Urgent call for action- Idinthakari , Anti Nuke protesters under Threat

Dear all:
It is difficult to get reliable news. The folks in Idinthakarai are in a virtual prison, and cannot go out to verify. Our friends from Tirunelveli suggest that 10 companies, or 2000 police, are posted in and around Idinthakarai. That is roughly four police for every woman fasting to since May 4 to be heard. The fear is that the police will attempt to arrest Udayakumar and Pushparayan tonight. But when Prashant Bhushan spoke to DIG Varadarajulu, he said that the 2000 people were posted as a precautionary measure, and that they have no intent to move into the village. That is a bit difficult to believe. At the very least, this is war talk. Why do they need 2000 armed men to contain 500 women fasting non-violently?

If the police contingent moves in to the village, the villagers will not keep quiet. We hope that things don’t get ugly.

Please call the Police and advise them against precipitate action.

The villagers are interested in dialogue, and the police should work towards that:

Call:
Bidari, Superintendent of Police:             9940193494
Varadarajulu. Deputy Inspector General of Police:            9840970530

via- nitty

India: Irom Sharmila fast in Ripley’s Believe It or Not

• 
• BBC NEWS
• Ms Chanu is force-fed through her nose
• An Indian woman who has spent nearly

  12 years fasting to protest against a law that gives special powers to the armed forces has been featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

Irom Sharmila Chanu, 40, has been on a hunger strike since 2 November 2000 in the north-eastern state of Manipur.

She has been force-fed through a pipe in her nose since November 2000.

Ripley’s site features a cartoon on the activist and describes her as “the iron lady of Manipur”.

Ms Chanu has repeatedly rejected requests to call off her fast until the government withdraws the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

The act gives sweeping powers to the armed forces when they fight separatist insurgents or leftist radicals – powers which critics say are often misused.

‘Iconic’Kshetrimayum Onil, a trustee of Just Peace Foundation, a non-governmental organisation based in the state capital, Imphal, told the BBC that he sent an e-mail to Ripley’s site about Ms Chanu’s struggle in mid-March.

“Lucas Stram, one of the researchers from the Ripley’s team, sent me a link to the cartoon page a few days back,” Mr Onil said.

Ms Chanu’s years of fasting have made her into an iconic figure in Manipur.

The state has a population of about 2.5 million people and a huge force of army, paramilitary and state police. They have been fighting at least 12 insurgent groups since 1980.

The government and the army maintain that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is necessary to restore normality in the state.

But civil society groups allege gross human rights violations by troops and policemen.

Ms Chanu’s hunger strike started after soldiers of the Assam Rifles paramilitary force allegedly killed 10 young Manipuri men in November 2000.

She has been arrested many times and taken to hospital where she has been force-fed a liquid diet through her nose in a bid to keep her alive.

Related articles

• Irom Sharmila arrested again (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• UN expert: India should repeal law on army powers (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Dil Se Nahin Dimaag Se Dekho – Thoughts on Satyamev Jayate

 Aamir Khan, Abortion,  satyamev jayate

by Lawrence Liang

Guest post by SHOHINI GHOSH

 

The first episode of Aamir Khan’s much publicized TV show Satyamev Jayate telecast on May 6, 2012 dealt with “Female Foeticide”. The following is a reflection of the show’s line of reasoning. Since only one out of 13 episodes has been telecast, what follows should not be taken as a judgement on the series but a response to the first episode. For reasons that I will explain later, I will use the term Sex-Selective Abortions (hereafter SSA) instead of `Female Foeticide’.

 

Satyamev Jayate (hereafter, SJ) takes inspiration from the format of the Oprah Winfrey show. In this format the celebrity host is as important as the issues being discussed and the issues of “human interest” are narrated through a number of `affective’ tropes that include cathartic revelations, shocking testimonies, interviews with experts, cutaways of shocked or tearful studio audiences and a host who is both emotive and inspirational. The show’s attempt to mobilize affect is reflected in its many promos and tag-line that reads:  “Dil Peh Lagegi, Tabhi Baat Banegi.”  Shows with such formats usually end on a feel-good note where a “solution” to the problem is proffered.

