by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Pervez Bari
BHOPAL: Four organizations of survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster have demanded that Union Carbide and its owner Dow Chemical pay additional compensation for the long term injuries caused to the gas exposed people as evidenced in the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.
Addressing a Press Conference here on Tuesday the organizations presented official records which showed that COVID-19 death rate in the gas exposed population is 6.5 times more that of the non-gas exposed population of the Bhopal district.
“The Pandemic has exposed the official lie that 93% of those exposed to Union Carbide’s poisonous gases had only temporary injuries”, said Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh. “We have official records that show that the gas exposed population, that is 17% of the district’s population of 2.8 million, has contributed to 56% of the COVID-19 deaths in the district so far.
“It is time the Indian government presented these and other hospital records before the Supreme Court that is yet to hear the Curative Petition for additional compensation for damage caused by the December 1984 disaster”, said Nawab Khan, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha.
Ms Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information & Action said that Union Carbide’s own documents state that the injuries caused by exposure to Methyl Isocyanate are permanent in nature yet more than 90% of the exposed people have been paid only 500 US dollars compensation for temporary injuries. “It is a pity that it took a global Pandemic to highlight the injustice meted to the victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster”, she said.
“Dow Chemical has used the Pandemic to cut thousands of jobs and make more profit by producing hand sanitizers, but it looks the other way when the Pandemic exposes the lasting damage its subsidiary caused in Bhopal. Dow Chemical continues to evade the pending civil, criminal and environmental liabilities of Union Carbide in Bhopal”, said Nausheen Khan of Children Against Dow Carbide.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Muslim World
multitasking device, which sterilizes, measures temperature, manages entry at workplaces
Hiba Hindi from Gaza designs multitasking device, which sterilizes, measures temperature, manages entry at workplaces
Gaza, Palestine : Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, managing the entry of people to the workplaces appeared a big challenge.
Many offices had to post special staff at their gates to ensure sterilization, note down temperatures, prevent the entry of infected people, and eliminate contaminated surfaces.
To overcome this herculean task, a Palestinian lady Hiba Hindi, 37, living in besieged Gaza has come out with a multitask smart sterilization machine, now being used by various offices in the region to keep the coronavirus away.
The machine conducts nine orders within 3-5 seconds on people entering public places.
The offices of international organizations like the UN, UNESCO, International Eye Hospital besides big bakeries in the Gaza Strip have installed this machine at their entrances.
Before entry, it measures body temperate, ejects sanitizer to clean hands, sprays ethanol, and chlorine on the body and feet. The designers have made it simple so that children and the elderly can handle it without any hassle.
“Using this machine is easy. It can do the job of three workers within a few seconds. It is environmentally friendly, saves energy, and withstands electricity interruptions in Gaza.” Hindi told Anadolu Agency.
She further said the machine can be linked to the smartphone to notify about the sterilization materials stored in the machine and alerts about its refilling. The machine contains four sensors, designed indigenously by a team in Gaza, although the region suffers from Israeli blockades since 2007.
“The blockade made our job difficult and complicated. But we continued and made all sensors for this machine indigenously in Gaza” said Hindi, who is a physical education teacher and a social activist.
Her team unveiled the first version of this machine three months ago and they are still improving upon it, given feedback from customers.
Ensures privacy
A sensor alerts door of the office, if someone goes ahead without sterilization. It also gives an alarm, if anyone has a higher body temperature.
“We have ensured the privacy of individuals, so the alarm is sent to administration privately,” she said.
Many international organizations, hospitals, schools, and markets in Gaza have installed the machine at their entrances to stem the spread of COVID-19.
“I am very proud to see my innovation being used at the international offices based in Gaza. It is a great success for me and my team,” she added.
A university graduate and a mother, Hindi and her team are looking to find partners to improve their invention and to market it to the world. She worked with a team of four people to design and then shape this machine.
“We spent many days and nights working and sleeping at the site to finish the product. We were connected with health care providers all the time to match machine with the international standards and ensure medical sterilization and safety of the substances that we used,” she said.
