Spotlight

New Delhi, 9 March 2007

MODERN FORMS OF SLAVERY FLOURISH

NEW DELHI, April 10 (INFA): The United Nations may have observed the International Day for the commemoration of the 200^th anniversary last month of abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, slavery of the different kind continues globally.

Modern forms of slavery like human trafficking, forced prostitution, child soldiers, forced and bounded labour and the use of children in the international drug trade are still flourishing today, according to the United Nations Newsletter.

The slavery-like practices, as the UN describes them, are continuing largely as a result of discrimination, social exclusion and vulnerability exacerbated by poverty.

It is estimated that 300,000 children are currently being exploited as child soldiers in as many as 30 areas of conflict around the world. Many of the kidnapped girls who are made into child soldiers are also forced into sexual slavery.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that annually 700,000 women, girls, men and boys are being trafficked across borders away from their homes and families and into slavery.

The International Labour Organisation reports that there are 191 million economically active children between 5 and 14 years of age.  Nearly 40 per cent of these ---74 million children---engage in ‘hazardous work’.

Linked to trafficking is the commercial sexual exploitation of children from which 1 million children, mainly girls, are forced into prostitution every year.  These girls are sold for sex or used in child pornography in both the developed and developing world.

It is emphasized by the UN that all should work to address the root causes of slavery, to provide assistance and protection to its victims and to ensure that there is no impunity for those who perpetuate the practice.

Through learning about the history of slavery and the slave trade and the collective triumphs and battles that brought about its demise we can seek to overcome the many pervasive forms of slavery that still exist today. ---INFA

LEGAL AID FOR SLUM DWELLERS

HYDERABAD, April 10 (INFA): Legal Services Authority of Hyderabad Civil Courts would soon set up legal aid clinics in the city slums to make legal services freely available to slum-dwellers.

Permanent legal aid clinics would extend legal advice and other kind of allied services to the poor free of cost.

This gesture has come in the wake of a recent decision by the Andhra Pradesh Legal Services Authority to provide free legal services to the poor at their doorstep. The clinics would be run by competent judicial officers.---INFA

Spotlight

New Delhi, 31 August 2007

Euro 9.5 m EC Relief for Flood Victims

New Delhi, September 1 (INFA): The European Commission has allocated Euro 9.5 million in humanitarian aid for flood victims in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Emergency experts from the Commission's Humanitarian Aid department, ECHO, have visited the flood-affected areas and liaised with relief agencies on operations to be funded.

The emergency relief focuses on food rations and drinking water, emergency shelter and healthcare, in particular to prevent outbreaks of water-borne diseases. The next step would be to assist the recovery of livelihoods, damaged housing and water-sanitation facilities.

The emergency funds channeled through ECHO are under the responsibility of its European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel. "Many Europeans have experienced flooding in recent years and we know how important it is to get rapid assistance in such a terrible situation. Our thoughts are with those who have lost homes, livestock and livelihoods or, even worse, relatives or friends? But not just our thoughts: The European Commission has taken strenuous action to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims. We have immediately dispatched our emergency experts to assess the most urgent basic needs and to liaise with other international relief agencies. On the basis of their assessment, we have decided to allocate Euro 9.5 million in emergency aid," says Michel.

By early August, over five million households were affected by the floods in India and more than a million families in Bangladesh. In Nepal, over 3,50,000 people have been displaced from their homes. The damage in the three countries includes loss of standing crops, serious erosion of farmland and property, destruction of livestock, foods and tools, and contamination of surface water supplies, wells and latrines.

ECHO, which has a regional support office in New Delhi closely follows developments in humanitarian situation, plays an active role in the local coordination of relief efforts and monitors the use of Commission's relief funds.--- INFA

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Beijing Tests Less Cars-Cleaner Air Formula

NEW DELHI, September 1 (INFA):  For four days about 1.3 million automobiles had been kept off the roads in the Chinese Capital this month to test effects on environment quality.

From August 17-20, the city had cars with odd-numbered licence plates and those with even-numbered ones hit the roads on alternate days, according to the Environment Protection Bureau. And, the city plans to put this into practice to ensure clean air during the 2008 Olympics here.