In SJ, the “solution” is the “jaadu ki chhadi” (magic wand) which the host explains is the collective strength of “me” and “you”. The episode ends with Aamir Khan (hereafter, AK) promising to write a letter to the Chief Minister of Rajasthan on behalf of all of us demanding strict action against doctors who practice sex-selective tests and procedures.

Unlike most talk shows on TV, SJ has high production values. Despite a certain preachy sanctimoniousness reminiscent of his role in Taare Zameen par, AK is a respectful and competent host who helps to keep the conversations on track without being rude or abrupt. On the first episode, he speaks to three women who provide moving testimonies of how they were forced to undertake sex-determination tests and sex-selective abortions against their will. The testimonies show how sex-selection and son-preference is not a problem that plagues the rural backwaters as is commonly assumed but prevails within the educated middle class. AK punctuates the conversation with `useful’ information. For example, he rightly points out that the sex of the child is determined by the sperm of the father and not the egg of the mother. There was an important intervention made by a lawyer representing one of the three women who describes how the judge declared that there was nothing wrong in desiring a “kuldeepak” (the son who will carry forward the lineage) and upbraided the policeman who had dared to arrest the in-laws who had forced the woman to undergo forced SSA. The show included interviews with a reputed gynecologist as well as two journalists who had carried out a sting operation on doctors in Rajasthan who were carrying out SSA’s.

On the surface, the show is “pro-women” but as the arguments unravel, it becomes increasingly evident that “all is not well’. Let me explain. In describing the “consequences” of a skewed, women-unfriendly sex-ratio, AK takes us (through Airtel “3G link”) to Kurukshetra, Haryana where in one village women have practically disappeared. AK speaks to a group of men who claim that they are unmarried because SSA’s using “ultrasound” had ensured that there were no women in the village. Earlier in the show AK had linked the declining sex-ratio to SSA and the Kurukshetra example was being produced as a perfect example. Even if we were to set aside our skepticism about this easy explanation, what follows’ is worse. Back in the studio, AK extrapolates from this example to expound on a simplistic and dangerously flawed prognosis according to which the shortage of women will result in “two crore men” remaining “unmarried” thereby creating a “shaadi ka bazaar” (marriage market) with buyers, sellers and “dalaals” where women will be bought and sold like commodities only to have unbelievable atrocities visited upon them.

This idea is seconded by a member of the studio audience who says that the marriage market had already begun and that women in the all-men village had to face harassment from the “kunwara fauj” (army of singletons). (Of course, by now you are wondering who these women are since we were just told that there were none!) The other suggestion being made seemed to be that if (heterosexual) men were not provided partners in heterosexual matrimony, they would explode in a libidinous frenzy and commit atrocities on women! (Thanks to SJ, on those rare occasions that they are brought to the courtroom, sex-offenders could now take refuge in the “singlehood-made-me-do-it’ argument and ask for their sentences to be mitigated.) Another question is to ask is whether equal numbers create gender equality and prevent violence against women.  If yes, then how do we explain atrocities against women when the sex-ratio was better as recorded by say the 1961 census?

What falls by the wayside in the paradigm that AK proposes is a central tenet of women’s equality: her right to choose. If we believe in equality then the women born in Kurukshetra should have the right to decide when, who and where they want to marry. They cannot be burdened with the task of having to marry men in their village in order to maintain the sex-ratio and thereby prevent violence against women even if this thesis were true. At the risk of detonating the libidinous ire of the `kunwara’ fauj, it may be said that the women in Kurukshetra – like women everywhere – should have the right to decide what they want to do with their life and body and this includes their right to reject both heterosexuality and matrimony if they so desire.

By locating the declining sex ratio within a paradigm of `female foeticide’ and `violence against women’, SJ replays a problematic logic; one that links declining sex ratio to violence against women and the elimination of women through `female foeticide’ using the key act of abortion.

In India, the women’s right to abortion emerged not from feminist struggles but as a by-product of family planning policies. Abortion has been legal in India under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act since 1971.  Despite its default origins, it is an important right for women and all campaigns against SSA must ensure that a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy is never threatened. The Right to Abortion is vital for gender equality and there can be no doubt that women are safer when abortions are legal and their mental and physical well-being is not threatened by having to obtain unsafe and illegal abortions.  While SSA gets a high degree of publicity what is less publicized is how difficult safe abortion still is for large numbers of women.

