Ministry of WCD implementing scheme for Children of Women Prisoners

The Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, namely, Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) from 2009-10 for children in conflict with law as well as children in need of care and protection, including, children of women prisoners. Under ICPS, financial assistance is provided to State Governments/UT Administrations, inter-alia, for setting up and maintenance of various types of Homes, including, Children Homes. 

These Homes provide inter-alia, shelter, food, education, medical attention, vocational training, counselling etc. to such children so that they can ultimately reintegrate into the mainstream society. Besides, the Ministry is also implementing another Scheme, namely, Scheme for the Welfare of Working Children in Need of Care and Protection under which non-formal education, vocational training, to such children is provided to facilitate their entry/re-entry into mainstream education in cases where they have either not attended any learning system or where for some reasons their education has been discontinued with a view to prevent their continued future exploitation. 

This was stated by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, 14 August 2013 

Source : http://indiaeducationdiary.in/Shownews.asp?newsid=24836 

How Badly Do We Eat?

How badly do we eat?: There is currently a range of proposed legislation to assist South Africans with eating properly, ranging from the control of baby food and alcohol advertising to reducing salt levels in food. Learn more here.

There is currently a range of proposed legislation to assist South Africans with eating properly. The regulations and statutes range from the control of foodstuffs for infants and the manner in which these products are advertised and packaged, the levels of salt in certain foods and the planned control of advertising and labelling of alcoholic beverages.

The efforts by the Department of Health to control foodstuffs range from a need to control sodium - presumably to address issues concerning high blood pressure and related diseases, which place a burden on the South African healthcare system - and the need for regulations dealing with the manner in which infant foodstuffs and products used to provide infants with access to those foodstuffs are marketed and advertised. 

Reducing salt levels in foods

Turning to the control of salt in the South African diet, these regulations were published as Regulations Relating to the Reduction of Sodium in Certain Foodstuffs and Related Matters on 11 July 2012 and will come into effect shortly.  

The regulations prescribe the levels of salt that are to be incorporated, by law, into basic foodstuffs, including, but not limited to, bread, butter, processed meats, snacks, and biscuits.

The Department of Health in its Annual Report for 2011/2012 states that one of its key directives is to "[r]educe the mean population intake of salt to an intake of sale to less than 5 grams per day by 2020." In addition, the Annual Report states that it is also a directive and goal of the Department of Health to "[r]educe by 20% the relevant per capita consumption of alcohol by 2020". 

This is all to the end that the Department of Health wishes to "[r]educe by at least 25% the relatively premature mortality [under sixty years of age] from [non communicable diseases] by 2020".  

Certainly, one understands the control or the need to control levels of sodium in basic foodstuffs and actions taken by the Department of Health to lower the availability of sodium in the ordinary South African diet may very well be lauded. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum of control are the regulations for foodstuffs and the equipment used to administer foodstuffs to infants.

Breastfeeding is best

The Regulations Relating to Foodstuffs for Infants and Young Children, published finally in 2012 in Government Gazette 35941 on 6 December 2012 endeavour to control the availability of products such as bottles and teats to the public in South Africa in order to dissuade the use of such items for purposes of administering foodstuffs to infants and young children. 

The rationale underlying this control is the view held by the Department of Health that breast feeding is the method of feeding infants that should be preferred by new mothers. 

The regulations go as far as prohibiting promotional activities, advertisements and statements on the Internet and other related social media concerning items such as bottles and teats. 

In fact when one views the regulations and the measures that are to be introduced by these regulations in respect of the control of items such as bottles and teats, the controls are as vigorous as those imposed in respect of the advertising and selling of tobacco products.  

The rigid nature of the regulations and the intention of the regulations may indeed lead some to argue that the environment created by the regulations is such that it stifles speech, a right protected in terms of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.  

