Johannesburg: Two Indian-origin brothers and founding members of a renowned organisation that offers community services in the sprawling Indian township of Lenasia in South Africa have succumbed to coronavirus.

Abbas Sayed and Osman Sayed, the Chairman and President of the Saaberie Chishty Society, died on Friday and Saturday respectively and were buried side-by-side, as condolences continued to pour in from all over the world, including India, where the idea of the humanitarian work was sparked by a visit to Ajmer when Abbas was a teenager.

After their return from Ajmer, a small religious commemoration at their home in Lenasia soon transformed into a variety of charity and welfare projects for all communities in the apartheid era.

The brothers were among the six siblings who continued and expanded the work of the society started by their father, uncles and aunts to include feeding schemes, building mosques and madrassahs, and a free ambulance service when there were no such facilities from government in Lenasia where they lived.

“Like their forefathers, they worked tirelessly throughout their lives to serve the community with dedication. Tears flow as we remember their smiles and our insightful conversations with them,” said a message from religious leaders from Lucknow.

“They were men of dignity, honesty, truthfulness and simplicity,” said another message from Panipat in Haryana, where in 2009 the organisation helped restore an ancient mosque 30 years after it had been closed down by raising funds in South Africa.

The novel coronavirus that first surfaced in China’s Wuhan city in December last year has claimed 7,257 lives and infected 459,761 people in South Africa.

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) & National Election Watch (NEW) have analyzed affidavits of 51,143 male and female candidates including 4865 MPs/MLAs across the country. Out of total 51,143 candidates analyzed from across the country, only 4,173 (8%) are women.

Analysis of Women Candidates

·       Among these 4,173 women candidates 546 (13%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

·       Out of the 4,173 women candidates analyzed, 1060 (25%) are crorepatis.

·       In the last three Lok Sabha Elections, the number of candidates has been increased remarkably from 2004 to 2014 whereas the increase in the number of women candidates remained nominal.

·        Among the State Assemblies, none of the states had more than 10 % of women candidates in the elections. States such as Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, and Chhattisgarh had the highest percentage of women candidates contested in their respective assembly elections.

Analysis of Sitting Women MPs/MLAs

·       Out of total 4865 MPs/MLAs analysed from across the country, only 440 (9%) are women.

·       Among these 94 (21%) MPs/MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves.

·       Out of the 440 MPs/MLAs analysed, 310 (70%) are crorepatis.

·       Among MPs, Lok Sabha has 66 (12%) out of 542 analysed and Rajya Sabha has 25(11%) out of 228 MPs analysed are women.

·        Among the State Assemblies, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal have the highest percentage of women MLAs.

MPs/ MLAs with Cases Related Crime against Women

• Out of 1642(34%) MPs/ MLAs analysed with declared criminal cases, 52 have declared cases related to crimes against women.
• Among these 52 MPs/MLAs with declared cases related to Crimes against women, 45 are MLAs and 3 are MPs.
• 480 candidates analysed who had declared cases related to crimes against women, were given tickets by recognized political parties.
• 125 independent candidates analysed with declared cases related to crimes against women had contested for Lok/Rajya and state assemblies elections in the last 5 years.
• Among these candidates, 58 candidates were given tickets by parties for Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha elections. Various recognized parties have given tickets to 422 candidates with cases related to crimes against women for state assemblies’ elections.
• In the last 5 years, 18 independent candidates with declared cases related to crimes against women contested in the Lok Sabha/ Rajya Elections. Similarly, 107 independent candidates with declared cases related to crimes against women contested in the state assemblies’ elections.
• Among the states, Maharashtra has the highest number of MPs/ MLAs i.e. 11, followed by West Bengal with 10, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh each with 5 MPs/MLAs who have declared cases related crimes against women.
• Among the states in the last 5 years, Maharashtra has the highest number of candidates i.e. 65, followed by Bihar with 63 and West Bengal with 52 candidates who were given tickets by political parties even though they have declared cases related to crimes against women in their affidavits.
• Among various recognized parties, BJP has the highest number of MPs/ MLAs i.e. 12, followed by INC with 7 and SHS (Shiv Sena) with 6 MPs/MLAs who have declared cases related crimes against women.
• Among the major parties in the last 5 years, 54 candidates with declared cases related to crimes against women were given tickets by BJP. The second highest number of candidates, i.e. 37 who had declared cases related to crimes against women were given tickets by BSP, followed by 30 candidates from INC who had declared cases related to crimes against women who had contested for Lok/Rajya Sabha and State Assemblies Elections in last 5 years.
•  In the last 5 years, recognized parties have given tickets to 44 candidates who had declared cases related to rape.
•  In the last 5 years, 14 independent candidates with declared cases related to rape have contested for Lok/Rajya Sabha and State assemblies’ elections.

