![]() Founder of EMPOWER PEOPLE Shafiqur Rahman Khan was invited to speak about his life and works in fourth edition of TIDES summit organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Coimbatore. It was a great opportunity to promote our cause and encourage others to be a part of solution. we are sharing text of that speech for our supporters and volunteers. Wishing you all the courage, hope and faith to overcome all the hurdles you face. May you have a great year and a wonderful time ahead. HAPPY new year 2014
Here is some scrape which can be used as greeting cards you can send it in mail or share on facebook or other social networking websites. ![]() NPR's Jennifer Ludden recently traveled to the African nation of Malawi, one of many countries in the developing world where child marriage remains prevalent. She found girls like Christina Asima, who was married at 12 and became a mother at 13. She is now divorced and caring for her infant son on her own. You can read Jennifer's full report here. Below are a few more things she learned while reporting on child marriage. Introduction Mar 19, 2013 ![]() Lahuari, a village 50 km south of Gaya district headquarter at the Bihar-Jharkhand border has less privileged to have a contact with urban areas. Encircled with great flora and fauna and hilly areas, the village has no means of transportation. Small and large water streams which generally gets dry most of the month except monsoon cut off the area from outer world. Enter the village by no means other than two wheelers (if a villager has, unfortunately no one keeps a motorbike) or on foot. The so-called existing road has no significance. During the monsoon people consider it better to keep themselves in their shell as they find it cumbersome to have a contact with the outside world. The river course during the monsoon comes with more unpleasant situation and during the whole period people feel themselves helpless. For medical assistance they have to depend on half-boiled doctor in the locality. Many of the deaths had occurred due to lacking of medical assistance on time. By Prof.Vibhuti Patel
Mumbai has an outstanding record of establishing Women Development Corporation, way back in 1975. The region has illuminating record of active participation of women in the local self government bodies. In 2011, after the Maharashtra Assembly unanimously approved 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies- Village Councils (Panchayat Samitis), District Councils (Zilla Parishads), municipal councils and municipal corporations in the State; MMR region has experienced crucial role of women in the public life. (MRA, 2011). The trend of sending less number of women to Maharashtra Assembly continued in the latest election also with 11 women getting elected to the 288-member House. In 2004, 12 women of the 157 who contested were elected to the House. In 1999, 86 women contested and 12 won. Only five per cent of the 211 women candidates in fray were elected in the assembly election. Major political parties had fielded only 11 per cent women candidates. (Mahila Rajsatta Andolan, 2010). ![]() Bigiram Narzary and wife Urbushi. Witch-hunts, occult practices and an age-old tradition of animal sacrifice. Assam's social landscape continues to be locked in an uneasy coexistence between the modern and the barbaric. Over 10 people have been killed in witch-hunts this year. Black magic practitioners, called bej or ojha, still hold sway in wide swathes of tribal-dominated areas in the state. And faith often becomes a fig leaf to victimise opponents and settle personal scores. On October 8, in Jaraiguri in Kokrajhar district, Bigiram Narzary, 60, and his wife Urbushi Narzary, 55, were stoned to death by people who alleged the couple was responsible for a number of deaths in the village in the past few months. On October 9, a seven-year-old child was reportedly sacrificed inside the camp of the 121 Border Security Force (bsf) Battalion at Paharinagar in West Garo Hills district, Meghalaya. The body was mutilated, the stomach cut into pieces and incense sticks forced into the forehead. Police said two bsf jawans and a tantrik from Mankachar, Assam, were involved. In a world in which the ‘local' is increasingly becoming linked tothe'global', there is a parallel effort to retain the uniqueness and flavour of the local, be it customs, traditions, innovations orexperiments.
This trend permeating the mass entertainment industryof films becomes a statement of local sensibilities and the pride in one's own rather than in borrowed plumes. In the age of the glitz andglamour,of star casts and stupendous budgets of Bollywood, regionalcinema is carving out a domain uniquely its own. Regional filmsproduced in areas like Meerut and in Bihar in Maithili and Magahilanguage films are high on the popularity charts . Unlike Bhojpurifilms, where commercial consideration is paramount, these efforts areof a more sublime nature. They represent local and regional aspirations, a tribute to the art and language and culture of theregion in a cinematic format. --Lauren Johnston
Alongside high profile allegations of philandering, China's bachelors have been getting bad press. Recently blamed not just for China's property bubble, they have also been ascribed responsibility for the resulting savings rates aggregating to help cause global macroeconomic imbalances. If it turn out that China's most powerless might in fact be rather quite powerful, the topic warrants greater attention, least of all since sex ratio biases have yet to reach their social peak. Sex ratio at birth usually ranges from 102-106 live male births per 100 live female births. Modern technologies and restrictions on childbearing help to explain why China's sex ratio has increased significantly over recent decades. Between 1982 and 2005 the ratio jumped from 107 to 120, and in some provinces to higher than 130. In absolute numbers, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has predicted that by 2020 China will have more than 30-40 million more boys and young men than women under the age of 20. |