The makers of SJ might argue that women’s right to abortion and forced SSA are not the same thing. Certainly they are not and the three cases presented in Episode 1 of SJ demonstrate that. But unfortunately, not all cases of SSA fall into this category. There are innumerable instances where, for a number of complicated reasons, women are complicit in choosing SSA which then muddies the demarcation between oppressive villains (husband/in-laws) and oppressed victims (wives). The reasons why a woman will opt for SSA can range from her own son-preference to a desire to survive safely in a hostile household. How women should be discouraged from sex-selective practices without jeopardizing her right to take decisions about her life and body, have long agonized Feminists. An important lesson that Feminist Activism has taught us is that the inevitable fallout of empowering women to take their own decisions may well result in her choosing a path that many of us would regard as anti-feminist or regressive.

“Pro-choice” Feminists (as Abortion Rights Activists call themselves) have always privileged the personhood of the mother over that of the foetus which they argue is a `potential person’ and not an “actual person”. The “Pro-life” Lobby (as right-wing, anti-abortionists call themselves) does just the reverse. By using terms like the “unborn child” and the “death of the girl child”, they privilege the personhood of the child over that of the mother. Similarly, the term “female foeticide” carries connotations of both personhood and murder through its association with words like homicide, matricide and regicide.

Read more at Kaafila

 

At Kudankulam, police intent not to uphold rule of law, but to crush dissenting voices’

By TWL Bureau
A fact finding team that visited Idinthakarai village, the epicentre of the people’s movement against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP), has found the State cracking down on the peaceful agitation with its full might to “teach people a lesson for voicing their concern and challenging the Government.”
The team comprising senior journalist Sam Rajappa, Prof. Gladston Xavier, Advocate Porkodi, and PUCL activists, Mahadevan and Rajan, found that between 10.9.2011 and 23.12.2011, police had filed 107 FIRs against 55795 people and “others,” among whom 6800 have been charged with “sedition” and/ or “waging war against the State.”

The agitation against the nuclear plant continues in Kudankulam (Photos: Antony Kebiston Fernando)

The team also found that “since all main roads have been blocked, food supplies, milk and water had dwindled as has the reserve of fuel, oil and diesel.”

Shocked by the findings, the team which visited Idinthakarai and other areas in the vicinity of Kudankulam on the 30th and 31st of March 2012, observes that “the frequency and manner in which the Police have filed cases against peaceful protestors clearly exposes that the police’s intent never was to uphold the rule of law, but to crush any dissenting voices.”

Following is an Extract from the Report that captures the situation in Idinthakarai village:

On 19 March, 2012, the Tamilnadu Chief Minister (J Jayalalithaa) announced her decision to allow the commencement of work at the Koodankulam Nuclear plant. In anticipation of this decision, the police forces deployed for maintaining law and order during the SankaranKoil bye-election were re-deployed to the areas in and around Koodankulam.

Idinthakarai is a medium-sized fishing village, with a mixed Hindu-Roman Catholic fisher population, and a smaller proportion of other communities. Since August 2011, Idinthakarai has been the epicentre of the protest against the KKNPP.

In the seven months of agitation, members of KKNPP have been subject to numerous provocations, including being pelted with stones, harassed, and having their vehicles damaged.

By and large, the response of the protestors has been non-violent and democratic. Using established satyagraha tactics such as hunger strikes, dharnas and road blockades, they have managed to keep a struggle alive in the face of propagandist campaign by the Central Government and their paid scientists.

The protest site, which was encircled by more than 7000 armed men, including those from Central forces and the Coast Guard, until March 23, was occupied (at the time of writing) by more than 10,000 people of whom 946 were elderly people, and 1500 children, including 715 below the age of five.

Kuthenkuly is another village neighbouring Idinthakarai, which was also under a state of siege by the forces. This village has 553 primary school children, 198 children below age 5, and 462 elderly people.

