Its Raining Miracles in Apna Uttar Pradesh!

Its Raining Miracles in Apna Uttar Pradesh!

Anjali Singh



Lucknow: Just a month old Sakhsham has left no doubt in people’s mind that he is a miracle baby. Separated from his mother at birth when he was delivered on the roadside by his emotionally disturbed mother near Khurramnagar a local residential area in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, it took a mammoth effort to reunite the two. And how it was done, is nothing short of miracle itself.



The ordeal for the mother and son began when Sarawasti (as she has been named by the staff of the UP State Legal Services Authority) was brought to Lucknow by some people who wanted to sell her off for a price.



But instead she found herself on the streets in the city, no one knows how. And once there the horrors she was made to go through not only affected her mentally but also rendered her with child. Horribly abused for nine months she roamed the streets carrying her unborn baby until the day March 4 2009, she delivered him on the roadside.



Lying in a pool of blood, the child was spotted by a passerby who drove away the dogs waiting to attack him and brought him to a children’s rescue centre. Since there was no sign of the mother the child was assumed to be a orphan and put up for adoption. Named Saksham , the tiny fellow’s tryst began with his destiny as fate took him every which way but not towards his mother .



Says Sudhir Saxena, Member Secretary, UP State Legal Services Authority, who was instrumental in organizing the rescue and rehabilitation of the Saraswati and Saksham, “I thought such things happen only in films, but to see it happen right in front of my eyes is indeed amazing. It is sad the child and his mother had to go through such an ordeal, but I feel the way everyone got together to help reunite them is a positive indication that there is a lot of hope for the cause of child rights in the city.”



Agrees G Shreedevi, Secretary UPSLSA, who carried out the rescue of the mother. Being an Andhraite herself she was able to help people understand Telugu , the language Saraswati was speaking, “Everyone was bent on branding Saraswati mad and mentally retarded. While I knew that she was just very disturbed owing to what she gone through and she told me so in Telugu when I asked her how she came to Lucknow. But it took a great deal of convincing the government run shelter homes and private rescue homes that she was not dangerous or crazy, even then most shelter and rescue homes refused to accept her. Finally after a week we were able to coerce the state run women’s home to provide her shelter for a few days until her son could be reunited with her son and both could be sent back to Andhra Pradesh where Saraswati is originally from.”



But that was easier said than done as the the govt run shelter home refused to keep her just 2 days after her admission there and began to pressurize UPSLSA to remove Saraswati from the home as they felt she was a threat to the other inmates.



Despite eyewitness accounts that Saraswati was in no condition to harm anyone the shelter home superintendent refused to allow her to stay.



With no option left she was removed and taken to the psychiatric ward at the medical university in Lucknow, where she underwent treatment.



Explains SN Tiwari, PS, UPSLSA, who ran from pillar to post trying to arrange a shelter for Saraswati “She could harm no one. She was so weak and in such a bad condition when we picked her up from a tea stall where she usually used to sit. But no one was ready to believe that, all the rescue homes we contacted to to request shelter for her turned us away saying she was mad and they could not keep her. It was very sad situation as she kept asking for her child and she knew he had been taken away from her. But until we found a shelter for her it was difficult to reunite the child with his mother. It was a very disturbing situation.”



But then the will of the mother to see her son and the child's destiny to grow up with the love of his mother made the impossible possible after a month of struggle. On April 23 2009 at the UPSLSA’S office in Jawahar Bhawan Saraswati held her bundle of joy for the first time since his birth and the bonding of both was instant.



Now finally on her way back to Andhra Pradesh her home state she will be handed over to the Andhra Pradesh State Legal Services Authority(APLSA) who will put her in a home with her child and make efforts to locate her family and reunite her with them.



But Saraswati and Saksham are not likely to forget their trip to the city of nawabs. And rightly so, as it was a trip that changed their lives for ever, so much so that they both have now a weill to live for ecah other.



Anjali Singh

(The author is a Special Correspondent to Citizen News Service (CNS) and also the Director of Saksham Foundation. Email: anjali@citizen-news.org)



Pix captions are:

Top photograph: One month old saksham who hardly opened his eyes and and adventure began for him.

Middle photograph: Saraswati being given her son for the first time since his birth.

Bottom photograph: Saksham and Saraswati bonding with each other.



