Glocal Leaders Network

(Compiled and Published by J.N. Manokaran  ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) on behalf of Glocal Resources Development Associates)

I           India

1. Number of urban poor to rise by 11% in state: The downturn and price rise seem to be pushing more people towards poverty in urban areas, especially in Maharashtra, compared to the last financial year. The number of urban poor in the state is expected to go up from 1.31 crore to 1.46 crore by March-end next year, a rise of nearly 15 lakh, or 11.3%, in 2009-10, according to estimates of the Union ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation. Home to the highest number of urban poor, the state is followed by Uttar Pradesh (1.17 crore), Madhya Pradesh (74.03 lakh), and Tamil Nadu (69.13 lakh). The ministry has projected an 18% growth in urban poverty across India in 2009-10.  (Sandeep Ashar, http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_number-of-urban-poor-to-rise-by-11pct-in-state_1285240 accessed on 26 August 2009)

1. India third on global 'female smoking list' :  According to the latest Tobacco Atlas, the country ranks third in the top 20 female smoking populations across the globe.  Only the US with 2.3 crore female smokers and China with 1.3 crore women smokers are worse off than India in this chart. However, as far as percentage of women smoking is concerned, it is below 20% for India.  Among India's immediate neighbours, only Pakistan figures in this infamous list, but right at the bottom at 20th with around 30 lakh female smokers. Female smokers in India die an average eight years earlier than their non-smoking peers. According to the Atlas, about 250 million women in the world are daily smokers -- 22% being from high resource countries and 9% from low and middle resource countries. Realising the potential of this growing market, the Atlas said the tobacco industry has been marketing cigarettes to women using seductive but false images of vitality, emancipation, slimness, sophistication and sexual allure. Tobacco consumption reduced birth weight of the foetus, decreased their gestational age leading to premature babies, increased the risk of still births and heightened chances of anaemia among adult pregnant women. The Atlas said tobacco killed some six million people each year -- more than a third of whom will die from cancer -- and drained $500 billion annually from global economies. As 25% of smokers die and many more become ill during their most productive years, income loss devastates families and communities. In 2010, 72% of those who die from tobacco related illnesses would be in low- and middle-income countries. By 2030, 83% of these deaths will occur in low and middle-income countries. The Atlas said 2.1 million cancer deaths per year will be attributable to tobacco by 2015. (Kounteya Sinha, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/India-third-on-global-female-smoking-list/articleshow/4938177.cms accessed on 27 August 2009)

1. MP govt wants teachers to be called Rashtra Rishi: After the controversy over its moves to make Surya Namaskar exercise and recitation of Bhojan Mantra compulsory in schools, the Madhya Pradesh government has now raised hackles of minority community leaders with a decision to call teachers in state-run schools as Rashtra Rishis. In a snub to the state Government, the High Court directed it not to make surya namaskar exercise in schools mandatory after a church body challenged the move.  (http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_mp-govt-wants-teachers-to-be-called-rashtra-rishi_1286341 accessed on 31 August 2009)
2. 1.2 million in city earn less than Rs 20/day: Mumbai is a city of extreme contrasts. Despite having the highest per capita income in the country (Rs 65,361), more than 1.2 million people, or little under 10% of its population, earn less than Rs 20 a day. This, in a city where plush apartments are routinely sold for anywhere between Rs 10 cr  and Rs 25 crore (1 crore is 10 million). The damning revelation comes in the Human Development Report commissioned for the BMC and partly funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). More than half of Mumbai’s population lives in sub-human conditions in shanties, but the land that slums are situated on comprise just 6% of the city’s total land area. Amidst the glitz and the dollar billionaires that the city houses, the urban poverty is glaring. The official statistics, according to the report, reveal a dismal picture. At least 12.17 lakh people, or close to 10% of Mumbai’s population, earn an income of less than Rs 591 per month. Interestingly, the city had a per capita income of Rs 65,361 in 2006-07, which is twice the country’s average per capita income of Rs 29,382. Although in 1998 it was reported that the poverty was much low at only 8.5% and much below the national and state urban averages, a baseline survey of 16,000 slum households by the MMRDA for its Mumbai Urban Transport Project told a different story: with an average monthly household income of Rs 2,978, 40% of them were below the poverty line. Another interesting fact that the report has thrown up is the presence of slums in Mumbai—about 54% of the population comprises slum dwellers. Slums are manifestations of deep structural poverty.