Nasheman News :  Premlata Agrawal, the first Indian woman to conquer all the seven highest peaks across the globe, was just a housewife until the spirit of adventure overtook her.

A mother of two, one of whom is married, she was also the oldest Indian woman mountaineer to scale Mount Everest at the age of 48. In 2018, her record was broken by Sangeeta Sindhi Bahl when she scaled the peak aged 53.

The 56-year-old Agrawal was awarded the Padma Shri in 2013 and Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in 2017 for her achievements in mountaineering. 

Her name also found a place in the Limca Book of Records after she participated in the Thar Desert Expedition which involved a rigorous 40-day camel trek covering 2,000 km.

Talking about how it all started, the Darjeeling-born mountaineer said one day while taking her younger daughter to the JRD Tata Sports Complex, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, she came across a poster about a trek being organised by the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation. This is when the daredevil in her awoke. She participated and stood third among over 500 competitors. 

And then she came in contact with Bachendri Pal, the pioneering Indian mountaineer, who motivated her to keep her dream alive.

She was 37 then, and moving further ahead involved physical and psychological challenges. But she chose the road less travelled and that made all the difference. 

For her, the most difficult challenges were language barriers, a persistent pain from an old ankle deformity and food preferences.

“The will to persevere kept me going,” Agrawal, who climbed the Everest in 2011, told media in an email interview.

But her journey didn’t just stop at Everest as she went on to climb the highest peaks of the seven continents.

When asked what gave her the strength to go on? She said: “While climbing, my mind is not on what challenges will crop up. I’m focused on accomplishing the mission I have set out for myself.”

What egged her on in overcoming the toughest of obstacles was the fire within — “the will to excel”.

Sharing her most difficult moment, she said: “While I was descending the Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, I had to pass through a rainforest. I had been walking for six days, was thoroughly exhausted. Suddenly, a huge rock fell on my leg. The medical kit proved to be inadequate, so I kept on dragging myself for another six days till I reached the base camp. This was an acid test of my strength.

She loves to spend time with her family and makes it a point to execute her other passion – culinary art. 

“One cannot achieve these highs without the support of family. I was lucky to have such an appreciative family where my husband and in-laws prompted me to explore my interests. My daughters are really proud of me.”

In all the cacophony of election polarisation, here is an event firmly grounded in grassroots participatory electoral democracy.
When first time voters come to booth, half of them women, they see a ballot full of male names. How convincing is it for them to vote a representative?

This Women’s Day, instead of Whatsapp forwards, pink posters, fashion shows &  flowers, Shakti has planned a meaningful & positive public event for women & men across India. 
First time voters, women farmers, IT professionals & lawyers, grassroots workers will all gather across 8 states, 7 cities & 17 districts in India to ask the Election Commission to conduct fair elections with balanced representation for women in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Political parties have been meeting away with giving just 8% MP tickets to women and it is the EC’s job to regulate their behaviour as per democratic & constitutional adherence. 

Date: March 7th Thursday evening across 8 states, 7 cities & 17 districts in India!Theme:  Dear Election Commission:  How are elections fair without women on the ballot? EC must pressure political parties for 50% Lok Sabha tickets to women.

Ahmedabad: 5-7 PM, AUDA Garden, Science CityBengaluru: 4-7 PM, Freedom Park Chennai: 4-6 PM, ValluvarkottamChittoor: 3-5 PM, Gandhi CircleHyderabad: 4-6 PM, Dharna ChowkMaharashtra: 19 districts (with Mahila Rajsatta Andolan)New Delhi: 3-6 PM, Jantar MantarThiruvananthapuram: 4-7 PM Palayam, Raktasakshi Mantapam

As a grassroots citizen’s collective, media support is crucial for Shakti to make a difference to Indian politics.  I am writing this to enlist your support for the Mar 7th event.
Please do join & cover the event on Thursday Mar 7th evening across India. Thank you!
Shakti – Political Power To Women, is a non partisan and inclusive citizen’s movement for increasing the political representation of women.