According to the Palestine Health Ministry, more than 8000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Gaza with 30 deaths.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Zeeshan Ali Siddiqui
The coronavirus pandemic has left its mark on our lives and forced everyday life to a grinding halt. As the rate of coronavirus cases in India rises, around 7 million people have been infected and 97,497 people have lost their lives. With the commencement of the wedding season, there’s also been a rapid spike in COVID-19 cases.
Prior to the covid era, when no one was aware about COVID-19, Many families had commenced arrangements for a grand wedding. And almost all the guests used to be invited in advance to their wedding from different parts of India. In India weddings are all about extravagant spendings, tonnes of food and thousands of relatives. But in a matter of time after lockdown was implemented in India, Big fat Indian weddings were reduced to a simple wedding with a crippled menu and only 50 peoples in attendance with no marriage processions which according to me is a blessing in disguise as a lot of money used to be spent during weddings.
Many of them were left with no option but to postpone their weddings as either bride or groom or both of them used to work in distant cities or abroad and were not able to make it on time. Compared to the normal times Marriage halls and banquets were not available and had to be booked in advance, but within a month time the entire scenario has changed resulting in huge losses to the people associated with this business of marriage halls and food catering.
Apart from all these rules the government has made the following rules mandatory which are as follows:-
- People should conform to the norms of social distancing throughout the entire function.
- During the ceremony, everyone should wear a mask.
- Ceremonies should be kept as minimal as possible.
- Guests should also use a hand sanitizer.
- No drink or food shall be eaten during the ceremonies unless considered necessary.
More than 10 million marriages take place annually. Accounting and consulting company KPMG claims that the wedding market is more than $50 billion. The lockdown has impacted the clothing and jewellery industry badly, but there are chances of recovery as weddings are an indispensable part of Indian culture where, except in the West, living together and domestic partnerships are scarce.
Marriages in India are considered to be the most important chapter in the life of Indians. They not only bring smile on the face of couples but also brings happiness to those associated with the billion rupees industry like the Cloth merchants, Jewellers, Food caterers and marriage hall owners, photographers and many more players. Mobile phones have replaced the professional photo-graphers which has affected the livelihood of the photographers and those associated with the marriage industry very difficult. People have resorted to virtual weddings to avoid overcrowding and unnecessary expenses.
When will we be able to see a normal wedding again with a lot of guests and lengthy food menu, only time will tell along with the acceptance of social distancing norms by the people of India. The government of India should announce some relief package for those who were associated with the marriage industry and have lost their source of livelihood so that they can survive this year of uncertainties brought by Covid-19.
The experience of the poor regarding the Covid 19 lockdown has been a mix of happiness as well as distress. They don’t have to entertain the huge number of guest at their wedding like before, thereby saving them from the worry of arranging funds for transportation and food. Meanwhile, the restrictions imposed by the government regarding public gathering has been a curse for the richer section of the society, they have been deprived of flaunting their riches and competing with their well off relative’s wedding and making it more grandeur shows the ugly picture of the difference in our society where majority of the population is struggling to make their ends meet and the useless tantrums and complaints by the prosperous and well off families sounds preposterous. Indian practices and customs seem to have overpowered the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 as the bigoted practice of dowry is increasing day by day. The amount of dowry increases with the education of the groom and skyrockets if the wanna-be groom has a government job. Another worrying trend is steep rise in child marriage and we have to understand the deep connection between Covid-19 and child marriage. Educational institutions are closed and midday meals are not being provided to the economically backward students. Amidst all these tragedy, families confronting economic turmoil are forced to get their school going daughters married as they perceive them as a burden.” Millions of socioeconomically deprived Indians have been stripped of their source of income and a feel of financial security, likely to result in girls being pulled out of school and married away at a tender age to much older men due to no demand for dowry. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 doesn’t seem to have stopped the supporters of Child Marriage. There have been increased cases of domestic abuse against women in India. According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) of India, , the officials received 5,584 phone calls relating to underage marriages across the country between the last week of March and June.
