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CELEBRATING 12th YEAR OF PUBLICATION
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South Asia Times Vol.12 I No. 9 I APRIL 2015 I FREE s o u t hasiatim es.com .au Editor: Neeraj Nanda
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Victorian Premier Hon. Daniel Andrews & Vidya Balan at the festival launch.
Cultural event at the festival launch.
INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL TO SIZZLE MELBOURNE
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Stories on pages 2,3,4,5
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cover story
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Indian Film Festival to sizzle Melbourne Movies, Short Film Competition, Fashion Show, Dance Competition, Awards Night By Neeraj Nanda
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elbourne: Hindi cinema diva Vidya Balan was back again to announce the return of this year’s Indian Film Festival of Melbourne unleashing the speculation of as to who will be the big Bollywood star coming here, as Amitabh Bachchan came last year. Will it be one of the Khan’s or someone else remains to be seen? Addressing the media Festival Ambassador Vidya Balan said, “The film festival is an excuse for me to come to Melbourne. I am enjoying my role as the brand ambassador. There are exciting times ahead.” “I am trying to convince producers to shoot a movie in Melbourne. I hope it happens,” she said. Festival Director Mitu Bhowmick Lange said, “This year we are delighted to celebrate India’s national day through ceremony, dance, fashion and the
recognition of excellence in our film culture. In the Equality program we have Indian filmmakers – from independent short film makers to our most powerful directors turning their gaze to issues of freedom and diversity in the contemporary world and celebrating the diversity that defines us all.” The festival which will take place between 14-27 August with “Equality” as its theme will celebrate India’s independence day (15 August) at the Federation Square. The IFFM Awards Night will feature an Indianinspired fashion show showcasing Australian designers along with iconic Indian designer, Anamika Khanna. Proceeds from the Fashion Show auction will go to The Royal Children’s Hospital, after it was announced that a new partnership had been formed between the Hospital and IFFM. The Telstra Bollywood
Dance Competition will also return, bringing the best classic and contemporary dancers of all ages and cultural origins to Federation Square. Addressing a media conference Minister for Creative Industries, Martin Foley said, “The Indian Film Festival is a significant date on
Victoria’s events calendar. It provides an opportunity to showcase Indian culture and stories to the wider community, attracting visitors and furthering our multiculturalism.” “This year’s festival, which explores equality, will demonstrate the powerful role that film-makers play in telling different
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stories, opening up new perspectives and creating conversations about issues that affect us all.” Film Victoria CEO, Jenni Tosi said, “The IFFM brings together the Victorian and Indian screen industries and communities, creating opportunities for a further exchange of knowledge and ideas, and expanding
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our understanding and appreciation of Indian culture.” The festival media release mentions these highlights of the 2015 Indian Film Festival: 4The 2015 IFFM Awards attended by many of India’s finest stars and industry figures, will take place at the National Gallery of Victoria celebrating the country’s multi layered, ever evolving and fiercely independent film culture. 4The IFFM Awards will feature a fashion show of designs. Iconic Indian designer Anamika Khanna along with her Australian counterparts will showcase a unique collection modelled by Australian models, celebrities , Bollywood stars and people from various walks of life. The garments will be auctioned off during the evening with all proceeds going to The Royal Children’s Hospital in an exciting new partnership. 4Daytime Independence Day celebrations include the raising of the Indian Flag at Federation Square followed by the Telstra Bollywood Dance Competition judged by a panel of the Festival guests. 4The theme of equality is explored in a number of
Daytime Independence Day celebrations include the raising of the Indian Flag at Federation Square followed by the Telstra Bollywood Dance Competition judged by a panel of the Festival guests. critically lauded features and documentaries including Umrika, (2015, Prashant Nair) winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, a 'mythology of America and more generally, how cultures perceive each other; NAANU AVANALLA, AVALU (I AM NOT HE.. SHE), a day in the life of a transgender; the documentary Newborns a film about memory and
loss, and PK ( 2014, Dir. Rajkumar Hirani, starring Amir Khan) a film that has polarised audiences in India due to its courageous and bold discussions of religion and religiosity while breaking box office records worldwide. 4An Equality panel featuring high profile spokespersons from Australia and India will focus on inequality of gender, race, gender, disability and sexuality and how both
Australia and India manage equality on our screens and in society in general. - The Western Union short film competition is open for entries from Indian and Australian filmmakers. To be eligible, entrants must submit a film of no more than ten minutes duration, which references the 2015 theme, ‘Equality’. The winning films will be screened at IFFM. The winning Indian filmmaker will travel to Melbourne and
the Australian winner will travel to Mumbai, the home of Bollywood. Those supporting the festival include Telstra, Western Union, Visy, La Trobe University, Hoyts Cinema, City of Melbourne, SAT, FilmInk, RRR, Incredible India and G’day India. The full program of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne is likely to be announced in June, 2015. www.iffm.com.au• Facebook• Twitter:@IFFMelb —SAT News Service.
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COVER STORY
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Difficult to accept any regulation of the film industry: Vidya Balan
By Neeraj Nanda
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elbourne, 12 April: Since ‘Parineeta’, Vidya Balan has not looked back. Her stake has been rising with her being one of the busiest leading ladies in the Mumbai movie industry. Her movies ‘Hey Baby’, Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani established her as a strong
female protagonist changing the very concept of a film heroine. Her newest movie ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ is keenly awaited as she is working for the first time with Mahesh Bhatt. In Melbourne, for the launch of the Indian Film Festival Melbourne 2015, she had a short but candid talk with SAT. As usual she was well dressed (with an ethnic touch), a new hair style and smiling. Vidya Balan, answering to
my question on the recent censorship troubles and the banning of a few words in movies she said, “It’s difficult to accept any regulation of the film industry.” “The industry is talking to the Minister to sort out the issue,” she told SAT. Talking about her new movie ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’, Vidya said, “It is an intense love story and working for the first time with Mahesh Bhatt has been
a wonderful experience.” It is directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Mahesh Bhatt under the banner Vishesh Films and Fox Star Studios. The film also stars Emraan Hashmi and Rajkummar Rao. It is based on the love story of Bhatt's parents, Nanabhai Bhatt, Shirin Mohammad Ali and his stepmother. The movie is likely to release on 12 June 2015. —SAT News Service.
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IFFM weaves magic at Raheen
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By Neeraj Nanda
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elbourne, 11 April: It was a rather normal day as I rushed in the evening to Raheen - an historic 19th-century Italianate mansion located at 92 Studley Park Road in Kew. It was built in the 1870s, and its name means "little fort" in Gaelic. It was purchased in 1981 by the Australian businessman Richard Pratt and his family and currently is not open to the public. Pratt extensively renovated the house and gardens, including the addition of a new wing. My invite from the IFFM2015 said the event was to “Celebrate the magic of Indian Cinema” and support ASHA and Dr. Kiran Martin’s transformational work with the urban poor in the slums of Delhi. Little did I know it will be a mesmerising evening with all the glitter of Bollywood’s top diva Vidya Balan, Brand Ambassador of the festival and the sober but alert Premier Daniel Andrews. Off course, there were many others from the Indian community and sponsors. Tables were full and
one could see one’s name on the menu. And what a menu it was : Entree – Dhokla, Dahi Pakodi Chaat and PKB Chaatq; Meat – Allepy Fish Curry, Raan E Khyber, Murg Makhan Palak, Dum Ka Zaffarani Gosht; Vegetarian- Paneer Shahi Korma, Gucchi Mutter, Chonka Asparagus Palak and Bhatwaan Aloo. Dessert buffet was a endless tasty stream with heart shaped Jalabi, Shahi Tukdi, Kulfi, Gulab Jamun, and much more. All this being catered by the Taj with Hemant Oberoi in command. It was excellent
food from the best in the field. Vidya Balan freely posed for pictures and for once she looked relaxed in the colourfully lighted place. She addressed the gathering and said she loved Melbourne and everyone. Her identification with the festival is a legend as she was here for the fifth time. Mitu and Dr. Kiran Martin also addressed those present and appealed for donations for ASHA to continue the good work. Money raised during the auction also went to ASHA. The Bollywood dances and music also added to the sparkle of the evening. Even
people were made to learn a few steps of this unique dancing style. No doubt, it was an evening of glitter, dances, music, glamour,
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colour, fine cuisine and talk of the coming IFFM 2015. It will remain an evening never to be forgotten. —SAT News Service.
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East West Link scrapped as Labor secures $339m pact By Neeraj Nanda
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elbourne, 15 April 2015: The $ 10.7 billion contentious East-West Link has finally been scrapped with Premier Daniel Andrews and Treasurer Tim Pallas today announcing the Labor Government and the East West Link consortium have reached a good faith agreement. Under the Heads of Agreement, signed today, the $10.7 billion East West Link will not proceed and no compensation will be paid to the consortium, says a media release from the Victorian Premier’s office. Under the agreement, the State will purchase the companies in the consortium (‘EWL Project Co’) for one dollar. All assets owned by Project Co will transfer to the State. The media release further says, “$339 million of net costs had already been drawn down and paid to the consortium for the bid process, and design and preconstruction. These costs have already been incurred
and cannot be retrieved. They will be retained by the consortium subject to a certification process between it and the State. A further $81 million of fees were incurred to establish the Project Co credit facility of $3 billion. The State intends to negotiate with the banks to take over that facility to contribute to funding for the Melbourne Metro Rail Project and will receive value for those fees.” All rates, fees, swaps and obligations related to the credit facility will now be worked through between
the financiers and the State, says the media release. “Before the 2014 State Election, Daniel Andrews promised that a Labor Government wouldn’t proceed with the Liberals’ East West Link and wouldn’t be liable for a cent of compensation. These promises have been kept. The East West Link contract signed in September 2014 has also been released, as promised. Daniel Andrews says, “The Labor Government and the consortium are on the same page and have come to a good faith agreement.
The Government will now get on with building the projects our state needs and Victorians voted for. Today’s agreement is the best possible result we could have achieved and it puts the interests of Victorians first – no ten billion dollar tunnel, no compensation and far more funding available for the Melbourne Metro Rail Project.” “While the Labor Government has incurred costs of just one dollar, in contrast, all other costs associated with this project, including the drawdown of net $339 million, were incurred because of former Victorian Treasurer Michael O’Brien and the Liberals, the media release says. The Andrews Labor Government has thanked the East West consortium members for negotiating in good faith to achieve a fair result and looks forward to working with them on future infrastructure projects. Treasurer of Victoria, Tim Pallas says, “This isn’t a day for celebration. The previous Liberal Government deliberately left
India’s ‘Tourist Visa on Arrival’ needs advance planning
By News Desk
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elbourne: It sounds good to land in a country and gets the entry visa at the airport. One cannot but appreciate such a facility. As the name suggests India’s ‘Tourist Visa on Arrival’ introduced last year and applicable to 45 countries including Australia, is exactly not what it sounds to be though the visa is finally stamped at an Indian airport. Answering to a question at the Incredible India Road Show recently by SAT, Mr. Girish Shankar, Additional
Secretary Ministry of Tourism said, “to obtain the ‘Tourist Visa on Arrival’ at an Indian airport, one has to carry an ‘Electronic Travel Authorisation’ (ETA). One has to in advance apply online at https:// indianvisaonline.gov.in/tvoa. html with a recent photograph and the photo page of the passport uploaded and pay $ 60 fees.” The process will generate an ‘Electronic Travel Authorisation’ (ETA) which will come in the applicants email within 72 hours. “The online application should be submitted
minimum 4 days in advance and maximum 30 days of proposed date of travel,” says an Indian Tourism brochure. This 30 days visa is a single entry visa and is not extended. One can have such visas two times in a year only. Once a tourist lands at an authorised airport and presents the ETA a visa is stamped on the passport after mandatory biometric details are taken. For 24x7 assistance phone +91-11-24300666 or E-mail: indiatvoa@gov.in For tourism information: incredibleindia.com
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All rates, fees, swaps and obligations related to the credit facility will now be worked through between the financiers and the State, says the media release. Victoria with only a handful of options – none of them good.” The opposition leader Hon. Mathew Guy has described the move as "poliical", and "shortsighted" which will 'hurt Melbourne". —SAT News Service
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India Festival in Australia dates soon By SAT News Desk
hold a Festival of India in Australia in 2015, which is a significant step and needs to be taken forward, she added. Appreciating the interest taken by Australia in the Festival of India, Dr. Mahesh Sharma informed that discussions between the officials of two countries
are at an advanced stage and the dates of the festival are expected to be finalized soon. It was also requested that Australia may provide venues for the Festival free of cost, which the Australian side agreed to take up favourably. Dr. Mahesh Sharma informed that soft launch
of the Festival of India in Australia will take place next month in Canberra with the opening of an exhibition of National Museum at the National Gallery of Australia in May 2010. The National Museum of the Ministry of Culture is lending 101 miniature paintings from the 17 and 19 centuries
Senior officials of the Indian Ministry of Culture were present in the meeting. Both sides discussed measures and steps to be taken to promote further the cultural relations between the two countries. depicting Rama –Katha or the stories of Rama for an exhibition A sample copy of the miniature paintings on Rama-Katha was presented to Ms Bishop by Dr. Mahesh Sharma. —SAT News Service
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ew Delhi, 13 April: India and Australia have decided to consolidate cultural and other relations between the two countries. The resolve came during the start of Australian Foreign Minister’s visit to India and her meeting with Indian Culture Minister Dr. Mahesh Sharma in New Delhi today. Ms Julia Bishop headed Australian delegation met Minister, Dr. Mahesh Sharma in New Delhi today. Senior officials of the Indian Ministry of Culture were present in the meeting. Both sides discussed measures and steps to be taken to promote further the cultural relations between the two countries. Highlighting the importance of relations between India and Australia, Ms. Bishop said that an agreement on promotion of Arts and Culture were signed between the two countries during the visit of Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi to Australia last year. It was also decided to
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Bangladeshi Friends of Labor launched By News Desk
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ebourne: The Bangladesh Diaspora has setup a body to support the Labor Party. Called the Bangladeshi Friends of Labor (BFOL), a support group of the Australian Labor Party, was officially launched under the banner of the Subcontinent Friends of Labor (SFOL) on March 13, 2015 at the National Union of Workers Office in Docklands, Victoria. The launch event was dedicated to former Labor Leader, Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition Hon. Edward Gough Whitlam. The discussion in honour of Hon. Gough Whitlam was addressed by Head of Geopolitics, Business and Government Research Cluster at RMIT University and Adviser of BFOL Associate Prof. Sharif AsSaber, President of BFOL Mustafa Hasan Yusuf and Endeavour Scholar and Doctoral Candidate at Monash University Ifti Rashid. In his speech as the Chief Guest, Speaker Hon. Telmo Languiller MP highlighted how Prime Minister Hon Whitlam’s policies of political, social and economic reforms changed Australia to make
it an inclusive, diverse and multicultural country. He mentioned his own experience as a refugee, encouraging the South Asian and Bangladeshi-Australian community members to play a greater role in the political process of Australia. “I know BangladeshiAustralians already play an important role in our academia, I hope they will also play an equally important role in our politics following the legacy of Prime Minister Whitlam,” he said. He called upon all community members to continue supporting Labor for the welfare of Australia. Hon Clare O’Neil MP paid
tributes to Labor Leader Hon Whitlam’s contributions to Bangladesh as the Leader of the Opposition and Prime Minister. “As Leader of the Opposition, Hon Whitlam supported the freedom fighters of Bangladesh. He lobbied for the recognition of Bangladesh internationally. I can assure you that the Labor Party continued his legacy to support Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi-Australian community today,” she emphasized. BFOL President Mustafa Hasan Yusuf said the BFOL has been launched with the same vision of SFOL to raise the awareness of
the Australian political process in the BangladeshiAustralian and broader South Asian community. “BFOL will be platform to integrate members of the Bangladeshi-Australian community with the Australian Labor Party and contribute to local politics in a constructive manner,” he said. The objective of BFOL is to become a platform: • To raise awareness about the Australian political process in our community, to participate in the political process as one unified group and to contribute to the local politics in a constructive way.