Taxis, buses, police cars and ambulances, however, are exempt from this ban, explains a Bureau official, while adding that “traffic control will enable us to take about 1.3 million vehicles off the roads every day.” Once that is done, environmentalists will collect data to assess its impact as vehicular exhaust is a major source of pollution in Beijing.

The exercise has been undertaken after the success of a similar one during the Sino-African summit. This time around, the municipal transportation commission will increase public transport to ensure that commuters are not inconvenienced.  --- INFA

Spotlight

New Delhi, 12 June 2007

VIDEO GAME ON DISASTER REDUCTION

NEW DELHI, June 13 (INFA): Children can now learn how to respond to and mitigate disasters through a new internet video game, launched recently by the United Nations.

The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) has started a project, “Stop Disaster Game” as part of its campaign on education called “Disaster Risk Reduction”. The projects starts at Schools and teaches how to build safer villages and cities against disasters.

Children will learn how the location and construction materials can make a difference when disaster strikes and how early warning systems evacuation plans and education can save lives and livelihoods.

The UN experts believe that had such systems and plans existed at the time of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami scores of thousands of the more than 200,000 lives lost could have been saved.

Produced by Playerthree, an English company, and downloadable in less than three minutes, the game gives players different types of missions to accomplish within a specific budget and time limit before a simulated hurricane, earthquake, flood, tsunami or wildfire strikes.

They have to choose between five scenarios with three levels of difficulty and the winners will be the ones who save more people and livelihoods.

At present the game is available only on the internet and in English but a multi-language version will be released on International Disaster Reduction Day on 10 October.

“We are aware that not all children have easy access to Internet and we are already preparing a DVD format to reach more youngsters in remote areas in Africa, Asia and Pacific or Latin America and Caribbean,” says ISDR Director, Briceno.

“We are also thinking of adding new scenarios such as drought which is a devastating disaster in many parts of the world,” he added.

The ISDR previously produced a board game called Riskland, aimed at children aged 6 to 10. The game has been a very successful educational tool and has been translated into many local languages.

The ISDR is not the only UN body turning to internet games to raise the awareness of youngsters. In 2005, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) launched ‘Food Force’ (www.food-force.com), an internet video game with a virtual world of planes launching food airdrops over crisis zones and emergency trucks struggling up treacherous roads under rebel threat with emergency supplies to teach children the arduous but vital task of feeding the world’s hungry. Millions of youngsters around the world have since downloaded the game.

Spotlight

New Delhi, 11 June 2007

RURAL INDIA IN CRISIS ON FARM FRONT

NEW DELHI, June 12 (INFA): The agrarian crisis in the rural India has its routs in the collapse of rural economy, according to Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, the distinguished agricultural scientist.

Unemployment leading to out-migration of the assetless is growing. The minimum support price mechanism is not operating for most commodities. At every level of the livelihood security system, there is a tendency to make profit out of poverty. Something is terribly wrong in the countryside, says Swaminathan.

Today, finding themselves helpless in the face of adversities of various kinds, the peasantry in parts of the country is resorting to extreme measures.

Repeated crop failures due to unpredictable climatic variations, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and the increasing debt burden are among the factors leading to frustrations.

In such a scenario, meeting the challenges of rural reconstruction becomes a formidable and priority task.

Agriculture being the mainstay of our economy, it is imperative that we have a comprehensive and time-bound programme to extricate the sector from stagnation, if not deceleration.

Larger irrigation facilities, better seeds and agri-inputs and fertilizers at reasonable costs will have to be provided to farmers, along with finance, infrastructural and marketing facilities.

Agriculture must become an income generating activity and farmers should not be left to the vicissitudes of weather, financial resources and markets.

To increase productivity and employment generation in the sector, there is a need to bring about structural changes, primarily based on land reforms, as support prices and provision of cheap credit do not help beyond a point. Experience has shown that providing the poor with access to land is not anti-growth. ---INFA

NEW DEGREE COURSES IN ANDHRA

HYDERABAD, June 12 (INFA): The Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University located in the heart of Hyderabad city will be offering a five-year integrated degree course in literature, BA Music in distance mode and a multi-media courses from the ensuring academic year.

It will also offer courses in Telugu Panguade for school-going foreign students and people living outside Andhra Pradesh. ---INFA