The FCRA Department has recently revamped its web-site. You can now check the status of your application (for registration or prior-permission) by visiting the following web-site: http://mha.nic.in/fcra.htm

Follow the following steps once you reach the site:
Click on 'Application Status'
Choose the applicable option
Punch in your file number in the window that opens up.

You can use this facility only once you receive an acknowledgement for your application. This acknowledgement letter contains the file number.

What does the Tax amendment bill contain for Trusts / NGOs?

The Government has tabled a bill in the parliament.- Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill 2005. Some of whose provisions may make NGOs' fiscal management more complicated.

According to the news report, the provisions include the following:
• Exempt schools and hospitals, with receipts below Rs. 1 crore, will also need to file income tax returns.
• Public trusts with mainly related persons as trustees may face tougher tax provisions.
• Rules related to registration and exemption of charities under Income Tax are being tightened.
  These may involve deeper scrutiny before registration is granted.
• Donations above Rupees 20,000 can be accepted only through account payee cheques or drafts.
• Audit rules for charities will be tightened.

Please note that these are only proposals in the Bill. These are not yet law. These will become law only when both Houses pass the bill, and the President gives his assent.

Mumbai: Representatives of different organisations, students and concerned citizens had an hour-long protest meet on May 12 in front of Hindalco’s corporate office in Worli. They sang songs, held placards and distributed leaflets to the general public highlighting the human rights violations, and social and environmental impacts of bauxite mining in the area.

The Kashipur Support Group demanded that Hindalco immediately withdraw from all mining activities from the tribal areas of Kashipur, Orissa. The Birla company, is part of a consortium of private companies collectively known as UAIL (Utkal Alumina International Ltd) that was formed to initiate a project to extract bauxite ores and produce alumina. The project area is chiefly occupied by adivasis and dalits. This project, if executed will lead to large-scale displacement and loss of livelihood for these people. The Norwegian development agency, NORAD, has estimated that about 60000 people will be displaced by this project. The people of Kashipur have been opposing the project since its inception.

In 2001, police fired at unarmed tribal protesters killing 3 people and since then the area witnessed large-scale police presence and repression. On December 01, 2004, Orissa police launched a brutal lathi charge on 400 adivasis, mostly women, who had gathered to peacefully protest against the inauguration of a new road to a proposed bauxite-mining site in Baphlimali owned by ALCAN (a Montreal based multi national company). As a result, 16 people were critically injured and three women were beaten unconscious. Since this incident, we understand that Kashipur, a seat of resistance against bauxite mining, has been in a state of virtual siege. Platoons of armed police with firing orders have occupied Kucheipadar village - the centre of the struggle.

The protesters also delivered an open letter to the Hindalco Company, to withdraw from Kashipur area and allow the indigenous people to decide over their future and livelihood. They further demanded immediate withdrawal of police force and all responsible for the police firing on innocent people be punished according to law. The Kashipur Support Group is an informal group of concerned organisations and individuals in Mumbai.

Mumbai: Over a dozen NGOs, health groups and women's groups have opposed a new law proposed in Maharashtra that will, in effect, deny irrigation water to farmers who have more than two children after the law is enacted. Calling the law ``retrograde'' and ``coercive,'' these groups are objecting to a provision in the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Bill, 2003,that was passed by the legislative council on April 7, that states that ``a person having more than two children shall not be eligible to entitlement of water for agriculture.''

Outrightly rejecting the AIMPLB’s (All-India musin Personal Law Board) model 'nikahnama' as being "bereft of Muslim women's rights", All-India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) said it would prepare its own code of marriage in keeping with the Shariat. "The model 'nikahnama' is bereft of the rights of Muslim women and does not clearly define 'talaq' in light of the Shariat (Islamic jurisprudence)," Shaista Amber, President of the recently floated rebel body said. She said the model 'nikahnama' prepared by the AIMPLB had failed to "redress the burning issues"confronting Muslim women in the country. Amber also decried the practice of uttering "talaq" thrice in a row to annul a marriage as being detrimental to the overall interest of women who remain the "victims of the malady".

She said the new 'nikahnama' to be prepared by the AIMWPLB would clearly spell out the guidelines concerning 'talaq' in keeping with the Shariat. "It will be our endeavour to protect the rights of Muslim women according to the Shariat laws and also to help them fight exploitation," Amber said.

AIMWPLB would hold a two-day meeting on June 24 at Nainital where a broad outline of the new 'nikahanama' was likely to be announced,sources said.

The Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005, as passed by the Lok Sabha on 11 May 2005 is a historic event that will create opportunities for the people of India to participate meaningfully in democratic governance. Perhaps for the first time the common citizen of India is being empowered to monitor and expose corruption and the arbitrary exercise of power.

The highlights of the Act include:
A strong and independent information commission as an appellate authority, both at the central and state level, with the power to impose penalties. Penalties, including a fine for each day of delay in providing information, and fines and departmental action for a host of other violations, including refusal to accept a request for information, the giving of false information and the destruction of
information.

Applicability of the Act to the Central and state governments, and to local bodies.

Access to information from security and intelligence agencies on matters relating to corruption and human rights violations;
Access to information otherwise exempted, where the public interest in disclosure overrides any possible harm due to disclosure.
Suo moto disclosure of various categories of information.

On the other hand, some provisions have been diluted: Deletion of the earlier provision of criminal liability in case of malafide provision of false information or destruction of information, with a provision for imprisonment.
Making most information available after 20 years,(instead of 10) and the exclusion of cabinet papers from this provision.
Dropping of the clause regarding the suo moto provision of information on proposed development projects and activities.
Retaining the clause seeking the views of the third party every time information pertaining to them is being sought, thereby resulting in unnecessary delays.

The enactment of this law is just the start of a process where the government and its functionaries should become answerable to the people on a day-to-day basis. The RTI law offers an opportunity to change the culture within and outside the government. It could, perhaps for the first time, bring in the realisation that in a true democracy the government is finally and constantly answerable to the people, and not just for its broad policies and achievements and failures, but for each action and process.
--National Campaign for People's Right to Information

Bangalore: With the monsoons playing a significant role in the life of the farmers in India, Agriculture Insurance Company has hastened the launch of its weather insurance scheme and aims to cover 2 lakh farmers through 'Varsha Bima' and a drought cover 'Sookha Suraksha Kavach' offered in Rajasthan.

'Varsha Bima', priced at 4-8 percent of crop value, will cover 13 crops in 10 states till June 30 this year. It would be extended to more crops across the nation next year. AIC will start compensating farmers from middle of August after getting actual picture of monsoon from the MET.

"Lower the rainfall, higher will be the pay-out to farmers." One of the main drawbacks of domestic insurance industry was the lack of comprehensive agricultural insurance coverage against crop failures.

AIC chairman Suparas Bhandari said the cut off date for opting for the weather insurance schemes has been fixed at June 30. The AIC chief promised claim settlement within 15 days after receiving data from 140 rain guage stations of Indian meteorological department
spread over 10 states.

Bangalore: A NationalCampaign for Political Reforms. to bring together like-minded organizations and individuals to usher in systemic reforms – viz., proportional representation, direct election to chief executive at the state level, and internal democracy in parties – to fundamentally alter the nature of our polity wasbegun with the launching of VOTEINDIA, on April 15 by the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr.TS.Krishnamurthy VOTEINDIA campaign is more about voting for India's future – not merely related to the technical process of 'voting' in elections. Citizens' involvement in voter registration and improvements in indirect taxes administration are planned as initial activities of VOTEINDIA in a few major cities. Three-day orientation workshops are being planned in all major cities for over 1000 volunteers.
Tel: 91-40-2335 0778 / 2335 0790; Fax: 91-40-2335 0783

The 1st Executive Group meeting of Loksatta’s Maharashtra chapter met on 28th May 2005, and took up the following issues CVC & Chairperson - CBEC to actively participate in Loksatta's twoday workshop of excise & service tax department reforms. 2- Loksatta to take up the issue of mis-governance in India's "Public Distribution System". 3- Loksatta forms a subgroup to drive its reform agenda for Municipal Governance in Mumbai. Loksatta also joins hands with retired BMC officials for identifying areas of reforms required. Contact Anant Shende Loksatta - Maharashtra Chapter
E-mail: loksatta@satyam.net.in;
info@voteindia.org;

Web: www.loksatta.org; www.voteindia.org

Laadli launch
Mumbai: The Girl Child Campaign –Laadli- was launched on June 9, 2005 at the Tata Theatre, by Governor SM Krishna. Laadli aims at addressing the problem of falling sex ratios in
Mumbai. which has a shameful sex ratio of just 898 girls for 1000 boys in the age group of 0 to 6. This is due to the abhorrent practice of illegal sex selective abortions.

With the theme 'Celebrate her life' Laadli attempts to bring about a change in the mindsets of people that make them opt for sex selection. Launched by Population First an NGO that works to support the government's goal of achieving population stabilisation by 2045, within the framework of women's rights and social development.

The Laadli campaign has a four-pronged strategy of: Increasing the visibility of the issue and creating awareness; Building commitment of people to stop sex selection; Providing community support and vigilance to sustain the change; Enhancing the value and role of girl child in the family and community by changing mind sets through a sustained communication campaign.
The campaign will focus on opinion makers, role models and youth icons from various fields ;Youth of the city; Community based organizations and networks which can work with appropriate authorities at the ward level to facilitate better implementation of PNDT Act, and the media.Contact: Dr. A.L. Sharada Programme Director, Population First Cell: 98209 11051 www.populationfirst.org>> Contact: Preeti Gopalkrishnan Cell: 98200 10052

Sarojini Naidu award
The Hunger Project has instituted an award in the name of Sarojini Naidu for published articles in the media on women and panchayat. Entries are invited for this year's award.

Please contact them at 12/28, Sai
Sadan, 2nd Main, 32nd Cross, 7th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore - 560082.

Contact 080- 57719245 for further details.
Check http://www.thp.org/india

call Mary: 9845577850 Srilakshmi : 9845237886

Transparency International 2005 Integrity Awards honours up to three individuals and/or organisations whose efforts have made a positive impact on curbing corruption. Award winners will be honoured November 11 2005. Deadline: July 1 2005. http://www.comminit.com/awards2005/awards2005/awards-1135.html

IMC Award for CERC
The Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC), Mumbai, conferred its Diamond Jubilee Endowment Trust Award 2004, "The Promotion of Savings, Consumer Protection and Export Promotion Award 2004," on Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC), Ahmedabad, on April 21, 2005.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, presented the award to CERC on the occasion of the IMC’s Annual General Meeting on the day at a glittering function in Mumbai. Mrs. Swarn Kohli, Chairperson of Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS), received the award on behalf of Prof. Manubhai Shah, Chairman Emeritus, CERC.

Accepting the award, Mrs. Kohli explained how CERC used the law extensively as one of the major tools for consumer protection for the evolution and development of new principles of law arising out of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) and other cases filed by CERC before the High Courts, the Supreme Court and the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) and the like.

CSE wins 3! (Pix)
The Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has been celebrating recently. The Padma Shri award, the Stockholm Water Prize and the Chameli Devi Jain award have come in quick succession.
Director, Sunita Narain, was awarded the Padma Shri for her pioneering work in cleaning up India's environment and creating awareness about various issues.

Then, the CSE was awarded the prestigious 2005 Stockholm Water Prize for building a new paradigm of water management that uses traditional wisdom to harvest rain and promotes the role of communities in
managing their local water systems. CSE (www.cseindia.org) will receive the $150,000 Prize from HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in August 2005.

In March Sunita Narain was awarded the Chameli Devi Award for an Outstanding Media Person. She is the
editor of "Down to Earth", (www.downtoearth.org.in) a fortnightly that has down the years grown to become India's leading environment magazine that, for almost 20 years, has relentlessly campaigned on various issues that are today wrecking India's environment. Narain has been with the CSE since 1982. Since the death of its director, Anil Aggarwal, three years ago, she took over the reigns infusing it with a new energy to clean up India's environment and force government policy to look at human right issues and sustainable development. CSE's State of India's Environment report is now widely respected even in government circles as it chronicles the highs and lows of the country's environment.

Narain became the face of a number of pubic campaigns like the one on pesticide overuse in India. CSE's Green Rating Project (GRP) is a civil society initiative to develop an alternative form of governance to control industrial pollution in India. It systematically collects information on the environmental performance of industries, rated them and pushed the information onto the public domain.

May day commemorated

Mumbai: On May 1,“Women Networking” once again felicitated four women workers to commemorate International Workers Day. Women Networking is a loose network of individuals / organisation who meet every quarter to reflect on current issues and support each other in their involvement in development issues.
The panel speakers were Adv. Susan Abraham, presently with Lawyers Collective, State Secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA ) Ms Mariam Dhawale and the Secretary of Womanist Party of India Ms Avisha Kulkarni. All the three speakers shared their experience and understanding of the problems of workers and particularly women. workers.
The women workers who were felicitated shared their struggles with in the family and at the work place. The four women were Shoba a domestic worker, Meena a construction worker, Rekha an industrial worker and Palaniamma a sweeper.
Reply to: "Global Development Network" <gdni@gdnet.org>

Medals for research on development

The Medals for Outstanding Research on Development carry cash prizes of $60,000 plus travel expenses to the Global Development Network's Seventh Annual Development Conference.Two prize medals-one for $8,000 plus travel and another for $4,000 plus travel-will be granted for completed research papers in each of five topic areas, i.e. 1: Institutions and Poverty Reduction 2: Institutions, Policies, and Long-Run Growth 3:Institutional Development and Change in the Health Sector 4:Political Institutions, Governance and Development 5: Globalization, Institutions, and Development

These correspond to the themes of the Seventh Annual Conference of the Global Development Network. The Medals will be awarded based upon the degree of innovation and the quality of content.

The deadline for submitting the application form, abstract, and completed paper for the Medals is September 16, 2005.

The Medals are open only to citizens and permanent residents of developing or transition countries.Staff members of multilateral organizations are not eligible to apply for the Medals.Past Medal winners and finalists are not eligible to apply with the same or similar paper.

Papers for the Medal competition must not have been published in an internationally distributed journal or book before June 30, 2004.

All applications and documents must be submitted as electronic files through the GDN
website (http://www.gdnet.org).
contact awards@gdnet.org, with the Medal title in the subject line.
GDN Secretariat.Attn:
Lyn Squire, Global Development Network,
Second Floor, West Wing,
ISID Complex, Vasant Vihar Institutional Area,
New Delhi 110 070,
Tel: (011-2091-0017,Fax: (91) 11-5170-4248

Subject: FILMS FOR WOMEN WORK HEALTH CONGRESS - 2005

The Women Work Health Congress - 2005 ( a huge international conference to be held in Delhi later this year) needs films for the video section of the Conference. Filmmakers and organisations who might be interested in participating
contact
Anupama Srinivasan" anu_manana@rediffmail.com>
The website is www.swl-delhi.org/wwh

Call for papers:

Gender Based Violence “Agenda”—the feminist journal invites abstracts and letters of interest for the fourth issue of 2005 which will focus on domestic violence. This issue forms the first in a trilogy on gender-based violence (GBV). Gender based violence is a violation of human rights and the GBV Trilogy will tackle it as such.

