Page 10 - Social Issues
NHA, ICICI Foundation to skill 15,000 personnel to implement Ayushman Bharat scheme
The National Health Authority and ICICI Foundation have signed an agreement to train 15,000 state and district personnel and Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitras to streamline delivery of health services under the government's flagship Ayushman Bharat scheme. The MoU between NHA and ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth is aimed at capacity building of health personnel at state and district levels. The state personnel are responsible for implementing the scheme in their respective states and Arogya Mitras are frontline health service professionals present at each empanelled hospital. Arogya Mitras serve as the first-point contact for beneficiaries and help them in availing the services. This partnership with ICICI Foundation aims to skill more than 15,000 state personnel and Arogya Mitras over a period of one year. Post-training, the trained personnel will help the beneficiaries understand the scheme better. ICICI Academy for Skills will conduct the training programme at 20 of its centres, a .
LGBT refugees allege harassment in Kenya, a rare safe haven
Burundi national Nina Muregwa says she feels threatened again. After escaping death threats back home over her sexual identity the 17-year-old thought she had found a sanctuary in Kenya. Recent incidents, however, have left her scared for her life once more. She and other LGBT refugees allege they have been harassed by police in recent weeks in Kenya, which is a rare regional haven for the gay community and yet maintains that gay sex is illegal. It is the only East African nation where someone can seek asylum and be registered as a refugee based on their LGBT status, the United Nations refugee agency says. It is not clear how many are registered in Kenya. Muregwa and 16 other LGBT refugees allege that five police officers arrested them at gunpoint at home and locked them up without charge earlier this month. After they were released two days later on June 10, they allege another group of police officers tried to arrest them but the U.N. refugee agency intervened. Nairobi police chief .
Habit-forming drugs worth Rs 2.48 lakh seized from medical stores in Jalandhar
In a joint operation with Food and Drug Administration officials, the Punjab police have seized various habit-forming drugs worth about Rs 2.50 lakh from medical stores in Jalandhar district, officials said Wednesday. The drugs worth over Rs 2.48 lakhs were seized from three pharmacies in the districts, said Punjab Food and Drug Administration Commissioner K S Pannu in a release. Acting on a tip-off, the teams conducted raids at three chemist shops at Maqsudan, Nakodar and Dilkhusha market in Jalandhar and seized the drugs, he added. Owners of the shops too have been arrested, he said, adding the the process of cancellation of their medical store licenses has also been initiated.
Migration a multi-billion dollar industry: Amitav Ghosh
The migration network is extensive and has gone on to become a multi-billion dollar industry linking organisations in Europe to those in Africa and Asia, says author Amitav Ghosh who has been focusing on this topic in several of his books including his latest, "Gun Island". Migration, according to him, is happening on such a big scale that it is almost impossible to control. He says, one of the things that led him to write this novel is the refugee crisis, specifically the European refugee crisis of 2014-16. "Lot of the people coming across were from Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. These are countries where I have spent time. I found myself quite hypnotised by the unfolding of this crisis. I started looking at the pictures that were on the front pages of newspapers. There were many South Asian faces in the boats - people from this part of the world," he says. In some months among the refugees who were crossing the Mediterranean, one of the largest groups was from Bangladesh, he says. "I ...
Egypt accuses UN of seeking to 'politicise' Morsi death
Egypt accused the United Nations on Wednesday of seeking to "politicise" the death of the country's first democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi by calling for an "independent inquiry". Foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said he condemned "in the strongest terms" the call by the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, for an independent investigation into Morsi's death during a court hearing on Monday. Hafez said it was a "deliberate attempt to politicise a case of natural death." Colville called Tuesday for a probe into whether the conditions Morsi faced during his nearly six years in custody had contributed to his death. "Any sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of death," he said. "Concerns have been raised regarding the conditions of Mr. Morsi's detention, including access to adequate medical care, as well as ...
