South Asia Times Feb Mar 2020

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Scientists Condemn Rumours About Origin of Coronavirus in China Coronavirus epidemic has implications for life expectancy Coronavirus: A Flashback to Biological Warfare of a Bygone Era

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EDITORIAL page

february-march 2020

Scientists Condemn Rumours About Origin of Coronavirus in China

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cientists from several countries, engaged in extensive study of SARS-CoV-2 in the virology lab in Wuhan, have concluded that the coronavirus originated in wildlife, says a statement published in Lancet.

“Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumours, and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against this virus”—reads a statement by public health scientists belonging to several countries outside China. The statement was published in Lancet on February 19.

Their concern, as has been pointed out in the statement, is the flurry of misinformation, rumours and conspiracy theories that have been making the rounds in social media.

Ever since the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19, there has been a steady stream of stories, especially in Western media, that the origin of the outbreak of the disease is a virology laboratory in Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has a laboratory where research on coronavirus from bats is ongoing, including the one that is closest to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

There has also been speculation that the virus was bio-engineered and China was done with the aim of developing a bioweapon. It was widely said that a lab worker was infected while handling the bat and in the process the virus infected him and got transmitted to many outside the laboratory. That was the story made in pursuit of the origin of the virus outbreak.

However, the lab insisted that there exists no link with the outbreak and the laboratory.

“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” says The Lancet statement. The statement also praised the work of Chinese health professionals in tackling the epidemic and also appeals others to sign on.

The Lancet statement also took note of the fact that there are scientists from several countries who have been engaged in extensive study of SARS-CoV-2 and

Cotton, on Fox News said: “We don’t have evidence that this disease originated there but because of China’s duplicity and dishonesty from the beginning, we need to at least ask the question to see what the evidence says.” He also mentioned China turning down the US Government’s proposal to send scientists to China to help clarify questions about the outbreak.

The scientific community across the world has been hell bent in deciphering the origin of the virus and how it got into human population along with the genetic exploration in order to produce medication or vaccine. But, conspiracy theories and rumours would only derail these global collaborative efforts. It will only serve the vested interest of a few.

they conclude that the coronavirus originated in wildlife. It goes in a similar way as with the case of recent human viruses emerged recently.

“We’re in the midst of the social media misinformation age, and these rumors and conspiracy theories have real consequences, including threats of violence that have occurred to our colleagues in China. We have a choice whether to stand up and support colleagues who are being attacked and threatened daily by conspiracy theorists or to just turn a blind eye. I’m really proud that people from nine countries are able to rapidly come to their defense and show solidarity with people who are, after all, dealing with horrific conditions in an outbreak.”— said Peter Daszak, a disease ecologist and a cosignatory of the Lancet statement.

The controversy was also fueled by US Senator Tom Cotton.

Earlier this month,

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EDITORIAL page

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Coronavirus epidemic has implications for life expectancy

By James Liang*

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EIJING, China, Feb 17 2020 (IPS) - As efforts to contain the Coronavirus epidemic enter a critical stage, it is important to remember that the costs cannot be measured purely in economic terms, as the measures taken will have implications for life expectancy across the entire nation.

Analysis of historical data from various countries gives insight into the relationship between life expectancy and GDP per capita.

In the first place, it is clear that countries with higher per capita incomes have longer life expectancies, owing to the ability and willingness of wealthier nations to invest in healthcare, infrastructure, and environmental governance, thereby increasing life expectancy and reducing fatality rates.

Research suggests that, in general, a 100% increase

in per capita income under similar conditions equates to an increase in life expectancy of 1-3 years. Over the past few decades, with the continued increase in per capita income in China, life expectancy has steadily increased in tandem.

On the basis of this, we can make a conservative estimate that a 50% decrease in GDP would see a 1.5 year decrease in life expectancy. Thus, for each 1% reduction in in GDP, life expectancy will decrease by approximately 10 days.

This hypothesis can be tested against the economic theory of the “value of life”.

In the realm of economics, “value of life” is a relatively mature concept which refers to the amount that a society is willing to spend in order to increase the average life expectancy.

Some will deem the notion of calculating a value for life to be cynical or even repulsive, as life is priceless.

From an ethical point of view, this is entirely correct.

In reality, however, whether in terms of work, business, or social management, a balance must be struck between reducing the risk of fatality and the cost of doing so. In order to identify this balance, a value

for life must be calculated in a scientific, if seemingly ruthless, manner.

For example, some jobs inherently entail a far higher risk of fatality than others, such as underground mining and construction of ultrahigh buildings. From the perspective of purely reducing the risk of death, these jobs should be eliminated.

But in reality, doing so would both increase the unemployment rate and have adverse impacts on the natural progression of related work, and ultimately, society as a whole will bear the cost of underdevelopment.

In this case, a more rational approach would see the introduction of stronger labor protections for such jobs. Finally, with an income premium determined by the market, high-risk jobs would be rewarded with higher salaries, and an acceptable balance may be achieved.

Similarly, enterprise and government must strike a balance between risk and cost in the provision of transportation infrastructure.

For example, in designing a new road, governments can reduce the number of fatalities through the implementation of

safety provisions, like extra lanes, non-motorized lanes, and wider sidewalks.

Evidently, however, not all roads are built in this way. Does this mean that the designers of those roads had a disregard safety? Of course, this is not the case.

Even if the proposed road is designed to be impeccably safe, should the cost be RMB 10 billion (approx. USD $1.4 billion), it is likely that the road will not be built at all, leaving people with no transportation infrastructure.

Thus, for such construction projects, the government will issue minimum standards for safety, but it is up to the designer to determine the upper limit.

So, how much is a reduction in fatality worth?

In determining this, an implicit calculation is made to strike a balance with the value of life. In fact, economists have long calculated the value of life in economic terms based on data from various countries.

Generally speaking, the value of life in developed nations is between 10-100 times the GDP per capita.

Assuming that the value of life is calculated at 30 times the GDP per capita, the average life expectancy would be around 80 years, or approximately 30,000 days.

This inference can be tested by comparing the GDP per capita and life expectancy of different countries.

In terms of preventing and controlling infectious

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diseases, with reference to influenza numbers from previous years, in the absence of large-scale compulsory quarantine measures, the infection rate will not exceed 10% of the overall population, and the fatality rate will be around 0.2%.

Thus, the total number of fatalities relative to the entire population will be 2 in 10,000 (0.02%). Assuming that the life expectancy of those who die of influenza is around 60 years, and the average life expectancy across society is 80 years, each person who has died of influenza will have died prematurely, on average, by 20 years.

Calculating on the basis of the fatality rate of 2 in 10,000 (0.02%), the per capita reduction in life expectancy will be 20 multiplied by 0.02, which is four-thousandths of a year, or about 1.5 days.

Therefore, on average, the impact of a mass-scale influenza outbreak on human society is a reduction in life expectancy of 1.5 days.

On the basis of this analysis, it is possible to infer a reasonable social policy. If every person infected with influenza, that is, 10% of the population, is quarantined for 14 days, and family members who have been in close contact with them (assuming 20% of the population) are also be quarantined, the loss to GDP due to their inability to participate meaningfully in the creation of wealth for this period will be 30% * 14/365 = 1% of GDP. Contd. on pg 4

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EDITORIAL page

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Coronavirus epidemic has implications for life expectancy Contd. from pg 4

As mentioned above, a 1% GDP regression will cause a retrogression across society in medical care, infrastructure and environmental governance, amounting to a reduction in the average life expectancy of about 10 days, a number far greater than the impact of influenza.

Based on this calculation alone, pure isolation is not an effective means of containing influenza, and thus no country or society will implement such measures.

Some may deem the above calculation to be alarmist, but in actuality, this does not even take into account the

formidable operation costs of isolating so many people, or the costs of restriction population movement.

A less optimistic estimation of the losses incurred could be 10% of GDP, or even higher, leading to a reduction of the average life expectancy by 100 days or more, possibly amounting to a loss of life equivalent to dozens or hundreds of times the number of deaths attributable to influenza itself.

Of course, if quarantine measures are able to isolate the flu at an early, smallscale stage, for example, 1% of the population, or within one or two cities, then such measures can still be effective.

Once infections spread to over 10% of the population, however, the continued isolation of patients and people in close contact with them will amount to a greater overall toll on lives.

The present epidemic is distinct from previous influenza outbreaks, and therefore, factors such as mortality, the rate of infection, and the proportion of people who need to be quarantined are different, and a significant amount of data is yet to be observed.

The same logic, however, applies to the impact of the economy on life expectancy.

Society has established its determination to beat

this epidemic, and such an attitude is undoubtedly correct and necessary, and ultimately, this victory will belong to the entire human race.

However, I also hope that as society strives to beat this epidemic “at all costs”, the above analysis can help society to keep various “costs” to a minimum.

We must adopt a scientific and rational attitude in determining the most appropriate means of controlling and eradicating the epidemic.

In responding to the novel coronavirus, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases that

threaten lives, we must also give comprehensive consideration to social and medical resources, and strike a balance that is conducive to protecting lives.

Regularity and security in everyday life and work is an important and fundamental part of life for every person, and we should strive to minimize the impact to this. *The opinions expressed are entirely that of the author. * James Liang* is cofounder and Executive Chairman of Trip.com Group and professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management Photo: China.org

Coronavirus: A Flashback to Biological Warfare of a Bygone Era

By Ameen Izzadeen

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OLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Feb 10 2020 (IPS) In the wake of the latest coronavirus outbreak, movie buffs are drawing an eerie parallel with the film Contagion, a 2011 thriller based on a lethal airborne virus called Nipah and how the world’s medical community battled to find a cure for the pandemic.

The movie, which is much in demand on streaming sites, attributes the origin of the virus to a bat.

Another movie that comes to mind is “Cassandra Crossing”. This 1976 thriller casts Richard Harris and Sophia Lauren in the lead roles. The story begins with an abortive attempt by three terrorists to bomb the US mission at a global health organisation in Geneva. In violation of international conventions, the US has developed viruses and stored them in containers in the mission.

Security officers kill a terrorist and wound another.

One escapes but not before he knocks over a container and is splashed with its harmful content. He stows away in a train taking nearly a thousand passengers to different European capitals.

The American military officer in charge of the secret biological weapon programme knows the customized virus is virulent, airborne and contagion.

There is no cure. He rebuffs advice that the train is stopped, the terrorist arrested and quarantined.

He fears that most of the passengers have, by now, been affected by the virus.

He insists that the train be rerouted to a disused railway line that goes to a former Nazi concentration camp in Poland so that the passengers could be quarantined there.

But the train has to cross the dangerously unsound Cassandra Bridge.

It is a deliberate attempt to prevent a pandemic by killing all the passengers, regardless of whether they are affected or not.

As the coronavirus continues to spread, China would not take such inhuman measures and eliminate the entire population in the city of Wuhan, though it is accused of taking horrific measures to eradicate what it sees as a social virus in its Xinjiang province where millions of Uighur Muslims are alleged to have been kept under social quarantine until they disown their religious and cultural identities which the Chinese authorities see as symptoms of major social epidemic that poses an existential threat to China.