The regulations are due to come into effect in a phased manner and the process will be as follows:

EFFECTIVE DATE	REGULATION/S
6 June 2013	Prohibition on free or low-cost designated products and samples and displays of such products
6 December 2013	Sale and promotion of certain foodstuffs, feeding bottles, teats, feeding caps with spouts, straws or teats and gift packs
6 December 2014	Specific labelling and packaging requirements for "designated products", infant formula, complementary foods, liquid milks, powdered milks, modified powdered milks, sweetened condensed milk, imitation dairy, and goat’s milk products
6 December 2015	The transitional measures are amended from 18 months to 36 months

Diseases associated with alcoholism

The proposed legislation dealing with alcoholic beverages is currently before Parliament. Certainly, as stated above, this ties in with the Department of Health's prerogatives to control the consumption of alcohol amongst the South African population with a view, in turn, to controlling non communicable diseases associated with alcoholism.  

The Bill, which is yet to be released for public comment, has been met with a degree of criticism by certain quarters already where indications are that the Bill will compromise the economics of the consumption, marketing, manufacturing and distribution of alcoholic beverages throughout the country.  

The Bill is a far-reaching legal mechanism for purposes of controlling the availability and advertising of alcoholic substances: bearing in mind that the labelling of containers of alcoholic beverages has already been controlled in so far as health messages are required on these containers pursuant to regulations in terms of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act No. 54 of 1972.  

Those messages include:

• Alcohol reduces driving ability, don't drink and drive. 
• Don't drink and walk on the road, you may be killed. 
• Alcohol increases your risk to personal injuries. 
• Alcohol is a major cause of violence and crime. 
• Alcohol abuse is dangerous to your health. 
• Alcohol is addictive. 
• Drinking during pregnancy can be harmful to your unborn baby.

The increasing incidents of control over the manner in which foodstuffs are made available in our society is not a foreign trend when one understands how similar controls are being applied in other societies where certain problems have been identified amongst the health of the population. 

Freedom of speech

However, the difficulty is to balance the rights of the individual to associate with products of his or her choosing and the right of the manufacturers, distributors and producers of certain substances to participate meaningfully in the market place in order to have their products readily available to consumers. South Africa should, in all likelihood, brace themselves for increasing controls to be imposed by law in respect of ordinary day-to-day consumer goods and products.

South African consumers are already in the dark in relation to medicine advertising, which is completely banned in relation to certain Scheduled Substances in terms of regulation 45 of the General Regulations to the Medicines and Related Substances Act No. 101 of 1965, as amended. 

The dearth of information about medicine is still debated on the basis that the population should be informed about medicines and the options available to them as opposed to relying only on the recommendations and dispensing practices of healthcare practitioners. 

Debates about the availability of information about goods is one that may, indeed, play out in court in terms of the freedom of expression provisions in the Constitution.  

In light of the amount of information that is now controlled about day-to-day consumer goods such as medicines, tobacco products, foodstuffs for infants and young children and alcoholic beverages, such debates may be required in order to promote a society based on equality, dignity and freedom.

(Written by Neil Kirby, Werksmans Attorneys Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences.)

Women Must Become Entrepreneurs

MYSORE: She wanted to set up an undergarment business with a tie-up with a popular brand. But the company didn't oblige her request, even after she went through the necessary procedures and got a licence to open the shop. This prompted her to set up her own shop 'Sugeeth' three years ago. Now, the company's turnover stands at Rs 3,00,000.

Sharing her experiences, entrepreneur Geetha shree said: "Women should come up like me, that is by building on ideas in area of interest. Rather than confining themselves to comfort zone, women must come out and prove their mettle in business."This was how .... shared her success story with fellow entrepreneurs at a workshop on 'Empowerment programme for women entrepreneurs', which was held for the members of Mysore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Mand other working women.

Speaking on the workshop, M Shiva Shankar, joint director of District Industries' Centre (DIC), said: "For the past 12 years, we have been conducting the once-in-three-month workshop to empower women. Working women can utilize the opportunity by availing help from non-profit organizations like Rudset and Awake. So far, these organizations have helped many women to make it big in their area of interest."

MCCI president Sudhakar S Shetty, in his keynote address, said: "Like men, women should also come out and work. We should give equal importance to women in society. It is time to support and encourage them to be entrepreneurs."

Anitha Joshi, a beautician, said the workshop is like an awareness programme for working women. "This helps increase our business. I look forward to taking help from Rudset to make it big in the food industry."

Around 40 entrepreneurs took part in the workshop jointly organized by Women in Small Enterprise (Wise), a ladies wing of MCCI, and DIC.

