Declining sex ratio a matter of concern: Vice President

Kolkata/ Guwahati October 01, 2011, 0:04 IST

Vice President Hamid Ansari on Friday expressed concern at the declining sex-ratio in the country and said the society was often resorting to “tokenism” to “camouflage” the bitter societal realities. The “only silver lining”, said the Vice President, was being provided by the two North Eastern states of Meghalaya and Mizoram when it came to gender equality.

“It is a matter of concern that the sex ratio in the age group 0-6 years continues to decline since 1961 and stands at 914 in Census 2011. Among our own States, the only silver lining is provided by Mizoram and Meghalaya having child sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 at 971 and 970 respectively,” he said.

Ansari was addressing the 19th convocation of North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), one of the premier educational institutions of North East and is situated in Shillong.

“The principle of gender equality, and of affirmative action to ensure it, is writ large in the Constitution and has been reinforced by the Supreme Court rulings. Societal reality however is not in consonance with it. Socially constructed roles of men and women define a person’s role in society, economy and household. As a result and in order to camouflage reality, we resort to tokenism and often parade exception as the rule,” said Ansari.

Ansari, who made his first visit to Meghalaya on Friday, referring to the World Development Report 2012, released by the World Bank ten days ago, said the report argues that gender equality is a critical determinant of development outcomes and makes for smart economics.

The World Development Report for the first time, said Ansari, calls for limiting gender discrimination in the society.

“Besides calling for action in addressing human capital issues, closing earning and productivity gaps between women and men, and giving women greater voice within households and societies, the report for the first time seeks limiting the perpetuation of gender inequality across generations,” he said.

The Vice President also referred to a recent project by IIM Bangalore based on a large-scale household survey in Karnataka state on women’s access to and ownership of assets which had revealed that apart from some jewellery, women hold little or no assets.

Gender works its debilitating impact over lifetimes and generations, and impedes a person’s access to human capital formation, full range of citizenship functions, economic opportunities, social emancipation and political participation, he added.

Horticulture to raise profile of Meghalaya: Ansari

Shillong, Sept 29 (PTI) Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari today said horticulture is poised to raise the profile of Meghalaya in the world map. On a two-day visit to Shillong, Ansari visited the Horticulture Hub on the outskirts of the city this afternoon after which he had a brief interaction with farmers. "There is an expression in English � Say it with flowers.The expression is not vague. With the initiative of the state government and the enthusiastic response from the farmers, the expression will take concrete shape in Meghalaya," Ansari told the gathering. He said in the years to come, there will be a virtual transformation in the economy where horticulture will become a major economic activity which will benefit the state greatly. "The experiences of the farmers testify that horticulture is a profitable exercise and good for the welfare of the people," he said. However, Ansari said "even as the state government will do what it needs to do, cooperative effort is needed from the people for the initiatives of the government to succeed." "Horticulture is poised to raise the profile of Meghalaya in India and in the world," he said. The Vice President said that the world was shrinking in the face of technologies in communication. "Now, farmers can have access to markets anywhere in the world. It is important to change with times," he added. Governor RS Mooshahary, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and Union Minister of State Vincent Pala also attended the function.

The Crisis in Newspapers, and What to Do About It: From the New York Times to the Western Mail.

by Dr Andy Williams, JOMEC, Cardiff University

The Crisis in US Newspapers

The US newspaper industry is in deep crisis, but the New York Times is ahead of the pack. As a large daily with a fairly affluent national readership it has only seen a 45% drop in advertising revenues since 2006 (McChesney 2010), its print circulation has only fallen by around a quarter since 1993 (Political Calculations 2011), and although there were 200 newsroom jobs cut announced in 2008 and 2009 (Perez Pena 2009), there haven’t been any in 2010 or 2011. I’m being facetious, of course. The Times is in deep trouble: advertisers and readers are leaving in droves and the increasing revenues from its online operations are only a fraction of those it used to make in print.

But at least it actually is still in print. 300 US newspapers went under in 2009, and 150 more disappeared in 2010. Many of these were large metropolitan dailies in big cities (McChesney and Nichols 2010). Those that remain have all scaled back their operations significantly: US newsrooms have shed more than a quarter of their journalists since 2000 (Pew 2011). There are a number of reasons for this. Newspapers have traditionally made their money in two ways: by selling news to us, and selling us to advertisers. Advertisers have left newspapers in droves – overall US ad revenues fell by a quarter between 2008 and 2009 (Houston Santhanam and Rosenthiel 2011). Quite rationally, companies no longer find subsidising the news we read to be a profitable activity, and are migrating to other more lucrative markets (online search engines, social networks, classified ad websites). At the same time, we as readers no longer feel inclined to pay upfront for the news we read. The papers all put it online for free, why would we? There’s also the problem that decades of these staff cuts have left journalism severely diminished in quality and independence. Perhaps the news just isn’t worth what it used to be.

Most analysts leave the diagnosis of the problem at that, blaming inevitable and unavoidable changes in the market since the rise of the internet. But there’s another cause to this crisis, which can be located firmly in commercial management strategies, and the choices we’ve taken as societies about who owns newspapers, and how that ownership should be regulated. Even before the rise of the internet, free content, and new advertising markets, newspaper companies had been steadily cutting staff to maximise profits. Since the 1980s there’s been a trend in developed media markets towards consolidation: ever-fewer and larger companies buying up more and more papers. This was enabled by a string of governments in the US, the UK, and elsewhere caving in to pressure from industry to relax regulation on media ownership. Consolidation leads to problems with editorial independence and freedom of the press (as we’ve seen so clearly this summer with regard to Rupert Murdoch’s influence), but it also encourages these big companies to further cut staff in the name of creating efficiency savings across their media empires, and arguably to prioritise the generation of profits above the production of high quality news; to favour corporate interests over the public interest.

The Crisis in Cardiff Newspapers

I’d like to bring us across the Atlantic, now, from the heady heights of the Big Apple’s Gray Lady to the more modest charms of Cardiff’s very own Western Mail. The crisis in UK newspapers isn’t as intense as it is in the US, but the situation is getting worse, and the same underlying problems persist. We haven’t lost a newspaper in Cardiff, yet, but there are places not too far away that have. Port Talbot was one of at least 60 or so UK towns to lose its local paper between 2008 and 2009 (Greenslade 2009a).

We Cardiffians shouldn’t get complacent, either. The New York Times stats are worrying but those for our own newspapers are often worse. The advertising revenues at news conglomerate Trinity Mirror’s regional division, the parent company of the Western Mail, are down 43% since 2003 (Trinity Mirror Annual Accounts 2000-2010). The number of journalists at Media Wales, owners of the Western Mail and the Echo, WalesOnline, and a shrinking series of weekly local newspapers in South Wales has dropped from almost 700 to around 350 since 1999 – half of the journalists who produced out local and regional papers 10 years ago are now gone, and are very unlikely to be hired back (Media Wales Annual Report and Financial Statements 1999-2009).

People aren’t buying the newspaper either: since 2000 circulation has fallen by more than half, from 55,273 to 26,931 (Trinity Mirror Annual Reports and Accounts 2000-2010, and ABC Circulation Figures 2011). If sales fall in similar numbers over the next 10 years there may not be anyone left reading the Western Mail by 2021. But advertisers pay newspapers for access to readers’ eyeballs, and if we aren’t reading they have no reason to stick around. Commercial advertisers don’t subsidise coverage of Welsh politics, Welsh corruption, Welsh crime, Welsh Rugby, or even the minute details of Catherine Zeta’s summer holidays out of the goodness of their hearts. It seems reasonable to suggest that a crisis point at which it no longer seems profitable to prop up an ailing paper because of a lack of readers may mean the advertising subsidy is withdrawn before then.

