from The Human Impact:
Undernourished and anaemic – the plight of India’s teen girls
The U.N.'s latest report on the state of the world's 1.2 billion adolescents gives food for thought, especially on the plight of India's girls aged between 10 and 19.
The report explores a range of issues affecting teenagers around the globe, from nutrition and health to sexual behaviour, knowledge on HIV/AIDS, attitudes towards gender violence and access to education.
Data from surveys of adolescent girls in India, and South Asia in general, are once again a reality check - which we shouldn't need but unfortunately still do.
Soon to overtake China as the world's most populous nation by 2050, India already has the highest number of adolescents in the world at 243 million, says the report by the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Yet nearly half of Indian girls aged 15 to 19 are underweight, and more than a quarter are underweight in 10 other countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Niger, Ethiopia and Cambodia.
"Such undernutrition renders adolescents vulnerable to disease and early death, and has lifelong health consequences," says the report. "In adolescent mothers, undernutrition is related to slow foetal growth and low birthweight."
from Photographers Blog:
Privileged witness to the start of life
By Vivek Prakash
It's an experience I will never forget. I have no children of my own, but when the day does come, maybe I'll be just a little bit more prepared for it.
I had come a long, long way from my usual cosmopolitan stomping ground of Mumbai, to a place just about as far interior as you can go in India. I was about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Rajasthan border in the state of Madhya Pradesh, in a village of about 700 people. This is very, very small by Indian standards. There were dusty roads that a car could barely fit down, mud houses, a scorching heat during the day which turned to a deep chill at night.
I had many ideas in my head and many questions too - what kind of emotions was I going to experience and witness? Should I be excited, or should I feel like an intruder, given the subject matter I was here to shoot? I had come a long way to shoot this, but now, standing in this little rural community health center with my camera, I felt conflicted.
Well, did you get authorization from Anguri about using her picture? That should help your conscience’s conflict.
Lucas
http://www.pictobank.com/
On Delhi’s deadly roads, life-saving helmet not required for women
India’s roads are among the world’s most dangerous, claiming thousands of lives each year. Cows and elephants rub shoulders with sleek foreign-made sports cars on highways across the country.
But two-wheelers remain India’s favourite mode of transport. Millions of scooters and motorbikes are sold every year, accounting for 75 percent of all vehicles sold in the country. Entire families are seen seated on these affordable and fuel-efficient vehicles, zipping in and out of packed traffic in cities and towns.
Enforcing road safety measures remains a huge problem, leading to one road accident every minute and a road accident death every four minutes in India.
But surprisingly, in New Delhi, women who drive two-wheelers or ride pillion don’t, by law, have to wear a helmet.
Women in the Indian capital are often seen sitting side-saddle on the back with their hair freely fluttering in the wind, while their male drivers wear helmets, a life-saving accessory in case of a crash.
India’s Motor Vehicles Act, enacted in 1988, states “every person driving or riding” a two-wheeler must wear protective headgear. The only group of people exempt from the law are turban-wearing Sikhs.
But in Delhi, following protests by Sikh women, the city incorporated another exemption, making it “optional for woman whether riding on pillion or driving on a motor cycle to wear a protective headgear.”
India must ask: where is the honour in killing?
Three men were arrested by Delhi police this week for “honour killings” days after the Supreme Court asked eight Indian states to stop these so-called “honour” killings, where family members, typically men, kill daughters and their husbands for apparently bringing dishonour to the family by marrying below their caste.
The killings, in a posh neighbourhood in Delhi, brought the tragic and shameful story of honour killings closer home to Delhi residents, who had so far dismissed the rising instances of these killings as a feature of rural India, equating them to a more traditional and conservative India they claim not to inhabit.
The clash between tradition and modernity is not new and is not unique to India, where more than two-thirds of its population lives in rural areas, and where more than half the population is below the age of 25 years.
Satellite television, education and rising numbers of working women have all been blamed for an erosion of family values and the Indian ethos, and the corruption of its youth.
When did killing young women become a part of the Indian ethos? Why is punishment by death an admirable family value?
In a country where a majority of youngsters still have marriages “arranged” by their parents, caste and religion dominate matrimonial conversations.