The movie “Cassandra Crossing” is fiction, but, in reality, countries do develop biological weapons –germs, viruses and fungi targeting humans, livestock and crops.

This is not to imply that the latest coronavirus outbreak is a biological weapon test going wrong at a Wuhan laboratory — or an enemy nation has released a deadly virus in a highly populated Chinese town with the aim of sabotaging China’s global ambitions.

But the truth is biological warfare – or germ warfare — has been part of war for

millennia.

History records that as far back as 400 B.C. armies had poisoned enemy wells and used poisoned arrows.

History also records that in the 18th century America, the British colonialists gave small pox infected blankets to Native Americans with the intention of killing them in an epidemic.

Then, during World War I, Germany developed anthrax, glanders, cholera and a wheat fungus and allegedly spread plague in St. Petersburg in Russia.

After the end of World War I, nations agreed on the Geneva Protocol to curtail biological weapons.

Yet, during World War II, Germany, Japan, Britain and the US disregarded the protocol and developed plague, syphilis and paralysis-causing botulinum toxin.

It took 22 years after the end of World War II for the so-called civilised world to acknowledge the evil of biological weapons that fall into the category of weapons of mass destruction, along with chemical weapons and nuclear weapons.

Some 179 states have ratified the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning an entire category of weapons. It requires the parties to give an undertaking that they will “never in any circumstances develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain” biological weapons.

But the convention allows nations to conduct ‘defensive’ research so that

they will be prepared to face or survive an attack or a virus outbreak. In other words, they are allowed to make a virus to kill a virus.

Laboratories in Australia, Hong Kong and Europe say they have cultured the coronavirus — 2019nCoV in a race to develop a medicine as the death toll from the outbreak reached over 800 in China alone, as of February 9, while the number of cases stood at more than 28,000 in China — mainly in the Hubei Province — and nearly 200 elsewhere.

However, it is believed that some countries also develop offensive biological weapons and chemical weapons. There is little distinction between the chemical and biological weapons from a definitional aspect.

For instance, Agent Orange the United States used during the Vietnam War may be a chemical weapon, but the harm it caused was no different from that of a biological weapon. Similarly, the use of depleted uranium by the US in Iraq also falls into the grey area between chemical and biological warfare.

During the Bosnian war, the Serbs used shells containing the Cold Warera nerve agent benzilate in the bombing of Srebrenica, and in the ongoing Syrian conflict, the government forces are accused of using similar weapons.

The US is not the only big power which stands accused of using banned weapons.

Take Russia. Despite its accession to the 1972 BWC and the 1993 Chemical Weapon Convention, it drew

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worldwide condemnation for the killing of a dissident Russian spy in 2006, by using a highly radioactive polonium-210 poison and a similar attack in 2018 on another dissident spy and his daughter.

The possibility of terrorists using portable biological weapons topped the international agenda after more than a dozen people were killed in the Sarin nerve gas attack carried out by the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo in three Tokyo subway stations in 1995.

Adding to the concerns is the anthrax scare that hit the US days after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to media offices and politicians.

Five people died and 17 were infected in the bioterrorism attack that continued for weeks.

Suspicion fell on two bioweapon experts. One was cleared; the other committed suicide before he was formally charged.

All this indicates the ineffectiveness of the BWC, a gentlemen’s agreement which largely requires the parties to submit only annual reports of compliance. The convention lacks a formal investigation mechanism to deal with violations.

And what better time than now to reinforce the convention when the world is gripped by the coronavirus threat? *Ameen Izzadeen is Editor International and Deputy Editor, Sri Lanka Sunday Times

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Monash University announces new campus in Indonesia

By SAT News Desk

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ELBOURNE, 10 February: Monash is delighted to announce that it has been granted approval by the Government of Indonesia to establish the first foreign university campus in Indonesia.

Based in Jakarta, Monash Indonesia will be a postgraduate campus, offering Master and PhD degrees, as well as executive programs and micro-credentials. It will be research intensive and industry engaged and operate with the full support of both the Indonesian and Australian governments.

The establishment of Monash Indonesia represents an important deepening of the bilateral relationship between Australia and Indonesia, with long-term benefits for both countries in areas of education, research and industry collaboration.

In particular, it will facilitate the two-way flow of students and scholars, and innovative ideas and technology.

Monash Indonesia will make a strong and distinctive contribution to Indonesia’s

social, economic and technological development.

It will bring expertise in areas of high demand, including: data science and digital technology, infrastructure and urban planning, creative industry and entrepreneurship and health systems and public health.

In establishing this campus, the University is continuing its commitment to being a truly global

university. This new Monash campus joins a dynamic network alongside the highly successful Monash University Malaysia, as well as our partnered campuses in Suzhou with SouthEast University and Mumbai with Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Monash Indonesia will begin short executive programs later this year and plans the first intake of Masters students for quarter

four 2021.

Students of Monash Indonesia will be awarded a Monash University degree and there will be opportunities for cross campus collaboration for research purposes and mobility in education.

“Monash has a long history of engagement in Indonesia and a desire to build deeper links with a thriving and innovative community with great

ambitions for education and research,” said Professor Margaret Gardner AC, President and ViceChancellor of Monash University.

“The opening of Monash Indonesia, the first Australian university based in Indonesia, will enable us to work in and with Indonesian people and their organisations to realise their future opportunities.

The physical establishment also serves as a symbol of Monash’s commitment to Indonesia and the wider Asian region, as well as stronger research and education links between Indonesia and Australia.”

Indonesia Minister for Education and Culture, NadiemMakarim, said: “I am very pleased Monash University will establish a branch campus in Indonesia.

This will help accelerate the strengthening of our education system and deepen the social, economic and technological links between Australia and Indonesia. This partnership will be the first out of many other partnerships to come.”

Source: Medianet

‘Click Against Hate program’ to fight racism and intolerance

By SAT News Desk

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ANBERRA, 14 February: The Australian Federal Government will fund the expansion of an innovative resilienceprogram for school students to reduce religious, racial and cultural intolerance.

The Government is providing $3 million to expand the Anti-Defamation Commission’s Click Against Hate program that develops inter-faith understanding.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the program would expand to reach an additional 500 schools thanks to the funding.

“This program teaches students to take action when they experience intolerance or if they see it happening to others,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“We cannot accept the recent incidents of racial and religious intolerance in our schools and broader community. All of us have a duty to stand up to racism and bigotry.”

Minister for Education

Dan Tehan said the free program would reach tens of thousands of students over the next four years.

“It’s important to show leadership when it comes to confronting ugliness in our society and these initiatives will help,” Mr Tehan said.

“Expanding this program will help more schools develop strategies to respond to intolerance,so that students feel safe and be able

to learn in an environment free of hate.

“Click Against Hate has a proven track record of providing students with valuable strategies and skills to stand up to hate, both online and in the real world.”

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the Government would also provide $850,000 to contribute to building

an interfaith youth and education centre for Newport’s multicultural community in Victoria.

“This funding is supporting infrastructure critical to community harmony, strengthening multicultural ties in Australia,” Mr McCormack said.

“Our investment will make a real difference by delivering sports facilities, a library, a kitchen and classrooms to

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host workshops, seminars, language classes and sporting programs.”

Chairman, AntiDefamation Commission Dr DvirAbramovich said, “Bravo to the Federal Government.

Today’s announcement is a shining example of truemoral leadership, and I commend Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Minister for EducationDan Tehan for this historic investment in the future of our children and our nation. Thispartnership will empower young people to confront the scourge of antisemitism and bigotrywhich have reached unprecedented and alarming levels, and build understanding of thevalue and benefits of diversity and respect. Bigotry and prejudice is not who we are as a people, and the rollout of Click Against Hate to more schools will have an impact for generations to come.”

The Member for Gellibrand Tim Watts and the Member for Chifley Ed Husic also attended the announcement.

Source: Media release

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ATO says it’s time for business to move to myGovID

By SAT News Desk

myGovID solves a lot of problems they had with AUSkey and encourages them to try it today.

“We've had over five million logins to the ATO Portals using myGovID so far and that’s because it’s simple, secure and flexible.”

“We’ve developed a solution for employees who do not have the required identity documents and can’t set up their myGovID, for example non-residents.

It will be available in midMarch, allowing these users to make the move to myGovID then.”

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ELBOURNE: On 27 March, the ATO and 26 other government agencies will retire the decade old AUSkey and the Manage ABN Connections login credentials. This means anyone who uses the ATO’s Business Portal or a range of other government online services will need to setup and use myGovID. The myGovID app is available to download to your smart device, using security features in your device such as fingerprint, face or password to help keep your information secure. This is to protect your identity and help stop other people accessing your information.

Once the app is set up, the business owner will need to link their myGovID

to their business using the authorisation service called Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM) and

authorise employee access.

The ATO's Chief Digital Officer John Dardo says most people will find

Get started in a few simple steps: Step 1: Set up your myGovID - download the myGovID app from the App Store or Google Play and use your Australian identity documents to enrol.

Step 2: Log in to RAM

using your myGovID and link your business. Before you link your business, check your details on the Australian Business Register are up to date so RAM can use the correct information.

Step 3 (optional): Authorise your employees and others in RAM to act on behalf of your business online. They will receive an email to accept the authorisation request using their myGovID. “We’re encouraging ATO Business Portal users to make the move from AUSkey to myGovID now before AUSkey retires.”

Source: ATO media release.

“Don’t leave it to the last minute, get set up today.

Download the myGovID app and link it to a business using RAM”.

Multicultural roundtable about small business barriers and available support

By SAT News Desk

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ELBOURNE: 17 February: A multicultural leaders’ roundtable revealed small business owners of diverse backgrounds are wanting to know more about how to resolve business disputes and create workplaces that are healthy and safe.

WorkSafe Victoria and the Victorian Small Business Commission (VSBC) hosted the event to engage with key business and community leaders about small business barriers and available supports.

Minister for Small Business the Hon AdemSomyurek MP opened the event, following his recent launch of the VSBC’s translated business resources.

“Small businesses are the engine room of Victoria’s economy and the Victorian Government is committed to supporting our diverse multicultural small businesses to grow and prosper,” Minister Somyurek said.

Those taking part in roundtable discussions included Vietnamese, Indian, Afghan, Turkish, Spanish, Chinese and Arabicspeaking business and community leaders, as well as representatives from the Victorian Multicultural Commission and Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia.

Commissioner Judy O’Connell said a key outcome was the start of valued partnerships with culturally diverse business and community leaders.

“It’s so important that small

business owners of diverse backgrounds are aware of our low cost service that can help them to resolve a business dispute without the costly fees and time that come with going through the courts,” Commissioner O’Connell said.

WorkSafe Victoria Chief Executive Colin Radford said it was important to discuss health and safety issues with small business owners to ensure they understood their obligations in the workplace.

“Monday night was about giving Victoria’s vibrant multicultural communities the information they need to take practical steps towards making their workplaces safer,” Mr Radford said.

Source: AAP Medianet

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Excellence Award for Nirmal Singh Namdhari

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Wazir Productions, Melbourne recently honoured Mr. Nirmal Singh Namdhari the ‘Award of Excellence’ for his valued contribution for supporting Little Films – Big Ideas 2020.

