
Nutrition status
The activists presented to her the findings of a study that showed that a majority of the settlements were denied access to ICDS. The nutrition status of children was dismal. Of 482 children surveyed then, 369 or 77 percent were in various grades of malnutrition. In some, 50 per cent of the children suffered from third grade malnutrition. The committee’s appeal was to extend ICDS to all settlements till normalcy was restored in Chattisgarh.
S. Jeevan Kumar and Rajasekhar representing Solidarity Committee said moved by the plight, Ms. Ratan sent the letter and it had the desired effect. But the coverage was not to the expected level, as the latest survey conducted this month showed.
Of the identified 963 beneficiaries in 41 settlements in Palvoncha division, only 45 beneficiaries had full and 66 had partial access to ICDS. The beneficiaries listed included 661 children, 129 adolescent children, 45 pregnant women and 137 lactating mothers. It meant as many as 852 were out of ICDS coverage.
It was much better in 83 settlements in Bhadrachalam division. Of the 1172 beneficiaries, 716 had full access while 218 partially. The left- over settlements were 14 and beneficiaries 236. They recalled how the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights had after a visit poignantly recorded that “All the people, adults and children looked emaciated. The children had protruding bellies, a telling sign of malnourishment. One two- year old girl looked hardly older than a three month baby.”
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14th June 2009
Great Job Himalaya Niti Abhiyan and all the groups! It is good to see that some of the guests listened to the protestors and even left the stage.
Green protesters steal show at WEF global convention
Palampur | Saturday, Jun 13 2009 IST
“The activists briefed the Tibetan Prime Minister in exile- Samdhung Rinpoche, who was present as a Chief dignitary at the function about the national campaign that has built up against the company and the devastation caused by the company in Orissa. He immediately walked out of the venue.”
More photos here.
http://himachal.us/2009/06/12/activist-protest-golden-peacock-award-by-wef-to-vedanta-alumina-in-himachal/13576/news/rsood
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11th June 2009
http://www.iisc.ernet.in/voices/
Dear Editor,
The article by TVH Prathamesh recounting his experiences in Chhatisgarh should wake all of us up to our complicity in the horror that is daily life for lakhs of adivasis living in the state or who have fled as refugees. The brazen attitude of the police beating people into silence and submission is something they live with daily. When a student like Prathemesh witnesses this treatment he too becomes a target. Can this be happening in India? I congratulate Prathemesh for raising critical questions about our society, our democracy and about the role every one of us plays. We cannot allow the state to impose terror in the name of national security or economic growth. Institutions of learning such as IISc should engage the educated community in questioning the meaning of these terms, and hearing from those who have been marginalized for doing the same.
P. Aravinda
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10th June 2009
AID US Conference 2009, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
Forming five groups, participants took 20 cards, on which names of various “to do” or “to be” items were printed such as teacher, doctor, cook, pilot, shop for groceries, get pregnant, etc. In groups of 8-10 they sorted these into things mainly done in their community by men, women, or about equally done by either and lined them up in three columns. A few children formed a group and used only 15 cards.
In the second round the groups looked at the columns and asked the question, which of the items in the W or M column could go into the B column - that is even though a given thing was done mainly by one or the other, could it be done by both? If there were items that they felt could only be done by M or by W, those cards remained face-up in their respective columns. If both could do it, the group turned the card face down.
Question: “What if it is our choice that I cook and my brother/husband drives? Is this gender inequality?”
The Gender Footprint seeks to gauge an ambient condition of inequality within which individuals make particular choices. It does not measure an individual’s degree of inequality or bias in a single specific choice.
The answer: use contraceptives.
Was it in the M column or the W column?
Some had it in M and some in W. [This was not included in Group 3].
Worldwide 18% depend on methods used by men - male sterilization or condom. In India, 15% depend on methods used by men.