Activists say despite growing modernisation — or perhaps, because of it — the number of honour killings has been rising steadily in the last few years, particularly in some northern and central Indian states, where village elders often order such killings.
The issue of social acceptance of inter-cast or intra-Gotra marriage and honor killing are two separate issues and required to be dwelt separately. The heinous crime of honor killing is absolutely deplorable. However, the larger social issue of intra-gotra marriage is a debatable point.
Hinduism is a way of life or a tradition having its origin since time immemorial without any particular follower or deity describing it completely. It origin or flows from the text of four Vedas in which the almighty is one having no specific face or depiction. The Vedas are followed by Purans. The Purans are followed by Smritis (e.g. Manu Smritis) which written by specific ancient souls by their remembrance. The Smritis are followed by Shruties (e.g. Ramayan, Mahabharata etc.) which are chants of nomadic tribes to describe valiance and nobleness of their Kings. In Hindu mythology any character, living being, deity or object which brings you near the right path of social living is being worshiped by different sects. These sects have their own set rules and norms. The inhabitants of civilization Indus Valley and beyond centered on Gangatic plains was termed by Greeks as
An easier end to unhappy marriages in India?
India’s cabinet this week cleared a proposal to amend the Hindu Marriage Act to allow “irretrievable breakdown of marriage” as a ground for divorce.
The amendment had been resisted earlier and been pending for nearly three decades now. Other grounds for divorce, which can take anywhere from six months to 20 years, include cruelty, desertion and adultery.
The amendment, if approved by parliament, will make divorce easier for estranged couples, experts say, particularly in cases where a partner is deliberately delaying proceedings. Even family courts are notoriously ineffective and insensitive when it comes to separation, with judges often admonishing the woman to be more “adjusting” or offering advice thinly disguised as rulings.
The proposed amendment gives women, who are sometimes forced into marriage, an easier way to end an unhappy marriage and provides some safeguards against harassment.
Some counsellors have warned against making divorce too easy, lest couples do not even attempt to reconcile differences.
But others say the recognition that the divorce process must be easier only reflects the present day reality: while the divorce rate in India, at about 1.1 percent, is among the lowest in the world, it is ticking up, particularly in cities, where women tend to be more financially independent and where divorce is seen as more acceptable in a country where there is still a big stigma attached to it.
Indian laws have often trailed reality; indeed, the courts have stepped in to resolve matters such as a higher marriage age, and more recently, legalising live-in relationships and homosexual relations.
The ammendment gurantees half of the assets of the husband for the wife regardless of her conduct. So tommorrow if the wife deserts the husband within 1-2 years , she still gets on the benifits.As the author rightly said the ammendment would be know to the upwardly mobile , economically independent women. So this means, there is clear scope for gross misuse here. While the traditional wife would not be evernaware , those unscruplous women who have no serious intention or respect for marriage would use it as a tool to earn quick and large amount of money by marrying, and causing a divorce within say 1-2 years.
Some questions on the Women’s Reservation Bill
The Women’s Reservation Bill has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha on the International Women’s Day.
It may be the most consequential act of lawmaking since independence.
It is probably too late to discuss alternative proposals for getting more women into parliament or the opinion of those women who don’t agree with the reservation route to political empowerment.
How far will women’s reservation empower women and the society?
There are questions on its provisions as they have been reported.
The bill seeks to bring more women into parliament by reserving seats.
While this widens the choice for the voter by putting women leaders into circulation it also decreases the choice of candidates for voters in reserved constituencies.
Hi, I really don’t feel that there should be any kind of reservation in the parliament.
I know that women should get a better world to live but giving reservation is not the only key.
They should be well educated, there should be groups..working for their rights.
Parliament is the place that represents us. We elect people we like
U cannot make us to chooose from those which we don’t wana to be our leader………….we are free to chooose our leaders, that’s our fundamental right.
Reservation is not the only key.
Reservation in parliament will make our democracy much weaker just think how much risk we are going to take.
If you think opposite just tell me I will clear all your doubt or u clear mine.
Thankyou!
A punch in the face of Indian women
Lost in the clamour over our cricketers defying WADA over the “whereabouts” rule in drug testing, was a tiny news item in the Hindustan Times daily last week about women boxers washing dishes and serving tea to visitors at the National Institute of Sports.
