Two days national convention at New Delhi

Calling all progressive, democratic, secular organisations to join us at the National Convention

 ‘India’s Descent into Fascism: How Do We Stop It?

April 17 & 18, 2013

New Delhi

ANHAD

A DECADE OF RESISTANCE: 2003-2013

Anhad is observing the completion of its ten years. Formed in March 2003 in the aftermath of Gujarat 2002 , ANHAD has actively contested the ideology of hate, the growing authoritarian character of the state, the growth of communal and fascist forces along with doing huge amount of work for the marginalised sections of the society especially women & minorities. ANHAD has intervened at the policy level, has done advocacy work from the grass root to the national level.

Today when the national consciousness is tilting towards the communal ideology and communal thought process has become common sense we feel there is a need to urgently call upon all secular and democratic forces in the country to stop India’s Descent into Fascism.

The falling economy, growing unemployment, displacement of people from their natural habitats and the joblessness created by the bursting of the IT bubble is creating a class which ,not being engaged with any ideological people’s movement and not having the skills to form a united struggle, is bound to turn towards fascism, and it is under these conditions when the ideas of fascism and dictatorship gain ground.   

ANHAD is organising a two day national convention ‘India’s Descent into Fascism: How Do We Stop It?’at the Constitution Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi on April 17 & 18, 2013.

The convention will have representatives from a large number of states to present an over view of the situation from their states, experts who have worked on the questions of how terror has been used as a tool to demonise the minorities, communalisation of public and private spaces, culture, educational institutions and media & different segments of the society, it will look at recent cases of communal violence and the way forward. 

A special panel of academicians, jurists, activists will at the end come out with recommendations for the government and the civil society.

Convention Schedule

APRIL 17, 2013

8.00-9.00am Breakfast for outstation participants and Registration

9.00-9.30am- Welcome

9.30-11.15- Session 1: Voices from the Ground: An Overview of the Situation from different states:

Chair: Gagan Sethi

Speakers : Deepak Bhatt- MP,   Dr Anil Panikkar-Haryana,  Faisal Anurag- Jharkhand,  Kedar Misra-Orissa, Ramzan Chodhury-Haryana, Prof Haragopal- Andhra Pradesh, Dr. A Suneetha, Andhra Pradesh

11.15-1.00pm: Session 2: Voices from the Ground: An Overview of the Situation from different states:

Chair: Aruna Roy

Speakers: Anwar Ali- Kerala,   Mohd Arif _UP,  Neeraj Jain-Maharashtra,  Pritha Kejriwal- West Bengal,  Rajendra Sail- Chattisgarh, Shujaat Bukhari-Kashmir , Eric Pinto – Goa

1pm-2pm: Lunch

2pm-3.45pm-Session 3: Voices from the Ground: An Overview of the Situation from different states:

Chair: Prof. Rooprekha Verma

Speakers : Zakia Soman-Gujarat, Uttam Parmar-Gujarat, Yusuf Sheikh-Gujarat, Zamser Ali-Assam, Kavita Srivastava-Rajasthan, Arshad Ajmal-Bihar

3.45-5.30pm:  Session 4: Terror a Tool to Demonise Minorities and Sangh Terror Network

Chair: Dr. Ram Puniyani

Speakers: Manisha Sethi, Shahnawaz Alam, Subhash Gatade, Rajeev Yadav, Ajit Sahi

5.30pm -TEA

7.00- 10pm: Celebrating Diversity: An Evening of Poetry, Music and Dance

Welcome: Safeguarding and Celebrating Cultural Diversity: Kamala Bhasin

ANHAD CULTURAL GROUP, URI, JAMMU & KASHMIR, AVNI SETHI, DHRUV SANGARI, GAUHAR RAZA, GOVT GIRLS SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL, BHALOUT, ROHTAK, KHURSHID AKRAM, MANGLESH DABRAL, MAXFORT SCHOOL, DWARKA, NAMRATA PAMNANI, SIDDHI GOMA TRIBAL DANCE GROUP, VIDYA SHAH, VISHNU NAGAR, Documentaries on Anhad by Anhad Production House and Arma Ansari

April 18, 2013

8.00-900am: Breakfast

9.00- 11.15: Session 5: Communalisation of Public and Private Spaces, Cultural, Educational institutions and Media, Globalisation and Communalism

Chair: Colin Gonsalves

Speakers: Amit Sengupta,  Anil Choudhry, Dr. Anupam Gupta, Avinash Kumar,  Dr Harvardhan Hegde, Prof Atul Sood, Sukumar Muralidharan

11.15-1.00pm: Session 6: Political Response to Growing Communalism

Chair: Mahesh Bhatt

Speakers: D Raja-CPI,  Digvijay Singh-Congress, DP Tripathi-NCP, Kavita Krishnan-CPI(ML), Ramvilas Pawan-LJP, Sitaram Yechury-CPM

1.00pm-2pm-Lunch

2.00-4.30pm: Session 7:  The Way Forward and Recommendations

Chair: Prof KN Panikkar

Speakers: Syeda Hamid, Vrinda Grover, Seema Mustafa, Dr. KM Shrimali, Harsh Mander, Dr John Dayal, Dr. Apoorvanand