The irony of our times is that people are filing PIL seeking a complete ban on “Halal Slaughter” and removing the Shahi Eidgah of Mathura which were later dismissed by the honorable Supreme Court of India thankfully. while people are dying due to lack of treatment, food and women are being raped every day tells a lot about the bigoted priorities of India. We as a society need to shun the social evil of dowry and adopt austerity measures in marriage so that the parents of the bride can enjoy their daughter’s marriage without having to think about arranging hefty sum for a big fat marriage. We have to be the change makers for the greater good. It has rightly been remarked by Margaret Mead that “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world”
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Markets
By Muhammed Nafih Wafy
Covid-19 has brought free market juggernaut to a grinding halt; now if we are serious about changing the course of history, we can’t afford to lay waste to this pandemic
It’s nearly ten months since the Covid-19 first broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and now with many parts of the world in the midst of a second wave of what has turned out to be a deadly pandemic, it’s still a matter of conjecture how long it will take before the virus is fully contained and the normalcy is restored.
However, while attempting to find quick fixes to circumvent the current crisis, we tend to miss out on the larger picture, more disturbing questions the Coronavirus raises about the sustainability of our life, our species as well as our planet.
The uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 is as much about its origin as its end. Therefore, any serious attempt to eradicate the deadly virus cannot be complete without diagnosing the root cause of its very existence. Any solution that does not address the reason why the virus is here in the first place will become only a temporary patch-up.
Today we are pretty much clueless not only about when and how the pandemic is going to end but also of how and why it originated. Barring the ill-fated wet market in Wuhan to where we conveniently trace the origin of the pandemic, much of how and why the pandemic is here remains a mystery.
There are theories and speculations rife regarding the outbreak of the virus, especially its specific mutation that set off the current pandemic. But it seems we don’t much bother about the origin as much as we are obsessed with finding a vaccine to wipe the contagion off once and for all.
It seems our biggest priority is to clean the mess created by the pandemic and restore the normal order of life it sought to disrupt. Therefore, we cannot afford to philosophize amid a crisis about why it broke out and why it brought the ‘triumphant march’ of human civilization, aboard the neoliberal, capitalist chariot, to a standstill.
But this obsession with finding an immediate solution while turning a blind eye to the circumstances which brought the virus into being and contributed to its global spread, risks ignoring the true symptoms of the disease.
What we desperately seek is a vaccine to put the chariot back on track and resume the march, no matter what triggered the deadly contagion, what accelerated its rapid spread, what made the fight against it a debilitating task for the most disadvantaged of the world’s population, with its repercussions and economic impacts heavily skewed against them. We do not want to poke our nose to those disturbing questions. We do not bother if what triggered today’s contagion can cause it again tomorrow, as if we are rest assured that the free market will find its way out then.
Now, ten months into the reign of pandemic, we need to look at this terrible predicament for human civilization from a boarder, cosmic perspective, connecting it with a string of other man-made crises such as recurring epidemics, natural calamities, global warming, growing inequality etc. But, on the contrary, we are looking to take some shortcuts and quick fixes to get past the temporary hurdles blocking the victory march of free market capitalism. We consider the current pandemic as merely a traffic block that needs to be circumvented.
But we cannot afford to lay waste this pandemic. If the current crisis does not encourage us to do an introspection of the way our governments rule our citizens, our corporates exploit our resources, our technocrats manage our economies, our systems and ideologies treat the unprivileged who constitute a major chunk of world population, we are likely to head from a deadly pandemic to a series of similar crises that will make human life more miserable on the earth.
We can no longer ignore the writings on the wall which now the Coronavirus has made more visible to us. And we cannot gloss over the fact that the pandemic has shaken the very foundation of our neoliberal, free-market order as never before. What had a humble beginning as an infectious disease in a Chinese city swept the entire world at an alarming pace, bringing industries and businesses to a grinding halt, grounding airlines and marooning travellers. Economies the world over were found in tatters as governments who had touted stringent austerity measures were suddenly seen pumping trillions of dollars to cushion the blow of the pandemic.
Coronavirus has proven that an epidemic can render our great plans, grand strategies and glorified ideologies irrelevant overnight. Apart from the rising death rates, one of the most frightening aspects of the Covid-19 was that it caught the whole world unawares. No one could understand the magnitude and impact of the crisis the pandemic unleashed. While the world’s economically and technologically advanced countries were not prepared to face the enormous challenges posed by the deadly contagion, the movers and shakers of the world were left dumbfounded as their estimations of GDP growth and economic recovery were proven fatally wrong.
