Trinamool Congress National Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien recently began taking Hindi tuitions and a teacher comes daily at his residence in Delhi to help him converse better in the language.

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress National Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien recently began taking Hindi tuitions and a teacher comes daily at his residence in Delhi to help him converse better in the language.

To perfect his command over the language, the former quiz master has also been increasingly speaking in Hindi during his daily interactions. There is no age to learn so now I feel that I should be perfect and am working hard on this,” he said.

To help him grasp the language better, Derek O’Brien is also being helped by colleagues from Samajwadi Party with Ramgopal Yadav giving him practical tips and training every day. TMC insiders say that much like Derek O’Brien, others in the party too are working hard on their Hindi because TMC is targetting a more national role for itself. The party, reportedly, may adopt ‘Sikho Hindi, Chalo Delhi‘ as its slogan.

Targeting the TMC, BJP’s Nishikant Dubey alleged that the West Bengal government under the TMC is protecting illegal migrants from Bangladesh, which has changed the demography in several places, including some districts of Jharkhand, from where he is an MP.

With the political slugfest between the BJP and opposition parties intensifying, several MPs of the ruling party on Tuesday sought dismissal of the state governments of West Bengal and Delhi.

Targeting the TMC, BJP’s Nishikant Dubey alleged that the West Bengal government under the TMC is protecting illegal migrants from Bangladesh, which has changed the demography in several places, including some districts of Jharkhand, from where he is an MP.

“Just like how they have taken the Central government head on, they have been protecting illegal migrants for vote bank. There should be an NRC (National Register of Citizens) for all states,” Dubey said.

Amid uproar by Trinamool MPs, he said, “The Mamata Banerjee government should be suspended.” Fourteen BJP MPs associated with him on the issue.

BJP member from West Delhi Parvesh Sahib Singh said the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi should also be dismissed, as the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is calling up “lakhs of people” and telling them that their names had been “cut away” from voters’ list, and that “Kejriwal added them back.”

Singh alleged that the Delhi Education Department had collected telephone numbers of parents and are “misusing” the numbers for political purpose.

“Kejriwal says around 30 lakh names were missing on voters’ list, but if we go to the Election Commission’s website we don’t find anything like that. This is misleading the voters. There has to be an FIR, and such a government should be dismissed,” Verma said.

Among other issues raised during Zero Hour on Tuesday, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) member B Mahtab wanted to know whether reciting something in Sanskrit is not secular, as “certain entities” disagree with the decision for compulsory recitation of common prayers in Sanskrit by students in Kendriya Vidyalayas.

Mahtab pointed out that a petition has been filed in Supreme Court regarding the revised education code for Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) Sangathan on compulsory recitation of common prayers in Sanskrit by students. “This should have been avoided at the Supreme Court’s level in the beginning. Some parents, children and organisations from certain communities do not agree with this common prayer,” he said.

source : The Indian Express

The CBI and Bengal police drama is playing out on all screens as this piece is being written. The houses of the parliament are in uproar and there is little in the way of work being accomplished there. Just 2 days ago the budget was presented and a row had erupted over the data on jobs.

One of the top accused in the Sarada scam, Mukul Roy is now part of the BJP, his role apparently whitewashed. The TMC still has several leaders whose hands are tainted by the scam. The CBI turned up at a top cop’s house without a warrant and the state also exceeded its brief by detaining them rather than asking them to return with proper documentation. The moral high ground doesn’t exist for both parties. What exists is petty one upmanship.

With the BJP top brass and Mamata Bannerjee engaging in a battle of egos, a temporary constitutional crisis has been manufactured by the government and opposition right at the time when they would have had to get down to work over issues that matter. If one observes the pattern of all the previous parliament sessions, a polarising issue happens outside parliament, just a few days prior or while the session is ongoing. This leads to uproar and eventually a washout and most of the important bills in the past few years have been passed without proper discussion. This pattern is set to repeat during the budget session too.

One must also ponder whether the so-called constitutional crisis is of any import to the common voter. As everything stands today, the only things affected seem to be the egos of political leaders. As a generation of people with the attention span of a goldfish, everyone seems to have forgotten the jobs crisis, the farmer’s issues and even other pressing concerns that have a direct impact on us. Just the way we move from one viral meme to the other every two days, we seem to be outraging and later forgetting viral íssues’. The politics of distraction has worked.

