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🔵 Who Does a Cyclone Actually Affect? Analysing the Impacts of Major Cyclones in India | Economic and Political Weekly

https://www.epw.in/engage/article/who-does-cyclone-actually-affect-analysing-impacts

While “natural disasters” such as cyclones cause widespread and indiscriminate devastation, their impact is much worse for vulnerable communities. Such groups face the brunt of not only the cyclone but also of inefficient government planning, caste discrimination, health problems and apathy.

India is one of the most disaster-prone areas in the world with 60% of its landmass prone to earthquakes, 40 million hectares vulnerable to flooding, 8% of its land area exposed to cyclones and 68% of the land liable to be affected by drought.
… With the advent of climate change, the incidence of extreme weather events will increase.

Natural disasters do not discriminate when they befall human beings. They affect everyone with equal and devastating force, without discrimination. The disastrous impact of nature is uniform. It is, however, the human beings and their protective capacity that creates the differential response to the natural disaster.

Cyclone Fani: Caste Discrimination
 
Evacuation during Cyclone Fani, which made landfall on the Odisha coast in May 2019, was fraught with incidents of caste-based discrimination. These highlighted, in no uncertain terms, the “complete absence of human concern on the part of the upper castes” in the response to “the Dalits’ fundamental need for safety in shelter.” 
An EPW editorial (2019) noted:

As reported in the media, the cyclone-affected Dalits from a village in the Puri district were not only barred from entering the public shelters but also forced to vacate the shelters that they had managed to occupy. The media report added that the Dalit families were forced to take shelter under a banyan tree, which was also uprooted by the cyclone and shared the fate of the Dalit families. They thus found themselves literally thrown to the mercy of the winds blowing at the speed of 200 kilometres per hour and torrential rains.

Caste-based discrimination in post-disaster scenarios is not new—it was witnessed in the process of distribution of aid following the tsunami in Tamil Nadu, and the earthquakes in Kutch, Gujarat and Latur in Maharashtra. Yet, the incidents in Puri are different.

One could have understood the upper castes’ refusal to accommodate the Dalits had it been a private shelter of the former. But since they sought to convert a public space into a private fiefdom, this, by implication, eliminated the ground on which the Dalits could have exercised their right to be accommodated in the public shelter.

#Environment #Discrimination

🔵 ‘Disinformation presents major threat to democracy, media credibility’ - The Hindu

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/disinformation-presents-major-threat-to-democracy-media-credibility/article67600772.ece

‘Mounting news avoidance’

“Surveys show mounting news avoidance and slumping trust in traditional media all the while the dominance of social media just keeps on going,” she said, citing a recent Reuters Institute report showing 30% of people across the globe now turn to social media for news.

“We know on these platforms lies travel faster than facts,” she said. “Disinformation, conspiracies and hate are poisoning our information ecosystems, driving distrust in public institutions, and generating controversy instead of creating new dialogue. With Generative AI, disinformation actors have been given a potent technology with low production costs to create high quality but fake images, audio and video content at scale.” However, “reporters with skills”, she said, “can restore balance” amid this flooding of social media by providing “accurate and reliable information”.

#Social_Media

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68th Bpsc mains Result.. Congratulations to all those who cleared 👍

Controversial Practices in Bangladesh: Father Marries Daughter

#Marriage #Incest

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🔵 India, disability inclusion and the power of ‘by’ - The Hindu

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/india-disability-inclusion-and-the-power-of-by/article67601986.ece

According to the English dictionary, “For” is often used when a person is receiving something and “By” is to “identify the agent performing an action”. This difference is crucial when it comes to disability inclusion, as the approach is completely different if it is “by” persons with disabilities being a part of the process and not “for” them, without them in the process.

The goal of social justice cannot be achieved without the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all spheres of development, starting with rural areas and rural resilience. Evidence shows a bi-directional link to poverty, nutrition, and hunger, and as a consequence, there needs to be more inclusive opportunities and employment in rural areas. Given the historic marginalisation of persons with disabilities and the backsliding of the progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, a fundamental shift in commitment, solidarity, financing and action is critical. It is about time that the voices and needs of persons with disabilities be prioritised at the centre of the global development agenda.

#Social_Justice #Differently_Abled #Inclusion

🔵 Re-criminalising adultery as a gender-neutral offence

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/re-criminalising-adultery-as-a-gender-neutral-offence/article67565680.ece

In its 350-page report, the Committee suggested that adultery be reinstated as a criminal offence, but be made gender-neutral, thereby making both men and women equally culpable under the law. Highlighting the need to protect the institution of marriage, the report stipulates, “..

the Committee is of the view that the institution of marriage is considered sacred in Indian society and there is a need to safeguard its sanctity. For the sake of protecting the institution of marriage, this section should be retained in the Sanhita (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) by making it gender neutral.

