Messages In This Digest (5
Messages)
Messages
- 1.
-
Tue Mar 3, 2009 5:59 am (PST)
Dear friends,
Here I am sharing with you a complaint by a rape victim in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh. We have filed the complaint y'day with SP Dantewada.
Madkam Hidme (19) d/o Soyam Kama from Bhandarpadar village was repeatedly raped by SPOs inside Konta police station in March 2008. She somehow escaped from the Salwa Judum camp and went to Andhra Pradesh.
Salwa Judum leaders has also robbed her twice. Since Hidme lives in constant fear of Salwa Judum and changes her sleeping place every night
She has now mustered courage to complain. But we can save her life only if we speak up for her.
( Moderator's note : Himanshu Ji had sent us the complaint as an attachment. We have uploaded them in the files section of the yahoogroup. If you do not have a yahoo account to access the files pls use username : group36garh@yahoo.co.in and password : raipur
You can access the file at the URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chhattisgarh-net/files/rape1.JPG
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chhattisgarh-net/files/rape2.JPG
If you can't access this file pls write to us at cg...@cgnet.in and we will send you the attachment)
Himanshu Kumar
Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, Kawalnar, Dantewada
+91 9425260031
- 2.
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Tue Mar 3, 2009 6:27 am (PST)
Dear friends,
Here I share the petition filed by families of victims of Singaram massacre on 8th January 2009 in Bilaspur high court. As you know 19 innocent tribals were killed by SPOs on point blank range in Singaram that day and police still claims it to be a very successful encounter against armed Naxalites
I will keep sharing the development on the case from to time.
( Moderators note : The petition is uploaded at the files section of discussion forum. If you do not have a yahoo account pls use username : group36garh@yahoo.co.in and password : raipur
You can access the file at the URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chhattisgarh-net/files/Singaram%20petition.doc
If you can not access the file pls write to us at cg...@cgnet.in)
Sincerely
Himanshu Kumar
Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, Kawalnar, Dantewada
+91 9425260031
- 3.
-
Tue Mar 3, 2009 8:38 am (PST)
Dear friends,
Pls also find a copy of rejoinder we filed in the Singaram petition in High Court
( Moderators note : You can access the file at the URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chhattisgarh-net/files/Singaram%20Rejoinder.doc
If you do not have a yahoo account pls use username : group36garh@yahoo.co.in Password : raipur
or write to us at cg...@cgnet.in)
Sincerely
Himanshu Kumar
Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, Kawalnar, Dantewada
+91 9425260031
- 4.
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Tue Mar 3, 2009 9:53 am (PST)
Fires in India claim lives of 106,000 young women
Mar 03, 2009 04:30 AM
Sam Dolnick
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI – More than 106,000 young women were killed in fires in
India in a single year, and many of those deaths were tied to domestic
abuse, according to a study published yesterday.
Young Indian women are more than three times as likely to be killed by
fire than their male compatriots, according to an article published on
the website of the British medical journal The Lancet. The victims
largely fell within the 15-34 age group.
Domestic abuse is a serious problem in India.
Women are sometimes killed in arguments over dowries; in such
disputes, the victims are often doused with gasoline and set ablaze,
and their deaths are described as kitchen accidents.
In the first study of its kind and using the most recent data
available, U.S.-based researchers analyzed death registrations,
official questionnaires in rural areas and census figures to arrive at
an estimate of 163,000 fire-related deaths in 2001, or 2 per cent of
all deaths.
That number is six times higher than the number of such deaths
reported by police. More than 106,000 of those, or 65 per cent, were
women. "They say that it's a crime and it's shameful, but it's not
enough to say that," said Indira Jaising, director of the Women's
Rights Initiative of the Lawyers Collective in New Delhi. "They have
not been able to do anything to stop it from happening."
- 5.
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Tue Mar 3, 2009 9:53 am (PST)
Jharkhand is most food insecure Indian state: Report
India's mineral-rich state Jharkhand is the most hungry and thirsty state
in the country and has the poorest of sanitation facilities
Published on 3/3/2009 1:18:13 PM
By Sarita Yadav/ Shubhendu Parth
*New Delhi: *India's mineral-rich state Jharkhand is the most hungry and
thirsty state in the country and also among the states that has the poorest
of sanitation facilities.
According to a report on the State of Food Insecurity in Rural India
prepared jointly by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and MS
Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Jharkhand has replaced Orissa from
top of the list of hungry states in the country.
The report, which is a corollary to the Food Insecurity Atlas of Rural India
that was released in 2001, also ranks the country 94th on the Global Hunger
Index of 119 countries.
"On the composite index of food insecurity of rural India, states like
Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are found in the 'very high' level of food
insecurity, followed by Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat", the report said.
The better performers include Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab and Jammu and
Kashmir, all of which report an Index value below 0.53, it added.
Surprisingly, economically developed states like Gujarat, Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka find themselves in the category of high food
insecurity in the report.
"It is perhaps a reflection of the manifestation of the agrarian crisis in
the states and its consequent negative impact on the health and well-being
of the rural population," the report argues.
According to the report, almost two-third of rural households in Jharkhand
do not have access to safe drinking water and more than 90 per cent of rural
households in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh do not have
access to toilets within their premises.
*Malnutrition: India's bane*
The latest report on the state of food insecurity in rural India also shows
that more than 1.5 million children are at risk of becoming malnourished
because of rising global food prices.
According to the report, more than 27 per cent of the world's undernourished
population live in India while 43 per cent of children (under 5 years) in
the country are underweight.
The figure is among the highest in the world and is much higher than the
global average of 25 per cent, including the sub-Saharan Africa's figure of
28 per cent.
"In fact, every third adult between the ages of 15-49 years is having a Body
Mass Index (BMI) less than 18.5 against the normal weight of 18.5 - 24.9,
clearly indicating that they are thin and undernourished," the report says.
*
Anaemia: On the upswing *
As many as eight states—Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka,
Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan—have shown increase in the incidence of
anaemia among women in the reproductive age group.
According to the report, the proportion of rural anaemic children in at
least 12 states has figures higher than 80 per cent. Bihar, that already had
a high figure of 81 per cent, has further increased to 89 per cent.
The highest increase in anaemia levels has been observed in Andhra Pradesh
(51 to 64 per cent), followed by Haryana (48 to 57 per cent) and Kerala (23
to 32 per cent).
However, percentage of women with Chronic Energy Deficiency (CED) is
stagnant at 40 per cent over six years with the proportion in fact
increasing in Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana during the same
period, the report added.
The report further blames the failure of government's ambitious Targeted
Public Distribution System (TPDS) for the ills.
"Apart from failing to serve the intended goal of reduction of food
subsidies, the TPDS also led to greater food insecurity for large sections
of the poor and the near-poor," the report said.
According to it, these targeting errors arise due to imperfect information,
inexact measurement of household characteristics, corruption and
inefficiency.
Another problem of the TPDS was the issue of quantity of grain that a
household is entitled to. The scheme had initially restricted the allotments
to Below Poverty Line (BPL) households to 10 kg per month or 2 kg per capita
for a family of five.
"Using the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommended norm of 330
grams per day, the requirement per person per month would be 11 kg and that
for a family of five would be 55 kg," the report said.
The Union Budget of 2001 increased the allotment to 20 kg per month and
raised it further to 35 kg in April 2002.
The report also lashes out at the government's definitions of hunger and
poverty.
"The fact that calorie deprivation is increasing during a period when the
proportion of rural population below the poverty line is claimed to be
declining rapidly, highlights the increasing disconnect between official
poverty estimates and calorie deprivation," it said.
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