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Sankat Mochan’s ‘Rang Barse 2020’ – Festival of Colors on 29 March

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or the fifth year in a row, Sankat Mochan Samiti Inc. (SMS) is again organizing the festival of Colors in conjunction with the City of Monash and Monash University on Sunday 29 March 2020 from 11.00 am till 6.00 PM at the Northern Plaza Campus Centre of Monash University located on Wellington Road, Clayton.

This festival complements the theme of a weeklong Monash University’s Summer Fest designed to create a feeling of togetherness for staff, students and the community by providing them with a great entertainment and enjoyable experience with Indian cultural touch. The City of Monash, is also committed to encourage and support the multicultural aspect of the residents by supporting the celebrations of the adverse diversities, to develop better understanding and acceptance necessary for peaceful, harmonious and enjoyable ambience of social togetherness.

The mega fest organizes the variety cultural program with International touch and there is participatory dance based on Bollywood and International music themes in which thousands of people participate and enjoy

enormously. Food trucks provide the International street food touch with dominating Indian touch.

Children and grownups young in heart enjoy the various entertaining rides including the most popular camel rides.

To top it all up people enjoy the smearing of safe dry colour powder on each other and this colourful ambience gives it a very spectacular unique feeling. This is a life time experience and the

admission is free. There is adequate free car parking facilities and Monash University Clayton Campus is very approachable from all directions by public transport. So one can come and enjoy the colorful festivities with sumptuous food, variety entertainment program and enjoyable rides suitable for people of all ages.

For more information, contact Arvind Shrivastava on 0427 274 462.

SankatMochanSamiti to establish Indian Cultural Centre The Executive Committee of SMS has announced that it has purchased a place of its own to establish the theSankatMochan Indian Cultural Centre (SMICC).

It is a property with two street frontages located

at 4 Margaret Street in Oakleigh South, not far from the current location. It also facesCarinish Rd and is conveniently located in between the Clayton and Huntingdale railway stations. The building area is 1,028sqm and he land area is 1,119sqm.

The real challenge that the SMICC is toinclude theSpiritual SankatMochan (Temple) similar to the one now at 1289 A North Road , but much bigger along with a fully equipped commercial kitchen, a separate dining area and larger space to conduct discourses, classes and meetings and social welfare activities. People are free to share your views and assistance to get the planning going.

The SMS is looking for members in the community with expertise in Project Management, Architectural Design, Building Construction etc., whoare interested in getting involved in modifying the property SMS has purchased (warehouse).

—Supplied

One can donate generously in the following SMICC account.

Account Name SankatMochan BSB

06 3245 Account Number 1103 7375 Bank

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february-march 2020

southSouth asia times 11 Asia Times

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south asia 12 South Asia Timestimes

INTERVIEW

february-march 2020

Some progress but still miles to go – Indian economy

Anand Kulkarni’s book ‘India and the Knowledge Economy – Performance, Perils, and Prospects’; Springer was launched in Melbourne on 28 November 2019. I was present at the launch but interviewed Anand, recently this year.

The book asks fundamental questions about the extent to which India is participating in the global shift towards knowledge-based forms of competitiveness. It charts Indian performance and progress using a unique framework benchmarked against fourteen other countries. In the course of the analysis, critical areas for improvement are identified, and the book provides detailed and objective insights for policy-makers and researchers to facilitate change and institutional reform in India.

My questions received candid replies from the author, based in Melbourne.Anand explains the need for an enabling State-one which allows for the development of ideas and creativity to flourish and empowerment which represents the basic rights of individuals to participate in the knowledge economy. His views on creating employment, managing the environment and resource management are some of his core points.

Social-political turmoil, he says, be it religious, caste - based or social exclusion isbound to be problematic. He feels there is considerable evidence that social cohesion and economic prosperity are aligned and that threats to this alignment can be damaging.

By Neeraj Nanda Excerpts from the interview: Q: Your book is about India and the knowledge economy: What is meant by that and how is India tracking?

My book charts India’s progress towards a knowledge economy, and in comparison to a number of other nations in the developing and developed world. The premise is that knowledge in all its forms and capabilities including research, diffusion of know- how, education, entrepreneurship and advanced manufacturing and services, are central to prosperity, sustainable employment, enhanced living standards, and to address complex problems in areas such as health, the natural environment and rapid urbanisation.

This will be the case for developed and emerging economies such as India.

Also important is the notion of an enabling State-one which allows for the development of ideas and creativity to flourish, and empowerment which represents the basic right of individuals to participate in the knowledge economy.

The book examines India’s performance on a range of criteria and finds that while there are pockets of strength, for example in Jugaad endeavours (improvised innovation at local grass roots level), space technology and ICT applications, there are a number of weaknesses.

I have developed a knowledge footprint idea which measures the extent to which knowledge is developed and diffused both at home and abroad, comparing India with 14 other countries of differing levels of development, including Australia.

Out of the 15 countries, India is ranked 14th, unfortunately, with weaker performance among the following areas: providing widespread access to high

quality education for its citizenry; exports of high value, skill - intensive manufacturing; research performance generally and translating research into the commercial arena; and entrepreneurship which is able to be sustained.

Q: What are the core challenges confronting the Indian economy, particularly in the light of the knowledge economy?

India faces a number of challenges. In no particular order, creating employment for the vast number of new entrants into the labour force is key. These jobs need to be productive and sustainable into the long term, requiring a shift from the preponderance of informal, low paying jobs, to the extent that employment is available to all. This in turn means a vibrant industrial sector, one that adapts to the emerging

needs of the domestic and global markets, and an agricultural sector which is more productive and focussed on adding value.

For a country at its stage of development, India has a smaller manufacturing sector than other comparable nations. What is required in my view is development and linkage of modern, sophisticated, manufacturing (and agriculture), allied with services through an emphasis on genuine collaboration and knowledge development and transfer.While contentious, there are likely to be opportunities for India in the 4th industrial revolution as–coined by the World Economic Forum comprising artificial intelligence, robotics the internet of things, and technology fusion, among other things.

Upskilling and re-skilling the nation requires an education and training

system that is responsive, meets changing labour market needs and provides employable, broad based and transferrable skills, embedded in deep specialisations, where necessary. This could be part of a national transition plan, carefully considered to shift resources out of declining areas of the economy into more potentially productive ones.

In such a context, there has been much criticism of India’s highly regimented education and training system which has not produced enough graduates with employable skills, nor endowed students with a broad range of skills, including those soft skills that are increasingly required (communication, problem solving, teamwork, social skills). Reforming the structure and governance of education and training, revitalising curriculum and pedagogy, and allowing for more autonomy and creativity for institutions,are core challenges, as is producing a world class vocational education sector which has been underdeveloped. To be fair, the proposed new Education Policy, a draft of which was released in 2019, does offer hope for reform in areas of governance, research promotion and a greater focus on employability.

Another core and obvious challenge for India is in relation to the natural environment and resource management. World Health Organisation work shows that a very large number of Indian cities are among the world’s most polluted.

Here we see that innovation and knowledge is vital to bring forth new ideas, technologies and research to bear on pressing problems and address energy needs, climate change, water and waste management, as major planks of a green economy.

It will be important to dispel the notion that the environment and economy are not reconcilable. This will require a concerted,

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co-ordinated and coherent national collective effort, which also links and aligns the vast number of grass roots initiatives that are in play to address massive environmental challenges.

A comprehensive long term climate mitigation and adaptation plan, allied with thedeployment of renewable energy at scale (and in orderly fashion), and clear waste and water management systems, structures and objectives,are necessary.

I would also argue that India’s institutions of government and governance, including Ministries,the Judiciary, National-State Government relations, and local Government entities need to be more agile, responsive to changing community needs, more collaborative and with clearer roles and accountabilities. This is particularly important in the context of a knowledge economy where ideas can originate from anywhere, anytime and where the economy is fast changing as new technologies develop rapidly.

Q: India is touted as having great potential to be an economic superpower in decades to come despite mixed forecasts. What do you say?

My view is that the potential is there, but a lot would need to change.

The potential stems from a number of sources. There is the often expressed view that India has a “demographic dividend” owing to its youthful population compared to most of the rest of the world which is experiencing an ageing of its population.

Further, the Indian middle class is large and growing, which can drive demand, especially for higher value goods and services. Thirdly, there is the long standing tradition and focus on education, especially higher education.

CONTD. ON PG 13

february-march 2020

INTERVIEW

Some progress but still miles...

CONTD. FROM PG 12 Further is the good old fashioned Indian know how which is about the creativity of its people in both cities and villages, its rich sources of traditional and modern knowledge, and core of highly rated educational institutions and research centres. It is noteworthy that India has improved its standing in the Global Innovation Index in recent years.Finally,there is a highly visible, talentedand influential diaspora, flung widely across the globe, who are a source of knowhow, finance and other capital.

For all this potential, there are many issues to overcome.Institutional strength, governance and accountability and transparency are concerns, as are NationalState Government relations.

India is stagnant on the global Corruption Performance Index, measured annually. Inequality is a pressing issue with the country having one of the highest rates of inequality in the world, impacting on social cohesion, and notions of fairness. More broadly, India continues to struggle in the UN Human Development Index, which measures, among other things, parameters such as access to, and performance of foundational education, and the extent of

southSouth asia times 13 Asia Times

health, gender and other forms of inequality. These factors mean that the full potential of India is not necessarily being realised.

As mentioned, India’s environmental performance is a major constraint to its future. In the most recent Yale UniversityEnvironmental Performance Index (EPI), India is ranked a dismal 177th out of 180 countries. The index covers more than 20 performance indicators relating to environmental health and ecosystem vitality.

Q: Do you think that the recent budget puts the economy on a strong footing?

The latest budget has some positive features, which might stimulate consumption and investment, including tax relief for corporations and individuals, but there continues to be complexities in implementation. According to some commentators there are attempts at stimulus and revival through investments in transport infrastructure, online education and electric vehicles for example, as well as - recapitalisation of public sector banks (which can be a double edge sword however), and agriculture income support (although eligibility for take up is a question).

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interview

february-march 2020

Some progress but still miles...

CONTD. FROM PG 13 However, I agree with the view that there does not appear to be an overarching strategic edge to the budget, to frame a growth and employment narrative.

Of concern is the dilution of funds for the employment guarantee scheme, and lack of an integrated approach to industry development and agriculture. Agriculture needs a whole of value chain approach, for example, from inputs right through to production, marketing, distribution and exporting of high value products and services.

Q: Moody has downgraded India’s 2020 growth to 5.4% from 6.6%. What does that indicate?

This indicates significant concerns. Consumption is flat as the job situation weakens (and wages are by and large stagnant) and consumer sentiment is stagnant too. This in turn feeds into investment and production. Moreover, India has not had a particularly strong export performance and orientation, which means that opportunities for growth

on world markets is not necessarily being capitalised on, noting, though, the current uncertainty in world trade.

Other key factors, as suggested, are that with a burgeoning fiscal deficit, and mounting debt, the capacity for the Government to “turbo charge” the economy is limited, while inflation continues to be a concern.

A further concern has been the structural weaknesses in the banking sector including non- performing loans and assets, which further limits credit growth and overall economic performance.

Q: Is India part of the global trend of growth without jobs?