Published in

The Asian Age, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, London

Thai Indian news, Bangkok, Thailand

Counter Currents

Ghana News, Accra, Ghana

Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)

The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea

Citizen News Service (CNS)

Hindi language - CNS

Now Public

Twitter

The Colombo Times, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Smart Bahu

India Thinkers

HCL India

Housing Struggles Worldwide

Bihar Times, Patna, Bihar

DailySouthAsian

Web News Wire

The Seventh Fire News

World News Network (WNN)

Op-Ed News (OEN), USA

News Track India, Delhi

Northern Voices, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh

Digg.com news aggregator

Younews.in news aggregator

News Trust, USA

Its Raining Miracles in Apna Uttar Pradesh!

Its Raining Miracles in Apna Uttar Pradesh!

Anjali Singh



Lucknow: Just a month old Sakhsham has left no doubt in people’s mind that he is a miracle baby. Separated from his mother at birth when he was delivered on the roadside by his emotionally disturbed mother near Khurramnagar a local residential area in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, it took a mammoth effort to reunite the two. And how it was done, is nothing short of miracle itself.



The ordeal for the mother and son began when Sarawasti (as she has been named by the staff of the UP State Legal Services Authority) was brought to Lucknow by some people who wanted to sell her off for a price.



But instead she found herself on the streets in the city, no one knows how. And once there the horrors she was made to go through not only affected her mentally but also rendered her with child. Horribly abused for nine months she roamed the streets carrying her unborn baby until the day March 4 2009, she delivered him on the roadside.



Lying in a pool of blood, the child was spotted by a passerby who drove away the dogs waiting to attack him and brought him to a children’s rescue centre. Since there was no sign of the mother the child was assumed to be a orphan and put up for adoption. Named Saksham , the tiny fellow’s tryst began with his destiny as fate took him every which way but not towards his mother .



Says Sudhir Saxena, Member Secretary, UP State Legal Services Authority, who was instrumental in organizing the rescue and rehabilitation of the Saraswati and Saksham, “I thought such things happen only in films, but to see it happen right in front of my eyes is indeed amazing. It is sad the child and his mother had to go through such an ordeal, but I feel the way everyone got together to help reunite them is a positive indication that there is a lot of hope for the cause of child rights in the city.”



Agrees G Shreedevi, Secretary UPSLSA, who carried out the rescue of the mother. Being an Andhraite herself she was able to help people understand Telugu , the language Saraswati was speaking, “Everyone was bent on branding Saraswati mad and mentally retarded. While I knew that she was just very disturbed owing to what she gone through and she told me so in Telugu when I asked her how she came to Lucknow. But it took a great deal of convincing the government run shelter homes and private rescue homes that she was not dangerous or crazy, even then most shelter and rescue homes refused to accept her. Finally after a week we were able to coerce the state run women’s home to provide her shelter for a few days until her son could be reunited with her son and both could be sent back to Andhra Pradesh where Saraswati is originally from.”



But that was easier said than done as the the govt run shelter home refused to keep her just 2 days after her admission there and began to pressurize UPSLSA to remove Saraswati from the home as they felt she was a threat to the other inmates.



Despite eyewitness accounts that Saraswati was in no condition to harm anyone the shelter home superintendent refused to allow her to stay.



With no option left she was removed and taken to the psychiatric ward at the medical university in Lucknow, where she underwent treatment.



Explains SN Tiwari, PS, UPSLSA, who ran from pillar to post trying to arrange a shelter for Saraswati “She could harm no one. She was so weak and in such a bad condition when we picked her up from a tea stall where she usually used to sit. But no one was ready to believe that, all the rescue homes we contacted to to request shelter for her turned us away saying she was mad and they could not keep her. It was very sad situation as she kept asking for her child and she knew he had been taken away from her. But until we found a shelter for her it was difficult to reunite the child with his mother. It was a very disturbing situation.”



But then the will of the mother to see her son and the child's destiny to grow up with the love of his mother made the impossible possible after a month of struggle. On April 23 2009 at the UPSLSA’S office in Jawahar Bhawan Saraswati held her bundle of joy for the first time since his birth and the bonding of both was instant.



Now finally on her way back to Andhra Pradesh her home state she will be handed over to the Andhra Pradesh State Legal Services Authority(APLSA) who will put her in a home with her child and make efforts to locate her family and reunite her with them.



But Saraswati and Saksham are not likely to forget their trip to the city of nawabs. And rightly so, as it was a trip that changed their lives for ever, so much so that they both have now a weill to live for ecah other.



