15 August 2009

MY ACTUAL STAY



PROGRESSIVE ENGLISH WRITING- INDIAN STYLE




A publicity panel I found in Nashik

11 August 2009

INDIA IN THE WHO RANKING - GRIM FACTS


India ranks 171 out of 175 in public health spending

Bangalore: While the public health Bill amendment is still pending with the cabinet and there is panic among the public on H1N1 flu — sample this: India ranks 171 out of the 175 countries in the world in public health spending.
This is less than some of the sub-Saharan African countries, a World Health Organization (WHO) study of 2007-08 has revealed. This being the status, can we tackle the existing epidemics and new entries like H1N1 flu?
For a country of one billion, India spends 5.2% of the GDP on healthcare. While 4.3% is spent by the private sector, the government continues to spend only 0.9% on public health. When the economic growth index is moving forward, the wellness index is dipping.
‘‘Public health spending as a percentage of GDP is minuscule. Due to this India is being overly dependent on private sector. With lowest insurance penetration people are forced to spend out of their resources. In fact, neighbouring China ranks among the leading developing countries in public health spending, almost 6% of the GDP,’’ said Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt hospitals.
While India ranks among the top 10 countries for communicable disease, it is today, world leader of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease.
Said Dr H Sudarshan who was part of WHO Commission on Macro Economics and Health: ‘‘There has been marginal increase in public health spending with National Rural Health Mission, but there is need for increasing health budget and also simultaneously build the capacity of the state to use the allocated budget efficiently in public health.’’
India’s National Rural Health Mission is undeniably a brand that has put public heathcare upfront. But where does it stand in the face of poor national health indicators?
One of the key findings of the commission was that by improving the health condition, the economy of the country will improve. But it has been reverse in India, he said.
Dr N Devadasan, Director of Institute of Public Health, Bangalore, said: ‘‘There is growth in GDP but there has been no increase in healthcare spending. This inadequate public health spending has forced the public to depend on private sector.’’
India’s health scenario currently presents a contrasting picture. While health tourism and private healthcare are being promoted, a large section of Indian population still reels under the risk of curable diseases that do not receive ample attention of policymakers.

SICK STATS

In India, 900 people die of tuberculosis daily
More than one-third of them are victims of HIV/AIDS
World spends total of $4.1 trillion on health. An indicative spend as a percentage of GDP:

OECD 11%

US 16%

Sweden 13%

India 5.2%


From Nirmala M Nagaraj | TNN

INDIAN'S ENVIROMENT IS SICKNING


About 45 percent of India's land is degraded, air pollution is increasing in all its cities, it is losing its rare plants and animals more rapidly than before and about one-third of its urban population now lives in slums, says the State of Environment Report India 2009 brought out by the government.


The third official report on the state of India's environment, published after a gap of eight years and released by Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday, has only one word of cheer: it says India is using 75 percent of the water it can use, and it has "just enough for the future if it is careful".



The report, prepared by NGO Development Alternatives under the aegis of the ministry, says 45 percent of India's land area is degraded due to erosion, soil acidity, alkalinity and salinity, waterlogging and wind erosion.



It says the prime causes of land degradation are deforestation, unsustainable farming, mining and excessive groundwater extraction.


On the bright side, the report shows how over two-thirds of the degraded 147 million hectares can be regenerated quite easily, and points out that India's forest cover is gradually increasing.



Ramesh said it would be unrealistic to expect that India's area under forests would go above the current 21 percent, given the competing demands for land. "Our plan is to have all this 21 percent as high and medium density forests within the next 10 years," he said. Currently, only two percent of India is under high density forest cover, while medium density forests cover about 10 percent of the land.



Presenting the salient features of the report to the media, Development Alternatives President (Development Enterprises) George C Varughese said one of its most worrisome findings was that the level of respirable suspended particulate matter--the small pieces of soot and dust that get inside the lungs--had gone up in all the 50 cities across India studied by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Central Pollution Control Board.


"In these 50 cities, with their population of 110 million, the public health damage costs due to this was estimated at Rs.15,000 crore in 2004," Varughese said.


The main causes of urban air pollution were vehicles and factories, he pointed out, appealing for a major boost to public transport.


While India still had some cushion when it came to water use, this scarce resource would have to be managed very carefully, the report says. It identifies lack of proper pricing of water for domestic usage, poor sanitation, unregulated extraction of groundwater by industry, discharge of toxic and organic wastewater by factories, inefficient irrigation and overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides as the main causes of water problems in the country.


