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PROGRESSIVE ENGLISH WRITING- INDIAN STYLE

A publicity panel I found in Nashik

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".

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)

YOU THOUGHT H1N1 IS A KILLER VIRUS, INDIA OFFERS WORSE

STUNG TO DEATH IN BIHAR

In 1 month,brain fever malaria kills 30 in Munger (Bihar). Recent news is stipulating already 60 deaths

WHAT IS IT? A form of malaria, it affects brain and may prove fatal in 24-72 hours Symptoms | Impaired consciousness, confusion, and drowsiness Cause | Mosquito bite Affected area |

Munger: Five children succumbed to cerebral malaria in Munger in the last 48 hours taking the death toll to 30 since the outbreak of the disease in the first week of July.
The deadly brain fever is caused by a mosquito bite and is fatal if not treated in time. It has so far affected 1,500 people, said B Sahu, Munger malaria officer. ‘‘Out of serum samples of more than 1,450 people tested in laboratories, 565 were positive,’’ he told a news agency.
As the situation is turning grim, a team of eight doctors from New Delhi-based National Vector-borne Disease Control Programme reached Munger on Thursday night. Their job is to establish the cause of cerebral malaria that has spread to 92 villages in Haveli Kharagpur sub-division of Munger.
‘‘The central team, which arrived on Thursday evening, has fanned out in affected areas in four batches with technicians,’’ Bihar health department’s joint director-cum-programme officer R N Pandey said at Munger Sadar Hospital.
So far, there is no word from the expert-team headed by joint director, central health services, S N Sharma on the nature of the disease. The team will submit a report to the Centre after its tour of the affected areas.
Twenty people are being treated at Haveli Kharagpur primary health centre and three at Munger Sadar Hospital. Officials said there is sufficient stock of medicines and DDT fumigation has been completed in 72 villages.
‘‘The situation is under control,’’ Pandey said. ‘‘The death toll hasn’t gone beyond six,’’ Munger civil surgeon Sreekrishna Chandra Singh added.





Kashi Prasad | TNN

EVALUATION OF INDIAN ROAD CONDITIONS

6 FATAL MISHAPS EVERY KM
Ma Anandmayee Marg figures in the list of 10 most accident prone roads in Delhi. It saw 34 fatal mishaps in 2008. Times City drove down the busy 5.6km-long stretch with an expert to find out reasons behind accidents
Megha Suri | TNN

In this article the deplorable conditions for a particular road is described but more in general it can be used for almost all non- highway roads.

Abusy thoroughfare in south Delhi, Ma Anandmayee Marg has earned the dubious distinction of being a killer stretch, recording six deaths per kilometre in 2008. Figuring in the list of 10 most accident-prone roads in Delhi in 2008, it is the deadliest stretch that witnessed 34 fatal accidents last year. Bound by MB Road on one side and Outer Ring Road on the other, the 5.6km-long road leads up to Okhla Industrial Area and connects to Faridabad. Times City drove down the ‘‘killer’’ road on Wednesday and found that almost everything is out of shape — non-functional traffic signals, encroached footpaths, potholes, haphazard construction activity and absent road markings.
Traffic expert and president of Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) Rohit Baluja accompanied this correspondent to point out what makes the road stretch so perilous. ‘‘We are reaching a stage of congested failure and the main reason for this is the absence of standard procedures within agencies like MCD, PWD and DDA. There is no coordination between agencies either while planning or maintaining roads. Like on this stretch, the bus stops, Metro construction, road and street furniture, everything has been planned in isolation,’’ he said.
Here’s what’s not in order:
SIGNALS NOT WORKING
Six out of the 10 traffic signals on the stretch were not working, and even at crossings like the one near the Govindpuri market, where the signal was functional, it was not visible from a distance due to thick foliage and presence of light poles in front of the signal pole. At another intersection in Okhla, the secondary signal — the one on the other side of the crossing — was missing so vehicles which had stopped beyond the first signal are left with no option but to jump it.
INACCESSIBLE BUS SHELTERS
Critical bus shelters like the one opposite ESI Hospital and Okhla Phase II are in a shambles with missing roofs. The shelters have been constructed on concrete platforms which are several feet high, making them impossible to access. A bus shelter opposite the Govindpuri market was flooded with water and all the pedestrians had to stand on the main road to wait for buses.
NO SPACE FOR PEDESTRIANS