And we can’t simply blame inevitable market forces, or the web, for the sorry state of our national newspaper: mismanagement by Trinity Mirror executives in London is also clearly to blame. Much of this period of declining circulation and staff cuts came at a time of extremely high profitability for Media Wales. Between 2002 and 2008 profits were incredibly high: the company consistently posted pre-tax profits of between £15m and £20m, with profit margins between 30% and 38% (Media Wales Annual Report and Financial Statements 1999-2009). Margins like this are, of course, unheard of in most healthy industries; in markets facing such steep decline they’re unheard of. At the same time as it was shedding readers at an unprecedented rate, instead of investing some of its massive profits back into journalism in the newsroom the company was cutting reporters in large numbers instead. This is a clear indication that the company is more concerned with the financial interests of shareholders and (over-paid) corporate executives than the public interest and the strength of the public sphere.

Why this is a Problem? Journalism, the Public Interest, and Democracy

All of this matters, of course, because journalism isn’t only a commercial product, it’s also essential to the health of our democracy. For most of the last century the democratic function of journalism was subsidised by commercial advertising. This subsidy has now been completely withdrawn in some places, and in others is in the process of disappearing. The public interest value of news can broadly be distilled into two main functions: information provision and critical scrutiny.

Ideally news provides us with the kind of accurate, independent, fact-checked, information we need in order to make good decisions. This has a direct practical use to us as well as less obvious, indirect, value. As well as telling us what’s going on, it defines who that “us” actually is. As well as keeping communities informed, the best news binds communities together by highlighting common concerns and facilitating discussion, disagreement, and consensus. At their best local newspapers have been agents of social cohesion as well as providers of information. At a time when levels of political and civic participation are in decline across the board, we desperately need the democratic debating chamber supplied by well-resourced local news.

Journalism also plays an incredibly important monitorial, scrutinising, role in ensuring that our elected politicians remain accountable. According to the critic and web evangelist Clay Shirky small and medium sized cities and towns across the US are sliding into “casual endemic civic corruption” because of the newspaper crisis (Greenslade 2009b). The same may be happening here in those towns and villages no longer served by the commercial local news sector. We don’t know, because in these places there are no journalists left to find out. There are also grave, and well-founded, concerns that many of those local and regional newspapers which are left may be missing such critical “watchdog” stories because so many of them are understaffed by overworked journalists.

The Proposed Solutions to the Crisis, and Why They’re Inadequate

There are a number of solutions to this crisis being suggested at the moment. Firstly, the big news conglomerates are all arguing for less strict regulation of media consolidation: this would no doubt allow the generation of some short-term profits for big media, but it would undoubtedly lead to further job cuts, less media plurality, and weaker journalism. Secondly, there are those that still hope that even though we might lose some newspapers advertisers will eventually migrate to online news. There is little evidence this will happen in sufficient volume. For example, in 2002 Trinity Mirror’s regional printed newspapers made £521.5m in profits; by 2010 they were making £298.8m (Trinity Mirror Annual Reports and Accounts 2000-2010). Steady decline in print revenues have been accompanied by some profit increases online; in 2002 the company’s local news websites were making £3.8m, and last year they made £32.4m. This is impressive growth, but it’s nowhere near enough to provide the resources needed to sustain public interest news on the scale newspapers used to provide. The US Project for Excellence in Journalism declared in 2009, “it is now all but settled that advertising revenue – the model that financed journalism for the last century – will be inadequate to do so in this one” (McChesney and Nichols 2010).

Alternatively, some news executives think that online pay walls will convince the public to stump up where advertisers won’t. This might be a viable model for suppliers of news to elite niche markets (e.g. the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal), but there is very little evidence this it can work elsewhere. A fourth solution is that unpaid citizen journalists will fill the void left by the redundant professionals, either in the form of independent blogs, or in collaboration with smaller commercial media. I am a great supporter and believer in the democratic and democratising potential of citizen journalism, but I’m also extremely sceptical about its ability to replace what we currently understand as journalism. Accurate, fact-checked, sceptical, “fourth estate” news costs in both money and time, and its reporters also need to be supported by strong, independent, journalistic institutions which can stand up to political and corporate pressure when needed. Individual citizens lack both resources and institutional support. It also seems that news organisations are currently hoping to exploit these unpaid digital serfs, hiding behind the rhetoric of community reporting or collaborative journalism, but in reality using them as an excuse to further cut into the professional workforce.

All of these solutions are distinguished by their inability to replace the scale of journalism previously underwritten by the advertising subsidy which sustained the old business model for news. The answer to this problem, I believe, has to lie in no longer seeing this as a crisis in news business models, but instead a crisis in journalism and democracy.

The Solution that Dare Not Speak its Name: Public Subsidy and Non-Profit News

So what to do about this problem? Last summer the editor of the Western Mail called me a “one-eyed hyperbolist” with a taste for “quaint 1970s rhetoric” after I outlined the kind of critique I just did here (Ponsford, 2010). I was also accused of making criticisms without understanding the challenges faced by the industry, and without offering solutions for solving this problem. There are no simple solutions to what is an incredibly complicated problem. But we should see the US crisis, along with the warning signs on our own doorstep, as a cautionary tale. Unless we debate and discuss effective action to save journalism now, our already ailing democracy, the accountability of our politicians and business elites, and the quality of public debate will suffer, perhaps irreparably.

Over the past few years a small trickle of influential figures have come out in favour of public subsidies for the news. Just a few weeks ago one of the most influential figures in world media, the advertising mogul Sir Martin Sorrell, claimed that state subsidies were needed to protect “quality journalism” (Fenton 2011). The former editor of the Daily Mirror Roy Greenslade thinks likewise (Greenslade 2011b), as do the former editor of the Washington Post Leonard Downie Jnr. And a growing list of influential academics (Downie Jnr and Schudson 2009, Usher 2011). There will no-doubt be massive opposition to this from newspaper owners, and some journalists (for different reasons): the former largely because they fear encroachment on their territory, and the latter mainly because they fear political interference with the content of news and a loss of editorial independence. The worries about meddling from policy makers are well-founded, but not insurmountable. We have effective mechanisms in place to protect the independence of public service broadcasters, and some European countries already subsidise the press alongside their broadcast news without much problem.

What forms this public subsidy might take is a fractious and tense debate for another day. My own view is that to bail out existing local news companies would be to throw good money after bad, and would probably end up subsidising the City of London and shareholders rather than quality journalism. I favour limiting intervention to a new generation of non-profit, perhaps co-operatively-owned, news organisations, beginning with the “news holes” in areas where local newspapers have closed down.

The US academic Robert McChesney sums up the need for public subsidy for local newspapers when he argues that the news is a public good, that is, “something the public needs, but that the market can’t produce in sufficient quality” (McChesney and Nichols 2010). Another example would be public education – it benefits everyone to live in a well-educated society, even if you don’t have children currently in school. The market is in retreat from news, in many towns it has already gone. Soon it may no longer find it profitable to subsidise our local news at all. If we want to live in a functioning democracy, in which citizens are reasonably informed, and politicians are accountable to the populace, we’ll have to pay for it ourselves, indirectly, with serious and smart public subsidies designed to replace the disappearing commercial advertising subsidy.

