A Quarterly Newsletter Nov 2009- Jan 2010

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Inaugaral Issue

leave their village homes and join to swell the already over populated areas, in search of employment. Most of them work as labourers. Around 38 percent of total migrants are in the labor market with 70 percent of males and 26 percent of females. Long working hours, isolation from their family and movement between areas may increase the likelihood that an individual will become involved in casual sexual relationships, which in turn may increase the risk of HIV transmission (Not all of them). The worst part is that most of the people becoming infected are in the sexually active and economically productive 15 to 44 age group. This means that most people living with HIV are in the prime of their working lives. Most of them are supporting their families. It means loss of productivity to the nation and losing a earning memberBeing mobile is not a risk factor for HIV infection. It is the situations encountered and the behaviours possibly engaged in during mobility or migration that increase vulnerability and risk regarding HIV/AIDS. We need to widen the Climate Change movement and people from different walk of the life need to join hands to combat AIDS. A focus on the interconnections between Climate Change, food security, HIV, health in general is very necessary. Climate change is not only affecting environment but capable to do far worse damage to world than expected.

In August 2009, villagers stopped their children from going school in belamundi village of Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh). Attendance in school dwindled from 212 to 15-20 in one week. The reason was- Raju, A student of class IV. He is suffering from AIDS. Both of his parents died of AIDS. Ultimately, He was thrown out of school with his siblings. With Interference of administration, he is again going to school. There are many places like belamundi where lacks of knowledge, wrong attitude and aberrant behavior force many rajus to fight for their human rights. The World AIDS Day theme for 2009 is 'Universal Access and Human Rights'. The theme has been chosen to address the critical need to protect human rights and attain access for all to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. It also acts as a call to countries to remove laws that discriminate against people living with HIV, women and marginalized groups. Countries are also urged to realize the many commitments they made to protect human rights in the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS (2001) and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS (2006). It is essential that the global response to the AIDS epidemic is grounded in human rights and that discrimination and punitive laws against those most affected by HIV has to remove.

Universal access and Human Rights' to

people living with HIV

[World AIDS Day, observed December 1 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.]

Dear Reader,

Greetings from SES!!It gives me immense pleasure to introduce the first quarterly newsletter. ECHO SES on behalf of Shohratgarh Environmental Society.

Through ECHO SES, We would like to share information and recent updates on different social issues. The purpose of newsletter is to increase awareness and knowledge for better understanding of problems and finding solution for those problems.

We are confident that with your support, ECHO SES will become an important and integral tool in development sector.

Best Wishes,

Dr. B.C.SrivastavaSecretarySES

MESSAGE FROM SECRETARY

Disaster Managementn India last Decade, 30 million people were affected by

disasters every year. Sui Generis geo-climatic Iconditions makes India traditionally vulnerable to

natural disasters on account of its. Over 40 million

hectares land is prone to floods, 68% of the area is prone to

drought; about 60% of the landmass is prone to

earthquakes of various intensities; 8% of the total area is

prone to cyclones. The impact of major disasters cannot be

mitigated by the provision of immediate relief alone.

Disasters have devastating effects on the economy. It has

to be multi-disciplinary spanning across all sectors of

development. Investments in mitigation are much more

cost effective than expenditure on relief and

rehabilitation. All stakeholders including State

Governments and Union Territories, right up to the

Panchyati Raj Institutions, Non -Governmental

organization. Community can play important role in it.

Communities at large will need to be mobilized to achieve

this common objective as they are the first responders and

victim of calamity. If Every Stakeholder will run in

different direction, the result would be futile. There must

be a well-considered approach, and responsibilities of all

stakeholders are clearly allocated with accountability and

sustainability.

NDMA(National Disaster Management Authority) has to

play role of torch bearer. they have to guide other

stakeholders. The underpinning policy of NDMA are:

Dear Reader,

In our inaugural issue of ECHO SES, we are trying to look various disaster related issues. When we talk about disaster, we generally focus on Flood and Drought. They are the oldest form of disaster since eons. With time, man has changed a lot, so does form of disaster. Experiments of man with science have always left us spellbound. There is no iota of doubt that discovery and invention made human life easy but we cannot decline same discovery gave birth to disaster like Bhopal Gas Tragedy(1984) & Charnobyl Accidents(1986). These inventions also led to development of bombs which are helping different terrorism activities. In last one decade, AIDS is emerged deadliest and most horrible disease that shocks the world .The relationship of AIDS with Climate Change is lethal for mankind.