HAPHAZARD CONSTRUCTION
Despite the fact that the stretch sees very heavy pedestrian movement, there’s no footpath. This also reinforces why more than half the victims of road accidents in the city are pedestrians. At places like Okhla, the footpaths have been dug up. The situation is even worse near Indira Kalyan Vihar where all inhabitants of a slum cluster come out and defecate on the footpath. Near the local Govindpuri market, the footpath has been dug up forcing people to walk on the main road.
UNAUTHORISED PARKING
A market, bus terminus, busy industrial area and the Inland Container Depot are located next to the main road. This means that private vehicles and car mechanics near the Govindpuri market, chartered buses waiting to pick up staff from Okhla or big container trailer trucks waiting on the backside of the Tughlaqabad ICD occupy most of the extreme left lane meant for buses. As a result, there is rampant violation of SC orders as buses can be seen driving outside the bus lane and stopping at will.
BAD STATE OF ROAD
The road is in a pathetic condition and regular users say that accidents happen at an alarming frequency. At one of the main intersections, right next to a Delhi Jal Board pumping station, tankers move in and out splashing water all over the road. The surface has completely got eroded and traffic jams have become a regular feature on the stretch.
Part of the road between Kalkaji Mandir and the DTC depot at Okhla has been taken over by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for construction of the Badarpur line. Unlike the rest of the city, here the Metro barricades are missing and construction waste has been carelessly stacked in the middle of the road. At places, construction sites have been left unguarded as barricades abruptly start and end, or taper.
NO CYCLE TRACKS

In complete contrast to the pilot Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor where the government fought for cycle tracks for just a handful of cyclists, scores of cycle riders use Ma Anandmayee Marg on a daily basis to reach their workplaces in Okhla Industrial Area. Even though a cycle track runs along the main road through the stretch on paper, in places it is dug up or converted into a garbage dump or used as an unauthorised parking lot.

Copied from Indian Times

MALNOURISHED KID SHOULD REMAIN MALNOURISHED KIDS BY GOVERNEMENTAL DECISSION

The UN says it has withdrawn a high energy food for children in India after the government said it had been distributed without permission.

A senior official from the UN's children agency, Unicef, told the BBC that malnourished children would now be given a locally available product.

He said this would be instead of the imported ready-to-use therapeutic food.

Unicef had been distributing the food, made of peanut paste, to malnourished children in two Indian states.

It said food provided locally in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh was not sufficient for children in a critical condition.

Malnourished children

Unicef says the Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) is a high energy relief treatment given to thousands of severely malnourished children around the world.



The government says improvements have been made to food distribution
It says children with acute malnutrition require life-saving treatment, which is sanctioned by the World Health Organisation.

India is home to the greatest number of malnourished children in the world and it is estimated that more than half of them are in the two states.

Unicef was asked by the two state governments to distribute the high-energy peanut paste to affected children in two provinces. It imported about $2m worth of the food for distribution.

"The government of India was not aware of this, it felt that it was not adequately tested. So they have asked us to take it out of India, which we have now done," Daniel Toole, Unicef's regional director for South Asia told the BBC.

The agency has now re-exported the therapeutic food to Afghanistan and Madagascar, where it has been used for a long time.

Indian officials say that imported peanut paste is expensive and that they are not convinced about its effectiveness. They want the product to be approved by the Indian health ministry first.

'Easier'

"Nothing should come behind our back. Nothing should be done in the name of emergency when we have not declared an emergency," Shreeranjan, the joint secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development told the Reuters news agency.

Indian officials have told Unicef to use locally available alternatives like therapeutic milk. But there are differences between the two products.

"What we have seen in parts of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and in Africa is that... peanut paste for children is a little bit slower but it is much more steady and easier. And mothers can take it home even after they start the treatment."

In addition, the food does not require refrigeration or added water.

Health campaigners have criticised the Indian government's decision saying it is an over-reaction. They say despite various nationwide measures to end malnutrition, the country is still facing the problem.

The country's booming economic growth, they say, is not trickling down to millions of poor.

RAKSHA BANDHAN

Today is RAKHSA BANDHAN

Raksha literally means protection and bandhan means binding. This festival of love between brothers and sisters is a major Hindu festival which fall in the full moon day of the month of Shravana in North India . It is marked by sisters tying a protective amulet on the wrist of their brothers for their long live and protection. The brothers on their part pledge to protect their sisters against any danger.

Is indeed a very nice opportunity for a celebration missing in the W- European world and maybe more valuable than Valentine da , which in his commercialized form coming over from the US makes no real sense at all.