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• To integrate interested members of the Bangladeshi Community with Australian Labor Party • To Create future leaders for the Bangladeshi community as well as for the wider community that we are a part of. • To act as a conduit for Bangladeshi Communities’ relationship with the Sub Continental communities living in Australia. • To strengthen the relationship between Australia and Bangladesh. The BFOL team comprises of President Mr. Mustafa Hasan Yusuf, Vice President Ms. Lubna Kamal, General Secretary Mr. Ashraful Alam, Treasurer Mr. Ajmul Huda, Culture Secretary Mr. Saad Ghani, New Members Secretary Mr. Taz Uddin and Community Liaison Secretary Ms. Milia Morshed. Advisers of BFOL are Mr. Deepak Vinayak JP from South Asia Community Link Group (SACLG), Mr. Guri Singh from Australian Multicultural Organization (AMO), Hon. Premier’s Ministerial Adviser Mr. Jasvinder Sidhu and Associate Professor Sharif As-Saber from RMIT. The group has Speaker Hon. Telmo Languiller MP and Hon Clare O’Neil MP as their Patrons. —SAT News Service.
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Ramdev eager to setup Yoga centre in Melbourne By News Desk
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elbourne: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has said he is keen to promote Yoga and Ayurveda in Australia by setting up a centre as he met community leaders and prominent Indian businessmen seeking support. "Australia is a very good nation and we want to promote practice of Yoga and Ayurveda here," Ramdev, who was on his maiden four-day visit to the country, told PTI. Ramdev was felicitated by a group of Indo-Australian leaders and businessmen of Whyndam Vale suburb who extended support and assistance to set up a Yoga centre in the area. "These businessmen and leaders would be giving us a plan and we will look at it here. We want to take India's name at the top and whatever we can do to promote Yoga and Ayurveda, we will do that," he said yesterday. Indian-origin Councillorcum-businessman Intaj Khan said, "Baba Ramdev is a perfect example for us to learn from. He started his life
from the scratch and build a massive empire of over millions of Rupees." "We are keen to set up a Yoga centre in the Whyndam Vale area and we are happy to offer our support and assistance including finding a site for the same," Whyndam Councillor Gautam Gupta said. Councillor Intaj Khan told SAT, “Baba has expressed his desire to open a Yoga centre in Australia. I took Baba in my car and also showed him some land which is about 25
km from the city.” Ramdev also visited Parliament of Victoria where he met parliamentarians and community leaders. He led a group meditation in Queen's Hall as part of a presentation he made to parliamentarians and community members. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Telmo Languiller welcomed him and paid tribute to his dedication to Yoga, meditation and spirituality. Languiller said Ramdev was recognised throughout the world for
Sangeet Sandhya
promoting the well-being of mind, body and soul. Baba who is considered close to India’s PM Narendra Modi also addressed a media conference at the Mantra Hotel where he answered questions from the Indian and South Asian media. Answering to a question,he said, “I supported the current PM but myself do not have any political ambition.” On a question by SAT, Baba, criticised those who are using Yoga as a business in many countries. Though he himself
has a multi-million rupees strong Aryuveda and other products business, he said, “I have no interest in business and want to promote Yoga and Ayurveda,” Interestingly, the Baba has recently been granted cabinet status by the Haryana Government. Ramdev held a public lecture at University of Melbourne on 'The Purpose and power of Yoga'. Besides, he held Yoga camps in Sydney and Brisbane. There was also a small rally in Melbourne against Baba by people who were protesting against his controversial views on Dalit women.
Labor Government stands with female workers
Open forum for music lovers – classical, semi-classical & film music
Saturday 4/04/15 - Aditi Gadre and Shoaib Safi Saturday 6/06/15 - Nicholas Buff and Sri Ram Aiyyer Tuesday 4/08/15 - Ustad Aminul Huque and Amitabh Singh Chauhan Saturday 3/10/15 - Radhey Shyam Gupta and Robyn Kerr Saturday 5/12/15 - Madhuri Kamtikar and Shoaib Safi
Swar Sandhya Open forum for music lovers; Karaoke – Popular Indian Music Bring your own music, perform and enjoy
Saturday 3/1/15 Saturday 2/5/15 Saturday 5/9/15
Saturday 7/3/15 Saturday 4/7/15 Monday 7/11/15
Venue: Waverly Meadows Primary School,
Time: 8.00pm
Columbia Drive, Wheelers Hill Free Entry, with ample parking, Free tea, coffee and biscuits Contact: Phone- 0402 074 278 or 0407 559 113 email- sangeetswarsandhya@gmail.com www.facebook.com/sangeetsandhya
By News Desk
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elbourne, 10 April: The Andrews Labor Government has called for action on the growing gender pay gap as part of its submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Framework. The inquiry, established by the Abbott Government, is set to look at wages and conditions, bargaining and unfair dismissal. But it has so far failed to examine issues affecting female workers including the gender pay gap, participation and workplace flexibility. Minister for Industrial Relations, Natalie Hutchins, said that the failure to include these issues in either the Terms of Reference or the subsequent issue papers demonstrated the Abbott Government’s attitude towards female workers.
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The Abbott Government’s plans for the minimum wage and penalty rates will also hit women hard, with females making up 57.6 per cent of employees paid the award wage and 64.3 per cent of those employed casually. The Labor Government’s submission highlighted that recent ABS data shows that the pay gap was 18 per cent and at risk of worsening. Furthermore, less than one in two employees knew they have the right to request family friendly working arrangements. The Labor Government will stand up for the rights of women in the workforce and for equal opportunity. Premier Daniel Andrews recently announced that no less than 50 per cent of all future appointments to paid Government boards and Victorian courts will be women. —SAT News Service.
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SAPAC T-20 Cup By News Desk
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he South Asian Public Affairs Council’s (SAPAC) first SAPAC T-20 Cup was held from April 3-6, 2015 with great enthusiasm at the T. W. Blake Reserve, Preston. Ten teams participated in the tournament. They were Deshmesh (Winner), Melbourne Royals (Runners up), Afghanistan (3rd place), Pakistan Panthers, Nepal-A, Nepal-B, Pandit Club, Thornbury Theatre, Sind United and one team led by Prince. This was for the first time South Asian (Indian Subcontinent) teams in Australia came together to participate in such a tournament. The matches were professionally played with all the technical fineness of the gentleman’s game. Cricket lovers from many communities came in large numbers to see the matches. The winning team got $ 3,000, runners up got $ 2,000 and the third team got $ 1,000 as prize money. There were many sponsors who helped the tournament sail through. The SAPAC intends to make this tournament an annual event. The SAPAC executive committee and specially the tournament subcommittee worked hard and made the tournament a big success.
The SAPAC committee is constituted by Dr.Shahbaz Chowdhury -
This was for the first time South Asian (Indian Subcontinent) teams in Australia came together to participate in such a tournament. The matches were professionally played with all the technical fineness of the gentleman’s game. President, Neeraj Nanda - Vice President, Bandu Dissanayake - Vice President, Prince Mashli - Secretary, Kaushaliya Vaghela- Asst. Secreatary, Noel Nadesan - Treasurer, Neha Kolape - Executive for SAPAC western Suburb, Molina Asthana - Executive for Legal issues, Committee Executives - Dr.Kaushal Srivastav, Dr.Raju Adhikari, Dr.Sharif As- Saber, Aloke Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Ryle Moidrick and Patrons - Hon.Jude Perera MP and Bandhu.
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a big success
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No rest for the
elderly in India N By Neeta Lal
EW DELHI, Apr 2 2015 (IPS) - As more and more people in India enter the ‘senior citizen’ category, ugly cracks are beginning to appear in a social structure that claims to value the institution of family but in reality expresses disdain for the bonds of blood. Recent research by HelpAge India, a leading charity dedicated to the care of seniors, reveals that every second elderly person in India – defined as someone above 60 years of age – suffers abuse within their own family, a malaise that has been found to infect all social strata and all regions of the country. The 12-city study, ‘State of the Elderly in India 2014’, found that one in five elderly persons encounters physical and emotional abuse almost daily, a third around once a week, and a fifth every month. A common reason for the abuse is elderly family members’ economic dependence on their progeny. According to sociologists, neglect of senior citizens – once revered and idolized in Indian society – is largely attributable to the changing social landscape in Asia’s third largest economy, currently home to over 100 million elderly people. “Rapidly altering lifestyles and values, demanding jobs, rural-to-urban migration, a shift from joint to nuclear family structures and redefined priorities are all leading to this undesirable situation,” Veena Purohit, visiting professor of sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, tells IPS.
Older, Sicker and Poorer The world’s second most populous nation hosting 1.25 billion people has experienced a dramatic demographic transition in the past 50 years, witnessing close to a tripling of the population aged 60 and over, according to government statistics. This pattern is poised to continue, with experts projecting that the number of Indians aged 60 and older will
surge from 7.5 percent of the country’s total population in 2010 to 11.1 percent in 2025. By 2050, according to the United Nations Population Division (UNPD), India will host 48 million seniors over the age of 80 and 324 million citizens above 60, a demographic greater than the total U.S. population in 2012. As per HelpAge’s estimates, the population of people aged 80 years and older is growing the fastest, at a rate of 700 percent. The boom is largely being ascribed to improved life expectancy outcomes, which have shot up from 40 years in the 1960s to 68.3 years in 2015. “The steady increase in elderly citizens’ life expectancy has produced fundamental changes in the age structure of India’s population, which in turn has led to the ageing population,” Aabha Choudhury, chairperson of Anurgraha, a non-profit for elderly citizens, tells IPS. Choudhury adds that the unmet demand for special care services and facilities for the elderly is worsening the situation. “The benefits outlined in the government’s policy on older persons – a blueprint for their welfare – is yet to reach target beneficiaries. There is a dearth of adequate geriatric care infrastructure and lack of awareness among the target group as well as the service providers,” she explains. Ironically, despite longer life spans, and India’s rapid economic growth, the majority of older Indians remain poor. Less than 11 percent of them have a pension of any sort, according to national surveys, and savings – like earnings – are low. This scenario augurs ill for the country’s grey population, with the coming decades threatening to bring unprecedented challenges of morbidity and mortality across the country, according to a 2012 report entitled ‘Health of the Elderly in India: Challenges of Access and Affordability’. According to the UNPD, 13 percent of older Indians
sampled have some type of disability that affects at least one activity of daily living. More than one-quarter of this population is underweight and nearly onethird has undiagnosed hyper tension. Nearly 60 percent live in dwellings lacking access to an improved sewer system. With little old-age income support and few savings, labour force participation remains high among those aged 60 and older, particularly among rural Indians, household surveys suggest. Not only do a large share of the elderly earn an income, they even support their adult children who live in homes and work on farms owned by their parents. While the Indian government invests significantly on the country’s youth, expecting them to contribute to the economy, support for those who are feeble remains abysmal, rue senior citizens. For instance, the government’s Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme offers a paltry five dollars per month to those above 60 living below the poverty line, which many suggest is an “insult”. Population-wide mechanisms of social security in India, point out financial experts, are also missing. “Indians have to work as long as possible in order to support themselves,” explains a senior official at the government-run Life Insurance Corporation. “Employer insurance and pension schemes are available only to as low as nine percent of rural males and 41.9 percent of urban males who are in the formal sector; among females, the figures are lower still.” Despite India's rapid economic growth, the majority of older Indians remain poor. Less than 11 percent have a pension of any sort, and many continue to work in old age. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS Despite India’s rapid economic growth, the majority of older Indians remain poor. Less than 11 percent have a pension of any sort, and many continue to
work in old age. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS Insurance in India is limited not only by its low coverage of conditions but also by low coverage of populations. National Family Health Surveys indicate that only 10 percent of households in India had at least one member of the family covered by any form of health insurance. “Good quality healthcare should be urgently made available and accessible to the elderly. Rehabilitation, community or home-based disability support and endof-life care should also be provided to address failing health issues among the elderly,” says Vinod Kumar, a member of the Core Group for Protection and Welfare of Elderly, constituted by the National Human Rights Commission in 2009. There’s also a need, suggests Kumar, to expedite the setting up of a National Commission for Senior Citizens. The draft bill for the Commission, which lists the proposed commission’s responsibilities, is still pending with Parliament. “The Commission’s mandate involves looking into matters of deprivation of senior citizens’ rights, their human rights violations and making recommendations to relevant authorities to take action. The proposed commission will also inspect old-age homes, prisons and remand homes to see if their rights are being violated,” elaborates Kumar.