1. Rehabilitation University for Disabled inaugurated: In a bid to usher in a ray of hope among physically challenged in the state, Dr Shakuntala Misra Rehabilitation University for the Disabled.  Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said that the university would provide quality education to the disabled, so as to help them get better employment opportunities and make them self reliant. This university would also help create a better educational system for the disabled. Terming the said university as only of its kind in Asia, she said that in order to ensure smooth functioning of the varsity, her government has arranged Rs 397 crores in the first phase. Fifty per cent seats would be reserved for the disabled students in all the courses out of which fifty per cent would be reserved for the blind, she said adding that in the first year it would run six courses including B.Ed. The university would have a special faculty for studies of subjects related to disabilities with separate departments for different disabilities. A research wing for studies on how to overcome various disabilities would also be opened, she added. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/lucknow/Rehabilitation-University-for-Disabled-inaugurated/articleshow/4972425.cms accessed on 4 September 2009)

1. Bihar, UP witness 68% increase in new passports: Here's news for those who routinely complain about migration from UP and Bihar to the rest of India. Data from the ministry of external affairs on new passports issued between January and November 2008 reveals a dramatic 68% increase in the two states, suggesting that jobs outside the country increasingly beckon. Experts believe the rise can be attributed to personal travel and UP and Bihari workers travelling to the Gulf countries in search of blue-collar jobs. There has been 30% increase in passports issued by the 37 regional passport offices (RPO) across India between 2005 and 2008.  But experts point out that the rush for passports may have as much to do with procuring proof of citizenship as potential travel. There's rising demand in insurgency-hit areas of the North-East and J&K as well. While the demand for passports has been traditionally low in the insurgency-hit areas of the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir, here too, the number of passports being issued is showing a strong upward trend — by 63% in J&K and 49% in the Northeast. There is a discernible divide among various regions of the country in terms of both applicants and passports issued. All the southern states give out passports in hundreds of thousands every year. For several years now, the largest number of passports have been issued in Kerala, a state from where the largest number of Gulf job-seekers have gone in the last few decades. In 2008, 6,69,777 passports were issued from four of its RPOs; this was an increase of 20% from 2005. Similarly, more than 5 lakh new passports were issued in Tamil Nadu, 4,50,454 in Andhra Pradesh and 2,63,109 in Karnataka. During the same time, however, the figures remained low in several other states. Orissa (43,590), Madhya Pradesh (60,734), Chhattisgarh (17,050), Uttaranchal (10,470), Himachal Pradesh (22,927) and Jharkhand (33,346) posted low totals in 2008. The number of new passport-holders has remained consistently below the 1 lakh mark every year in these states. However, Uttar Pradesh joined the big league in 2008 by issuing over 4 lakh passports. It is now fifth on the list in terms of the number of passports issued, beating Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana from where people have traditionally preferred travelling abroad for jobs. Bihar, too, has breached the 1 lakh mark. Maharashtra, for the first time, has crossed the 5 lakh mark, showing a healthy growth rate — 37% more people getting passports in 2008 as compared to 2005. And here too it was not the RPO at megapolis Mumbai but the Nagpur region that saw the largest increase in new passport holders in percentage terms: a staggering 84%.   (Kartikeya, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Bihar-UP-witness-68-increase-in-new-passports/articleshow/4977402.cms accessed on 6 September 2009)

1. Women in Bundelkhand sold to survive drought: Women in the Bundelkhand region are allegedly being sold and resold to survive the drought. Due to the successive years of drought, there are miles and miles of parched land in the region. The poor debt-ridden farmers, who are already surviving on the margins, are therefore forced to sell their women to earn some money to survive the crisis. I have to sell my body because of the staring drought. Sometimes I get Rs 50 and sometimes Rs 100, says a farmer’s wife, Shamo. Sangeeta’s family also has a similar story to tell. Faced with the unending drought, Sangeeta was sold by her husband to the flesh trader. "I was sold off. My cost was just Rs 1500," she says. But the worst part is that all these illegal things are happening on legal stamp papers. CNN-IBN found out that it just takes a Rs 10 stamp paper and a signature to force a married women to remarry. "On a Rs 10 stamp paper people write that they are marrying so that everything looks legal. This makes both buyer and seller safe. There are hundreds of such cases in this region," says a lawyer, Kalicharan. Even the police don’t have any answer to what is happening in Bundelkhand except for the way they have discovered some of these cases. "Girls are enticed into this flesh trade and are promised a number of things. Of late, we have come across many such cases," says a police official, Ramlakhan Chaubey. (Shalabh Mani Tripathi, http://ibnlive.in.com/news/women-in-bundelkhand-sold-to-survive-drought/100770-3.html accessed on 6 September 2009)