Disaster is constant companion of mankind. The need of hour is to value human life. For that we must have a pro-active approach. In other words, we need to develop Disaster Impact Vulnerability Alert System, which can give us real time data and analysis on socio-economic condition of any part of India.

The end of year is approaching quickly bringing reflections on the year past and plans for the year to come. I would like to wish all of you “A VERY HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR”.

Warm Regards,

Sandeep Srivastava

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FROM EDITOR'S DESK

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Visit us at http:// sesindia.org

A 2006 study found that 25% of people living with HIV in India had been refused medical treatment on the basis of their HIV-positive status. It also found strong evidence of stigma in the workplace, with 74% of employees not disclosing their status to

their employees for fear of discrimination. Of the 26% who did disclose their status, 10% reported having faced prejudice as a result.68 People in marginalized groups - female sex workers, hijras (transgender) and gay men - are often stigmatised not

only because of their HIV status, but also because they belong to socially excluded groups.

01.

03.

04.

a) Message from Secretary

b) Editor's desk

c) Disaster Management

a) Inculcating disaster in education

b) An open invitation to disaster

c) Wake Up Call!

a) Calamities affecting Indian Economy

b) National Investigation agency

c) The curious case of Basheer ahmed

a) Road accident: another disaster?

b) AIDS – the global disaster

02.

c) Universal access and Human Rights'

to people living with HIV

INDEX

Coloured Area depicts Worst affected state in INDIA

Head Office:

Contact

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feedback@sesindia.org (plz write “ECHO SES “ as subject)

Blue Thread Media Communicationbluethreadmedia@gmail.com

Dr.B.C.Srivastava

Sandeep Srivastava

Dharmendra Kumar

K.K.Upadhayay

Rakesh Pandey

Team

S E

SECHO Road accidents in india: Another Disaster?

AIDS – The Global Disaster

.

“First ever Global Status Report on Road safety”

“We could now be facing a perfect storm of challenges, including Climate Change and increasingly severe droughts and floods, soaring food prices and the tightest supplies in recent history, declining levels of food aid, and HIV, which also aggravates food insecurity”

by WHO has revealed in its that more people died in road accidents in india. The statistics for India are horrifying. At least 13 people die every hour in road accidents in the country, the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureaureveals. In 2007, 1.14 Lakh people in India lost their lives in road mishaps which is higher than the 2006 road death .Road deaths in India registered a sharp 6.1% rise between 2006 and 2007. However, road safety experts say the real numbers could be higher since many of these accident cases are not even reported. A brief analysis of the NCRB report points to Andhra Pradesh having the highest share of deaths due to road accidents (12%) followed by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh(11 % Each)

- Josette Sheeran, WFP director Climate change (CC) & AIDS are two most significant global issues. They share similarities, in-teractions, and present possibilities for a more combined response. Affect of CC increase food insecurity, poverty and also reduce available health services -cause migration. These events step up to AIDS. Though, technology helped to improve crop varieties and irrigation systems, weather and cli-mate are still key factors in agricultural productivity. Frequency of drought and storm increased and rising far faster than the number of geological disasters such as earthquakes. The average number of natural disasters 400–500 a year, up from an average of 125 in the early 1980s. In India, weak monsoon always cause shortfalls in crop production we know for individual, nutri-tion is critical for good immune function, to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV if viral exposure does occur, and to slow the progression of HIV to AIDS and of AIDS to death. There is an im-portant interaction between HIV and other disease. Rising temperature activate TB(tuberculosis bacteria) bacteria. More cases of active TB are likely to mean more transmission of this bacillus, to populations with and without HIV. This is also of relevance because of the increasingly high rate of multi-drug resistant TB, including among populations where HIV is common (in India, 2 personsevery three minute dies of TB, nearly 1,000 every day of TB, ). Increase TB willexert an additional economicand public health burden. You can imagine lethalcombination of poor infrastructure of health ,TB and AIDS can make lifeworse in inThese Disasters led a failureof seasons and helpless, dispirited unemployed labour

S E

SECHO

farmer”. This lifelong dedication to taking scientific innovations to farmers set Borlaug apart from most farm scientists. Let us emulate his example.