Works Cited:

ABC Circulation Figures (2011) Audit Bureau of Circulation Certificate for the Western Mail, January-July 2011, available at http://www.abc.org.uk/Products-Services/Product-Page/?tid=20940 (last accessed September 2011)

Downie Junior, Leonard, and Schudson, Michael (2009) The Reconstruction of American Journalism, Columbia Journalism Review, 19th October, available at: http://www.cjr.org/reconstruction/the_reconstruction_of_american.php (last accessed September 2011)

Edmonds, Rick, Huskin, Emily, and Rosenthiel, Tom (2011), “Newspapers: Missed the 2010 Media Rally”, Project for Excellence in Journalism State of the News Media 2011, available at: http://stateofthemedia.org/2011/newspapers-essay/ (last accessed September 2011)

Fenton, Ben (2011) “Sorrell Urges Subsidies for Quality Journalism”, Financial Times, 16th September, available online at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fb852f32-e069-11e0-ba12-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1ZGDrAaTV (last accessed September 2011)

Greenslade, Roy (2009a) “Britain’s Vanishing Newspapers” Guardian, February 19th, available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/feb/19/local-newspapers-newspapers (last accessed September 2011)

Greenslade, Roy (2009b) “British journalism is in crisis, but we are doing too little to save it”, Guardian, 24th September, available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/sep/24/downturn-mediabusiness (last accessed September 2011)

McChesney, Robert (2011) “The Future of Journalism”, paper delivered to the Future of Journalism Conference, Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies

McChesney, Robert and Nichols, John (2010) The Life and Death of American Journalism, New York: Nation

Media Wales (previously Western Mail and Echo) Annual Report and Financial Statements (1999-2009), Companies House, Cardiff, available online at: http://www.levelbusiness.com/doc/company/uk/00046946

Perez Pena, Richard (2009) “Times says it will cut 100 newsroom jobs”, New York Times Media Decoder Website, October 19th, available online at: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/times-says-it-will-cut-100-newsroom-jobs/ (last accessed September 2011)

Political Calculations Blog (2011) “Slowly Escaping New York”, April 20th, available at: http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2011/04/slowly-escaping-new-york-new-york-times.html (last accessed September 2011)

Ponsford, Dominic (2010) “Editor Accuses Academic of ‘One-Eyed Hyperbole’”, Press Gazette, 21st July, available at: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45735&c=1 (last accessed September 2011)

Trinity Mirror Annual Reports and Accounts (2000-2010), available online at: http://www.trinitymirror.com/investors/financial-information/ (last accessed September 2011)

Usher, Nikki (2011) “News media are targeted but audiences are not: Herbert Gans on multiperspectival journalism” Nieman Journalism Lab, March 21, available at: http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/03/news-media-are-targeted-but-audiences-are-not-herbert-gans-on-multiperspectival-journalism/ (last accessed September 2011)

NGOs oppose alignment of NH 40

SHILLONG, Sept 29  – The much anticipated four-laning project of the Guwahati-Shillong National Highway-40 is heading nowhere with NGOs opposing each other on its alignment.

NH-40 connects the Meghalaya capital with Guwahati and extends to Jowai in Jaintia Hills and Barak valley up to Tripura and Mizoram thorough National Highway-44.

The Central Government has sanctioned Rs 536 crore for four- laning a 61.80 km stretch of this highway from Jorabat to Barapani. Out of the budget, Rs 167 crore has already been paid as land compensation. Work began this year and was moving smoothly till it reached Umsning in Ri-Bhoi district.

NGOs from Ri-Bhoi district clubbed as Joint Action Committee (JAC) want the original alignment at Umsning prepared by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to be maintained. JAC comprises of Khasi Students’ Union, Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People and other NGOs.

JAC has once again called a three consecutive night road blockade in the district from September 28 to pressurise the State Government to give up its plan to construct the highway from the existing road at Umsning. However, today they called off the stir in view of the Pujas and golden jubilee celebration of St Michael Secondary School in the area.

However, some land holders and church leaders from Umsning are opposed to the NHAI’s bypass proposal, saying, that the route would affect agricultural land and a church.

Today, another NGO, Ri-Bhoi Students’ Union (RBSU) opposed the JAC’s demand and said the highway must be constructed from the existing road at Umsning.

Calling the JAC’s demand as “unrealistic”, RBSU said, it would affect a church and small land holders. RBSU president said, the government took the decision to realign the bypass after taking into consideration the representations from church leaders, village headmen and landowners.

Mysterious ‘space object’ recovered in Meghalaya

SHILLONG, SEP 28 : An unidentified space object suspected to have fallen from the sky was recovered Tuesday from a flower bed of St Edmunds’ College here in Shillong. The mysterious object, somewhat resembling a propeller of some craft, is now in the custody of the police.

According to college authorities, the object was discovered by the college gardener this morning. “No one could tell at what time it fell, but it is heavy metal object which on impact created a crater in the flower bed,” Amit Mazumdar, a professor of St Edmund’s College said.

“We cannot really say what it is. But it is a very interesting piece,” S.K Jain, the intelligence chief of Meghalaya police, said.

The object, weighing about 20 kgs, has baffled the college authorities, who on discovering this mysterious metal immediately informed the police and concerned authorities.

There were speculations that the metal object could have been a part of the recent NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) which was reported to have disintegrated while making fiery entry into the earth’s atmosphere.

“We will examine the object to determine its origin. Hopefully by tomorrow we should have some inkling of what the object could,” S Rao, ISRO Space scientist said.

Rao said the defunct UARS satellite was to have fallen into the Pacific ocean, but there is doubt whether it did so or not. “We will be able confirm the identity of the object only after examining it,” he said.

Disaster-hit planners revisit forgotten HAM radios

Shillong, Sep 27 : The 6.8-magnitude earthquake that shattered the hill state of Sikkim has woken up planners in Meghalaya to the urgent need to reintroduce HAM or amateur radios for uninterrupted communication in the aftermath of a disaster.

Most of the planners felt that communication was vital in a post-disaster situation to speed up rescue and relief operations.

Meghalaya, classified as Zone-V, is considered the world's sixth most quake-prone belt. The 1897 quake that occurred in the Shillong plateau had left 1,542 people dead.

"Relying only on mobile and landline is fraught with risk. The cables might snap in the event of an earthquake or disaster. In such a scenario, landline and mobile phones would not work, so digital satellite public telephones are the best options," said George Marshal of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

Sanjoy Banerjee of Assam Rifles, however, said such phones might develop technical snags with satellite failure and, therefore, the best way was to have a relook at HAM radios.

These radios are not just cost effective, but totally free from external cables, depending on free-to-air radio frequencies. School and college students can be trained to adopt it as a hobby. Handling the equipment is very easy, said Banerjee.

Banerjee says the outdated technology has proved its worth time and again -- as recently as during the 2004 tsunami that hit a vast coastal area of India.

We need to seriously think of expanding the network of HAM radio enthusiasts because of the simplicity of the technology and cost effectiveness, he emphasised during the meeting.

HAM radios were lifesavers during the world wars and the only means of fast communication between handlers.

It was then operated through Morse code, but now voice can be transmitted. However, with the advent of new technologies, HAM radios have been consigned to the status of mere recreation of radio enthusiasts.

The ministry of telecommunication issues license after a candidate passes the amateur wireless telegraph operator's licensing examination.

There are various HAM radio clubs across India and also institutes giving training to enthusiasts and cadets of Bharat Scout and Guides.

Meghalaya's Garo food festival in Delhi

Delhi plays host to Meghalaya’s Garo Food Festival (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)

The cuisine of the Northeast reflects the indigenous culture of that region, and, to promote the cuisine of Meghalaya's Garo Hills, a food extravaganza was recently organized in New Delhi.

The event was held in the lawns of Meghalaya House, and participants were offered lip-smacking delicacies.

Organised by the Delhi A'chik Youth Association, the event attracted a cross section of people.

The festival, which has been held for the past four years, aims to bridge the cultural gap and promote the indigenous food and culture of the Garos.

Abhijit Sangma, one of the organisers, said: "This food festival is to bring the cuisine of Northeast and Garo Hills in front of everyone. It also aims to make an exposure of Garo food and what Garo Hills has to offer to everyone in Delhi so that they can come and see what we eat and know more about Garo culture."

Chefs from Meghalaya were brought in to prepare the delicacies and the visitors were spoilt for choice.

Some of the items on the menu were Do'o Masala, Wak Gominda, Wak Galda Ginchi Pura, Dobok Bijak, Dobok Bandal and Bika Kappa.