The planet-wide panic and paranoia the pandemic has triggered proves that the world hardly moves the way our free market policy makers planned and aspired. It shows we could not have ignored some saner voices which drowned in the free market cacophony. History has a way of correcting our mistakes and forcing us to take a path we are least accustomed to. Currently we are at a critical juncture in our civilization where we should pay heed to those saner voices and make a course correction. This is not the time to talk about the grandiosity of our past plans and ideologies that have already failed.
The uncertainty about the future always makes us prepare for it in advance. We plan and strategize to make sure that the future unfolds the way we want it. But when the future turns out the way it wants to turn out, we are forced to revise our strategies and redraft our plans. When we wade into the uncharted territories of the future, it behooves us to revise our plans and roll out new strategies. Now is the time we need new plans and dreams to help us navigate the choppy waters ahead. If we fail to pause and take our lessons from the pandemic, we will be missing an opportunity to mend the wayward course our civilization has taken.
Muhammed Nafih Wafy is an Indian journalist and writer currently based in the Middle East
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, News
Bombay High Court
While thousands of prisoners are being released on interim bail, several human rights activists charged under UAPA and other acts continue to remain in prison and are not even getting bail on humanitarian grounds, say leading human rights activists
Ashok Kumar | MUMBAI
The continued rise in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra is having its impact even in prisons with a growing number of inmates getting infected. The Bombay high court recently directed the state government to take immediate action to safeguard prisoners and jail staff.
The court’s order related to the interim bail and furlough pleas of two inmates at the Kolhapur central prison, but the judges told the government to ensure safety of all prisoners and jail staff across the state. Maharashtra has 60 prisons with a total capacity of over 24,000. However, according to Mihir Desai, a human rights lawyer and a senior member of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), there were more than 36,000 prisoners in these jails as on March 31, 2020. About 75 per cent of them were undertrials.
In an interaction with Clarion India, Desai – who has also brought out a report, the first in the ‘Lockdown on Civil Liberties’ series – notes that while many convicted prisoners whose parole depended on the prison authorities managed to get paroled because of congestion in jails, human rights activists and scholars charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) filed to get bail even on humanitarian grounds.
“Several political prisoners charged under special laws like UAPA are facing incarceration in spite of flimsy evidence and charges under these laws have led to indefinite incarceration without any conviction, whereby the process itself is the punishment,” he notes in the report.
The Maharashtra government had set up a high-powered committee (HPC) in March, which recommended that undertrial prisoners who faced maximum punishment of less than seven years be released on interim bail on personal bond for 45 days and after that on blocks of 30 days till such time as the notification under the Epidemic Diseases Act was in force.
However, those charged with or convicted of serious economic offences/bank scams or charged under special laws including Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) or UAPA, were not covered included and extended the benefit. Despite the matter being raised in court, the HPC rejected the plea and excluded those charged under the UAPA or the other acts.
“Decongestion should have been based, apart from other things, on age, disabilities, comorbidities, sex and general health conditions,” said Desai in his report. “This would be especially true for undertrials, who are yet to be held guilty of any offences.”
Another petition filed by the National Alliance of Peoples Movement (NAPM) and Medha Patkar, challenging the discriminatory treatment by the HPC of not allowing the release of prisoners under UAPA, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and MCOCA, was also dismissed by the high court. “We believe that it is important for HPC to immediately ensure decongestion of prisons by not making distinction on the basis of offences charged with especially for those prisoners above 60 years,” notes Desai. “Even for those below 60 years if the prisoners are suffering from comorbidity they should be released on temporary bail.”
Many political prisoners charged under UAPA and other laws are held in prisons on the basis of flimsy evidence and charges under these laws have led to indefinite incarceration without any conviction, he argues.
According to the senior lawyer and human rights activist, most prison websites are sketchy and do not deal with Covid-affected patients. And prison staff have also reportedly said there has been large-scale under-reporting of Covid positive cases from prisons.
Desai cites the case involving Varavara Rao, the 80-year-old famous poet suffering from comorbidities, who has been incarcerated for nearly two years under UAPA and was found to be Covid-positive only when he was taken to a government hospital for treatment of other ailments. Two co-prisoners of his who were in close contact with him include Anand Teltumbde, a noted academic, and activist Mahesh Raut. “But obtaining credible test reports from the prison authorities has itself posed a challenge,” he says.