Anjali Singh

(The author is a Special Correspondent to Citizen News Service (CNS) and also the Director of Saksham Foundation. Email: anjali@citizen-news.org)



Pix captions are:

Top photograph: One month old saksham who hardly opened his eyes and and adventure began for him.

Middle photograph: Saraswati being given her son for the first time since his birth.

Bottom photograph: Saksham and Saraswati bonding with each other.



Published in

The Asian Age, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, London

Thai Indian news, Bangkok, Thailand

Counter Currents

Ghana News, Accra, Ghana

Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)

The Seoul Times, Seoul, South Korea

Citizen News Service (CNS)

Hindi language - CNS

Now Public

Twitter

The Colombo Times, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Smart Bahu

India Thinkers

HCL India

Housing Struggles Worldwide

Bihar Times, Patna, Bihar

DailySouthAsian

Web News Wire

The Seventh Fire News

World News Network (WNN)

Op-Ed News (OEN), USA

News Track India, Delhi

Northern Voices, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh

Digg.com news aggregator

Younews.in news aggregator

News Trust, USA

Scarred and Shunned, the Girl Still Struggling for Survival

Scarred and Shunned, the Girl Still Struggling for Survival
Anjali Singh

Lucknow: A lone tear drop flowing down her faceless visage is the only indication of the pain and humiliation Saukari Devi has been forced to live with for so long. For forty four years, she has been living a life none of us can imagine even in our worst nightmare.

Her ordeal began when she fell into the kitchen fire in her village home in Kinora, Tehri Garhwal as a six months old baby. Her face completely destroyed by the fire and with no specialized medical help available in village then, she had no option but live with a disfigured face.

As she grew the contracted skin pulled the teeth outward which caused the nose and cheeks to disappear leaving only one eye intact exposing the gums and teeth giving her a sinister appearance. Today all that constitutes her entire face is a row of teeth exposed to the gums without the lips and one eye. A sight very disturbing to view not only for her but for everyone who looks at her.

“My parents had no idea that surgery or grafting could help save my face so they left me as I was. I had no option but to live with what fate had decided for me. Today I know that had I come to the city to get medical help my life would have been different,” she sobs as she sits on the hospital bed at Department of Plastic Surgery at Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU) in Lucknow, forty four years on posing a challenge to the doctors who will attempt reconstructive surgery on her.

But she is not alone when it comes women and specially children who are living with unimaginable disfigurements caused by accidents and attacks. And not being able to get timely help to salvage the situation makes matters worse for them.

Though Saukari Devi’s case may be an odd one out caused by an accident, a big number of cases are a result of violence against women which is on the rise and a very disturbing trend that perpetrators are now increasingly taking to is brutally disfiguring the girls they target.

A gruesome example is three month old baby Bitta from Saffadirpur, Hardoi, a small district in UP. The little child is not able to fathom why she is going through such excruciating pain. Sadly this tiny girl has faced what most adults would shudder to imagine going through themselves.

The youngest victim of a brutal acid attack owing to a dispute between neighbours, Bitta was attacked by four men when she was left sleeping on the veranda of her home. The four men poured acid on her face and fled leaving the child squirming as her skin melted.

After a month of efforts by doctors to save her little face at the village hospital, the child has now been brought to CSMMU in Lucknow, where surgeons say she is so badly burnt that she will have to go through series of operations every 6-8 months for 15 years to attain some normalcy, but she will remain scarred for life.

“My child is in a lot of pain and cries all the time I don’t know how to comfort her it is really hard to see her suffering like this and not be able to stop the pain she is going through. I feel so helpless,” says Manorama the baby’s distraught mother.

With no hope to live a normal life now, just three months old Bitta too faces a struggle for the rest of her life as the chance to grow up like all normal girls has been cruelly snatched from her.
While doctors at the CSMMU, say that they see disfigurement in girls more than in boys in the cases that come to them, they confirm that in the recent years the numbers have steadily been on the rise.

Says Dr AK Singh, Head Of the department of Plastic Surgery at CSMMU, Lucknow, “there is no doubt in the fact that majority of serious cases of disfigurement we work on are that of girls. Sadly in our society females are expected to be presentable and pleasing to look at and if they lose that appealing look for some reason they are shunned by all. Reasons may range from accidents, birth deformity and attacks on them but in almost all the cases the delay in getting treatment is so much that there is very little that can be done. Predictably these children have no option but to live with the scars and deformities which can be very emotionally disturbing for them.”