Content Source:

Baby Roona goes home

The 21-month-old girl from Tripura who has  undergone five surgeries for big head syndrome at a Gurgaon hospital, is now fine and ready to go back home. Roona, from Agartala, was admitted on April 16 night for a rare condition called Hydrocephalus, also known as water in the brain. Here, there is excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, causing it to enlarge. This is a congenital condition wherein the overgrowth starts in the womb itself.

After the surgeries, her head had swollen up to a circumference measuring 94 cms has been brought down to a manageable 58 cm. Doctors who are treating her at the Fortis Memorial Research Institute, said Roona would need another surgery for remodelling her skull to make it proportionate to her body. Doctors also said that her head is still big and needs constant support.

Her head had developed bed sores due constant lying down. The first surgery on Roona was performed on May 15.

Begum, who belongs to a poor family, was malnourished and weighed only 14 kgs at the time of admission. She had also suffered from a chest infection and her eyes were sunken. Due to this, she had to be examined several times and her condition made stable before conducting the surgery.

When Roona was born, local doctors told her parents to take her to a private hospital in a big city but the costs were too high for Rahman, an illiterate labourer who earns 150 rupees ($2.75) a day. Roona's condition had caused her head to swell, putting pressure on her brain and making it impossible for her to sit upright or crawl.

Her parents could not afford to pay for the treatment but photos of her that were published by several news agencies like AFP, saw an overwhelming outpouring of support worldwide, with donors donating a substantial sum for her treatment.

Two Norwegian college students, Jonas Borchgrevink and Nathalie Krantz, started an online campaign through MyGoodAct.com that has raised $58,000. The campaign has paid around $30,000 to the charitable arm of Fortis hospital, as the initially estimated  cost of Roona’s treatment multiplied by more than 30 times, Borchgrevink told AFP.

The donations have covered about half the total cost of treatment so far, with the rest paid by Fortis hospital’s charitable foundation.

“We still have around $28,000 left, which we want to send to the family for her aftercare,” Borchgrevink said.

Roona’s mother Khatun said, “I will never meet all the people who have helped my child, but I want them to know that I am very very grateful to them.”

Courstey - AFP| Photo by AFP PHOTO/ Arindam Dey / Content Source  Yahoo

सिर्फ शिक्षित होना काफी नहीं, हमें बुद्धिजीवी भी होना पड़ेगा

आज  हमारे देश में  चारों तरफ हर व्यक्ति को शिक्षित करने की  जो लहर चल रही है।  वह वास्तव में काबिले तारीफ है। सरकार और  समाज ने भी हर बच्चे को शिक्षा देने के लिए कई योजनायें बनाई है। इस प्रयास से बहूत लॊग शिक्षा प्राप्त भी कर रहें है। परन्तु  ध्यान देने योग्य बात यह है कि इस प्रकार के किताबी ज्ञान से हम सिर्फ शिक्षित बनते है, बुद्धिजीवी  नहीं।

शिक्षा को एक नए रूप में सामने लाना होगा। ज्ञान ऐसा हो जो डिग्री - डिप्लोमा  लेने के साथ साथ हमारी सोच , व्यवहार को भी प्रशस्त करे, हमारे आचार और विचार सराहनीय बने।  जीवन में दोहरे मापदंड न हों। जो हम अपने लिए चाहते है, वही सबके लिए चाहें। हमे दकियानूसी विचारों को संशोधित कर नए विचारों के साथ आत्म सात करने की आवश्यकता है, ताकि नए विचारों का भी स्थान सुनिश्चित हो सके।

शिक्षा ऐसी हो जो हमें संस्कारी, अनुसाशित और संयत से परिपूर्ण बनाये क्योंकि जीवन सिर्फ धन- दौलत  से सुंदर नहीं बनता । जब संस्कारों की सम्पति आती है, तभी वह सुंदर बनता है। शिक्षा के विकाश के साथ आर्थिक, चारित्रिक, सामाजिक विकाश का सही समावेश आवश्यक है।  तभी सही मायनों में हम शिक्षित के साथ बुद्धिजीवी बन पाएंगे।  

जय हिन्द

Content Source : http://readerblogs.navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/seemagoel/entry/educational-empowerment-in-india1