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Sugan Bhatia, senior vice president of the AllIndia Senior Citizens’ Confederation, is disappointed that unlike the West, the Indian government offers no medical support to the elderly. “Even if we buy medical insurance on our own, it only covers emergency hospitalisation costs. There’s no coverage for costs for medicine or doctors’ fees, which have almost tripled in the last three years,” he tells IPS. As a signatory to the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and other U.N. declarations, the Indian government has enacted a piece of legislation, the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007, which makes it a legal obligation for children and heirs to provide maintenance to senior citizens and parents. However, most parents acknowledge that the issue is far more nuanced than being a financial or legal matter. Many elderly citizens confess staying with their abusive children more for emotional reasons. “As an army widow, I get a reasonably good pension after my husband’s death, so I can stay separately,” confesses 68-year-old Savita Devi. “However, my love for my two grandkids, who absolutely adore me, is preventing me from shifting out. It’s a catch-22,” she tells IPS. Edited by Kanya D’Almeida
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Sri Lanka: Sirisena backs 19th Amendment to reduce Presidential powers C By Jehan Perera
OLOMBO: President Maithripala Sirisena has been making a unique contribution to political developments in Sri Lanka. He backed the passage of the 19th Amendment to the constitution to transfer a significant portion of the presidential powers he enjoys back to Parliament and to the Prime Minister. Since the presidential election of 1995 the winning candidate at all successive presidential elections has promised to abolish the executive presidency. But once they won, the winners deemed it opportune to keep the institution going. They used the very powers of the presidency that they had condemned when contesting the elections to govern the country and safeguard themselves in power. President Maithripala Sirisena is the exception. The difficulties encountered in passing the 19th Amendment through Parliament have not been of his making. The 19th Amendment was intended to result in a twoway distribution of powers vested in the presidency. This has now been modified by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s determination is that the transfer of executive powers from the President to the Prime Minister affects the structure of governance envisaged in the constitution and therefore requires approval of the people at a referendum. It pointed to the Prime Minister becoming the head of the cabinet of ministers and being vested with the power to appoint ministers in terms of the amendment. According to the Supreme Court’s determination, these powers can only be divested from the Presidency with the approval by the people at a referendum. On the other hand, the redistribution of the President’s powers to appoint heads of key state institutions, such as the Supreme Court, Police, Public Service, Human Rights Commission, Elections Commission and Bribery Commission will be possible without recourse to the approval of the people at a referendum. The constitutional change envisaged here is possible with only a two thirds
majority in Parliament. This will see the revival of the 17th Amendment which was passed in 2000 by the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, but which was effectively abolished in 2010 by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that the government is prepared to drop the clauses that require approval at a referendum and proceed with the passage of the 19th Amendment. The government’s position is that it wishes to keep to its presidential election manifesto which promised change, including constitutional change, within 100 days of the election. A referendum will take at least another three months to hold. There is also a concern that the outcome of a referendum
might not be in favour of a diminished presidency. The opposition parties, including a substantial section within the SLFP itself, are of the view that the military victory secured over the LTTE was only possible because of the strong government that existed in the last phase of the war, of which the presidency was the cornerstone. However, the passage of the 19th Amendment remains in doubt even if the government drops the clauses in it that require a referendum. This is due to the dispute between the government and opposition regarding the change of the electoral system. The opposition is insisting that it will only support the passage of the 19th Amendment if, at the same time, the electoral
system is also changed. The problem with the opposition’s demand is that there is no consensus between the political parties on electoral reform. The existing electoral system which is sought to be changed is based on proportional representation, which leads to each political party receiving seats in parliament that are proportionate to their share of the national vote. In practice this has been favourable to the small parties, including the ethnic minority parties, and enabled them to have a voice and power in parliament. However, after more than three decades of experience, the disadvantages of the proportional system used in Sri Lanka have become manifest and there is a consensus about the need to amend the system. What is being envisaged is a mixed system, in which some MPs are elected on the firstpast-the-post system of constituency based voting, and others are elected on a proportional system. This mixed system was based on the recommendations of a parliamentary select committee. However, the interim report was dropped due to the strong protest of the ethnic minority parties. They showed that the undermining of the system of proportional representation would be unfavourable to them. It is necessary to arrive at a compromise which is acceptable to all political parties and which addresses the concerns of the ethnicbased political parties especially in the post-war context. However, President Sirisena and the government appear to be determined to ensure that the 19th Amendment is passed without delay. The president’s decision to remove five rebellious members from the SLFP’s Central Committee is a sign that he is willing to assert his authority over the party. Supporters of the defeated former President Rajapaksa have been criticising the new president for being a weak leader. However, the uniqueness of President Sirisena needs to be appreciated. He is the only one of Sri Lanka’s elected presidents to take action to reduce the powers of the presidency. He is also unique in heading a
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bipartisan government. At the presidential elections he got large proportions of votes from the ethnic minorities. The present composition of the government is unique and is not likely to be replicated. It is important that the present opportunity to reduce the powers of the Executive Presidential system be taken when the country has a president who is willing to share his powers with others. Even the scaled down version of the 19th Amendment would contribute to good governance in the country by ensuring that there is a system of checks and balances so that power does not corrupt, and absolute power does not corrupt absolutely. It makes the Presidency answerable to Parliament and also to the Supreme Court in cases where fundamental rights are alleged to be violated, restricts the president’s term of office to two, removes from the Presidency the power to dissolve Parliament after one year and only permits dissolution after four years,and provides for the strengthening of the independence of the judiciary and key state institutions such as the police, public service and watchdog commissions. The redistribution of powers of the Executive Presidency would also contribute to resolving the ethnic conflict which has been the country’s most intractable problem. The problem with the presidency is that it concentrates power in a single institution and, even worse, in a single individual. Where a country is ethnically and politically fractured, it is better that power should be decentralized rather than centralized. When power is centralized in an ethnically fragmented polity, it enables the representatives of the largest ethnic community to capture power and wield it without consideration for the interests of the smaller ethnic communities. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa epitomized this downside of the centralized presidential system. A sustainable political solution is most likely if there is power sharing at the provincial level through the devolution of powers and also at the central level through the sharing of powers in the cabinet of ministers. Source: TheCitizen
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Bangladesh: Gender equality comes on the airwaves By Naimul Haq
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HAKA, Apr 8 2015 (IPS) - Judging by how often they make headlines, one might be tempted to believe that women in Bangladesh don’t play a major role in this country’s affairs. A recent media monitoring survey by the nongovernmental organisation Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS) revealed that out of 3,361 news items studied over a two-month period, “Only 16 percent of newspaper stories, 14 percent of television news [items], and 20 percent of radio news [items] considered women as subjects or interviewed them.” “Most of our audience are poor and they either don’t have access to television or cannot read newspapers. So FM radio, available even on the cheapest mobile phone, has been very popular." -- Sharmin Sultana, a news anchor for Radio Pollikontho in northeastern Bangladesh Fewer than eight percent of all the stories had women as the central focus. Of the few women who actually made an appearance on the TV screen, 97 percent were reading out the news, while just three percent fell into the category of ‘reporters’. Only 0.03 percent of all bylined stories studied during that period carried a woman’s name. The monitoring report found that even though more women appeared in photographs than men, they were quoted far fewer times, proving the old proverb that, in this country of 157 million people, women are still “seen and not heard.” While these statistics might seem daunting, women across the country who are not content to sit by and wait for the situation to change have taken matters into their own hands. They are doing so by getting on the airwaves and using the radio as a tool to raise the voices of women and bring rural issues into the limelight. Women comprise 49 percent of Bangladesh’s population. Like the vast majority of people here they are concentrated in rural areas, where 111.2 million people – or 72 percent of the population – live. Their distance from policymaking urban centres casts a double cloak of invisibility over women: according to data gleaned from the BNPS study, a mere 12 percent of newspaper articles, seven percent of TV news items
Every second elderly person in India – defined as someone above 60 years of age – suffers abuse within their own family – HelpAge India and just five percent of radio stories focused on rural or remote areas – even though urban areas cover just eight percent of this vast country’s landmass, and host just 28 percent of the population. The absence of women and women’s issues in the media is a dangerous trend in a country that ranked 142nd out of 187 states in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s most recent Gender Inequality Index (GII), making Bangladesh one of the worst performers in the Asia-Pacific region. Yet, even this is not mentioned in the news: the BNPS study showed that less than one percent of over 3,000 news items surveyed made any mention of gender inequality, while only 11 news stories challenged prevailing gender stereotypes. Given that Bangladesh has an extremely low literacy rate of 59 percent compared to the global average of 84.3 percent, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the importance of radio cannot be underestimated. Even in a nation where 24 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, radio is a widespread, relatively affordable means of plugging into the world, and is extremely popular among the millions of rural families that comprise the bulk of this country Momena Ferdousi, a 24-year-old student hailing from Bangladesh’s northwestern Chapai Nawabganj District, is one of the country’s up-and-coming
radio professionals. She is the senior programme producer for Radio Mahananda, a community radio station launched in 2011 that caters primarily to the thousands of farming families in this agricultural region that comprises part of the 7,780-square-km Barind Tract. She tells IPS she would not be where she is today without the support and training she, and scores of other aspiring female radio workers, received from the Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC). Fellowships and capacitybuilding initiatives sponsored by BNNRC have resulted in a flood of women filling the posts of producers, anchors, newscasters, reporters and station managers in 14 regional community radio stations around the country. “The road to my employment was challenging,” Ferdousi explains, “but BNNRC saw the potential in me and [other] female journalists and I believe we have made substantial changes by addressing gaps in women’s right to information.” Miles away, the confident voice of Sharmin Sultana on Radio Pollikontho, broadcast in the northeastern district of Moulvibazar, reaches roughly 400,000 people spread over a 17-km radius. With five hours of daily programming that focus largely on issues relevant to rural women, Radio Pollikontho has filled a huge gap in this community. “It is an amazing feeling to conduct a programme, interact
live with guests and respond to our audience’s requests to discuss health, women’s rights, social injustice, education and agriculture,” Sultana tells IPS. “When we began we had only one programme on women’s issues, now we run five programmes weekly, exclusively dedicated to women.” “Most of our audience are poor,” she explains, “and they either don’t have access to television or cannot read newspapers. So FM radio, available even on the cheapest mobile phone, has been very popular and the demand for interactive live programmes is increasing by the day.” The difficulties facing women here in Bangladesh are legion. Only 16.8 million women are employed in the formal sector, with the vast majority of them performing unpaid domestic labour on top of their duties in the farm or field. A lack of financial independence makes them extremely vulnerable to domestic violence: a recent study by the deputy director of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) found that 87 percent of currently married women have experienced physical violence at the hands of their husbands, while 98 percent say they have been sexually ‘violated’ by their spouses at some point during marriage. The survey also revealed that one-third of all married women faced ‘economic abuse’ – the forcible withholding of a partner’s financial assets for the purpose of maintaining
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“Most of our audience are poor,” she explains, “and they either don’t have access to television or cannot read newspapers. So FM radio, available even on the cheapest mobile phone, has been very popular and the demand for interactive live programmes is increasing by the day.” financial dependence on the perpetrator of violence. In 2011, 330 women were killed in dowry-related violence. Other issues, like child marriage, also make pressing news bulletins for community radio stations directed at women: according to United Nations data, some 66 percent of Bangladeshi girls are married before their 18th birthday. The situation is bleak, but experts say that as women become educated and aware of their rights, the tide will inevitable turn for the better. BNNRC Chief Executive Officer A H M Bazlur Rahman, who pioneered rural radio broadcasting efforts around the country, tells IPS, “Issues like budget allocation, lack of appropriate sanitation, violence against women, fighting corruption, [and] education for girls are [often] neglected by policy makers. But if we can give women a voice, these problems [will] gradually disappear.” It remains to be seen whether or not more women’s voices on the air will uplift the half of Bangladesh’s population in need of empowerment. But every time a woman’s voice crackles to life on a radio show, it means one more woman out there is hearing her story, learning her rights and moving closer to equality. Edited by Kanya D’Almeida
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Women still struggling to gain equal foothold in Nepal By Renu Kshetry
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ATHMANDU, Apr 7 2015 (IPS) - Kali Sunar, 25, a resident of the Dumpada village in the remote Humla District in Far-West Nepal, lives a life that mirrors millions of her contemporaries. From the minute she rises early in the morning until she finally rests her head at night, this rural woman’s chief concern is how to meet her family’s basic, daily needs. Her small plot of arable land scarcely produces enough food to feed her family of six for three months out of the year. With few other options open to them, her husband and her brother travel to neighbouring India to work as labourers, like scores of others in this landlocked country of 27.5 million people. “The money they send is not enough because more than half of it is spent on their travel back and forth,” Sunar tells IPS. “If only I could get some kind of work, it would be a huge relief.” Roughly 23 million people, accounting for 85 percent of Nepal’s population, live in rural areas. Some 7.4 million of them are women of reproductive age. Many are uneducated – the female literacy rate is 57.4 percent, compared to 75 percent for men – and while this represents progress, experts say that until women in Nepal gain equal footing with their male counterparts, the lives of women like Sunar will remain stuck in a rut. Nepal has signed a string of international treaties that promise gender parity – but many of these pledges have remained confined to the paper on which they were written. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which Nepal ratified in 1991, specifies for instance that states parties must take all necessary steps to prevent the exclusion of, or violence towards, women; sadly, this has not been a reality. According to the Kathmandu-based Violence Against Women (VAW) Hackathon, an initiative to provide support to victims of abuse, gender-based violence is the leading cause of death among Nepali women aged 19 to 44 years – more than war, cancer or car accidents. The organisation further
estimates: “22 percent of women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence at least once since age 15; 43 percent of women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace; [and] between 5,000 and 12,000 girls and women are trafficked every year.” Some 75 percent of these girls are under 18; the majority of them are sold into forced prostitution. Rights activists say that the country also routinely flouts its commitment to eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace, in legal matters, and in numerous other civic, economic and social spheres. Twenty-five-year-old Kali Sunar barely grows enough on her small plot of arable land to feed her family of six for three months out of the year. Credit: Renu Kshetry/ IPS Twenty-five-year-old Kali Sunar barely grows enough on her small plot of arable land to feed her family of six for three months out of the year. Credit: Renu Kshetry/ IPS Not only international treaties but domestic mechanisms, too, have failed to pull the brakes on sex discrimination and genderbased inequities.