Agrees Sister Grace who runs Snehalaya, a home for destitute girls, “The attitude towards female child is shocking especially when it comes to helping them in getting urgent medical aid in case of accidents or attacks. In most families they are considered just extra mouth to feed so when they are ill, hurt or injured it is usually not taken that seriously. I remember a few years back a two year old girl child was brought to me as she had been abandoned and was roaming on the streets in Lucknow. The child had a eye missing and she was in a very bad condition. On being medically examined by the doctor we were told that someone had gorged her eyes out with a sharp object. On investigating the matter further we found that the child’s own parents had performed a tantric puja and had been told by the pundit to offer their two year old daughter’s eyes.”

But her suffering did not end there says Sister grace, “While child was disfigured for life, she even lost her mother following which the father remarried. The step mother then refused to take care of the child as it would be difficult to marry her off sans an eye making her a life long liability. So the child was thrown out of the house. “

But then such cases are a sad indicator of the fact that despite all the laws and policies in India drawn up to protect the girl child majority of them are still living on the edge with both their well being and safety at risk.

A fact which is further corroborated by Jaipal Verma, Superintendent at the Government Home for children run by the state in Lucknow, “Girls abandoned due to the deformity or disfigurement they have are brought to the home on regular basis from all over Uttar Pradesh. Just recently two girls were brought to us - one of them was a five year old girl child with burn injuries all over her face and completely disfigured. She was abandoned by her family on the railway station. The second child is a few days old baby born with a defective leg, she too was left on the roadside. In such a condition no one even wants to adopt them as most prospective parents who come for adoption want girls who are pleasing to look at. They examine in great detail to ensure that the child is medically fit and physically also complete. They add to the number of baby girls with some or the other deformity or disfigurement who are already living here at the government home and with no one coming to adopt them, their future looks really bleak.”

And this despite the fact that the state boasts of a woman Chief Minister, and the country is led by a woman President. And yet the girl child is still forced to struggle for survival. Ironical isn't it!

Anjali Singh
(The author is a Special Correspondent to Citizen News Service (CNS) and also the Director of Saksham Foundation. Email: anjali@citizen-news.org)

Published in
Asian Tribune, Thailand/ Sri Lanka
Northern Voices, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh
Now Public
Ghana News, Accra, Ghana
Thai Indian news, Bangkok, Thailand
Nhatky - News from India, Delhi
Citizen News Service (CNS)
Bihar Times, Patna, Bihar
Bangladesh Daily news, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Scoop Independent News, New Zealand
Media for Freedom, Kathmandu, Nepal

Scarred and Shunned, the Girl Still Struggling for Survival

Scarred and Shunned, the Girl Still Struggling for Survival
Anjali Singh

Lucknow: A lone tear drop flowing down her faceless visage is the only indication of the pain and humiliation Saukari Devi has been forced to live with for so long. For forty four years, she has been living a life none of us can imagine even in our worst nightmare.

Her ordeal began when she fell into the kitchen fire in her village home in Kinora, Tehri Garhwal as a six months old baby. Her face completely destroyed by the fire and with no specialized medical help available in village then, she had no option but live with a disfigured face.

As she grew the contracted skin pulled the teeth outward which caused the nose and cheeks to disappear leaving only one eye intact exposing the gums and teeth giving her a sinister appearance. Today all that constitutes her entire face is a row of teeth exposed to the gums without the lips and one eye. A sight very disturbing to view not only for her but for everyone who looks at her.

“My parents had no idea that surgery or grafting could help save my face so they left me as I was. I had no option but to live with what fate had decided for me. Today I know that had I come to the city to get medical help my life would have been different,” she sobs as she sits on the hospital bed at Department of Plastic Surgery at Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU) in Lucknow, forty four years on posing a challenge to the doctors who will attempt reconstructive surgery on her.

But she is not alone when it comes women and specially children who are living with unimaginable disfigurements caused by accidents and attacks. And not being able to get timely help to salvage the situation makes matters worse for them.

Though Saukari Devi’s case may be an odd one out caused by an accident, a big number of cases are a result of violence against women which is on the rise and a very disturbing trend that perpetrators are now increasingly taking to is brutally disfiguring the girls they target.

A gruesome example is three month old baby Bitta from Saffadirpur, Hardoi, a small district in UP. The little child is not able to fathom why she is going through such excruciating pain. Sadly this tiny girl has faced what most adults would shudder to imagine going through themselves.