By: Husna Rizwan

Most initiatives around women’s economic empowerment are largely myopic in their approach. Failure to recognise role of men & masculinities in this context can pose a significant barrier to both women & men’s economic well-being.

Global commitment to women’s economic empowerment (WEE) has never been stronger. In past decade or so, WEE has become a popular development buzzword & has mobilised discourse, funding & programming on gender equality & women’s rights.

Everyone is on board, international agencies, Governments, multinational corporations, foundations, nonprofits & so on.

Following publication of 2012 World Development Report goal of WEE has been famously branded as “smart economics”, better not just for women themselves, but for economic growth & development at large.

However, one critical set of stakeholders is largely absent in buzz around WEE: men. According to a 2015 report by McKinsey Global Institute, bridging gender gap in workplace could lead to an addition of 60% in annual GDP for India by 2025. Programming on WEE has also flourished across varied sectors, with key linkages in fields of education, health, violence, conflict & so on. However, 1 critical set of stakeholders is largely absent in buzz around WEE: men.

Most initiatives in India that involve men are located primarily in realms of violence against women & sexual & reproductive health. In India, several platforms & programmes have emerged to foster men’s engagement, & evidence is promising. However, mirroring global trends, most initiatives in India that involve men are located primarily in realms of violence against women & sexual & reproductive health.

WEE initiatives are largely myopic in their approach, & often fall short of situating women’s poor economic status within context of their unequal power relations with men.

The widespread, glaring absence of men within WEE discourse & programming is best reflected in popular interventions such as microcredit & conditional cash transfers (CCT). These interventions tend to focus solely on women, without meaningful engagement with male relatives to challenge their norms, behaviour & attitudes.

It is impossible to achieve real empowerment for women without first involving men as supportive allies. WEE approaches that target only women can lead to emergence of tensions & hostilities between men & women.

Poor & marginalised men, in particular, are already struggling to maintain their breadwinner status within their families & may perceive WEE interventions as a direct threat to their positions within status quo.

Studies have demonstrated that many women engaged in economic activities are at heightened risk of experiencing violence.Studies from around the world, including India, demonstrated that many women engaged in paid work, vocational training & other economic activities are at heightened risk of experiencing domestic & other types of Violence. These studies further underscore importance of integrating men into WEE initiatives & challenging norms around masculinity for both men & women’s wellbeing.

Men’s exclusion from WEE initiatives also has very real consequences on women’s workload. WEE initiatives often treat women as a  “One-Stop” &  “cushion” for economic struggles & further reinforce gendered division of labour rather than challenge it. There is a growing body of literature suggesting that CCT interventions that target only women have serious ramifications on their time poverty & overall well-being.

Equally important is WEE programming on women’s unpaid care work, which is gradually engaging men in important conversations surrounding value of care, the distribution of household work & men’s own roles as husbands & fathers.

The 2017 state of world’s father brings these issues to forefront & highlights evidence that parent training initiatives for men can reduce violence, increase fathers’ involvement in childcare & expand overall gender equality in participating families. This is particularly important for WEE as women’s numerous domestic responsibilities can often constrain their options for productive work, as well as leisure & participation in civic & political life.

The 2014 ILO-WED issue brief on engaging men in WEE interventions draws upon existing literature & intervention evaluations to highlight importance of working across these varied levels.

WEE interventions can invite men to participate in trainings & capacity-building activities targeting women, as well as engage male household members specifically to challenge gender inequitable norms & practices.

Any project that promotes gender equality requires men to yield relative privileges that they possess. For example, India lacks national-level laws on paternity leave & benefits & men are largely absent from policies on reproductive & child health.  Interventions that encourage men to spend more time on childcare & engage with their children will continue to be held back unless gaps in national laws & policies are addressed.