The GBV Trilogy is to serve as both a public information sharing platform, disseminating the debates, research and interventions around gender based violence taking place in the academy and on the ground, and as a call to action, mobilising support for the eradication of violence against women.

It is anticipated that the first issue on domestic violence will carry articles including but not limited to: Relationship violence; Family violence; Incest; Sexual violence and rape within marriage/relationship; Female genital mutilation; Community violence - schools, workplace, indentured labour, sexual assault on the streets; Boy and girl childhood socialization; Masculinity studies and men as partners movement

email abstracts and/or overviews to editor@agenda.org.za by 14 June 2005.
contact:Christine Davis,
editorial@agenda.org.za
www.agenda.org.za
-------------
Tsunami stories wanted

The Asia Media Forum (AMF) is looking for quality, in-depth stories for its special series on tsunami-hit countries and communities, to mark the six-month anniversary of the disaster on June 26, 2005.

Writers of accepted story proposals will get grants for local travel to cover their stories. They will also be eligible for selection for overseas assignments for a series the AMF will have in December 2005-- the anniversary of the tsunami.

The stories will be published on the AMF website
(www.asiamediaforum.org) and distributed to regional and international media by Inter Press Service Asia-Pacific.

Interested journalists from Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are invited to submit a one-page story proposal listing story lines, place of coverage and target sources.
Deadline June 16th,2005.

Journalists can choose to either write in English or in their local languages. jivika@yahoogroups.com

(http://www.AsiaMediaForum.org) is a newly-established space for journalists to share insights on issues related to the media and their profession, as well as stories, information and opinions on democracy, development and human rights in Asia. Sign up at http://www.asiamediaforum.org/user/register.
Registration is free.

Resource Material on Sexual and Reproductive Health for young people
“Education in Human Sexuality – a Sourcebook for Educators”
by Ms Dhun Panthaki
in English
Rs. 350/- plus postage. Publ. By FPA India It is one of the most successful books that have been printed in India in the area of sexuality education. The lucid language used makes the book user friendly for everyone – youth, parents, teachers who want to know about or impart information on about human sexuality.

This source book is been used by specialists – educationists, health care providers, development communications personnel including social welfare agencies and young people. The price of the book is

GO 4 Health
A CD on Sexual and Reproductive Health
prep by Family Planning Association of India (FPA India).
Rs 200/- plus postage
This educational material has been compiled by Ms Dhun Panthaki and Ms Bindiya Nimla to enhance the educator’s skills for imparting the information to varied audiences and in different settings.
The CD comes with a hard copy of the 17 modules prepared ranging from sexuality to population and development..
A combined order of the source book and the CD Rs. 500/- plus postage.

contact: Family Planning Association of India, Mumbai
Tel: 022-22029080 / 22045174
Email: fpai@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in
_____________________________

FILMS

Gaon ke naon Theatre, Mor naon Habib

"My village is Theatre, my name is Habib"
A film by Sanjay Maharishi and Sudhanva Deshpande
73 minutes,
Hindi/Chhattisgarhi/English, with English subtitles

Naya Theatre is a professional
theatre company founded in 1959, composed of rural actors from Chhattisgarh. The company is led by Habib Tanvir - actor, writer, director, singer,poet, designer, teacher. The film looks at life in Naya Theatre, as the actors tour one city after another, performing continuously. The filmdocuments what happened when actors of Naya Theatre came under attack from the Hindu Right in August-September 2003 for performingthe anti-untouchability farce Ponga Pandit. Shot over two years, the film is a group portrait of a bunch of inimitable characters -

Kaalam (The unending time)
Language - Malayalam with English subtitles
Duration - 27 mnts
Directed by Ramchandran K

The late legend Pallavoor Appu marar's name is remembered by all and† sundry, the very moment a note is struck on chenda. The painful childhood with an absentee father and limited traditional schooling† moored in him, an unflinching faith towards Lord shiva(The deity worshipped in Pallavoor Temple) who he believes was his first guru,† other than the short stints he had with Kolanthaswamy and Nanu Marar.

The film tries to etch the† creative genius of Late Pallavoor Appu marar through simple and lyrical† interweaving of touching episodes culled from his auto biography titled-† *Pramanam, *performance pieces that illustrate his musical expositions† and deftness in creating silent interregnums and interesting observations from his family members and other folk,

The Day My God Died

Dir: Dr. Mini Jacob

A feature-length documentary that presents the stories of young girls whose lives have been shattered by the child sex trade. They describe the day they were abducted from their village and sold into sexual servitude as, “The Day My God Died.” The film provides actual footage from the brothels of Bombay captured with spy camera” technology. It weaves the stories of girls, and their stolen hopes and dreams, into an unforgettable examination of the growing plague of child sex slavery.
The film also introduces us to the heroes of the movement to abolish child sex slavery – non-profit organizations which rescue and care for former sex slaves. Some victims have emerged to form their own underground railway out of slavery..
Children are the commodity consumed by the voracious and sophisticated international sex trade. Recruiters capture them, smugglers transport them, brothel owners enslave them, corrupt police betray them and customers rape and infect them. Every person in the chain profits except for the girls, who pay the price with their lives.

E-mail: <saramini@yahoo.com>
http://www.thedaymygoddied.com/

Photo expose book on GBV-IRIN

IRIN, a humanitarian news service, is producing a photo expose book on gender-based violence and is looking for partners to undertake advocacy activities using the photos and testimonies from the book as part of the 16 Days of Activism (November 25th- December 10th). IRIN will provide, free-of-charge, the following advocacy materials: 2 films on gender based violence and exhibition-quality images for creating exhibit material -photos and testimonies from our book.

The book is a photo-essay book cataloging the scope and nature of Gender Based Violence around the world. It will be a significant work of analysis and reporting combined with personal accounts, case studies and extensive use of black and white photographs to both inform and generate response. Copies of the book will also be made available to Advocacy partners.

Three professional female photographers and one writer have been hired to work closely with the IRIN team in formulating and executing the project. The book is also part of the package that they began last year, which included a mini-documentary and web-based reports on the issue of rape during conflict, "Our Bodies: Their Battleground".

A second documentary on Female Genital Mutilation, "The Razor's Edge", will be released June 2005. The films and book are provided, free-of-charge, to humanitarian and news agencies/groups to help in their effort to raise awareness of forgotten and under-reported crises and issues.
http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/FGM/default.asp
The GBV web specials can be viewed at the following URLs and copies of the film are available free-of-charge. Rape as a weapon of war:
http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/gbv/default.asp Gender and HIV/AIDS:
http://www.plusnews.org/webspecials/womensday/default.asp
check www.IRINnews.org.

Email: Joanne@IRINnews.org;
Joanne.Clark@un.org

BOOKS

Women Development in India: a Statistical Profile
By Lalit Latta
210pp. 2005 Rs.500
Published by Manak Publications, New Delhi
Av. Through Bookline
Based on various publications and reports of the Government of India, this statistical profile present a rich data bank on the status of women in social, economic and political spheres. It also provides an insight into the impact of various development programmes and schemes related to empowerment and upliftment of women.

Contents: I. Demographic: Tables –on sex ratios, infant mortality etc.II. Educational development: Tables on literacy rates III. Labour force: Tables -territories by sex and sector during 1999-2000 IV. Nutrition: Tables V. Crime: Tables Different types of crimes committed against women in India -Conviction rate of crime against women; Victims of rape under different age groups in states/union territories during 2000 ,Victims of rape under different age groups in different cities during 2000 ,Suicide rate in India V. Representation in decision -making structure: Tables

Kadal Veesia Valai ( Sea cast its net )
Tamil
Produced by : Action Aid International India
Script, Videography & Direction:R.R.Srinivasan

Video Documentary film on Tsunami and other Coastal issues.
Duration -70 mts
Format-DV Cam
This documentary made in post-Tsunami situation of Tamil Nadu clearly brings out the range
of human rights violations of the coastal communities in the name of "development". Through the views of the coastal communities across the coast line of Tamil Nadu, this documentary exposes the design of the State to forcibly relocate the fishing community from their pre-tsunami settlements that amounts to completely uprooting them from their livelihood resources.
This documentary also clearly brings out. the resistance of the coastal communities to the so-called development based on market oriented models generated by globalisation

Contact: R.R.Srinivasan
Telephone : 91-44-26533336 Mobile : 94440-65336

eMail : rr18srinivasan@yahoo.com ,seeniyammal@yahoo.com

Environment and Wildlife films fest

A range of environment and wildlife films are to be screened from November 21 to 24 this yearat the 3rd Vatavaran Film Festival, and Vatavaran Awards presented to documentary films in eight categories. Organized by Centre for Media Studies (CMS) and supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

This year awards will be given for films in the Competitive Section ranging from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1.50 lakhs for films on Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Natural History, Environment, Public Service Messages Spots, and, for the best Animation Film, Student Film and most Environmentally Conscious Broadcaster.

The last date for entries: July 15, 2005. A Jury of eminent filmmakers, headed by Mr. Shyam Benegal, will decide the award winning entries. (154 in 2003). The award winning entries at the festival will travel to different cities as a part of Vatavaran Travels . To encourage young, environmentally-conscious filmmakers, CMS will also be giving several film fellowships, each of Rs. One lakh.

The highlight of the Non Competitive Section of the festival will be best of Asian films and a Retrospective of Richard Brock and David Attenborough.
Contact:Sanjay Mohan,
Deputy Director (Film Festival),
Centre for Media Studies
Mobile- 93129 43310,
Tel- 011-26522244, 26864020, 24992597
email - sanjaymohan@cmsindia.org
website www.cmsvatavaran.org

-----

Wonders of Kambalwadi

Dir: Rajeev Bhat

Duration 23 min

Language Hindi

Film funded by Jidnyasa Trust, Thane for DST (Dept. of Science and Technology) environment and wildlife films
Lots of changes are taking place in Rural Maharashtra. ..shooting for 'Village based technologies related to human development' and found near Kolhapur , a village called Kambalwadi (near Radhanagari) which has Implemented Complete Integrated development program... Water conservation. Energy conservation, housing with total Cleanliness, out of clutches of alcohol and tobacco, superstitions. Well done up roads, using only organic manure for crops, village women have formed groups for income generation through micro-finance activities. Every house in this village has its own toilet...sewage water reused for farms .clean and neat village .. All housing properties are in the women's name.

Garbage management, proper drainage arrangements . After human bodies are burnt the ash and bones are used as organic manure in fields. Though it is isolated village in the corner of Maharashtra on the foothills of sahyadri they have well done roads, plantation techniques for vegetable farming and allied products, today it is independent village.

It was their determination to change their life scenario.There are a number of NGOs and individuals working day and night for such transformation. Matrumandir an NGO from Devrukh dist Ratnagiri has devoted 30 years in the village. They have installed a hydram generating 5 HP power without using any electricity or oil. Water is lifted 200ft up and distributed to no of hamlets giving new lease to otherwise rainfed area .Mr Pathak an engineer from Pune has developed technique of pulling water from 20/25 ft down stream just by using bicycle. He has fitted car battery to the bullock cart. Half an hour round of the bullock cart will produce enough energy to light their house overnight; for spraying water in field or using mixer / TV .

Vidyan Ashram of Pabal Dist Pune founded by Dr Kalbag has contributed to new age technologies. It has a pool of devoted M. Tech volunteers from IIT who have installed WLL tower and provided wireless telephones to no. of villages in surrounding area. They have also installed server and provided computer network to the villages through kiosks and houses of small farmers.

Villagers are determined… they do not want to take water from govt... do not wish to accept any funding from govt, or ngo ..what they want is skill and knowledge.. Farmers have adopted modern water shade management and water harvesting techniques including rain water.. waste water etc . All civil court cases of the village are planned to be withdrawn and handled by panchayat.the sarpanch of the village is a lady.

Contact : Kisan Mehta -
Mobile 92234 48857
kisansbc@vsnl.com
Priya Salvi - Mobile 93231 96420
Rajiv Bhatt - Mobile 93228 29805

-----------------

Children of Tsunami

TVE Asia Pacific is collaborating with local, national, regional and global NGOs, charities and other organisations, whose information and analysis are linked to the dedicated website at: www.childrenoftsunami.info.

Four teams of accomplished TV journalists and film-makers --: Satya Sivaraman (India);Joe Yaggi (Indonesia); Suren de Silva (Sri Lanka); and- Pipope Panitchpakdi (Thailand).will produce 8 Monthly Video Reports (5 mins x 8) every month (Feb to Dec 2005), produced to international broadcast standard, providing an update on each child/family. These can be delivered monthly to interested broadcasters on Betacam SP, DVCam or MiniDV, without a license fee or copyright restrictions. For broadcast terms and conditions, contact: <sales@tveap.org>

For educational and civil society use, copies are available on video tape and DVD. Website also streams and archives monthly video reports, along with more information, analysis, photographs and links.

The eight families are participating in this project with prior informed consent, and with no financial or material benefits for themselves. This media project does not seek to raise money or donations for any specific individuals or families; any offers of support will be channelled to local NGOs/charities located close to the participating families.

Contact Nalaka Gunawardene,
Director - TVE Asia Pacific
Email: <contact@tveap.org>
www.childrenoftsunami.info

A Billion Eyes - Indian Documentary Film Festival
Hosts: Prakriti Foundation Chennai
Dates: Aug. 18-20, 2005 ,
Venue:South India Film Chamber Hall, Chennai.
Theme for 2005 - Arts, Activism, Animals. An Award for best entry will be given.Please send information about films to V.R.Devika
Contact Prafound Pratham
<prafound@yahoo.co.in>

Dwitiya Paksha
2003/96 mins/colour/feature
Dir:Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti.

Set in the backdrop of the 73rd Amendment, Dwitiya Paksha is the story of a woman who is elected to the
post of a panchayat president from a seat reserved for women under the amendment. Shyama replaces her
father-in-law, the man of power and long serving panchayat president now displaced by the reservation.
The film is a narration of the process of Shyama’s empowerment – from a consideration of her as an
illiterate, innocent safe proxy candidate to one who arrives at decisions independently.

Screenings: Dhaka International Film Festival (2004), The Nehru Center (London), Social Communication Cinema Festival, Kolkata.
Contact:Pedestrian Pictures
94483 71389 or NWMB (Radhika) – 94483 40817 or
email pedepics@yahoo.com

Development at Gunpoint

English/36 minutes
Produced & Directed by K.P.Sasi

A documentary film on the social and environmental impact of bauxite mining in Kashipur, Orissa, and the subsequent struggle of the adivasis in the region. With the threat of displacement and ecological devastation, the adivasis in the region have been fighting against bauxite mining for more than a decade. The development of mining is a direct consequence of globalisation. The Orissa state government has tried its level best to suppress the people's movement on behalf of the multinationals.
The film was made when the state police machinery opened fire on the peaceful adivasis and killed three people four years back. The repression on adivasis is going on. The adivasis are determined to resist.

