Full Coverage: Social exclusion

30.04.2008 WASHINGTON, Apr 30 (OneWorld) - The mainstream League of Women Voters lashed out at the U.S. Supreme Court this week, calling its decision on voter identification "a disgraceful decision by a court that has no credibility on election issues."

28.04.2008 Nepal Maoists owe their impressive performance in the recently held elections to the support of the marginalised communities. It is now up to the former rebels to prove themselves and come up to the expectations of these people whose interests have long been ignored in the past.

16.04.2008 They may be washing others' dirty linen now, but the women do not mind it. Swift Wash, a laundry project started by local NGO Arz in Goa brings dignity and hope to rehabilitated sex workers in this western state of India.

08.04.2008 The social exclusion and discrimination faced by Roma means they are not equal partners in the European Year of the Intercultural Dialogue, the European Roma Information Office said in a statement marking International Roma Day (8 April).

01.04.2008 ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’ is an old adage. Three stories of incredible courage and resilience in the face of adversity are just illustrations of numerous other women in rural India who are putting up a brave fight against poverty, diseases, societal attitudes, bureaucratic apathies, physical attacks and so on.

19.03.2008 A prime issue that chokes the political health of troubled Pakistan is that not all of its able citizens are allowed to vote...

17.03.2008 In southern India, Kanavu is a dream school for Wayanad’s tribal children. Started by a writer-turned activist 15 years ago with an idea of tapping the hidden genius of the community, it is now run by the first batch of its students.

17.03.2008 Participation of Indian women in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is an important intervention towards their empowerment. A recent survey of the scheme in western India reveals that single women have been denied its benefits due to conventional definition of male-headed households that treat them as dependents, says journalist Kiran Bhatty.

15.03.2008 Punarbhava, a new interactive website for the disabled, is a one-stop cyber shop for information, aids, appliances, research and employment. The portal was recently launched at the Indian capital, along with the release of a new screen reader software for the blind.

11.03.2008 Mumbai’s Sangini Women's Co-operative Bank is a beacon of hope for the sex workers of Kamathipura. By providing a monetary buffer to its red-light district clients, this small Indian bank seeks to change the lives of these women for the better by making them less vulnerable to debts.

05.03.2008 BOGOTA, Mar 5 (OneWorld) - People who earn their living by sorting through and reselling municipal waste have reasserted their role as garbage recyclers and productive members of the global economy at an unprecedented event here this week.

25.02.2008 Fears are being expressed that Nepal can face a serious humanitarian crisis. Ethnic Madhesis – who suffer from extreme poverty, unemployment and lack of citizenship – are on an indefinite strike since February 12 demanding a separate region for themselves. Essential services remain disrupted and the situation can only worsen from here.

18.02.2008 There are millions in India who do the dirty job risking their lives. We never notice their lives or deaths. Bereft of the honour of uniform and the posthumous glamour of martyrdom, these soldiers sacrifice their lives making sure the rivers of filth flow unhindered, says S. Anand of Tehelka, a weekly magazine.

11.02.2008 Even as the HIV virus occurrence rate remains low at below 1 percent in Bangladesh, the country needs to secure itself by building awareness, officials say. More often, people need support to fight the social stigma that goes with the virus in this largely conservative Muslim society.

03.12.2007 On the occasion of International Day of Disabled Persons, December 3, Juan Somavia, DG of the International Labour Office in a message emphasised on the need to provide employment to people with disabilities and allow them to live with dignity. Exclusion of the disabled results in a loss of some US $1.94 trillion to global GDP.

29.11.2007 Hundreds of Muslim women from across India, along with academics, social experts and parliamentarians, addressed social, livelihood, legal and religious issues of the community at the first annual convention of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) in Delhi. The campaign also called for the implementation of the 2006 Justice Sachar Committee report for better education and employment facilities.

27.11.2007 The national platform for Dalit organizations in India, NACDOR, will hold its second national conference from December 5-8, 2007 in New Delhi. Over a thousand Dalit organizations will participate at NACDOR-II to finalise a comprehensive Dalit agenda, while tackling current challenges to the marginalized communities.

27.11.2007 Tribal women across the world, often seen as backward and primitive, suffer violence and sexual exploitation at the hands of outsiders who invade their land. As most cases go unreported, such acts of hostility remain hidden from the public gaze.

31.10.2007 "Da un'Europa sconvolta dai recenti conflitti nei Balcani ad un Europa che, valorizzando etnie, lingue e religioni, sappia cogliere le tante opportunità anche attraverso l'allargamento dell'Unione". E' questo l'appello che è emerso dalle relatrici alla Conferenza internazionale promossa venerdì scorso a Bolzano dalla World Social Agenda nell'ambito della manifestazione "Libera Europa–Freies Europa". La conferenza ha concluso il ciclo di riflessione quadriennale sui continenti nei quali donne dell'Africa, America Latina, dell'Asia, dell’Europa dell’Est e dei Balcani hanno presentato le loro attività e la loro visione di un mondo "diverso, multiplo, mescolato". Dal prossimo anno, la World Social Agenda proporrà percorsi, dibattiti e eventi a Padova, Trento e Bolzano sugli "Obiettivi del Millennio" proposti dall'Onu.

23.10.2007 Concerned intellectuals in Delhi during the launch of a book, Alternative Economic Survey 2006-07, held the government’s neo-liberal policies responsible for ever widening rich-poor divide. Obsessed with what they describe as “growth fundamentalism”, they blamed the government for the sufferings of majority of the people in this country.