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GIGA Focus Global (8/2010)
von Joachim Betz und Daniel Neff

Kostenloser Download unter: www.giga-hamburg.de/giga-focus/global

Der Umfang und die Ursachen von Kinderarmut sind in der bisherigen entwicklungsstrategischen Literatur allenfalls als Seitenaspekt der allgemeinen Armutsanalyse behandelt worden. Erst in den letzten Jahren wurden die gegenüber der Armut von Erwachsenen unterschiedlichen Ursachen von Kinderarmut stärker beachtet. Zu dieser stärkeren Wahrnehmung haben auch der Einsatz von Kindersoldaten in Bürgerkriegen, die anhaltende Diskussion über Kinderarbeit in Entwicklungsländern und die zunehmende Zahl von AIDS-Waisen beigetragen.

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By Kalpana Sharma

The 73^rd and 74^th amendments were supposed to give citizens a direct say in decision-making. While this has begun to happen at the panchayat level, it has not happened with area sabhas in cities. The Nagar Raj Bill is one way to put in place a democratic, bottom-up system of governance for our urban areas

In June, when residents of some localities in Delhi blocked the roads because they had received no water for 15 days, the question that arose was not why they were so irate.  That was obvious.  But whether there was any other way in which their problem could have been resolved.

Indian cities, large and small, face chronic shortages of water and power.  What they also face is the absence of effective systems of governance to handle these problems.  As Arvind Kejriwal, the Magsaysay awardwinner, stated so eloquently during a television discussion, “The role of people between elections is limited to pleading, pleading and pleading before politicians and bureaucrats.  Till this changes and people have a direct say in day-to-day decision-making, democracy will not function.” Read more…

The government will soon introduce a Bill making it mandatory for judges to disclose their assets and liabilities. It will also bring in legislation to set up a mechanism to enquire into cases of corruption among judges

Union Law and Justice Minister Veerappa Moily said on June 26, 2009, that he had asked the law secretary to prepare, within a couple of days, a draft of the Bill on disclosure of assets and liabilities by judges so that it could be sent for Cabinet clearance at the earliest.

The Bill is part of the 100-day agenda of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and the minister said his ministry’s plans for judicial reform would be made public within a month or two. Read more…

23 reservoirs which together have a capacity of 106 billion cubic metres now contain only 9.59 BCM, according to the Central Water Commission’s weekly report released on June 25

The residents of four states of North India must comply with water rationing until the monsoon breaks over the region. While there were protests in New Delhi last week at the Delhi government preparing to ration water, water storage in the country’s array of major reservoirs is at desperately low levels. The Central Water Commission’s latest weekly report of 81 important reservoirs was released on June 25, 2009, just as the south-west monsoon finally set in over the Konkan and western peninsular India. The weekly bulletin showed just how dire the situation in India’s biggest and most vital reservoirs had become.

There are 23 reservoirs which each have a storage capacity of over 2 billion cubic metres (BCM). Each reservoir is rated with what the CWC calls a full reservoir level (FRL). These 23 reservoirs together have a capacity of 106.4 BCM. But, at the beginning of the last week of June, together they contained only 9.59 BCM, less than a tenth of their rated full storage capacity. Dozens of towns and cities depend on their water for household, sanitation and commercial use. In four of the biggest  reservoirs, there is no water at all: Gandhi Sagar in Madhya Pradesh (FRL of 6.82 BCM) is down to zero. So are Rengali in Orissa (FRL of 3.43 BCM), Balimela also in Orissa (FRL of 2.67 BCM) and Sriramsagar in Andhra Pradesh (FRL of 2.3 BCM). Read more…

The Delhi High Court has legalised gay sex among consenting adults, holding that the law making it a criminal offence violates fundamental rights

In a breakthrough judgment, the Delhi High Court has legalised gay sex among consenting adults, holding that the law making it a criminal offence violates fundamental rights.

“We declare Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) insofar as it criminalises consensual sexual acts of adults in private is violative of Articles 14, 21 and 15 of the Constitution,” a bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Murlidhar said on July 2, 2009.

The bench clarified that “by adults we mean everyone who is 18 years of age or above,” adding, “the provision of Section 377 of the IPC will continue to govern non-consensual penile non-vaginal sex and penile non-vaginal sex involving minors”.

“In our view, Indian constitutional law does not permit the statutory criminal law to be held captive by the popular misconception of who LGBTs are. It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is the antithesis of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster dignity of every individual,” the bench said in its 105-page judgement. Read more…

After consecutive years of poor rainfall and no help from a lethargic government, farmers in Palamu district have written to the President of India requesting permission to put an end to their “miserable” lives

Farmers in Chhattarpur block, 170 km west of Ranchi in the Palamu district of Jharkhand, have launched a signature campaign seeking permission to commit mass suicide.

Beggared by four continuous years of drought and no assistance from the government, 5,000 farmers signed a petition that was sent to President Pratibha Patil on June 29, 2009. In the letter, the farmers claim that since they “cannot lead a respectable life, we should be able to die in a respectable way”. Read more…

Between seed and straw: When will we get agriculture right?

The figures for crop production, yield and acreage are looking healthy in this quarter. But behind the triumph a crisis gathers strength, says Rahul Goswami

On a riverine island in the Ganga, a farmhand wheels away a cycleload of biomass. In the monsoon, this island in rural Kanpur district will be submerged

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Nalbari farmers resume cultivation after 25 years

By Ratna Bharali Taukdar

Thousands of farmers in Borigog-Barbhag block, in lower Assam’s Nalbari district, joined hands to dredge a 15-km stretch of a water channel that had blocked and flooded farmlands across 50 villages. For 25 years, farmers had abandoned work on their waterlogged lands. Now they are back in business and busy planning two crops a year. Read more…

Slogan-shouting activists highlight various environmental crimes and human rights violations that Vedanta Alumina has allegedly committed across the country, after barging into UK charity World Environment Foundation’s Global Convention on Climate Security in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh.

The launch of the Global Convention on Climate Security at the Palampur Agriculture University grounds was disrupted on Saturday, June 13, 2009, by a group of environmental activists protesting the World Environment Foundation’s (WEF) choice of Vedanta Alumina as winner of the environmental management award. Read more…

By Subhash Gatade

Everyone knows about Gujarat’s bias against Muslims. But consider the dalits in this ‘Hindu rashtra’: they are confined to ‘dalits only’ housing societies in Ahmedabad, school quotas for recruitment of dalit teachers are ignored, and dalits are buried in separate burial grounds if available and in wasteland if not

108 dalits lost their lives in the riots of 2002, 38 in the city of Ahmedabad alone

The severe earthquake that hit Gujarat in 2001 and the subsequent relief and rehabilitation programme revealed to the outside world the deep-seated caste bias in the Gujarati community, apart from the much talked about bias against the minority communities. There were reports that in some places the relief and rehabilitation work bypassed both the dalits and the Muslims. Read more…