Given their control over social, political & economic resources, men are gatekeepers for gender equality & are a necessary part of any strategy to advance women’s empowerment.

Engaging with men across multiple ecological levels is essential for advancing WEE. This is not an easy task, for any project that promotes gender equality requires men to yield relative privileges that they possess & build more equitable relationships with women & other men.

Engaging with men, or ‘men-streaming’, can thus reduce hostilities between men & women & foster their positive involvement & contribution towards WEE & larger goal of gender equality.

In India, the MenEngage associated Forum to Engage Men (FEM) is actively involved in advocacy, policy debates, program development & activism in this area. ICRW has also spearheaded several programs that engage men & boys, including Parivartan, Yaari-Dosti, Gems & Pankh.

By: Husna Rizwan

Women are not born, but made. What better than India to exemplify this statement by Simone De Beauvoir. With the whole world celebrating International Women’s Day with great pomp & show, it would be only apt to analyse the position & the space Indian women occupy today, and comparing it to the time 6 decades ago when the country had just gained independence. With women participating in nationalist movements, to being pushed into the domestic household space, to their resurgence as super women today, women in our country have seen it all.

There have been innumerable debates about gender in India over the years. Much of it includes women’s positing in society, their education, health, economic position, gender equality etc. What one can conclude from such discussions is that women have always held a certain paradoxical position in our developing country.

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While on one hand, India has seen an increased percentage of literacy among women, and women are now entering professional fields, the practices of female infanticide, poor health conditions & lack of education still persisting! Even the patriarchal ideology of home being a woman’s ‘real domain’ & marriage being her ultimate destiny hasn’t changed much. The matrimonial advertisements, demanding girls of the same caste, with fair skin & slim figure, or the much criticised fair & lovely ads, are indicators of slow changing social mores. If one looks at the status of women then & now, one has to look at 2 sides of the same coin; one side which is promising & one side which is bleak.

When our country got its independence, the participation of women nationalists was widely acknowledged. When Indian Constitution was formulated, it granted equal rights to women, considering them legal citizens of the country & as an equal to men in terms of freedom & opportunity. The sex ratio of women at this time was slightly better than what it is today, standing at 945 females per 1000 males. Yet the condition of women screamed a different reality.

They were relegated to household chores & made to submit to male-dominated patriarchal society, as has always been prevalent in our country. Indian women, who fought as equals with men in nationalist struggle, were not given that free public space anymore. They became homemakers & were mainly meant to build a strong home to support their men who were to build the newly independent country. Women were reduced to being 2^nd class citizens. The national female literacy rate was alarmingly low (8.6%). The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for girls was 24.8% at primary level & 4.6% at upper primary level (in the 11-14 years age group). There existed insoluble social & cultural barriers to education of women & access to organised schooling.

A very few were allowed into the public space, which she was expected to manage on her own, while maintaining her domestic role as a homemaker. In spite of Sharda Act which was passed in 1950’s to raise the marital age limit for girls, child marriage particularly in North India was quite prevalent though average age at marriage for females was increased to 18. Sprawling inequalities persisted in their access to education, health care, physical & financial resources & opportunities in political, social & cultural spheres. It was almost unthinkable for women to have a choice or a say in matters of marriage, career or life. Rather she had no voice at all. The practice of dowry was as common as ever.

And since men were better educated than girls, their demands were even more. The Dowry Prohibition Act was finally passed in 1961, to protect women & promising severe punishment, but the conviction rate of crime against women was & still is very low in India. Because of such inhuman practices which were normalised by our society, the birth of the girl child was considered inauspicious. In villages as well as cities, the girl child was killed either before birth or after it. Even till date, the practice continues. The United Nations Children’s Fund, estimated that up to 50 million girls &  women are “missing” from India’s population because of termination of the female foetus or high mortality of  girl child due to lack of proper care.

Though a number of constitutional amendments were made for women’s social, economic & political benefits, yet they were never effective to bring in a radical change in situation. Women had only the role of a “good wife” to play & if a woman ventured out to work, she was seen as a bad woman, going against societal norms. Women were expected to cook food & eat only after the men, with whatever meagre amount of food is left. This led to rampant malnutrition among women & an extremely poor health status. Around 500 women were reported to die every day due to pregnancy related problems due to malnutrition & getting married before 18. It was only by 1960’s that a few educated women began to see themselves increasingly change from a mere guardian of home to a legitimate participant in discourse of life. The country saw the 1^stundercurrent of female discontent with the system.