Contact:Centre for Education and Documentation(CED),
Ph:080- 25353397

------------------------

The Open Frame 2005: Call for productions

UNESCO and the Public Service Broadcasting Trust of India invite Asian, Pacific, African, Latin American and Caribbean television directors and filmmakers to take part in The Open Frame: The International Festival & Forum on Public Service Broadcasting to be held in New Delhi, India in September 2005.

If you have recently directed a documentary, a short fiction film or a television magazine that is innovative (in form or content), creative, public service oriented, challenging as well as a genuine_expression of your culture, To enter a production,
go to http://portal.unesco.org/ci/cc fill in the Programme Entry Form and send two DVDs .
UNESCO/PSBT will cover the accommodation expenses of selected directors from developing countries whose productions are retained for screening. A few travel grants will also be available to cover air-fares. The Forum will be held in English. Productions in other languages should be subtitled in English. Entry forms must also be filled in English.

Productions should be submitted on DVD (2 copies please).
Non-returnable DVDs, and registration forms must reach by 17 June 2005

Film Makers in India may send their films directly to:
Rajiv Mehrotra,
Managing Trustee, PSBT
A 86 Nizamuddin East,
New Delhi – 110013
From: creativecontent@unesco.org
For further information about the Forum
contact:openframe@unesco.org

----------

'Networking for Rights', a resource on reproductive and sexual health and
rights! Break the Silence on Violence!

"The practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), is deplorable not only because its a health hazard, but also because, like torture, it is a deliberate and systematic infliction of violence on women."

With write-ups on a range of issues around reproductive and sexual health & rights, the address book goes beyond a traditional format as it shares information & experiences alongside with raising questions on how to protect & promote the rights of young & old women & men around the world.
On subjects like Safe Abortion, Accessible Contraception, Reproductive & Sexual Rights of Young People, Female Genital Mutilation, Sexual Violence & Rape, Displaced Women's Lives, Trafficking, Maternal Mortality & Morbidity, Sexual Health & Rights

To order copies Davinder Kaur at kritidpc@vsnl.com/ kritidpc@vsnl.net

Baba Amte: a Biography
(A Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama)
By Anita Kainthla
192pp. 2005 Rs.195
Published by Viva Books, New Delhi

It is easy to ignore and forget some truly great men because they do not court publicity. They are too rapt in their service to attract attention with media. Many of them still become icons with their selfless service in the life of living societies.

Baba Amte is one of them. He became the sole hope for thousands of sufferers afflicted with the great curse of leprosy.

This biography, written after long and close interaction of the author with Amte and his family, narrates the inspirational story of his career as a social worker. It refreshes our memory about the seriousness of meaningful socio-political action in the age of widespread irresponsibility

Resources Use Efficiency in Indian Agriculture
By D.P. Takale
2004 Rs.475
Published by Serials Publications, New Delhi

The study attempts to examine how efficiently the farmers are using their resources. The important problem of increasing agricultural production in any region is how to increase output per unit of input. In view of this, it is necessary that the available resources should be used economically and efficiently. This book studied the allocation of resources among the crops in the command area. The book could prove beneficial to the Government, farmers, teachers, students and researchers.

Globalization and Inequality: Neo-liberalism’s Downward Spiral
By John Rapley
194pp. 2005 Rs.595
Published Viva Books, New Delhi

Has the far-reaching experiment in creating a new world order along neoliberal lines succeeded? John Rapley answers with an emphatic no; contending that the rosy picture painted by neoliberal proponents of globalization was based on false assumptions. True, Rapley acknowledges, neoliberal reforms often did generate economic growth—but at a price. The resulting increase in inequality led to political instability and spawned tendencies ranging from right-wing populism to renewed ethnic and Islamic militancy. Rapley offers a range of cases to illustrate how neoliberal globalization has helped to destroy regimes in the developing world by profoundly altering patterns of income distribution and resource allocation. The political tensions unleashed by these regime crises, he argues, are now being manifested around the globe, with the negative consequences still to be fully realized
(av at Bookline)

Social and Economic profile of India
By Peeyush Bajpai, Laveesh Bhandari and Aali Sinha
230pp. 2005 Rs.995
Published by Social Science Press, New Delhi

The book contains 85 maps and written text illustrating the most current state of affairs on a wide range of demographic, social and economic variables characterizing India at present. The information contained in this book is based on the 2001 census, various NASSO (National Sample Survey Organization) surveys as well as other published data from public sources. The book also presents composite ratings of states and districts. Each map is accompanied by a brief commentary highlighting the key features. Map commentaries also refer to national and state values and averages to allow a more thorough appreciation of such characteristics. Readers interested in more information have been referred to other publications and sources. Consequently this is a desk guide as well as a ‘first resort’ reference on India.

Books available at Booksline
Sagar 46/1590, Subhash Nagar, Chembur, Mumbai - 400 071
Tel: 91-22-2521 3976
E-mail: booksline@vsnl.net

------
Surveys in Social Research
(fifth edition)
By David de Vaus
379pp. 2003 Rs.850
Published by Rawat Publications, Jaipur

David de Vaus’ widely used textbook Surveys in Social Research provides you with clear advice on how to plan, conduct and analyse social surveys. It emphasises the links between theory and research, the logic and interpretation of statistics and the practices of social research.
The fifth edition has been completely rewritten and much expanded, and contains new examples, data and extensive lists of web resources. It also includes new material on: technology, questionnaires
internet and email sampling, data analysis, graphs As well as explaining how to conduct good surveys, de Vaus shows how to become a critical consumer of research. He argues that the logic of surveys and statistics is simply an extension of the logic we use in everyday life; analysis, however, requires creativity and imagination rather than the application of sterile mechanical procedures.
Surveys in Social Research is essential reading for students and researchers working with surveys. It assumes no background in statistical analysis, and gives you the tools you need to come to grips with this often challenging field of work.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dynamics of Health Culture: Urban Slum Community and Behaviour
By Thaneswar Bir
349pp. 2001 Rs.650
Published by Rajat Publications, New Delhi

The book may be referred as Urban Medical Anthropology. This is a study of health behaviour of the urban slum dwellers of an Indian city in the context of various health institutions available and accessible to them. It highlights how the slum population and their cultural perceptions and meanings of various health problems are persisting in their given socio-economic, political and ecological situations.The book also highlights, the existence of health institutions is the manifestation of social change including socio-economic and socio-political development

------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Order, Contact:

Booksline
Sagar 46/1590, Subhash Nagar, Chembur, Mumbai - 400 071
Tel: 91-22-2521 3976
E-mail: booksline@vsnl.net

-----

"I Couldn't Be Your Son, Mom"
Sohini Dasgupta, 25.
15-minute
Produced Buddhadeb Dasgupta

The film,selected for the competitive section in the Durban festival was also screened at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa
A resource on reproductive and sexual health and rights, "I Couldn't Be Your Son, Mom" talks about the growing up years of Tista Das, a female trapped in a male body who suffers from gender identity
crisis - called GID (Gender Identity Disorder) in medical terms.It attempts to show Tista's struggle
against a society that ruthlessly negates her endeavour to attain her real self.

"Transsexuality - very few people have a clear conception about it. The film metaphorically
delves into sociological and psychological depths attempting to evoke a kind of awareness on the subject,"
-------------------------------------------
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------------

Unravelling Bhakra
Publ by: Manthan Adhyayan Kendra
Pages 372,
Contr: Ind. Rs. 150 Inst: Rs. 300
Postage Rs. 50.00 per copy.

This is the report of a study of the Bhakra Nangal project carried out by Manthan Adhyayan Kendra. This study was carried out over three years from Dec 2001- 2004.It completely overturns many of the popular notions and perceptions associated with the Bhakra Nangal Project.
Order From
manthan_b@sancharnet.in
cwaterp@vsnl.com
sswathi@vsnl.net
or
South Asia Network For Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP)Delhi
Ph: 011-2748 4654/55
Email: cwaterp@vsnl.com
Bangalore, contact Swathi Sheshadri sswathi@vsnl.net
. 080-57636102/ 28562421
-------------
Songs on HIV/Condom use

Nrityanjali academy in collaboration with India hiv/aids alliance has produced and developed Telugu music video songs on std/hiv/aids and condom. These songs can be used as excellent IEC/BCC materials in field and are first of its kind in terms of addressing HIV/AIDS. The main focus of these songs presentation is “infotainment”

The 4 songs package runs on main four topics:

Social and Economic profile of India
By Peeyush Bajpai, Laveesh Bhandari and Aali Sinha
230pp. 2005 Rs.995
Published by Social Science Press, New Delhi

The book contains 85 maps and written text illustrating the most current state of affairs on a wide range of demographic, social and economic variables characterizing India at present. The information contained in this book is based on the 2001 census, various NASSO (National Sample Survey Organization) surveys as well as other published data from public sources. The book also presents composite ratings of states and districts. Each map is accompanied by a brief commentary highlighting the key features. Map commentaries also refer to national and state values and averages to allow a more thorough appreciation of such characteristics. Readers interested in more information have been referred to other publications and sources. Consequently this is a desk guide as well as a ‘first resort’ reference on India.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
State of the World 2005: a Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society
By Worldwatch Institute
237pp. 2005 Special Indian Price Rs.450
Published by Earthscan, London

Published annually in 28 languages, each edition draws on the breadth of expertise of Worlwatch’s award-winning team of writers and researchers. State of the World is relied upon by national governments, UN agencies, development workers and law-makers for its authoritative and up-to-the-minute analysis and information. It is essential for anyone concerned with building a positive, global future.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Girls Primary Education
By V. C. Pandey
308pp. 2004 Rs.790
Published by Isha Books, Delhi

This work focuses only on one aspect of education-female education and that to at one level-primary education. The book brings out in detail the benefits of education for girls to the society, finance angle in providing free and compulsory education, gender disparities, efforts towards achieving the gender party, efforts at international level etc.
The book focuses on overall benefits of girls’ education in various directions-social, economical, political and cultural. It can be an important tool of references for the education; policy-planners, NGOs and others concerned with women’s development.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reforming India’s Social Sector: Poverty, Nutrition, Health and Education
Edited by Seeta Prabhu and R. Sudarshan
337pp. 2003 Rs.690
Published by Social Science Press, New Delhi

It is widely believed that economic reforms widen inequalities in societies which are already highly unequal and the impact of economic reforms on social sectors, particularly in developing economies like India, has therefore been a subject of great concern. These economies, it is argued, face the double problem of poverty, deprivation and inequality on the one hand and cutbacks in fiscal expenditures (to prune budgetary expenditures) on the other. This book addresses this problem, drawing out the debates in each of the themes of poverty alleviation, nutrition, health and education with the use of theoretical and empirical analysis.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Women, Work and Family
By H. L. Kaila
272pp. 2005 Rs.525
Published by Rawat Publications, Jaipur

Understanding, appreciating and integrating family and life concerns at the workplace are the buzzwords today for maximizing the performance and potential of human resource in organizations. This book aims at providing the organizations a better insight on myriad issues concerning women, work and family. It reflects women’s family and work concerns as derived from the reviews of literature and psychosocial researches and through case studies.

To Order, Contact:

Booksline
Sagar 46/1590, Subhash Nagar, Chembur, Mumbai - 400 071
Tel: 91-22-2521 3976
E-mail: booksline@vsnl.net

Autumn's final country
Mini DV / 66 min / 2003 /
English/Hindi with English subtitles
by Sonia Jabbar

Autumn's Final Country was originally recorded by Sonia Jabbar as testimony for the South Asia Court of
Women in Dakha in August 2003. Her four subjects are from disparate backgrounds but were all cruelly impacted by religious or political conflict. The stories tell of Indu, an English teacher living in Kashmir, who fled her comfortable family home in Srinagar. Zarina was brought from Bangladesh to Kashmir by
a family friend, only to be sold as a young bride who quickly became the virtual slave of a two-wife family.
Shahnaz was abducted as a young girl, kept and then raped by Kashmir guerillas, only to be "saved" and
raped by Indian police, who turned her into an informant. Anju, a young Hindu adolescent living in a
refugee camp in Jammu, who fled her family home alongthe Pakistani border when its army shelled her village

Official selection: Golden Gate Fiction & Documentary Film Festival, 2004. Contact vikalpmum

THE CONNECTION
Black & White / 35mm /
10.5 mins / 2004 /
Hindi with EST

Anita's pain over losing her younger brother in the riots is transformed into hatred and anger under the
influence of her neighbours. She hits out at Asif, a six-year-old who lives in her neighbourhood. When her
anger abates, she realizes what she's done and makes up with the little boy.

Key Resource Materials Pack for
Promoting a Comprehensive Response to HIV

Oxfam GB launched a Toolkit: "Maximising Access: Care can propel HIV Prevention". The
event organized by in collaboration with National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), UNAIDS and Sexual Health Resource Centre (SHRC).

Oxfam believes that HIV prevention and care are not distinct from each other. So far there has been little exploration of ways and means to link the two crucial responses beyond good intentions and guidelines on paper. The Toolkit is particularly significant in the wake of the promised provision of free Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) to one lakh HIV-affected people by the Indian government.

The main areas explored in the Toolkit are: What are the care-prevention dynamics? ;How is a system of comprehensive care defined? ;What systems need to be in place in order to maximize access to care? ;How would a user-centered system be designed for the delivery of care having links with prevention?

contact: Sucheta at sucheta@shrcindia.org,
011-51632246, M (9891747855);
tomphilip@shrcindia.org,
011-51632246, M(9810149015)

CONNECTING
River sutras
Water is the BIG issue today…now that the monsoons have come, the issue may take a back seat but one can’t afford to be complacent about it. I have read viewpoints from four writers of varied backgrounds and would like to share them with you.

The river interlinking project is another disaster waiting to happen says Kuldip Nayar “The Bhakra dam study points out what really helped Punjab and Haryana was not the water from Bhakra but the groundwater systems and extensively developed agriculture. ..even after 50 years, the displaced are "still struggling to put their lives back on line. We should have learnt from our mistakes. Big dams were not necessary and we could have got water, power and controlled floods through smaller dams at a lesser cost.

A still bigger disaster is awaiting us on the river interlinking project. I thought it was only at the concept stage, but apparently it has become a project without any discussion in the country. Every gain has to be judged from the larger good it does. The touchstone should be how far a project thinks of the good of all. the means of production of the elementary necessities of life should be freely available to all as God's air and water are, or ought to be.” Well-known activist P. Sainath explains why and how the Maharastra Water Regulatory Authority Bill came about: “The uproar on the bill centred around the obnoxious two-child norm. But that is just the tip of the iceberg . The drive towards privatisation of water in this country was planned by the World Bank in the 1990s. The just-passed Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Bill reeks of Bank edicts already out in 1998. It listed things that "need to be urgently put into practice." Among them: "drastically increasing and rationalising the current water rates." The rest of its "urgent needs" were the standard Bank rules for the capture of a country's farming by corporations. Laughably, it cites Andhra Pradesh and Mexico as among the success stories of that approach.

