Full Coverage: South Asia

29.09.2006 This year's Right Livelihood Awards demonstrate how individual courage, even in the face of powerful interests and repression, can bring about remarkable changes. Meet the winners.
From: Right Livelihood Awards

29.09.2006

Youth Network

With support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Population Council researchers designed an operations research project to determine the feasibility of expanding male youths’ access to reproductive health information and condom services through their peers in Bangladesh.

29.09.2006 A new report by the UN says that India has enough food to feed its population of one billion though hunger and food insecurity have increased since the mid-1990s.

29.09.2006 Recent events in Lebanon and the stalemate in the Middle East peace process have demonstrated the growing failure of the Security Council to tackle issues under its mandate, the Defence Minister of India told the General Assembly, calling for reform of the 15-member body.

29.09.2006

29.09.2006 Stockholm: Ruth Manorama a Dalit herself, 'for her commitment over Dalit women's causes, has bagged the 2006 Right Livelihood Award, better known as Alternate Nobel Prize, it was announced by Akob von Uexkull, the founder of the awards, during a ceremony at the Swedish Foreign Ministry's press room on Thursday.

28.09.2006 While the fall in the total fertility rate for the five Indian
states for which NFHS-3 results have been released is to be
welcomed, one cannot draw any general conclusion until the data for the BIMARU states comes in. The data on anaemia prevalence among women and children, however, is disturbing says Ashish Bose.

28.09.2006

Telecentre in one building at Embalem, Pondicherry Feb-02 © Peter Armstrong

How much should setting up a telecentre cost? A telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet and technologies to gather information and communicate with others while developing digital skills.

28.09.2006 Meena Day 2006 was celebrated in Dhaka and around the country on Saturday September 23rd. The theme of Meena Day this year was: Chhele Meye bibhed nai, jonmo nibondhon shobar chai meaning 'Birth registration for all, be it a boy or girl' - to draw attention to the priority the Government of Bangladesh has attached to Universal Birth Registration by 2008.

28.09.2006 Encouraging development of women entrepreneurship especially in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector has been accorded a prominent role in both the Industrial Policy of Bangladesh, as well as the SME Policy Strategies 2005. The Women Entrepreneurship Development Conference proved to be a step in the right direction, with one outcome being the decision to form a Women Entrepreneurship (WE) Forum which will act as a facilitator to remove the barriers in the development of women entrepreneurship throughout the country.

28.09.2006 Abductions, torture, brutal beatings, killings, extortions and other serious human rights abuses by Maoist rebels have not stopped despite their engagement in the ongoing peace process, according to a new UN report.

27.09.2006 An Indian activist has alleged that Indian enforcement agencies are not being able to stem the disappearances of millions of children all over the country. He fears that missing children are being pushed into begging or forced work.

27.09.2006

Containing HIV

To meet the challenges of the increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases in Manipur, the Congress has started a campaign to create awareness among the people.

27.09.2006 The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is working with the Home Ministry to repeal Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that outlaws homosexuality.

27.09.2006 There are more than hundreds of male sex workers (MSWs) operate in Lahore. Although the precise number of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Lahore is unknown, according to the Pakistan National AIDS Programme, they number around 38,000. Under the country's Islamic laws, such behaviour is strictly illegal and the result is that levels of awareness about the risk of HIV infection among male sex workers is extremely low.

27.09.2006 As many as nine people have died due to Dengue in Delhi so far and the total number of cases reported has risen to 327.

27.09.2006 Findings of a study, conducted by Karunalaya, a voluntary organisation involved in an awareness programme along with the Chennai Corporation has revealed that about 80 per cent of families in north Chennai have, at least, one member affected by chikungunya.

27.09.2006 The United States Ambassador, David C. Mulford, and World Health Organisation (WHO) representative to India, Salim Habayeb, have signed an agreement for tuberculosis control in India.

27.09.2006 Global CSO network Sustainability Watch reports that market-oriented development frameworks that promote trade liberalisation and privatisation adversely impact sustainable development as they do not pay attention to environmental constraints, especially in the case of planning for land and natural resource use.

27.09.2006 The International Labour Office (ILO) is to host an interagency meeting here which will provide an opportunity to examine critical occupational safety and health, employment and livelihood issues in the context of a recent UN Action Plan with regard to the potential spread of the avian flu virus.