A 2007 Interim Constitution, designed to ease Nepal’s transition from a constitutional monarchy to a federal republic, made provisions for women – as well as for other marginalised groups like Dalits (lower caste communities) Adivasis (indigenous and tribal groups), Madhesis (residents of the southern plains) and poor farmers and labourers – to be active political participants based on the principle of proportional inclusive representation. These were all steps in the right direction, bolstered by the 2008 election of the Constituent Assembly (CA), which saw women occupying 33 percent of all seats in the 601-member parliament. However, that number fell to 30 percent in the second election, held in 2013, the first after the CA failed to draft a new constitution. With only 11.53 percent of women in the cabinet, experts say there is an urgent need to increase the number of women at the decisionmaking level. According to a monitoring report by the non-governmental organisation Saathi, which tracked progress on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR
1325) relating to women, peace and security, women’s participation in Nepal’s judiciary stands at an average of 2.3 percent, with 5.6 percent of women in the Supreme Court, 3.7 percent in the appellate courts, none in the special courts and 0.89 in the district courts. Women’s representation in security agencies is even more worrisome, according to a 2012 study entitled ‘Changes in Nepalese Civil Services after the Adoption of Inclusive Policy and Reform Measures’: there are only 1.6 percent women in Nepal’s army, 3.7 percent in the armed police force and 5.7 percent in the regular police force. Dismal numbers of female civil servants across a broad spectrum of service groups also spell trouble: women account for just 9.3 percent of civil servants in the education sector, 4.4 percent in the economic planning and statistics division, 4.9 percent in agricultural affairs, 2.2 percent in engineering and two percent in forestry. Only in the health sector do women come anywhere close to their male counterparts, with 4,887 out of 13,936 positions, roughly 36 percent, occupied by women. Still, even this number is low, considering the health indicators for women that could be improved by boosting women’s representation at higher levels of politics and government: according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Nepal has a maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 190 deaths per 100,000 live births. Only 15 percent of Nepali women have access to healthcare facilities. Data from Nepal’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) indicate that only 19.71 percent of all families exercise female ownership of land or housing, another reason why women continue to languish on the lowest rung of the social ladder with little ability to exercise their own independence. Although Nepal’s female labour force participation rate is higher than many of its South Asian neighbours – 80 percent, compared to 36 percent in Bangladesh, 27 percent in India, 32 percent in Sri Lanka and 24 percent in Pakistan, according to the International Labour Oragnisation (ILO) – working women are burdened by social attitudes, which dictate that women
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undertake domestic labour as well as their other jobs. “This makes it difficult for women to perform [in their chosen field] and have an impact,” explains Mahalaxmi Aryal, a member of the CA from the Nepali Congress. Usha Kala Rai, a prominent women’s rights activist and politician, admits that the country has many legal grounds on which to address women’s issues, but says they are seldom utilised to their best effect. “We completely lack the political will and the commitment to implement these legal provisions,” says Rai, a former member of the Constituent Assembly and leader of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist). She calls for increased numbers of women in decision-making roles, but acknowledges that those who make it to the top generally come from the elite class, with the added privilege of having received a good education – thus they are not necessarily representative of women across the socioeconomic spectrum. She tells IPS she favours a system of proportional representation for all state bodies on the basis of the female share of Nepal’s population – 52 percent. “Women leaders have to rise above party lines if they really want to make a difference,” she explains, citing the creation of the 2008 Women’s Caucus, comprised of all 197 women in the Constituent Assembly representing every major political party, to stand together for women’s rights irrespective of ideology. However, pressure from male leaders meant that the second Constituent Assembly was unable to revive the Caucus, with the result that women no longer have a unified platform on which to voice their collective demands. “Women politicians have been handpicked by their parties under the proportional representation (PR) [system], which makes them vulnerable to partisan politics,” political science professor Mukta Singh Lama tells IPS. Until such a system is replaced with one that prioritises genuine inclusion of women at every level of the state, experts fear that Nepal’s women will not have an equal hand in the shaping of this country. Edited by Kanya D’Almeida
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The plight of Kashmiri Pandits cannot be resolved with ghettoisation By Wajahat Habibullah*
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EW DELHI: The debate over the latest attempt of the Central and State governments to resettle Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir can only bring pain to any well wisher of Kashmir. The close of the ‘80s saw Kashmir spiral into a tailspin of violence, suspicion and dread. What had begun as an ethnic conflict was given a religious colour by Pakistan’s ISI. The Kashmiri Pandits, a minuscule minority of Hindus in Kashmir Valley, became targets of terrorists from both the JKLFeven though the party’s manifesto had sought to build on the original secular foundations of the National Conference- and the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, supporter of secession to Pakistan, sparking massive emigration. By 2008, the Pandit population in the Valley, assessed by their Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS) as having numbered 75,343 families on 1 January 1990, was reduced to but 651 families. Nearly seventy thousand families had fled in the turmoil of 1990– 92. But the bulk of the emigration thereafter— over three thousand families—left when violence had been brought increasingly under control. By early 1990, when I was Special Commissioner Anantnag, in South Kashmir, the public had ceased visiting government offices. But in early March, a crowd of several hundred from Nai Basti neighbourhood gathered before the Special Commissioner’s office in Khannabal demanding to see me. I had set up office (and residence, due to the disturbed circumstances) in the rest house in the district headquarters. Mohammad Syed Shah, generally known as Syed Shah, brother of separatist leader Shabir Shah and MUF member of the dissolved State Assembly, demanded to know why Pandits were leaving and why the administration was doing nothing to stop the exodus. Shah accused the administration in all seriousness, of
encouraging the migration so that the army would be left free to unleash its heavy artillery on all habitations. . When I asked the delegation if they believed that I, a Muslim like them, would actually be party to such a plan, their response was that I had been kept in the dark and that they were privy to ‘secret’ information. I told them quite clearly that it was hardly surprising that Pandits were apprehensive. Places of worship of the majority were continually used to blare strident threats to them over loudspeakers— as every mosque in Anantnag, where I could hear them, was being used at the time—and prominent members of their community had been murdered. (I learned later that these inflammatory sermons and their reverberating public applause were audio recordings circulated to mosques to be played over loudspeakers at prayer time.) Local Muslims needed to reassure the Pandits of their safety. The administration would readily provide security whenever a threat to the Pandits was anticipated, but its effectiveness would be doubtful without public support, given that the residences of the Pandits were scattered. The gathering concurred and dispersed quietly. I did request Governor Jagmohan that he telecast an appeal to Pandits that
they stay in Kashmir, assuring their safety on the basis of the assurance of the Anantnag residents. Unfortunately, no such appeal came, only an announcement that to ensure the security of Pandits, ‘refugee’ camps were being set up in every district of the Valley, and Pandits who felt threatened could move to these camps rather than leave the Valley. Those Pandits in service who felt threatened were free to leave their stations; they would continue to be paid salary.. I relate this tale because the present flurry of allegations carries a strange déjà vu. The Pandit community, which numbered more than 1, 20,000 at the opening of the 1980s, was by 2005 reduced to a tiny minority of about 7,000 in the Kashmir Valley, whence the community sprang. There has been much talk of the return of Kashmiri ‘migrants’ to their homes in the Valley since the elected government took office in the state in 1996. Leaders of the separatist movement, such as Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and Shabir Shah repeatedly called for the return of Kashmiri migrants. But every time the issue was raised at the national level, Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley were subjected to attack, even massacre, causing the issue to be dropped. Talk of the migrants’ return was then and continues to be pointless unless
those living in the Valley are made physically and economically secure. By 2003 the community was scattered in 270 neighbourhoods in towns and villages of the Valley. They summoned the courage to form an NGO, the Hindu Welfare Society, which attempted to document information regarding the location and requirements of the community. This society successfully discouraged the exodus of Pandits from the Valley after the massacre of twenty three innocent Pandits in the village of Nadimarg earlier that year. A similar massacre in the village of Wandhama in 1998 had resulted in the emigration of 10,000 Pandits. The demands of the Valley’s Pandits at the time were simple: residence in a secure locality and jobs for 500 men and women. They did not complain of hostility from the Muslim public—in fact, they were grateful for Muslim support, the principal, and perhaps only, reason for their continued determination to stay, apart from the need to earn a living. But they complained about the indifference of government officials. Although the chief secretary of the state in 2005-2006, Vijay Bakaya, himself a Pandit, was willing to lend them a patient ear, the state administration remained unresponsive. On a visit to Srinagar on 21 June 2008 I met. three
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large groups of Kashmiri Pandits who had stayed in the Valley, two of whom belonged to two groups of the Hindu Welfare Society, Kashmir, Society which had by this time splintered and the third from the KPSS. I had asked for the meeting to urge that instead of allowing themselves to pursue separate road maps, they come together to place their requirements before government. Although there had indeed been progress in the open exercise of their traditions like the restoration and normality of the annual Janmashtami procession, real difficulties persisted on material issues. There was an interim census report prepared by the KPSS, financed by members of the KP Diaspora, covering sixtytwo mohallas of Anantnag, Bandipore, Baramulla, Budgam, Ganderbal, Kulgam, Kupwara, Pulwama, Shopian and Srinagar. There was also a consolidated survey of land attempted by the KPSS. The conclusions arrived at—although subject to re-verification—were alarming. According to these the number of KPs residing in the Valley was reduced to merely 3,000. And although there was some record of buildings occupied by the security forces—mainly houses for which owners were receiving rent— there was then no consolidated record of land and property of this group, which was of justiciable ‘munsif’ quality. There was, besides, no record of the properties attached to temples, those encroached upon and those leased out, or under occupation. Different groups had different figures of unemployed youths. Their employment was an issue of the gravest common concern to the community. They had on another occasion, spoken of children bitterly castigating parents for having stayed back in Kashmir where they were left begging for a livelihood. Sadly, I learned that there were about 150 families in outlying areas reduced to destitution that lived on charity These numbers were not an unduly cumbersome figure for potential employment in
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the state services in the Valley. In fact, I received a final list of only 200 young men and women from the Hindu Welfare Society in April 2010. And the situation today? In answer to a recent Parliament question Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju stated that a comprehensive package worth Rs 1,618.40 cr. was announced by the Centre in 2008 for return and rehabilitation of migrant Kashmiri families through grant of financial assistance for purchase or construction of houses, renovation of damaged or dilapidated houses, construction of transit accommodation, continuation of cash relief and employment, among others. "The package is being implemented by the Jammu and Kashmir government and till now, one family has returned to the valley availing the benefit of Rs 7.5 lakh for construction of house," Rijiju said in a written reply. Further, as many as 1,474 state government jobs had been provided to newly appointed migrant youths who have been kept in newly constructed 1,010 transit accommodations in south, east and north Kashmir. In
reply to another question, he said that at present 60,452 families of Kashmiri migrants were registered in the country out of which 38,119 were in Jammu, 19,338 in Delhi and 1,995 families in other states. Migrants mainly comprised Kashmiri Pandits and Sikhs. This then is the culmination of the Prime Minister's successive packages for the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, announced in 2004 and 2008, which, through the issue of ID cards had given the migrants much needed recognition. In the first of these 5,242 tworoom tenements were constructed in Jammu, and 200 at Sheikhpora in Budgam district of the Valley. Of these 200 flats, initially constructed for migrants from the Valley, 31 have been allotted to local migrants within the Valley, including Pandits. Located some distance from the town, Sheikhpora was not a success, and Mufti Saeed acknowledged as much in his last tenure as CM, when he announced that there will be no communally exclusive townships. In terms of their resettlement, it requires no imagination to realise that apart from the danger of ghettoisation that would result from
separate townships, it would render the Pandit community vulnerable, given its history of assault and complaint of administrative indifference since the ‘90s. But the present initiative, while building on the previous, seems to have been arrived at without consultation with the community, a course that could readily have been undertaken in this age of information technology. Even in the highly unlikely event of the Pandits resolving to return en masse to Kashmir, the numbers disclosed by Rijiju would scarcely overwhelm the valley. Besides, what would such returnees do? The beauty of Kashmir is a powerful allure to any visitor. But what of earning a livelihood? As Chairman National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, I visited Jammu in 2012, to request migrant teachers and staff to return to Srinagar, where the NIT had been headed by a Pandit, All of them refused to forgo their lives built in Jammu. The answer then must lie in going much further. What I had advised my Kashmiri interlocutors from Nai Basti, Anantnag
southSouth asia times 19 Asia Times in 1990 still stands. The ground situation in the valley may not reflect a threat to returning KPs. But it is the responsibility of Kashmiris within the Valley to reassure those returning of their welcome, instead of contumacious quibbling, which will only raise misgivings in an already tremulous community. There has been a long standing demand for a Minorities Commission in J&K along the lines of the National Commission for Minorities, supported by at least two past Chairpersons of the NCM, including myself. The State government has expressed sympathy but little else. But this alone will not encourage return of migrants settled elsewhere. The State must be opened up to FDI accompanied with the development of the much talked of smart cities, which can be the new townships. This will encourage young Kashmiris, Pandit, Muslim Sikh or Christian, many of whom have achieved excellence in their chosen technologies, to invest and return to settle in Kashmir, providing livelihood and living space to others. As peace returns increasingly to Kashmir, is it not time that it joins the rest of the
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But the present initiative, while building on the previous, seems to have been arrived at without consultation with the community, a course that could readily have been undertaken in this age of information technology. country in marching ahead in bringing the economic revolution that all Indians look forward to? *Wajahat Habibullah has served in Jammu and Kashmir. He was also Chief Information Commissioner and more recently as Chairman of the Minorities Commission, The views expressed in the article are his own. Source: TheCitizen
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‘Cli-fi’ to Heat Up Literature Course in India By Dan Bloom
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AIPEI, Apr 8 2015 (IPS) - University lecture halls in North America are no strangers to the ”cli-fi” genre of climate-themed novels and movies, but now India is getting into the act as well, thanks to the pioneering work of Professor T. Ravichandran of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) in Uttar Pradesh. Dr. Ravichandran’s course, titled “Cli-fi and Cli-flicks,” is set to begin in late July and consists of 15 modules covering such topics as ecofiction, eco-fabulism, and representations of climate change issues in feature films and documentaries. Aimed at undergraduate students at IITK, the course will be the first of its kind in all of India, Dr. Ravichandran told me in a recent email. “In India, climate change awareness is not as acutely felt as in the U.S. or the U.K,” he said. ”My recent research on ‘Literature, Technology
and Environment: Global and Pedagogical Perspectives,’ sponsored by the Fulbright-Nehru Professional and Academic fellowship from USIEF, India, and hosted at Duke University in North Carolina, was a turning point in my career.” Dr. Ravichandran said he experienced a paradigm shift in his thinking about the way in which he connects to the natural environment during his fellowship in North Carolina. When I asked him what he meant, he replied: “It made me to think seriously of my role as a teacher of literature to engineering students. How long will I continue to teach Shakespeare and Shelley and make them aesthetically love the beauty of daffodils or skylarks when in reality they would soon become endangered if climate change goes unchecked?” To answer his own question, Professor Ravichandran added: “In order to make myself relevant to my existence
on this Earth, I thought at least I should cause awareness on climate change in the minds of my students. So that’s how I started working on the course. In India, I hope to make this course a successful and effective one.” Since the predominating global concern today is climate change, which obliterates geopolitical boundaries and connects humans in search of common solutions, Dr. Ravichandran is appropriating an interdisciplinary approach for his course, he told me. “Climate fiction (‘clifi’) and climate films (‘cli-flicks’) offer an interdisciplinary study of a looming phenomenon that the humans in the Anthropocene age witness helplessly as if trapped on a sinking ship,” he said. “The real question to be addressed is not, as posed by climate change sceptics, whether this catastrophe is so alarming that humans need to act on it immediately, but how long can humankind afford
to remain impervious to something that is so glaring?” he added. Dr. Ravichandran said that he hopes that having his students focus on novels and films in the ‘cli-fi’ genre will foster a change in mind-set that can open them up to thinking about the sustainable use of scarce resources and ensuring the symbiotic sustenance of the human and the nonhuman on Earth. Students in the pioneering IITK course will be reading such novels as “Year of the Flood,” “A Friend of the Earth,” and “Flight Behavior.” In additon, movies such as “Interstellar,” “Snowpiercer” and “The Day after Tomorrow” will be screened and discussed, Dr. Ravichandran said. As a reporter from North America who has been closely following the rise of the cli-fi genre in the West, I am glad to see IITK in India offering a course like this to its engineering students. Call it a meme, a motif, a cultural prism, a buzzword, a PR tool, or a
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Professor Ravichandran’s novel course could very well become a role model for other academics in India to follow. marketing term, ”cli-fi” is here to stay and India has just joined the club. In fact, with this course, the first of its kind in India, the professor and his students will be making history, and I hope the media in Uttar Pradesh and beyond will pick up this story as a news story in English and Hindi. Professor Ravichandran’s novel course could very well become a role model for other academics in India to follow.