Latin America is strewn with the corpses of economies and governments . Water, especially, has been a giant factor in the rage of peoples there against regimes. This year, The New York Times ran a front-page piece on the collapse of privatised water services across Latin America. In Andhra Pradesh, the voters threw in a bang of their own last May. You'd think we'd learn something from all this. Yet the new Maharashtra bill regurgitates the same jargon and ideas imposed by the Bank and its pet politicians in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. Orissa's sham (WBank-made) `pani panchayats' shattered poor farmers in Angul district. . The Maharashtra bill, as economist and former State Planning Board member H.M. Desarda points out, could make costs unbearable. Perhaps as much as Rs. 8,000 an acre.. ..it will destroy countless small farmers. It will establish, yet again, water as a private good not as a human right. It will hand over agriculture to the rich and corporations. It will worsen the terrible situation of poor farmers in the State — amongst whom there have been hundreds of suicides. And it will doubtless be touted as a national and global `model.” Who owns groundwater? By T.N. Narasimhan aska in The Hindu of May 3, 2005. Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California at Berkeley, he answers, “Water should be held in public trust for the benefit of society at large.” He even cites the example of California and notes that “By the 1920s, Californians recognised that rights without responsibilities were untenable. In 1928, they amended the State's Constitution to incorporate public trust. The central theme of the public trust doctrine is that water is owned by the people, and that the State holds the water in trust for the people. All users of surface water in California must seek permit from the State, which has declared that water shall be put to beneficial use, without waste. India has historical traditions of having respect and reverence for water and nature. Remarkably, the western doctrine of public trust is philosophically quite compatible with India's cultural past. India needs to formally recognise the importance of water and have the will to articulate it. The judiciary and the government must have necessary authority to ensure that surface water and groundwater are managed wisely for the benefit of the people.

Ahh, but if only the government worried about the benefit of the people, and not themselves.! To end Vandana Shiva, in an interview said, “How can you make water a commodity? Can you chop water and sell it? Water is a living system, a life giver, sacred to many communities. But private companies see water only as a commodity. They see water only in terms of dollars, a commodity that can be moved from its original source (rivers, mountains and villages) and sold to a largely urban population for profit. All the five giant companies entering the water market today are basically construction companies…. Instead of the pubic-private partnership that the government and the water barons are talking about, we must go for public-public partnership. We need to enact and reinforce water legislation that conserves water, defends water as a common resource. This was recognised in the Kerala high court decision in the Coca-Cola case recently. ..

The water is ours (Ganga); the sacrifice is ours (families displaced due to the Tehri dam) and the payment is also ours (what Delhi residents will eventually be paying). Privatisation of water will leave Third World countries poorer.”

Art that builds life Mumbai: Cache art gallery sponsored an exhibition “Svakruti” (My Action) from June 14 to 22, 2005 of talented artists and craft persons from 4 NGOs: Helen Keller Institute for Deaf And Deafblind (HKIDB) exhibited the works of graphic artists Kavita Parte, Mahesh Joshi & Dhirendra Dubey. Aural Education for the Hearing Impaired (AURED) introduced Priya Pawar who excels in the art of Warli paintings.The Kherwadi Social Welfare Association (KSWA) exhibited the works of unmotivated dropouts learn skills leading to income generation and economic independence. Committed Communities Development Trust (CCDT) working in areas of HIV/AIDS, and Community Health encouraged disadvantaged individuals to create craft products for income generation giving them hope for a more stable future.

At the exhibition, three of the artists worked on the theme, 'Jhoparpati' together visited different Jhoparpaties & decided how to incorporate life in a Jhoparpati, each one supporting the other with his / her ideas.
Contact
Helen Keller Institute for Deaf & Deafblind
Tel: 2308 7052 / 2301 9215
hkidbind@hathway.com

3rd International Child Art Exhibition-2005

New Delhi:, Kshitij has organized 7 National & 2 International Child Art Exhibitions up till 2004. A Staggering figure of 77310 participants from all over the world have participated.

Art harmonises various cultures into one and Kshitij is just a tool to do that. Young upcoming artists, students & people from all sections of the globe can participate & promote the efforts of kshitij.

The last date for participation for Exhibition is 30th September,2005.
Send your e-mail address to
narendermehta@touchtelindia.net, info@kshitij.org for details

SHIS Ashadeep builds "Risk Management Fund"
Kolkata: It was a red letter day in the history of SHIS when a Risk Management Fund was built under SHG program of SHIS, on 8 May, 2005 – “Mothers' Day". The fund will counter any type of catastrophe, and each of the members of SHIS Ashadeep needs to pay just 1 Rupee a month. An amount of Rs. 12 will be deposited every year on these members' name and a disaster management fund will be built from which one time aid of Rs. 5000 will be given to the family facing sudden disaster.

Wohab in HRD
MA Wohab, Director SHIS, was nominated as one of the five members of Union Ministry of Human Resource Development Committee. He was the only member chosen from the NGO network in India.

SUCCESS

Stree Shakti Unleashes Woman Power

Bangalore: After taking long strides in economic empowerment the Stree Shakti groups in Karnataka are tackling social reforms. In Davangere all 75 Stree Shakti groups have resolved to eradicate illiteracy under a Unicef-Nrad programme with 6 NGOs- Belaku, Don Bosco, Guri, Seeds, Dalit Mahasabha and St.John’s. Over 1350 children are out of school in the district. An action plan for forming, “Children’s Rights Clubs” in 6 government schools will monitorthe childrens rights so that children can take heresponsibility of guarding their own rights.

In backward, drought struck Gulbarga, the once-home bound women raised and contributed over Rs.10 lakh towards tsunami relief in other states.

In the southern corner of Koplar, another group of illiterate women mobilized money and labour to build a school, brick by brick, for their children.

In Karnataka, stories abound of women taking the lead in everything: raising finances, controlling panchayats, pouring over account books, running their own business and homes and educating their children. vanquishing the once ubiquitous money-lender

The state has witnessed this dramatic socio-economic change due to a simple government programme that has been nothing short of sweeping success. Called Stree Shakti - the dream child of former chief minister, S.M. Krishna and former women and child welfare minister C. Motamma, the programme has empowered Karnataka's rural woman to become a figure commanding respect and instant obedience. The Stree Shakti groups have been able to change the mind of the people on several issues including drinking, dowry, child marriage and widow remarriage. Economic empowerment of the woman has changed society itself.

Last year (2003-2004), Rs. 40 crore was released for Stree Shakti. Unfortunaely, this year, the budget has been reduced to Rs. 16 crore.

Government help was limited to training the groups in book management, how to take loans from banks, how to get up businesses and so, the women are starting groups on their own, without government seed money and are taking empowerment one step further. --

------------------------------------------------
OBIT
On 22nd May, 2005, founder member and Joint Secretary of NIPASHA+ - Mr. Arun Tomar passed away. Arun had gone to the Bambolim beach and slipped into the waters. Arun, an Activist was bold enough to raise the issues of all PLHA. He was the founder member and President of Nai Zindagi+, Goa (a partner organisation of NIPASHA+) and Founder Member and President of Zindagi, Goa, an affiliated network of INP+. Arun was single and was living with his parents.

It is a great loss to NIPASHA+ and to the PLHA movement in Goa.

We, all the partners of NIPASHA+ join together to pray to give courage and strength to his family members and staff of Nai Zindagi and Zindagi, Goa, to bear this irreparable loss.--Vijay Nair & Team Nipasha+ E-mail: <nipasha@vsnl.net>

Media and children with HI?AIDS

Imphal: : "Issues confronting children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS" was the theme of the workshop cum consultation organised by AAI-MNP+ (Action Aid India-Manipur Network of Positive People) at the Press Club, Imphal on May 21. Attended by NGOs and media people, the main focus was on forming a lasting partnership between media and NGOs in facing the multitudes of challenges posed by HIV/AIDS to the society.--Kanglaonline

Durbar’s Durbar

Kolkata: Mr. Denis Broun, Country Coordinator UNAIDS attended the 3rd State Conference of Sex Workers organised by Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee on May 27, 2005 in Kolkata . Speaking as the Guest of Honour in the Open Session, Mr. Broun lauded the success of Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee at implementing community-based STI-HIV prevention among sex workers which like the Sonagachi Project (that is owned and run by DMSC), were extremely relevant vis-à-vis the HIV situation in the country, and needed to be replicated widely. He also agreed that DMSC could itself be a resource for UNAIDS as there were no other sex worker-run organisations that did micro-finance and children’s education and training programmes the way DMSC did.

Broun added that in India, the focus of UNAIDS is on legal aspects of sex work and on issues around Article 377 of the IPC, but agreed that the UNAIDS needed to bring into discussion the issues raised by DMSC that sex work was work and that sex workers were entitled to workers’ rights. UNAIDS has pushed for, and been successful in initiating an electronic consultation on the NACP-III in which the NACO has agreed to hear the voices of organisations that work with vulnerable groups, he said. Contact:Amitrajit Saha
E-mail: <amitrajitsaha@hotmail.com>

--------

Partnership in sexual Health
Cochin: The sixth Partners State conference of the Partners forum Kerala Partnership in sexual Health - changing Dimensions’ was held in Cochin on May 9-11, 2005. Members from 52 partner organisations, representatives of SHRC, KSACS officials and members of PSU attended the programme. The Objectives of the programme were to effectively contribute to the development of a plan for HIV/AIDS responses in Kerala

The participation of delegates from other states (Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar) and from several other programme supporting organisations made the conference a unique one. There were technical sessions, discussions and other presentations to enhance the quality of programmes related to HIV- AIDS implemented by the various NGOs. 360 participants including project directors, project managers, field programme coordinators, field organizers, stakeholders, representatives of KSACS, representatives of PSU, representatives of CPK+ (Kerala Network of Positives), representatives of SHRC took part in the event.

Contact:
Kuttikal Rajiyam

Nammakkal, TN: A programme for children and women was jointly organized by Positive Women network(PWN+), Indian Network of people Living with HIV/AIDS(INP+) and HIV Ullor Nala Sangam (HUNS) on May 28,29 at Namakkal with the main objective of bringing women and children from various districts of Tamilnadu in one platform to discuss and share issues of HIV around them. For most of them, including women this was their first experience of coming together.

The major components of the programme comprised Cultural events, games and drama on HIV/AIDS to facilitate a learning and ice-breaking process. Special sessions were organized for women on Childcare and Gynecological care inviting specialists like Dr.Ramesh from ART centre,GH,Namakkal,Dr.Arunachalam,Dr.Anand and Dr.Kala.

The session on experience sharing brought many children women and children on the panel to share their life experiences that facilitated support towards each other and better understanding of issues affecting children. The programme also provided a platform for children to understand each other and also for women to disclose their status to their children.
Supported by UTI Bank and Madura travels .

Contact
Kousalya@pwnplus.org Positive Women Network, Chennai

Suicide prevention support service by AASRA

Mumbai: AASRA extended their services from 9am to 9pm in June to cater to students who are undergoing tremendous anxiety and despair with respect to their exam results. AASRA is a suicide Prevention support service ,in aid of people who are in the throes of depression. The extended hours may continue depending on the response.

Johnson Thomas
Director AASRA
Helpline: 27546669(3pm to 9pm all days)
Tel: 9820466726/27546667
Aasra Helpline <aasrahelpline@yahoo.com>

Nilam Patel Bahushrut Foundation!
Mumbai: Ms. Nilam Patel, 61, has been training hearing-impaired babies and mainstreaming them directly into normal schools since 1980and in 1993, set up the 'Nilam Patel Bahushrut Foundation'. ('Bahushrut' means a learned scholar who has acquired knowledge through hearing.)
The Foundation has 2 areas of activities . Scholarships and Prizes for hearing-impaired school and college graduates and now invites applications from students in schools all over Maharashtra. 236 students have benefited over the last 10 years. And a Marriage Bureau for the hearing-impaired from all over the world. More than 100 prospective candidates are registered currently. Contact:

GRDC is 5!

It was on 25 May 2001 that GDRC, the Global Development Research Center, went online.
GDRC began in a very humble small way in early 1995, when the predessesor of the current Virtual Library on Microcredit - the Informal Credit Homepage - was launched. The NGO Cafe came soon after, and with the launch of the Urban Environmental Management Research Initiative (UEMRI) in 1997, the beginnings of a comprehensive set of programmes were underway.
Eventually, these were consolidated into five spheres - Environment, Urban Community, Economy, and Information - within which the 15 programmes were laid out. And GDRC was born as www.gdrc.org on 25 May 2001.
Attracting more than 3,800 visitors a day on average, GDRC has developed an extensive range of themes and issues within its 15 programmes, helping users expand their professional boundaries within larger developmental frameworks.--
Hari Srinivas
Coordinator, GDRC

SUCCESS: No more Coke!

Varanasi: The gram panchayat of Mehdiganj has cancelled the license of the Coca-cola plant operating in this village, 20 km from Varanasi city in UP on May, 6 2005. The district magistrate of Varanasi has also suspended the village pradhan because he had illegally transferred 33 dismil (roughly 15,000 sq. ft.) land to the company on 15th may, 2005.

The leader of the anti-Coca cola movement in Varanasi, Nandlal Master, has started receiving threats to his life over telephone.

Contact: sandeep

AASHA in Goa

Goa: On May 10 Goa State AIDS Control Society (GSACS) launched Alliance for Support of People living with HIV/AIDS (AASHA) in order to cater to women who have been detected HIV positive. This network will act as a forum to organize HIV /AIDS persons who undergo rejection, neglect and stigma from their families and society, by giving them courage and confidence to collectively pursue their rights.

There are also plans to form Self- help groups for HIV positive women to come together and indulge in some occupation so that they can become financially independent.“AASHA intends to create network of women with HIV positive from all states which will support group to fight stigma and discrimination,” said Wendy Pereira, GSACS.

Contact: E-mail: <venugopal_2000@yahoo.com>

AIDS memorial day observed

India and 93 countries across the globe observed the International Candlelight Memorial Day to remember those who have died of AIDS.The International Candlelight Memorial Day, commenced in 1983, and aims at promoting discussion, education and awareness .

In India, the Positive Women's Network (PWN), an association of women social workers working for HIV positive patients, celebrated the day with equal zest.in Naamakkal, a small town in Tamil Nadu, to dispel the stigma faced by HIV positive patients.