Sports Minister MS Gill, when questioned about it in India’s upper house, said the practice was “a normal courtesy extended to distinguished guests”.
There was no clarity on what made a guest distinguished or whether this was a courtesy that only women were called on to extend.
The boxing federation, which has enough on its plate already, then sent out a press release, papers said, saying: “Haven’t we all grown up seeing our mothers, sisters and ladies of the house looking after the guests, right from our childhood. Are they doing demeaning jobs?”
Clearly not in Gill’s mind.
Isn’t it bad enough that every sport besides cricket gets the short end of the stick in India? Do we need to further humiliate our sportspersons — our sportswomen — in this fashion?
Would you imagine the uproar if budding bowlers at the Chennai academy were made to wash the cars of distinguished guests as a normal courtesy?
Hi All,
The news is true…yes they were made to do these stuff.
Please remember they are there to punch, to beat the hell out of another competitor, not to be mother or sisters.
Can Indian women trust the police?
A mob vandalized a police station in west Delhi this week after a woman accused five policemen of raping her in a police station.
This is not the first time enforcers of the law have been accused of rape.
In 2005, a 16-year-old girl was raped by a drunk constable in south Mumbai in the infamous Marine Drive rape case.
A year later, another police constable was accused of raping a slum dweller in Karnal.
Data from the National Crimes Record Bureau shows courts tried 132 policemen for custodial rape in 2002 but only four were convicted.
Does this mean women who seek the help of the law are better off not reporting crimes committed against them?
Some amendments were made to the Code of Criminal Procedure Act in 2005 to prevent incidents of custodial rape.
How is the question of class broader than that of the gender?
How to get more women into parliament?
As part of its 100-day action plan, the Congress-led UPA government is pushing for the Women’s Reservation Bill, which seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats in parliament for women.
The UPA has also promised to give women 50 percent seats in local government institutions like the village council, up from the 33 percent of seats currently reserved for them.
That measure has been in place for over a decade and a half. But has it done any good?
Initially, it was feared that elected women would be no more than “dumb dolls”, manipulated into endorsing decisions taken by their husbands and other family members.
But a government-sponsored study in 2008 of elected women representatives in village councils has shown encouraging results.
“A sizeable proportion of women representatives perceive enhancement in their self-esteem (79%), confidence (81%) and decision-making ability (74%),” says the study.
There has been hue and cry about women reservation bill and some modifications in it for a long time now but i think that such a law itself should not exist. A person (in this case a Man) who has worked for his constituency throughout life will suddenly find that he is not allowed to contest election from that constituency because it is reserved for women. This is really ridiculous in democracy and is definitely biased against men. Shortcuts are not always good. If women want to come to parliament then they should fight in a democratic way with men. This will give them more respect. NCW and other women organizations are misusing the enormous power being bestowed to them and even the media now are acting irresponsibly. When the OBC quota was introduced the media was responsible enough to show both sides of it. But now even they are biased and are blaming politicians in delaying the passage of the bill. This is a sad situation wherein talent and people’s will are given a second seat. The advocacy of such a law shows immaturity and lack of responsibility on the part of its supporters. I hope such a law should not be passed so that any capable PERSON can contest election from the constituency of his/her choice.
The sad state of Indian soap operas
Prime-time television in India is not really known for sensible content. Especially the soap operas. I have never been a fan but one tedious evening, I switched on the telly and sat through one “saas-bahu” serial after another.
What was it about family dramas that kept millions of Indian women glued to their TV sets each evening? I intended to find out.
In one such episode, a mother-in-law laments the loss of an unborn grandchild.
“We have lost our grandson and our daughter-in-law cannot bear a child after this. Now we will never have a grandson to take the family name forward.”
I wondered how the mother-in-law could be so sure the unborn child was male. Did she get a sex-determination test done? Or was it some divine revelation.
As the story of one serial after the other unfolded on screen, I realized that to be the “perfect” woman on Indian television, one needed to be a docile housewife and sacrifice everything for the family’s happiness.
Even if that meant putting up with philandering husbands.
Yep, all the soaps suck, they constantly show all the negatives…http://cashcrate.com/816599
