Poverty & Hunger

28.02.2006 Focussing attention on bridging the urban and rural divide, the Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced plans to speed up the pace of building infrastructure, power and irrigation facilities in rural areas. This initiative has been given a filip by Indian President APJ Kalam under his much-talked about PURA scheme (Providing Urban Amerinities in Rural Areas).

28.02.2006 Communities affected by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced an estimated two million across South and Southeast Asia, should be given more say in the recovery effort says the United Nations.

27.02.2006 A recent survey on the safety of small fishing vessels in Tamil Nadu (India), Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand has revealed that there is lack of safety-at-sea problems for fishermen not only in developed countries but also in developing countries.

26.02.2006 Villagers in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, which is one of India's most prosperous states, are migrating to cities to look for work because of a severe drought. Many are working as casual labourers to eke out a living for themselves and their families back home in villages.

26.02.2006 Tired of broken promises, survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster are marching 800 km to Delhi to call attention to the continuing toxic contamination of Bhopal, the absence of adequate healthcare, and other problems.

21.02.2006 A new consolidated maritime labour Convention, to be voted here on Thursday by the International Labour Organization's Maritime labour Conference, reflects "labour history" in the making by providing a modern approach to addressing decent work and a fair globalization, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said.

20.02.2006 The UN has appointed Tom Koenigs, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, as the new head of the United Nations Mission Assistance in Afghanistan. One of his main roles would be to coordinate a multi-billion dollar development plan for the South Asian nation.

17.02.2006 Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced the creation of a high-level panel to explore how the United Nations can shape a smoother running machine to carry out its worldwide work in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and environment.

17.02.2006 Workers at an Indian shipbreaking yard have announced they will hold demonstrations over the next few days and, if necessary, go on hunger strike in protest against French President Jacques Chirac's decision to recall the decommissioned aircraft carrier Clemenceau.

16.02.2006 As onion prices hit an all-time low of Rs 2 per kg, a bumper harvest sows seeds of despair among onion growers who are the latest to be hit by Maharashtra’s worsening agrarian crisis.

15.02.2006 Ten years after the United Nations launched the "Decade for the Eradication of Poverty", more than one billion people still live without access to safe drinking water, health care, adequate housing and other essentials of daily life, development experts and independent observers here say.

14.02.2006 The detention of Christian missionaries, who were allegedly trying to convert earthquake-affected people of Uri Tehsil in Jammu and Kashmir under the garb of providing relief, has once again brought to light the role of missionaries in the state under scanner. The missionaries, claiming to be members of the Bible Society of India, had to shut their shop in quake-hit areas of Uri following complaints from locals that they were luring people to Christianity by offering monetary incentives, official sources said here.

14.02.2006 It was December 26, 2004, when the tsunami waves devastated Andaman and Nicobar Islands. More than a year later, the homeless tribals of Andaman and Nicobar are still waiting for their promised shelters.

13.02.2006 A massive poverty alleviation project envisaged by the south Indian state of Kerala has been delayed to an extent that it is unlikely to take off this financial year. The development project would have led to the implementation of some recommendations by Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

13.02.2006 Sitting in his neighbour's swirling field of poppy, wearing dusty clothes, farmer Abdul Qauom, 32, is keen to find an alternative crop that will earn him a living after his two hectares of opium fields were recently destroyed by state security forces, in line with government policy.

10.02.2006 Fore more than ten years residents of Saleli in Goa had complained to the government over the pollution caused by the stone crushing units in their village. When the government did not pay heed, they assaulted and killed a miner after which villagers from nearly 60 villages in Goa are now participating in protests againt pollution and mining.

08.02.2006 The International Labour Organization (ILO) began consideration on Tuesday of a draft Convention on maritime labour standards, which if adopted will represent the most sweeping and comprehensive global legal instrument ever forged regarding the world’s shipowners, seafarers and maritime nations.

08.02.2006 Amid predictions that by 2010 the world will need to cope with as many as 50 million people escaping the effects of creeping environmental deterioration, United Nations University experts say the international community urgently needs to define, recognize and extend support to this new category of ‘refugee’.

08.02.2006 Stressing the link between sanitation and health, Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh says the Indian government’s goal is to ensure safe drinking water to 55,067 ‘uncovered’ hamlets and 2,800,000 habitations that have lapsed from coverage.

07.02.2006 Water activists and non governmental organisations in north and central India have joined hands to fight water privatization initiatives by Indian state governments, oppose World Bank funding, discourage the $200 billion river-linking project, encourage conservation and provide for alternative water policies. OneWorld South Asia's Rahul Kumar reports from the convention.