Demand For Better Quality Of Life For Children
Jun 08, 2008 |
More than 800 women from 11 states - Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab,
Haryana, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan - held a public meeting in Delhi, on
September 2, 2008, to remind policy-makers of the commitments they had
made at various fora, including the Common Minimum Programme, to better
the quality of lives of children under six. A Charter of Demands, which
will be presented to the prime minister, included the demand for
good-quality anganwadis, universal coverage of the Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS) scheme, provision of crèche facilities for
working parents, and maternity benefits for women. Dr Jean Dreze, well
known economist, stressed that “child nutrition is one of the main
unfulfilled promises of the government. The time has to come to act on
this promise and exhibit a strong political and financial commitment
towards the issue.”
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Media Fellowship On Climate Change
Jun 01, 2008 |
 Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) invites
journalists based in South Asia to travel, investigate, research and
report on the truth of climate change in their countries and in the
South Asian region – through the first CSE Media Fellowship for the
South Asian Region on ‘Climate Change In South Asia: Indications,
Impacts And Innovations For Survival’. Climate change is playing havoc
with eco-systems, lifestyles and livelihoods, even threatening the very
survival of communities. IPCC has said that climate change means
greater threat to human health. For instance, studies indicate that
even a small temperature rise could lead to increased incidence of
malaria and threaten international food security. The duration of the
fellowship is from October 27-December 27, 2008 – with one month of
travel time and another month for research, writing, and publication
and submission of stories and features. Selected fellows will each
receive a stipend of Rs 50,000 (subject to tax deductions at source) to
support research, travel and writing between October and December 2008.
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Smart Cards For Poor In Indian Capital
May 01, 2008 |
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Under an ambitious plan by the Delhi government to ‘redefine’ the
poorest and most vulnerable of urban people, those living below the
poverty line are now being targeted for a host of existing state
benefits previously lost in red tape. Under current rules, Delhi
residents qualify as being ‘below poverty line’ if the household income
is less than about Rs 2,500 per month. “This figure is appallingly low.
This is not poverty line, but starvation line,” said Biraj Patnaik, a
commissioner appointed by India's Supreme Court to monitor the new
programme. Officially, only about 400,000 of Delhi's 16 million
population count as poor, but Patnaik says this number should be about
960,000 people under a more realistic definition of poverty. The World
Bank has also recently revised its one-dollar-a-day yardstick for
poverty to include those living on less than 1.25 dollars a day – which
means that 456 million Indians are poor. |
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