Poverty & Hunger

30.03.2006 Though aid groups have worked hard to get emergency supplies to the millions of homeless in Pakistan-quake affected areas they know that their job is still not done. Millions could still be without shelter next year as the reconstruction effort is huge.

30.03.2006 Cotton farmers in the south Indian state of Andhara Pradesh are being lured into debt by seed MNCs by selling expensive genetically modified seeds which have failed to deliver a good harvest. Farmers allege that a black market has been created for the seeds, gifts are being given to farmers and even unapproved GM seeds are being sold.

28.03.2006 Calls for the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is meeting at Curitiba in Brazil, to end its six-year moratorium on the planting of infertile genetically modified (GM) crops have been rejected. Though Australia, Canada and New Zealand backed the proposal, but opponents say that such seeds could make farmers dependent on MNCs.

27.03.2006 Greenpeace activists protested in front of the New Zealand Embassy in New Delhi on Friday, with a banner exhorting New Zealand to 'Keep the Ban on Terminator Seeds'. The protestors also distributed leaflets to hundreds of passers-by in peak hour traffic.

24.03.2006 People of Mehdiganj in north India have launched an indefinite vigil against a Coca-Cola bottling plant demanding that the plant be permanently shut down. Nearly five hundred community members set up a tent in front of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in the holy city of Varanasi and declared that they will carry on the protest until the plant is shut down.

20.03.2006 The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) is strengthening the livelihood skills of Kalandars (dancing bear owners) in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh as many have given up on their traditional profession and are on the brink of starvation.

20.03.2006 The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) is strengthening the livelihood skills of Kalandars (dancing bear owners) in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh as many have given up on their traditional profession and are on the brink of starvation.

13.03.2006 Kashmiri refugees in Pakistan say that they cannot return back to their homes as their houses lie damaged and fields and lands have been devastated by landslides.

13.03.2006 Villagers in the coastal belt of Orissa want to leave their village and their lands which they have tilled for generations simply because debilitating pollution from coalfields has rendered their fields unfertile, contaminated drinking water and has rendered air impossible to breathe. The only hitch in leaving their village is that the government is unwilling to rehabilitate them.

08.03.2006 A twenty-three year old farmer was killed while the police in Amravati in the west Indian state of Maharashtra opened fire among angry farmers demanding the release of water from the Chargarh dam.

08.03.2006 British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told a conference in London that Asia faces major challenges in tackling poverty in the next decade. He was speaking to delegates at a conference on Asian poverty, organised by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the British government.

07.03.2006 Oxfam International said that five major donor countries have failed to commit anything to a global emergency fund just days before it is officially launched by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan next Thursday. The US, Japan, Australia, Italy and Canada have not pledged a single cent to the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). France has only given just over one million dollars while poorer countries including Mexico, Grenada and Sri Lanka have all contributed to the fund.

07.03.2006 Campaign group, War on Want, has urged the UK government to take in to account the impact of supermarkets operating in the country on poor communities in developing countries. A recent report revealed how supermarkets keep costs low by demanding ever-lower prices from Third World suppliers and restricting union activity in the UK and US.