As voters and responsible citizens, time is perhaps ripe for us to see this for what it is, a waste of our collective time and misuse of powers at our cost. It is perhaps time for us to ask our leaders to cut the drama and get to work for us in the spirit of the sewaks that they claim they are.

source: The Times Of India

The South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) is a network of women journalists based in each country of the region — that is, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. WE STAND FOR freedom of speech and expression, the fair and equal representation of women in the media, as well as equal opportunity for women in the media. Our aim is two-fold: We want to deepen our network inside our countries so as expose each other to the wide variety of stories around us as well as promote best practices in journalism; We also want to create a digital platform that will showcase our work as well as our interests and ideas across all the countries of South Asia. We believe that the right to speak freely goes hand-in-hand with the responsibility to dissent, and yet across our region, censorship and crackdowns and plain fear are being used by powerful governments to prevent the story from coming out. In these circumstances, a network of journalists — of women journalists — who demonstrate the power of cross-border networking in standing up to these values of a free and responsible media, is increasingly important.

Among these efforts to promote both national and cross-border journalism — which includes the provision of grants to women journalists to pursue their stories and arrange field visit — is a highly valued collaboration with UNICEF, which was launched in 2017. The theme of the inaugural SAWM India-UNICEF India Media Initiative was “Voices of Adolescents.” Eleven women journalists from English and regional media across the country wrote and reported untold stories of adolescent girls and boys and presented them to over 25 million readers and viewers in their respective publications.

For the second edition in 2018, SAWM India collaborated with UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Initiative (WASH), on the theme “Gender and Sanitation.” This year, our funders supported 14 journalists. SAWM India makes it a point to make the selection of these journalists diverse and inclusive. Which means that journalists from big media organisations like Times of India, Indian Express, The Hindu, Prabhat Khabar, PTI, Mirror Now, along with journalists from smaller regional language newspapers and TV, as well as independent journalists participated in this exercise.

The program enabled the reporters to travel to other states to report their stories, an opportunity often not offered by media organisations. They visited villages and towns where sanitation projects were making an impact on the lives of young girls and women. The participants were also encouraged to travel on their own.

Providing resource and other support for quality journalism is important to SAWM. As in the first year, this year too we held a pre-departure briefing. It was attended by experts in sanitation, from UNICEF as well as those seconded to the government, as well as veteran journalists who have written on gender and sanitation issues. A report on the pre-departure briefing features in this report.

The program greatly values social media posts from the field, sent by participant journalists. These capture the interface of women journalists with women in villages or slums and the impressions they make on each other. In a sense, these are “stories behind the stories,” and need to be recorded as such.

Everytime Children are considered as the Marginalised community, the reason behind this is, they don’t have any political importance. Here the school of West Bengal sets a trend for forming a Children Cabinet. The Cabinet comprises of 5 members, the Prime Minister, Food Minister, Health minister, Education Minister and Sports Minister. These little ones have a meeting every week discuss about the problems and finds Solutions. This Helps the Children to Motivate themselves and emerge them with political and Social Understanding.

குழந்தை நேய சமூகமாக இந்தியா மாற வேண்டும் : அதற்கான எடுத்துக்காட்டாக திகழும் ஒரு பள்ளிக்கூடம்

Menstruation is still a subject of gender disparity in India. Myths about menstruation are largely prevalent, forcing many girls to drop out of school early or be ‘ostracised’ during the five days every month. Even if they use sanitary napkins, their mobility is hampered due to absence of water and unclean bathrooms in schools. According to National Family Health Survey-4 in 2015, around 54 percent of adolescent girls were unaware of menstruation before they had their first period. And only 57.6 percent of women were using hygienic methods for menstrual protection. Trying to change practices and get rid of social stigmas is Kanyashree Prakalpa, a flagship project of the West Bengal Government, backed by Kanyashree Clubs

source: Grassroots

Menstruation is still a subject of gender disparity in India. Myths about menstruation are largely prevalent, forcing many girls to drop out of school early or be ‘ostracised’ during the five days every month. Even if they use sanitary napkins, their mobility is hampered due to absence of water and unclean bathrooms in schools. According to National Family Health Survey-4 in 2015, around 54 percent of adolescent girls were unaware of menstruation before they had their first period. And only 57.6 percent of women were using hygienic methods for menstrual protection. Trying to change practices and get rid of social stigmas is Kanyashree Prakalpa, a flagship project of the West Bengal Government, backed by Kanyashree Clubs

source: Grassroots

A student of class X of Madrassa Islamia, Chahat Mohammadi is a determined girl. She sets out with her friends on a journey to educate women and girls in her locality and adjoining rural areas about the importance of menstrual hygiene. She learnt about the significance of sanitation, hygiene and maintaining healthy habits during menstruation from the Kanyashree Club in her school — “Khwaish Kanyashree Club”. An active member of the Club, she knows it won’t be easy to convince the women, who follow the age-old traditions when it comes to menstruation. However, she is keen to change their mindset. “Initially, the women, were hesitant to even talk about these issues, but we were able to convince them to adopt the proper use of sanitary pads and other healthy habits that we need to follow during menstruation,” says Chahat.