Guterres calls on intl community to step up response to check hate speech
With digital technology providing new channels for hate speech to grow and reach to wider audiences at lightning speed, UN chief Antonio Guterres has called on the international community to step up its response to combat acts of hatred and xenophobia. The UN secretary-general was speaking on Tuesday during the launch of the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action aimed at enhancing global efforts to address the root causes of hate speech and enabling the world body to effectively respond to its impact on societies. Voicing deep concern about growing xenophobia, racism, intolerance, violent misogyny, anti-semitism and anti-Muslim hatred around the world, he asserted that over the past 75 years, hate speech has been the precursor to crimes like Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka, attacks in New Zealand, the US and incidents of genocide in countries like Rwanda, Bosnia and Cambodia. "Governments and technology companies alike are struggling to prevent and respond to orchestrated ...
Euthanasia now legal in Australian state
Terminally ill Australians can for the first time apply to end their own life, after new laws went into effect in the state of Victoria Wednesday. The country's second most populous region made voluntary euthanasia legal under closely specified circumstances, a first for the country. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews -- who supported the bill after his father's death from cancer in 2016 -- said the laws were about giving patients a "dignified option at the end of their life". "We've taken a compassionate approach," Andrews told commercial broadcaster Channel Nine, adding that he hoped it would bring people the dignity of a "good death." Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries and in Australia until Victoria state introduced laws to legalise the practice in 2017. The scheme will be accessible only to terminally ill adult patients with fewer than six months to live -- or one year left to live for sufferers of conditions such as motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. Multiple
Record 70.8 million people displaced at end of 2018: UN
More than 70 million people were counted last year as displaced from their homes, a record that underestimates the real number of refugees and asylum seekers, the UN said Wednesday. In its annual global trends report, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) described the figure of 70.8 million at the end of 2018 as "conservative", particularly because the number of people who fled Venezuela's devastating crisis is undercounted. At the end of 2017, by comparison, 68.5 million people were counted as being forcibly displaced by violence or persecution. The UNHCR attributed the increase partly to surging displacement in Ethiopia caused by inter-ethnic conflict, and in Venezuela, where thousands are fleeing every day amid an economic collapse that has triggered shortages of basic food and medicine. An estimated 3.3 million people have left Venezuela since the start of 2016, according to the UN. UNHCR head Filippo Grandi told reporters in Geneva the figure of 70.8 million only includes ..
Gunmen kill 38 in attack on two villages in central Mali
At least 38 people were killed and several others sustained injuries in an attack carried out by unidentified gunmen in Gangafani and Yoro villages in central Mali, authorities said on Tuesday.The government responded to the incident by sending a military unit to the area to track down the perpetrators and investigate the incident, reported CNN.According to media reports, the victims of the attacks on two villages belonged to ethnic Dogons group.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. However, members of the Dogan and Fulani ethnic groups in the country often clash over access to land and water.In a similar attack recently, at least 95 people were killed by unidentified gunmen in a village inhabited by the Dogon ethnic group in central Mali.The Dogans accuse Fulanis of having ties with local jihadist groups, while Fulanis claim that Mali's army provides arms to Dogans to attack them.
South Asian group seeks probe into death of Indian minor girl along the US-Mexico border
A South Asian group has sought a probe into the death of a six-year-old Indian girl, whose body was found along the US-Mexico border in Arizona, alleging that militarisation of the area and rejection of migrants attempting to cross at the entry ports have created an inhuman environment. The body of Gurupreet Kaur was found by the US Border Patrol officials 27 kilometres west of Lukeville, Arizona last week, when temperature reached a high of 42 degrees Celsius. Kaur's mother left her with a woman and her child and went in search of water. The deceased was travelling with four other persons, including her mother, and dropped near the border by human smugglers who ordered the group to cross in the dangerous and austere location. We are devastated to learn the death of Gurupreet Kaur, Lakshmi Sridaran, interim co-executive director of the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), said in a statement. The group said that it will send a letter of inquiry to Customs and Border ...