Kolkata: Le The Heroes Project, Mumbai; West Bengal State AIDS Prevention & Control Society, Calcutta; and Solidarity and Action Against The HIV Infection in India (SAATHII), Calcutta Office organised a screening of the film "My Brother Nikhil" on May 14, along with Amitie, Chandannagar, and MANAS Bangla MSM Network Phone: 2334 7329 (SAATHII) / 98312 88023 (Pawan Dhall) / 94331 56951 (Anupam Hazra)

Karnataka commemorated the day with a meeting near the Gandhi statue, off Cubbon Park. Over 250 people, including patients, their family members and NGO activists participated in the gathering.

In Andhra Pradesh, 700 people organised a rally from Tank Bund to Public Garden in Hyderabad city.Delhi and other states also observed the day to spread the message that "there can be life after AIDS".

Chennai: The AIDS "Walk For Life" which began in New Delhi on December 1, and receives financial support from Indian and foreign multinationals reached Chennai on May 17.Walkers and support staff are spreading awareness about AIDS through street meetings, theatre shows and distribution of education material."The main aim of this rally is to reach out to a maximum number of youth and women and spread out the message of AIDS on stigma and discrimination," Sanchali Rai, Communication Officer of the AIDS "Walk For Life" campaign, said.

What kind of a man are you?

Mumbai: That's the question one of India's biggest anti-AIDS ad campaigns is asking. The special ad has been created by Prasoon Joshi of McCann-Erickson for Breakthrough, an international human rights organisation which has offices in the US and India.

"It's a question more and more women must ask, in fact, it's a question the country must ask itself," said Breakthrough executive director Mallika Dutt. "We know that most women who are infected
by HIV get it from their partners. In fact, infections within marriages are the biggest cause for the spread of HIV in India.

This is the first time that special emphasis has been given to married couples vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. The campaign, is in seven languages: Hindi, English, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. It includes a music video with the song Maati from the album Mann ke Manjeere sung by Shubha Mudgal.

Media partners for the campaign include Star, SUN, ETV, NDTV, Dainik Bhaskar, INOX, Radio Mirchi and MTV. Companies like Jindal Vijaynagar Steel are also pitching in.

According to Breakthrough, barely five per cent of Indian women have comprehensive knowledge about ways of preventing HIV/AIDS. Women are often not in a social or economic position to insist on fidelity in marriage and relationships, demand condom use, or refuse sex to a partner who may pose a risk to their sexual health.

-----------

Women’s groups protest

Mumbai: Marking a month after the Police Rape at Marine Drive, Women's Groups and supporters protested at the Marine Drive Flyover on May 21 listing incidents of police rape cases and demanding action: “However we dress, Wherever we go, Yes means YES and No means NO” was the sentiment expressed.

The groups demanded immediate Action in the Mumbai Marine Drive Rape Case; to know numbers of custodial and other crime against women and children from every police station; prompt police action in all reports of sexual assault without harassing the women;prompt legal aid to be made available at every police station; prompt action against all police officers reporting drunk or misbehaving with women ; implementation of guidelines ordered by Supreme Court with respect to Sexual Harassment at Workplace by the police force …and an end to all forms of 'Moral Policing'

Cehat has come up with a model “sexual Assault Evidence Kit” toguide health care and forensic evidence collection in case of such cases. The Kit was sahred with the public on June 14 at a meeting at the YWCA,

Contact
Cehat@vsnl.com
26673571

Sankalp turns 10!

Mumbai: A Therapeutic Community for drug users was started by Sankalp at the Arthur ARoad jail. Locked up for petty thefts, loitering drug uses will now get an opportunity to change their lives through a structured programme in the prison.
Sankalp also celebrated their 10th anniversary with “Bandra Saturday Night”- the Sankalp 2005 show” as a girls vs. boys music and dance theme rocked St. Andrews auditorium by the “Work in Progress” Theatre company. A play written and directed by Annabelle Ferro with Bandra flavour and characters told the Sankalp story…

Contact sankalpt@vsnl.com
Bangalore News

Not mine!
A group of NGOs came out with pictures of child labour being employed in mines in some parts of the State. The NGOs which include the MV Foundation, the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) and Mines, Minerals and People and HAQ toured Bellary, Bagalkot and other areas on April 15 and 16 and took photographs, videos of children, even 5 years old, engaged in a variety of activities including breaking of ore and loading material on railway wagons without any safety equipment, fixed wages or working hours.. The National Human Rights Commission has asked the state to probe into the allegations and submit a reply.

The Bangalore Marathon

Taking a leaf out of Mumbai’s success with raising funds for NGOs through an International Marathon, Bangalore had their own Marathon on May 15 sponsored by Lipton. Over 15000 Bangloreans ran in the various sections but the most popular, by far, was the 7 km Celebration Run. Corporate houses competed to send their personnel to raise funds for their fav NGOs. Aditi Technologies, Hp, HSBC runners were prominent along with 50 students aged 8-12 from Parikrama sponsored by INGVysya, the Youth for Peace runners of Anhad, the APD wheelchair marathoners and a motley crowd of runners who ran just for the fun of it. (pix by Shakti)

Child artistes of the Bornfree Art School started by artists John Devaraj exhibited their paintings at Time and Space Art Gallery on May 14 and 15. The street children learn art at the schooland exchibted sculptures, photographs, poems and played music in an exhibition of their creative talents.

Contact
John
98863 06366

E-waste management concerns

And now it’s electronic waste that is going to be polluting the world. According to estimates given at a 2-day workshop on “Managing e-waste” at the Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore alone generates around600 tonnes of e-waste ever year! E-waste is all type of waster from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) such as computer systems, peripheral equipment, mobile phone sets, TVs, audio sets and household appliances. Dismantled for re-use the residues include toxic parts which are dumped into municipal waste.
The 2-day deliberations with industry, NGOs and the Government officials concluded with a signed joint declaration with Karnataka State Pollution Contol Board and EMPA (Swiss consultants) to set up a nodal agency replicating the Swiss model for this purpose in the next three months. The Swiss model of e-waste management makes it mandatory to hand over old electronic gadgets to the nearest electrical shop, where it is mandatory for him to receive it and for the manufacturer to collect it. Contact

E-grama beginnings

Davangere: The farmers in the district have taken their first steps to the information highway by taking up mushroom cultivation after watching a live demo on tehcompter. Gramin Mahiti Parishat, the NGOt be selected by NABARD to set up “knowledge centres in villages, has set up e-gram centres in 29villages giving information on agriculture, health, education etc. Other NGOs in the area implement the projects in their talukas. All that is needed is a computer literate person to operate it commercially…
Homes for the specially abled

Bangalore: The first project undertaken by the Mathru Foundation, - a free rehabilitation home for physically challenged children, “Chetana “was launched in Ma in the HAL campus by founder Malathi Holla, an international paraplegic athlete. Chetana has 8 inmates already aged 5-12. The foundation is supported by Krishnadas Nair, (HAL) Vijay Gupta (V-P Wipro), Syed Kirmani and David Premnath.

Contact
98800 80133

The Vijayanagar Disabled Welfare Society invites applications from mentally disabled kids. The courses offered are Physiotherapy, speech, occupational therapy and vocational training.

Contact
00-23306771/23300700

Golden Pollution
Vadodara: one hundred andeight villages in Kheda, Anand, Vadodara and BharuchinGujarat which earlier faced water scarcity now are facing illnesses brought about by water pollution. Pravah, a network of NGOs in the area is undertaking a study so that Yatra, another NGO, can test the water quality, educate the villagers and if necessary take the matter to court.—Deccan Herald, May 15

Rozgar Adhikar Yatra

New Delhi: An extended "rozgar adhikar yatra" was launched from Delhi on May 13, 2005, to continue until the end of June to affirm the right to work as an aspect of the fundamental right to live with dignity. The organizers demanded the immediate adoption of a full-fledged, universal and irreversible Employment Guarantee Act (EGA).

The Yatra is a follow-up to the "display of banners" of 21 December 2004, when thousands of banners from all over the country, bearing about 10 lakh signatures demanding a full-fledged EGA, were displayed in Parliament Street (New Delhi). The banners will travel with the Yatra and be displayed in various places on the way. The main slogan is "har haath ko kaam do, kaam ka pura daam do".

The Yatra by bus, is a joint effort involving many organizations committed to the right to work and leaves Delhi on May 13 2004, pass through the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and return to Delhi by the end of June spending one or two days in each District. There is a special focus on Districts covered under the National Food For Work Programme (NFFWP). The Yatra is envisaged as a "relay", with participants from local organizations traveling some distance with the Yatra and then "handing over" to other organizations in the next area. Check www.righttofoodindia.org

Contact:
People's Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG)
Delhi
Tel: 011-2351 0042, 5514 0814 (Priya),
09811087811 (Navjyoti),
E-mail: rozgar@gmail.com

E-transformation

Kuppam, AP: A three-year alliance between Hewlett Packard and the state of AP to build an HP i-community is slowly becoming a reality. The AP government will help establish the necessary infrastructure and HP will develop scalable and replicable, self-sustaining IT solutions. Already several initiatives like Yojanalu- the government to citizen services, a pay-to-use service through the Community Information Centres or through the Mobile Solutions Centre set up in partnership with Seattle-based World Corps.. A “Farming Information System” developed by hp, photographic services through a solar powered prtable camera gives employment to15 women photographers. The tele-medicine solution has saved traveling costs while delivering first class medical solutions; and hp has provided markets for the jewellery produced by the young women of Kuppam.. Working with hp in Kuppam are America India Fdt.,Convergent Communications, Datamation, FRHLT, ICICI Bank, PESIMSR, PlanetRead, Samuha, Televital, World Corps and World Links. Anand Tawker, Director EMS, hp, noted that “The i-community initiative is a strategic business/market development investment that aims at “doing well while doing good.”
Contact
MS Anuradha m@hp.com

Gyan Vikas Empowers

Mumbai: Four 2-day orientation programmes for women of Urban Self-help groups were conducted in May by the Gyan Vikas Pubic Charitable Trust. Held at the Worli GOP Chawls, the programme gave Communication skills, a broadview of the development of self=help groups, the Marketing systems- supply chain, loan taking, with case studies. The programme was conducted by inhouse and outside experts.Over 100 women attended the programme.

Contact
Sweta Singh,
GVPCT
022-56605578
gvpc4@hotmail.com

No shipping hazards

New Delhi: Environmental groups and labour unions, both Indian and international, have welcomed the unprecedented, highly progressive recommendation by the Chairman of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on hazardous waste (SCMC) that the Danish ferry "RIKY" should be sent back to its source country. In an unequivocal message to the Chairperson of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Dr. G. Thyagarajan has taken a strong view of the illegal beaching of the "Riky", and instructed the GPCB that "Riky must be mercilessly driven out of Indian sovereign territory without any further loss of time.'' He has also asked for a high-level investigation into this matter.

The “RIKY” was illegally beached at Alang on April 19, 2005, despite the fact that the Danish Environment Minister, Ms. Connie Hedegaard, had alerted Indian authorities about it’s impending arrival, since the ship had not beenstripped of the hazardous substances on board -- its name was changed from "Kong Fredrik IX" to “Riky” to cheat the authorities in India.

Greenpeace, Basel Action Network, CITU and the Corporate Accountability Desk of the Other Media are campaigning globally for clean ship-recycling, demanding that ALL incoming end of life ships should bear a certification of prior informed consent and adeclaration of decontamination before they are granted permits for scrapping.

contact:
Madhumita Dutta,
Corporate Accountability Desk
mdutta@vsnl.net
Ph: 011-51652451

Ramapati Kumar,
Toxics Campaigner,
Greenpeace India:
rkumar@dialb.greenpeace.org
+919845535414

Alzheimer’s Mumbai chapter

ARDSI - Alzheimer's & Related Disorders of India - Mumbai Chapter (www.alzheimerindia.org) has recently got a place in J J Hospital Premises, at J J Hospital Municipal School Building, Room no. 27, 2nd floor Patients are welcome on any Wednesday between 12 and 2 p.m.--Dr. Shirin Barodawala, neuro-pathologist, Tel: 23513253, will be available.
ARDSI is interested in starting a small home even if with 3-4 beds and start activities in the areas of Day care centre, Domiciliary care services, Guidance and Counseling, Memory clinic, Caregivers meeting, Dementia care fund, Awareness programmes, Geriatric nursing training. Volunteers

contact
Mr. C.G. Thomas,
President,
ARDSI Mumbai Chapter,
Tel. 022 - 27667768 / 27668324

SUCCESS

Under the banner of the National Alliance of Peoples Movements (NAPM), the ANTI-Coco-Cola Plachimada Plant Agitation began in Trivandrum from May 17 onwards. The agitation started with a Mass Rally and an indefinite Dharna in front of the Government Secretariate inaugurated by the NAPM National Coordinator Srimathi Medha Patkar.

The demand of the Indefinite Dharna is to close down the Plachimada Plant permanently. The 3 year long struggle in front of the plant will continue.The case is now in the Supreme Court. The issue whether a village panchayat has the right to refuse ground water being extracted by a private company, landed at the door of the SC. The apex court is hearing a petition filed by the Perumatty village panchayat against a high court order allowing a bottling plant of Hindustan Coco-Cola Beverages Ltd in the village to draw 500 000 litres of ground water per day. The apex court will hear the matter in detail. The High Court had asked the panchayat to grant license to the company within two weeks provided the company had required clearances from the Factories Act and the state pollution control board. The pollution control board already refused to give the clearance. It was decided that the NAPM agitation request the Pollution control Board to keep up the stand.

A team of Tribals from Plachimada were present right through the Agitation.

Animal Well-fare
Guwahati: The NGO, Early Birds recently conducted a day long cattle vaccination camp around Pobitora wild life sanctuary. The camp was conducted in the first week of February and was the 17th such camp held here by the NGO. The beneficiaries were from the Bura Mayang area. 183 cattle were vaccinated against Foot and Mouth Disease and free medicines to supplement the effort were also distributed.

Contact:
Moloy Baruah,
Early Birds,.
Email: baruahm@iocl.co.in

First Manas Biosphere Celebration

Assam: The Manas Biosphere Conservation Forum (MBCF) organised the First Manas Biosphere Celebration on April 4 & 5 at Ultapani in Kokrajhar district.The aim of the celebration was to provide a platform for interactions among different stakeholders as well as others concerned by sensitizing public opinion for effective conservation of the reserve. The MBCF is a consortium of various NGOs in Assam that was formed in September 2003 to work for conservation here

Contact:
Nature’s Foster.
Email: natures@sancharnet.in

BTC to celebrate Tiger res. centenary

The Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) has announced that it will be celebrating the centenary festival of the Manas Tiger Reserve in November later this year. This is to be modeled on the celebrations that were held recently in Kaziranga. The main objective of the centenary celebrations would be to make the people of the villages adjoining the park aware about the benefits of forest and wildlife conservation and also promote tourism in the region.

Narzary also expressed concern over the financial problems plaguing the BTC due to non-release of government funds in time. Another bottleneck to the celebrations in Manas would be the poor condition of the roads to the park, --- ‘Now BTC to celebrate Manas centenary’, The Sentinel, 18/02/05.

