Reporter: Maryam Ghamgusar Translation from Dari to English: AJ&V Team I was waiting in Balkh province Women Department affairs directorate to interview with the director while a pallid woman who seems very alone, tired, wretched, desperate and violated by the name of Bigum came. She was in very bad mode with old cloths, around 40 years’ old age and still not married. Bigum is one of the bad traditions victims. The sad and sorrowful face of Bigum interested me to talk to her and know what really is her problem? With all stammering and hesitations, she finally wanted to share her story with me. ... - More

This article was published in the Kenyan local newspaper, DAILY NATION, Tuesday April 13. 2010, “PUBLIC AGENDA” section under the title, "Local authorities big hurdle to investment: Many licences and raids a major drain on business people".

Businesses in Kenya are required to have different licences, permits and other regulatory documents. Failure to have these can lead to arrest, often conducted on a Friday by council inspectors.

There are 175 local authorities in Kenya. It is estimated that half the local authorities arrest an average of 30 people every weekend. Furthermore, businesspeople lose income when they close business, pay fines or engage lawyers. This leads to an estimated loss of revenue of Sh24,000 to Sh40,000 per business. This translates to 125,000 business people per year arrested at a cost of approximately KSh3-5 billion [$ 37-63million]. ... - More

A three-part series examining the factors that fuel the risk of HIV/AIDS infection within the Netherlands Antilles prison system.

Crisis of the confined:
Sex, prison and HIV

PART I

By Judy H. Fitzpatrick

The popular adage, “you do the crime, you do the time,” may be true, but for John (not his real name), serving time was a worst nightmare come true.

He was incessantly raped, used for sexual exploits by other prison inmates and hadn’t any means of protecting himself from contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). He pleaded constantly with Bon Futuro Prison authorities to place him in confinement and away from his abusers, but for a long time no one seemed to be listening.

He was eventually placed in the insanitary ward, but that was only a temporary fix for a chronic problem facing many inmates at the largest penal facility in the Netherlands Antilles - Bon Futuro prison in Curaçao.
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ENERGY-CAMEROON
Dam Project Questioned
Ngala Killian Chimtom

LOM-PANGAR, Cameroon, Aug 3 (IPS) - Construction has begun on a new dam at the confluence of the Lom and Pangar rivers in Cameroon. The government is pushing the project as key to addressing an energy shortfall, allowing for economic growth; observers believe the plan may only increase the country's vulnerability to drought.

Cameroon, which is heavily dependent on hydro-electric power, has recently suffered significant reductions in supply due to drought. Government hopes to use the Lom Pangar dam to regulate seasonal flows of water into the Sanaga River.

With a planned capacity of 7.250 billion cubic meters in a reservoir that will cover 610 square kilometers, the dam will be used to hold water back for release during dry the season to feed the Song-Lou Lou and Edea dams on the Sanaga River downstream. ... - More

At the mercy of irate teachers

By: Raju Kumar

Corporal punishment in Madhya Pradesh’s schools is on the rise. Teachers have turned on their students, punching and beating them, even fatally at times. It is also observed that many school managements try to hide such incidents in order to evade action. Moreover, the school education department is not making any concerted effort to stop such brutalities. ... - More

Nurturing forest communities

By: Raju Kumar

FOR forest communities living in the interiors of Madhya Pradesh, the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act 2006 should have signalled a new era. Recognising the symbiotic relationship between forest dwellers and the forests, the Act seeks to correct a historic injustice by giving forest communities a primacy in forest management and give ownership rights to them.

However, this noble intent has seen a dilution down its various stages of interpretation and implementation. The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) constituted to look into this in a comprehensive way envisaged community control through gram sabhas. They will be empowered to settle forest rights within the local jurisdiction. However, in areas in M.P, this seems to have fallen by the wayside. In 93 per cent of the gram sabhas there was no discussion, let alone concrete steps in the direction. ... - More

Vrinda Sharma

PATIALA: “She was thrown in the garbage dump outside the village, for dogs that ate her to death. Her only fault- she was the fourth girl born in a poor family,” said Dr Harshinder Kaur recalling the first time she witnessed discrimination against female infants in Punjab’s rural side. “Over a decade back I couldn't save that infant and ever since I try to speak for the girls who never lived,” said Dr Harshinder Kaur, paediatric doctor in Patiala who has been awarded by numerous governments across the globe for her work in eradicating the crime.

Rampant female foeticide, shameful act of selectively aborting the female foetus due to son preference continues to push the sex ratio of Punjab against females; unfortunately the evil is more prevalent amongst the educated, rich and urban bred.
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Vrinda Sharma

Karori(Haryana): Chandrapati Berwal (55), widow and mother of four, the first women in Haryana to have fought a legal battle against the influential khap panchayats after the honour killing of her son and daughter-in-law in 2007, has lend hope to other victims and taught a lesson to the panchayats.

After conviction of Babli’s relatives on Tuesday for murder of Babli and Manoj, Chandrapti traces her ordeal, “I faced threats, abuse and social boycott by the rest of the village. For the last three years, my life has been at a standstill. I had convinced myself that I would not be able to move on till my son got justice,” Chandrapati said.
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Vrinda Sharma

Mirchpur (Hisar): “I heard her cries when the burning roof collapsed on her. How can I now befriend those who doused that roof with petrol? I will not sell my daughter's body,” said Kamla Devi, who lost her husband and teenaged daughter in the caste violence here on April 21.

Kamla Devi's sons on Friday refused Government jobs that the administration offered.

The Dalits from Mirchpur village protesting outside the District Commissioner's office in Hisar demanded death penalty for the guilty. Holding the fort firmly, the crowd refused to return to the village until its demand of rehabilitation in a new establishment elsewhere, away from Mirchpur, was met with.
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