NO BRIDES,THAN MARRY THE TEENIES- THE BARTER SYSTEM

Divya A., What is the barter system ?

In Haryana’s sex ratio is 861 females/1000 males, compared to the national average of 933/1000 to overcome the lack of brides family promises a daughter in exchange for a bride for its son. The promised daughter may not be adult but is married off to keep the bargain Some believe Haryana's practice could make daughters more relevant within the family but others believe it means the exploitation of minors. Kumari says, "The police may have been able to stop a couple of such cases but the ground reality could be scary. Many teenage girls must have been passed off as brides to middle-aged men only because their brothers or uncles needed a wife. Such a practice makes them victims of easy exploitation."‘‘Families with large land holdings don’t face much of a problem finding brides for their sons,’’ says Chandigarh social scientist Manjit Singh. ‘‘But small and marginal farmers have no choice but to marry their own daughter or a female relative into the family from where they expect a bride for their son.’’ No one is keeping count but the numbers might be huge in a state where more than 14 lakh people don’t have a house and live in slums, according to a 2006 state government report. Singh says that the barter system was earlier limited to the Bishnois and a few other communities, but it is now being adopted even by Jats.



Original from INDIAN TIMES.
Can't find brides, Haryana barters away little girls
Divya A, TNN 2 August 2009, 01:19am I

A case recently came to light in Jandli Kalan village of Haryana's Fatehabad district. One Nathu Ram was to marry Geeta. His sister was to
marry Geeta's maternal uncle on the same day. But Geeta's father complained to the deputy commissioner of police that his daughter was just 15 years old. He said his wife and her family had conspired to marry her off in order that his brother-in-law get a bride under the 'barter system'. The authorities swooped down on Jandli Kalan village and stopped the wedding, but the family had a contingency plan. They produced Geeta's cousin Savitri as a replacement bride. But she turned out to be a minor as well. Under pressure, Geeta's relatives frantically searched for a bride within the extended family and finally found a 20-year-old.

Fatehabad deputy Commissioner CG Rajnikanthan said that when his team went to stop Savitri's marriage, her family tried to convince him that the girl was adult even though the girl herself admitted she was born in 1993. "It was only after I categorically told them that criminal cases would be registered against them in case they went ahead with their plan without producing evidence that the girl was a major, that they stopped and gave me an undertaking they would not marry off the girl till she's of marriageable age."

The Jandli Kalan case may be extraordinary but it is hardly unusual. The same thing happened almost 100 km away, in the Keharwala village of adjoining Sirsa district, except that the prospective brides were even younger 12 and 14.

Haryana is reduced to this because of its deeply skewed sex ratio. A state government report admits there are just 822 females for every 1000 men in the 0 to 6 years category. The ratio falls even further in the literate population: 618 females to 1000 males. In some villages in the state, notably Malerna and Duleypur, the sex ratio at birth is 370 and 400 females per 1,000 males respectively.

So rural Haryana operates a barter system so that its sons can find brides. But every family does not have a girl of marriageable age to exchange; some marry off minors to keep their end of the bargain.

"Families with large land holdings don't face much of a problem finding brides for their sons," says Chandigarh social scientist Manjit Singh. "But small and marginal farmers have no choice but to marry their own daughter or a female relative into the family from where they expect a bride for their son."

No one is keeping count but the numbers might be huge in a state where more than 14 lakh people don't have a house and live in slums, according to a 2006 state government report.

Singh says that the barter system was earlier limited to the Bishnois and a few other communities, but it is now being adopted even by Jats.

Asha Setia, officer of the state's Integrated Child Development Scheme, says that few cases come to light but "we fear it goes on". She says the state government has recently deployed one child marriage protection officer to each district. His job: to convince village heads such practices are wrong.

Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research, takes an uncompromising view. "Only in Haryana are women treated as commodities they are bought, sold, killed, discarded and even exchanged. Honour killings, child marriage and female infanticide all are taking place in the name of custom. It shows a totally desensitized political class," she says. Is this the state that was once home to the Arya Samaj movement, Kumari says scathingly.

Unicefs 'State of the Worlds Children-2009' report says that 40% of all child marriages in the world occur in India. Girl's may be married off early in many parts of Africa too, some even before puberty. But there is a difference. The African brides parents are paid in cash, cattle or other valuables and her bride price falls steadily as the girl gets older. In Pakistan, the tribal custom of 'watta satta' has families betroth a son and a daughter together to another family.