The Kanyashree Clubs comprise of 30 to 35members and there are a total of 400 clubs over 20 blocks of West Bengal’s Purulia District, the number of which is expected to increase in due course of time. The girls, popularly known as the “Kanyashree Girls” are taught about menstrual hygiene and use of sanitary pads, that are easily accessible in their schools. Moreover, the instructions received, are then carried forward by the girls to other women who are not aware about the healthy practices of menstruation.

“We buy the sanitary pads from the Self Help Groups (SHGs) in our Kanyashree Club, both for our personal use and for those, whom we sensitize. The pads are affordable and we sell them at a nominal rate. The girls are now happy and feel comfortable even during those days of discomfort,” adds Chahat.

The major obstacles to education of the girl child is absenteeism due to early marriage and menstrual cycle. Parents feel that a girl should be married off as soon as she attains puberty, thereby increasing the rate of dropouts and creating severe health problems among the girls.

Riya Chandra a member of “Pratyusha Kanyashree Club”, and a student of Class XI, was aghast when she found that girls of her age were married off and even bore children while they are still adoloscents. “We carry out awareness campaigns among the masses about the ill-effects of child marriage and encourage the parents to send their daughters to school. Here, in our club we learn about various social and health related issues, and make an effort to reform society,” says Chandra.

During menstruation, the girls usually use clothes and other primitive methods which is not hygienic and may lead to infections. “We try to sensitize the girls and women in our locality who still rely on clothes. We inform them about the use and disposal of sanitary pads and avoid unhygienic methods. Initially, they felt shy talking about periods and never dared to go to a chemist to purchase a packet of sanitary pad. However, now they feel comfortable discussing with us and frankly ask for pads whenever they need it,” adds Chandra of Shantani GirlsHigh School.

“Kanyashree Prakalpa”, is a scheme undertaken by the West Bengal Government for the uplift of the girl child. It is a conditional cash transfer method, where an adolescent unmarried girl between the age bracket of 14 to 18, receives a certain amount to continue with her education thereby making her independent and empowered. The project is not solely confined with the monetary support to the girls, rather it is also a holistic step to transform the adolescent girl into a confident person.

According to a systematic review on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in India, by UNICEF in 2015, 24 percent of school girls remain absent during their menses. In another report by the National Family Health Survey, NFHS 4- 2015-2016, around 52 percent of girls in India were unaware of menstruation before they have their first period and only 58 percent of women were using hygienic methods.  These figures underline the importance of MHM to girls in school in support of health and education outcomes.

The adolescent girls in the Kanyashree Clubs are provided friendly counselling sessions on menstrual hygiene through Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHC) and free health sessions at Anwesha Clinic. The sessions are conducted in close co-ordination with ICDS and UNICEF members. Along with counselling session, a comic book is published for the girls, where information about menstruation and hygienic menstruation management is given as a self-reference for adolescent girls that help them prepare for the physical changes in their bodies and practice safe and hygienic ways of dealing with menstruation.

“Initially, it was uneasy to attend school during those days on a bicycle, I was obsessed with the fear of getting my clothes stained, but not anymore. In our “Sapnadisha Kanyashree Club”, we are given a detailed insight on menstrual hygiene like — maintaining proper diet and cleanliness, using and changing pads within 4 hours and this has made our lives much easier. We also have provisions in our school to change pads. Moreover, we openly talk with our instructor without any hesitation, in case if we face any problem during menstruation,” says Pompa Mahato, of Hutmura Harimati Girls’ School.

District Magistrate of Purulia, AlokeshPrasad Roy talks about the objectives of the Kanyashree project — to increase educational attainment, prohibition of child marriage and providing financial assistance to the girls. “We thrive to make them self-reliant by converging various departments like skill development and employment generation with the project. Fiscal awareness programme are also conducted in consultation with various banks for the benefit of the girls which enable them to handle their own accounts,” he says.

In yet another breakthrough initiative, the Purulia district administration has implemented its own brand, namely “Udaan”, a project on sanitary napkin for MHM programme. The pads manufactured by Udaan are totally biodegradable, quality tested and priced Rs 5 for two pads. UNICEF and the state government has supported this project of Purulia, which is now replicated in all districts of West Bengal.

