Full Coverage: South Asia

27.02.2007 Poor communities displaced by a World Bank-funded US$123m dam remodelling project in Pakistan started an indefinite hunger strike yesterday in protest at the Bank’s refusal to set up an independent inquiry into the dam’s environmental and economic impact.

26.02.2007 Tongues on Fire Film Festival, London, 9-31 March, "celebrates the excellence, performance and achievements of Asian women in cinema". It showcases work by women or stories where women are the central protagonists "in order to encourage debate and hold up a mirror to life".

23.02.2007 Permanent Secretary at the Department for International Development (DFID) Suma Chakrabarti tells The Financial Express in an interview that a political consensus is building on in the UK over committing its Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment of 0.7% of its GNP. Read on for more.

23.02.2007 Single-minded pursuit of exports has helped China reach record economic growth figures. But millions of Chinese have been left behind, and this growth has severe environmental costs. These are indicators that India must be wary of copying China's Special Economic Zones-approach.

21.02.2007 As a UN committee readies to discuss India's compliance with human rights standards this week, a new report charges that it has systematically failed to ensure the fundamental human rights of Dalits, or so-called untouchables.

20.02.2007 The Jarawa tribe of Andaman Islands could be "wiped out" unless the Indian government acts to protect them, a report warns as the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination prepares to discuss India’s record.
+ Canadian tribe reaches out to Jarawa

15.02.2007 India’s Total Literacy Campaign used a new system by making local administrators and community organisations--not central bureaucrats--responsible for implementation. ID21 looks at the program's lasting impact on the women who administered the program, worked as volunteer teachers, and were taught literacy and numeracy skills.

14.02.2007 Indian Public Sector Unit Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is planning to connect 80,000 villages through wireless broadband. The installation of WiMax WiMax will provide broadband access to customers within a radius of 25 kilometers. BSNL's project will further boost the Central government's e-Governance agenda.

14.02.2007 OneWorld South Asia (OWSA) will hold its Annual Regional Meeting (ARM) at Dhulikhel, near Kathmandu, in Nepal on February 27-28, 2007. The ARM is an annual feature in which OneWorld partners, civil society organisations and development stakeholders gather to discuss achieving the MDGs. The theme for this year's ARM is Midway to MDGs: Accelerating Progress Through ICTs.

14.02.2007 OneWorld South Asia (OWSA) will hold its Annual Regional Meeting (ARM) at Dhulikhel, near Kathmandu, in Nepal on February 27-28, 2007. The ARM is an annual feature in which OneWorld partners, civil society organisations and development stakeholders gather to discuss achieving the MDGs. The theme for this year's ARM is Midway to MDGs: Accelerating Progress Through ICTs.

13.02.2007 Never in the past two decades has the situation been as favourable as now for progress on one of the most intractable South Asian conflicts of our times - Kashmir.
From: Himal magazine

12.02.2007 OneWorld South Asia conducted a five days workshop on new media for twenty eight participants from PACS partner CSOs from the state of Madhya Pradesh from 5-9 February 2007 at Bhopal.

08.02.2007 South Asia still has nearly 400 million poor people in a population of 1.42 billion. Although, the proportion of people living on $1 a day has fallen from 51 percent to 31 percent in 2001, the challenges to overcome poverty are so enormous that the efforts being made are far from being equal to the task, says the editor of a Pakistani newspaper.
From: The News (Pakistan)

08.02.2007 Many Bhutanese women and children are still dying unnecessarily, according to a national report. For infants, pneumonia is the major killer, but thousands are still dying from diarrhea too--and many children are stunted, underweight, or lacking vital nutrients.
From: Bhutan Broadcasting Services

07.02.2007

07.02.2007 Three staff members of Akuna, a bimonthly trade union newspaper, were seized on Monday from the suburbs of Colombo, according to news reports. The men, who are also trade union activists, may be in government custody. The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international watchdog for media rights, has called upon the Sri Lankan government to locate the missing journos.

07.02.2007 India’s gharials are in serious trouble. There are fewer than 200 of these river predators left in the wild. And their deplorable state has remained ignored even by the media, while the tiger hogs the headline - but the truth is that gharials are 20 times more endangered than tigers.

05.02.2007 All institutions of the rule of law and democracy have been dismantled in Sri Lanka, creating a chaotic situation in all aspects of governance, a leading Asian rights group said in a statement marking the country's 59th anniversary of independence.

02.02.2007 The new Domestic Violence Act is well-intentioned but over-ambitious—as if wishful thinking is all that is needed to protect women from all kinds of real and imagined harm. We are likely to see this law make a mockery of itself.

02.02.2007 NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (IPS) - As a legal battle launched by the Swiss pharmaceuticals multinational Novartis against India's patents law warms up, health activists are gearing up to mount a campaign against drug monopolies and the people's right to medicines at affordable prices.