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Attacking the Cross J By Ram Puniyani
ulio Ribeiro is one of the best known police officers in India. Recently (March 16, 2015) he wrote in his article that he is feeling like a stranger in this country. ‘I feel threatened, not wanted, reduced to a stranger in my own country’. This pain and anguish of a distinguished citizen, an outstanding police officer has to be seen against the backdrop of the rising attacks on Churches and rape of the 71 year old nun in Kolkata. All over the country the rage amongst the Christian community is there to be seen in the form of silent marches, candle light vigils and peaceful protests. As such during the last several months in particular the instances of attacks, and intimidation of the minority community has become more frightening. There is also a noticeable change in the pattern of violence against them. Earlier these attacks were more in the remote Adivasi areas, now one can see this taking place in urban areas also. The change in frequency of these attacks after the new Government took over is a striking phenomenon. As such Christians are one of the very old communities in India. Right from the first century when St. Thomas visited Malabar Coast in Kerala and set up a Church there the Christian
community has been here, part of the society, contributing to various aspects of social life. The missionaries, the nuns and priests, have also spent ages in the rural hinterlands setting up educational and health facilities and have also founded the most reputed educational institutions in most of the major cities of the country. Christians today are a tiny minority (2.3% as per 2001 census). It has been a community which like any other has its own internal diversity with various Christian denominations. In this context the rise of anti Christian violence during last few decades in Adivasi areas, Dangs (Gujarat) Jhabua (MP) Kandhamal (Orissa) has been an unnerving experience for the community as a whole and for those believing in pluralism and diversity of the country in particular. The violence which picked up from mid nineties peaked in the burning alive of Pastor Graham Stains (23rd Jan 1999) and later Kandhamal violence in 2007 and 2008. After this there was a sort of low intensity scattered violence in remote areas, till the attack on Churches in Delhi from last several months. The Churches which were attacked were scattered in five corners of Delhi, Dilshad Garden (East), Jasola (South West), Rohini (Outer Delhi), Vikaspuri (West) and Vasant kunj (South),
as if by design the whole terrain of Delhi was to be covered for polarization. It was claimed by police and state that the main cause of these has been theft etc.; in the face of the fact at most of the places the donation boxes remained intact. BJP spokesperson are vociferously giving the data that during this period so many temples have also been attacked, which is a mere putting the wool in the eye, as the targeted nature of anti Christian violence is very glaring. In the meanwhile the RSS Sarsanghachalak, the boss of the Hindu right, to which BJP owes its allegiance, states that Mother Teresa was doing the charity work with intent to conversion. Post the statement two major incidents have come to light. One is in Hisar in Harayana, where a church has been attacked, it’s Cross replaced by the idol of Lord Hanuman and the Chief Minister of Haryana, who again has RSS background, stated that the Pastor of the Church has been alleged to be part of the conversion activities. At the same time RSS progeny Vishwa Hindu Parishad stated that more such acts of attack on churches will take place if conversions are not stopped. This incident reminds one of the placing of the idols of Ram Lalla (Baby Ram) in Babri Mosque in 1949 and then claiming that it was a birth place of Lord Ram.
In addition the statement of the Chief Minister gives a clear indication as to how the investigation of the incident will take place and whether the real culprits will ever be nabbed. Incidentally there are no police complaints about Pastors’ conversion activities if any, in the police records. This ‘they are doing conversions’ is a standard ploy which is propagated for anti Christian violence, which one has witnessed so far. After Bhagwat’s comments on Mother Teresa the anti Christian violence seems to be intensifying by the day and the incidence of Haryana and Kolkata are symbols of that and VHP is openly talking of more attacks. When Prime Minister Modi broke his deliberate silence on the issues of violence against minorities, he did say that religious freedom will be respected. But one also knows that what he says and what he means are mostly not the same. Also that now the silence of last several months has given a clear message to his associates in RSS combines that they can carry on their disruptive and polarizing activities at will. A large section within the Christian community feel that Modi was voted on the agenda of development and this type of violence was not anticipated! That is a sheer naivety, Modi is a RSS trained Pracharak, for whom the divisive agenda
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It has been a community which like any other has its own internal diversity with various Christian denominations. remains at the core, to be implemented by a clever ‘division of labor’ implemented through different organizations, which are part of RSS combine popularly known as Sangh Parivar. As such India has been the cradle of many religions, which celebrated and lived together, a far cry from the present atmosphere which is intimidating the minorities. Christian’s plight in recent times is something to which the concerned democratic rights individuals need to wake up to. This seems to be unfolding of the script, Pehle Kasai Phir Isai, (First Muslim, then Christians). It is not just a violation of their rights; it’s also a violation of very basic norm of democracy. As they say, a democracy has to be judged by the litmus test of level of security and equity its minorities enjoy! Source: Plural India
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Australia lifts fifth World Cup
From Shobhit Nanda in MCG
Having knocked out India in the 2007 world cup, they wanted to create another upset but came short against a strong Indian team in the Quarter final.
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elbourne 29 March (MCG): Forty nine matches in 45 days resulted in the Australian team winning their fifth world cup in front of over 91,000 people at the MCG. The tournament felt long and drawn out during the group stages but the format meant the top teams in world cricket were almost guaranteed to make it to the knockout stages. The tournament did come alive as Bangladesh knocked England out of the tournament to take a spot in the Quarter Final and West Indies kept their flame alight at the expense of flamboyant Ireland side. The Quarter Finals were predictable with the better teams SA, Aus, NZ and India booking a place in the Semis. But it was the tournament favourites Australia and NZ that booked a ticket in the final. Australia Australia along with their transTasman neighbours were one of the favourites to win the tournament. Having been knocked out by India in the 2011 world cup by host India, they remained unbeaten in the lead up to the world cup, handsomely beating India & England on the home turf. Their biggest test was always going to be the clash against NZ in NZ in the group stages and what a low scoring gem that turned out to be with the black caps winning by just one wicket. There was expectation if Australia make the final at the MCG, their fifth
West Indies The West Indian team came off disastrous tours of India and South Africa. There was a real chance that one of the associate team could knock them out of the tournament. Given they had an untested captain in the young, Jason Holder, a lot depended on their star batsman, Chris Gayle to come good. He had his moment when playing against Pakistan team in the group stage and they did enough to progress to the Quarter final against New Zealand where their run ended.
World Cup title would be in the kitty and that’s exactly what happened. New Zealand NZ were looking for their first world cup victory after being knocked out in 6 semi finals in previous editions and what better opportunity than playing in your own back yard. With India winning as host for the first time in 2011, the stigma that the host teams cannot win due to the pressure was gone. NZ played all their games in the smaller NZ ground and won them all thanks in part to the explosive batting of their captain, Brendan McCullam.
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They got into the final after beating a strong South African unit in thrilling circumstances. But the Aussie bowling attack was too good for them in the final in the MCG. South Africa The South African team has always been a contender to win the big one since their re-entry into the cricket family in 1992. However, they have always found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Their world cup semi final against NZ was no different after dropping crucial catches in the dying overs. Earlier in the tournament, they were defeated by India & Pakistan in group stages but comprehensively defeated Sri Lanka to reach the semi final. Another long four years wait till they get another chance. India The Indian team went into world cup with the worst possible form but the best possible preparation as they got time to familiarise themselves with Australian pitches in the test and tri-series prior. Any talk of burn out & low morale due to not winning a single game over their 3 months down under was put to the rest after a confidence boosting win against Pakistan in the opening game at Adelaide. They then defeated South Africa at the MCG and recovered in a run chase against Zimbabwe to reach the quarter final stage unbeaten. After defeating the Bangladeshi side in the quarters, India met with Australia where their run ended. Some say they weren't tested during the tournament but the real reason they lost was that their bowlers gave away too many runs after Australia choose to bat first. Besides a hundred against Pakistan, their super star batsman, Virat Kholi failed to make any significant contribution to the tournament and got out early in the crunch game against the Aussies. Bangladesh The fearless Tigers reached the quarter final stage by defeating England and knocking them out of the tournament. They defeated the other associate teams in their pool and got a crucial 1 point from the rained out game against Australia at the Gabba.
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Sri Lanka The Lankans came to the world cup with a strong team and had the seniors Sangakkara and Jayewardene on the cusp of retiring. It was always going to be a tall order for them to get past South African in the Quarter final and a lot of fans were disappointed by the way their greats exited the big stage with an underwhelming performance in that game. Pakistan Pakistan had an outside chance of making an impact and they needed the fight of the 1992 world cup victory down under to get them going. They recovered from an early group stage loss against India and West Indies to win against South Africa and gave Australians a good fight in the quarter final. Their quicks made a memorable impact in an otherwise poor batting game which led to the loss. England The English side had a forgetful world cup campaign. The team looked fractured with the sacking of their captain, Jonathan Cook and the noninclusion of Kevin Peterson in the squad. They got a humiliating beating at the hands on Bangladesh which sent them packing at the end of the group stages. Zimbabwe Zimbabwe only managed to win one game against UAE and had an overall flat tournament. Captain of Zimbabwe, Brendon Taylor, was their standout player but he played out his last game for Zimbabwe in this tournament as he will move to UK to play county cricket. Afghanistan, UAE, Ireland, Scotland The games between the associate teams provided some good entertainment and it was good to see that cricket is thriving in countries such as Afghanistan. There is talk of limiting future world cups to the top 10 teams and there may be some merit in doing is as it will reduce the number of meaningless games. At the same time, the world cup is the chance for this team to play against the big team. A number of commentators have batted in favour of keeping them in the world cup fold to give them exposure on the big stage. In between world cups, his best way to improve them would be for the big teams to send their A team to compete against them.
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Acid attacks still a burning issue in India By Neeta Lal