The youngest victim of a brutal acid attack owing to a dispute between neighbours, Bitta was attacked by four men when she was left sleeping on the veranda of her home. The four men poured acid on her face and fled leaving the child squirming as her skin melted.

After a month of efforts by doctors to save her little face at the village hospital, the child has now been brought to CSMMU in Lucknow, where surgeons say she is so badly burnt that she will have to go through series of operations every 6-8 months for 15 years to attain some normalcy, but she will remain scarred for life.

“My child is in a lot of pain and cries all the time I don’t know how to comfort her it is really hard to see her suffering like this and not be able to stop the pain she is going through. I feel so helpless,” says Manorama the baby’s distraught mother.

With no hope to live a normal life now, just three months old Bitta too faces a struggle for the rest of her life as the chance to grow up like all normal girls has been cruelly snatched from her.
While doctors at the CSMMU, say that they see disfigurement in girls more than in boys in the cases that come to them, they confirm that in the recent years the numbers have steadily been on the rise.

Says Dr AK Singh, Head Of the department of Plastic Surgery at CSMMU, Lucknow, “there is no doubt in the fact that majority of serious cases of disfigurement we work on are that of girls. Sadly in our society females are expected to be presentable and pleasing to look at and if they lose that appealing look for some reason they are shunned by all. Reasons may range from accidents, birth deformity and attacks on them but in almost all the cases the delay in getting treatment is so much that there is very little that can be done. Predictably these children have no option but to live with the scars and deformities which can be very emotionally disturbing for them.”

Agrees Sister Grace who runs Snehalaya, a home for destitute girls, “The attitude towards female child is shocking especially when it comes to helping them in getting urgent medical aid in case of accidents or attacks. In most families they are considered just extra mouth to feed so when they are ill, hurt or injured it is usually not taken that seriously. I remember a few years back a two year old girl child was brought to me as she had been abandoned and was roaming on the streets in Lucknow. The child had a eye missing and she was in a very bad condition. On being medically examined by the doctor we were told that someone had gorged her eyes out with a sharp object. On investigating the matter further we found that the child’s own parents had performed a tantric puja and had been told by the pundit to offer their two year old daughter’s eyes.”

But her suffering did not end there says Sister grace, “While child was disfigured for life, she even lost her mother following which the father remarried. The step mother then refused to take care of the child as it would be difficult to marry her off sans an eye making her a life long liability. So the child was thrown out of the house. “

But then such cases are a sad indicator of the fact that despite all the laws and policies in India drawn up to protect the girl child majority of them are still living on the edge with both their well being and safety at risk.

A fact which is further corroborated by Jaipal Verma, Superintendent at the Government Home for children run by the state in Lucknow, “Girls abandoned due to the deformity or disfigurement they have are brought to the home on regular basis from all over Uttar Pradesh. Just recently two girls were brought to us - one of them was a five year old girl child with burn injuries all over her face and completely disfigured. She was abandoned by her family on the railway station. The second child is a few days old baby born with a defective leg, she too was left on the roadside. In such a condition no one even wants to adopt them as most prospective parents who come for adoption want girls who are pleasing to look at. They examine in great detail to ensure that the child is medically fit and physically also complete. They add to the number of baby girls with some or the other deformity or disfigurement who are already living here at the government home and with no one coming to adopt them, their future looks really bleak.”

And this despite the fact that the state boasts of a woman Chief Minister, and the country is led by a woman President. And yet the girl child is still forced to struggle for survival. Ironical isn't it!

Anjali Singh
(The author is a Special Correspondent to Citizen News Service (CNS) and also the Director of Saksham Foundation. Email: anjali@citizen-news.org)

Published in
Asian Tribune, Thailand/ Sri Lanka
Northern Voices, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh
Now Public
Ghana News, Accra, Ghana
Thai Indian news, Bangkok, Thailand
Nhatky - News from India, Delhi
Citizen News Service (CNS)
Bihar Times, Patna, Bihar
Bangladesh Daily news, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Scoop Independent News, New Zealand
Media for Freedom, Kathmandu, Nepal

Time to rethink the development paradigm on Earth Day

Time to rethink the development paradigm on Earth Day

Not only modern lifestyles are causing un-brindled exploitation of natural resources upsetting the ecosystem and upping the global warming, but also the national policies in India related to environment are not in tune with International mandate to save the planet Earth.