Idinthakarai is totally dependent on outside sources for drinking water, medical facilities and fuel. Each day, nearly 50 tanker lorry loads of water are purchased at the rate of Rs. 2.50 per pot.

Since the time of the announcement by the Chief Minister, no tanker lorries were permitted to enter Idinthakarai. Since all main roads have been blocked, food supplies, milk and water had dwindled as has the reserve of fuel, oil and diesel.

Short supply of food, water and milk has put children to hardship

On 20th and 21st March, even the media (NDTV, Headlines Today and Puthiya Thalaimurai) was prevented access to the site, and this access was restored only after concerted public pressure was mounted.

Shopkeepers in nearby villages had been instructed to boycott Idinthakarai and Kuthenkuli villagers, and out of fear of reprisal, many of the shopkeepers were refusing to sell goods to Idinthakarai villagers.

It is learnt that road access to all coastal villages from Tiruchendur to Kuthenkuly had been blocked by the police, and that only coastal access was possible, and even that only to a limited extent.

Women form the bulk of the resistance at Idinthakarai. If the Government of Tamilnadu’s intent was to facilitate entry of technical personnel into the plant site, that has been accomplished, and there is no possibility of that being blocked given the overwhelming presence of armed people in the region.

Under these circumstances, the intimidating show of force by the police forces, and the embargo on essential commodities seems to be a means to teach people a lesson for voicing their concern and challenging the Governments.

Even as a Fact Finding Team was being constituted to look into the matter, public pressure resulted in the easing of the situation.

Movement of essential supplies was restored, although movement of people, particularly from the village to the outside world remains problematic as many villagers fear that they will be jailed under false pretexts if they ventured out.

Related articles

• Fact Finding Report on the Suppression of Democratic Dissent in Anti-Nuclear Protests by Government of Tamil Nadu (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• Anti- Nuke Activists and Koodankulam protesters resume indefinite hunger strike (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• Anti- KKNPP Activists administered saline on Day 6 of fast (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• 9000 anti nuke protesters assemble at IDINTHAKARAI (kractivist.wordpress.com)

Massive campaign against N-Plant launches, thousands to surrender Voter ID cards

NEWZFIRST

09 May 2012 12:05:15 PM IST

IDINTHAKARAI -People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) today launched three campaigns against the Koodankulam Nuclear power Plant that is being set up amid strong opposition of residents of the region and to uphold the citizens’ dignity that is being dishonored by governments.

Collection of signatures by villagers who oppose the nuclear plant and surrender of voter identity cards will be observed in 60 villages belonging to three neighboring districts while ‘respect India’ campaign will be observed throughout the country.

Explaining the objectives of the campaigns Mr. V Pushparayan, member of struggle committee told newzfirst.com, “There are two Indias today, the rich and powerful India whose life is deemed to be important and valuable; and the poor and powerless India whose life is condemned as unimportant and dispensable. The dirty ordinary Indians are forced to sacrifice their lives for the holy extraordinary Indians.”

“Until the governments understand and start respecting every citizens by words and actions we will carry on this awareness campaign by joining hands with likeminded people’s movements.  Just as the freedom fighters asked the colonial rulers to ‘Quit India,’ we, the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy fighters, request the corrupt and communal ruling class in India to ‘Respect India,’ respect the Indian citizens’ lives, rights and entitlements.”  he added.

Briefing about surrendering voter identity cards, he said, “We want to make Governments understand that these citizens are not mere voting machines, they too deserve respectful lives, rights and entitlements. Until the Governments respond positively to the genuine demands of people of this Koodankulam Nuclear Plant region, all the voters will surrender their voter cards voluntarily.”

“Signature campaign too will continue in these three districts for about a week, where all the villagers who do oppose the setting up of nuclear plant will sign the appeal and that will be the mandate against KKNPP in the courts.”  he elaborated.

 

About 20 thousand voter identity cards from nine villages – Idinthakarai, Thomaiyapuram, Perumanal, Kuduthalai, Vairavikinaru, Kuttapulli, Kuthankulli and Avaidaiyalpuram were collected today and will be surrendered to respective Tahsildars after completing collection at rest villages, according to Pushparayan.