Aravinda shared her experience speaking with women in villages of Srikakulam District about contraception and fertility awareness. Most women were unaware of their own fertility cycle. Within the group at the conference session most people were unaware that women’s fertility is cyclical and can be predicted. This awareness could influence a woman’s sense of self esteem, and reproductive choices. In Srikakulam area villages, a typical woman never got an opportunity to choose a contraceptive method. She would be expected to marry, have 1-2 children without giving thought to delay or spacing, and then be sterilized. Most women were sterilized by the age of 25 -30. They said that they lived with chronic back pain which they associated with the “operation” (sterilization).
In the US a reference book “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” has popularized the fertility awareness as part of a wider movement for women’s control over personal health and life choices. Fertility awareness is compatible with other contraceptive methods and can help women and couples make a more informed choice. For example, non-hormonal methods, which have few / no side-effects, might be more practical if they did not need to be used at all times.
In Srikakulam villages, the ASHA Health worker is supposed to have condoms available. However when we talked with them they said that there was no demand for them and they were associated only with AIDS prevention and not with contraception. While talking about fertility awareness however several women including the Health workers said this knowledge may create demand for condoms at least for spacing purposes. Women opined that newlyweds could benefit from this to delay the first child, esp if the woman was educated (read: married right out of high school) and wanted to work or study for some time after marriage.
We find that gender gap in contraceptive use is not limited to rural India, but is equally prevalent in urban India or for that matter the US. [In the US 65% depend on methods used by women and 27% on methods used by men. Source: Guttmacher Institute].
We have the stories. I think it would be worthwhile for chapters to engage in a similar exercise of collecting and sharing stories. If it would help to break the ice we could perhaps share the stories from last year by engaging in a dialogue with the chapter volunteers. Often people bury their own experiences of gender violence because the pain is too hard to deal with, there is no one to tell, believe etc. Last year also several people at the conference said that reading the stories on the clothesline recalled some incident that had happened to them that they just did not even think about when reading the pre-conference calls to join the discussion on bias/violence against women. So we can use the stories to facilitate this process in other chapters.
What is the goal of this exercise, apart from personal awareness and healing? When we recognize that this kind of bias and violence is happening right in our own community, to people like us and maybe even to us, it will help us collectively to recognize and understand hardships other women face, including in rural and poor communities. Problems in overcoming these do not simply stem from poverty or illiteracy. Instead they stem from everything that contributes to our gender footprint - bias, inequality, stereotype, harassment, violence. Are these connected?
Women’s empowerment features as a topmost or as an underlying concern in a number of AID projects such as KNUC Nurse training project , Resource Centre for Training and Development, Utthan, Vimochana just to name a few. AID Saathi Tara Ahluwalia works on women’s issues and several other projects and saathis’ work also concerns women’s empowerment as it relates to livelihoods, environment, health, communal harmony, etc. We should keep in touch with our partners in this area and share insights and nitty-gritty on how their work is going. We can learn more about various factors that contribute to women’s empowerment, and probably become more capable of understanding and supporting projects that directly and indirectly address development priorities of women and promote gender equality.
Contact: Karthik, Bono, Sham, Sonika, Aravinda
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31st May 2009
It started with a vigil to mourn the attack on Parliament. The attack took place in Delhi on December 13, 2001.
The vigil, organized by Friends of South Asia, took place in front of the Indian consulate in San Francisco, California, on January 7, 2002.
The vigil, organized by Friends of South Asia, took place in Cesar Chavez Park in San Jose, California, on Dec 31st 2001,
Indeed it happened that two groups, both responding to the attack on the Indian parliament and the ensuing military standoff between India and Pakistan, sought to work for peace by forming an organization that would include people of India and Pakistan. Both called the group Friends of South Asia.
When the two met, they became one.
And Friends of South Asia was born. Again
On Oct 18th 2001, a group of people from India and Pakistan alarmed by Benazir Bhutto’s support for the US war effort in Afghanistan, came together to oppose her stance during her talk at Stanford University. They approached a number of South-Asia related organizations in the area but none could take a stand on this issue, at least not in time for the event. They formed Friends of South Asia and handed out flyers at the talk.
as related by Shalini Gera, Friends of South Asia
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