Voluntary euthanasia becomes legal in Australian state
Voluntary euthanasia has become legal in an Australian state more than 20 years after the country repealed the world's first mercy-killing law for the terminally ill. The process of dying in an assisted suicide after an initial approach to a doctor in Victoria state takes at least 10 days from Wednesday. Health Minister Jenny Mikakos expects as few as one patient a month will be assisted to die in the first year. Australia's sparsely populated Northern Territory in 1995 became the first jurisdiction in the world to legalize doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. But the Australian Parliament overturned that law in 1997 after four people had been helped to die. The Australian Parliament does not have the same power to repeal the laws of states such as Victoria.
Acting US Defence Secretary quits as domestic violence reports surface
Acting US Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan has quit as reports of a domestic violence incident from nearly nine years ago surfaced marring his chances for confirmation even as Washington readies for a possible confrontation with Iran.
'Alcohol ads influence intention to intervene in sexual assault situations'
The results of the study largely support objectification theory, which suggests that perceptions of women as powerless objects result in individuals' negative treatment of women
Guterres backs 'self-policing' to fight hate speech
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has backed "new forms of self-policing by social media platforms" and action by volunteer groups to fight hate speech spreading at "lightning speed" through digital media.
UN launches plan of action on hate speech
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday announced the launch of the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech.
Trump pulls Shanahan from consideration for US defense secretary
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday his pick for defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, has withdrawn, leaving the Pentagon without a permanent boss for more than six months amid a ratcheting of tensions in the Mideast. Shanahan "has decided not to go forward with his confirmation process so that he can devote more time to his family," Trump tweeted after Shanahan faced questions over his past personal life and an allegation of domestic violence. Trump said the army secretary, Mark Esper, will come in as acting secretary of defense. There hasn't been a full secretary of defense since the resignation of James Mattis in December last year.
Four RBU departmental heads resign over 'racist slurs'
In a sensational turn of events, four departmental heads of the Rabindra Bharati University have stepped down alleging racist slurs targeted against them by state's ruling Trinamool Congress students wing members.
Telangana: Weaver's Development Foundation demands justice for community
An all-party round table conference had been conducted by the Weaver's Development Foundation on Tuesday to support the weaver and to bring justice to their families who committed suicide.M Kodandaram, founder of the Telangana Jana Samithi Party, speaking to ANI, said "There are more than 50000 handloom weavers and even large number of people in addition to weavers, who depend on this work. It is necessary to protect them and support them.""The main problem is finding adequate information market for the product produced. Governments have been promising welfare schemes to the weavers from the past, but none have been implemented. So, we have decided to demand the proper implementation of the schemes that are announced for the welfare of the weavers," he further said.He informed that a protest has been decided to be staged in Delhi."We decided to meet with the concerned minister in Delhi and submit a report on how bad the situation of weavers is across the country. We also decided to ...
Mehbooba meets Governor to discuss prevailing political, socio-economic situation in J-K
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP supremo Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday met Governor Satya Pal Malik to discuss the prevailing political and socio-economic situation in the state.During the meeting that took place at the Raj Bhavan, Mufti also discussed various issues relating to the growth and development of the state.
Not opposed to English, but against its 'slavery': Ved Pratap Vaidik
Bharatiya Bhasha Sammelan chief Ved Pratap Vaidik Tuesday said though he is not opposed to English, he is against the "slavery" of the language. The veteran journalist said his organisation is against imposition of any language on any Indian citizen, be it English or Hindi. He also expressed support for the Centre's decision to not thrust Hindi on Tamil Nadu. Earlier this month, the Centre dropped a contentious provision in the draft National Education Policy (NEP) to make Hindi a mandatory third language to be taught in non-Hindi speaking states after it sparked outrage, especially in Tamil Nadu. Vaidik said at a press conference here that he does not oppose English, but is against the "slavery" of the language. The more foreign languages students learn willingly, the better, he said. Vaidik claimed that if the compulsion to use English in governance, administration, Parliament, courts, higher education, trade and employment ends, then all citizens would learn each other's languages .