While, 30 thousand people from thirteen villages of Idinthakarai, Kudankulam, Kuthankulli, Uvari, Kuttapulli, Kamaneri, Thomaiyarpuram, Vijayapathi, Vairavikinaru, Thillaivananthopu, Kurinjikulam, Kuduthalai, and Periyathalai have signed against the KKNPP.

READ FULLSTORY HERE

Immediate Release-STOP work at SHAI, SUSARI and KONDHANE DAMS

Press Release

 

IMMEDIATELY STOP WORK ON SHAI, SUSARI AND KONDHANE DAMS

 

We welcome the announcement of the Chief Minister that a White Paper will be prepared on the construction of Dams during the past ten years in Maharashtra.  We hope that this White Paper will assess the extent of corruption and diversion of public money that has plagued the Irrigation department. We also hope that the White Paper will look into the alleged nexus between the politicians, officials and contractors who have been awarded contracts in violation of the norms.  The White Paper needs to also examine whether the required permissions were obtained prior to construction, whether the stated objectives are being achieved and the status of rehabilitation of the project affected.

However, pending the release of the White Paper we demand an immediate stoppage of work on all dams (including Shai and Susari dams in Thane district and Kondhane dam in Raigad district) that are being illegally constructed without the required permissions.   Most of the dams ( more than 10 )  within the jurisdiction of the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation have been awarded to a single firm, viz. F.A. Enterprises,  which is in violation of the Department’s own guidelines and conditions, thus exposing a strong nexus between the politicians, officials and the contractor.  Work has begun in violation of laws including the Forest Rights Act, The Forest Conservation Act, the Land Acquisiton Act, the Panchayats Extension to the Scheduled Areas Act etc. The Mumbai High Court has already stayed work on the Kalu Dam as it had started without clearance from  MoEF.

We therefore additionally demand that a High Level Inquiry Committee ( headed by a Retired High Court Judge ) be immediately appointed to inquire into the allegations of corruption and violation of laws and procedures into all the dams in the KIDC region, and more specifically those that have been awarded to F.A. Enterprises.

 

 

We reiterate our strong opposition to the Shai, Susari, Kalu, Balganga and Kondhane dams and demand that the police protection that has been provided to the contractor for constructing an illegal dam be immediately removed.

 

Shai Dharan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti

Susari Dharan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti

Kalu Dharan Virodhi Samiti

Shramik Mukti Sanghatna

Kashtakari Sanghatna

Shoshit Jan Andolan

Samajwadi Jan Parishad

Jagatikikaran Virodhi Kruti Samiti

 

 

Date : 9.5.2012

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Immediate Release-Curfew orders Clamped, Arrest Alert # Koodankulam

Urgent Message from Idinthakarai

Arrest Alert

May 9, 2012

Curfew orders have just been promulgated in our area once again right after our planning meetings with the youth, women, community elders and the Idinthakarai village committee on May 8, 2012. Thousands of police personnel are being posted in and around Koodankulam in haste. We get reliable tips that the authorities are planning to clamp down our protest and arrest all of us, possibly tonight. Such a pre-dawn operation that the government usually does could be bloody as thousands of men, women and children from several villages are sleeping around the Church at Idinthakarai.

This action may be planned to cover up a recent accident at the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP). It is said that two young men, Sivakumar and Esakkimuthu, were injured on May 4 in an alleged blast at KKNPP and they were admitted in a private hospital at Anjugramam. Dr. Tamilarasu who treated the men confirmed the accident according to a newspaper report (The Indian Express, May 8, 2012). One of the young men’s fathers talked to the Puthiya Thalaimurai television on May 8, 2012 that he was not even allowed to see his son.

On May 8, 2012, we also held a Press Meet at Idinthakarai at 4:00 PM in which we produced the ledgers with tens of thousands of signatures of people from some 60 villages opposing the KKNPP. This is a clear proof that the central and state governments are acting against the will of the local people and are thrusting the dangerous nuclear power project down our throats in an authoritarian and arrogant manner. We also produced some 24,000 voter ID cards that the people had surrendered in protest against the governments’ callous attitude towards the 302 women and 35 men indefinite hunger strikers. As the Indian government and the state governments do not respect ordinary people’s lives and interests in India, we also launched the “Respect India” Campaign along the lines of Mahatma Gandhi’s “Quit India” campaign of 1942.