With time, a lot has changed since those dark ages of 1950’s for women. Though at some levels like dowry, crimes like rape, sexual harassment at office or public places & molestation, eve-teasing, even after over 60 years of independence women are still exploited, which is the shameful side of our country. Yet one can’t deny that the situation has improved since the earlier times. Women, who now represent 48.2% of the population, are getting access to education & then employment. From 5.4 million girls enrolled at the primary level in 1950-1951 to 61.1 million girls in 2004-2005. At the upper primary level, the enrolment increased from 0.5 million girls to 22.7 million girls.

Dropout rates for girls have fallen by 16.5% between the year 2000 & 2005. Programs like “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” & “Saakshar Bharat Mission for Female Literacy” has helped increase literacy rates from less than 10% to more than 50% today. The result of this is that India has world’s largest number of professionally qualified women. In fact India has largest population of working women in the world & has more number of doctors, surgeons, scientists, professors than United States.

Women in India slowly started recognising her true potential. She has started questioning rules laid down for her by society. As a result, she has started breaking barriers & earned a respectable position in the world.

Today Indian women have excelled in each & every field from social work to visiting space station. There is no arena, which remains unconquered by Indian women. Whether it is politics, sports, entertainment, literature, technology everywhere, its women power all along.

Today names like Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai, Kiran Desai, Shobhaa De, Jhumpa Lahiri can put any other writer to shame. In the field of cinema, women like Rekha, Smita Patil, Shabana Aazmi, Vidya Balan &  Konkona Sen are such names who don’t play feminised roles, but have asserted themselves over this male-dominated realm. In the field of Politics, from Indira Gandhi to Shiela Dixit, Uma Bharti, Jayalalithaa, Vasundhra Raje & Mamata Banerjee today, women are making their presence felt.Today, modern woman is so deft & self-sufficient that she can be easily called a superwoman, juggling many fronts single-handedly. Women are now fiercely ambitious and are proving their metal not only on home front, but also in their respective professions. Women in Indian are coming up in all spheres of life. They are joining the universities & colleges in large numbers. They are entering into all kinds of professions like engineering, medicine, politics, teaching, etc. A nation’s progress & prosperity can be judged by the way it treats its women folk. There is a slow & steady awareness regarding giving women their dues & not mistreating them, seeing them as objects of possession. Despite progress, the very fact that women, along with being achievers, are also expected to fulfil their roles as wives or mothers, prioritising home against anything else.

This point of view hasn’t changed much. There is still a large section of women who are uneducated & married off before the age of 18. Families are required to supply a chaste daughter to family of her future husband. Also very few women are actually employed in good-paying jobs & hence parents don’t see the point of spending money on girls’ education. Statistics say that close to 245 million Indian women lack the basic capability to read & write, which is a large number. Only 13.9% women are employed in urban sector & 29% in domestic & agriculture sector, where too a majority of women are exploited by men. The sex ratio of India shows that Indian society is still prejudiced against female, and a lot is yet to be achieved in this context.

The path towards total gender empowerment is full of potholes. Over the years, women have made great strides in many areas with notable progress in reducing some gender gaps. Yet realities such as 11,332 women & girls getting trafficked every year & increased practice of dowry, rape & sexual harassment hit hard against all development that has taken place. Thus, if on one hand women are climbing the ladder of success, on the other hand she is mutely suffering violence afflicted on her by her own family members. As compared to the past, women in modern times have achieved a lot but in reality they have to still travel a long way. Women may have left secured domains of their home, but a harsh, cruel, exploitative world awaits them, where women have to prove their talent against the world who see women as merely vassals of producing children. The Indian woman has to make her way through all the socialised prejudices against her, and the men have have to allow & accept the women to be equal participants in the country’s way forward.

Nasheman News : It was raining hard, a time when cabs usually cancel rides blaming the waterlogged roads and jammed traffic.