Community based eco-tourism project s

Guwahati: Residents on the eastern fringe of the Manas National Park have reconstructed a 40 kms stretch of road inside the park to enable the work of the forest department and are also part of a new community based ecotourism initiative in the region. The initiative has been taken up jointly by the Chapaguri-Kokilabari unit of the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU), the Maozigendri Eastern Manas Eco-Tourism Society, the Siliguri-based Help Tourism and Ashoka Holidays. A special tour package, Manas-100, including jeep safaris, exploration of forest trails, elephant rides, visits to Hornbill Point and a Bengal Florican survey have also been launched.

The activities lined up in the nearby villages include treks, functions showcasing folk culture and an introduction to traditional weaving and methods of distilling country liquor. ABSU’s office has been converted into a dormitory where tourists can stay. There is also a proposal to start home stays by October and 10 houses are expected to be readied for this by then. The project is expected to cover 57 villages in eastern Manas. ‘Villagers pave protection path’, The Telegraph, 04/03/05.

Contact:
Mr.Abhijeet Rabha,
IFS. Director,
Manas Tiger Reserve,
Email: abhijitrabha@hotmail.com

Help Tourism,
Email: helptourism@sancharnet..in

Narmade Update

Two houses near Sardar Sarovar Dam site bulldozed! Expropriating Adivasi Lands and Forest, Privatizing it for Eco-tourism! Modi government begins bulldozing homes near Sardar Sarovar Dam site!

One more assault by the Modi government, communal in targeting adivasis, in the name of Sardar Sarovar Dam and development, occurred on May 5 on the day when unorganized workers from all over the country had gathered in Delhi to demand a comprehensive legislation providing social and economic security and Narmada dam-affected adivasis had joined them, in Kevadia on the banks of the Narmada River, two houses were demolished with bulldozers in broad daylight.The houses were on the land that once belonged to Natwarbhai. original inhabitants of Kevadia ousted from their land and houses in 1961 when their lands along with standing crops was acquisitioned using the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. Paltry sums ranging from Rs. 80 to Rs. 250 per acre were paid as compensation. Along with 300+ families, Natwarbhai also lost his livelihood for the dam and the land was used for officersâ colony, storages, offices and guest- houses. Balance land was also allotted to Swaminarayan Trust, Television Centre, a Museum of Adivasi Culture and what not.

The recent assault is a part of another game that has just begun- that of eco-tourism. A project of Rs. 170 crores, with investments from a Mauritius-based company, Water parks company, ITDC and owners of star Hotel in Baroda, is being pushed by the government at the cost of the adivasis. Involving academicians from the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) and other such bodies, the project planning is non-transparent and has not taken into account the ground level situation at all… 900 families on 1400 hectares of land will be evicted ,the project is bound to destroy the remaining good forests around the dam and affect villages in the vicinity as well.

Act immediately by writing letters to the following persons condemning such high-handedness and demanding a complete halt of these kinds of atrocities upon the adivasis;.Demand for a plan where the local adivasis will be the first beneficiaries without evicting them:

Mr.Narendra Modi,
E-mail: cm@gujaratindia.com

Ms. Meira Kumar,
Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment,
Email- min-sje@sb.nic.in

Mr. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi,;
Afroze Ahmed,
Director Rehabilitation,
Phone: +91 731 2558603,
Fax: +91 731 2554333

---------------------------------

Green schools programme

Meerut: With an objective of laying down a strong foundation for the protection of the environment Janhit Foundation initiated the Green Schools Programme for schools in and around Meerut district in April . The Muzaffarnagar based S.D. Public School with 5000 students organised a one day workshop on training the students and teachers on different types of organic manure preparation from the green waste generated in the school on April 14. The project was launched in the school campus with the preparation of three vermi culture beds and a tank NADEP being constructed. A rainwater harvesting site is being planned.

According to the Green School Programme Coordinator from S.D. Public School, Shashikant Sharma, “The project is becoming successful and increasingly popular as it is creating a sense of nonviolence towards nature amongst the students since chemical free organic manure helps in retaining all the life forms present in the soil which is eco-friendly as well”. The students have also come forward to save the environment and also show the farmers the advantage of organic farming. .Future activities include Paani Yatraas (water trips) to different parts of the country, film shows on environment and student exchange programmes apart from distribution of relevant literature on environment.

contact
Mrs. Chanchal Saxena,
Principal,
S .D .Public School, Muzaffarnagar.
Phone: 0131-2608228

Janhit foundation has recently been granted the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (IFOAM), Germany membership. This prestigious membership is the result of the grassroot level initiatives being carries forward by the organisation in this field -Pallavi Bharadwaj Asst. Programme Coordinator Janhit Foundation,

D-80, Shastri Nagar
Meerut-250002 (U.P.)
Contact: 0-121-2763418,
+91-9412706850

Forum Directs GHB to Pay Interest

Ahmedabad: The Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Ahmedabad City, has directed the Gujarat Housing Board (GHB) to pay Rs. 38,542 with 6 per cent interest till the final payment to Rashmikant H. Raval as interest on Rs. 94,000, paid by him on 8 January 1997 for booking an accommodation under the Board’s HIG Naranpura Scheme. The Forum was issuing its order on a complaint filed by Consumer Education and Research Society (CERS) and Raval.

two years after booking under the GHB scheme, Raval was forced to purchase another flat on 1 December 1998. Earlier, on 3 June 1998, he applied to the GHB for the refund of his booking amount with interest. But on 3 February 1999, the GHB paid Raval Rs.94,000 without any interest.

Consumer Education and Research Centre
Email : cerc@wilnetonline.net,
Website : www.cercindia.org

A “Darshan” of Vatsalya talents (pix)

Vatsalya’s Darshan Theatre group presented "Mumbai meri jaan"at Prithvi Theatre, on May 17/18. The 60- minute play directed by Pramod Pathak; and conceptualised by: Vatsalya Children is a call from the hearts of the children who have written the story based on their experiences of Mumbai. The story revolves around Dayashankar and his son Raju who are forced to migrate to the city. In this play, children have touched upon issue of population, pollution and other topics of concern for the city.
The Vatsalya Foundation children formed their own theatre group in 2001as an attempt to reach out to others through the creative medium of dramas and plays about issues that affect them. Then the topic is choreographed, created, selected, written, edited, music (composed), managed (backstage) by the young and older children.

The group has performed at various festivals at national and international forums on various issues like Child Labour (Jivan Sangharsh), Girl Child (Ladaki Teri Kahani), Population, Migration (Mumbai Meri Jaan), Human relationship (Hello Zindagi), Unity (Indradhanush), Traveller (Pathik). Their last production; 'Eklavya' from the Mahabharat epic was performed in Belgium. ,The Vatsalya Foundation is a developmental organisation working towards the rehabilitation and integration of street children into mainstream society since 1982.

Contact:
Swati Mukherjee
email: vatsalyafdn@vsnl.com
Tel. 24962115/24912352

It’s not cricket to smoke! (pix)

Mumbai: World No tobacco Day- May 31 was celebrated with a Health Professionals vs. celebrities Cricket match on May 21 at Police gymkhana. Organised by Cancer Patients Aid association, CPAA already has the support of doctors from Tata & other major hospitals of Mumbai in the health professionals team. In the celebrities team will be- Salman Khan, Boman Irani, Rahul Dev, Sunil Shetty, Rietesh Desmukh, Dino Morea, Marc Robinson, Aman Verma, Ashmit Patel, Ashish Choudhary, Sohail Khan, Zayed Khan, Vinod Kamble, Jackie Shroff, Yash Tonk, Vicky Chopra, Ravi Wallia, Ruby Bhatia etc.

All these film stars, doctors, WHO and other celebrities have joined hands with Cancer Patients Aid Association to spread the anti tobacco message as Tobacco is the most avoidable risk factor and the single largest causative factor responsible for the increasing incidence of the common cancers in India.

Kavita Kulkarni
Director-Resource Development
kavitakulkarni@indiatimes.com
98212-94641
Kolkata sex workers want rights

Kolkata: Thousands of sex workers bearing torches marched through the streets of Kolkata on May 1- May Day- demanding legalisation of their work. About 3,800 sex workers started the march from the Sonagachi red light district to College Square in north Kolkata. "If sex workers are armed with trade union rights they can articulate their problems well and call for reforms," said Swapna Gayen, secretary, Durbar Mahila Samannay Committee (DMSC), the apex body of sex workers in West Bengal. "They can also avail of government schemes and ensure security for their children,".

"They work with their bodies and hence they want workers' rights," said Mrinal Kanti Dutta, the DSMC programme director and son of a sex worker.The sex workers also raised slogan against a US bill that would reportedly stop providing funds to NGOs and other bodies engaged in the rights movement for sex workers. Sonagachi, houses around 9,000 sex workers, and is famous for the work on HIV/AIDS prevention done by the sex workers themselves and has become a role model in six Indian states.--- The Times of India, May 1, 2005.

Bal Panchayat

New Delhi: CASP/Plan Delhi, held the 4th National Convention on the Rights of Child on May 23-27 alongwith Bal Panchayat, a children's group from communities of Delhi to promote child rights and encourage children's participation in initiatives to promote and ensure child rights. Children from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh Karnataka and Maharashtra have been participating in the conventions to discuss issues close to their lives, the problem they face and their possible solutions

This year's convention focused on issues related to, Child labour, Girl child; Role of media in child rights; Status of CRC in India; Recognized Alternative Education; Right to Health, Education, Participation And Information.

Contact:
Jyoti Prakash gautam,
Child-Rights Facilitator,CASP-Plan Project,
Delhi
26057488,26055889
Email- jpgautam@socilogist.com

World AIDS Orphans Day - 7th May, 2005

Indian NGOs all over the country made a special effort to do something on World Aids Orphans Day.
In New Delhi an Awareness campaign and Essay competition on AIDS Orphan issues among adolescent boys and girls was held in Sanjay Camp Slum. In Haryana a Poster competition for orphans was followed by distribution of sweets to physically and mentally challenged children of Deep Ashram orphanage. In
Uttaranchal Clothes, educational materials and sweets were distributed to children living in slums following a rally .

In Punjab, drawing competition for students of Nikam Seva School and in HPan open discussion session on the Situation of children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS was followed by a rally of children living in a local Orphanage. In J& K IEC booths were held at the University . In Rajasthan: Awareness Session and Poster competition was held for the students of United Association of Schools and in
Mizoram Awareness lecture on AIDS Orphans and vulnerable children for the students and teachers at Home Mission English School, Aizwal

A half-day interschool seminar on Children and HIV/AIDS by the students of different schools in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh and a Talk on positive living by an active member of Manipur Network of positive people along with distribution of educational and support materials to the children of FXB Child Care Center in Manipal.

Goa: IEC and Poster Exhibition at Margoa Municipal Garden Street play on the theme of AIDS while in
Gujarat a meeting with barbers generated awareness about the Day as to generate mass awareness Red Ribbons and IEC material were distributed, Drawing Competition among the children of Weslian Mission orphanage in Daman

in Assam and Bihar : Essay Competition and Awareness session on AIDS Orphan Scenario among the students as in Jharkhand a rally of adolescent boys and girls living in slums, along with volunteers and NCC cadets marched through the Ranchi main road. Poster competition for children of Amader Ghar Orphanage in Tripuara; Cultural programs at orphanages in Shillong and Sikkim.

FXB West Bengal observed a week-long program reaching out to different segments from May3-7; officials of Municipal corporation; West Bengal’s biggest Jute Mill-- Hukumchand Jute Mill etc.
A Magic Show for the orphan of the Missionaries of Charity in Mumbai was highlighted by a Radio program on World AIDS Orphans Day. In MP Recreational programmes for physically and mentally challenged children at local orphanages, remand homes and care homes.
Andhra Pradesh there were Debate competitions involving children from three orphanages; Discussions with various groups.

Kerala: Letter writing competition on AIDS Orphan Issues and Youth and Women Sensitization program - as in Pondicherry: Drama and songs by children of Periyakalapet, Tsunami affected village. and Youth slow-cycling race were held. Games with the children living in Slums in Chennai and Awareness programme , Street Play and a Free Health check up camp in collaboration with Fulfilling People’s Aspiration India ( FPAI) in Orissa.

Contact:
handinhand_india@yahoogroups.com

Humsafar Community mobilization program.

Mumbai: 200 people from the community were present for the award ceremony for the Best Outreach worker. The winners were Mr. Bachchan Chowhan and Mr. Shashikant Kakade.

chief guest for the evening was Mr. Anant Vaidyanathan .Then the program took of with a group mujra performance by our ORWs
Mr. Samson kale, Mr. Uday Sonawne and Mr. Nagesh.

Contact
humsafar@vsnl.com

Let’s talk about it…

A.P. Every morning, in Andhra Pradesh, a group of men and women are making change, and history. They set out to do something that most people normally shy away from — talking about sex, sexuality and HIV/AIDS.Every day, V. Samson and S.K. Sultana Begum are among 48 peer counsellors who head towards schools, railway colonies, health units, railways hospitals, training centres, junior colleges and mahila samitis (women's groups) — all known as `entry points' and affiliated with the Indian Railways. The Railway Women's Empowerment and AIDS Prevention Society (REAPS), an NGO based in Vijayawada, is implementing a project called `Equalising Gender Relationships in the Context of HIV/AIDS Epidemic'.

The REAPS project is a partnership between the Ministry of Railways and UN Fund for Development of Women (UNIFEM). The REAPS project aims to strengthen the Indian Railways' capacity in offering gender-sensitive counselling services. And to highlight the fundamental link between gender and HIV/AIDS, as a strategy to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in India.

Peer counsellors were trained in counselling and gender perspectives at the Christian Medical Centre, Vellore, and Asmita Women's Resource Centre, Hyderabad. The Voluntary Testing and Counselling Centre (VTCC) at the Vijayawada Railway hospital routinely refers clients to peer counsellors, and vice versa. Trade unions (16 lakh members) and the `running rooms' where engine drivers rest between shifts are the other entry points.. Engine drivers have asked for condom boxes in running rooms and for information on HIV/AIDS to read on their trips.

.A revolving fund, based at the South Central Railways Women's Welfare Organisation (RWWO), Vijayawada was created to help women living with HIV/AIDS, and other affected women in the Railway community. --The Hindu Business Line, May 6, 2005

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General inaugurates HIV centre

Chandigarh: UT Administrator General S F Rodrigues (retd) launched a community centre project at Khuda Ali Sher village on May 7 with a view to effectively handle AIDS/HIV patients and to provide them with medical care. The Rs 20 lakh project is a joint venture of the UT Red Cross and State AIDS Control Society, UT and has 10 beds and staff . Presently six HIV patients have been admitted at the centre.