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EW DELHI, Apr 15 2015 (IPS) Vinita Panikker, 26, considers herself “the world’s most unfortunate woman”. Three years ago, a jealous husband, who suspected her of having an affair with her boss at a software company, poured a whole bottle of hydrochloric acid on her face while she was asleep. The fiery liquid seared her flesh, blighting her face almost entirely while blinding her in one eye. "It is far less tangible but the discrimination – from friends, relatives and neighbours – hurts the most." -- Shirin Juwaley, an acid attack survivor and founder of the Palash Foundation What remains today of a once pretty visage is a disfigured and taut stretch of burnt skin with nose, lips, and eyelids flattened out almost completely. Despite spending 10,000 dollars on 12 reconstructive surgeries and two eye operations, the acid attack survivor is still partially blind. From earning a fivefigure salary as a software professional, Panikker today ekes out a living as a cook at a local non-profit. “My life has taken a 180-degree turn,” she tells IPS. “From a successful career woman, I’m now a social reject with neither resources nor family to call my own.” Acid attacks in India have ravaged the lives of thousands of young women whose only fault was that they repudiated marriage proposals, rejected sexual advances from men they didn’t fancy, or were caught in the crossfire of domestic disputes. In India’s patriarchal society, men who take umbrage at being spurned turn to acid as a retributive weapon. “Acid attacks severely damage and burn skin tissue, often exposing and even dissolving the bones,” explains Rohit Bhargava, senior consultant dermatologist with Max Hospital in Noida, a suburban district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where 185 out of 309 acid attacks reported in 2014 took place. “Long-term consequences include blindness, permanent scarring of the face and body, disability and lifelong
physical disfigurement,” the doctor tells IPS. But some survivors, whose appearance changes overnight, say the psychological scars are the ones that take longest to heal. There are social ramifications too, as the attacks usually leave victims disabled in some way, thereby increasing their dependence on family members for even the most basic daily activities. Shirin Juwaley, an acid attack survivor who launched the Palash Foundation to address social reintegration and livelihood alternatives for people with disfigurement, says social exclusion is far more painful than any physical injury inflicted on an acid attack victim. “It is far less tangible but the discrimination – from friends, relatives and neighbours – hurts the most,” she tells IPS. In 1998, Juwaley’s husband doused her with acid after she sought a divorce. Despite several police complaints, he still roams free, while Juwaley has had to painfully piece her life back together again. Today she has a busy schedule, and travels the world addressing conferences and symposia on the social, financial and psychological impact of acid burns. Her organisation also studies the social exclusion of people who live with altered bodies. Slow progress on legal deterrents The Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI), a London-based charity, tentatively estimates that some 1,000 acid attacks
occur every year in India. However, in the absence of official statistics, campaigners put the true figure even higher: at roughly 400 every month. “The fear of reprisals inhibits many women from coming forward to report their ordeal,” explains Ashish Shukla, a coordinator at Stop Acid Attacks, a Delhibased non-profit that has rehabilitated and empowered over 100 acid attack victims since its inception in 2013. “In India, acid attacks are even worse than rape as the victims, who are usually female, are subjected to humiliation on a daily basis. Most of the women are shunned and ostracised […],” explains Shukla. The activist adds that public and government apathy results in a double victimisation of the survivors. “They are forced to repeatedly appear in court, recount their trauma, and [visit] doctors even as they grapple with their personal tragedy of physical disfigurement, loss of employment and social discrimination,” elaborates the activist. As per the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, a person convicted of carrying out an acid attack in India can be sentenced to anything from 10 years to life imprisonment. The Supreme Court ruled on Jul. 16, 2013, that all states regulate the sale of easily available substances like hydrochloric, sulfuric, or nitric acids – common choices among perpetrators – adding that buyers must provide a photo identity card to any retailer, who in turn should record each
customer’s name and address. However, most retailers IPS spoke to demonstrated complete ignorance of the law. “This is the first time I’m hearing about this ruling,” Suresh Gupta, owner of Gupta Stores, a small, family-owned outfit in Noida, tells IPS. Campaigners say that this horrific form of genderbased violence will not end until the government makes it much harder for offenders to procure their weapon of choice; currently, onelitre bottles of acid can be purchased over the counter without a prescription for as little as 33 cents. The Supreme Court has condemned the Centre for failing to formulate a strong enough policy to curb acid sales. In early April, the Court directed private hospitals to treat acid attack survivors free of cost, and additionally ruled that states must take action against medical facilities that fail to comply with this directive. Experts say India should take a leaf out of the books of neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh by firming up implementation of existing laws. In Bangladesh, acid assaults have plummeted from 492 cases in 2002 to 75 last year, according to ASTI, since the government introduced the death penalty for acid attacks. Stiffer legislation in Pakistan has resulted in a 300-percent rise in the number of women coming forward to report the crime. Progress in India has been slower, although the state governments of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have set a good precedent by funding the entire cost of medical
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"It is far less tangible but the discrimination – from friends, relatives and neighbours – hurts the most." -- Shirin Juwaley, an acid attack survivor and founder of the Palash Foundation treatment for some acid attack survivors. Ritu Saa is one such example. The 20-yearold who had to give up her studies following an acid attack in 2012 by her cousin is today a financially independent woman. She works at the Cafe Sheroes’ Hangout, an initiative launched by the Stop Acid Attacks campaign in the city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh, which employs several survivors. “The campaign and the government have really helped me a lot,” Saa tells IPS. “Today, I have a job, a decent salary, good food, accommodation and am standing on my own feet.” While acid attacks have traditionally been perceived as a problem involving male perpetrators and female victims, advocates say that attacks on men are also surging, with a third of all cases reported each year involving males embroiled in property or financial disputes. Rights activists and campaigners contend that until the government formulates and enforces a multi-pronged approach to ending this grisly practice, scores of people in this country of 1.2 billion remain at risk of suffering a fate that some say is worse than death. —Edited by Kanya D’Almeida
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शहीद-दिवस तथा ‘ऐन्ज़ैक-दिवस’
एक दीपक प्रज्ज्वलित कर तुम चलो
२३ मार्च, १९३१ को शहीदे -आज़म भगत सिंह को अपने साथियों राजगुरु तथा सुखदे व के साथ, भारत में अँग्रेज़ी शासन के विरुद्ध संसद में बम फेंकने की सज़ा में फ़ाँसी पर लटका दिया गया था। इसलिये भारत में २३ मार्च शहीद-दिवस के रूप में मनाया जाता है| आज से लगभग १०० वर्ष पूर्व, २५ अप्रैल १९१५ को प्रथम विश्व-युद्ध में तुर्की के ‘गैलीपोली’ नामक स्थान पर हुई लड़ाई में, ऑस्ट्रेलिया तथा न्यूज़ीलैंड की संयुक्त सेना (ऐन्ज़ैक) के दस हज़ार से भी अधिक सैनिक मारे गये थे| उनकी याद में ऑस्ट्रेलिया तथा न्यूज़ीलैंड में हर वर्ष २५ अप्रैल ऐन्ज़ैक-दिवस (शहीददिवस) के रूप में मनाया जाता है | इस दिन तुर्की में, सामान्य जानता के साथ-साथ, विभिन्न दे शों के सैनिक व राजनैतिक प्रतिनिधि ऊषाकालीन श्रद्धांजलि-सभा (डॉनसर्विस) में भाग लेते हैं और ऑस्ट्रेलिया तथा न्यूज़ीलैंड के नगरों व उपनगरों में शहीदों को श्रद्धांजलि दे ने के लिये लोग एकत्रित होते हैं और सैनिक परे ड होती है | इस महीने जैन धर्म के २४वें तथा अंतिम तीर्थंकर, महावीर जी तथा संकट-मोचन हनुमान जी और स्वतंत्र भारत के संविधान बनाने वाली समिति के प्रमुख सदस्य तथा दलितों के नेता श्री अम्बेदकर जी की जयंती भी है| इसके अतिरिक्त ईस्टर तथा बैसाखी के त्योहार भी हैं | पाठकों को इन जयंतियों व त्योहारों की शुभकामनाएँ| इस अंक के k;Vyku'j स्तम्भ में मुख्यतः शहीद-दिवस, राम-नवमी, स्वच्छ भारत तथा अन्य विषयों से सम्बंधित कविताएँ हैं । साथ में, गैलीपोली के युद्ध में भारतीय सेना के योगदान पर एक लेख है और ‘अमृत वृद्धाश्रम’ नामक कहानी का चौथा भाग है | इसके अतिरिक्त, ‘संक्षिप्त समाचार’, ‘अब हँ सने की बारी है ’, ‘महत्वपूर्ण तिथियाँ’ व ‘सूचनाएँ’ स्तम्भ भी हैं | लिखियेगा कि आपको यह अंक कैसा लगा। —दिनेश श्रीवास्तव
p[k;xn sMb'/I sUcn;E\ ihNdI-puãp k; ¬ýeXy a;ŽS$^eily; me' ihNdI k; p[c;r-p[s;r krn; hw) p[k;ixt rcn;ao' pr koé p;irÅimk nhI' idy; j;t; hw) ihNdI-puãp me' p[k;ixt rcn;ao' me' le%ko' ke ivc;r ¬nke apne hote hw'² ¬nke ilye sMp;dk y; p[k;xk ¬Êrd;yI nhI' hw') hStili%t rcn;E\ SvIk;r kI j;tI hw' prNtu ”leK$^^;Žink åp se ¾ihNdI-s'SkOt¾ f¹;\$ me' rcn;E\ .eje' to ¬nk; p[k;xn hm;re ilE ai/k suiv/;jnk hog; kOpy; apnI rcn;E\ ákh;iny;\² kivt;E\² le%² cu$kule² mnor'jk anu.v a;idâ inMnili%t pte pr .eje'-
Editor, Hindi-Pushp, 141 Highett Street, Richmond, Victoria 3121 é-mel se rcn;E\ .ejne k; pt; hw- dsrivastava@optusnet.com.au
apnI rcn;E\ .ejte smy² apnI rcn; kI Ek p[it apne p;s avXy r% le')
घोर शंकाएँ यहाँ, कुचेष्टाएँ हैं अनगिनत गढ़ीं आतंक अत्याचार का है ज़ोर भी कुछ कम नहीं भय कुशंका त्यागकर, तम चीरकर आगे बढ़ो एक दीपक प्रज्ज्वलित कर तुम चलो कश्मीर का आँचल छुपा आतंक साये में पड़ोसी मुल्क़ की चालें, न रहना इनके धोखे में अभी भी वक़्त है , इस दे श को तुम जोड़ लो एक दीपक प्रज्ज्वलित कर तुम चलो मंज़िलें ग़र कठिन हों, राहें कँटीली हों यदि शूल भी ग़र चुभ रहे हों, पग रोकना लेकिन नहीं
स्वच्छ भारत
-डॉ. सुभाष शर्मा, मेल्बर्न
गंगा जमुना की धरती को आओ स्वर्ग बनाओ आओ संग हमारे आओ भारत स्वच्छ बनाओ ॥ यमुना में अब कृ ष्ण नहीं लीला अपनी दिखलाते दषि ू त इतने घाट हो गये, उन्हें नहीं अब भाते घाट-घाट और गली-गली को फिर से स्वच्छ बनाओ कृ ष्ण और राधा को फिर से अपने द्वार बुलाओ ॥१॥ शौच नाम सुनते ही बहुतै, मन ही मन सकुचायें माँ बहनें भी पीड़ा मन की कैसे तुम्हें बतायें माँ बहनों की खा़तिर, तुम भी अपना क़दम बढ़ाओ तुम भी अपने गाँव में जाकर शौचालय बनवाओ ॥२॥ संक्रामक रोगों को रोको, जीवन स्वस्थ बनाओ दे श विदे शों से ज़्यादा, भारत समृद्ध बनाओ सादा जीवन उच्च विचारों का नारा दोहराओ दे श विदे शों में जाकर भारत का नाम कमाओ ॥३॥ गांधी का भारत, मोदी का भारत है यह अपना स्वच्छ और समृद्ध दे श हो सबका है यह सपना गंगा साफ़ करो और तुम भी भगीरथ बन जाओ मोदी के अभियान में आओ तुम भी हाथ बटाओ ॥४॥ मन में पीड़ा न रह जाए, दे श मेरा क्यों पिछड़ा आओ गले लगाओ उसको, जो तुमसे है बिछड़ा तुम भी अपने हाथ में, आओ झाड़ू आज उठाओ काम नहीं छोटा कोई, दलितों का मान बढ़ाओ ॥५॥
पाथर की पीर
-डॉ. म्रदल ु कीर्ति, अमेरिका
जगत में निज-निज नियति दहु ाई। एक पाथर दज ू े पत्थर से कहत पीर अकुलाई। भाग प्रबल अति महत जगत में, यह सत जगत बताई। एक पाथर को कूट-कूट के रं ग महल चुनवाई। एक पाथर मग बीच परयो सब ठोकर सों ठु कराई एक ठीकरा ठोकर खाए, एक प्रभु मूरत पाई पुष्प, तोय, पय, चन्दन पूजत, जन-जन ढोक लगाई एक पाथर गंगा तट तीरे , लहर-लहर तर जाई एक पाथर नाली के तीरे , भोगत निज अघमाई एक पत्थर बन गयी अहिल्या, राम चरण परसाई धन्य भाग बढ़ ता पाथर, जिन राम ने चरण छुआई एक पाथर शिव लिंग बनयो, जिन राम ने शीश नवाई पाथर विरल जलधि में तैरे, रामसेतु बनवाई वे पाथर तो महा धन्य जिन नाम शहीद लिखाई वे पाथर माँ हिय से कोमल, वीर को गोद लिटाई।
-कुसुम वीर, नोएडा साहस की चढ़ बुलन्दियाँ, तुम मील का पत्थर बनो एक दीपक प्रज्ज्वलित कर तुम चलो यह दे श विजयी हो गया, विजयी तुम्हीं कहलाओगे यह दे श नीचे हो गया, तुम शर्म से गड़ जाओगे भारत के गौरव को पुनः जीवित करो एक दीपक प्रज्ज्वलित कर तुम चलो हमें आज़ाद भारत की नई तस्वीर गढ़नी है भीरुता और जीर्णता मन की मिटानी है पतवार बनकर दे श की नैय्या सम्भालो एक दीपक प्रज्ज्वलित कर तुम चलो
m/um;s bsNt
h\sI' sb idx;ye'² h\sI sOiã$ s;rI² s%I de%o² Þtu bsNt a;”R) cupke se a;”R² lj;tI sI a;”R² vn-¬pvn ke² tn me‹ b;sNtI z;”R)) srso‹ hw fUlI² ch\u aor r‹gInI z;”R² de%o tn-mn me‹ kwsI ye ¬m‹g a;”R) h\sI' sb idx;y‹e² h\sI sOiã$ s;rI² s%I de%o² m/u bsNt Atu a;”R)) ilye pr;g k,² .[mro‹ kI gu‹jn² p[kOit inklI² krne nv sOjn) vO=o‹² lt;ao‹ ne² ao!¹e bhur‹gI vsn² de%o s%I a;y; hw nv bsNt)) a;\gn ke p*/o‹ se .rI @;ily;\² r‹g-ibr‹ge puãpo‹ se ZUmne lgI h'w) a/i%lI lj;tI kilyo‹ kI %uxbU² m‹d-m‹d pvn fwl;ne lgI hw)) a;m[ kI @;lI pr i%lI-a/i%lI m‹jiryo' ko² pzua; ihl;ne @ul;ne lgI hw) k‹ujn m‹e Ky;irn me‹ koikl kI kUke‹² kuhU-kuhU ?vin g\Ujne lgI hw)) fudktI a;”R amr;”R me‹ bw#I² nNhI sI mwn; amr;”R s‹gItmy lgne lgI hw) b;sNtI fUlo‹ kI @;lI-@;lI pr² r‹g-ibr‹gI ittily;\ ifrne lgI h'w)) rsIle n;r‹gI flo‹ se .rI @;ily;\² tn-mn ko rsmy krne lgI h'w) p[kOit kI asIimt a;.; de%kr² rom-rom me‹ Sp‹dn hone lg; hw)) idix-idx;Ntr m‹e hrIitm; z; g”R EesI² ¬Ts;h k; s‹c;r hone lg; hw) p[tI=; ke =, im$ gye s%I ab² tn-mn me‹ ¬Ll;s z;ne lg; hw)) Svi,Rm a;.;my² ihmvNt inXzl %@¹; hw² jwse Svi,Rm ikr,e‹ ¬ske bsn ho') prm rhSymy hw p[.u kI yh rcn;² inãk;m .;v se p.u k; mnn ho))