Radhika Parashar, 25, a professional from the NCR region, took the plunge and booked an ‘uberMOTO’ to reach her home in Sector 77 in Noida.

The rider reached the pick-up point faster than cabs usually do, with a spare helmet and dropped her safe at her destination much earlier than a cab would have. 

Parashar is not the only woman hailing bike-taxi services. It is increasingly seen as the new easier to book, fastest, safest yet affordable mode of transport by women in the metros.

“In Delhi-NCR, where people are so skeptical about booking cab services because of several infamous incidents, two-wheeler ride services like uberMOTO works quite well in emergency situations where there is very less time margin to make it to somewhere,” Parashar told media.

“Since my first experience was satisfactory, I have been regularly using uberMOTO to reach in hurried situations.”

Launched in 2016, Uber’s bike-sharing initiative uberMOTO expands access to public transport as well as saves time. The most important advantage being its affordability. It gives riders affordable ride through the Uber app, with fares starting as low as Rs 12.

“Uber’s goal is to provide safe, affordable, reliable transportation at the push of a button, everywhere for everyone,” an Uber spokesperson told IANS.

“With uberMOTO, we bring a product that resonates with the people and provides another easy and affordable option for short trips around the town while creating tens of thousands of flexible entrepreneurial opportunities,”the spokesperson added.

Within a year of the launch, the ridesharing app also marked the completion of 2 million trips on uberMOTO in 5 cities — Bengaluru, Gurugram, Faridabad, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. 

It is currently available to riders in 11 cities in India — Gurugram, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mohali, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Kanpur.

The company has plans to expand to other cities of the country in 2019.

uberMOTO also includes standard safety features like live GPS tracking, two-way feedback and the ability to share trip details with family and friends. 

“In addition, friends, riders and drivers are required to wear helmets on every uberMOTO ride, making it possible to focus on safety for riders and drivers before, during and after every trip in ways that have never been possible before,” Uber said.

“By providing helmets to riders we are helping to positively impact India’s helmet wearing rate, not only for drivers but also for riders.”

According to Uber, it is especially well suited for first mile or last mile connectivity, getting people from their homes or offices to metro stations and vice-versa. 

“With motorcycles being commonplace in major cities across India, there is a massive opportunity going forward, to unlock the potential of shared mobility through optimal utilisation of existing vehicles on the road and creating new options for last-mile connectivity,” Uber said.

Besides Uber, Ola’s bike service, named as “Ola Bikes”, has also received tremendous response among women riders in Delhi-NCR, Gurugram and Faridabad.

“We were the first to start this bike service in the country. Today, Ola Bike is known for being cost efficient, safe and providing the last-mile connectivity. Among the working women, we have been a preferred choice,” an Ola spokesperson told media.

“We always ensure the pillion and the driver both wear helmet, the bike driver follows road rules and behaves well with the customers,” the spokesperson added.

Ola bike service is present in 31 cities in India. 

Nasheman News : Poonam Khetrapal Singh has been appointed Regional Director for World Health Organization South-East Asia, for a second five-year term.

The WHO Executive Board on Saturday unanimously endorsed Dr Khetrapal Singh, who was earlier also unanimously nominated by 11 Member countries of the Region for another five years.

Congratulating her, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “The first woman to become Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region, you have provided dynamic leadership in a region that accounts for a quarter of the world’s population but a disproportionate burden of diseases. Under your leadership, the region has made remarkable progress.”

In her acceptance speech, Khetrapal Singh said: “It is a privilege to once again be appointed as Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region. The confidence you have reposed in me is humbling.”

Outlining her vision for the second term that begins on February 1, Khetrapal Singh said sustaining the gains, accelerating progress to finish the unfinished agenda and innovating, would be the approach to ensure the health and well being of the 1.8 billion people across the region.

In her first term, Khetrapal Singh focused on building an increasingly responsive and accountable WHO in the region, while prioritising persisting and emerging epidemiological and demographic challenges; promoting universal health coverage and building robust health systems; strengthening emergency risk management and articulating a strong regional voice in global health agenda. 

She identified eight flagship priority programmes, focusing on results and accountability, which are cascading into sustainable and result-oriented efforts.

In the last five years, inclusive, sustainable and quantifiable gains have been made in the Region and are accelerating in pace every year, she said.