Deputy Commissioner and Red Cross chairman Arun Kumar said the centre will benefit patients coming from all over north India. The centre will also train the families of the patients to look after the ill. The Red Cross is also running a 10-bed Hospice in Sector 43 for cancer and terminally ill patients.( Express India, May 7, 2005)

Mahila Shakti 2005

Mumbai: Ekta Forum along with Gujarati weekly “Rashtranjali” & Hindi daily “Dopahar do baje” organized an exhibition, Mahila Shakti-2005 fro, May 13-15 for the welfare & upliftment of women of Maharashtra through various seminars and workshops on food processing industry. Apart from stalls where one could meet various lady entrepreneurs Women Political Forum (WPF) sponsored four skits directed by Mr. Mujib khan :Sugandhit Jahar – Anti Gutka; Kyonki saas bhi kabhi maa thee – reflects various women issues including girl education, gender equality & girl child feticide.;Vishleshan – on Communal Harmony; Aurat & Siyasat – based on Women’s Political Forum’s objectives.The Women's Political Forum believes that women can give voice to their hopes and aspirations through an active role in governance and politics. WPF will provide training and support for capable and aspiring women who have a burning desire to serve the nation through politics.

Sandhya Sinha
Sinha.Sandhya@rediffmail.com
mobile 9820757132

Ramita Mehta
ramitamehta@hotmail.com
mobile 9821878215

WEF Gender Study puts India at 53rd

In its first ever gender gap study titled "the Women's Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap"covering 58 nations, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked India a lowly 53. The WEF report measures the gap between women and men in five critical areas like economic participation, Economic opportunity, political empowerment, access to education and access to reproductive health care.

The report is based on United Nations Development Fund for Women's findings on global patterns of inequality between men and women.

The ranking reflects large disparities between men and women in all five areas of the index.
At the same time, the report cites political empowerment of women in India as a key development which argued well for the future. India is ranked 24th in terms of women's empowerment politics, both at the parliamentary and grassroots level.

The study puts Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland at the top of the list as countries with the smallest gender gap. "While no country has yet managed to eliminate the gender gap, the Nordic countries have succeeded best in narrowing it and, in a very clear sense, provide a workable model for the rest of the world, the report adds.

China remains the highest ranking nation in Asia, followed by Japan at 38.

WEF has undertaken the study in order to facilitate the work of governments, aids agencies and NGOs by providing
a benchmark -----Business Standard. 17 May, 2005.p.10

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Peer Education Modules

Many programmes are using peer educators or outreach workers as a way of reaching PLWHA, or families affected by HIV/AIDS. These dedicated individuals are working very hard to counsel and support their peers. For many reasons, including lack of training, the complexity of the field, and emotional strain, it is a challenging position.

ActionAid Bangalore regional office and the Abhaya project are working on a set of modules aimed at Peer Educators from groups of sex workers, MSM and PLWHA. The modules are intended to be very comprehensive, they will not only build capacity on the issue of HIV/AIDS but also will enhance leadership within the community for the rights based approach, assisting Peer Educators to take on a leadership role for behaviour change and community empowerment.

NGOs who can recommend any training tools contact Megha below. While the modules are to be field tested in Karnataka, there is hope that with input from many organisations, their usage will eventually become widespread.

Contact
Megha Girish:
megirish2001@yahoo.co.in or
Kate.Carroll@actionaid.org

Maa-Beti Sammelan

New Delhi: At a meeting organised to bridge the communication gap at Jahangirpuri, a slum in
North-West Delhi, sex is probably a subject that never really comes up during conversations. Helping them now to start a dialogue on taboo subjects focusing on sexuality is a "Maa-Beti Sammelan" organised by the Deepam Educational Society for Health (DESH) and Care India.

Part of the CHAYAN Youth Intervention programme that is being supported by the Delhi State AIDS Control Society, the "sammelan'' targets youth from 15 years to 24 years in both genders.

While Delhi is being used as a model that will eventually be replicated in different parts of the country, DESH has also started interventions in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

"We have found that people in this area are not aware of sexually transmitted diseases.Girls are unaware, but even their mothers don't have knowledge about these issues. Contact desh@vsnl.com ( The Hindu. 18 May, 2005.p.4)

Scoring the govt.

New Delhi: The new regime at the Centre (United Progressive Alliance) presented the National Common Minimum Programme (CMP), a charter of governance which promised to address not only the rights of the underprivileged sections but also some of the root causes of deprivation of a majority of our population.

In response to the CMP, a group of civil society organizations organised a meeting in Delhi on June 14, 2004 to assess the CMP from a people’s perspective and have an interface with the representatives of UPA. The overall response of the civil society stakeholders was very positive. The group decided to provide support to all the progressive elements of CMP. However, they also decided to play the role of a ‘watch dog’ to continuously monitor the performance of the new regime in order to facilitate a constructive engagement with the government in delivering the desired outcomes.

At a one-day seminar titled “One Year of CMP – A Review by the Civil Society Groups” on 20th May 2005 at the Main Auditorium of India International Centre, several pertinent issues relating to the performance of the UPA government vis-à-vis the CMP, and framing of a Charter of Demands to be submitted to the government were held. Organised by Indian Institute of Dalit Studies ;Institute of Social Sciences;National Centre for Advocacy Studies; Indian Social Institute; Action Aid International – India ; National Social Watch;Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability;ANHAD; SANSAD; NACDOR; Aman Trust ;Human Rights Law Network; One World South Asia;

contact
Action Aid International- India
asif@actionaidindia.org,
bidisha@actionaidindia.org,
Ph: 51640571-76,
Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability,

NCAS
cbadelhi@vsnl.net, ncasdelhi@vsnl.net,
Ph: 26537603, 26567309

ANHAD
anhad_delhi@yahoo.co.in,
23327366/7

Asvasan seniors celebrate

Bangalore: Three of the Recreation Centres for Seniors : Vasanthnagar, R.M.V. and Malleswaram Centres celebrated Asvasan’s third Anniversary jointly. A Dance Drama by the Sadhana Sangam Dance Centre."Preksha Gruha"- Nrityaka Roopa was presented to the elders present. The group enacted a small story from the Mahabharata- followed by high tea ---.Revathi Ramakrishnan

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FREE Braille Education

Bangalore: Ashakiran Trust's JMR School for the Blind that helps the visually impaired and physically handicapped lead a dignified life offers free Braille education upto X std.

Other activities undertaken by Ashakiran are :- Language Classes in Kannada, English, Hindi and Sanskrit.
Classical Music and Yoga, Physical and Mobility Training. Hostel facilities and free nutritious food, clothing and medical assistance to all students. sports ground.Happy Home (Ananthashram) for the old.

Those wishing to help in cash and kind may

contact
Radhakrishna Pai
Trustee, Ashakiran Trust
Karnataka
Tel. (08389) 230286 and 230386

ITC to start e-choupals in 5 more states

MUMBAI, MAY 10: In a bid to reach out to a wider target audience, ITC Ltd is extending its business model e-choupal to five states including West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana in the current fiscal. At present, ITC Ltd has 5,150 e-choupal telecentres covering 30,000 villages in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. It is also planning to extend its e-choupal models to cover 1,00,000 villages across in the next two years and is looking at investing Rs 5 crore
per 50 e-choupals. for 'Choupal Sagar' in the current year which will accommodate warehouses, retail
stores, a fuel station, a training & health centre," he added.

Currently, ITC's major rivals in the 'Information Communication Technology (ICT)
sector include, Tata Chemicals (Tata Kisan Sansar) Mahindra & Mahindra
(Mahindra Shubh Labh) and Parry's Corner.

. However, Mr Sivakumar admits that the real challenge lies in educating villagers to use internet centres effectively.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=90559

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UP village sick of AIDS

Etah (UP), Residents of the village of Samaspur, near Etah, in Uttar Pradesh have decided to take firm steps to combat the menace of AIDS. when at least four reported cases of AIDS related deaths in the area over a
month. The district administration swung into action and a sampling test for eight people showed Five tested positive.

According to R P Sukhla, District Magistrate, Etah, all measures to control the spread of the infection is being taken. The residents of the poor village, with a small population of not more than five thousand, are ignorant of AIDS. In most of the cases, the infected people are those, who have gone to work in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore etc.

Solar-powered computers

LEKHANI, Baglung, - Locals of Lekhani VDC in this mountainous district have found another use for solar-generated energy. Besides using it to light their homes, these electricity-deprived rural folks are using it for operating computers as well. The locals, who had never seen a computer before and had never expected to see one in their settlement, have been greatly amazed with the 3 computers brought here.

"We are planning to conduct computer classes regularly to all school students from the coming session," said Bishnu Prasad Subedi, principal of Lekhani Higher Secondary School where students of class 11 and 12, and recent SLC-appeared students have been learning about computers The computers were brought into the village after Himalaya Light Foundation, an NGO, provided solar generators worth Rs 120,000 seven months ago. The local Gaja Youth Club had collected funds from locals and the school administration to purchase the computers.

"As there is no motorable road to our our area we hired porters to carry the equipment from the market place," said an excited local. According to Sameer Newa, program officer of the Foundation, it is the first ever instance where solar generators - used primarily for lighting purposes - have been used for an alternative purpose as well.

A computer literate local female has been appointed as the computer instructor while another local has been assigned security duty to watch over the solar generators and computers.
- binod tripathi

Contact:
Allen Bailochan Tuladhar"
<allen@unlimit.com>


Tree talk

Bangalore: Representatives of various organisations and individuals collectively worked two days to stop the felling of avenue trees along prominent streets of Bangalore. Following this pressure, the felling was stopped.

However, when BMP contractors began felling of another old Mango tree on Residency Road. Over 30 individuals, students and representatives of Environment Support Group, Greenpeace, Alternative Law Forum and Mountaineers immediately gathered, and stopped the felling

Following representations and police complaints against BMPs actions, the Forest Department was pressed to intervene and stop the felling. Consequently, the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bangalore Urban,
Karnataka Forest Department, has written to the Commissioner, BMP that such felling must stop forthwith and until further orders.

Leo F. Saldanha
Coordinator Environment Support Group,
Tel: 080-26341977/26531339/26534364
Email: esg@esgindia.org or esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in
Web: www.esgindia.org

Agni continues regardless

Mumbai: Six years after it began, AGNI (Action for Good Governance and Networking in India) can boast of Eighty workshops to enlighten citizens on the right to information and 250 meetings in tandem with municipal cells that will facilitate citizen-corporator interface.

For the coming year, Agni has also set up a target of 240 visits to police stations in the various wards to promote police-citizen interface. "By sheer force of numbers, no police force can do policing without active involvement of the citizens,'' said joint commissioner of police Javed Ahmed at Agni's sixth anniversary function at Don Bosco School in Wadala on Sunday. Right to information will help ensure transparency and efficiency in government.

Agni also held two election watch campaigns in the state last year. Contact:

---------------------------------

Update on DOTS Expansion in India

Latest information on Directly Observed Treatment, Short course (DOTS) expansion in various states of India in 'DOTS Watch' section of www.healthinitiative.org
. State wise current data on poverty levels and HIV prevalence in different sections of community especially amongst women attending Ante-natal Clinics (ANC) and amongst those attending STD clinics, Intravenous Drug Users (IDU), Commercial Sex Workers (CSW) and men having sex with men (MSM)is also presented. visit http://healthinitiative.org/html/dotswatch/index.htm Dinesh Kumar dinesh_kumar@vsnl.com Editor www.healthinitiative.org

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Dams for Coorg or damning of Coorg?

Much debate has been going on in Coorg about the building of dams in the district, and more specifically at several sites on the Barapolay River located inside the Oorti and Kerti reserve forests, which form part of the core area of the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary of the Western Ghats/Nilgiri Mountains, as well as the drawing of high tension electricity cables through some of Kodagu's pristine virgin forest areas.

While the residents of Coorg may benefit from receiving more electricity from the power plants, (although even this is in question since it is rumored that both the water and electricity from the dams will be given to Kerala, and the high tension wires to be drawn are specifically for delivering electricity to Kerala with no benefit to the residents of Coorg at all), additional electricity can be delivered and generated in far better, less environmentally destructive ways—such as wind power, ocean thermal power, and solar power plants in parts of Northern India—than felling over 4000 trees in virgin forest for overhead cables or building a series of no less than four dams in the middle of a wildlife sanctuary.

Contact
Bobji at bob@saishankar.org or
tel 98455 10804

Magic Bus –ICICI Credit Card

Mumbai: Yet another NGO is going the Credit card route. Magic Bus, in partnership with ICICI has launched Magic Bus Affinity creditcard. The card will generate revenues for their programmes and help attain self-sustainability, which is one of our key objectives.

The card is packed with all the benefits of a standard Gold Credit Card.Over with discount offers exclusively for Magic Bus cardholders. Just by signing up for the card, Magic Bus will receive a donation of Rs.200 per card from ICICI. Magic Bus will also benefit from the usage of the card as and ICICI reward points will be donated to them. Contact:

Re-claiming Mumbai for its people

'Mumbai: Campaign for Access to Public Spaces, Livelihood, Housing and Basic Services'.as part of the Global Week of Action in Mumbai 10- 16th April 2005 organized a workshop with guest speakers: Saeed Mirza, Rahul Bose, P K Das, Darryl D'Monte, Radhika Ramasubban

Films about Mumbai were shown: Cosmopolis: (on the mill lands and about vegetarian societies) by Paromita Vora- Eat to live: (humorous animation about how big fish eat small fish in Mumbai) by Abhinay Deo- - Kaato magar pyaar se (on a barber's saloon in Central Mumbai)- and Bharat Mata- (on Bharat Mata theatre) by Girangaon Rojgar Hakk Samiti- - Circadian Cycle: (about the cycle of life in Mumbai) by Mahesh Mathai- - Manasa- (about a eunuch who lives in a slum) by Arva Mamaji- Crystal- (about an Irani Cafe) by students of Sophia College- - Aur Irani chai-(about Irani cafes) by students of Wilson college- Nimble feet: (about kids who sell things at traffic lights) by Sunil Sadrangani- - Phantom- (about hate) Tushar Jog- 98202-34538- I, Ranu Gayen- (about a bar dancer who lives in a tenement in the suburbs) by Shyamul Karmakar-- Dhol Baja Party- (about boys who are part of a dhol baja band) a student film

Organizations: Affordable Medicines and Treatment Campaign , Akshara Centre, CEHAT, CITU, Focus On The Global South , Girangaon Rojgar Hakk Samiti, India Centre For Human Rights And Law, Jameen Jungle Pani Lokadhikar Andolan, Jan Swasthiya Abhiyan, Justice and Peace Comission , Lawyers Collective, Lokraj Sanghatan, Media for People, Nivara Hakk Saurakshan Samiti , Samajvadi Jan Parishad, Majlis, Movement For Peace And Justice, Open Circle, Pakistan-India Peoples Forum For Peace And Democracy, Pheriwala Vikas Mahasangh, Shehar Vikas Manch , Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, Vikas Sahyog Prathisthan, YUVA

Contact: Darryl D'Monte,
Bandra Citizens Committee -
98203 68872 & 2642 7088

Power for all?

