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Showing posts from July, 2018

Ethnocide in Caribbean island filmed following award winning docufilm on Jamaica's anti-colonial Indian roots

  International awards winner for Best Feature Documentary Linda Aïnouche for “Dreadlocks Story” (2014), which shows how Indians are entangled in the Jamaican society, and how Hinduism was a source of inspiration for the Rastafari movement, is all set to release her new documentary, “Marooned in the Caribbean”, which aims at documenting the awful desolating living conditions that Raizal people, the native inhabitants of San Andres Archipelago, endure. Sons of slaves, these islanders have fallen prey to what the Colombian government calls Colombianization. “It’s a process”, according to her, “which kills the Raizal culture; it’s the killing of the Raizal soul. Colombianization subjugates Afro-descendants of San Andres to an ethnocide.” Explorer, director and producer,  Linda Aïnouche  writes exclusively for Counterview: *** Linda Aïnouche Nobody escapes from blood and thunder in Colombia, and definitely not in the archipelago of San Andres, situated closer to Managua and K...

Fresh controversy surrounds year-old Amarnath report on "excessive" military presence, "abuse" of environment

A controversy is sought to be created around more than a year-old  report  “Amarnath Yatra: A Militarized Pilgrimage” in order to point towards how it is “defamatory”, was published by a Bengaluru-based “foreign funded NGO”, Equitable Tourism Options (EQUATIONS), in alliance with what is termed an “Islamist group” (sic!), Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS).

Chhara community attacked in Ahmedabad: Set up SIT, register FIR against cops, demands Dalit leader

  Senior human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi has sounded alert over the alleged sudden midnight police attack on a colony of a denotified tribe colony of Ahmedabad, ccharas. Quoting senior theatre and film director of Budhan theatre Dakxin Chhara and a number of other activists, she said, "According to the information available, there was some altercation between a few chhara boys, who were drunk at night, and they had some fight with policemen on duty." "Police returned around midnight in full force -- hundreds of them from what I have been told by a number of local activists -- attacked the cchara colony, breaking vehicles, cars, getting into people's homes, breaking whatever they could lay hands on, attacking men, women and children, even media and lawyers who tried to intervene", said in a media alert. She added, "Dakxin himself has been beaten up, his old mother-in-law has been attacked. Another theatre actor Atish Indrekar was also attacked and taken...

32% processed food GM-contaminated, says study: Refutes Govt of India claim no such food sold in country

 A laboratory study has claimed that 32% (21 out of 65) of the food product samples were found to be genetically modified (GM)-positive, and 80% (16 out of 21) of those which tested positive were imported. It contends, these products are being sold in the Indian market, despite the law – Section 22 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 – does not allowed GM food “to be manufactured, imported or sold in India.”

WHO: "Model" Gujarat's immunization coverage 73%, national average 79%; 17 of 21 major states perform better

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, Gujarat, which he propagated as the “model” for other states to follow, is facing a major challenge on the health front: If the World Health Organization (WHO) is to be believed, Gujarat’s immunization coverage of one-year olds is one of the worst among Indian states – 72.8% as against the national average of 78.8%.

Indian industry feeling Modi govt heat? Opposes move to provide competitive advantage to PSU power cos

Has the Indian industry begun to come off its shell, beginning to see that something is fundamentally wrong, detrimental to its interests, with policies adopted by the Government of India (GoI)? It would see so, if the latest move by the Association of Power Producers (APP), is any indication.

Parliamentary panel doubts Centre "declaring" 9 top states, including Gujarat, 100% villages open defecation free

Taking strong exception to the Government of India declaring villages of 10 major Indian states – Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand – as having achieved 100% sanitation coverage, a Parliament committee report, released in the Lok Sabha on July 19, has observed the dream of the Father of the Nation “for total sanitation for all and a clean India is still elusive.”

Wither Make in India? New investments dropped by one third in three years, as stalled projects climb: Bloomberg

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in may have celebrated the  inauguration  of what Samsung Electronics' what is claimed to be the "world’s largest mobile phone factory", with Modi characterizing it as “extremely important” for his Make in India initiative to boost manufacturing to 25% India’s economy by 2020 and create millions of jobs.

Employment rate down, unemployment rate up: CMIE "contradicts" Modi claim

Virtually contradicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's  claim  that India is not facing a jobs crisis but data crisis, the country's top data consultating firm, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has declared that the labour force participation rate -- expressing the desire the able-bodied persons to find a job -- continues to decline.

IMSD claim: Muslim women victims of triple talaq, nikah halala, polygamy

A Mumbai-based civil rights group, the Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD), has strongly opposed what it called "All-India Muslim Personal Law Board's (AIMPLB’s) anti-woman and unconstitutional views", saying, they only go to "aid Sangh’s communal agenda." In a note released on July 19, the civil society group said, the AIMPLB's stand on triple talaq, nikah halala and polygamy are "retrograde."

India a key country witnessing autocratic trend, thanks to Modi's "hardline" Hindu nationalism: Swedish report

A recent  report   by a Swedish institute has identified India as one of the top countries where it has witnessed “disquieting trends” for the future of democracy. Other “key countries”, where a similar trend is visible are Brazil, India, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and the United States.

