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The Hindu
a day ago
- Business
- The Hindu
‘Innovations, creativity among youth key factors to promote climate action'
Innovations, creativity and digital fluency among the youth were the key factors to promote environmental and climate action, which could ensure sustainability and pave the way for 'green growth', experts said at conference on 'youth sustainability' here on Monday (July 21, 2025). The event formed part of a campaign for involving youth in the action to control climate change. The experts described the youth as not just the leaders of tomorrow, but as the 'solution providers of today', while calling upon them to adopt a shared vision of green economy. An environmentally sustainable economy could be evolved with proper resource management, collaborations and upskilling. Water conservationist and Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh said the challenges of climate urgency had produced opportunities to learn the use of indigenous knowledge systems. 'Communities equipped with local wisdom can conserve water and revive the dry and dead rivers,' Mr. Singh said. Highlighting the role of Tarun Bharat Sangh, established by him, in the revival of Arvari river in Alwar district with the construction of small check dams, Mr. Singh said the adoption of prudent agricultural practices would make the ecosystem healthy and mitigate the impact of climate change. Haridev Joshi University of Journalism Vice-Chancellor Sudhi Rajiv said the individual and collective action of the youth could help improve environmental outcomes, even as the educational institutions could function as 'living laboratories' for sustainability. Rajasthan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president K.L. Jain said the industries must not merely be engines of growth, but they should become champions of green innovation. 'The sectors such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, sustainable agriculture and circular economy will be at the forefront of India's transition into a green economy in the next ten years,' he said. Experts addressing the sessions on youth-industry synergy, digital narratives, and harnessing communication said the energy of youth and the experience and resources of industry should be brought together to create a green, inclusive and resilient economy. To bridge the gap between the academia and the industry on climate action, the steps suggested by the speakers included co-creation of curriculum, encouraging apprenticeships and on-field exposure, supporting research and development collaborations, developing centres of excellence and incentivising startups and innovation labs. The campaign for climate action has been taken up under the aegis of Jaipur-based Lok Samvad Sansthan (LSS) and New Delhi-based Sustainability Karma. LSS secretary Kalyan Singh Kothari said the youth were being encouraged to produce contents to sensitise the people on the challenges of environmental degradation and promote sustainable living.
NDTV
12-07-2025
- General
- NDTV
The Opposite Story: On The Tragic End Of Radhika Yadav's Dream Life
Year: 1964 | City: Amritsar I was 15. Hair cut like the boys. Skirts and shorts were my uniform. A tennis racquet in one hand, schoolbooks and tennis balls in the basket, and a bicycle under me - my world was wide and open. I rode across Amritsar with the sun in my eyes and wind in my face, often returning home near sunset. Back then, that kind of freedom for a girl was unusual, even alarming. Whispers in our neighbourhood and even elders in the family repeatedly reached my parents. "You are wasting money on daughters." But my parents weren't the confused type. They responded firmly, with clarity. "We are investing in self-reliant girls." What if they hadn't? What if they had bowed to the social chatter that ranked a girl's ambition below the honour of a family name? The story of Radhika Yadav is one of cultivation with potential to grow in abundance, but chopped as she got to bloom. Her life began beautifully. A father who believed in his daughter, introducing her to tennis, dreaming of an academy, of excellence, of independence. But when she began to fly - to shine, to create, to thrive - that same father faltered. The chains of inherited patriarchy, the need to conform to societal norms, the fear of gossip - they all tightened their grip. He forgot he had raised a champion. This contradiction is still deeply rooted across regions and families in our country. We send our daughters to schools and universities. We help them build careers, sometimes even dreams. But the moment they outshine, the tide turns. Clan ego, family pride, male insecurity - they all conspire in silence. Often, girls surrender. Not out of weakness, but to maintain peace. To survive. But this is also the era of a new kind of daughter. Today's Radhika - and many like her - refuse to give up. They don't want to just survive. They want to thrive. Because they believe in themselves. They know their worth, even when others forget it. But the truth is stark: daughters still remain tethered, not by their limitations, but by the mindsets of those around them. Until society sees daughters not as threats or burdens but as powerhouses of possibility, India will remain shackled to a past it claims to have outgrown. Let's not just raise daughters. Let's stand by them when they soar and outshine. Let girl power bloom. (Kiran Bedi is former Lieutenant Governor, Puducherry. She is the first woman to have joined officer ranks of Indian Police Service. Recipient of Magsaysay Award (1994) for police and prison reforms, she has also worked as a UN police advisor. A tennis champion, she earned a PhD from IIT Delhi and is a Nehru Fellow. She's founded many NGOs and is the author of several books.)