Ayush, a visitor, said: "It is a very good festival and the food is very delicious. I like one of the Garo popular dishes called Wak Kapa so I came here to eat that dish and I enjoy a lot."

Besides food, there were games and music for the entertainment of visitors.

A'chik students played some Garo music.

Varun, a Delhi resident, said: "I definitely enjoyed. People are very friendly, nice and the hospitality is very good. So I like it and I like the food too."

Events like these build bridges and help people learn more about diverse cultures of the northeast.

Primary school dropout rate: Still a concern

Ankita Chakrabarty/ Zee Research Group

There is no let up in primary school dropout rate in the country with the northeastern states of Meghalaya and Manipur being the worst affected. The Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh too have performed poorly in retaining schools kids at the primary level.

This has led to a severe dent in the performance of UPA’s flagship education programme, ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’, which has failed to meet the stipulated target set by the government.
Official statistics furnished by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD) showed that the school dropout rate in Meghalaya stood at 58.87 percent while Manipur and Rajasthan witnessed 42.31 percent and 38.89 percent dropout rates, respectively.
The primary-level girls’ dropout rate was no better. In Meghalaya, the dropout rate was 56.95 percent followed by Rajasthan at 39.41 and Bihar at 34.65 percent, respectively.
A further analysis showed that in the 6-14 age group, the school dropout rate was highest in Arunachal Pradesh at 10. 95 percent followed by Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which observed dropout rates of 9.28 percent and 7.58 percent, respectively.
Author of ‘Why children drop out: Case study of a metropolitan city’ and assistant professor at National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), Dr Sunita Chugh said, “Financial constraints still remain one of the significant causes for children to drop out. Among the key reasons for high dropout in northern states is the cultural factor.”
Dr Gaysu R Arvind, professor at Department of Education, University of Delhi, said it was not difficult to explain the high primary school dropout rate in states like Rajasthan and Bihar. She opined, “Poverty is the major reason behind low literacy rate. Moreover, seasonal migration and also unavailability of proper infrastructure facilities are the major reasons behind high school dropout rate.” She emphasized on proper conceptualization of government initiatives and policies to minimize the school dropout rate.
Chugh elaborated further, “Quality of schooling which includes infrastructure facility, physical facilities like the availability of toilets, separate toilet for girls, drinking water facility, seating facility, teacher-pupil ratio etc is not appropriate and satisfactory, thus the enabling environment is not available which creates disinterest among the children and finally they dropout.”
An HRD Ministry study, which tabulated the state-wise performance until March 31, 2011, also found that Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar had adverse pupil-teacher ratio impacting continuity in education. Uttar Pradesh had 77,680 schools with adverse pupil-teacher ratio followed by Madhya Pradesh at 53,333 and Bihar at 51,104 schools, respectively.
HN Sahay, Director, Operations, Smile Foundation India, an education focussed non-governmental organisation, said, “Lack of awareness at family level is the prime reason behind primary school dropouts. Efforts should be on to promote non-formal education. There has to be an effective mechanism of monitoring evaluation of government initiatives to tackle such issues.”
A country-wide picture offered some positive numbers as well. Kerala, Delhi and Goa are the better performers with minimum percentage of school dropouts. Kerala and Goa have recorded 0.0 percent school dropouts followed by Delhi at 0.50 percent.

Meghalaya: Garo outfit calls 10-day bandh

Shillong: Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) has called a 10-day bandh in the three districts of western Meghalaya demanding withdrawal of operations against the militant group.

GNLA leader Kakam D Shira told reporters over telephone that the group will impose the bandh from October 10 to 14 and from October 17 to 21.

He said the outfit will not withdraw the bandh call unless the government stops operations against their cadre.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said the government would not buckle under the pressure tactics of the outfit and full force would be used to neutralise the militant group.

"The purpose of the bandh is to pressure the government to stop the operations. But the government will not bow down to the pressure," Sangma told a TV channel.

He said, "The people should understand the intention of the outfit which is indulging in extortion, killings and kidnappings."

Meghalaya Cong leader writes to Sonia on militant threat

Claiming that he and his party workers have got threats from militants, a Congress legislator in Meghalaya has dispatched a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention.

Saidullah Nongrum, MLA from Rajabala constituency in Garo Hills and political secretary to Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, faxed the letter yesterday to Gandhi requesting immediate intervention from her end.

"I would like to inform you that recently one militant outfit from Garo Hills (Garo National Liberation Army) have publicly threatened me and my workers through the print media. The matter is serious which needs immediate intervention from your end so that we as legislators are not at stake while performing our duties as entrusted to us," Nongrum said in his letter.

He enclosed with the letter, copy of which was made available to the media on Friday, a news report published in a local daily which said that the GNLA has threatened to carry out blasts in some places of Garo Hills, including Nongrum's constituency.

Few months back, there were reports about some Congress MLAs having got threatening sms' from the GNLA which warned them of dire consequences if the operations against the outfit continued.

The GNLA, floated by a deserter Deputy Superintendent of Meghalaya Police, is the most active militant group in Meghalaya at present and has been blamed for rampant extortion in the Garo hills belt.

The outfit, claiming to be fighting for an independent Garoland, had also carried out a number of kidnappings over the last couple of months and killed policemen and civilians.