While India remains one of the world's 17 "megadiverse" countries in terms of the number of species it houses, 10 percent of its wild flora and fauna are on the threatened list, Varughese pointed out. The main causes, according to the report, were habitat destruction, poaching, invasive species, overexploitation, pollution and climate change.


The report points out that while India contributes only about five percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions that are leading to climate change, about 700 million Indians directly face the threat of global warming today, as it affects farming, makes droughts, floods and storms more frequent and more severe and is raising the sea level.


In the section on urbanisation, the report points out that 20 to 40 percent of people living in cities are in slums. Varughese said there were good projects to upgrade their lives and improve the environment at the same time, but the problem was that most of the money from schemes like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission was taken away by the big cities, "while the major problem is in about 4,000 small and medium towns".

09 August 2009

A REMARCABLE MAN THIS SYLVESTER PETER


His goal dignity for slum children
For 70 slum kids, Yoga trainer Sylvester Peter holds out hope. These English-speaking children are the proud products of Angel Academy, run by Peter in a one-room shanty







Avisit to this nondescript slum cluster in Vikaspuri throws up many surprises. The first ones to greet you are 70-odd streetchildren who come rushing with their arms stretched out. They say ‘hello, how are you?’ much as a ritual and don’t let you settle down till you’ve shaken hands with each of them. These English-speaking slum kids are the proud products of Angel Academy — a one-room shanty located in a dim-lit corner of this cluster — run by their beloved ‘bhaiya’ — Sylvester Peter.
Sylvester has been grooming, training and teaching slum children in this makeshift academy for nearly a decade. He’s no less than a boon for these underprivileged children, many of whom were ragpickers, petty thieves, housemaids and even drug addicts. Now, they go to school, dress up well, do not abuse, and ‘take bath every day’ — a criterion they now deem essential for being a part of Angels.
Sylvester, a holistic trainer by profession, trains children
aged between 3 and 20 years. He meets them sharp at 5am every day for soccer and yoga practice. The children go to school and the academy starts again in the evening when Sylvester returns from work. His dedication, professional training and tireless attitude have instilled dreams in these children. Unmindful of their parents’ reluctance and sketchy backgrounds, these kids now aspire to become teachers, engineers and even ‘Zinedine Zidane’.
Sylvester says, ‘‘Many of them, including girls, have the potential to become national-level soccer players. They play really well and I would make sure they rise and shine.’’ As a routine set by their mentor, the students have to wake up at 4am daily. ‘‘Each senior student has been given the charge of a set of slums. The older students go to the slums allotted to them to wake up the younger children at 4 every morning,’’ he says.
‘‘Students selfevaluate their work,’’ Sylvester says, adding that he makes sure his students learn English so they can be eligible for the corporate world later in life. ‘‘I don’t guarantee to make them doctors or engineers. But they will definitely
b e - come good citizens,’’ Sylvester says proudly.
The students agree. Sandeep, who has been with Sylvester for 16 years, says, ‘‘Bhaiya nahi hote toh main faltu ghumta rehta. (Had he not been around, I would have roamed about aimlessly).’’ Sandeep has now resumed studies and plans to become a professional photographer. Twelve-year-old Taqbir, who was a drug-addict earlier, says, ‘‘My classmates in school are jealous because I have bhaiya who taught me English.’’
The 36-year-old has been working for the betterment of such children since he was 13. Though Sylvester’s three siblings studied in a convent, his parents preferred to put him in a Tamil government school. There he came across the plight of his classmates, a majority of whom came from poor families. Soon, helping them out became his way of life. Friends may call him mad, his marriage may not have worked, but his passion for these children has hardly dipped. He manages the academy singlehandedly giving up all he earns. ‘‘Some NGOs and spiritual gurus offered help in the past but they always have strings attached. Political workers also came to meet me during elections but my children chose to turn them away,’’ Sylvester recalls.
He has provided the children with soccer kits, books, pencils and a computer. The immense love his disciples have for him shows. However, the rigid attitude of parents often acts as an obstacle, besides the lurking fear of demolition of the slums. But Sylvester has vowed to keep the show going. ‘‘I am working towards moving out of the slums to a proper academy. I’m trying to form a trust and will do it on my own if nobody comes forward to help.’’
Article from Neha Pushkarna in TNN (Times of India)

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