The Tamil Nadu police have been harassing local people when they close their shops in support of our protests or when they travel to neighboring villages. The police take individual pot shots of the people, shoot group photos, take down the vehicle numbers, abuse with foul language and intimidate them. When a curfew was imposed earlier on our area by the Tamil Nadu government on March 19, 2012, the authorities divided the local communities by announcing a Rs. 500 crore bribery package to the local bodies, stifled news reports on us by silencing the media and isolated the people by distancing the Church.

It is so strange and unfortunate that the central and state governments treat us, nonviolent and democratic Gandhian activists, as some kind of dangerous extremists. The hunger strikers are very weak and feeble but they refuse to give up without getting our demands fulfilled. Instead of talking to us, the Tamil Nadu government seems to be preparing for a highhanded behavior and violence to put us all down.

Please contact the following officers and demand justice for our people:

[1] Dr. R. Selvaraj, District Collector, Tirunelveli District, Tirunelveli. Phone:             91-462-2500828      ; Fax: 91-462-2500224; Mobile: 91-9444185000; Email:collrtnv@nic.in

[2] Mr. V. Varadharaju; Phone:             91-462-2568031      ; Mobile: 91-9840970530; Email: digtinrg@yahoo.co.in

[3] Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Fort St. George, Chennai 600 009, India; Phones:             91-44-25672345      (W);             91-44-25670215       (H); Faxes:             91-44-28133510      ; 25676929; 25671441; 28130787.

[4] Mr. Debendranath Sarangi, Chief Secretary; Phone:             91-44-25671555      ; Fax: 91-44-25672304; Email: cs@tn.gov.in

[5] Dr. Sheela Priya, Additional Chief Secretary; Phone:             91-44-25674234      ; Fax: 91-44-25675163. Email: cmcell@tn.gov.in

The Struggle Committee,

People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy

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• Immediate Release- Koondankulam hunger strike and demands (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• Koodankulam – Anti-nuclear Struggle Continues: Deepa Rajkumar (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• Immediate Release – PMANE Demands Immediate Halt of Work at KKNPP (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• Anti Nuke Protesters decide to return their Voter IDs to GOI #Koondakulam (kractivist.wordpress.com)

Avengers’ slum scenes trigger anger in India

Actors in India have been voicing their disappointment at the portrayal of Kolkata in the filmAndrew Pulver

• Andrew Pulver   guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 May 2012 

Bad taste … scenes set in India of Bruce Banner – AKA Hulk – in The Avengers have been criticised. Photograph: Planet Photos/Marvel

The Avengers might be carrying all before it at the global box office, but inIndia, its healthy reported opening of INR110m (£1.3m) has been marred byhigh profile complaints over its portrayal of urban living conditions.

1. The Avengers [also known as Avengers Assemble]
2. Production year: 2012
3. Country: USA
4. Cert (UK): 12A
5. Runtime: 142 mins
6. Directors: Joss Whedon
7. Cast: Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Cobie Smulders, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Stellan Skarsgard, Tom Hiddleston
8. More on this film

Exception has been taken in regard to two brief scenes showing Bruce Banner – AKA Hulk – (played by Mark Ruffalo) working as a doctor in Kolkata in an attempt to avoid the rage triggers that transform him.

 

Actor Rituparna Sengupta, best known for the Bengali-language films Alo and Dahan, told the Hindustan Times: “Kolkata has a rich culture and heritage, and a film-maker should respect that. There are two scenes about India and they only show slums. It could have been done in better taste.”

 

Neha Dupia, an actor in Bollywood films such as Singh Is Kinng and Dasvidaniya, said: “It is disturbing to see the murky underbelly of India in Hollywood films … we need to make efforts to change [the west’s] perception about us.”

 

However, the film-makers cannot be accused of “slumdog tourism” a laSlumdog Millionaire: according to the Hollywood Reporter, the Kolkata slums were filmed in New Mexico.