"Corporatisation of natural resources is bad for people and environment. The impact of abusing environment (most of which is a fall-out of corporate exploitation of natural resources) is most severely faced by tribals and the poor who are dependent on natural resources for sustaining their daily life and livelihood. Depriving them of their basic human rights is exacerbating the inequities and causing irreparable damage to the environment" said SR Darapuri, who is a retired Inspector General (IG) police and a prominent social activist with National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM). SR Darapuri is also the Lok Rajniti Manch (People's Politics Front) candidate for Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow this year.

"We need to change our lifestyles and come up with sustainable ways of development and living to save the planet Earth. The present development model is dangerous as it not only damages the environment irreparably but also is promoting corporate exploitation of natural resources thereby worsening the prevalent inequities for and increasing the marginalization of the most poorest communities who in fact had been guarding these resources." said Arundhati Dhuru, who leads the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and is a veteran anti-dam activist with Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA).

She further added it is no exaggeration to say that ecological crisis have affected women more deeply than men.The experiences documented throughout the world have pointed out again and again that women are the worst victims of ecological deterioration since their working days has been drastically lengthened by scarcity of water,fuel and fodder, and their traditional skills and occupations have been adversely affected by new technoloies in agriculture,artisanal work and marketing while new opportunities have not sufficiently developed.My contention is that tackling the ecological crisis is pertinent not only because environmental destruction is close to reaching a level where it is irreversible but its threatening the very survival of human being.

For example, private companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi and others are siphoning away the groundwater in making their bottled water or soft drinks. "Civilazations have been built around drop of water, we will loose our right over this most precious resource when we make water as marketable commodity." said Gurudayal Singh Sheetal of Prakritik Manav Kendrit Andolan.

Ironically the Coca Cola is holding its annual shareholder meeting in Atlanta, USA, on Earth day, possibly in its efforts to improve its corporate image of being socially responsible towards environment. "The reality is grim - the Coca Cola has knowingly deprived local communities from their right to access the most precious groundwater and bottled it for minting profits. It has brutally but unsuccessfully tried to crush the resistance from the local communities around its Mehndiganj, Varanasi bottling plant. Its claim to 'recharge' this water by rainwater harvesting haven't been successful in even one plant. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) report recommends closure of Kaladhera Coca Cola plant to save the natural resources but the government or the company hasn't acted upon it yet" further added Gurudayal Singh Sheetal.

"Petroleum and natural gas reserves are already depleting fast and the need to find alternative, sustainable and environment-friendly sources of energy is compelling," says Arvind Murti, who is a senior social activist with NAPM in Mau. "Bio-energy, solar energy, wind energy and other sustainable and environment friendly forms of energy need to be promoted to save the planet" said Arvind Murti.

"Our living should be such as to reduce non bio-degradable garbage" said Prabha Chaturvedi, President of Exnora Lucknow. "Bio-degradable garbage should be buried in the Earth to make fertilizers" added Prabha.

Countries like Japan have committed themselves to become 'carbon zero' by 2050. India should also commit and take leadership in not only making promises but capping the irreparable damage corporations and urban lifestyles are causing to the planet.

"Unless sustainable ways of development and living are not evolved, it will be very difficult to sustain the prevalent kind of urban lifestyle where exploitation of natural resources goes on unabated by the nexus of private corporations and the state" said Anjali Singh, Director of Saaksham Foundation.

The overriding question is how to create a mode of production which does not depend on the expliotation of nature and labour power but which, in harmony with nature , provides for the survival needs of all.

- Bobby Ramakant

Time to rethink the development paradigm on Earth Day

Time to rethink the development paradigm on Earth Day

Not only modern lifestyles are causing un-brindled exploitation of natural resources upsetting the ecosystem and upping the global warming, but also the national policies in India related to environment are not in tune with International mandate to save the planet Earth.

"Corporatisation of natural resources is bad for people and environment. The impact of abusing environment (most of which is a fall-out of corporate exploitation of natural resources) is most severely faced by tribals and the poor who are dependent on natural resources for sustaining their daily life and livelihood. Depriving them of their basic human rights is exacerbating the inequities and causing irreparable damage to the environment" said SR Darapuri, who is a retired Inspector General (IG) police and a prominent social activist with National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM). SR Darapuri is also the Lok Rajniti Manch (People's Politics Front) candidate for Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow this year.

"We need to change our lifestyles and come up with sustainable ways of development and living to save the planet Earth. The present development model is dangerous as it not only damages the environment irreparably but also is promoting corporate exploitation of natural resources thereby worsening the prevalent inequities for and increasing the marginalization of the most poorest communities who in fact had been guarding these resources." said Arundhati Dhuru, who leads the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and is a veteran anti-dam activist with Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA).