Hindustan Times
27-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Delhi: Storm drain desilting raises ‘manual scavenging' alarm
In the afternoon sun near Munirka along the Outer Ring Road, Mahendra Singh removes his shirt and trousers, stripping down to his underwear before stepping into a stormwater drain. With a rusted shovel, he scoops out dark, foul-smelling sludge—a mix of silt, plastic, and broken glass—and passes it to his co-worker Raj Kumar. Neither man wears gloves, boots, or any protective gear. Along a 100-metre stretch from the spot, there are multiple heaps of filth as over 50 workers toil to clear choked storm drains ahead of monsoon. This scene, repeated across hundreds of sites in Delhi, is part of the Capital's annual pre-monsoon desilting drive. Yet, activists and rights groups say this distinction is both technical and misleading. In cities like Delhi, stormwater drains, which generally only carry rainwater to canals from the roads, can often have drains 'puncturing' them. This has been acknowledged multiple times in official government submissions to courts, in NGT orders and by senior officials of drain-owning agencies. 'These stormwater drains are not clean rainwater channels. They're choked with sewage, industrial waste and sludge,' said Bezwada Wilson, a noted rights activist who was awarded the 2016 Magsaysay Award for his efforts to get justice for manual scavengers. 'If a person is made to get into these drains, neck-deep in filth without any safety gear, how is this not manual scavenging?' Wilson said that the work violates both the Manual Scavenging Act and labour safety laws, citing observations from across the city—workers entering blackened, stinking drains, often laced with sewage. 'Machines should be doing this. The law is clear: no human should be entering such spaces unless absolutely necessary and with full protection,' he said. Sanjay Gahlot, chairman of the Delhi Commission for Safai Karamcharis, echoed Wilson's concerns. 'Agencies and contractors are not able to understand that this too is manual scavenging. They are exploiting people by making them manually clear the filth. People's lives are being put at risk,' he said. Public Works Department (PWD) manages 2,026km of small drains, which merge with larger drains under the jurisdiction of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department, which eventually empty into the Yamuna. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) oversees 12,892 smaller drains, spanning 6,067km. Officials from both agencies did not respond to requests for comments on the matter. Every year, these agencies carry out a large-scale desilting operation between April and June to prepare the city for the monsoon. At the Munirka site, over 50 labourers were at work along a 100-metre stretch. Similar scenes were observed by HT on Monday near IIT Delhi, Deer Park, Hauz Khas, Safdarjung and near Jangpura. Meanwhile, PWD through its official handle shared similar images of men without protective gear entering filthy drains at places such as Paschim Vihar, Mangolpuri, Rohini and Jahangirpuri. Last month, workers were also seen clearing sludge from the Barapullah drain without gear, just before a high-profile government inspection. The labour is outsourced through private contractors who hire workers—which activists said are mostly from marginalised communities—on a daily wage basis. They are paid between ₹500 to ₹700 a day, often without the legally mandated minimum wage benefits. According to the Delhi government, the current minimum wage for unskilled labour is ₹18,456 per month, or around ₹700 per day. 'This is seasonal work. I also work at tent houses for weddings during the rest of the year,' said Singh, 51, as he paused briefly by the roadside. 'It stinks, it burns your skin, but there's no other job. No one will pay this much for three months.' A supervisor at a site near the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare claimed only minor sections of drains were being cleaned manually. 'We only ask workers to clean near the manholes. Machines will take care of the deeper parts,' he said. But workers at multiple sites contradict this. Vikki Jeenwal, 40, pointed to cuts on his feet while working near Safdarjung Development Area. 'There's glass in the sludge. Sometimes it smells so bad I drink alcohol just to get through the day.' His co-worker Sonu Beniwal, 27, added, 'There are gases that make you dizzy. We've heard people have died in such drains. But here, at least, we get ₹500 at the end of the day. Other jobs don't even pay on time.' Kali Charan, 62, said his eyes water during the first few hours of work. 'I've never seen gloves or boots. Only once, when a TV crew came, the contractor gave us masks.' Wilson emphasised that the law allows human entry into drains only in life-threatening emergencies, and even then with full protective gear and written approvals. 'Yet every monsoon, hundreds of men are forced to enter these filth-filled drains. This is not stormwater. This is neglect, and it is killing people slowly.'