I would argue two points here. Firstly,India’s growth has been slowing and is projected to do so for the various reasons advanced earlier, rather than it being a case of growth without jobs. There is certainly a major jobs issue, more associated with the lack of a robust manufacturing sector (and still impediments in the labour market which restrict flexibility in hiring), and an agricultural sector which does not have the

productivity levels of leading countries. The absence of a shift from declining to growing sectors is marked.

A second point is that any global trend towards growth without jobs has, to a significant extent, been associated with labour displaced by technological change, including computerisation and emerging fields such as robotics. Compared to other countries, it is not clear though that India has particularly rapidly diffused such technologies on a very wide scale, save for some sectors. It should be noted that while labour displacement from technological change can be an issue, there are also considerable employment opportunities associated with new technologies and new growth possibilities,if harnessed.

Q: Is social-political turmoil hurting India’s economy?

Any turmoil of such a nature, be it religious, caste based or socially exclusionary measures is bound to be problematic.

This is in many respects.

Firstly, from a purely

economic standpoint is the risk and uncertainty that this creates for businesses. Businesses need predictability and stability to plan their investments with reasonable degree of certainty. According to the Eurasia group in the US, India has one of the highest country risks in the world in 2020, as it appears that a harsh social agenda has been prioritised over an economic agenda.Various sensitive and specific sectors would be at risk from social- political turmoil, including travel and tourism. Further, there is considerable evidence that social cohesion and economic prosperity are aligned and that threats to this alignment can be damaging. In addition, is the “snowballing” effect. Socialpolitical turmoil which affects economic performance, in turn further exacerbates social fissures and so on.

Q: How would you rate India’s major policy initiatives in the last few years?

In general, I would argue that the last few years have seen a mixed performance.

Certainly, there have been gains in improving the overall

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business environment, through reduction in red tape and improvements to approvals processes for businesses, trade clearance, and simplification of labour codes, among others. India’s performance in the World Bank Doing Business Index has improved significantly and is now 63rdin the world, on the back of good performance, including in construction permits, obtaining electricity, resolving insolvency and implementation of e-processes.

The GST, while laudable in aim and intent, has had implementation difficulties, and arguably, the jury has still been out on the overall impacts of the demonetisation program.

Some of the more micromeasures such as provision of more bank accounts and access to local financial institutions, including especially for females, and the Swach Bharat (Clean India) have produced gains.

However, as mentioned previously,measures in the areas of environmental management, employment generation and development of large scale industry have fallen short.

Opinion

february-march 2020

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Net zero can mean net gain

By Joel Fitzgibbon MP*

o

ur communities, rightly, expect each of Australia’s political parties to have a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while providing guarantees on jobs and also affordable and reliable energy security. For me, achieving meaningful net reductions, without doing harm to our traditional industries and the jobs they create, is the most important challenge.

Australia’s path to Government action on greenhouse gas emissions began twenty years ago when John Howard introduced the mandatory Renewable Energy Target.

There began a more than two decade-long policy struggle on an issue which has had more prominence than was necessary.

A policy settlement on climate action would freeup more time for all of us to focus on the aspirations of working Australian families and the issues most important to them: tax relief, cost of living,

retirement income security, good education, childcare, and health services.

The aspiration of carbon neutrality by 2050 (zero net emissions) offers a conservative and lowrisk path to satisfying the commitment Malcolm Turnbull made in Paris on our behalf back in 2015.

First, it provides plenty of time to think and act, including the time needed to embrace existing and future technologies.

Second, it stands a chance of securing bipartisanship and therefore, broader community support. Third, it turns the focus to efforts to absorb carbon from the atmosphere and away from an almost singular focus on reducing emissions.

In other words, building on existing methods for drawing carbon from the atmosphere and finding innovative new ways of doing so. This is what “net” means: working towards a time when we are putting no more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than we are taking out.

Australia’s wealth is

largely underpinned by our resources sector. The more than $200 billion dollars our coal, iron ore, oil and gas sectors earn on export markets each year provides the foreign exchange we need to pay for our imported cars, refrigerators, iPhones and computers. Our coal remains in strong demand in the markets of Asia and that will remain the case for many decades to come.

While ever that demand exists, we should continue to take the economic opportunities on offer.

Further, the big emitters like China and India will need our resources to modernise and clean-up their relatively under-developed and polluting economies.

Our electricity system is changing.

Renewable generation is now responsible for around twenty percent of generation and everevolving and improving battery storage technologies will allow further growth while not putting the grid out of balance or adversely

impacting on energy reliability. The role of gas is growing, as is pumped hydro. If we are smart, when our coal-fired power generators reach the end of their physical and commercial lives, new and cleaner technologies will be ready to take up the slack.

That time is still a long way off. Some of our generators will be around for another forty years. Others, like the fifty-year-old and lessefficient Liddell power station, will run out of puff soon.

In the Hunter, we are working with AGL to make sure that by the time Liddell is decommissioned, our region will have more modern and cleaner forms of electricity in place to replace the lost generation capacity.

Five years ago, a Coalition Government signed us up to an international agreement to reduce emissions sufficiently – in concert with the global community – to keep further warming below two degrees Celsius. But it has failed to follow-up its commitment with enough

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action. While it dithers and delays, community frustration increases, and potential investors in our energy system grow more nervous and reluctant. It’s time to put the fights and petty politics behind us.

We can take serious action and work with the market in doing so without forsaking jobs in our traditional industries.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has committed NSW to zero net emissions.

So too have most of her State counterparts. So too has the Business Council of Australia. So too has Santos and BP and other mining and energy companies.

The odd man out is Scott Morison. The best and easiest path to success is to go there together.

It’s over to you, Prime Minister. *Shadow Minister for Agriculture And Resources, Member For Hunter.

- This opinion piece was first published in the Newcastle Herald on Saturday, 22 February 2020.

- Supplied.

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musings

february-march 2020

It had to have happened

By Rashid Sultan

T

he Citizens Amendment Act (CAA) is now in force. It stipulates that allnon- Muslim minorities, under religious persecution, from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistanwho hadarrived in India by 31.12.14 will no longer be treated as illegal orinfiltrators and be given the citizenship of India (no Muslims).

The natural progression from here is the NPR (National Population Register)and the NRC (National Register of Citizens).

Political analysts in India were not surprised because they had all along been waiting for this since 2014. To decipher the logic behind all this, we the commoner, have just to go back 75 years in thepast.

It was in 1923 whenSavarkar first promulgated the two nation theory of the Hindus and Muslims (20 years before Jinnah’s demand for Pakistan). He is the same Savarkar who is famous for apologies to theBritish Raj to get free from the ‘Kala Pani’ and whose name was being proposed for the Bharat Ratna by the BJP during the Maharashtra elections.

Then, in 1925,the RashtriyaSwayamSevakSangh (RSS) followed.Their primordial reason to come into being was to establish ‘Akhand Bharat’ – which contained unbroken India, and also Afghanistan, Ceylon (now

Sri Lanka), Nepal, Afghanistan and Burma (now Myanmar).

But, they were a little late on the world stage as Britain had already decided on the fate of these countries. And in 1947 when Britain finally left India, Pakistan had already come into existence.

The nation reluctantly accepted the partition of the country but not the RSS. The result?Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination by NathuramGodse , a follower of Hindu nationalism.

But, they didn’t concede defeat.

And thus started “shakhayen which now boast a cadre of one crore who are trained in physical drills and “lath baazi”.

No government has dared to ask them the need for these activities when the country has more than adequate police, paramilitary and military forces.

Their heroes have been Hitler and Mussolini, the Nazi and Fascist icons. This is the organisation which never hosted the national flag for 27 years.

They never participated in the independence struggle; spread of hatred towards Indian Muslims and Christians has been their cause celebre; though, proclaiming themselves a cultural organisation, their goal is to make India a Hindu Rashtra.

To help the cause, they have rewritten history books defiling Muslim history in the Subcontinent where every Muslim

king is a debauch, fanatic and oppressor.They have not spared even the Muslim architectural monuments and through fake and deceptive allusions have declared Red Fort, Taj Mahal and Jama Masjid, Hindu buildings. The list goes on.

In politics, they first came as the Jan Sangh which is now the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and now rulingIndiasince 2014. There was a time when the BJP had only three seats in the Parliament now they boast more than 300.

How has this miracle come about?

Polarisation!!!!

They have effectively divided the country between Hindus and Muslims and made Hindus their vote bank (remember Congress’ Muslim vote bank); have convinced most uneducated and illiterate Hindus that Muslims are not to be trusted as they have their allegiances with Pakistan and so areDeshDrohi!!!

To brainwash the man in the street started when they were in the opposition; the next step was to install their cadre into govt. services and other branches which commenced, discreetly, in their first term of office under the Vajpayee led government.

In 2014 the mantra was “sabkasathsabkavikas”. And the country saw multiple lynching’s, mainly Muslims and a few Dalits.

Not a single condemnation or word of advice from the higherups.

In 2019, the mantra expanded to“sabkasathsabkavikas and sabkavishwas”. By now, the thin veneer of inclusiveness had eroded. And thus followed: Abolition of Triple Talaaq where a civil contract was turned into a criminal act (a first in world history).

Abrogation of Article 370 in J&K, the only Muslim majority state in the Indian Union, where Indian citizens are still without internet even after many months, where far right parliamentarians and envoys from European nations are brought into the Valley on ‘guided missions’.

And the Supreme Court’s decision awarding the Babri Masjid to Ram Mandir. A laughable decision, it would need a whole chapter to explain how and why this decision was taken by judges.

As luck would have it, contrary to their calculations, the Assam NRC found 12 lakh Hindus against 5 lakh Muslim in Assam without proper papers.

Anticlimax!

So two birds with one stone!

CAA! Imitating their hero, Hitler who introduced the Nuremberg Act to delegitimise the Jews in 1930s, our current government passed the CAA targeting Muslims.

It would appease Assamese and also enhance their Hindu vote bank in the rest of the country.

But, unfortunately for them, it was turn of the tide (dice).

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It opened Pandora’s Box. Initially, a protest began at the JamiaMillia University where students, both Muslim and Hindu, went on a peaceful protest against the CAA because they correctly analysed that on surface it may have looked like anti- Muslim, but, in reality it was against every Dalit, every adivaasi, everypoor in the country.

Scholars and jurists declared it unconstitutional as the constitution does not mention any religion or caste throughout its narrative – a tribute to Dr.Ambedkar.

The administration was aghast at this manifestation of opposition and that too from a so-called Muslim institution.

Probably, they do not know 40 per cent of students of Jamia are non-Muslims. They came down brutally on the students, entered the campus, lathi charged unarmed students, barged into the library and the mosque, threw tear gas shells and did not spare even girl students.

The incident’s news reached Aligarh Muslim University where the scenes were repeated and students injured.

How could JNU, thorn of Hindutava, remain behind. This time it was police who remained a passive onlooker and let the ABVP maskedsupporters to perform.

Entering even girls’ hostels and attacking students in their rooms they did nor spare the diminutive AisheGhosh, the union president, with a heavy injury to her face and head.

One thing to remember, that even in the most repressive days of the British Raj, police never entered the campus of a university without the permission of the vice chancellor.