Permanent abode in the clouds

Kabir Mandrekar

Talented footballers from the Northeast now need not travel to Kolkata to showcase their dribbling talent or tireless feet. After Lajong FC's arrival on the big stage three seasons ago, another Meghalaya club Royal Wahingdoh’s recent success-spurt in the Federation Cup, suggests that the earlier inevitable trudge from the sinuous hills to the dusty plains is now avoidable, writes Kabir Mandrekar
On the rest day of an invitational tournament, the Royal Wahingdoh Football Club president — Frederick Nongkynrih — ventured out into the streets of Kolkata to purchase some football apparel for his kids back home in Shillong. While browsing through some EPL jerseys, two figures in the backdrop caught his eye and he stared in disbelief.
Nongkynrih was astonished to see two wingbacks from his Meghalaya-based football club, Bowari Khongstia and Lalmangaihsanga Sena, sharing a laugh while browsing through some football boots. They were, after all, from remote villages in different parts of the North-East. Bowari from Meghalaya and Sena from Mizoram. More importantly, they didn't even speak the same language.
“Bowari could only speak in Khasi and Sena in Mizo. I later found out from a few team members that they were the best of mates off the pitch. I just couldn’t fathom how they understood each other,” said Nongkynrih.
It was, probably, the camaraderie the team-members shared that helped the two players from different backgrounds, with different habits and cultures, come together as friends. Their example is representative of a culture of the 65-year-old football club that has been built on a high moral ethos. One that has not only helped them survive on a shoestring budget, but also flourish in the three years of their professional existence.
While their annual expenditure would equal the cost of a top-level Indian footballer these days, this second division team has comprehensively beaten I-League clubs with multi-crore expenditures at the Federation Cup this year, and exceeded even their own expectations with their rapid rise. Wahingdoh's emergence this season has proven that the fanatical interest for the game in this part of India (Lajong being their more famous city rivals) was now receiving a sustained creative outlet in the form of organised clubs. It also meant that talented footballers from the north-eastern states needn't necessarily trek down to the plains, where both their flair and fundamentals needed to be relearnt or unlearnt to suit bigger plans of Kolkatan or Goan clubs.
Humble beginnings
Nongkynrih along with Dominic Sutnga, Nicholas Nangkhlaw and Lambert Syiem was a part of the squad in 2007 that practiced casually after Sunday’s church. Their collectively burgeoning ambition coupled with a relegation dogfight in the second-tier league that came as a rude awakening, instilled in the foursome a sense of responsibility. The four squad members, who now constitute the management, decided to bring about drastic changes in the structure of the club that lit up proceedings in Pune, creating quite a stir by beating two powerhouses, Mohun Bagan and Churchill Brothers, in as many days.
In 2008, they began their pre-season preparation a month in advance and laid down strict criteria for selection. “We wanted only naturally talented and skilful players. Everything else could be worked upon,” said Sutnga, Wahingdoh’s managing director. Players who fit the bill were found in abundance in the neighbourhood. L Darlong, a respected coach from that region, was hired to scout for talent and had to look no further than the village tournaments held regularly through the year. Players with bags of talent and lack of opportunity now had the chance to showcase their skills at a higher level.
Bowari Khongstia, son of a farmer living a hand-to-mouth existence, is the prime example of local talent that has been given a shot at a better life. “Bowari comes from the remotest of villages in Meghalaya. He hails from a family that lives below the poverty line. Now, he sends his entire monthly pay-cheque back home to his family,” said Sutnga.
The results of revamping the club were evident as they managed to overturn a third-last position to third in the second tier league of 2008-2009. Still dissatisfied with their show — having missed promotion by just one spot — there was good fortune in store for the brave lot. Players from the SAI Academies and the northeastern players from the Army teams were willing to go to Wahingdoh, with promises of opportunities to play football at the highest level.
And the promises were fulfilled in the recent Federation Cup, where Royal Wahingdoh only bowed out against derby rivals Lajong, in a virtual quarterfinal encounter. But there is no question of any animosity between the two Shillong clubs.
Love thy neighbours
It was in 2009-10, a time when Wahingdoh made it to the Shillong Premier League, that Lajong carved out the path for clubs from the region, becoming the first club from NE to participate in the I-League. “We were cheering them for each game that Lajong played and were proud to have representation in the top league. We felt, if they could do it there was no reason we couldn’t,” says Sutnga.
One thing that stood out for the Lajong home matches was the tremendous crowd support in every match. This led Sutnga to believe that Wahingdoh too should get the community involved in their football. Marketing strategies like distribution of free T-shirts and other merchandise was initiated. The management then started a membership system where the shareholders were offered tickets at half-price, thus increasing the interest in the club. When the crowds became sizeable, all of the match revenue was donated to The Providence School, a unique project, which the club had adopted.
“We felt a responsibility to give back to the community. The Providence School provided the students not only with educational training, but also vocational training. We thought their ideology matched the ethics of our club,” said Sutnga. The school that was started by Brother D’Souza with 15 kids, now has up to 300 children enrolled. The club also earmarked thirty families — mostly those with single mothers — for whom they provide monthly food rations.
This social work brought a lot of unity within the community and the 9000 odd members and its neighbours never failed to turn up for a home match at Ground No 1, Polo Stadium. The club has even registered a state record for the most revenue (Rs 5 lakh) generated from one match when their team faced Meghalaya Police in a league encounter.
In the course of this victorious debut season, Wahingdoh had arranged a month’s training stint at the Perth Glory Football Club in Australia, but were unable to go as their visas were cancelled. They settled for a camp at Goa, where they first met current coach and former Indian skipper — Carlton Chapman. “At first appearance, I did not think much of the team. But when I spent a day with them, I found that they had a great work ethic and natural talent. They were always ready to listen,” says Chapman. He supervised them in the final of their state league victory against Shillong Lajong FC, and then signed on as full-time coach.
Solitary blemish
The only blemish on a near perfect record of the club is its failure to qualify for this season’s I-League. After qualifying through the group stages, the team faltered in the final round of matches and could only manage a sixth place finish. But for now, though, the entire Wahingdoh contingent will be basking in the glory of the unprecedented achievement of reaching the group stages of the Federation Cup. The supporters back home will have the Wahingdoh Hall decked up for a grand celebration and felicitation of their victorious bunch.
One year on, Sena — the Khasi and Bowari — the Mizo, have picked up a bit of Hindi from their travels across the country, but still not enough to have a conversation. Their friendship has strengthened, however, because at the Royal Wahingdoh Football Club, football breaks all language barriers.

African Regional CBD Consultations on REDD+

Kabir Bavikatte and Johanna von Braun (Natural Justice) participated in the African regional consultation and capacity building workshop on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD)-plus and biodiversity safeguards. The consultation/workshop was held in Cape Town from 20-23 September and is one of three regional workshops that the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat was requested to implement by Decision X/33 at the latest CBD Conference of the Parties. Natural Justice also attended the Asia regional consultation held in Singapore in March 2011.

At the workshop, different African countries presented on the status of their World Bank-supported Forest Carbon Partnership Facility  (FCPF) REDD readiness preparation process. The participants were then divided into working groups that were required to provide recommendations on: a) developing advice on the application of relevant REDD-plus safeguards for biodiversity and Indigenous peoples and local communities; and b) identifying indicators to assess the contribution of REDD-plus to achieving the objectives of the CBD.

The participants also discussed the existing REDD-plus safeguards to see if they effectively addressed the concerns raised in the Global Expert Workshop on REDD-plus held in Nairobi from 20-23 September, 2010. These safeguards included the REDD-plus Social and Environmental Standards developed by the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance; the draft UN-REDD Social and Environmental Principles and Criteria; the Cancun Safeguards; and the World Bank Safeguard Policies. The concerns included:

• The conversion of natural forests to plantations and other land uses of low biodiversity value and low resilience, and the introduction of growing of biofuel crops;
• Displacement of deforestation and forest degradation to areas of lower carbon value and high biodiversity value;
• Increased pressure on non-forest ecosystems with high biodiversity value;
• Afforestation in areas of high biodiversity value;
• The loss of traditional territories and restriction of land and natural resource rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities;
• Lack of tangible livelihood benefits to Indigenous peoples and local communities and lack of equitable benefit sharing;
• Exclusion from designing and implementation of policies and measures; and
• Loss of traditional ecological knowledge.

The workshop ended with participants recommending, among other things, that there must be greater harmonization between the development of REDD-plus safeguards and the guidelines and safeguards that have already been developed by the CBD, including the Akwe: Kon Guidelines. Furthermore, the REDD-plus safeguards should seriously consider best practice and innovative tools developed under the CBD process, including community protocols in the context of access and benefit sharing, experiences from community-based natural resource management, biotrade, and payment for ecosystem services.

Meghalaya college teachers strike work, 50,000 students affected

Shillong : More than 50,000 students across Meghalaya have been affected by the eight-day strike called by college teachers Friday to protest the state government's failure to fulfil their demands.
Over 500 college teachers under the banner of the Meghalaya College Teachers' Association (MCTA) have called the strike that will end Oct 1. There are over 60 colleges in the state, most of which have been affected by the strike.
MCTA is demanding an extension of the revised pay as recommended by the Meghalaya Fourth Pay Commission for teachers of seven ad-hoc colleges, the release of arrears for teachers of 15 deficit colleges and the release of 20 percent arrears for those who enjoy the University Grants Commission (UGC) pay scale, pension scheme and the reinstatement of all allowances.
"The government has forced us to resort to this strike for its double standards. We will continue with the strike to put pressure on the government to fulfil our demands," Eureka Lyngdoh, the MCTA chief, told IANS.
However, Education Minister R.C. Laloo said the government has already issued an official notification to release the 20 percent arrears to the teachers.
"I have been attending to their duties (demands) ever since I took over the education portfolio. They should also think of the students," Laloo said.
The Meghalaya College Principals' Council (MCPC) has requested the teachers to withdraw the strike as students will bear the brunt.
"We want both the government and the teachers to sit across the table and resolve their issue amicable," MCPC president Ioanis Warpakma said.

Normal life hit West Garo Hills in Meghalaya

Nongpoh (Meghalaya), Sep 23 : Normal life came to a halt in Nongpoh, the district headquarters of West Garo Hills in Meghalaya Thursday owing to a dusk- to-dawn bandh called by five social organisations.