The Hindu
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
BJP MLA Kanwar Lal Meena surrenders in Rajasthan court after a 3-year sentence in 2005 case
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Kanwar Lal Meena, whose conviction and three years' sentence in a 20-year-old case was upheld by the Rajasthan High Court earlier this month, surrendered in the trial court at Manoharthana in Jhawalar district on Wednesday. No decision has been taken as yet on his disqualification from the Assembly. The Supreme Court had recently directed Meena to surrender within two weeks, while dismissing his special leave petition (SLP). Elected from Baran district's Anta, Meena was sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment in December 2020 in a case of brandishing a revolver at an officer with life threats and damaging public property. Accompanied by his lawyers and supporters, Meena arrived at the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Manoharthana on Wednesday morning. The court sent him to judicial custody, after which he was taken to the town's community health centre for a medical examination. He was later shifted to the Aklera sub-jail. 'Full faith' A large number of police personnel and BJP workers were present on the court premises during the surrender. Questioned by journalists about his future move, Meena said he had 'full faith' in the judiciary and his lawyers would decide about filing an appeal. A two-time MLA, Meena first won the election from Manoharthana in 2013, and later from Anta in 2023. He was not elected to the Assembly at the time of the crime in 2005 and already had 15 criminal cases against him. In 2016, he led a mob which allegedly attacked the activists of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, founded by Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy, during a march in Jhalawar district. Though Meena was initially acquitted by the trial court, a sessions court in Aklera later convicted him in December 2020 after finding him guilty of obstructing the government work, intimidating the government officials and vandalising property. His sentence for three and two years, respectively, on different charges, was upheld by the HC on May 1. Shameful, says Congress In Jaipur, Congress MLA and Leader of the Opposition Tika Ram Jully described the surrender as a 'shameful episode'. 'This is a black spot on our democracy. It has happened for the first time in the history of Rajasthan ,' he said.
Indian Express
15-05-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
Woman missing for 34 years, treated for schizophrenia, reunited with family in emotional homecoming
May 14 was a special day at Abdul Kader Fakir's home in Rupshigaon, Aminkata in Assam's Kokrajhar district as he was reunited with his sister Sohida Bibi, now in her early 70s. Fakir, 61, told The Indian Express over the phone they had searched everywhere for Sohida, who was missing for more than three decades, but couldn't find her. 'My sister was in her early 30s, when one day she left home. Complaints were lodged and searches carried out everywhere. But we gave up hope during the pandemic and thought she was no more,' Fakir, who has a small construction business, said. Fakir's elder brother Hussain, 82, also cannot believe his little sister is back. Overjoyed she has returned after 34 years, Fakir told The Indian Express, 'Meri behen mere paas rahegi (My sister will stay with me).' Sohida, who would call herself 'Musamma', had undergone treatment for mental illness at Guwahati after marriage. Family members say most likely she had wandered off in that mental state. It was 27 years ago on December 12, 1998 that she was admitted to the Regional Mental Hospital at Thane. At the time, she was lodged as an undertrial at Arthur Road Jail and was sent to the hospital for psychiatric treatment following a court order. However, despite receiving seven years of care and being diagnosed with schizophrenia, she was deemed unfit for discharge. Over the years, persistent follow-ups and communication with the help of a Bengali interpreter by a team from Thane Mental Hospital and then later with the Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation, helped trace her origins to a village in Assam. According to Dr Archana Gadkari, psychiatrist at Regional Mental Hospital, Thane, she was brought to the hospital from jail. 'She had a history of aggressiveness, poor interactions, impaired self-care and sleep,' Dr Gadkari said. She added that later some of the criminal charges were dropped against her and due to the efforts of the hospital, she was converted from a criminal to a civil patient. Varsha Warade, sister-in-charge at Regional Mental Hospital, when contacted, said it took a while for 'Musamma' to respond to medication and counselling. It was several years later that she started responding and spoke in Bengali with the interpreter. The search then began to reunite 'Musamma' with her family and the team at Regional Mental Hospital, reached out to the Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation. Set up by Magsaysay Award winner Dr Bharat Vatwani with his wife and others, the foundation in Mumbai and Karjat over the years has reunited more than 7,000 mentally ill persons with their families. Dr Vatwani said when she was admitted to hospital in 1998, it was likely that in her disturbed mental state, Sohida may have mentioned Bangladesh and hence there was a court order issued that she should be deported. 'The team of psychiatrists felt she belonged to Assam and reached out to us. Our team went with photographs and other details to Assam and were able to trace her relatives. What added to the challenge was a death certificate issued by the Dotoma block Primary Health Centre in Kokrajhar. However, our team contacted the police and after an identification process, she was sent to the foundation on April 29 this year. Our social worker Samar Basak accompanied her to Assam where she was reunited with the family on May 14,' Dr Vatwani said. Anuradha Mascarenhas is a journalist with The Indian Express and is based in Pune. A senior editor, Anuradha writes on health, research developments in the field of science and environment and takes keen interest in covering women's issues. With a career spanning over 25 years, Anuradha has also led teams and often coordinated the edition. ... Read More