According to Industry chamber FICCI, Recent flood in state of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh could lower India's GDP to below six per cent. Below normal rains to the extent of 20 per cent this year, the worst in 37 years, has led to drought in 44 per cent of India's 626 districts, with overall kharif output expected to drop by 15 per cent. This may translate into a lower GDP at 5.2-5.8 per cent versus 6.4 per cent and agricultural GDP at –2 per cent to – 4 per cent. Moreover, given the shortage of water levels in the reservoirs, rabi output is also likely to be affected by about 0-5 per cent in agricultural Besides loss of about six million hectares in paddy sowing in the rainfed States, the recent floods in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have destroyed thousands of hectares. FICCI has called for initiating a long-term strategy that ensures total food security by bringing more area under irrigation, advanced forecasting systems, agriculture R&D, and steps to speed up farm mechanization. FICCI has suggested several long -term strategies to make agriculture monsoon-proof; bringing in

(Published in Times of India on 02/10/2009. This article is written by MS Swaminathan. He is Indian agriculture scientist and the founder and Chairman of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation.]

Calamities affecting indian economy

The curious case of Basheer AhmedIn Movie “Cast Away”, a FedEx employee Chuck Noland who is stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes on a flight over the South Pacific Sea. The film depicts his attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his eventual escape and return to society. Life of Basheer Ahmed is nonetheless like Noland. Age 68 years, Basheer Ahmed Lives in Harkoli Village of District Siddharthnagar (U.P.). From Last Six Decades, He was struggling for his basic needs. Every year, the fury of River Burhi Rapti jolts his dream to live. Though, Not Stranded like Noland on a barren island but fulfilling needs of their seven family members' looks herculean task for Basheer. In country of cultural diversity where indicator of economy lies in urban India and electoral system depends on rural area, 3 bigha land is not sufficient for Basheer. Every year, His family has to leave his home and make a temporary home on roads.In this region, usually two major crop cycles are grown - Wheat (Rabi) & Paddy (Kharif). Bashir grows Rabi crop in November and harvest during the end of April while Kharif crop starts after two months gaps from July and harvested till the middle of November. Due to good soil in this area and good rainfall paddy is very ambitious for farmers like Basheer. The best time for harvesting is between 15th August to 15th September. Every year, before growing a crop, Basheer has a hope but a fear too. Fear of Flood, Fear of losing crops and fear of not having two time meals. Only source of income was crop of Rabi and working as labourer. Earlier, His input was Rs. 1500 and get output of Rs. 5000 from wheat. Shohratgarh Environmental

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morearea under irrigation: bringing more farming under irrigated conditions is the only long-term solution that can result in monsoon proofing. Since inter-linking of rivers in its entirety i.e. linking Ganga to Cauvery would require a fairly large amount of money and time, it would, therefore, be prudent to develop small sections on the long river linking system, the FICCI argued.

Mumbai terror attacks acted as a catalyst for the establishment of the National Investigation Agency (NIA). After the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 came into force this federal agency was set up on January 01, 2009. Radha Vinod Raju, Special Director General of Police in Jammu and Kashmir, is appointed as Director General of the newly established NIA. The NIA will have concurrent jurisdiction (both federal and state government having jurisdiction) which empowers the Central Government to probe terror attacks in any part of the country, covering offences including challenge to country's sovereignty and integrity, bomb blasts, hijacking of aircraft and ships and attacks on nuclear installations. The agency will probe such incidents which are found to have complex inter-state and international linkages and possible connection with other activities like smuggling of arms and drugs, pushing in and circulation of fake Indian currency and infiltration across the borders.

[Source: New Indian Express]

National Investigation Agency (NIA)

Society, a Leading NGO in this area helped Basheer to improve his standard of Life. They appease Basheer to try NDR-97 (A variety of paddy from acharay Narendra Dev agriculture University, faizabad) . NDR is short duration (90-100 days) crop. SES has support him with technical input like time line from sowing to harvesting, irrigation & quantity & use of fertilizer. It is called early paddy. Its nursery developed between 1st to 15th may. Due to appropriate condition, crop is harvested before advent of flood. With showing early paddy in one bigha, he has to invest Rs. 1500 & earn profit of Rs. 4500.Thus, his income from early paddy crop was Rs.13500 from three bigha. Now, Basheer become intelligent and he asked what we can grow after field is being vacant after 15th august. SES advised him to start sowing cash crop. During those two vacant months, he sowed mustard with investment of Rs. 300, Income was Rs. 2200/bigha. He also started practicising potato, tomato, brinjal & sugar cane. Thus early paddy income & other cash crops boost up his income without affecting wheat sowing schedule.

