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Showing posts from January, 2014

In age-group 15-16, Gujarat has highest percentage of out of school girls

By Rajiv Shah  Every year, the Gujarat government celebrates two festivals to improve the quality of education – Kanya Kelavni and Gunotsav. The latest Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER), released by top NGO Pratham, suggests that its state-sponsored drives on education have failed to make any impact on school children.  Gujarat’s much tom-tommed girl child enrolment drive, nick-named as Kanya Kelavni, appears to have gone down the drain, and there appears very little for the state government to cheer over its campaign, which began in 2004 as Mahotsav or festival, if the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2013, released by well-known advocacy group, Pratham, is any indication. The report not only suggests that as many as three per cent of the state’s children in the age-group 6-14 are “out of school” – a criterion worked out in order to combine the children who are school dropouts and those who were never enrolled in schools. It also suggests that the three per cent

Manual scavengerlive in segregated localities without social, economic protection

A new study*, based on a survey of 250 areas and 5,827 households across five states of India, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, has found that, despite the legislations seeking to eradicate manual scavenging (the Construction of Dry Latrines and Employment of Manual Scavengers (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and the recently-enacted Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013), the system of manual scavenging still exists in India and with increasing urbanization across the country. Worse, it has the potential to spread far and wide. A report based on the survey carried out by Ahmedabad civil rights group Janvikas with the help of a dozen community based organizations (CBOs): *** Inadequate infrastructure, casteist mindset of government officials and society at large, poor implementation of legislations banning manual scavenging, internalization of caste hierarchy and complete acceptance of caste based occupations in the mi

Most Muslim areas of Gujarat lack basic amenities: Excerpts from study

A recent study by Janvikas highlights lack of basic infrastructure facilities in 63 areas of Muslim-dominated areas of Gujarat. Excerpts: *** The Sachar Committee, constituted by the Prime Minister, had found glaring underdevelopment in infrastructure (water, sanitation facilities, banks, educational institutions, approach roads) in Muslim concentrated areas, under-representation of Muslims in employment sector, under-representation of Muslims in governance and common spaces, negligible access to credit from nationalized banks and other allied sectors, inequity, and unequal opportunities. To overcome these problems, the Prime Minister launched a 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities in 2006. Janvikas, an NGO based in Ahmedabad, undertook a study to assess the status of implementation of the point programme in Muslim concentrated areas in Gujarat. The study looked at the physical infrastructure available in Muslim dominated areas and the institutional mechanism for implementa

Muzaffarnagar riots: Joint Citizens’ Initiative hears distressed relief camp victims

A report on the Joint Citizens’ Initiative hearing of the Muzaffarnagar riots victims close on the heels of the UP government’s efforts to close down the relief camps: *** Participating in an event organized by Joint Citizens’ Initiative (JCI), a collective of NGOs and individuals for relief, rehabilitation and justice in Muzaffarnagar, representatives of victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots, which rocked the state in August-end 2013, said the Uttar Pradesh’s government machinery has refused to acknowledge displacement of families from villages where violence broke out. The victims visited Lucknow to represent before to the JCI’s NGO jury for hearing on January 7. Accusing the state government of playing “partisan” in offering relief and rehabilitation to Muzaffarnagar survivors, they added, the survivors were being forced to sign affidavits saying “they would not return to their villages, not live on government land, and not live in a relief camp” in exchange for relief money. One of th

Gujarat ranks No 10th in India in reduction of maternal mortality ratio

By Rajiv Shah  That Gujarat has failed to govern well in improving its health indicators was once again established by the latest data on maternal mortality ratio (MMR), released by the Office of the Registrar General of India. Latest data released by the Office of the Registrar General of India – which is responsible for collecting, collating and releasing census figures for the country as a whole – have revealed that Gujarat has once again failed to perform as well as majority of Indian states in reducing maternal mortality ratio (MMR). MMR, according to a presentation made by the Office of the Registrar General, refers to “the number of women who die as a result of complications of pregnancy or childbearing in a given year per 1,00,000 live births.” While at 122 MMR per one lakh live child births is better than all states but five – except Kerala (66), Maharashtra (87), Tamil Nadu (90), Andhra Pradesh (110) and West Bengal (117) – the rate of reduction in MMR should be a matter a ma

No evidence anyone in Gujarat showed remorse during post-Godhra riots

By Rajiv Shah  Former Gujarat DGP PGJ Nampoothari, who was emissary of the National Human Rights Commission during the Gujarat riots, monitoring the aftermath of the tragedy which befell the state in 2002, says that there’s nothing to suggest that the state administration acted in an impartial way during the riots. He is a retired top cop, who is better known as a human rights activist. Indeed, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi wasn’t quite off the mark when he privately remarked with a sense of prerplexity about him to a senior IPS officer, “Who doesn’t know PGJ Nampoothiri?” Ex-director general of police (DGP) of Gujarat, who first attracted attention during his intensive investigations as CBI officer into the Harshad Mehta security scam in the early 1990s, Nampoothiri shot into fame as special rapporteur of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) following the Gujarat riots. Between 2002 and 2007, Nampoothiri monitored and reported to the NHRC the manner in which the Gujarat