ग्रीन कार्ड* तुम्हारा ग्रीन कार्ड* अगर ख़ुशख़बर है तो उसकी हरियाली चमकाने की यह तो शर्त नहीं कि तुम अपने दे श को नर्क -नर्क कहते हुए हिकारत से पेश करो| इस तरह पेश करते हुए जब तुम उसे गालियाँ दे ते हो, तब अनजाने में वह गाली सबसे पहले तुमको ही लगती है |
-l+mIdÊ n*i$y;l² hirÃ;r² .;rt
-सरोज कुमार, इं दौर यानी उसको, जिसने अपने दे श को अपना मानने से इनकार किया| वह लगती है तुम्हारे पुरखों को, पिता को, माँ को, इतिहास को, संस्कृति को – जिसके तुम अभिन्न हिस्से हो और उस महागाथा को जिसके तुम मामूली किस्से हो| आत्मभर्त्सना के तुम्हारे गर्वीले शब्द
www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9095 6220, 0421 677 082
तुम्हारा यशोगान नहीं गाते| जो अपने दे श को अपना नहीं समझता उसे कोई दे श कभी सम्मान नहीं दे ता| …………………………………….. *अमेरिका में स्थायी-निवास का आज्ञा-पत्र
A P R I L
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अमृत वृद्धाश्रम (भाग ४)
गैलीपोली के युद्ध में भारतीय सेना का योगदान
-विजय कुमार, है दराबाद
(ऑस्ट्रेलिया तथा न्यूजीलैंड के इतिहास में गैलीपोली युद्ध का विशेष महत्व है | यह पहला युद्ध था जिसमें इन दोनों दे शों की ‘ऐन्ज़ैक’ नामक संयक्त ु सेना ने भाग लिया था और इसके हज़ारों सैनिक मारे गये थे| हर वर्ष २५ अप्रैल को इन सैनिकों के बलिदान की याद में दोनों दे शों में ‘ऐन्ज़ैक दिवस’ मनाया जाता है | परं तु बहुत कम लोग जानते हैं कि इस युद्ध में भारतीय सैनिकों ने भी महत्वपूर्ण योगदान दिया था| ऐन्ज़ैक दिवस’ की शताब्दी के अवसर पर, इस लेख में गैलीपोली के युद्ध में भारतीय सेन के योगदान व इसके इतिहस का वर्णन किया गया है -संपादक)
(पिछ्ले अंक में आपने पढ़ा कि अमृतलाल जी चाहते थे कि उनका लड़का, गौतम ‘एम.बी.बी.एस'. की पढ़ाई पूरी करने के बाद वापस लौट कर उनके अस्पताल का काम संभाले परं तु उनकी इच्छा के विपरीत, गौतम लंदन चला गया। कई वर्षों बाद, गौतम सपरिवार भारत लौटा। गौतम व उसके परिवार के अस्पताल पहुँचने के पहले ही उनका इं तज़ार करते-करते, अमृतलाल जी की मृत्यु हो गयी थी। बाद में गौतम व उसका परिवार वहाँ पहुँचा| अमृतलाल जी के पोते सूरज ने उन्हें पहली बार दे खा था और वह भी इस अवस्था में। वह बार-बार रो उठता था। गौतम भी समझ गया था कि उसने क्या खो दिया है । लीजिए अब आगे की कहानी पढ़िये–संपादक) रात को सारा कार्यक्रम निपटने के बाद, हम जब बैठे तो सिर्फ झींगुरों की आवाज़ें ही सुनाई दे रही थीं। सभी बहुत चुपचाप थे। मैं था, भारद्वाज जी थे और गौतम था। बहू, सूरज के साथ सोने चली गयी थी। सूरज को हल्का सा बुखार आ गया था और वह मन से भी परे शान था। इतने में वक़ील साहब आये। वे अमृतलाल जी के पुराने मित्र थे। उन्होंने कहा, कल रात को शायद अमृत को आशंका हो गयी थी कि वे शायद ज़्यादा दिन नहीं रहें गे। इसलिये उन्होंने अपनी वसीयत करवा ली थी। मैं उसे आप सब को बताना चाहता हूँ। मैं उठकर खड़ा हो गया। वक़ील ने मुझे बैठने को कहा और बताया कि ज़ायदाद के तीन हिस्से हुए हैं । एक बड़ा हिस्सा इस अस्पताल और वृद्धाश्रम को दिया गया है । दस ू रा हिस्सा पोते सूरज के लिए दिया गया है और तीसरा हिस्सा चौकीदार ईश्वर के नाम है । यह सुन कर मैं बहुत ज़ोर से चौंका।
भूमिका प्रथम महायुद्ध के दौरान १९१५ में लड़ी गई ‘गैलीपोली की लड़ाई’ को अहम माना जाता है | गैलीपोली प्रायद्वीप तुर्की का एक छोटा सा हिस्सा है जहाँ की लड़ाई में हजारों सैनिक शहीद हुए थे| इस लड़ाई में भारतीय सैनिकों का विशेष योगदान रहा था|
मैंने कहा, साहब, कोई ग़लती हो गयी होगी, मुझे कोई पैसा रक़म नहीं चाहिए। मैं तो यही रहूँगा। सब कुछ मेरा अब यहीं है । अमृत साहब मेरे पिता जैसे थे। उनके बाद अब मेरा कौन है कहकर मैं रोने लगा। वक़ील ने समझाया, भाई जो उन्होंने कहा, वही मैंने किया है , भारद्वाज भी थे उनसे पूछ लो। मैंने कहा, मुझे कुछ नहीं चाहिए, मेरा हिस्सा भी सूरज को ही दे दीजिये। वक़ील ने मेरा सर थपथपाया। मैं चुपचाप आँसू बहाने लगा। गौतम चुपचाप उठकर खड़ा हो गया। उसने कहा,कल सुबह मिलते हैं , राख को नदी में बहाने जाना है रात बहुत गहरी हो रही थी और मेरी आँखों में नींद नहीं थी। कल तक मैं कुछ भी नहीं था और आज इस ज़ायदाद के एक हिस्से का मालिक। लेकिन मैं इस रुपये का क्या करूँ गा, मेरे तो आगे पीछे कोई है ही नहीं। नहीं नहीं, मुझे कुछ नहीं चाहिए। मैं तो इसी जगह के एक कोने में पड़ा रहूँगा। (क्रमशः)
इतिहास सर विन्स्टन चर्चिल के अनुसार, १९१४ में कांस्तान्तिनोपल पर विजय पाने के लिए ओटोमन साम्राज्य पर हमला किया जाना आवश्यक था| इसके लिए अँग्रेज़ी समुद्री बेड़े को मारमारा बोस्फोरुस पहुँचना आवश्यक था| फरवरी १९१५ को अंग्रेज़ी फ्रांसिसी जहाजी दस्ते ने डार्डानेलेस प्रायद्वीप पर हमला बोला, पर नाकामयाब रहे | गैलीपोली (गेलीबोलू, डार्डानेलेस प्रायद्वीप) ओटोमन साम्राज्य का वह हिस्सा था जो मारमारा सागर में जाने के समुद्री रास्ते में आता है | यही कारण था की सर विन्स्टन चर्चिल के दबाव से गैलीपोली को कब्ज़े में करने के लिए दब ु ारा हमला बोला गया| उस समय एलाइड सेना पश्चिमी इलाके में व्यस्त थी, इसलिए ऑस्ट्रलिया और न्यूज़ीलैंड की सेनाओं (ऐन्ज़ैक सेना) तथा भारतीय, कैनेडियन और फ्रांसिसी सैनिक (जो अफ़्रीका में पहले से ही लड़ रहे थे), को एकत्रित कर के गैलीपोली पर हमला बोल दिया गया| भारतीय योगदान जब ऐन्ज़ैक सेना २५ अप्रैल १९१५ को एजियन सागर के ‘अरी बूर्नू’ इलाके में धावा बोल रही थी
s'i=Pt sm;c;r
विक्टोरियन स्कू ल ऑफ़ लैंग्वेजेज़ का उच्च अंक (टॉप स्कोरर) सम्मानोत्सव
विक्टोरियन स्कू ल ऑफ़ लैंग्वेजेज़ ने मेल्बर्न विश्वविद्यालय में सन ् २०१४ की वी.सी.ई. परीक्षा में विभिन्न भाषाओँ में उच्च अंक प्राप्त करने वाले विद्यार्थियों को २ मार्च, १९१५ को सम्मानित किया| इनमें हिं दी में उच्च (४०/५० या उससे अधिक) अंक प्राप्त करने वाले विद्यार्थी, भी शामिल थे| इस अवसर पर विभिन्न दे शों के दत ू ावासों से उनके प्रतिनिधि भी आये थे और विक्टोरिया
के प्रीमियर के संसद सचिव, माननीय कॉलिन ब्रुक्स भी उपस्थित थे| साथ की तस्वीर में (बाएं से दायें) हैं - श्री फ्रैंक मर्लिनो (वी. एस.एल के प्रधानाचार्य), श्रीमती मंजीत ठे ठी, प्रिशा दाद,ू कोमल पटे ल तथा तन्वी परदासानी, श्री अंजन भौमिक (उप-कौंसल, भारतीय कौन्सलावास, मेल्बर्न)| दस ू रे सबसे अच्छे अंक प्राप्त करने वाले विद्यार्थी रुद्राक्ष रणदे व अनुपस्थित थे|
mhTvpU,R itiqy;\
1 अप्ल रै (मूर्ख दिवस), २ अप्ल रै (गुड फ्राईडे ), ३ अप्ल रै (महावीर
जयंती), ४ अप्ल रै (हनुमान जयंती), ५ अप्ल रै (ईस्टर), १४
अप्ल रै (बस ै ाखी/अम्बेदकर जयंती), २५ अप्ल रै (ऐन्ज़ाक दिवसऑस्ट्रेलिया), १ मई (अंतर्राष्ट्रीय श्रम दिवस), ४ मई (विशाखा पूजा), १० मई (मातृ-दिवस- ऑस्ट्रेलिया)|
sUcn;E\
‘हिन्दी निकेतन’ का २१वाँ ‘वी. सी.ई. समारोह’
मेल्बर्न के ‘ओकले’ उपनगर में, २१ मार्च, २०१५ को ‘हिन्दी-निकेतन’ ने २१वाँ ‘वी. सी.ई. समारोह’ मनाया| कार्यक्रम का आरम्भ सरस्वती-वंदना से हुआ| तत्पश्चात शास्त्रीय तथा बालीवुड नृत्य, गीत, कवितायें तथा वाद्य संगीत के कार्यक्रम प्रस्तुत किये गए| कार्यक्रम के दस ू रे भाग में, ‘वी.सी.ई.’ हिन्दी की परीक्षा उत्तीर्ण करने वाले विद्यार्थियों को प्रमाण-पत्र तथा पुरस्कार प्रदान किये गये| इस परीक्षा में पहला, दस ू रा तथा तीसरा स्थान प्राप्त करने वाले विद्यार्थियों को नक़द पुरस्कार दिए गए और सर्वोच्च स्थान प्राप्त करने वाली छात्रा, प्रिशा दाद ू को डॉ. टं डन मेमोरियल ट्राफ़ी प्रदान की गई| स्मरणीय है कि डॉ. राज किशोर टं डन ‘हिन्दी निकेतन’ के भूतपूर्व अध्यक्ष और संस्थापकों में से एक थे| कार्यक्रम का सुचारु संचालन सुश्री अविती शर्मा ने किया और रात्रिभोज का प्रबंध चौधरी शमशेर सिंह ने किया| अंत में, डॉ. शरद गुप्ता ने उपस्थित जनों का धन्यवाद किया और डॉ. दिनेश श्रीवास्तव ने माता-पिता व अभिभावकों को स्थानीय स्कू लों में हिन्दी की पढ़ाई शुरू करने की माँग करने का सुझाव दिया|
2. कलाविष्कार प्रस्तुत करता है बहुरंगी कार्यक्रम
‘कैलाइड्सकोप’ , जिसमें सम्मिलित हैं -
तीन लोकनृत्य तथा अंग्रेज़ी व हिन्दी में लघु नाटिकाएँ|
तिथि व समय – शनिवार, १८ अप्ल रै , ५ बजे शाम से रात
Sq;n - vevlIR me@oj¹ p[;”mrI SkUl² 11 kUliMby; @^;”v² ×IlsR
(Mahoney’s) रोड, बरवुड ईस्ट
smy - r;t ke 8³00 bje se a;rM.) p[vx e in"xuLk hw)
तब भारतीय सैनिक अन्य अँग्रेज़ी सैनिकों के साथ दक्षिणी गैलीपोली प्रायद्वीप के ‘केप हे ल्लेस’ पर धावा कर रहे थे| भारतीय २९ इन्फ़ैंट्री ब्रिगेड (पैदल-सेनादल) के १/६ गोरखा राइफ़ल्स और १४ वीं के.गी. ओं. सिख ने ‘तीसरी क्रिथिया’ की लड़ाई में अहम भाग लिया और आगे बढ़ने में काफ़ी सफ़लता प्राप्त की| ‘सारीबैर’ पर तो गोरखा सैनिक चोटी तक भी पहुँच गए थे| १/५ गोरखा राइफल्स, २/१० गोरखा राइफल्स और ७ माउं टे न आर्टिलरी ब्रिगेड अपनी २१ कोहाट और २६ (जैकब) माउं टे न बैटरी भी गैलीपोली की लड़ाई में २९ ब्रिगेड का हिस्सा थे| इसके अलावा ६९ पंजाबी और ८९ पंजाबी पल्टनों ने भी गैलीपोली की लड़ाई में अपना जौहर दिखाया था| गैलीपोली में भारत की सप्लाई और ट्रांसपोर्ट कोर के ४३१६ खच्चरों ने हिस्सा ले कर ऐन्ज़ैक सेना की सप्लाई चेंन को बरक़रार रखने में अहम भूमिका निभाई थी| इनका योगदान इस बात से आँका जा सकता है कि ऐन्ज़ैक
vebs;”$ dei%ye - http://www.sharda.org/Events.htm
के ७.१५ बजे तक
ihl² ivK$oiry; ámeLve s‹d.R-71 jI-11â
गैलीपोली पर हमला
घायल सैनिक को उठाते हुए
भारतीय आर्टिलरी के सैनिक खच्चरों के साथ सेना के साथ ही ८५८ खच्चर मारे गये थे| भारत की ही १०८ फील्ड एम्बुलेंस भी ऐन्ज़ैक सेना की सेवा में तैनात रही थी| भारतीय सैनिकों का प्रदर्शन दे खते हुए एलाइड कमान्डरइन-चीफ़ जनरल सर इयन हैमिल्टन ने खुद गोरखा सैनिकों की माँग की थी| मेजर एच. एम ्. एलेक्जांडर के अनुसार, ऐन्ज़ैक सैनिक हर भारतीय को ‘जॉनी’ के नाम से बुलाते थे और उनके साथ अपने भाइयों जैसा बर्ताव करते थे| परिणामस्वरूप, भारतीय भी उन्हें पसंद करते थे| मेजर एलेक्जांडर
स्थान – केल वाटसन थियेटर, १७८-१८० माहोनीज़
अधिक जानकारी के लिये निम्न वेबसाइट दे खिये – http://kalavishkar.com.au
लिखते हैं कि उन्होंने कई बार, ऐन्ज़ैक सैनिकों को भारतीयों के साथ लाइन में बैठ कर चपाती खाते और बतियाते दे खा था| यद्यपि इस लड़ाई में दस हज़ार से अधिक ऐन्ज़ैक सैनिक मारे गए थे तथापि इस लड़ाई में भारतीयों का योगदान भी कम नहीं था| गैलीपोली में शहीद होने वाले, घायल होने वाले या गुम होने वाले भारतीय सैनिकों की संख्या ४,००० से ऊपर थी| संक्षेप में, गैलीपोली की लड़ाई में भारतीय सेना ने महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका अदा की थी|
ऑस्ट्रेलिया में भारत के नये उच्चायुक्त ऑस्ट्रेलिया में भारत के नये उचायुक्त श्री नवदीप सिंह सूरी हैं | भारत की विदे श सेवा से वे सन ् १९८३ में जुड़े थे और तबसे कैरो, डै मस्कस, वाशिंगटन, डार-एससलाम, जोहान्सबर्ग तथा पश्चिमी अफ़्रीका के भारतीय दत ू ावासों में काम कर चुके हैं | हाल ही में, वे मिस्र (इजिप्ट) में भारत के राजदत ू थे| उन्होंने अर्थशास्त्र में एम.ए. की उपाधि प्राप्त की है और उन्हें हिं दी, अंग्रेजी, पंजाबी, फ़्रांसीसी तथा अरबी भाषाओँ का अच्छा ज्ञान है | उन्हें साहित्य में भी रुचि है और उन्होंने अपने दादा के पंजाबी उपन्यासों का अँग्रेजी में अनुवाद भी किया है | उनकी पत्नी भी अर्थशास्त्र की स्नातक हैं | उनके दो बेटियाँ हैं , जिनमें से एक पत्रकार है और दस ू री उत्साही पर्यावरणविद (एनवायरनमेंटलिस्ट) है |
ai/k j;nk;rI ke ilE nIrj áf¹on- 0439 980 551â aqv; 3³ नटराज ऑस्ट्रेलिया, प्रस्तुत करता है, गाँधी फिल्म की ivvek áf¹on- 0402 438 654â se sMpkR kIijye aqv; inMn कलाकार, रोहणी हटं गड़ी के साथ संगीत नाटिका ‘समांतर’-दो
1³ s'gIt s'?y;áxinv;r² 4 ap[l w â² r;gr'g á25 ap[l w â²
Svr s'?y; á2 méâ
-कर्नल अनूप सक्सेना, ग्रेटर नोएडा, भारत
पीढ़ियाँ, इतनी पास फिर भी इतनी दरू )
तिथि व समय - गुरुवार, २३ अप्ल रै , २०१५, शाम ७-९.३० बजे स्थान – रॉबर्ट ब्लैक्वुड हॉल, बिल्डिंग -२, मोनाश युनिवर्सिटी, क्लेटन, विक्टोरिया-३८००
अधिक जानकारी के लिये (०३) ९९०५१ १११ पर फ़ोन कीजिये अथवा निम्न वेबसाइट दे खिये – www.monash.edu/mapa
4. सतगुरु श्री माता अमृतानंदमयी ‘अम्मा’ की ऑस्ट्रेलिया यात्रा
(सिडनी – १३-१४ अप्रैल, मेल्बर्न - १६ अप्ल रै से २० अप्ल रै तक) अधिक जानकारी के लिए निम्न वेबसाइट दे खिये –
www. ammaaustrelia.org.au
www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9095 6220, 0421 677 082
ab h\sne kI b;rI hw पति-पत्नी
पत्नी- आज बस में कंडक्टर ने मेरी बेइज़्ज़ती की|
पति- क्यों? क्या हुआ? पत्नी- मेरे बस से उतरते ही उसने कहा-
अब तीन सवारियाँ इस सीट पर आ जाएँ|
कोई दरवाज़ा नहीं खोलता
एक महिला ने संता को अपनी ‘डोर-बेल’ ठीक करने के लिए बुलाया|
संता चार दिन तक घर नहीं आया| महिला ने फोन करके उसे दबु ारा बुलाया|
संता: मैं क्या करूँ , मै पिछले चार दिन
से आपके घर आ रहा हूँ, घंटी बजाता हूँ, लेकिन कोई दरवाज़ा नहीं खोलता|
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quick community guide Radio GUIDE
SBS Radio's South Asian
SUNDAY Language Program Hindi..................................9 am to 10 am – 93.1 FM BANGLA Urdu................................10 am to 11 am – 93.1 FM Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 Tamil...............................11 am to 12 pm – 93.1 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SB Radio 2 Hindi.................................8 pm to 10 pm – 88.3 FM Monday & Saturday Singhalese.......................8 pm to 11 pm –97.7 FM 6-7 PM GUJARATI MONDA Y Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 Hindi....................................3 to 4 pm – 93.1 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBSPm Radio Bengali...............................4 pm to 5 pm – 93.1 FM Wednesday & Friday 4-5 PM Hindi...................................6 pm to 8 pm – 88.3 FM Indian (Fiji)..................................6 pm to 8 pm 88.3 HINDI Punjabi........................1 1 am to 12 Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 noon 92.3 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SB Radio 2 Daily TUESDAY 5 PM
Hindi..................................... 6 am to 8 am – 97.7 FM Hindi.................................... 2 pm to 4 pm – 97.7 FM kannada Sydney SBS Radio 3 Melbourne SBS Radio 3 WEDNESDAY Tuesday 3-4 PM
Hindi.................................... .6 am to 8 am – 97.7 FM Hindi......................................... 12 to 1 pm – 93.1 FM Nepali Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS1Radio 2 12 pm - 92.3 FM Punjabi............................ 1 am to Melbourne 93.1 FM & SB Radio Hindi................................... .8 pm to 29 pm – 97.7 FM Saturday & Sunday 4-5 PM
THURSDAY PUNJABI Hindi............................... 5.30 am to 7 am – 97.7 FM Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 9 pm – 92.3 FM Tamil.................................... 8 pm to Melbourne 93.1 FM & SB Radio 2 Sinhalese.......................... 1 1 pm to 3 am –92.3 FM Monday & Friday Punjabi............................. 9 pm to 10 pm – 93.1 FM 9-10 PM SINHALESE FRIDAY Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 Indian.................................. .8 Radio am to 29 am – 88.3 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SB
