June 2008 Edition
Dr Neelam Singh and her team wage a lonely campaign against sex selection in Uttar Pradesh.
Madhu Gurung
Lucknow
SUDHA Rani is fair, with a ready smile. At 40 she is the mother of five children. Her first three children were girls ----- Prathana, Sukriti and Kirti. When she was pregnant for the fourth time and knew from an ultrasound that the baby was a girl, she went to Dr Neelam Singh, a gynaecologist, for an abortion. Instead of aborting the foetus, Dr Neelam, as she is popularly known in Lucknow, counselled Sudha to keep the baby. “It is a gift from God,” Sudha remembers her saying.
“Everyone at home had hoped for a son from the fourth pregnancy. My husband was without a job. We were facing serious financial problems. It was difficult enough having a baby, let alone another girl,” says Sudha. “Dr Neelam said you should not have got pregnant, but now that you have, keep the child. I agreed. I had only Rs 700 when I was admitted to the hospital for a caesarian birth.
But God is great. The moment my daughter was born my husband got a contract to run the Telco canteen and received an immediate cheque of Rs 50,000. We have named her Srishti. Our four daughters are our world and our pride. Not a single day goes by when I don’t thank Dr Neelam.” Srishti is eight years old today and wants to be a pilot. Sudha went on to have one more child, a son, Anand, who is now five.
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Studies show good flow of vehicles and a trial will always come with glitches
Umesh Anand
New Delhi
HAS the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system introduced on a 5 km stretch in south Delhi on April 28 been a success or a failure?
Criticism heaped day after day on the BRT in some Delhi newspapers would indicate that it hasn't worked at all. But data collected by researchers monitoring the BRT shows that there has been an improvement in the flow of vehicles on the stretch. In terms of speeds for buses and cars during peak hours the BRT, though as yet just a trial, is better than the Ring Road and Aurobindo Marg and on a par with August Kranti Marg.
An opinion poll conducted by NDTV showed that bus users were happy with the BRT because the central corridor allows buses to move quickly. People in cars were recorded by the poll as saying that they preferred the BRT because it brought some order in the flow of traffic. They no longer had to contend with buses, bus stops and slow moving vehicles.
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Van Gujjars battle on and bring their case to Delhi
Civil Society News
New Delhi
IN the blazing afternoon heat, a group of Van Gujjars listened solemnly as speaker after speaker spoke about the hardship people face when they are displaced from their traditional habitats to make way for special economic zones, special tourism zones, national parks, sanctuaries and dams. The Van Gujjars are a Muslim pastoral community. They had come all the way from Dehradun to attend the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements (NAPM) protest meeting against displacement being held outside Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
The Van Gujjars understand what displacement means only too well. About 1400 Van-Gujjar families live in the Rajaji National Park, Dehradun, with their herds of buffaloes who graze in the forests. Traditionally, they take their livestock from the park to the highlands every six months.
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Umesh Anand
IT is now clear that the government’s efforts to save the girl child are coming to nothing much. Despite a law and the large notices you will see at clinics, the fact is that fewer girl children are being born. This is also not a phenomenon restricted to the so-called rich states of Haryana and Punjab. Sex selective abortions are widespread in Uttar Pradesh as well ---- and not just in its better off western districts but also in the east of the state which is known to be poor and struggling.
Aborting of female foetuses only because people prefer sons over daughters leads to disruption of the very balance of a society. It militates against nature. Male dominated societies are known to be violent and aggressive. There are a whole lot of other dissonances that creep in. The families in Uttar Pradesh that we have covered have men who not only marry late in life but also go to Orissa and Bengal to buy very young wives. So, on the one hand you have celibate men in their 30’s and 40’s and in addition you have the problem of underage brides. Many of the brides are ill-treated and run away.
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Civil Society News
Gurgaon
IN the three years that he has been President and CEO of
Coca-Cola India, Atul Singh has worked hard to bring
the company out of its shell and make it come to terms
with environmental concerns and issues of social
accountability that go beyond compliance. From being
impenetrable and enigmatic, Coca-Cola under him has
begun engaging with community groups and has opened
itself up for scrutiny
Singh is himself an affable person, eager to enter into dialogue, find solutions and get on with things. As Chairman of the CSR Committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he has been keen to learn from other companies and pushed for the showcasing of best practices. The University of Michigan's concern over Coca- Cola's environmental record and an independent investigation by the Indian NGO, The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri), seem to have had a profound effect on Coca-Cola's approach
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Aunohita Mojumdar
Kabul
YOUNG Danish Karokhail, managing editor of Pajhwok, Afghanistan’s first independent news agency is a deeply worried man these days. His outfit is struggling to make ends meet. Farida Nekzad, news editor of Pajhwok, is equally anxious. Her journalists, especially those posted in remote provinces, are being attacked frequently and connections with the central government don’t impress anyone in those irascible areas.
Rahimullah Samander, Nekzad’s husband, heads the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) which is monitoring increasing attacks on the media. The AIJA has recently fought a tough battle to preserve media freedom which is being threatened by proposed curbs in legislation backed by the government and a small but influential section of legislators.
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