”

The Committee also pointed out that the revoked Section 497 of the IPC “only penalised the married man, and reduced the married woman to be a property of her husband”. The proposed change also seeks to address this deficiency.

#Social_Institution #Marriage

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🔵 PressReader.com | One-third of all 2022 sui­cides were of daily wage earners, farm­ers, says NCRB report
https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-kolkata-9WW9/20231205/281638194973740

#Suicide #Durkheim

🔵 Mapping the socio-economic changes in the lower Cauvery delta - The Hindu

https://www.thehindu.com/specials/text-and-context/mapping-the-socio-economic-changes-in-the-lower-cauvery-delta/article67604474.ece

Why has the lower Cauvery delta declined as a hub of rice cultivation? What has been the economic impact of this drop? Why does inequality persist in the agrarian sector despite the fact that “old forms of tyrannical landlordism” and economic oppression of Dalits do not exist today? How have changes in the agriculture sector affected employment and income, education, sanitation and housing? Why is it important to push for fundamental structural change to ensure that the gains achieved in both economic performance and human development in rural Tamil Nadu are not in vain? In 2018, the Foundation for Agrarian Studies launched a project to study agrarian relations in the lower Cauvery delta with a special focus on two villages.

#Economy #Villages

🔵 Women’s extreme seclusion during menstruation and children’s health in Nepal - PMC

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Abstract
There is limited empirical evidence from low-income countries on the effects of women’s seclusion during menstruation on children’s health. The objective of the current study was to examine the association between women’s extreme seclusion during menstruation and their children’s nutritional status and health in Nepal. Using nationally representative data from the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, we examined the relationship between mother’s exposure to extreme forms of seclusion during menstruation and anthropometric measures of nutritional status and health outcomes among children ages 5–59 months (n = 6,301). We analyzed the data in a regression framework, controlling for potential confounders, including province fixed effects. We assessed extreme seclusion during menstruation based on women’s exposure to chhaupadi, a practice in which women are forced to stay away from home—in separate huts or animal sheds—during menstruation and childbirth. Mothers’ exposure to extreme seclusion during menstruation was associated with 0.18 standard deviation lower height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) (p = 0.046) and 0.20 standard deviation lower weight-for-age z-scores (WAZ) (p = 0.007) among children. Analysis by the place of seclusion showed that the negative association was stronger when women stayed in animal sheds—0.28 SD for HAZ (p = 0.007) and 0.32 SD for WAZ (p<0.001)—than when they stayed in separate huts. Extreme seclusion was associated with higher incidence of acute respiratory symptoms but not with incidence of diarrhea, irrespective of the place of seclusion. Women’s extreme seclusion during menstruation in Nepal has profound implications on the physical health of their children. Additional research is needed to ascertain potential mechanisms.
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Introduction
Women all over the world undergo some forms of menstruation-related discrimination [1–3]. One such form of menstruation discrimination, called chhaupadi, is practiced in the western part of Nepal. Chhaupadi is a practice in which women are secluded and forced to stay separately in makeshift huts or animal sheds during menstruation and, in some cases, during child-birth [4].

The practice is rooted in patriarchy and Hindu mythology that considers women impure, thus untouchable, during menstruation and childbirth.

In addition to having to eat and sleep separately, women are not allowed to touch other individuals, eat certain types of food items, visit temples, or worship. The huts where women stay during their menstruation are often small, dark, and without ventilation [5]. Women are exposed directly to animal feces and associated pathogens when they are forced to stay in animal sheds.

#Women #Isolation #Menstruation

P. S. Even in Abrahamic scriptures, women are considered impure during menstruation and child birth. (Eg. Old Testament)

🔵 Menstruation, Religion and Society

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🔵 The Ambedkar touch in rethinking social justice policies - The Hindu

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-ambedkar-touch-in-rethinking-social-justice-policies/article67608373.ece

Modern democracy is synonymous with both the values of social harmony and reforms that ensure dignity and self-respect to its participants, especially the historically deprived and socially marginalised people. Further, democratic institutions are mandated to engage with the worst-off social groups and ensure their substantive participation as a significant governing class in political affairs. The socially oppressed groups in India, especially Dalits, adored and celebrated such modern virtues because of their liberative potential and egalitarian goals. Babasaheb Ambedkar emerged as a torchbearer of liberal enlightened ideas and expected that post-colonial India would be distinct from the exploitative Brahmanical past and invite Dalits and other marginalised communities to be equal shareholders in the nation’s economic and political development. Ironically, the modernist objectives have been partially achieved only today. With the ascent of neo-liberal economic development, the conventional support that Dalits and Adivasis have received from state institutions, has derailed.

#Dalits #Social_Justice

🔵 Move away from colonial mindset, encourage use of Bharatiya languages, NCERT says - The Hindu

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/move-away-from-colonial-mindset-encourage-use-of-bharatiya-languages-ncert-says/article67611758.ece

#Education #Colonial