www.ekantipur.com/en THE RISING NEPAL: www.nepalnews.com.np
PLACES OF WORSHIP HINDU Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple 57 Boundary Rd, Carrum Downs, Melbourne, Vic 3201, Ph: 03 9782 0878; Fax: 03 9782 0001 Website: www.hsvshivavishnu.org.au Sri Vakratunda Vinayaka Temple 1292 - 1294, The Mountain Highway, The Basin, Vic 3154, Ph: 03 9792 1835 Melbourne Murugan Temple 17-19 Knight Ave., Sunshine VIC 3020 Ph: 03 9310 9026 Durga Temple (Durga Bhajan Mandali) Neales Road, Rockbank, Vic 3335 Ph: 03 9747 1628 or Mobile: 0401 333 738 Hare Krishna (ISKCON) Temple 197 Danks Street, Middle Park Vic 3206 Ph: (03) 9699 5122 Email: 100237.354@compuserve.com Hare Krishna New Nandagram Rural Community Oak Hill, Dean’s Marsh Rd., Bambra VIC 3241, Ph: (052) 887383 Fax: (052) 887309
Monday & Friday
11AM-12 PM SATURDAY Sinhalese............................ 7 am to 8 am – 92.3 FM TAMIL TSydney amil..................................... 12-12.30 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 pm – 88.3 FM Indian.................................... am to26 am - 92.3 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SB5Radio Monday & Saturday Punjabi.......................................... 12-2 am – 92.3 FM 8-9 PM Indian................................ 9 pm to 10 pm – 92.3 FM Punjabi.................................................. 11 pm to 1 am urdu Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio24/7 2 Radio stations Melbourne FM & SB Radio 2(Subscription) Indian Link93.1 Radio Wednesday & Sunday 18000 15 8 47 6-7 PM Radio Santa Banta (Internet) Santabanta.com.au WORLD NEWS AUSTRALIA RADIO SydneyJhankar 1107AM88.6 & SBSFM; Radio 1 Thursday; 8 to Radio Every Melbourne 1224AM & SB Radio 1 10 pm; Contact: 94668900 or 0411247320 or Monday & Friday 9404 2111 6-7 am & 6-7 PM
South Asian websiteS India TEHELKA – www.tehelka.com OUTLOOK – www.outlookindia.com FRONTLINE- www.flonnet.com THE HINDU: www.hinduonnet.com TIMES OF INDIA: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com HINDUSTAN TIMES: www.hindustantimes.com Pakistan DAWN: www.dawn.com THE FRIDAY TIMES: www.thefridaytimes.com THE NEWS INTERENATIONAL: www.thenews.com.pk Sri Lanka DAILY MIRROR: www.dailymirror.lk DAILY NEWS: www.dailynews.lk THE ISLAND: www.island.lk Nepal THE HIMALAYAN TIMES: www.thehimalayantimes.com KANTIPUR NATIONAL DAILY:
Kundrathu Kumaran Temple 139 Gray Court, ROCKBANK Victoria 3335 Ph: 03-9747 1135 or M: 0450 979 023 http://www.kumarantemple.org.au/ SIKH BLACKBURN Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha 127 Whitehorse Road, Blackburn VICTORIA 3130, Ph: (03) 9894 1800 CRAIGIEBURN Sri Guru Singh Sabha 344 Hume Highway, Craigieburn VICTORIA 3164 (see map), Ph: (03) 9305 6511 KEYSBOROUGH Gurdwara Sri Guru Granth Sahib 198 -206 Perry Road, Keysborough VICTORIA 3073 (see map) LYNBROOK Nanaksar Taath, 430 Evans Road, Lynbrook VICTORIA 3975, (03) 9799 1081 HOPPERS CROSSING Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha 417 Sayers Road, Hoppers Crossing VICTORIA 3029, Ph: (03) 9749 2639 WERRIBEE Gurdwara Sahib Werribee 560 Davis Road, Tarneit VICTORIA 3029 PH: (03) 8015 4707 SHEPPARTON Gurdwara Sahib Shepparton 240 Doyles Road, Shepparton VICTORIA 3603 PH: (03) 5821 9309 JAIN Melbourne Shwetambar Jain Sangh Inc 3 Rice Street, Moorabbin, Vic - 3189, Australia. Phone: +61 3 9555 2439
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info@melbournejainsangh.org http://www.melbournejainsangh.org MUSLIM Melbourne West Mosque 66-68 Jeffcott Street, Melbourne Ph: 03 9328 2067 Broadmeadows Mosque 45-55 King Street, Broadmeadows Ph 03 9359 0054 Islamic Call Society 19 Michael Street, Brunswick Ph: 03 9387 7100 Islamic Centre of Australia 660 Sydney Road, Brunswick Ph 03 9385 8423 Australian Islamic Cultural Centre 46-48 Mason Street, Campbellfield Ph: 03 9309 7605 Coburg ISNA Mosque 995 Sydney Road, Coburg North Coburg Mosque (Fatih Mosque) 31 Nicholson Street, Coburg Ph 03 9386 5324 Deer Park Mosque 283 Station Road, Deer Park Ph 03 9310 8811 United Migrant Muslim Assn. 72 George Road, Doncaster Ph 03 9842 6491, Footscray West Mosque 294 Essex Street, Footscray Glenroy Musala 1st Floor, 92 Wheatsheaf Road, Glenroy Heidelberg Mosque Corner Lloyd & Elloits Streets, West Heidelberg Islamic College of Victoria (Mosque) 201 Sayers Road, Hoppers Crossing Ph 03 9369 6010 Huntingdale Mosque 320-324 Huntingdale Road, Huntingdale Ph 03 9543 8037 Al Nur Mosque 34-36 Studley Street, Maidstone Meadow Heights Mosque Hudson Circuit, Meadow Heights Springvale Mosque 68 Garnworthy Street, Springvale
EMERGENCY CONTACTS EMERGENCY CONTACTS Police, Fire & Abulance ........................ 000 Victoria State Emergency Service (SES)....................................... 132 500 Traffic hazards and freeway conditions.......................... 13 11 70 Gas escape........................................... 132 771 Poisons information........................ 13 11 26 Maternal and Child Line................ 13 22 29 Parentline........................................... 13 22 89 Kids Help Line......................... 1800 551 800 Lifeline (provides confidential telephone counselling)................. 13 11 14 Suicide Help Line.................... 1300 651 251 Animal Emergencies.................. 9224 2222
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HIGH COMMISSION FOR PAKISTAN,CANBERRA 4 Timbarra Crescent, O’Malley ACT 2606 (Australia), Tel: 61-2-62901676, 61-2-62901676, 62902769, 62901879 & 62901031, Fax: 61-262901073 Email: parepcanberra@internode. on.net, Postal Address: PO Box 684, Mawson ACT 2607 (Australia)
Sri Lanka Consulate 32A Brunswick Street ,Walkerville 5081 Melbourne , Phone: 9898-6760, 9248-1228 Email: rodney@techno.net.au
Bangladesh High Commission, Canberra 43, Culgoa Circuit, O’Malley, ACT-2606 Canberra, Australia, Ph: (61-2) 6290-0511, (612) 6290-0522, (61-2)6290-0533 (Auto hunting). Fax : (61-2) 6290-0544 E-Mail :hoc@bhcanberra.com Consulate of Nepal, Melbourne Email: cyonzon@nepalconsulate.net.au Level 7, 28-32 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, Ph: (03) 9650 8338 Email: info@nepalconsulate.net.au SBS1 – Daily NDTV News - 11 am - Monday to Saturday. (From New Delhi, India).
TV News/programs Hindi News Urdu news SBS1 - PTV News – 9.30 am - Every Sunday – (From Pakistan). Readymades Roshan’s Fashions 68-71 Foster Street, Dandenong, Vic 3175 Ph: (03) 9792 5688 Raj Rani Creations 83-A Foster Street, Dandenong, Vic 3175 Ph: (03) 9794 9398 Heritage India 54-56 Foster Street, Dandenong, Vic 3175, Ph: (03) 9791 9227 Site: heritageindia.net.au
DVDs, Music CDs & Film Stuff Baba Home Entertainment 52C Foster St., Dandenong 3175, (03) 97067252 Essence of India 76 Foster St., Dandenong 3175 (03) 87744853; 0413707685 Accountants & Loans Deepak & Associates Suite 4 & 6, Bldg.6, Hamilton Place, Mont Waverley 3149, (03) 9807 5992; 0402459174; 0411733737
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quick community guide
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contd from previous page All Banking Needs Rakesh Raizada Commonwealth Bank (Indian Banking) Ground Floor, 378 Burwood Highway Burwood East 3151 Mobile: 0434470095 Email: rakesh.raizada@cba.com.au Immigration iVisa Consulting Level 5, 45 William St. Melb. Mobile: 0409504094 www.ivisaconsulting.com.au 1st Migration PL, Suite 110, Level 1, 672 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn Vic 3122 Travel Agents Gaura Travels 1300 FLY INDIA or 1300 359 463 info@gauratravel.com.au Supa Cheap Travel 381 Burwood Road, Hawthorn 3122 Ph: (03) 98194656; Mobile: 0420201155 info@supacheaptravel.com.au www.supacheaptravel.com.au Mann Travel 329 Clayton Road, Clayton 3168 info@manntravel.com.au www.manntravel.com.au Travel House 284 Clayton Road, Clayton 3168 Ph: (03) 95435123, Mobile: 0425803071 mail@travelhouse.com.au Solicitors/Barristors Vernon Da Gama & Associates 28 Fromer St. Beltleigh 3204 Ph: (03) 95038046; Fax: (03) 95038047 Mobile: 0401407280/042193100 Email: vernondagama@msn.com
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ociinfo.inau@vfshelpline.com CONSULAR SERVICES (Passport, Visa, OCI, PIO & Miscellaneous) Please note that all these consular services are handled by VFS Global (Indian Passport and Visa Service Centre) The Consulate General of India in Melbourne will continue to provide to residents of Victoria and Tasmania the following consular services, for which applications would have to be lodged directly with the Consulate: Miscellaneous OCI Services • Miscellaneous Consular Services (such as attestation of documents, transfer of visas from old to new passport, affidavits, birth certificates, life certificates, certificate required to transport ashes or mortal remains to India etc) IMPORTANT: The Consulate does not accept credit cards, EFTPOS, personal cheques or company cheques. Please send only money orders or bank cheques with applications sent through the post. Cash payments are accepted only at the counter. WORKING HOURS General Working Hours 9.00 am to 5.30 pm Monday to Friday, Consular Working Hours 09.30 am to 12.30 pm Monday to Friday, (except on public holidays observed by the consulate) International Students International Student Care Service (ISCS) www.multicultural.vic.gov.au/iscs Ph: 1800 056 449 Emergency Services Police, Fire, Ambulance............................000 Crime Stoppers......................1800 333 000 Property st Property PL, Suite 110, Level 1,672 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn Vic 3122
INDIAN CONSULATE (MELBOURNE) Address : 344, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia , P.O. Box No: 33247 Domain LPO Vic 3004 General phone: +61-3- 96827836 Fax No: + 61-3- 96968251 Web site: www.cgimelb.org PHONE NUMBERS Phone Number for General Consular Enquiries(operational only during Consular Working Hours i.e. 0930 hrs to 1230 hrs, Monday to Friday) For PCC and PCC and Driving License Verification enquiries 03- 96825800 02 8223 9908/ 1900 969 969 Email ID for General Consular Enquiries consular@cgimelb.org Visa enquiries: visainfo.inau@vfshelpline.com Passport/Police Clearance Certificate/ Driving License Enquiries passportinfo. inau@vfshelpline.com, OCI/PIO Enquiries
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Sports
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Ahmad, Khawaja, Sandhu in Australia’s W. Indies, UK and India tours
By SAT News Desk
Test squad for the tours of the West Indies and the UK for the Ashes.
M
elbourne, 31 March: Cricket Australia’s (CA) National Selection Panel today announced squads for the upcoming Test tours of the West Indies and the United Kingdom. The panel has also announced the 201516 list of CA contracted players and squads to represent Australia A in four-day and one-day cricket against India A in India throughout July. Fawad Ahmed gets the nod as second spinner for Test tours of the West Indies and the Ashes. Ahmed, 33, who helped steer Victoria to Sheffield Shield victory, was the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 48 wickets at 24.85, including a record-breaking 8-89 in the first innings of the Shield final against Western Australia at Blundstone Arena. Ahmed, granted Australian citizenship in 2013 played three one-
Australia A squads to face India A The four-day squad is Usman Khawaja (c) QLD, Matthew Wade (vc) VIC, Ashton Agar WA, Cameron Bancroft WA, Joe Burns QLD, Patrick Cummins NSW, Andrew Fekete TAS, Peter Handscomb VIC, Travis Head SA, Nic Maddinson NSW, Glenn Maxwell VIC,Stephen O'Keefe NSW, Gurinder Sandhu NSW and Marcus Stoinis VIC.
day internationals and two T20 internationals on Australia's tour of the UK later that year. Australia will face the West Indies in Test matches at Windsor Park, Dominica (5-9 June) and Sabina Park, Jamaica (1317 June), before travelling to the UK for the five Test
Ashes Series beginning at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff (812 July). According to CA Australia's Frank Worrell Trophy/Ashes squad: Michael Clarke (c), Steve Smith (vc), Fawad Ahmed, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris (Ashes only), Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell
Johnson, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Peter Nevill, Chris Rogers, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Adam Voges, David Warner, Shane Watson Victorian leg spinner Fawad Ahmed has got the nod ahead of Ashton Agar as Australia's second spinner in their
www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9095 6220, 0421 677 082
The One-Day squad for India Usman Khawaja (c) QLD, Matthew Wade (vc) VIC, Sean Abbott NSW , Ashton Agar WA, Cameron Boyce QLD, Joe Burns QLD, Nathan Coulter-Nile WA, Patrick Cummins NSW, Callum Ferguson SA, Peter Handscomb VIC, Travis Head SA, Chris Lynn QLD, Gurinder Sandhu NSW and Adam Zampa SA. —SAT News Service
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PANDITH: RAGHU RAM is in Melbourne He
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