More than 40 universities, IITs, IIMs followed in protestations in solidarity with Aligarians, Jamians and JNUites.

But the biggest blow came from ShaheenBagh, a locality in Okhla, Delhi.

A new experiment in the making!

Thousands of Muslim women with their children and toddlers started their dharna, a la Gandhi.

Soon Hindu women, brilliant students joined them turning this event into a secular event. This protest has gone on in the open in Delhi’s cruel winter for more than 2 months (though, unfortunately, an infant died due to severe cold).

Soon thisShaheenBagh of Delhi became a symbol of national protest and dissent throughout the country and now, many cities and towns are hosting their own ShaheenBaghs. India has never seen anything like it ever, since Mahatma Gandhi.

The BJP in its recent electioneering in Delhi with its thousands of crores to communalise ShaheenBagh could not exceed eight seats in the house of 70.

-These are author’s personal views

february-march 2020

NEWS Analysis

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Reasons why the AAP swept Delhi: Lessons from the ground T

By Gayeti Singh

he Aam Aadmi Party swept the Delhi assembly elections, winning a massive mandate of 62 of 70 seats.

“I love you,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressed the people of Delhi in a speech after the results, adding that the “politics of work” delivered the victory.

AAP leader Manish Sisodia, who defeated the BJP’s Ravinder Singh Negi in Patparganj by a narrow margin of 3000 votes, said that the “hate politics of [the] BJP has been defeated.”

Sisodia was referring to the BJP’s efforts to polarise the polls, with party president Amit Shah going as far as asking voters to “press the button so hard the current would be felt in ShaheenBagh.”

Even so, AAP’s victory in Delhi is unprecedented: Arvind Kejriwal secures a third term as Chief Minister, and the party has retained almost its entire 2015 vote share (it had won 67 seats in 2015), securing - yet again an overwhelming majority.

And while both the “politics of work” and the “rejection of hate” play a role in the postpoll analysis, there’s more to AAP’s win. Here are Five reasons why AAP swept Delhi.

The politics of work Reporting assignments took us to different parts of Delhi, where we heard a uniform narrative. AAP had

performed. Residents spoke of an improvement in their lives; water and electricity supply is now regular and subsidised, education reform has bettered public schools, and mohalla clinics have enabled access to affordable quality healthcare.

“AAP has given suvidha (facilities). Schools, electricity, water … no government has ever done so much,” a paper plate seller in Yusuf Sarai said. “This is the first time a Chief Minister has done good work,” tailor Mohammad Aslam told us in Trilokpuri. “This election is about vikas (development).

We now have a sewage system, a proper road, water and electricity,” fruit seller Vikas said in SangamVihar.

So even as Trilokpuri’s residents complained of dirty water, and people in SangamVihar were frustrated at the delays in laying the water and sewage lines - the fact that work was done took electoral precedence. “Even if there is inconvenience, at least some work is being done. And people will vote for AAP because of this. No other party had bothered doing anything before this,” paan seller Anuj Gupta had prophetically told us in SangamVihar.

“The main point is - life is better than before,” Trilokpuri resident Ramesh Gupta told us.

“There has been development in the last five years. Cameras have been installed in every street, we have three mohalla clinics in this area,

and schools have seen a massive transformation.” “In India’s history, has any Chief Minister given residents free water and electricity? In my view, Kejriwal’s done more than enough to get our vote,” another resident, Roshan Lal, had said.

You can read our prepoll ground reports from SangamVihar, Yusuf Sarai and Trilokpuri - for more voters’ speak on the impact of the politics of work.

Workers on the ground A key piece of the electionvictory puzzle is an effective organisation on the ground - through volunteers and cadre. This is where the BJP stands out in both state and national elections. As reporters covering state and national elections, we have often come away pinning the result entirely on the party’s boots on the ground.

The sweep of saffron has been halted in states with an effective counter in the form of on-ground organisations challenging the BJP. AAP’s frontal organisations worked through the year. informing people of the party’s deliverables through a targeted campaign. "In the first phase, it was general campaigning. The second was campaigning that connected with floating voters and now in the third phase of campaigning, we would be identifying points that could give the AAP a jump or an advantage,” the party had said of its frontal organisation

campaign strategy.

Voters told us that AAP MLAs were accessible, and party workers in the area helped address citizens’ concerns. Every corner in Delhi had buzzing AAP party offices, with volunteers distributing pamphlets and other party paraphernalia.

Rallies were well organised, and party meetings well attended. Kejriwal masks outnumbered Modi masks on the streets of pre-poll Delhi - with AAP putting up an effective campaign from the ground up.

A visit to Trilokpuri on the last day of polling demonstrated this. A huge AAP rally whizzed past us, with locals joining in, chatting to the party’s candidate and workers. At the Congress office less than a kilometer away, the mood was almost sombre - with workers barely chatting amongst themselves.

“We’ll win,” women workers at the Congress office told us, promising to feed us celebratory sweets if we come again on results day. They and us both knew that promise was with little conviction.

Collapse of the Congress In 2015, the Indian National Congress -- which had governed Delhi for 15 consecutive years till just two years ago -- failed to win a single seat, securing just 9.7 percent of the vote share. In 2020, the party’s vote share has fallen even further - to 4.26 percent, and

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it finished third in all 70 seats.

The fact that voters did not see the Congress as a viable contender worked in favour of AAP, as the vote wasn’t fragmented three-way.

“Congress is khatam (over)” utensil seller Kanhaiya said in SangamVihar. This was repeated across Delhi, even though the party had performed better than AAP in the 2019 general elections.

The party’s dismal performance was expected, even by its own leaders.

“There is nothing shocking about Congress party's defeat, we already saw it coming,” Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said after the results. Delhi unit chief Subhash Chopra blamed the BJP and AAP’s “politics of polarisation,” saying, “reason for the drop in our vote percentage is politics of polarization by both BJP and AAP." The era of personality politics “Kejriwal in Delhi, Modi at Centre,” was repeated by many voters across Delhi - as personality politics increasingly determines voting patterns. “Many who voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections will vote AAP for Vidhan Sabha,” Rahul told us in SangamVihar, explaining why voters did not find this contradictory. “Lok Sabha is about the Prime Minister; it’s different,” he said, adding that as a Chief Ministerial candidate, Kejriwal offered a strong and capable leadership.

CONTD. ON PG 18

south asia 18 South Asia Timestimes

NEWS Analysis

february-march 2020

Reasons why the AAP swept Delhi: Lessons from the ground CONTD. FROM PG 17

A large percentage of AAP’s voters did not see the vote as a choice between Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi, but as a vote for a strong Chief Minister and a strong Prime Minister.

AAP won 53.57 percent of the vote share in this election.

In the 2019 general elections just a year ago, BJP had 56.58 percent vote share, with AAP securing just 18 percent of the vote.

The vote share numbers and ground reports indicate that many of those who voted for the BJP in 2019, voted AAP in 2020. Why? “Kejriwal in Delhi, Modi at Centre” sums it up better than any analysis we can offer.

Side-stepping hate politics The BJP put up a polarising electoral campaign - dragging in bullets, biryani and even Pakistan. BJP MP ParveshVerma called Kejriwal a “terrorist.” UP

Chief Minister and BJP leader Yogi Adityanath said bullets would work against those protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act if dialogue didn’t. Adityanath also claimed that Kejriwal was sponsoring the protests at ShaheenBagh, and offering biryani to the protesters.

And Amit Shah asked voters to “press the button so hard the current would be felt in ShaheenBagh.”

The Delhi verdict, then, was hailed as a “rejection of the BJP’s hate politics.”

“This is clear vindication that development trumps communal politics,” DMK leader MK Stalin tweeted.

“You have defeated negative & blatant hate politics decisively. Your verdict marks the defeat of politics of polarisation and division,” RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav said.

But others have pointed out that AAP did little to counter the BJP’s polarising agenda. Kejriwal and the party have not directly countered the BJP on ShaheenBagh, the Citizenship

Amendment Act, or the issue of police violence on student protesters - in fact, AAP has been visibly silent.

Former AAP politician Ashutosh explains this in a column for NDTV. Calling the ShaheenBagh protests “a non-issue for AAP”, Ashutosh wrote: “ It may be puzzling for political pundits as to why AAP, which was born out of a social movement and which was once famous for hitting the streets at the drop of a hat, is not seen even in close proximity of ShaheenBagh.” Ashutosh points to the rise of Hindu nationalism, and says AAP side-stepping issues such as CAA and ShaheenBagh are

part of a carefully thoughtout electoral strategy - so as to note lose the wider majority vote. In another column titled, “Yes, Kejriwal Peddling Soft Hindutva. Why That's Very Smart” Ashutosh applauds Kejriwal for reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, calling it “an electorally smart move to avoid being painted as a leader who only cares for Muslims and feeds biryani to ShaheenBagh protesters.”

Sources say that election strategist Prashant Kishor had a part to play here making Kejriwal avoid direct confrontation, and focusing instead on the delivery of promises and the “politics of work.” “A key part of the

strategy was to stop targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The argument was that a lot of BJP voters would vote for AAP in assembly elections, so there was no point antagonising them,” a media report said.

Voters by and large told us that the Citizenship Act and ShaheenBagh will have limited impact on the vote, with vikas (development) remaining their primary concern.

The Delhi election results are more indicative of AAP’s successful effort to side-step hate politics, rather than an outright “rejection of hate.”

Source: The Citizen, 12 February 2020.

Special report

Asia’s youngest licensed pilot, hon. Aviation doctorate holder & soon to be author

By FlyHigh Mag

P

ERTH, February 17: The winner of ‘Global Excellence Awards 2019’, ‘Indian Shining Star Awards 2019’, ‘Indian Excellence Awards 2019’ and ‘Asian Inspiration Award 2019/2020’ by the International Youth CommitteeKhooshvinBalgobin is a pilot, author and mentor in the Aviation industry. He has numerous honours and world records. KhooshvinBalgobin, PhD, is a 17-year-old Singaporean citizen of Indian origin residing in Perth, Western Australia, who bears a strong vision to set up a global mentorship platform to assist the less fortunate in Aviation.

Recorded in the Asia Book of Records and World Book of Records UK as Asia’s Youngest Licensed Pilot at age 16 years 29 days, Khooshvin has also been writing his first book on Physics and Human Factors of air travel. He has also been conferred with the Honorary Doctorate in Record Making / Breaking from the World Records University UK, thus making him the ‘Youngest

Honorary Doctorate holder in Aviation’. He is also the recipient of Trinity College Perth Western Australia Aviation Award “A” Level (Top in Course) 2019.

Khooshvin has been awarded the ‘World Kings Book of Records’ and is on the track to becoming the Youngest Author and Mentor in Aviation.

Khooshvin credits his regular trips to the local Changi International Airport in Singapore from three years of age as his inspiration to become a pilot and make an exceptional mark in the Aviation industry. He is immensely inspired by his father who used to bring him to the airport every week without a fail to watch planes take-off and land. He owes his success to his father for supporting him fully to become a pilot.

Khooshvinsays, “My father is definitely the one who brought me to where I stand today in the Aviation Industry.”