Nationwide strike on 2nd day at Ludhiana

Workers jammed the railway track and held a rally

The nationwide strike call given by the 11 Central Trade Unions and various independent federations, unions and associations had an effective participation on the second day today. The workers affiliated to the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), INTUC, BMS, CTU, TUCC and CITU observed strike today in their respective industries and other institutions and thereafter they gathered at Bus stand from where they marched to the Provident Fund Office in Sham Nagar. After that workers in Thousands went to the Loco Diesel Shed and jammed the railway track and held a rally. Today’s protest rally  was presided over by Com Om Parkash Mehta - AITUC, Com Jatinder Pal Singh of CITU and  Shri Swaran Singh of INTUC, Com Paramjeet Singh of CTU, Sh Nageshwar Singh of BMS, Shri Sham Narain Yadav of TUCC. Speaking on the occasion state leaders Com Raghunath Singh, General Secretary of CITU Punjab,  Com. Inderjeet Singh- President CTU Punjab, Com Paramjeet Singh of CTU, Sh. Swaran Singh- President INTUC Punjab, Hari Singh Sahni-TUCC and Com D P Maur member state working committee AITUC.
The speakers said that yesterday’s strike was a complete success and it reflected the growing resentment among the working class against the anti people policies of the government.  They demanded minimum wages to be fixed by the Punjab Govt. @ for unskilled workers Rs 10,000, Semi Skilled 15,000, Skilled workers 20,000 per month, end to contractual and outsourcing and filling up of all govt. and semi govt. posts on regular basis, to disband the new pension policy effective from 1.1.2004 and implement the same old pension scheme on all employees. They also demanded creation of social security fund for the workers of the unorganized sector.   They cited low wages in the state as major reason for the shortage of labour in the state. They demanded all anti worker acts recently promulgated by the Punjab government to be withdrawn with immediate effect. The speakers said that the labour laws in the state are being flouted by both public and private sector with impunity. The contractual workers in both the sectors be regularized hence forth.  These must be implemented in letter and spirit. They deplored that under the process of so called globalization and privatization at the diktat of the world bank and International Monetary Fund ,  the economic policies of both central and state governments there has been accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few, while vast majority is suffering under acute poverty and unemployment. Latest reports have indicated that 100 top rich families in India own assets to the tune of 16 lakh crores of rupees where as 70% are forced to live on meager spending of Rs. 16.60  per day.  Speaking on the occasion Com. Tarsem Jodhan, Com D P Maur, Com Ram Lal, Jagdish Chand and Gurjeet Singh Jagpal, Gulzar Singh Gorea opposed FDI in banks, LIC and retail as this will hit the job situation hard for the employees and also the production in the small scale sector. They also demanded  regular jobs and equal wages for ASHA, Aanganwadi and mid day meal workers. They warned that if the govt. does not change its economic policies benefitting the rich and the corporate sector, then more militant agitations   are on the anvil. Others who addressed include Com Bhagirath Paliwal, Suresh Sood, Gurnam Gill, Laddoo shah, Haniuman Prasad Dubey, Samar Bahadur, Gurnam Sidhu, Kameshwar Yadav, Sarbjit Singh Sarhali, Manjeet Singh Buta, Charan Dass, Amarnath Kumkalan, S K Tiwari and Rajesh Kumar Sharma, Com Naresh Gaur, Dr Arun Mitra and Shri Gurbaksh Rai.
The protestors included large number of women, construction workers, industrial workers, Public health workers,  contractual workers, Corporation workers, roadways  and others sections of workers and employees.  

Universal Screening of Children

05-February-2013 11:23 IST
Launch of National programme for the purposeThe National Rural Health Mission of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India will launch a new initiative of Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services to provide comprehensive care to all the children. The purpose of these services is to improve the overall quality of life of children through early detection of birth defects, diseases, deficiencies, development delays including disability. 

The Programme will be launched by Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, UPA from Palghar, a Tribal Block in Thane district, Maharashtra tomorrow in the presence of Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare and Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra. 

It may be mentioned that the burden of birth defects, development delays due to deficiencies and diseases is significant in children. This is also one of the important factors for child mortality and out of pocket expenditure for poor families. Birth defects account for 9.6% of all new-born deaths and 4% of under five mortality. According to March of Dimes, 2006, out of every 100 babies born in this country annually, 6 to 7 have a birth defect. In Indian context, this would translate to 17 lakhs birth defects annually. Development delays affect at least 10% children and these delays if not intercepted timely may lead to permanent disabilities including cognitive, hearing or vision. 

A set of thirty common conditions have been identified for screening and further management. These services are built on the existing school health services and these services will be provided through dedicated mobile health teams placed in every block. The block level dedicated mobile medical health teams would comprise of four health personnel viz. two AYUSH doctors (One Male, One Female), ANM/ SN and a Pharmacist. The teams will carry out screening of all the children in the age group 0 – 6 years enrolled at Anganwadi centres at least twice a year besides screening of all children enrolled in Government and Government aided schools. The newborns will also be screened for birth defects in health facilities where deliveries take place and during the home visit by ASHA. An estimated 27 crore children in the age group of zero to eighteen years are expected to be covered in a phased manner. 

The District Early Intervention Centre is envisaged to be made operational in all districts of the country for providing management of these referred cases from the blocks and will also link these cases with tertiary level health services in case of surgical management. The existing services from Ministry of Women and Child, Social Justice and empowerment and Education will also be optimally utilized. Necessary treatment costs would be provided under National Rural Health Mission to tertiary level institutions whether in Government or Private sector. The implementation of these services will also generate country wide epidemiological data on selected health conditions for improved future planning of health services. 

Early identification of select health conditions and their linkage to care, support and treatment, under Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services will help to achieve equitable child health care. In the long run, the programme would prove economical for the poor and marginalized through reducing out of pocket expenditure, burden of diseases, improving health awareness among community, improving the professionalism in service delivery and finally strengthening the public sector hospitals. This would lead to promotion of health among children which is of fundamental value to the entire nation. (PIB)
BN/HB