Certified polio-free in 2014, WHO South-East Asia became the second WHO Region to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus in 2015. Four countries eliminated measles and six controlled rubella. Maternal and under-five deaths reduced significantly.

Thailand became the first in Asia-Pacific and the first with a large HIV epidemic — to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. 

Maldives and Sri Lanka were certified malaria free. Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand eliminated lymphatic filariasis, India was declared yaws-free and Nepal trachoma-free.

For universal health coverage, access to safe, high-quality medicine is being enhanced through the South-East Asia Regulatory Network established in 2016. 

The countries have developed multi-sectoral action plans for a whole-of-society approach to reverse non-communicable diseases.

Prone to natural disasters, the region’s investment in strengthening emergency risk management is evident from the responses to the Nepal earthquake, the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, cyclones, floods and earthquakes.

There is a strong political commitment to end TB by 2030. Despite progress, we have challenges; some permanent, some programmatic, some epidemiological and some transient, said Khetrapal Singh.

Detailing her vision for her next term in her acceptance speech at the Executive Board, Khetrapal Singh said: “We must sustain the gains we made. It means ensuring we hold fast to our progress in diseases elimination, which history shows can return with a vengeance if attention falters, and ensuring that there is no room for complacency.”

“We must accelerate sustainable progress,” she said. Her eight regional flagship priority programmes are aligned to WHO’s global goals and health targets for Sustainable Development Goal 3.

“We must innovate,” Khetrapal Singh said, adding innovation means taking advantage of the existing opportunities, being agile in applying research findings and developing new policies to meet the challenges we face.

“Ending TB will be difficult unless we develop and apply rapid diagnostics, which test and diagnose large populations in a short time. Likewise, we cannot hope to eradicate key neglected tropical diseases which largely affect the poor unless we can create and implement policies that address the needs of specific communities in specific areas,” she said.

The Regional Director said there is a robust commitment to leave no one behind. WHO’s ‘triple billion’ targets, the Sustainable Development Goal 3 and the efforts to achieve universal health coverage focus on equitable access and equity.

“I have confidence that together we will sustain our gains, accelerate progress and harness the full power of innovation to advance health and well-being across the WHO South-East Asia Region,” Khetrapal Singh said.

A woman who has been sleeping in the hospital for the last 10 years has given birth to a healthy male child in a coma state. The incident is a surprise and anxiety for doctors and hospital staff. The suspicion that a woman in a coma has been raped has been investigated.

A woman who had reached coma after being sunk in the water 10 years ago was treated at the Hacienda Healthcare Hospital here. No one knew about her pregnancy. Last d. On 29th, she began to suffer from an outbreak, and doctors suddenly alerted her that she was diagnosed with pain. Later surgery was performed and delivered.

The incident has now led to outrage and doubt that someone in the hospital might have raped her. In addition, the hospital is also concerned about the safety of patients. The victim’s lawyer, Tasha Manekar, has sought a DNA examination of all the hospital staff and demanded that the child be a father and the offender.

Nasheman News : Cab services driven by women for female passengers were flagged off at the Kempegowda International Airport here on Monday.

“The women drivers will be fluent in multiple languages, well versed with local areas and trained in self-defence tactics to strengthen the safety and security of women passengers,” the airport said in a statement.

The tech hub’s airport is located in Devanahalli, about 40 km from the city centre.

The women-run taxi service was started by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corp (KSTDC) and the airport operating authority Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL).

The cabs will be equipped with safety features, such as GPRS tracking and an SOS switch in case of any emergency.

“The initiative, which has been started on an experimental basis, will commence with 10 cars and gradually increase based on demand and passenger feedback,” the statement said.

Solo female travellers or group of women can avail the cab services.

The pink cab service will be functional 24 hours and priced at Rs 21.50 per km during the day and Rs 23.50 per km at night.

“The service has been implemented with an objective to provide a safe and secure mode of transport for women travellers from the airport, while also creating opportunities for women drivers to be self-employed,” KSTDC Managing Director Kumar Pushkar said in a statement.

“The initiative is an effort to contribute to the socio-economic development of women from villages around the airport by recruiting women drivers from the vicinity,” BIAL said.