Taking us back to his success story, Khooshvinsays he had to face problems during his flight training which posed a threat to becoming the

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youngest pilot in Asia. Bad weather or administrative paperwork delay threw challenges on his way but he says that these were also highlighted as the methods/ strategies in the write up thesis to World Records University UK. “Flying itself is a risky job and in the beginning, my parents took some time to sink in the news that I aspire to become a pilot”, says KhooshvinBalgobin.

But his own burning desire, sheer determination and undying motivation drove him to pursue a field as a pilot. The recipient of ‘Asian Inspiration Awards’, Khooshvin is an utterly focused, motivated, determined person who carries a sheer dedication to pursue his passion. His foremost aim is to establish his name and help the community find a possible passion in Aviation. He believes he is on his way to fulfil his dreams soon by releasing a book on the Physics of Flight and Human Factors as well as a Future mentorship / learning platform in Aviation.

- Supplied.

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Internet needs new global regulations against online sexual exploitation

By Tsitsi Matekaire*

l

ONDON, Feb 13 2020 (IPS) - Online sexual exploitation is a global epidemic that is increasing at an alarming rate.

At any one time, 750,000 individuals across the world are looking to connect with children and young people online for sexual exploitation. The expansion of the Internet, advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs), and the development of increasingly sophisticated digital tools that provide anonymity, mean that the number of potential victims is growing exponentially, and so too is the pool of those seeking to abuse them.

An investigation by The New York Times on how technology companies and the US government are being overwhelmed by this epidemic found that a record 45 million online photos and videos of child sexual exploitation were reported by US-based technology companies to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 2018.

And the problem is getting worse. In 2019, record-breaking 70 million total images and videos were reported to NICMEC, an enormous increase on the 1.1 million it received in 2014.

Children and young people are especially connected online. One in three Internet users worldwide are under the age of 18 years, and with availability and accessibility continuing to improve, more and more children own or have access to Internet-enabled smart devices.

Technology is also making children contactable around the clock. Young people across the world are spending an increasing amount of time online, and in the US, teenagers are now engaging with screen media seven hours per day on average.

Accompanying this is the expansion of social media, which has created a plethora of new opportunities for wouldbe offenders to connect and interact with children anonymously and

unsupervised.

Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation. They are subjected to a double layer of discrimination because they are young and female, and are sexualized from a young age, both in the way society treats them and in how the media portrays them.

Sexualized images of girls and young women are ubiquitous in advertising, merchandising, and the entertainment industry.

All this perpetuates gender stereotypes that can negatively impact the developing body image and self-esteem of girls.

Social media has amplified these longstanding pressures, pushing girls to conform to particular sexualized narratives, and leaving them especially vulnerable to sexual exploitation both off and online.

New data gathered

by UK based internet watchdog the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) revealed that 30 percent of sexually explicit images of children found online are self-generated.

IWF took action over 124,605 images found online between January and November 2019. Over three-quarters of these images (78 per cent) featured children aged 11 to 13, most of whom were girls.

Adolescent girls are particularly at risk of being groomed, coerced, or blackmailed into providing explicit images and videos, often via webcams, which

can then be posted online and shared via networks operating across the world.

In some instances, children are sending videos and images to their peers on smartphones and via social media platforms. For the most part, this content will remain with the person it was intended for, but sometimes material is passed onto others.

Once online, it is almost impossible to control where it ends up or stop its spread.

Victims can be left feeling sexually violated, powerless, socially isolated, and stigmatized.

A range of mental health problems are associated with this, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

Exploited children are at a heightened risk of becoming exploited and vulnerable adults, and as victims reach the age of majority, they no longer have the legal protections afforded to minors in different legal and policy contexts.

Particularly disturbing can be the ongoing sense of re-victimization arising from images of abuse being shared repeatedly across the digital landscape and viewed multiple times by countless people.

Frequently, requests asking for content to be removed are ignored, or image taken off one online platform, soon reappear elsewhere. This can feel like ongoing sexual assault, casting a long shadow that can have

a profoundly damaging impact continuing into adulthood.

Commendable efforts in progress, but more challenges to overcome Governments, technology companies, research institutions, civil society organizations, donors, and many others are rising to the challenge and are providing various examples of successful interventions and innovations.

In 2009, Microsoft partnered with Dartmouth College to develop PhotoDNA, a technology that aids in locating and removing online child abuse content. Today, PhotoDNA is used around the world to detect and report millions of illegal images. It works by creating a unique digital signature of an image called a “hash�, which is similar to a fingerprint.

The hash can then be matched to copies of the same image so they can be located and removed by governments and tech companies.

Organizations such as NetClean and Thorn are harnessing the power of technology to create tools to assist law enforcement, tech platforms, and civil society organizations in identifying illegal material online, track exploiters, and bring them to justice.

The Global Threat Assessment by WePROTECT Global Alliance to End Child Sexual Exploitation Online has brought together governments, the tech industry, and NGOs to galvanize global action,

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Sexualized images of girls and young women are ubiquitous in advertising, merchandising, and the entertainment industry. increase understanding about the nature and scale of the problem, and develop and implement strategies.

These efforts are commendable and have begun to make inroads.

However, the globalized nature of online sexual exploitation, combined with it continuously expanding and evolving landscape, means we still face enormous challenges and new obstacles.

Not everyone around the world is being afforded the same protections. International women’s rights organization Equality Now is undertaking a review of existing international and regional legal frameworks relevant to online sexual exploitation to understand in greater detail the practices, gaps, and opportunities.

Technological solutions need to work alongside legal and policy solutions, but existing legal frameworks are diverse and inadequate. In many countries, legislation and law enforcement have failed to keep up with cybercrime, and some governments have not yet prioritized the threat or have limited resources to invest in infrastructure and safeguards to protect vulnerable people.

Exploiters and the online platforms they use operate across national borders, and legislation has not been updated to adequately address issues regarding legal jurisdictions.

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Internet needs new global regulations against online sexual exploitation

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For instance, any website – whether a large multinational company, one set up specifically to facilitate exploitation, or any other platform – may use servers located in various locations overseen by different legal authorities.

Other difficulties arise from balancing the rights to privacy and freedom of expression with the need for regulation that protects vulnerable people from exploitation.

Analysis of the problem, and identification and development of solutions, needs to include a gendered lens so that the specific vulnerabilities and needs of adolescent girls are considered and addressed.

Teenage girls often fall through gaps in the law, leaving them without the same basic protections

that are in place for younger children, meaning they are less safe, less likely to be given support, and less likely to receive justice if their rights have been violated. They are also commonly blamed or even criminalized instead of being treated as victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The global and complex nature of online sexual exploitation requires that all of us come together to find solutions. This involves applying a gendered lens to research and understanding how the Internet and technology are being misused to facilitate sexual exploitation.

We need to formulate and adopt common international regulations or a global convention the layout the responsibility and accountability of all actors involved

in the online sexual exploitation of vulnerable people. This involves having mechanisms in place to address new legal challenges as they emerge.

Crucial to success is having survivors at the center of discussions so their voices are heard and their perspectives inform and strengthen solutions.

Listening to those with first-hand experience and documenting systematically what they have been through can help us identify what needs to change and put better protections in place so the world can benefit from an Internet that is safer for all. For media enquiries and interview requests please contact Sr. *Equality Now is an international human rights organization that works to protect and promote the rights of

women and girls around the world by combining grassroots activism with international, regional and national legal advocacy. Equality Now’s international network of lawyers, activists, and supporters achieve legal and systemic change by holding governments responsible for enacting and enforcing laws and policies that end legal inequality, sex trafficking, sexual violence, and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage.

For details of our current campaigns, please visit www.equalitynow.org and find us on Facebook @equalitynoworg and Twitter @equalitynow. *TsitsiMatekaire is Global Lead for Equality Now’s End Sex Trafficking programme.

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Victims can be left feeling sexually violated, powerless, socially isolated, and stigmatized.

A range of mental health problems are associated with this, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

february-march 2020

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BOOK REVIEW SOUTH ASIA

february-march 2020

Wild India- Celebrating Wilderness: Wildlife and nature presented in breathtaking style

By Rajeev Sharma

n

EW DELHI: `Wild India- Celebrating Wilderness’ turned out to be one of the most successful wildlife exhibition in India in the recent years. Held for seven days in January 2019 in the prestigious AIFACS Gallery at New Delhi, the event drew not just wildlife enthusiasts but a number of big guns too.

The biggies who came early in the exhibition included the crème de la crème of wildlife circuit: Bedi Brothers, the legendary wildlife film-makers, WWFIndia Chief Ravi Singh, Special Advisor of Aramco Asia, JavedYunus, Nikon India’s managing director and service head, Sajjan Kumar and Jogi Frances respectively, India’s celebrated photography instructor O P Sharma, to name just a few.

The fact that eight different photographers had displayed their work in the two large galleries of AIFACS added to the sheer variety and range of photographs. At one row of a gallery were scintillating photographs from the Himalayas, clicked by ace photographer and Padma Shree awardee AnupSah. And on the other row of the same gallery sat proudly the big monochrome frames (mostly) of India’s wildlife presented in breathtaking

style by the renowned Akash Das. Neither Akash Das nor AnupSah need any introductory remarks. For decades, their work has left deep mark in the hearts of photography enthusiasts the world over.

Mohd Aslam, another important photographer and wildlife lover, hails from a family of master craftsman.

The Reliance Cricket World Cup of 1987 was designed

by Aslam’s father, and for which he received the national award from the President of India.

Speaking with South Asia Times, Aslam said he was excited to have participated

in the exhibition. ``The exhibition is not only entertaining people, it’s also spreading across the important message of conservation,’’ he added.

Umesh Aggarwal, whose photographs of big cats (mostly tigers) in the exhibition attracted large number of people, thinks the show also served another purpose. ``It sort of tell people about the dos and donts while visiting a forest. Number of times, visitors from National Parks come back disappointed for not having seen many big animals. But our photographs convince them that our jungles are teeming

with wildlife.’’

Sharad Verma’s framed photographs attracted lots of visitors- including senior politician Salman Khurshid and ShubhraVerma, daughter of former Chief Justice of India, J S Verma.

Sharad’s interest lies in clicking the higher reaches of Ladakh and Lahaul-Spiti, that too in the freezing winter.

Similarly, Navin M Raheja, NayanRaheja and PranjalSah also presented their best work. It was an interesting mix of nature and wildlife.

But it was Tigers And Beyond, the blog (tigersandbeyond.com) started by award winning

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journalist, documentary film-maker and wildlife photographer Ajay Suri, which paved the way for the exhibition. As Ajay pointed out, ``The blog was one way of reaching to people interested in wildlife and environment. But I felt it was also important to come out of the virtual world of computer and phone screens and present viewers with a unique gallery experience.’’ `Wild India- Celebrating Wilderness’ is just the beginning. Tiger And Beyond would come out with many more ventures focussing on the wildlife and environment issues, Ajay Suri added.

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New social media regulations in Pakistan condemned

p

akistan’s cabinet has approved the decision of bringing in a new set of rules to regulate social media and institute a regulatory body with sweeping powers.

On February 12, Pakistan’s federal cabinet has approved the decision to introduce a new set of rules to regulate social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Tiktok. The new regulations will be part of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (2016), and will require social media companies to open their offices within three months and set their servers within a year’s time in the country.