The best thing about Basheer is his curiosity to learn. SES gave him hope to old shoulder of Basheer. In his own words “It has become our way of life and I thought I will pass my whole life in the same way, there was no hope or method to combat inundation.” He is now active member of Grain bank. This grain banks supports during emergency as well as lean period of poor and other deprived people. He is also a member of AAS (AAJIVIKA ADHIKAR SAMITI- Livelihood Right Committee), an initiative of SES. AAS comprises of different CBOs which do advocacy at different level and enthusiastic Basheer not only play important role for his fellow farmers and neighborhood villages but also show them way .The difference between reel character Noland and Basheer is – Noland returns after 4 years to society but Basheer took sixty years to return to the society where he lives - A society where he has his say, where his next generation can have a good life.

According to Reinsurance company 'Munich Re' , cost associated with natural disaster has gone up 14 folds since 1950. From 1991 to 2000, average of 211 million people were killed or affected by natural disaster – 7 times to those who killed or

affected by conflict.Source: World Disaster Report 2001

Floods* recur every year during the monsoon season in India. On an average every year, 1,588 lives are lost, 7.5 million hectares of land is affected, and the damage caused to crops, houses and public utilities is 18 billion Indian Rupees (Rs.) due

to the floods. Between 1953 to 2005, a total of 84,207 lives were lost due to the floods in India, with maximum of 11,316 in 1977, and a minimum of 37 in 1953. he only other year that had less than 100 deaths was 1965.

frequency of drought, flood, unseasonal rains and high temperature will increase. This year, Assam, which normally only faces floods, was almost the first state to declare drought. Global warming will make the Indian monsoon more variable and less predictable. We must do everything possible to strengthen the Indian meteorological department and climate change research. Another urgent need is a programme that involves setting up mini agro-met stations in each block with basic instruments to measure temperature, rainfall, wind speed and relative humidity. We should train one woman and one male member of every panchayat as climate risk managers. Well versed in data collection and interpretation, they can assist farmers to take timely location-specific decisions. We should aim to train half a million climate risk managers over the next three years. Proactive steps are needed to strengthen our coping capacity to meet the impact of drought, flood and sea level rise in coastal areas. We should prepare to deal with monsoon failure and acute water and energy shortage by building weather-resilient water, food and livelihood security systems. Drought, flood and good weather codes based on interdisciplinary analysis will be needed. The drought code can indicate how adverse impact can be minimized through crop life saving techniques, water conservation and efficient use. The flood code should indicate steps to revive farm and other livelihood activities when flood recedes. A good weather code would indicate methods of maximizing the benefits of a good monsoon, to build up substantial grain reserves. We must meet the challenge of ensuring food and water security for not only 1.2 billion human beings, but also over 500 million cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry etc. Usually, farmers sell their cattle at a low price during severe drought. During 1979's drought, I had proposed ground water sanctuaries, which can be opened up when essential to run cattle camps and raise fodder and food crops. All programes should factor in that women suffer most because of their role in collecting water, fodder and fuel wood and in taking care of farm animalAs essential is to promote community food and water security systems involving establishment of local level gene, seed, and grain and water banks by rural and tribal families. These can be operated by local self-help groups overseen by the gram sabha. This way, we can link conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce as an integrated chain. Whenever monsoon behavior is likely to be irregular, it is essential to designate in every agro-climatic region areas that are 'most seriously affected' (MSA) and areas with adequate soil moisture to raise a crop, that is 'most favorable areas' (MFA) from the point of view of agriculture. In MSA areas, immediate relief will have to be provided and steps taken to revive agricultural operations as soon as there is adequate rainfall. Contingency plans and alternative cropping supported by seed banks will be necessary. Like grain reserves for food security, seed reserves are essential for crop security. In MFA areas, steps should be taken to promote additional production through programs like free supply of fertilizers. We have been fortunate this year to have over 50 million tonnes of rice and wheat in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India and other government agencies. But we still do not have modern grain storage facilities to the necessary extent even in the Green Revolution heartland that feeds our public distribution system. This neglect of post-harvest technology and safe grain storage is inexcusable. I have been pleading for at least 50 ultramodern grain storage structures at 50 different locations, each capable of storing a million tonnes of food grain. A national grid of grain storage structures will help prevent both panic purchase and distress sales. I hope 2009's wake-up call helps destroy complacency and indifference among policymakers. Our population is growing; per capita availability of arable land and irrigation water is shrinking. The frequent suggestion for food imports ignores the fact that agriculture is not just a food-producing machine but is the backbone of the livelihood security system for over 60 per cent of our population. Importing food under such circumstances will have the same effect as importing unemployment and misery for farm women and men.Recall the Nobel committee's words while presenting the 1970 peace prize to Norman Borlaug: “He has helped provide bread for a hungry world. We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace”. The secret of Borlaug's success was reflected in his last words on the night of September 12, 2009. Earlier, a scientist had shown him a nitrogen tracer developed for measuring soil fertility. His last words were: “Take the tracer to the

