News Watch - Babalog see Orissa hunger first hand

Babalog see Orissa hunger first hand
Sachin Pilot of Congress, Supriya Sule of NCP, Jay Panda, BJD, Shyam Benegal, nominated member to Rajya Sabha, and Shahnawaz Hussain from BJP made up the political quorum of the alliance — Feroze Gujaral and Gauri Karnik added the celebrity factor to the group. Supported by Unicef, the group visited four villages in two blocks of Cuttack district — Salehpur and Tangi. The first two were villages planned for a visit in advance.

Experts stress on importance of breast-feeding
Bhanu, a lactating mother, who works as a teacher in a private school maintained that after the two months maternity leave given to them which also are varies from one school to another, it is difficult for them to breast-feed their children properly and regularly.

A Democracy called India (Blog: opinion)
One such problem is child labour. The Parliament has banned all forms of Child Labour under an Act and yet this loss of innocence continues. While traveling to college everyday I come across a little girl less than ten years old standing beneath the familiar traffic light. Everyday she hurtles towards halted cars as soon as the traffic light turns to flaming red. She begs for money using steel can wrapped with marigold flowers and adorned with Lord Shiva idols.

Kid organises computers for tribals
Karan's dream of teaching computers to these underprivileged kids has been realized, with HP agreeing to sponsor 30 computers through the Sankya project of Rotary Club, Bangalore South.

New Research Shows Nutrition Programs Targeting Pregnancy and First 24 Months of Life Dramatically Improve Child Survival and Overall Health
A landmark series of research papers on maternal and child undernutrition published in the leading international medical journal The Lancet today shows that children will suffer irreversible damage into their adult life if proper nutrition interventions are not delivered before the age of 24 months.

Image courtest Hindu Businessline

Got You! - An interesting take on HIV and AIDS and stigma.

Scripted by children, 'Got You!' or 'Aemanthutingala!' is a World Vision India - Nalandaway co-production of a script created by children.



Synopsis:

One day in the life of a perky young girl who is HIV positive. The girl, though mischievous is smart and independent. In one of the normal physical education classes she has a small accident, gets hurt and starts to bleed. The physical education teacher comes to her help, but she refuses his help and tells him that she is HIV positive. The teacher though initially rubbishes it as one of her many, pranks is shattered when she shows her medical records. The film shows how the teacher’s ignorance takes him through a torturous time, till the child teaches the “teacher” a lesson for life.

For more info about World Vision India / Nalandaway Foundation

News watch: Eggs and Condoms to save India

India's Future May Depend on Eggs and Condoms: Andy Mukherjee
This isn't to say Indian taxpayers should resent paying for an egg in each young child's meal every other day, which is what the committee recommends. But surely provision of clean water, for which the panel has very little advice to offer, should take precedence

Discrimination in MP schools alive and kicking, reveals public hearing
“When we raised our voice against this partial treatment, we were threatened and beaten badly by the teacher. Non-dalit students also refuse to sit with us,” said 13 year old Pooja, a Dalit student from the same school. She feels humiliated by her teacher and classmates.

"Transporting" people out of poverty
There is a clear link between levels of infant and child mortality and accessibility to health services. The success of national immunisation programmes, for which repeat visits are often required, depends on the availability of affordable transport services to the poor.

Image courtesy Bloomberg

Aggregator: 4 lakh child labourers in cotton industry

Growing cotton nowadays is a very risky business. While farmers suicides in cotton-growing areas have been a long running phenomenon, a new report by the India Committee of Netherlands reveals that a shocking 400,000 children are involved as child labourers in the cotton industry in India. Multinationals Monsanto and Bayer as well as 13 big indian companies are also implicated in this supporting this "modern form of child slavery"

Discrimination and stigma against people living with HIV and AIDS reached a new low in Rajasthan when the courts denied a mother custody of her child because she had the virus, something her soldier husband gave her.

Climate change has been on the agenda for sometime now. So we knew it would not be long before children get dragged into the game. NGOs working to offset carbon footprints generated in the west with development activities in the west become controversial with this foot operated pump that forces children into child labour, according to Times online.