“Menstruation”, is a topic which has always been a taboo subject. Not many, especially in rural areas are aware about the habits to be rigorously followed during their menses. Adding more complications to these monthly cycles are stomach cramps and discomfort, lack of awareness, and access to sanitary napkins. The most affected are the adolescent girls who tend to miss out school, thereby increasing the rate of dropouts. “Earlier the women used clothes and cow dung as absorbents during menstruation. These created severe health implications. Then we started propagating various campaigns on menstrual hygiene involving adolescent girls. At present there are 80,000 Kanyashrees in Purulia, who themselves are practicing and encouraging their family, locality and rural areas to adopt the healthy habit of using sanitary napkins,” Roy says.

Roy informs that there are around 31,000SHGs in Purulia where women are well-trained and provided with the machine for the production of sanitary napkins. The benefit of its use has reached even the most backward areas of Purulia. There are two production houses in Purulia where mass production of these sanitary napkins are carried on and supply chain are done by the women of SHGs. As per the requirements, these pads are supplied to the nodal teacher of the Kanyashree Clubs, from whom the girls can purchase.

The concept of selling the sanitary pads at a nominal rate was adopted to empower the SHG women. Kalpana Kuiry, Supervisor of the SHG, “Agragami Prathamik Samabai Samiti, says, “I have been associated with this group since last ten years where we used to produce the sanitary pads manually. After the implementation of the project Udaan, we were provided with the machine from the district administration. The raw materials used in the making of the pads are procured by us; it usually consists of non-woven fabric, wood gel, dry net, release paper and packet. The annual production capacity is 12 lakhs, and per day 3,000 pads are prepared. As amonthly incentive Rs 2000, is deposited in our bank accounts.”

Widespread awareness and ground level advocacy by action oriented Kanyashree club members in Purulia have created a strong impact in combating child marriage. Moreover, emphasis has been laid for the overall development of the Kanyashree Girls. “The girls are provided with an opportunity to explore their skills in sports like football, archery, karate, taekwondo. Under the skill development programme “Swabalambi”, they are given training in various courses like — beautician, handicrafts, catering and hospitality, and preparing organic colours from Palash flowers. Awareness campaigns are also conducted by the Kanyashree girls, against vector-borne diseases, use of plastics, and road safety,” says Leena Mondol, District Nodal Officer for Kanyashree Prakalpa.

The Kanyashree and the Udaan project is giving a new ray of hope to the young girls and women of Purulia, who are the harbingers of change in the society.

In accordance to the second edition of the media initiative undertaken by the South Asia Women In Media (SAWM) and UNICEF India, a group of journalists interacted with the Kanyashree Girls and women from SHGs about the implementation of MHM programmes in Purulia

source: Thumb Print

The Gandulbari Primary School is situated in the Hura bloc of the Purulia district West Bengal. Apart from the students’ studies, it pays attention to building awareness about personal hygiene. With the help of community organisations, it has created a proper sanitation infrastructure. The students are making good use of the facilities. Washing their hands well before taking their mid-day meals is the starting point of their daily hygienic practices. They follow their teachers’ instructions regarding this as carefully as they follow their lessons. The school received the ‘Nirmal Vidyalay’ (clean school) award in 2015. Here is a video report.

পুরুলিয়া জেলার হুড়া ব্লকের অন্তর্গত গুন্দলুবাড়ি প্রথামিক বিদ্যালয়।  খাবার আগে হাত ধোয়া থেকে শৌচকর্ম স্বাস্থ্য বিধানের সব কিছু অক্ষরে অক্ষরে মেনে চলে ছাত্রছাত্রীর। ২০১৫ নির্মল বিদ্যালয় পুরস্কার পেয়েছে স্কুলটি। স্কুলটি ঘুরে দেখে একটি বিশেষ প্রতিবেদন।

Source: khaboronline

In construction sites, women are mostly involved only as workers, but a Women Self Help Groups(SHGs) in Purulia district of West Bengal is breaking the stereotype and making women to build Toilets.

The story features the construction site of Toilet in Purulia. The owner of the place tells she is not ready to build a toilet in her home but after her Daughter compulsion and subsidised toilet scheme made her build the toilet she adds.

Women Masons Lalmoni Soran, says initially her husband was not supportive but that did not deter her from taking up this job. She managed to convince her husband and now he works along with her in the construction of Toilets.
A toilet per home increase the personal hygiene as well as the safety of the Children. It is important to attain the sustainable Developments in near Future.

The Group of women SHGs sensitizes the Villagers by doing awareness camp. Mrs. Mahato says that she being a protagonist witnessed the illness of not having Toilets at her home. After building a toilet at her place she now sensitizes people to construct toilets.

These Rani mestris not only construct toilet alone they ensure the safety and well being of the women in the society.

கழிப்பறை கட்டுவது தொடர்பாக புதுமையை கையாளும் மேற்கு வங்க மாநிலம் | செய்தித் தொகுப்பு