“weather information for all”

Community-based disaster management, including integration of the policy, plans and execution at the grass root level.Capacity development in all related areas.Consolidation of past initiatives and best practices.Cooperation with agencies at national, regional and international levels.Compliance and coordination to generate a multi-sectoral synergy.

The objectives guiding the policy formulation have evolved to include: Promoting a culture of prevention and preparedness – by centre-staging disaster management (DM) as an overriding priority at all levels and at all times.Encouraging mitigation measures based on state-of-the-art technology and environmental sustainability. Mainstreaming DM concerns into the development planning process.Putting in place a streamlined institutional techno-legal framework in order to create and preserve the integrity of an enabling regulatory environment and a compliance regime.Developing contemporary forecasting and early warning systems backed by responsive and fail-safe communications and Information Technology (IT) support.Promoting a productive partnership with the Media, NGOs and the Corporate Sector in the areas of awareness generation and capacity development.Ensuring efficient response and relief with a caring humane approach towards the vulnerable sections of the society.Making reconstruction an opportunity to build back better and construct disaster-resilient structures and habitats (NDMA 2009).

In the academic year 2003-2004, India took a pioneering step of starting disaster management education as part of social sciences in class VIII by CBSE. In the subsequent academic year 2004-2005 disaster management, was added to class IX. In the following academic years disaster management was progressively added to classes XI and XII .India has shown the path to the world for starting disaster management education from middle and high school. This generation of middle and high school students will make probably near revolution in community based disaster management, which is the only proven method of disaster management; and it is hoped that India would be world leader in disaster management. Here is paradigm shift in India from reactive approach of responding and calamity relief after the disaster to proactive approach of disaster prevention, preparedness, and mitigation.

Gujarat Earthquake killed thousands of people and rain in 2005 made large number of people stranded on roads and many of them lost their homes. Though disaster is mankind's constant companion but increasing frequency & regularity of disaster have made it serious concern. Indian cities have burgeoned but urban planning has not kept pace with development. Flawed land planning and poor quality of building standard, absence of inadequate enforcement system, non-existence of seismic engineering, lack of Co-ordination of inter agency, not a unified vision, inadequate map & spatial database are some reasons behind unfortunate incidents. Prejudice against disaster is- prevention of disaster would cost much more than relief activities. However, the reality is totally reverse. Different stakeholders have been spending a lot of resources for response activities after disasters; it could have been drastically reduced if some had been spent for disaster prevention. Relief activities cannot brought back people who died or building destroyed..Emphasis should be on making cities sustainable through pro-active planning and management mechanisms: Sustainable development would ensure that the rainwater that causes water logging relieves the water scarcity problems by rainwater harvesting. The focus should be on a interaction between the state and other stakeholders including the most sufferers. Development should help prevent disasters; development should not become a disaster itself.

The 2009 drought is a wake-up call about the uncertainty of monsoon behavior in the emerging era of climate change. It brought home the point that weather prediction will be increasingly difficult. Our climate management strategy must be based on the premise that the

Inculcating Disaster in education

An 0pen invitation to Disaster

Wake up call!!