1. Today’s Nightingales:  The moment nurses in India gain some experience, they migrate to countries like the US, England, Ireland and Saudi Arabia. Or even Singapore. This definitely creates a shortage. In Europe, the nurse-population ratio is 1:150; in India, it is 1:2250. Poor training adds to the lack of qualified nurses in the country. Nursing, usually a woman’s domain in India, is attracting men as well. Men are doing well in  male wards, OTs, OPDs, orthopaedic care, casualty and emergency wards, but overall, women seem to be better suited to the job. (Pranab Ghosh, http://www.hindustantimes.com/HTHorizons/hthorizonssectionpage-greatcareers/Today-s-Nightingales/SP-Article1-454063.aspx accessed on 25 September 2009)

1. India still accounts for 21% of under-five deaths: First the good news — 10,000 fewer children are now dying every day before reaching their fifth birthday compared to 1990. The bad news - India alone accounts for 21% of the under-five mortality of the globe. In fact, half of the deaths occurred in India, Nigeria, Congo, Pakistan and China. Interestingly, among them, India and Nigeria together accounted for nearly one-third of the total number of under-five deaths worldwide (21% and 12%, respectively). According to a new Unicef study, there has been a 28% decline in the under-five mortality rate since 1990. In absolute numbers, this means that under-five child deaths in 2008 declined to 8.8 million from 12.5 million in 1990.  Nineteen years ago, 90 children per 1,000 live births died before their fifth birthday. This stands at 65 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2008;  that is 8.8 million children die before their fifth birthday. An exciting finding has been that seven of the 67 high mortality countries (those with under-five mortality rates of 40 per 1,000 live births or higher) have consistently achieved annual rates of reduction of under-five mortality of 4.5% or higher. These are Nepal, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Laos, Mongolia, Bolivia and Malawi. Pneumonia and diarrhoea are the two leading causes of the deaths. These new estimates calculated by Unicef, WHO, World Bank and United Nations Population Division pointed to another interesting fact that under-five mortality is increasingly getting concentrated with 75% of these deaths occurring in only 18 countries, including India. Around 40% of the 8.8 million children who die globally every year are from India, Nigeria and Congo. Africa (51%) and Asia (42%) combined still account for 93% of all under-five deaths that occur each year. Mortality in developing countries (71 deaths per 1,000) was 12 times that in industrialised countries (6 per 1,000). “A handful of countries with large populations bear a disproportionate burden of under-five deaths. Unless mortality in these countries is significantly reduced, the target of achieving the goal of a two-thirds reduction in the under-five mortality rate by 2015 will not be met,” said the report. (Kounteya Sinha, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/India-still-accounts-for-21-of-under-five-deaths/articleshow/5001019.cms accessed on 12 September 2009)

1. Mobile No Portability in metros, A circle by Dec 31: Mobile number portability (MNP) will be implemented from December 31 in metros and category 'A' service areas, and by 20th March, 2010, in rest of the country, telecom regulator TRAI said. The MNP facility will enable subscribers to retain their cell phone numbers even after changing service providers. The government earlier this month had said implementation of MNP would be delayed by three months as regulations were still being made. A subscriber holding a mobile number is eligible to make a porting request only after 90 days of the date of activation of his mobile connection. If a number is already ported once, the number can again be ported only after 90 days from the date of the previous porting. The cost to the subscriber seeking the porting is yet to be decided by TRAI. The subscriber who wishes to port his mobile number should approach the recipient operator (the operator to whom the subscriber wants to port his number). The subscriber may be required to pay porting charges, if any, to the recipient operator. Also, the subscriber must clear all the bills issued prior to the date of porting request.