 

Meanwhile, Disney has reported that The Avengers’ box office figures for its US opening were even higher than estimated. On Sunday, the studio entered a figure of $200.3m (£124m) for its first three days on release. But better than expected figures for the Sunday’s takings mean the figure is now $207.4m.

Even with the lower estimate, The Avengers – renamed Avengers Assemble for the UK and Irish market – had comfortably eclipsed the previous opening weekend best, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2‘s $169.2m. The Avengers has also become the first film to break the $200m mark for its opening figures.

India may relax ‘death penalty’ clause under Narcotics Act

No death penalty (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PTI | May 8, 2012, 07.17PM IST

NEW DELHI: The government proposes to drop the mandatory death penalty provision for drug offences through an amendment of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

“In view of the observations of the Standing Committee on Finance made in its report on the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2011, it is proposed to amend Section 31A of the NDPS Act and replace the words ‘shall be punishable with death’ with the words ‘may be punishable with death’,” Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The NDPS Act, 1985 has provision for a graded system of punishment, with the quantum of punishment varying with the quantity of drug or substance involved in a case, he said.

The Bombay high court had in June last year held that the Section relating to mandatory death penalty was violative of Article 21 of the Constitution (right to life).

However, the court’s verdict was given for the accused convicted twice for the offense.

The court had observed that second conviction in NDPS case need not be death penalty and it was the sole discretion of the judge of the special court to decide about the capital punishment.

The Rajya Sabha was told there was a surge in the number of people prosecuted under the NDPS Act in the last three years and decline in the cases of conviction.

As many as 20,364 people were prosecuted in 2011 for their involvement in offenses under the Act as against 19,720 in 2010 and 19,377 in 2009, Mukherjee said.

Whereas, 7,857 and 9,819 people were convicted in 2011 and 2010 respectively. In 2009, a total of 11,418 were convicted for the offenses, he added.

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Safe Pregnancy and Birth mobile app now available for Android phones #Mothersday

In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re proud to announce that our Safe Pregnancy and Birth mobile app is now available for free as a beta release for Android phones.  Click here to download it now from the Google Play app store.

  In January, we released our app for iPhones; click here to download it from the Apple store.

If you don’t have an Android or iPhone, you can preview the app here.

Our app is the only comprehensive app on pregnancy and birth developed specifically for low-resource settings. Life-saving information is presented in clear, accessible language rich with illustrations, and an intuitive and friendly navigation—perfect for working with community health workers or midwives with varied literacy levels.  As always, we welcome your feedback.

Hesperian’s other women’s health resources are available in English and Spanish in our bookstore and in our new HealthWiki digital format.

Honor your mother with a Gift of Health

Give a Gift of Health on Mother’s Day. Click here to send free copies of Hesperian health guides to mothers and midwives who cannot afford to buy them.  Include your mother’s e-mail address and we will send her an e-card notifying her of your gift! For mothers who prefer regular mail, let us know by Wednesday, May 9th, and we will send her an illustrated card.

Empowering Mayan midwives in rural Belize

May 7, 2012

I went to Punta Gorda, Belize Central America to train Mayan women to deliver babies in their communities using Hesperian’s A Book for Midwives. Punta Gorda is a town in the southernmost part of Belize with a small hospital. Around the town are numerous Mayan villages. There is a bus service that goes two days a week to most of the villages, but for obvious reasons that is not a reliable way to get to medical help when a woman is in labor. Some of the villages might have one person who owned a truck and they soon became tired of being asked to transport people to town. They were especially leery of women in labor who might deliver in route and make a bloody mess in the process!

The 14 women who attended my training were selected by going to each village and holding meetings. This process took several trips. The first to see if there was an interest and try to set a date and time to return and hold the meeting. The next to actually hold the meeting and then another to follow up. That is if everything went smoothly, which of course was not always the case. In some villages one woman was selected and in others two and in others none. I wanted the women to do the selecting themselves. The midwives would serve their village and I wanted to empower the women by allowing them to decide who they wanted to be trained. Each village ultimately handled this process a little differently. Some wanted men and women to attend the meeting. Some already had selected someone when I returned to meet with them. The village of Jalacte had an especially large turnout and was the only village to hold an election were each women cast a ballot. In the end I had 14 woman who wanted to be in the midwife training.

