Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jun 16 2009 (IPS) – As the annual scrimmage for coveted seats in India s engineering and medical colleges gets underway, what many students dread is the sadistic ritual of ragging or hazing that they expect to undergo at the hands of their seniors.
I know that the Supreme Court has passed directions ordering the government to take steps to curb ragging but I doubt they can be enforced, says prospective engineering student Prahlad Goyal, who hopes to enter one of the several Indian Institutes of Technology.

On May 7 moved by the death of Aman Satya Kachroo, a first-year student at a medical college in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh state following a brutal beating by his seniors the apex court issued orders to all provincial governmen…

Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Jul 27 2009 (IPS) – What happened to me shattered my dreams, my hopes I wanted to be someone who worked outside the home but I spend all day at home looking after the baby I can t even sleep and I feel very unsafe, many of my days are a nightmare, it s very hard to carry on and I feel very sad and very tired, said M , who was raped at age 17 by a relative.
Even though she was a victim of incest and rape, M , who spoke with representatives of Amnesty International on their visit to Nicaragua last week, was unable to abort the pregnancy because of the ban on therapeutic abortion in place in this Central American country, one of the poorest in the hemisphere, since 2008.

The Amnesty report issued on Monday, The total abortion ban in Nicaragua: W…

Thalif Deen interviews Anders Berntell, Executive Director of the Stockholm International Water Institute*

STOCKHOLM, Aug 18 2009 (IPS) – We can provide astronauts with a safe supply of drinking water when they travel to the moon, but we cannot provide the same service to slum dwellers in Kibera, Nairobi or Dharavi, Mumbai, Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), told a gathering of over 2,400 participants at the annual World Water Week concluding Friday.

Anders Berntell Credit: Stockholm…

LUSAKA, Sep 22 2009 (IPS) – The economy s down, the price of fertiliser s up. And Zambian farmers are stealing sewage for their vegetable gardens.

Farmers dig canals like this one to lead waste water directly to their gardens. Credit: Lewis Mwanangombe/IPS

Yes, raw sewage is a cocktail of germs that can cause life-threatening illnesses. Sanitation officials in both Lusaka and the Copperbelt province are accusing peri-urban farmers of …

LUSAKA, Oct 4 2009 (IPS) – For 70 minutes, the girls in the distinctive gold-and-green jersey of Brazil shut out the attacks by the visiting team. The bare feet of chubby-faced left back Njavwa Silungwe are lively in defence.

Jennifer Tembo is one of scores of vulnerable girls finding support in local football. Credit: Lewis Mwanangombe/IPS

The yellow-clad Chibolya Queens eventually lose the match. But their team s mer…

Zenzele Ndebele and Nasseem Ackbarally

MIDRAND, South Africa, Nov 11 2009 (IPS) – Water is a resource that binds people together, for better or worse.

Building a catchment pond in Uganda: Africa Water Week is a forum to discuss water issues across the continent. Credit: Glenna Thomas/IRIN

The care taken to prevent pesticides or sewage from washing into water supplies in one plac…

Chryso D’Angelo

NEW YORK, Dec 2 2009 (IPS) – When I saw the leaves on the trees curl and turn black and birds fall dead out of the sky, I knew that this was Death, come among us as foretold. My regret is that I survived, said a native of Bhopal, India after a gas leak at a pesticide plant killed 8,000-10,000 people in 1984.

The abandoned Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Credit: Bhopal Medical Appeal

A quarter century later, the disaster continues to unfold, an …

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jan 14 2010 (IPS) – As India s central government begins a series of public meetings across the country this month on the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) brinjal or eggplant in this country, activists and farmers groups are mobilising to oppose such a plan.
The meetings are a response by Union Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh to a storm of protests generated by the approval issued by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) in October last year for the commercial cultivation of the genetically modified brinjal also called aubergine to resist pests with a gene from the soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt brinjal).

The environment ministry s first hearing, held Wednesday in the eastern city of Kolkata, ended u…

José Adán Silva

MANAGUA, Feb 15 2010 (IPS) – Nicaragua slammed the door on any possible debate on the restitution of therapeutic abortion performed to save the life of the pregnant woman despite demands that it do so voiced during a United Nations review of human rights in the country.
Under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) system, the U.N. Human Rights Council examines the human rights record of each member state every four years. The seventh session of the Council s UPR is taking place Feb. 8-19 in Geneva, Switzerland, and includes Nicaragua.

At last week s review on this Central American country, the Human Rights Council issued a report urging Nicaragua to strengthen protection for girls and women against domestic and sexual violence, by providing shelters for…

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Mar 22 2010 (IPS) – The full-page newspaper advertisements touting the benefits of a controversial aluminium smelter plant appeared here just as the court of appeal is preparing to rule on whether such a facility is ever built in Trinidad and Tobago.
The advertisements feature prominent people and groups from the La Brea community in Trinidad s south, where the Alutrint Smelter Plant would be located. In one, Arthur Forde, identified as a La Brea community elder, says the smelter plant would allow Trinidad and Tobago to build ships, planes and every other thing that can be done here in Trinidad .

But anti-smelter activist Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh believes the ads and other activities are designed to prejudice the court process.

The …