( http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/business/india-business/Mobile-No-Portability-in-metros-A-circle-by-Dec-31/articleshow/5047003.cms accessed on 23 September 2009)

1. Nine Indian-origin people work in White House: Atleast nine Indian orgin people work in White House. According to the figures, Sonal Shah, who's the deputy assistant to the US President and director at Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, gets an annual salary of $120,000. Both Rachana Bhowmick, who is the director of special projects, and Aditya Kumar, also director of special projects as well as special assistant to Office of Chief of Staff, earn $99,000 a year each. Anisha Dasgupta who works as a Counsel at an annual package of $86,927 and Pradeep Ramamurthy, the Director of Response Policy, whose gross salary is $86,927. Kavita Patel who is the Director of Policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement gets USD 65,000 annually, while Shomik Dutta, the Special Assistant to White House Counsel, earns $62,000. White House Policy Advisor Manashi Deshpande earns $54,000 a year while Taara Rangarajan gets $40,000 for her services as Deputy Associate Director.

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/us/Nine-Indian-origin-people-work-in-White-House-/articleshow/5034270.cms accessed on 20 September 2009)

1. 1 billion to go hungry world over: Food aid is at a 20-year low despite the number of critically hungry people soaring this year to its highest level ever, the UN relief,  The number of hungry people will pass 1 billion this year for the first time, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said, adding that it is facing a serious budget shortfall. To date the WFP has confirmed $2.6 billion in funding for its 2009 budget of $6.7 billion. An earlier report said that most of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are facing extreme or high risk of food shortages, according to a ranking of 148 nations. The US is least at risk followed by France, Canada, Germany and the Czech Republic, according to the Food Security Risk Index, calculated from dozens of variables that determine a country’s capacity to feed its people. Food stress jumped toward the top of the global agenda after soaring commodity prices in 2007 and 2008 sparked riots in 30 countries, including many tottering on the brink of severe shortages or widespread hunger. The World Bank estimates that food inflation during that period pushed an additional 100 million people into deep poverty, on top of a billion that were already scraping by on less than $1 a day. The three most populous countries in South Asia also face food precariousness: Pakistan, ranked 11th, is at “extreme risk,” while Bangladesh and India are both at “high risk”, ranked 20th and 25th respectively. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/world/uk/1-billion-to-go-hungry-world-over/articleshow/5020227.cms accessed on 16 September 2009)

1. Only 44% Indians have clean hands: While 90% of people surveyed in Canada feel that washing hands regularly is good protection against catching flu, only 44% of Indians believe the same, says an international survey, conducted by Global Hygiene Council supported by Dettol, in 2008. Ideas of hygiene and health vary from country to country, and in India, food also comes into play: 20% of Indians believe that avoiding eating meat can keep the flu away, while other countries, especially Australia and South Africa, do not believe it at all. The survey - which also covers South Africa, Malaysia, Italy, Great Britian, Australia and USA - revealed some interesting nuggets on people’s perceptions. The questions, on measures to prevent flu and washing hands, were posed to 1,000 respondents. Even as 58% of people in Italy believe that avoiding public places is another preventive measure to prevent the flu, only 12% of Indians agree. While 71% of Malaysians believe a rubbish bin poses the greatest risk of transmitting germs to a person or child, 16% of Indians think the bin poses the greatest risk, while 44% Indians think the toilet seat is a risk best not taken. Though 27% of Indians wash their hands for a minute after using the toilet, in Italy, 28% do so. However, 41% of people in South Africa wash their hands after using toilets, but only for five seconds. When it comes to children washing their hands before eating, 79% of Indian kids obediently do so, while only 29% of Australians do, and 80% of Malaysians wash up before eating. The survey says 45% Indian parents believe in asking their children to wash hands as they come home from school or nursery, to prevent them from picking up germs and becoming ill. The importance of teaching children good hygiene habits was highlighted by the survey, which revealed that 50% of Indians do not wash their hands after coughing or sneezing, thus pushing up chances of picking up germs from each other. When someone coughs or sneezes, millions of germs can be expelled into the air, so it’s important that children understand the ways to protect themselves and their classmates from illness. (Shruthi Balakrishna, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Only-44-Indians-have-clean-hands/articleshow/4952572.cms accessed on 31 August 2009)

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