She further added it is no exaggeration to say that ecological crisis have affected women more deeply than men.The experiences documented throughout the world have pointed out again and again that women are the worst victims of ecological deterioration since their working days has been drastically lengthened by scarcity of water,fuel and fodder, and their traditional skills and occupations have been adversely affected by new technoloies in agriculture,artisanal work and marketing while new opportunities have not sufficiently developed.My contention is that tackling the ecological crisis is pertinent not only because environmental destruction is close to reaching a level where it is irreversible but its threatening the very survival of human being.

For example, private companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi and others are siphoning away the groundwater in making their bottled water or soft drinks. "Civilazations have been built around drop of water, we will loose our right over this most precious resource when we make water as marketable commodity." said Gurudayal Singh Sheetal of Prakritik Manav Kendrit Andolan.

Ironically the Coca Cola is holding its annual shareholder meeting in Atlanta, USA, on Earth day, possibly in its efforts to improve its corporate image of being socially responsible towards environment. "The reality is grim - the Coca Cola has knowingly deprived local communities from their right to access the most precious groundwater and bottled it for minting profits. It has brutally but unsuccessfully tried to crush the resistance from the local communities around its Mehndiganj, Varanasi bottling plant. Its claim to 'recharge' this water by rainwater harvesting haven't been successful in even one plant. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) report recommends closure of Kaladhera Coca Cola plant to save the natural resources but the government or the company hasn't acted upon it yet" further added Gurudayal Singh Sheetal.

"Petroleum and natural gas reserves are already depleting fast and the need to find alternative, sustainable and environment-friendly sources of energy is compelling," says Arvind Murti, who is a senior social activist with NAPM in Mau. "Bio-energy, solar energy, wind energy and other sustainable and environment friendly forms of energy need to be promoted to save the planet" said Arvind Murti.

"Our living should be such as to reduce non bio-degradable garbage" said Prabha Chaturvedi, President of Exnora Lucknow. "Bio-degradable garbage should be buried in the Earth to make fertilizers" added Prabha.

Countries like Japan have committed themselves to become 'carbon zero' by 2050. India should also commit and take leadership in not only making promises but capping the irreparable damage corporations and urban lifestyles are causing to the planet.

"Unless sustainable ways of development and living are not evolved, it will be very difficult to sustain the prevalent kind of urban lifestyle where exploitation of natural resources goes on unabated by the nexus of private corporations and the state" said Anjali Singh, Director of Saaksham Foundation.

The overriding question is how to create a mode of production which does not depend on the expliotation of nature and labour power but which, in harmony with nature , provides for the survival needs of all.

- Bobby Ramakant

Do Not Break The Nucleus - Special in lead up to Chernobyl Day - 26 April -

Do Not Break The Nucleus
- Special in lead up to Chernobyl Day - 26 April -

Twenty three years ago, in the early hours of 26th April, 1986 (precisely at 01.24 a.m.), the world witnessed one of its worst nuclear disasters. Reactor number 4 of Chernobyl power station, situated near Pripyat in Ukraine , exploded. Two explosions blew off the dome shaped roof of the reactor, causing its contents to erupt out. As air was sucked into the shattered reactor, it ignited the flammable carbon monoxide, resulting in a fire that raged for nine days. As the reactor was not housed in a reinforced concrete shield, large amounts of debris escaped in the atmosphere.

The accident released at least 100 times more radiations than the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima . Much of the fallout was deposited close to Chernobyl , in parts of Belarus , Ukraine and Russia , where measurable health effects were observed. But traces of radioactive debris were found in nearly every country in the Northern Hemisphere. Thirty two people died in the accident.Another 38 died of acute radiation sickness, in the months that followed. In just 36 hours, 59430 persons had to be evacuated from Pripyat.

This human tragedy resulted in large scale displacement of more than 200,000 people, contamination of vast areas of land and loss of livelihood. Since then, there have been 1800 thyroid cancer cases in children, who were 0 – 14 years old at the time of the tragedy. A very conservative estimate prepared by the Chernobyl Forum in 2005, acknowledged 4000 extra cancer deaths among the 600,000 most highly exposed people. However, Dr. John Gofman, a renowned nuclear chemist, predicted that Chernobyl would cause 1,000,000 cancers and 475,000 deaths in its wake. The total cost of the disaster was estimated at $200 billion.