The decision has been deemed to be controversial by the proponents of internet freedom who have stressed, the regulations are a ploy to scrutinize dissent and opposition voices in the country. According to the law, “digital media companies need to appoint a representative in Pakistan to deal with a national

coordination authority, which would be responsible to regulate content on social media platforms”.

Taimur Rehman, the general secretary of Pakistan’s MazdoorKisan Party, told Peoples Dispatch, that the main objective of bringing such a law to regulate the social media appears to be to deal with dissenting political voices from within the country that may pose

some kind of threat to the government, and can be extremely dangerous.

Reports say the companies have been advised to set up their data servers in Pakistan besides making it compulsory for them “to provide data of accounts” found guilty of various crimes such as “targeting state institutions, spreading fake news and hate speech, engaging in harassment,

issuing statements that harm national security or uploading blasphemous content” to intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Last year, the then information minister, FawadChowdhary, referred in a press conference that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government was planning to come up with a mechanism to control hate speech in the country.

However, monitoring social

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media was never discussed before. Hence, the cabinet approval is going to be resisted by the opposition.

People like Rehman fear that any ruling government can use these laws for their political advantage.

“Imagine a person who was earlier using social media platforms to criticise the policies of the government can be pinpointed by the National Coordination Authority, and the person’s mouth can be immediately shut. What does it imply?

These social media laws may be a powerful weapon for the ruling body to control dissent and opposition,” he added.

Besides the legal document also mentions, in the event a company fails to follow the rules, the national coordinator “may issue instructions for blocking the online system, social media application or others services owned or managed by the said social media company.”

Source: Peoples Dispatch, : February 13, 2020

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Nepal’s baby export

By Akash Chhetri

K

ATHMANDU, Feb 21 2020 (IPS) - A major discrepancy between Nepal government and foreign records of the number of Nepali children adopted in North America and Europe has exposed a trafficking ring that involves various child welfare agencies in Kathmandu.

The Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens has records of only 64 children from Nepal sent for adoption to ten western countries from 2010 to 2019. However, a list submitted to The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) by the US Department of State and the nine other countries reveals that 242 Nepali children were taken for adoption in those nine years.

The ten countries are the United States, Denmark, France, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Sweden. There are 178 more Nepali children adopted internationally than the government has records for. Why the discrepancy?

“The data we have is authentic,” maintains Ministry spokesperson GyanendraPaudel. “We have no idea how the details in other countries showed more numbers.”

But for Manju Khatiwada at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), this is a clear case of child trafficking.

She says: “The traffickers produce fake documents and influence both the government officials and parents to smuggle the children abroad.”

Official adoptions by foreign nationals have virtually stopped after reports of corruption and payoffs were publicised in the media ten years ago.

But there is a high demand for adoption, especially in western countries, and a plentiful supply of poor Nepali parents who cannot support their children, and this differential drives trafficking. Some parents are also tricked by traffickers into giving up their children.

Manju and BhimsenKhadka from Sindhupalchok used to sell roasted corn by the roadside in Kathmandu.

One day ten years ago, a neighbour named Sarita Shrestha and her husband took pity on their three boys, and offered to place two of them, Rajkumar and

Balkrishna, aged 8 and 6, at a children’s shelter.

The parents agreed because it would relieve the burden of feeding and educating them. But once the children were taken from them, the shelter’s management repeatedly refused to allow Manju and Bhimsen to visit them, and even started issuing threats.

“I begged them to at least let me see my sons just once, but they said they would finish me off,” Manju Khadka recalls tearfully. The parents lodged a complaint at the NHRC, which started an investigation, and found that Rajkumar and Balkrishna had already been adopted in Italy.

Says NHRC’s Khatiwada: “It is clear that the parents were tricked into thinking their sons would be educated, but they were instead stolen and sold by the shelter, which prepared original-looking fake documents at the Nepal Children’s Organisation in Naxal.”

The NHRC notified the government, saying Bal Mandir had sent the children to Italy for adoption, and recommending that Nepal’s adoption laws and policies be amended to plug the loopholes. It also said a public awareness campaign was necessary to warn parents about child trafficking.

After malpractices were uncovered in the 2000s, the Nepal government tightened laws on adoption. According to the ‘Terms and Conditions and Process Required for Approving Adoption of a Nepali Child by an Alien – 2008,’ prospective foreign parents cannot choose the

child they want to adopt.

Foreign couples wishing to adopt a Nepali child must apply through a registered international agency or their embassies in Nepal, filling out forms offering details about the age, gender and other particulars that they seek in a child. A joint secretaryled ‘Family Matching Committee’ is then assigned to find the child from shelters. Clause 14 of the Terms and Conditions stipulates that these adoptions will take place on a first-come-first-serve basis.

However, The Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) documents make clear that many adoptions have skipped the whole process.

The documents show that Denmark received 20 Nepali children through adoption from Nepal in the last nine years.

But government records in Kathmandu show only two children had paperwork to leave for that country. The mismatch is even starker for France, for which government records here show only one adopted Nepali child, but the HCCH records 21 Nepali children adopted by French families.

Numerically, the United States shows the biggest discrepancy. The State Department report reveals that 102 children were adopted from Nepal in the last nine years, but the government’s records here show only 11.

According to the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the US Department of State, an American citizen wishing to adopt a child should be at least 25 years old, and in the case of couples both husband and wife should

agree to adopt the child.

Prospective parents should not have any criminal background and should meet the criteria of the country from which they seek to adopt. The fact that 91 Nepali children adopted by Americans have no records in Nepal prove that they were transported outside of legal channels. HCCH records show that Norway, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden and Italy had similar inconsistency with Nepal government records.

Only figures for Germany show the opposite: government records here show four children were adopted by German parents between 2010 and 2019, and HCCH data shows only two children were adopted in Germany.

Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 of the Civil Code 2017 have the provisions in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. And there are a slew of policies and strict regulations governing inter-country adoption.

For example, the Standards for Operation and Management of Residential Child Care Homes 2013 says it is the state’s responsibility to look after children who have lost both parents, or the children of invalid parents, provided their kin cannot take care of them. The priority is for in-country adoption, and international adoption is only a last resort.

All these legal provisions make inter-country child adoption so strict that it is inconceivable that such adoptions take place without the knowledge of several government agencies. The discrepancy

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of HCCH and Nepali records thus reveals that children are being trafficked abroad in the guise of adoption.

An NHRC report on Trafficking in Persons 2019 points to a nexus between orphanages, child-care centres and foreigners wishing to adopt children.

The report says there are 14,864 children in 533 children’s homes all over the country. Nearly 80% of children in such centres are not orphans, and have either one or both parents.

The only government shelter for orphans is Bal Mandir and it is run by the Nepal Children’s Organisation (NCO), which provides care, nutrition and education to orphans all over the country. The NCO has been implicated in facilitating documents for illegal inter-country adoption.

In August 2019, British national Dona Smith was arrested at Kathmandu airport with a newborn baby she claimed was her daughter. Smith was carrying a birth certificate from Lalitpur Metropolitan City and the baby’s passport, issued by the British Embassy, carried her name as Anna Bella Laxmi Shrestha Smith.

Smith told suspicious immigration officials that the baby’s father was Nepali.

An investigation later found out that the baby’s real mother was a rape victim who gave birth to her at Paropakar Maternity Hospital. Smith admitted to paying Bal Krishna Dangol, director of the NCO, Rs450,000 for the baby and another Rs2 million to procure the necessary documents to take her out of the country. Deputy Superintendent of Police HobindraBogati says Dangol was found to be involved in a larger child-trafficking network. Both Dangol and Smith are now in jail.

Police figures show more than 1,000 children were trafficked in the past five years. DSP Silwal says the children are usually bought from willing poor parents but that some parents are tricked into sending them to shelters. The traffickers then sell them to adoption brokers who make contact with foreigners eager to adopt children.

“The children who are trafficked are often from the poor and underprivileged families or are street children,” Silwal says, “Traffickers prefer them because it is easier to tempt their parents.”

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Nepal’s baby export

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NHRC Commisioner Mohna Ansari says it difficult to curb such crimes unless there is public awareness. “In our poverty-ridden society with rampant illiteracy and scarcity, parents think sending children to shelters will at least give them a good education.

They are easily tempted by strangers who promise to take care of them.”

Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal “I want to see my sons again” Ten years ago, two of Manju Khadka’s three sons, Ram Kumar, 8, and Bal Krishna, 6 (pictured, right) were taken to a children’s shelter by a neighbour who

promised they would be educated and fed there. For three years, Khadka was repeatedly prevented from seeing them. Finally, she found out they had been adopted by a couple in Italy. “I gave birth to them.

I did not send them as babies, they were grown up and going to school,” says a tearful Khadka (pictured, above). “They threatened to finish me off.” When she went to the police, they were rude and accused her of selling her children to the shelter. So Manju and her husband went to the National Human Rights Commission, but were unable to receive the help they needed to get their boys back. Ram Kumar and Bal Krishna are now 19 and 17 and living in Italy.

Ten years ago, two of Manju Khadka’s three sons, Ram Kumar, 8, and Bal Krishna, 6 (pictured, right) were taken to a children’s shelter by a neighbour who promised they would be educated and fed there.

For three years, Khadka was repeatedly prevented from seeing them. Finally, she found out they had been adopted by a couple in Italy.

“I gave birth to them.

I did not send them as babies, they were grown up and going to school,” says a tearful Khadka (pictured, above). “They threatened to finish me off.”

When she went to the police, they were rude and accused her of selling her children to the shelter. So Manju and her husband

southSouth asia times 25 Asia Times

went to the National Human Rights Commission, but were unable to receive the help they needed to get their boys back. Ram Kumar and Bal Krishna are now 19 and 17 and living in Italy.

How Naresh became Chanorang Kim Naresh Gharti, the youngest of his family, was born in east Rukum and was growing up in Pokhara.

In 2018, South Korean tourist Nara Kim got to know the Gharti family and they agreed to let her adopt Naresh.

Faced with strict rules about inter-country adoption, Nara Kim decided to take a short cut.

According to the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), Kim produced a document,

certified by Pokhara Metropolitan City, showing that Naresh was her son. She got a fake birth certificate for Naresh from a hospital in Pokhara.

The South Korean Embassy in Kathmandu provided Naresh with a Korean passport (M 72504568) based on those documents. The passport changed Naresh’s name to Chanorang Kim. The last stop was to get a visa for Naresh at the Department of Immigration where officials got suspicious.

Both Kim and Naresh were arrested at Kathmandu airport while trying to fly out in May 2019. Kim is in jail awaiting trial.

This story was originally published by The Nepali Times.

Popular Pakistani singer pushes for corporal punishment to be made a crime

By Zofeen Ebrahim

I

SLAMABAD, Feb 19 2020 (IPS) - “He struck his head, his side, his stomach and went on hitting him. When Hunain said he could not breathe, the teacher slammed him against the wall, saying, ‘Being dramatic are we?’”

This is the eye witness account from a classmate of 17-year-old Pakistani student, Hunain Bilal, who was allegedly beaten to death by his teacher after he failed to memorise his lessons.