I started with the first chapter of A Book for Midwives and worked my way through the book. Most of the women in the class were not midwives but wanted to learn. A few had helped at a small number of births. Alfonza, the oldest in the group, had been to lots of births but was afraid to say so at first not knowing if she might get into trouble. As time went on I gained her confidence and we became fast friends. I especially liked it when she would contribute to the discussion and it would be something that we both had experienced at a birth.

I often made comments such as, “This is what I was taught” or “This is what I have seen,” then I would ask if they had a different way of doing it or a different understanding. I felt like it was important to not make the women feel like I thought I was smarter or better than them. I think that this was a good approach and that the women opened up to me and trusted me.

In this part of the world, women are not given a lot of power. Many of them were not used to making decisions for themselves. They were often told what to do by their husbands and people in power. I found the chapters on step-by-step thinking, intuition, creativity and thinking about risks and benefits to be very helpful in teaching them to make decisions.

Many of the women had very little understanding about how their bodies work and how things look on the inside, so the chapters that covered those subjects were also very valuable.

In addition to class room time, I set up a schedule to go to each village and do prenatal checkups with the students and the pregnant women of the village. When I arrived for the first prenatal in the village of San Pedro I was met by two of my students who came running to my jeep waving their arms and shooting, “She is in labor, she is in labor, come quick!” We proceeded to the home of one of the women who we were supposed to be doing a prenatal exam on and sure enough, she was in good strong labor. Instead of a lesson in prenatal care, we had a lesson in childbirth! She delivered a healthy baby boy a few hours later to everyone’s delight.

At our next day of class all the women were abuzz with the story about the birth. We were off to a great start.  The subject for this class was danger signs to watch for during pregnancy, like the signs and symptoms of pre-eclampsia. At the end of class, one of the women came to me and told me about a woman in the village neighboring hers who she was worried about. She was expecting her 9th child and was “all swelled up.” We decided to go to her village next. It turned out that my student was correct, the pregnant woman did have a lot of swelling, her blood pressure was very high, she was experiencing headaches and to make matters worse, it had been raining so much that the road to her village was almost impassible. Soon buses and cars would not be able to get to her village. We decided that the best thing to do would be to transport her.  The hospital decided to do a cesarean section and delivered a 9 pound baby (see the photo of the mother and her newborn baby above).

I heard many stories about breech babies dying while I was in Belize. Often the baby was alive when the feet and body were born but those in attendance would watch as the pink, kicking, limbs turned blue and stopped moving. The head was entrapped and by the time they were able to free it the baby was dead. I knew that the women of the villages would not call the midwives for the easy normal deliveries but would call them when there were problems. For this reason I thought that it was especially important to teach how to handle complications and how to deliver twins and breeches.

Eulaya in the village of Jalacte, which is located far from the hospital, was one of the Mayan women that I trained. The first two babies that she delivered were breech. Both babies survived. Eulaya has gone on to deliver many babies and to be looked up to by the women in her village.

Vicenta loved her copy of A Book for Midwives which soon became dog eared from studying it. She called me one day because she needed help transporting a women who was not due for another month but her water had broken and labor had not started. She was concerned that infection would set in if something wasn’t done. She had to walk from her village where there was no phone to the neighboring village to make the call. At first the hospital would not send an ambulance to pick up this woman so Vicenta called me to see what I could do. With some persuading I was able to convince the hospital to send an ambulance to pick up the pregnant woman and bring her to the hospital. Sure enough, Vicenta was right, the water was broken. At the hospital her labor was started by induction and mother and baby both survived.

One week later another woman in Vicenta’s village started bleeding early in her pregnancy. The bleeding was more than usual and wouldn’t stop. Vicenta again walked to the next village and this time when she called the hospital they knew who she was and they went right away to transport the woman who was bleeding. By this time the woman had lost so much blood that she was barely conscious, and needed a blood transfusion as well as a D&C.

I think that there is a great need for trainings like this one and that A Book for Midwives is an excellent manual for traditional birth attendants and community midwives.

Sincerely,
Deborah Flowers CPM, RN

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