There is no proper scale to measure the psychological trauma suffered by the survivors. The affected people were confronted with situations they could not understand, and against which they had no defense. Many turned to drinking and to suicide.

Apart from the Chernobyl tragedy, there have been other nuclear power plant disasters in the past. The first one occurred in Chalk River Facility in Canada on 12th December 1952. It was caused by a human error, when an employee accidentally opened the four valves that regulated pressure in the system. The lid of the reactor was blown off and a large amount of cooling water, contaminated with radioactive waste, was leaked out.

The second disaster took place in the Mayak Plutonium Facility in the south Ural Mountain region of Russia on 29th September, 1957. This is considered to be worse than Chernobyl . Here the cooling equipment broke down and the over heated nuclear waste exploded. 270,000 people and 14,000 square miles were exposed to radiation hazards. Even today, the radiation levels in the region are extremely high and the natural water resources are still contaminated with radioactive waste.

The Wind Scale Nuclear Power Plant accident in England caused a radiation leak, which spread over 200 square miles, resulting in wide spread contamination.

Safety systems of the Lubmin Nuclear Plant in Germany failed on 7th December, 1975. Luckily, a nuclear meltdown was avoided due to release of coolant in the facility.

The Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania on 28th March, 1979, resulted from a malfunction in the cooling system. Although nearby residents were eventually evacuated, there have been increased cases of cancer and thyroid problems and sharp change in infant mortalities.

The Tokaimura accident in Japan occurred on 30.9.1999when, by mistake, excess uranium was mixed in nitric acid for making nuclear fuel – 35 pounds instead of 5.2 pounds. The nuclear fission explosion lasted for 20 hours. 42 employees were exposed to measurable levels of radiations, including 3 high level exposures. Two of them died.

Proponents of nuclear power plants not withstanding, it is impossible to have 100% safe

Nuclear power plants, even after providing the strictest of safety measures. They contaminate humans, animals and the environment. Radiation exposure can have very long term effects and are often difficult to quantize. In the no nonsense words of Dr. John Gofman, (who is called the Father of the Anti Nuclear Movement) --- ‘There cannot be a safe dose of radiation. There is no safe threshold. If this truth is known, then any permitted radiation is a permit to commit murder.’

In 1996, Dr. Gofman estimated that most of the cancer cases in the U.S.A. were caused by medical radiations. His claims are refuted by the American Government. But on must remember that, since the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979, not a single power plant has been built in that country.

When the so called peaceful use of nuclear energy can result in such long term hazards, one shudders to think of the devastation that can be brought about by nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Their presence is the greatest single threat to humanity. There currently 26,000 nuclear warheads in the world (96% of which are controlled by U.S.A. and Russia ). They have the potential to unleash the power of 70,000 Hiroshimas in just a few minutes and destroy our planet many times over. The idea of a deliberate nuclear war may seem almost anachronistic, but the potential nightmare of an accidental nuclear exchange is all too real.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the global military expenditure in 2007 exceeded $1.3 trillion. Another study conducted 10 years ago, estimated the total cost of US nuclear weapons over $5.8 trillion. These are huge investments that could be put to better and productive uses. In this context, it is worth mentioning that recently, Mr. Barak Obama has announced his desire to eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the earth. This bold gesture has won him the desired applauds. But is he merely finessing the long standing trick of the nuclear armed countries, which merely preach, and not practice, non proliferation. Mr. Obama should know that practice is better than precept. The world wants positive action from him and not mere rhetoric.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon also recognizes the need to ‘promote global public goods and remedies to challenges that do not respect borders’. He strongly believes that ‘a world free of nuclear weapons is a global public good of the highest order’. He is also candid enough to admit that despite long standing taboo against using nuclear weapons, disarmament remains only an aspiration. So a taboo alone is not sufficient.

The Dalai Lama pleads for an external disarmament in the form of a total ban on nuclear weapons. This, he feels, can be brought about by an internal disarmament of forsaking violence in thoughts, words and deeds. Violence brings suffering and love/compassion brings happiness. The collective desire for peace can avoid war and bring about arms reduction. The threat of a nuclear war (as some people think) can never bring lasting peace. Global and human security cannot be obtained through military superiority. We must remember that disarmament actually means the absence of violence and wars. It means having a peaceful co existence, a respect for human rights and a better environmental protection.

Shobha Shukla

The author writes extensively in English and Hindi media. She serves as Editor of Citizen News Service (CNS)