High medical costs pushed 38 million Indians into poverty, led to financial catastrophe of 18% households

A recent paper, published in a top London-based research journal,  BMP Open , has said that the out of pocket (OOP) expenditure on healthcare in general and medicines in particular, over the last two decades, has gone up from 4.49% to 6.77% in India, leading to “financial catastrophe” of 18% of the country’s households.

Satellite images may be used to support verdict to 'evict' lakhs of India's forest dwellers

Satellite of the Chandrapur tiger reserve, 2017 Ahead of a crucial Supreme Court hearing on July 24, indications have emerged suggesting India's top officialdom is preparing grounds to support the controversial petition by hardcore conservationists, which led the apex court to order on February 13 a time-bound eviction of millions of forest dwellers, whose claims for forest land under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) was rejected by authorities across India.

Unpaid, delayed NREGA wages: Govt of India "fails" implementation despite SC order

  By Our Representative India’s top civil societies network campaigning for the rural jobs guarantee scheme has claimed that despite the Supreme Court dated May 18 order to “prepare an urgent time bound mandatory program to make the payment of wages and compensation” to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Government of India has refused to do it.

13 yrs after Modi pressure, SEWA reiterates political, bureaucratic interference, refusal of space in New Economy

A SEWA-supported fish marketing cooperative Nearly 13 years after the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat reportedly tried to pressure the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) for his political ends, India's premier organization, headquartered in Ahmedabad, and working with poor women in the informal sector, thinks that even today political-bureaucratic pressure remains high, mainly due to its wide support among women.

Two women tribal leaders "go missing" in Uttar Pradesh for a month: Police claims they were released on June 8

Sukalo Gond Two Uttar Pradesh forest rights leaders belonging to the All-India Union of Forest Working Peoples (AIUFWP) Sukalo Gond and Kismatiya Gond have reportedly gone "untraceable" even though the state government claims both were released over a month ago. Belonging to the Sonbhadra district, the police couldn't "trace" them and produce them before the Allahabad High Court at the second hearing of a Habeas Corpus petition on July 9.

Safe child birth? 41% of all deliveries in private hospitals are caesarian, 28% in urban India; WHO norm: 10-15%

A new research paper published in a prominent journal has raised the alarm that, while the World Health Organization (WHO), at a 1985 interdisciplinary conference on appropriate technology for birth, unanimously accepted a 10-15% caesarean section (CS) rate "as reasonable" to assist women to deliver safely in the face of complications, in India's urban areas it has reached a whopping 28.3% as against the national average of 17.2%.

Unpaid domestic work: India "competes" with Pakistan in high gender gap. Reason: Poor public spending

Ten best and ten worst countries With 78.2% Indian females doing what is called “unpaid care work” -- as against just about 2.9%  males -- a new International Labour Organization (ILO) study has found that the country’s gender gap in taking care of their families is among the highest in the world.

Gujarat's land acquisition amendments bypass Parliament, 'undermine' democratic processes

Gujarat farmers protesting against land acquisition in Dholera SIR A detailed note, released at a civil society-sponsored national-level consultation, held in Delhi on amendments to the Central land acquisition Act of 2013, has accused the Gujarat government of shockingly removing Parliament’s role while seeking to invoke urgency clause for acquiring land. Calling it a “mockery” of the democracy process, the note says, ruling out the role of Parliament in the urgency clause, as mentioned in Section 40 of the Central Act, “reflects the continued tendencies to undermine democracy and established procedures”.

No evidence that death penalty would deter sexual violence, any other crime: Amnesty on Nirbhaya judgment

One of the topmost human rights organizations of the world, Amnesty International, responding to the Supreme Court  verdict  which upheld death penalty to the four four convicts of the the 2012 Delhi bus gang-rape and murder case of a young woman, who became popular as Nirbhaya, has said, "There is no evidence to show that the death penalty acts as a deterrent for sexual violence or any other crime."

India's "smart" city proposals consider migrant, unskilled population a security threat to urban citizens

A new  study  of by well-known Delhi-based civil rights body, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), has said that only 8% of India’s total population or 22 per cent of its urban population is likely to benefit from the Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission (SMC) project, which has been initiated in 99 cities from whom proposals have been received.

Debris "fill up" 44 lakh sq ft wetland in Gujarat's cultural capital, as Vadodara fares poorly in cleanliness index

Vadodara, Gujarat’s cultural capital, is in spot. Top state-based environmentalist Rohit Prajapati and a group of “concerned citizens”, have shot a letter to senior government officials expressing concern that, over the last 12 years, according to the Gujarat Ecology Commission, the city has lost about 44 lakh sq ft of ponds and talaav areas, “much of this due to illegal or legalized dumping by the VMC and unscrupulous citizens.”

Jharkhand gangrape: Seeking to "tarnish" Pathalgarhi tribal rebels, 1000 cops raid seven villages

A fact-finding team, constituted by the Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression and Sexual Repression (WSS), on gang rape of five adivasis women on June 19 in Kochang village of Jharkhand’s Khunti district, where they had performed 16 street plays on anti-trafficking, has accused the police of focusing “entirely on a campaign to tarnish the Pathalgarhi movement” of the region instead of investigating the rape incident itself.

Jharkhand's 10.56 lakh acres handed over to corporates without consent, 81% belonged to tribal areas

Out of the total land bank of 20.56 lakh acres in Jharkhand, more than 50% of the land, or 10.56 lakh acres, have been earmarked for corporates, with whom the state government signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) during the Momentum Jharkhand, held in February 2017.