The bandh was to mount pressure on the State government to construct the four lane Gauhati-Shillong road on the National Highway-40 through an identified Umsning by- pass. The social organisations have also called for a night road blockade tomorrow starting from 1900 hours to 0500 hours.

However, Public Work Department Minister H.D.R Lyngdoh said the government will go ahead with widening of the road through the existing road. “The alignments for the projects have been approved by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and we cannot alter the alignment,” Lyngdoh said.

JAC chairman Donkupar Sumer said that construction of the four-lane highway from the existing highway would lead to loss of livelihood to many people including relocation of five schools in the area. “The present problem with regard to Umsning by-pass occurred to the adamant attitude of the present PWD minister who did not consider the hardship of the people if the four-lane project goes from the existing highway,” Sumer said.

Meanwhile, government offices, educational and financial institutions remained closed, while shutters were down in the shop-markets and business establishments.
It also affected vehicular movement specially passenger buses and goods-laden trucks on the national highways between Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. “50 per cent attendance was recorded in government offices,” District Collector Mawshanlang Kharmujai said. Though, there were no reports of any untoward incident, but unidentified persons pelted stones at a Meghalaya Transport Corporation bus at 19 mile before bandh came into effect from 0500 hours this morning, deputy superintendent of police S.W.Malai said

“No one was injured in the stone attack, but the windshield of the bus was damaged,” he said. The district administration imposed Section 144 CrPC prohibiting forcible obstruction to movement of vehicles along the National Highway-40.

Public Work Department officials said the alignments for the projects have been approved by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and cannot be altered, so it’s up to the State Government to sort out these new problems.

Radio Show on Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples

Conversations with the Earth has released an installment of a weekly radio show on climate change and Indigenous peoples. The description reads: "Global climate change is here. And only now, as our nation is ravaged by hurricanes, floods and droughts, is this new reality becoming all too obvious. But indigenous people in isolated communities around the world have been sounding the alarm for decades. This week we’ll meet indigenous messengers from Alaska and Peru who say it’s not too late to use traditional knowledge to reconnect with Mother Earth. And we’ll learn about a powerful new exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian launched to amplify their message to the world." Guest on the show include Tim Johnson (Mohawk and Associate Director for Museum Programs, National Museum of the American Indian), Sarah James (Gwich’in tribal leader, Arctic Village, Alaska, and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize), Maja Tillman (Senior Associate, InsightShare), Irma Luz Poma Canchumani (Quechua traditional gourd-carver), Nico Villaume (freelance photographer), and Brian Keane (Director, Land is Life).

The radio show, which is supported by The Christensen Fund, can be downloaded online. The exhibition on Indigenous Voices on Climate Change is being held at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., from 22 July, 2011, to 2 January, 2012.

Decks cleared for rly connectivity to Meghalaya

SHILLONG: The long-cherished dream of having a rail link connecting Meghalaya with the rest of the country is all set come true with the authorities concerned handing over 65.09 hectares of land to NFR for the proposed 19.47-km broad gauge line from Dudhnoi to Mendipathar.

"If the estimation of higher officials from North Frontier Railway, Maligaon, is taken into account, the first train may chug into Mendipathar by the end of March, 2013. In 1994, the first effort was made to have a railway line from Dudhnoi to Depa Sarangma though Mendipathar," said Pravin Bakshi, the deputy commissioner of East Garo Hills.

The sanctioned cost of the ambitious project was Rs 86.22 crore. But the revised cost could be approximately Rs 144 crore.

"The journey has been a very eventful one as the original proposal for the railway line from Dudhnoi to Depa Sarangma had to be abandoned due to stiff opposition of locals. However, the railway project of Mendipathar was wholeheartedly welcomed by the people, who were enamoured by the concept of having their very own railway station and a broad gauge line which stretched from Nolbari to Mendipathar," the DC added.

In view of the urgency of the matter, land acquisition was made under Section 17 of Land Acquisition Act. According to reports, 80 per cent of amount for land has been paid by NF Railway and possession has been taken from 181 landholders.

The areas which the new line would cover are Nolbari-Deuripara, Boromiapara, Chotomiapara, Mataranga, Manikganj, Horingkata, Bakenang-Tilapara and Mendipathar. "With the handing over of land to railway authorities, work is in full swing in Assam and Meghalaya," an official said. He added that out of 39 bridges on the stretch, construction of 9 is already over," said an official.

IIM-Shillong signs agreement to start Business Management and Law

The IIM-Shillong-and the National University of Juridical Science, West Bengal, has sealed an agreement to start a Post Graduate Executive Diploma in Business Management and Law (PGexDBL), an official statement said today. The programme, scheduled to commence later this year, would be of a 15-month duration. The philosophy of the programme is centred around preparing participants to earn a professional qualification in Business Management and Law by virtue of gaining in depth understanding of various concepts in the area, the statement said. The programme is also aimed at helping participants to understand the latest developments and best practices. The agreement which was signed in the presence of Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma and Rathindra Nath Datta, Chairman Board of Governors Indian Institute of Management-Shillong. While combined Business Management and Law studies has proved to be of a great success in the western world such as in Germany, there is no example of such kind of unique initiative in the country.

GSU favours creation of separate Garo state

Shillong, Sep 21 : The Garo Student s Union (GSU) today said creation of separate Garoland state will solve the militancy problem in western part of Meghalaya. The state government should initiate measures to end militancy in Garo Hills and should do so in a constructive manner and listen to the demands for separate Garo land made by the people of Garo Hills on the 22nd April 2006, GSU president Tengsak G Momin said. According to the GSU Chief, the government has seen thousands of Garos gathered to put across a demand for the creation of a separate state for the Garos. The creation of the separate state should effectively end militancy as any armed organisations will no more have a strong valid reason to sustain the concept of armed struggle, Mr Momin said. He said the contention of the people will have to be taken into account in the demand for the separate state in the contemporary consciousness and this will depend on the present political consciousnesses of the people of Garo Hills. The government also needs to understand the need for separate state of the Garo people, the GSU Chief said. Meanwhile, the GSU has also appealed to the Garo National Liberation Army militant outfit to call off its bandh on September 28 and 29 to ensure smooth preparation for the memorial service for the martyrs killed in September 30, 2005 during rallies taken out by the GSU) to oppose bifurcation of the MBOSE.

Protests in Lamu Over Proposed Port

The communities of Lamu, Kenya, who are currently developing a biocultural community protocol in relation to a mega port to be built in their District, recently held a protest to demand information on the port and consultation in the process. The protest was held after the community learnt from the media that the government of Kenya is planning to begin the construction of the port prior to making any efforts for consulting the local communities. The group started protesting from the National Environmental Management Authority up to the Kenya Ports Authority and Town Square. During their protests, Save Lamu carried with them the letters of appeal that have been sent to government officials, non-governmental organizations, and individuals nationally and internationally as well as copies of the Save Lamu petition to the government of Kenya calling for involvement in the port process that will have dire affects on their livelihoods and environment. Information on the communities' effort can be found at www.savelamu.org.

NJ Attends Wild Law Conference in Brisbane

Participants Alessandro Pelizzon (left) and Maria Zotti.

From 16-18 September, Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia) hosted Australia’s 3rd Wild Law Conference, entitled “Earth Jurisprudence 2011: Building Theory and Practice”. Earth Jurisprudence is an emerging theory of law that proposes that we rethink our legal and political systems to make sure they support, rather than undermine, the integrity and health of the earth. Over three days, the participants heard presentations from a number of important thinkers and practitioners, including Aboriginal leader Michael Anderson, Cormac Cullinan (EnAct International, South Africa), Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe (Griffith University), Peter Burdon (Australia Wild Law Alliance), Professor Klaus Bosselmann (University of Auckland), Brendan Mackey (Australia National University), Chief Justice Preston (New South Wales), Senator Larissa Waters, Alessandro Pelizzon (Southern Cross University), Judith Koons (Centre for Earth Jurisprudence), Maria Zotti (South Australian Department Environment), and filmmaker Ellie Gilbert.