It was a story that had sent shockwaves through Lahore after Bilal died from his injuries in September. But Section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) allowed for the use of corporal punishment by parents, guardians and teachers “in good faith for the benefit” meant that the teacher accused of Bilal’s death could not be tried for murder.

Bilal’s cousin, 21-year old media studies student RimshaNaeem, has been concerned that the small social media uproar that placed a spotlight on the issue of corporal punishment in Pakistan was only fleeting.

And that instead the memory her cousin’s tragic death would slowly fade as and the government appeared to be soft-peddling the issue.

“The murderer did not have to bear any consequences and is out on

Schoolgirls in Peshawar. Section 89 Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which allowed for the use of corporal punishment by parents, guardians and teachers "in good faith for the benefit”, was suspended last week by the Islamabad High Court. Credit: AshfaqYusufzai/IPS. bail,” she told IPS, explaining why it was imperative that a law be put in place to stop “such barbarity so no parent should ever have to bear this tragedy”.

Last week, however, saw a victory for the rights of school kids across the country when singer and rights activist Shehzad Roy filed a successful petition with the Islamabad High Court to ban the practice of corporal punishment of children up to the age of 12.

“It was a huge win for us!” said a jubilant Roy, speaking to IPS after the court suspended Section 89 of the

PPC. He is happy as now the children of the Islamabad Capital Territory, the only area in Pakistan where they remained unprotected by law or any administrative order, will hopefully be spared the rod.

In 2017, Sindh became the first province to ban corporal punishment by enacting a law — the Sindh Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act — because the “child has the right to be shown respect for his personality and individuality” it states.

Moreover it has made it a criminal offence.

By eliminating smacking,

spanking and even verbal lashing, it is hoped the child will no longer be humiliated in a classroom setting, a seminary, or at home.

Other provinces in the country have administrative orders against corporal punishment, but these are not enforceable.

Roy said corporal punishment only caused harm and often led to a child dropping out of school or running away from home.

Dr. Murad Khan, Professor Emeritus at Karachi’s Aga Khan University’s Department of Psychiatry, endorsed this. “The more damaging

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effect is that it leads to poor performance, loss of confidence and self-esteem, a sense of helplessness, anger (that can turn into violence towards others and self), anxiety and depression. In addition there is humiliation, shame and loss of dignity. All this affects a person mental health and well being,” he added.

Referring to a Harvard study, Roy told IPS that corporal punishment affected the same part of the brain area that is affected by severe physical and sexual abuse.

And the scars never heal, said Khan.

“The effect of corporal punishment on different individuals is different.

Some grow up to be abusers themselves; some grow up angry at parents and family for not protecting them. Others grow up with poor self confidence and self esteem. Many hate all authority figures and have difficulty in forming trusting relationships.”

Khan also pointed out that in terms of behaviour change there is enough research to show that corporal punishment never works “neither as a deterrent nor in terms of changing a student’s behaviour”. He told IPS students should certainly be disciplined for any transgression – academic, social, behaviour etc. but never physically.

CONTD. ON PG 26

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Popular Pakistani singer pushes for corporal punishment to be made a crime CONTD. FROM PG 25

But Roy’s work is far from over. In the absence of a bill, the other three provinces, namely Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, have standing administrative orders barring corporal punishment to be inflicted. To this, Sami Mustafa, an educationist who has been running a school system in Karachi for over four decades, said tersely, “When was the last time these court orders worked in improving the educational culture of schools?”

“These administrative orders do not mean much,” agreed Roy because these “do not criminalise the act” and so like in the case of

Bilal, the teacher cannot be tried for murder. What’s more, “it is an interim order and so far is limited to schools” pointed out human rights lawyer, Sara Malkani.

Nevertheless she found “filing this petition is an important step” and one which was “in the right direction”. “The goal now is to get a final order that permanently bans corporal punishment,” she told IPS. Roy, too, is aiming for a more permanent solution.

“I want to re-ignite a conversation whereby the legislators in these provinces can find it upon themselves to legislate.”

And with a “good law” to take cue from, according to Shahab Usto, who is representing Roy, the work for

other provinces in law-making should not be too difficult.

“Sindh’s law is quite comprehensive and can be replicated in other provinces,” he told IPS. “It encompasses all the possible situations where a child faces punishment be it school, work, rehabilitation centre, jail or other places. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, it will only take more time,” he said.

He further said the Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011 could be brought in aid to reinforce the implementation of the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act, as the former contains provisions for institutional arrangement.

“Both laws, if implemented

in a mutually supplementary way, could make a substantive improvement towards protecting the child human rights in Sindh, for now,” he told IPS. With Pakistan having ratified and becoming a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child back in 1990, which mandates member states to legislate the laws protecting children, Usto pointed out that Pakistan was “already behind schedule by 30 years”.

Roy and Usto may be happy with the IHC’s verdict for now, but child rights activist and senior lawyer, AneesJillani, has his misgivings about “judicial interventions” in matters that

Architectural fragments that fell off the 13th century Sun temple at #Konark are left to rot in the open, exposed to salinity and humidity, at the ASI Museum which was opened in 1968 to preserve them.

While ASI struggles with space& logistics, the Odisha Government seems little bothered.

- Diana Sahu, Twitter

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should “ideally be handled by the parliament and provincial assemblies coming up with a comprehensive law handling this issue”. He told IPS this new trend by the judiciary overstepping its domain to “attract media attention” rather “unhealthy”.

“I don’t want his life to have gone in vain,” Naeem, Bilal’s cousin, told IPS. “This unfortunate event may well have gone unnoticed by society had my cousin not died from his injuries which created an uproar on the social media, after which the mainstream media took it up…This happens to scores of kids every day, and is seen by our society as an acceptable way of disciplining a child.”

february-march 2020

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South Asia Times south asia community 30 South Asia Timestimes

quick community guide Radio GUIDE

www.ekantipur.com/en THE RISING NEPAL: www.nepalnews.com.np

SBS Radio's South Asian

SUNDAY Language Programs 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 & SBS 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 & SBS 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 & SBS Radio Hindi................................... .8 pm to 92pm – 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 & SBS Radio 2 Sinhalese..........................

Monday & Saturday 1 1 pm to 3 am –92.3 FM Punjabi.............................

9 pm to 10 pm – 93.1 FM 9-10 PM SINHALESE FRIDAY Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 Indian.................................. .8 am to 92am – 88.3 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBS Radio Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri

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12-12.30 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 pm – 88.3 FM Indian....................................

5 am to 62am - 92.3 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBS Radio Sun, Mon, Wed, Sat Punjabi..........................................

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11 pm to 1 am urdu Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio24/7 2 Radio stations Melbourne FM & SBS Radio (Subscription) 2 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 & SBS 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:

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 Kundrathu Kumaran Temple 139 Gray Court, ROCKBANK Victoria 3335 Ph: 03-9747 1135 or M: 0450 979 023 http://www.kumarantemple.org.au/ Sankat Mochan Temple 1289 A North Road. Huntingdale Morning: 10.30 am – 12.30 pm daily Evening: 4:30 pm – 8.00 pm daily Site: http: www.sankatmochan.org.au Contact: 0427 274 462 Shirdi Sai Sansthan 32 Hailey Avenue, Camberwell Vic 3124;Ph: (03) 9889 2974; Site: shirdisai.net.au Sai Baba Temple, 50 Camberwell Road Aum Sai Sansthan Temple 76 Albert Street (Enter From : Bear Street) MORDIALLOC VIC - 3195 Website : www.aumsai.org.au Contact : 0468 362 644

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 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

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EMERGENCY CONTACTS EMERGENCY CONTACTS Police, Fire & Abulance ........................

000 Victoria State Emergency Service (SES).......................................

132 500 Traffic hazards and freeway conditions..........................

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13 11 26 Maternal and Child Line................

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13 22 89 Kids Help Line.........................

1800 551 800 Lifeline (provides confidential telephone counselling).................

13 11 14 Suicide Help Line....................

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9224 2222

INDIAN CONSULATE Indian Consulate Address: 344, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia P.O. Box No: 33247 Domain LPO Vic 3004 Consular Enquiries: +61-3-9682 5800 (9.30am-12.30noon only) General Enquiries (other than Consular): +61-3- 9682 7836 Fax No:+ 61-3- 9696 8251 Email: consular@cgimelb.org Web site: www.cgimelb.org Indian Consulate Consular services are handled by VFS Global Visa / Passport / PCC / IDLV / PIO / OCI services contact VFS +61 2 8223 9909.

Address: Part 4 Suite, Level 12, 55 Swanston Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Site : www.vfsglobal.com/india/australia/ Services handled by Indian Consulate Melbourne itself: OCI Misc. services, Registration of Birth, Birth Certificate, Renunciation of Indian Citizenship, Surrender of Indian Passport, New Passport Details on PIO, Transfer of Valid Visas, Marriage Certificate, Affidavit for Applying Child’s Passport in India, Documents Attestation.)

Student Welfare Officer in the Indian Consulate Melbourne Consulate General of India, Melbourne Address: 344, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC – 3000 Phone: 03-96826203 Fax: 03-96968251 Email: cgo@cgimelb.org Website: www.cgimelb.orgExternal website that opens in a new window Contact person for Students welfare: Mr. Nirmal K. Chawdhary Designation: Deputy Consul General Mobile: 0430020828

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)

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quick community guide

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contd from previous page Suite 536, No 1 Queens Road,

Sri Lanka Consulate Melbourne VIC 3004 Telephone: +61 3 9290 4200 Fax: +61 3 9867 4873 Email:mail@slcgmel.org Web: http://www.slcgmel.org

Bangladesh High Commission, Canberra 43, Culgoa Circuit, O’Malley, ACT-2606 Canberra, Australia, Ph: (61-2) 6290-0511, (61-2) 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

TV GUIDE SBS1 – Daily NDTV News - 11:05 am - Monday to Saturday. (From New Delhi, India).

Urdu news SBS1 - PTV News – 9.30 am - Every Sunday – (From Pakistan).

SOUTH ASIAN Garments Roshan’s Fashions 68-71 Foster Street, Dandenong, Vic 3175 Ph: (03) 9792 5688

VIEW POINT

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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

Travel Agents Gaura Travels 1300 FLY INDIA or 1300 359 463 info@gauratravel.com.au Travel House 284 Clayton Road, Clayton 3168 Ph: (03) 95435123, Mobile: 0425803071 mail@travelhouse.com.au

lAWYERS MLG Lawyers Ronny Randhawa 144 Sydney Road, Coburg Vic Ph 9386 0204 & 138 Walker Street, Dandenong Vic Ph: 9793 9917 Mobile : 0402 256 712 Vera Lawyers Kusum Vaghela Level 1, Suite 2, 373 Lonsdale Street, Dandenong Vic, Mobile: 0433 827 124

Jewellery Bhadra Laxman Jewellers 22ct Gold Jewellery / Silver Pooja (03) 9846 7661

Raj Rani Creations 83-A Foster Street, Dandenong, Vic 3175 Ph: (03) 9794 9398 desi estyle 76 Foster St., Dandenong 3175 (03) 87744853; 0413707685 Heritage India 54-56 Foster Street, Dandenong,

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