Lucknow: What appeared to be a far-fetched idea a couple of years ago, is all set to become a reality in the next couple of months when power distribution in the rural areas could be done by consumer
groups, users club, NGOs and panchayat organisations.

The facility comes into being following the provisions in the Electricity Act, 2003 which vests in the distribution companies (discoms, known as licensees) the authority to give the right of power distribution to private individuals, panchayats etc through the system of franchisee.

The franchisee will buy bulk power from the licensee and then supply it to the rural segments. They will be entrusted with the task of revenue collection which will subsequently be deposited by them with the concerned discom in lieu of which they will get service charge. -- times news network monday, april 11, 2005

Save A Tree

Mumbai: On “save a tree” day-- May 16, OASIS hosted an Interactive presentation seminar for children on "Trees,the only saviours".The seminar at Petit municipal school , Bandra covered tree facts, various species of trees, Anatomy of trees, tips on creative writing for the same topic and was followed by Tree vocabulary contest, essay writing contest and drawing contest.

Contact 30949042 Ms vidhya

Maneka Gandhi's advice for all NGOs

Mumbai:. Maneka Gandhi, MP, inaugurated an animal ambulance for Karuna in a well-attended and well-organised function "In Defence of Animals."
She stressed on the need for all NGOs in an area to form a board which has a member from each ngo along with relevant outsiders. Her talk was based on the activities of such a board rather than those of an
individual ngo.

Animal movement must become a force.

Look at victories Look at our failures - What all is needed - police training - make them aware of the sections under which they can take action- judges training - she explained how she sensitised judges about the various issues;- lawyers training - compile a list of all laws and judgements

- stop fighting the system, work with it to achieve results;- hold training workshops - interwork with environmental, vegetarian, mangroves, trees, ngo's --
- good written material is needed - - develop journalists – ("Journalists For Animals" now has 159
journalists)- media interaction is needed - print, tv, radio - channel messages, filmstars, articles for TV
- get a PR agency; decide on 3 common programmes for the year ;- take what they can give (rather than insisting on what you want;- do not start campaigns that you can not see through ;- have a yearly convention - - educate against wrong notions e.g. animal sacrifice;- network with the whole of Maharashtra; - look at inventing alternatives - be scientific -- ;- tie up with Rotary, Lion, social groups
;keep your eyes open - get celebrities involved - "It is not only about doing good. It is about being strong,
unrelenting." --- Chidanandji.

Akanksha Mumbai AGM 2005

Amidst graduations, heartwarming performances by the younger children and presentations, were the many awards that were given out to team members that had excelled in their work.

Centre News Children from Worli 3 &4, SJ2 and CM1 put up a brilliant show at the AGM. Graduation Days, marking the child's move to the next level were attended by the children's' parents. Little plays and songs presented.
The Yuvathi Sharan and Stanislaus centres had a fun day with volunteers from Novartis on April 28/29. The Magic show was a first for many of the children The Career Fair covered many careers from the armed forces to interior designing.
Mahalaxmi 2 and St. Joseph's 1 centres debated on the pros and cons of watching Television. Eight of our older boys have started working either full-time or part-time for Café Coffee Day.

15 Art Design children teamed up with 30 children of employees to Rave Computers to create artworks to adorn the walls of their new office. The Leadership Program Summer sessions have started at the New Era School, Pedder Road for all three batches. reading books, discussing current affairs and learning to be change agents. 12 kids got admitted into good quality private schools

Supari Tank School: The teachers attended a 3-day Theater Workshop conducted by Don Bosco. The objective was to mobilize communities in tackling social issues through the medium of drama.

Pune: Kids from Budhwar Peth, St. Crispins 1 and 2, Thermax 1 and 2 and Wakadewadi Centres sang and danced .on graduation day when Centres, Volunteers, Teachers and Helpers were awarded for outstanding efforts, achievements and performances.

Contact:
akankshafoundation@vsnl.com
Visit us at www.akanksha.org

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Save the Cattle campaign

Mumbai: PAWS started a signature campaign save stray cattle from road accidents in thane city. Every year cattle get wounded, or die due to accidents.. PAWS has been attending to these animals daily but
The real solutions of the problem is rescuing all the stray cattle & get them to nearest Goushala, Pinjrapoles & Cattle Sheds. PAWS Trustee & Treasurer Ms. Anuradha Ramaswami took the initiative & collected 300 signatures along with PAWS volunteers and presented the signatures to Animal dept. of Thane Municipal Corporation.

PAWS Young team also organized regular Anti-Rabies Vaccination Camp at Thane’s Runwal Plaza complex. All the strays are vaccinated against rabies at the annual camp in this complex. Please call us on 9820161114 if you want get all dogs in your colony to be vaccinated.

On May 8 a Donkey Vaccination Camp was held at Kalwa Station Road, East (Thane). Donkeys are used during the day and left to fend for themselves after that leadingthemto eat at garbage dumpsand getting sick.
PAWS Mumbai trustee Ms. Fizzah Shah donated brand new ambulance to IDA.
For more information please contact
'Plant & Animals Welfare Society -
Nilesh Hony.
Gen. Secretary & Founder Trustee
Cell: 9820161114.

Additional consumer forum for Mumbai

Mumbai In view of the increasing number of cases in consumer fora, the Maharashtra government has decided to have a Consumer Redressal Forum in all the 35 districts of the state, with Mumbai and Thane having one additional forum each, With Thane's population touching 80 lakh, the government felt there was need for one more forum to clear the pending cases.

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Art for women

New Delhi: Through powerful images, sober construction and sharp colour, the students of the College of Art put their feelings on canvas for a splendid display of paintings on the theme "Women, violence and international humanitarian law".

The paintings created on an invite by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)were on display at a nine-day exhibition at the Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre. The paintings in the theme category focus on war and its effects. They draw from the role of women during war, the effect of war on the status of women and social security, and the emotional turmoil that war inevitably brews.

In the artistic category, the students portrayed the plight of women repressed during times of conflict in male-dominated societies. Through symbolism, they created moving pieces of art that are balanced in
colour, space, line and form.

The exhibition is being held to mark the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day (May 8).It emphasises the commitment to protect human dignity and urges respect for international humanitarian law.

Wanted NGOs for Education

Mumbai: Civic officials in Mulund found that at least 300 slum children aged six to 14 years have never attended a school in a survey under BMC's recently introduced Sarva Shikhshan Abhiyaan Scheme.

Now, civic officials are in the process of appointing NGOs to educate these kids. In Mulund, three NGOs are already running seven schools in different slums. The education department wants more NGOs to join the effort.

The Nanepada Mahila Sangh is one of the three NGOs that have been appointed and conducts classes for 27 children of salt cultivation workers and kids from adjacent slums in a shed behind Kelkar College.

As per the Sarva Sikhshan Abhiyaan, the BMC appoints NGOs to conduct schools in the slums.

These schools impart basic education to the child for one year, with kids being taught how to read, write and do simple calculations. After that period, kids are given admission to BMC schools.

The classes are multi-lingual and are conducted in either Hindi, Marathi,Telugu or Gujarati.

The school provides teaching aids to students free of cost. It also provides snacks to students if the school gets a sponsor.Each school has at least 15 children and a maximum of 30.The BMC pays the teachers Rs 1,000 a month Some schools also get sponsorships from local social workers, corporates and politicians.

Disabled-friendly toilets, bldgs in 6 mths

Mumbai: Maharashtra has been instructed to become disabled conscious within six months. The Bombay High Court passed an order directing all government buildings in the state to be equipped with ramps and to construct toilet blocks suitable for the disabled.

The court has refused to allow any extension to the order.

The issue of providing disabled-friendly services is a longstanding one. In 2002, the Indian Law Society (ILS) filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, saying the Disabilities Act was not properly implemented in the state. It asked the government to provide buses that could be easily accessed by the disabled and people in wheelchairs. Subsequently, the court ordered the BEST to provide 30 such buses, but
till now there's just one bus in commission and that too, has to be reworked.

Taking up the matter, the court yesterday also issued notices to TATA motors and BEST to explain the reason behind the delay.

According to advocate Jamshed Mistry, who is representing the Spastics Society, this could be the first time a court has given the state government an order without giving any extensions.

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No more coca cola!

Perumatty which was declared `Cola products-free panchayat' on May 15 has formed a defence committee to mobilise funds for conducting the case against the Coca-Cola's plant at Plachimada.

The Perumatty grama panchayat had cancelled the licence of the Coke plant last year for exploiting groundwater in the area. The High Court allowed the company to draw 5 lakh litres of groundwater daily and the local body has now moved the Supreme Court against the lower court's verdict.

As per the Panchayati Raj rules, a grama panchayat can spend only Rs.3,000 at a time for conducting litigation. The panchayat has no funds with it to fight the case in the apex court.-- The Hindu on: May 22, 2005

Disability India Network's new website

The Disability India Network site (www.disabilityindia.org) is now back with a new design and improved accessibility features.Send comments to Dr Madhumita Puri Convenor madhumita@disabilityindia.org

Euthanasia

New Delhi: On a PIL filed by the NGO, Common Cause, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to give its views on a petition pleading that terminally ill patients should be given the right to die when a medical expert opined that a patient had reahed a point of no return, to refuse life-support sustem to prolong his agony.

Amendments to Immoral Traffic Act

The Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), Ministry of Human Resource development, Government of India, has proposed certain amendments to the **Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA)** (available at http://wcd.nic.in/proamendment.htm ). It appears that the changes are being incorporated in response to concerns that the existing legal framework is deficient to counter trafficking for sex work. Even though the proposal is not rooted in sex worker's rights, it significantly impacts the community's ability to negotiate legal rights and claims.

Briefly, the “key substantive and procedural changes” sought by the DWCD are : A consistent definition of "child" to mean a person below age 18 yrs is being incorporated . A new definition of trafficking adopted from the U.N Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in persons, especially women and children, is being proposed; The punishment for keeping or allowing premises to be used as a brothel is being enhanced: Proscriptions against solicitation for sex work are being removed. The maximum period for which a woman convicted for carrying on prostitution in public may be detained is being increased from five to seven years. The rank of police officials entrusted with the task of anti-trafficking operations is being lowered from Inspector to Sub-inspector. It will be obligatory for incumbent Police Officer to consult representatives from NGOs in planning anti-trafficking measures. The property and assets of traffickers and agents of organized prostitution will be liable to forfeiture;: NGOs assisting the police in anti-trafficking activities are being offered protection/immunity.

Any representations on the ITPA amendments will now have to be made to the Law Ministry.
Contact:
Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit
Email: aidslaw1@lawyerscollective.org

90% of BMC health centres unused

Five years after they were set up, 23 of 26 dispensaries and maternity homes belonging to the BMC remain unused. The BMC had set up the 26 medical centres in 2000-01, with the intention of turning them over to charitable trusts and medical organizations In 2002, the BMC put out newspaper advertisements inviting organisations to man its centres. However, even now, all but three (Sabu Siddique Maternity Home at Imamwada; Zaobawadi Maternity Home at Girgaon; and Victoria Road Maternity Home) remain unused.

According to the BMC's health committee, however, seven of them ('see Medi claim') have been handed over to charitable trusts, though they haven't begun functioning. The allotment proposals of another seven remain bound in municipal bureaucracy, while the remaining six are struggling to find takers.

Shailesh Yashodhar Phanse, chairman of the health committee, said, "The seven trusts that have been handed over must start functioning soon. If they continue to stall, the BMC will be forced to take legal action against them." Dr V Telang, an executive health officer with the BMC, said, "We are in touch with the seven trusts that have been allotted premises. We've been told they are appointing doctors and recruiting staff. As for the other proposal, they too will be cleared soon."

Status of the seven dispensaries BMC says it has handed over: Rokadia Lane, Borivli: The BMC claims the dispensary has been handed over to a trust called the Kutch Yuvak Sangh. However, when we visited it, we found that the BMC itself has not taken over the property from the builder, Mahesh Desai. Desai runs a nursery there. "I have been writing to the BMC to take over the property but they have not responded yet. In order to preserve my property, I run a nursery here." Desai was not aware that the dispensary had been allotted to the Kutch Yuvak Sangh.

. IC Colony, Borivli: Handed over to the Borivli Malayali Sangh in 2003. They are yet to take possession.

Ashok Van, Dahisar: Handed over to the Rotary Club of Borivli in March 2004.

Hasn't started functioning Rustomji Colony, Dahisar: Allotted to MEETI Investments and Consultants in May. Not yet functional.
Harishankar Joshi Marg, Borivli: Allotted to Dr Dhawle Trust in March 2005. Not yet functional.

Lallubhai Park, Andheri: Allotted to Dr Surya Para Medical and Research Centre in October 2004. Hasn't begun functioning, citing problems like lack of water connection.

Kasturba Road,
Matunga: Handed over to Yuvak Prathisthan in May.
Not yet functional.
http://ww1.mid-day.com/news/city/2005/may/110176.htm

Dental check up camp conducted on behalf of Manav Seva Kendra by Dr. Jignesh Mehta at his own clinic is normally conducted on every 1st and 2nd Sunday of every month. A nominal registration fee of Rs. 20/- per head is charged which includes Dental Check up and consultation. Registration will start 7 days in advance for the camp i.e. from Monday to Saturday for the coming Sunday.: 10.30 am-12.30 Pm.: 5.00 PM to 8.00 PM.

Once the check up is done the beneficiary patient will be given an estimate of the treatment which is needed. The case would go to Manav Seva Kendra for approval. Concessions to the treatment estimate would be awarded by Manav Seva Kendra, at their sole discretion at approx 50% of the given estimate. As soon as the approval is received by Dr. Jignesh Mehta the beneficiary patient would be requested to pay the charges after deducting the Concession amount. The Concession amount will be paid by Manav Seva Kendra to the doctor. .

Contact:
Dr. Jignesh Mehta.
drjigneshmehta@yahoo.co.in
2614 3333 / 2615 4444

S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai has established a Center for Development of Corporate Citizenship (DOCC) program. The students are involved for a period of six weeks in social projects of an NGO or Corporate, (funding social projects directly or indirectly) and during this period students work on different aspects and prepare a report highlighting their contribution and ecommendations to be implemented by the organization. 90 projects.It was very interesting to see the utility of an MBA approach for NGOs.In 6 weeks, each team of 1 or 2 students, could put together a good framework which covered the following: - overview of the situation - analysis of what the ngo should focus on and why and how - actual fieldwork and documentation of results. Their reports are a useful document for the trustees, staff, and volunteers of the NGO, as well as for potential sponsors, donors, and government agencies.Potential uses would be to understand, to use as a resource, to plan, to implement, and for updating the snapshot of the org.Some do miss the humane element -- which is what an NGO is all about -- but it is definitely worthwhile for every NGO and CSR division of companies to take advantage of this facility that SPJIMR offers every year.

Pl contact Mrs. Nirja Mattoo nirja@spjimr.ernet.in for further details.