The conference was also host to the launching of Australian Wild Law Alliance and the Earth Laws Research Network, as well as to the second edition of Wild Law (Cullinan) and Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence (Burdon, ed.). Harry Jonas (Natural Justice) presented on Biocultural Rights and Responsibilities: Political Ecology, Jurisprudence, Resistance and Engagement to illustrate the theoretical foundations of Natural Justice's work. Natural Justice thanks Michelle Maloney and her team for a great conference.

Another earthquake of 4.3 magnitude hits NE

SHILLONG:An earthquake of 4.3 magnitude on the Richter scale shook parts of Meghalaya today, the seismic observatory here said.

The mild intensity quake was recorded at 12.52 AM and its epicentre was located along the Meghalaya-Bangladesh border, officials at the observatory said.

There have been no reports of any damage or injury. A 6.8 magnitude tremor, epicentered on the Sikkim-Nepal border, was felt across north and east India last evening. It was followed by two aftershocks measuring 6.1 and 5.3 on the Richter scale.

Last evening's tremor was the biggest quake felt in the Northeast since 1988.

Right to be informed

By C L AREL
Issue: May 15, 2005
Chronology of an uphill struggle in Meghalaya
Police confront activists on M (Credit: P Sohklet)Since 2001, Shillong-based Mait Shaphrang -- a body of people interested in generating a movement on 'positive thinking' and 'intellectual militancy' -- has been demanding a right to information (rti) legislation for Meghalaya . Today, seven local organisations front the initiative. The question they have constantly had to tackle is: Is the state government interested on not?
21 February 2002: Mait Shaphrang meets (then deputy chief minister) D D Lapang to discuss the drafting of a Meghalaya rti bill and clauses to be included. It is not tabled. Mait Shaphrang begins spreading awareness on the need for mrti.
February 2003: New Government elected to power. D D Lapang is now chief minister. First session of the legislative assembly gets over. No mrti.
20 June 2003: The day the Assembly's summer session is to commence. Mait Shaphrang leads a procession to renew their demand. Six people arrested.
August 2003: State government releases a letter from the Centre, saying the Freedom of Information Act, 2002 (foi) has been enacted at the Centre; and that state governments are to widely publicise its provisions, since it casts "an obligation upon all such authorities to grant access to information and to publish certain categories of information...". This letter is dated 10 February 2003. But the state government has released it six months later.
The organisations reject foi: Section 16(4) of the act empowers state governments to exempt, from foi's ambit, any of its specified intelligence or security organisations. Sections 18 and 19 confer on the state authorities the power to make rules so as to carry out the provisions of the act.
15 December 2003: Another mass procession to the assembly is launched. Police descend on it. Throughout the next year, the organisations hold public meetings to popularise their demand.
November 2004: A right to information bill, called the Meghalaya Right to Information Act, 2004 (mrti), is submitted to the government.
1 March 2005: A public meeting is held at Motphran, at the heart of Shillong city. A signature campaign is launched, to resume rti demand on March 11, the day the assembly is about to commence.
10 March 2005: D D Lapang says: "The Meghalaya government was in the final stages of framing its own bill, but...we had to delay the process."
11 March, 2005: Police stall a mass procession to the assembly. Subsequently, D D Lapang offers to meet a delegation of 'six or seven people'. At the meeting he tells delegates the new Central Right to Information Act is still in the process of being made. Thus, foi cannot be repealed. He is told he will have the people's support if he goes ahead and introduces mrti. He assures he will send officers to the Centre to find out if it is possible for s state to have a law of its own.
On the same day, the Meghalaya governor declares to the state assembly: "...the state government is committed to implementing [ foi] in Meghalaya as soon as the initial rules are framed by the Central Government and notified in the official Gazette".
31 March 2005: The seven organisations are invited by the government to try and work together on a new bill. They agree, but ask for a commitment that government will table it. The government replies they will wait for a response from the Centre.
April 13, 2005: Mait Shaphrang calls a 12-hour bandh in Shillong to protest chief minister's refusal to commit.

Thai rhythm to charm Shillong

SHILLONG: A team of dancers from Thailand has reached the Pine City to charm shoppers at the 6th International Shillong Shopping Carnival organized by the Industries and Trade Fair Association of Assam (ITFAA) in association with the Meghalaya government and the Jute Board of the textiles ministry at Madan Lewrynghep (Fire brigade) here.

"The initiative has been taken as part of cultural exchange programme between Meghalaya and South East Asian countries," ITFAA president Rajesh Das said, adding that the association had sent two school students from Meghalaya to Thailand earlier.

"We shall perform every evening at the fair premises," said Thanyarad Chanplang, assistant professor, dance and drama department, Chandrakasam Rajabhat University, Bangkok, who is leading the team of four dancers. "Besides classical Thai dance, we will present folk dances from the northern, southern, north-eastern and central regions of our country," she said.

NJ Article on BCPs and Biocultural Rights

Mikey Salter and Johanna von Braun (Natural Justice) recently wrote an article entitled "Biocultural Community Protocols: Bridging the Gap Between Customary, National and International Law" for the latest issue of the Effectius Newsletter. It begins by saying, "Over the last two decades as a result of the Indigenous peoples’ rights movement, a new cluster of rights has emerged that falls under the broad category of group or collective rights, but makes a specific link to conservation and the sustainable use of biological diversity. These are referred to as biocultural rights, and they acknowledge the relationship between communities, resources and culture in areas where communities have historically been stewards of common lands because of their reliance on the ecosystem that surrounds them..."

Effectius is a non-profit organization based in Belgium that is dedicated to identifying and promoting effective justice solutions worldwide.

International Workshop on Common Pools

On the 15th and 16th of September, Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) attended the "International Workshop on Common Pools of Genetic Resources: improving effectiveness, justice and public research in access and benefit sharing (ABS)" in Bremen, Germany, organized by the University of Bremen. The workshop was attended by various experts in the areas of genetic resources, traditional knowledge, and benefit sharing. Over the 2 days, participants presented on a range of subjects on common pools, including exploring legal spaces for common pools in the Nagoya Protocol; case studies on existing common pools at the local level in South Africa, Brazil, Peru and China; the World Health Organization (WHO) frameworks for sharing vaccines; the multilateral system of the International Treaty on Plant and Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA); and data banks for genetic information and marine organisms. The presentations and discussions provided participants relevant feedback and information about how existing common pools systems are functioning and could be improved to ensure greater equity and fairness.

Natural Justice was asked to present on the traditional knowledge common pool of the traditional health practitioners of Bushbuckridge, South Africa, and the development of a common pool of traditional knowledge. The healers are utilizing their common pool to provide information to a local cosmetics company, with any benefits from research and possible development to flow back into the collective pool. The presenters at the workshop will also be contributing chapters to a book on common pools to be published by the University of Bremen.

India, Bangladesh deal will bring prosperity: Meghalaya CM

Shillong, Sep 16 : Meghalaya has lost 41 acres of land as India and Bangladesh have demarcated their boundaries but the overall agreement will only bring 'goodwill and prosperity' to both countries, said state Chief Minister Mukul Sangma Friday.

Sangma was part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's entourage to Bangladesh Sep 6-7. The two countries signed a framework agreement on cooperation for development and a protocol on demarcating their land boundary.

'We would be gaining around 240 acres of land under adverse possession of Bangladesh, but would be losing around 41 acres of our land to Bangladesh,' Sangma told IANS.

The new India and Bangladesh land accord will safeguard the interests of Meghalaya, said Sangma.

'Instead of irritant and disputed border, we now expect to have a border which will enable us to have goodwill and prosperity and border of conflict should be converted into border of mutual trust,' the chief minister said.

About 55 such enclaves in all were under adverse possession by India despite Bangladesh claiming them. Likewise, 111 territories were under adverse possession by Bangladesh, although India claimed it was their territory.

The land agreement between the two countries, however, decided that the dispute be resolved - those disputed enclaves under possession by India would be handed over to Bangladesh and vice versa.

These adverse possession areas were created when the erstwhile East Pakistan and India demarcated the international boundary in the mid-1960s.

There are 11 such areas in Meghalaya.
While Bangladesh cites documents of 1937, the Indian side relies on land records of 1914 to support its claims. The exact area of the entire enclaves cannot be immediately estimated.

The border issue has been an 'irritant', Sangma said adding, the northeastern states despite being surrounded by international borders have 'no meaningful trade and commerce'.

'Therefore, it has become very important to ensure that there is a conducive atmosphere created along the border and relations are built up for furthering our engagement of trade and commerce,' Sangma told IANS.

Sangma who held several meetings with various top Bangladeshi leaders including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, wanted tourism between India and its neighbours to improve.

'Look at Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand which lure lakhs of international tourists each year earning billions from this upcoming industry. India, Bangladesh and Bhutan together could become one of the world's biggest tourist circuit if these countries coordinated properly,' he said.

'The northeastern part of India is a 'virgin area' with a lot of resources. We can explore the opportunities together for future generation,' the chief minister added.

However, the border villagers from Pyrdiwah and Lyngkhat areas which are adversely held in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills have expressed unhappiness with the swapping of land.

According to a recent joint border survey, out of the current 220 acres, Pyrdiwah will be allowed to hold only 193 acres.

'We are waiting for the minutes of the actual agreement to know whether India really agreed to the proposal of the joint border survey,' said Peter Rynjah, secretary of the Federation of Ri War Mihngi Local Dorbars, a body representative of 132 villages in the border areas.

Of the 4,098 km long border shared between India and Bangladesh, Meghalaya shares a 443 km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly, unfenced and is prone to frequent infiltration.

Special Rapporteur Report: Effects of Extractive Industries

UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, recently presented his annual report to the UN General Assembly. The report provides a summary of activities carried out during his third year in the mandate, particularly communications with governments concerning 25 cases of specific human rights violations in 15 countries. Some of the case studies include:

• Costa Rica: Situation of the Térraba people and the hydroelectric project El Diquís
• Ethiopia: Situation of the Gilgel Gibe III hydroelectric project on the Omo River
• Guatemala: Situation of social and environmental problems generated by the Marlin mine 
• Malaysia: Situation of the Long Teran Kanan village and native customary rights in Sarawak

In the second half of the report, Anaya provides a preliminary analysis of the impact of extractive industries operating within or near Indigenous territories, based on a questionnaire on the issue distributed to governments, Indigenous peoples, corporations, and civil society. The full report can be downloaded here.

The biodiversity numbers game

How many species are there on Earth? Given the effort required to sample habitats and identify species this figure will likely never been known with great certainty. Indeed current rates of discovery may be slower than the current species extinction rate! To make a start ecologists have thus turned to estimates based on extrapolations of well known patterns in the distribution of species, or the rate of taxonomic discovery. Best estimates vary from as few as 3 million up to 100 million species. A recent paper by Mora et al. (2011, PLoS Biology) has come up with a value of ~8.7 million (+/- 1.3 million) eukaryotic species. This is somewhat lower than the previous best estimates of ~15 million species. The authors base their estimate on the predictable increase in the number of taxa with increasing taxonomic resolution (i.e., from phylum, class, order, family, genera and species). Although the number is likely an underestimate (consider the diversity of microorganisms that remain undiscovered) it is the method that has been criticized. Some experts believe that the patterns upon which the estimates are based are more the reflection of the taxonomic enterprise and have little to do with how many species actually inhabit the Earth. Read the piece in the New York Times about this study.

Meghalaya Cong alliance wins trust vote

Guwahati, Sep 15 : The Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) government won a no-trust motion 43-13 in the 60-member House on Wednesday. The motion, moved by the opposition Nationalist Congress Party, was admitted by assembly Speaker Charles Pyngrope on Tuesday. Deteriorating law and order in the western half of Meghalaya inhabited by the Garo tribe and lack of development spurred the no-confidence motion that opposition leader Conrad Sangma of the NCP had brought. But the party could not muster support with one of its 15 MLAs abstaining and another failing to turn up.

Chief minister Mukul Sangma, who has been fending off stiffer challenges from within the Congress, had earlier in the day claimed his government would sail through the no-trust vote. “Our focus was, is and will be on development,” he said after winning the no-trust.

Including Speaker Pyngrope, the MUA has 44 legislators in the Meghalaya assembly. Of these, 28 are Congress MLAs, 12 belong to three regional parties and four are independents. One independent MLA, aligned with the NCP, abstained from Wednesday’s no-trust.

Sangma, 46, rode a coup within the Congress to replace DD Lapang as chief minister in April 2010. His reign has since been under threat from dissidents in the party.

New Issue of Global Environmental Politics

The latest issue of the journal Global Environmental Politics focuses on "Climate Bandwagoning: The Impacts of Strategic Linkages for Regime Design, Maintenance and Death". The special issue is co-edited by Sikina Jinnah (American University) and Miquel Muñoz (Boston University's Pardee Centre) and explores issues of climate change and NGOs, biodiversity, desertification, fisheries, forests, security, and human rights. Select articles include, among others:

• Issue-linkages to Climate Change Measured through NGO Participation in the UNFCCC;
• Marketing Linkages: Secretariat Governance of the Climate-Biodiversity Interface;
• Combating Ineffectiveness: Climate Change Bandwagoning and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification; and
• Jumping on the Human Rights Bandwagon: How Rights-based Linkages Can Refocus Climate Politics

The special issue is available online, but does not have open access. If you would like to access the articles, please contact Miquel at miquel(at)bu.edu.

Spare it, Share it, or Both? Balancing agriculture with biodiversity conservation

How can we feed the growing human population while conserving biodiversity?

A recent paper in Science by Phalan et al. makes the case for establishing strict forest preserves and intensifying agricultural practices in the surrounding matrix.The paper compared two biodiversity-management strategies for agricultural landscapes:

1) Land sparing - set aside strict forest preserves while intensively farming the remaining land

2) Land sharing - adopt low-intensity, biodiversity-friendly farming across the landscape

The study correlated crop yields with densities of 341 bird and 260 tree species in India and Ghana across an agricultural intensity gradient (ranging from “diverse low-yielding mosaic agriculture to large-scale high-yielding monocultures”). They showed that, for a given amount of food production, most species (rare and common) would have higher populations under land sparing than land sharing.

There are caveats* to the conclusion that land-sparing is better for biodiversity. The authors point out that the conclusion depends on local context and may not hold for all species in all regions. The study did not discuss "how" to spare land in terms of building a network of forest preserves.

The agricultural landscape surrounding Montreal represents an opportunity to test this question. The image to the left highlights the fragmented forest patches (green) embedded within an agricultural matrix (yellow) and interspersed urban areas (gray). Perhaps this landscape could showcase an intermediate approach whereby biodiversity-friendly farming practices form the matrix around forest preserves and more intensive agriculture. In this model, eco-agricultural methods in the matrix and forest corridors would facilitate species dispersal among forest fragments to enhance biodiversity conservation, ecological functioning and ecosystem services across the forest network.

Certainly we need to apply cross-disciplinary biodiversity science that integrates ecological, economic, humanitarian and social interests to achieve the appropriate balance between land sharing and land sparing.

Reference: Phalan, B., Onial, M., Balmford, A., Green, R. E., Reconciling Food Production and Biodiversity Conservation: Land Sharing and Land Sparing Compared. 2011. Science. 333, 1289-1291.

*I haven't discussed implications of land sparing on food accessibility and security.