Myanmar To Be A Bus Ride Away

Cabinet mulls Imphal-Mandalay service

New Delhi, May 25 : The cabinet is set to give its approval to a weekly bus service connecting the Manipur capital, Imphal, with the Myanmar city of Mandalay.

After the cabinet approval, slated for Thursday, a memorandum of understanding is expected to be signed between the two governments during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Myanmar by the end of this month. The service will be available on Mondays only. On both sides, it will be outsourced to private bus operators, though the fare has not been decided yet.

The final technical discussions were held between the two countries during a two-day visit to Myanmar by joint secretary of the ministry of road transport and highways, S. Narendra, on May 10-11.

There were a few minor problems though. In India, while we have right-hand driven vehicles, Myanmar follows the European model of left-hand drive. There are also major differences in traffic rules. So at the border, the passengers have to disembark and board a bus of the other country.

Despite the bus-service, there is no proposal to relaxing customs or immigration requirements. The passengers will have to carry valid passports. They shall be granted a one-month single entry visa on arrival at Tamu and Moreh border checkposts by immigration officials from the respective sides.

Baggage will be restricted to one suitcase weighing not more than 20kg and one handbag of average size. No commercial baggage cargo will be allowed.

Currently, Indian traders are allowed upto 16km from the border inside Myanmar. Myanmar traders, too, are allowed passage upto 16km inside India (Manipur).

This project has been in the pipeline for the past nine years. A resolution was passed by the Manipur Assembly in 2003 to introduce a regular bus service between Imphal and Mandalay.

The government of Manipur has been pursuing the issue with the ministry of road transport and highways ever since.

The Prime Minister, during his visit to Manipur in December 2011, announced that “as part of our Look-East policy, we will suitably take up the request for bus service between Imphal and Mandalay with the government of Myanmar”.

The government also plans to set up a development corridor connecting India with Myanmar. In that case, the service will be important since India and Myanmar share a long and porous border of over 1,640km as well as a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.

Four northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram share their border with the country.

Hmar Militants Flays Mizoram Govt Over Memo

Aizawl, May 24 : The Hmar People's Convention (HPC) General Headquarters, Sakawrdai Mizoram today alleged that the Mizoram government has been reluctant in implementing the Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed in 1994.

The Hmar outfit then accused that the intervention of  Young Mizo Association (YMA) recently in the HPC's demand for Autonomous District Council under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, has been acting as disintegration force of the Mizos rather than unifying the community.

The HPC said that when Mizoram was given the status of Union Territory under Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Act, 1971 and North Eastern areas (Re-organisation) Act 1971, it had been deleted from  Sixth Schedule Para 20, Part III since 29 April  1972. "It no longer was Tribal Area, which will be regretted in future, and the then Mizo leaders are responsible for this. 

The districts of Lai, Mara and Chakma are the only districts under the Sixth Schedule. All these districts are within Mizoram, and are still administered by the ministers and government officials, and they never separated themselves from Mizoram, nor can’t they do so.

Likewise, the Hmar people have simply demanded the creation of Autonomous District Council, which will but safeguard the Mizos", the HPC stated.

The Hmar outfit then quoted the MoS  between the HPC and the Mizoram Government signed in 1994 which says, “The Government of Mizoram has appreciated the concern and pressing demand of the HPC delegation particularly regarding the political safeguard as available under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India.

Accordingly, the government of Mizoram will take immediate measures for inclusion of an area to be specified with the HPC Demand Area of Mizoram and the other non-schedule areas of Mizoram in the schedule (Tribal) Area of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India so that the above-mentioned areas are safeguarded under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India.”

"After such long period from 1994, the Mizoram government is not fulfilling its promise, just because it doesn’t take steps to fulfill", the HPC stated, adding that in comparison that, the Indian Government was very faithful as it fulfilled the MoS which it signed with the Mizo National Front (MNF) in 1986.

The HPC then accused the  Young Mizo Association (YMA) of disintegrating the Mizos rather than uniting the the community. "The YMA is apprehensive that the creation of Autonomous District Council is threatening the Mizo integration," the Hmar outfit added.

Wife Moves Court Against Hubby For Hiding HIV Status

Imphal, May 24 : A 20-year-old woman in Imphal filed a criminal case against her husband for hiding his HIV status and forcibly marrying her. She has now contracted the disease. The accused, a constable with Manipur police, was arrested and later released on bail.

The woman claimed she was drugged by the cop at a tea stall in Patsoi in 2007. When she regained consciousness, she was told that she had 'eloped' with him. She was finally forced into marriage in January, 2010. Later, she found documents in his diary that showed he was HIV positive.

When the cop found out his wife was aware of his HIV status, he thrashed her and locked her in a room for three days without food. The ordeal continued with her in-laws also torturing her.

She, however, managed to wriggle out of her husband's clutches and fled to her parent's house in Imphal West. She got her blood sample examined at an Imphal lab in February and tested positive for HIV, she said.

The woman told the chief judicial magistrate, Imphal West, that she was forced to marry a man who hid his HIV status and now, she was a victim of the disease. She also charged him and his in-laws with torture.

Human rights lawyer Rakesh Meihoubam said this is the first of its kind in Manipur and second in the country. In Delhi, a woman filed a criminal case against her husband for transmitting HIV without her knowledge, but the case didn't move forward as the husband died of AIDS. Till March 2011, 698 people have died of HIV/AIDS in Manipur.

Manipur Uses Methadone For Drug Dependence Treatment

The Controversial Drug Dependence Treatment "Methadone"

By Thingnam Anjulika Samom

The opening of the Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) Programme - Thingnam Anjulika | Panos London

Last month, Manipur became the first state in north east India to initiate methadone courses for the treatment of drug dependence. The Methadone Maintenance Treatment programme, launched on April 14 at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences here in Imphal, became the fourth such initiative in India. Altogether, 50 drug users will be given methadone treatment on a trial basis for one year. Previously, opioid substitution therapy (OST), which uses buprenorphine, was the most prevalent treatment.

The new programme has sparked heated discussion among the drug user and HIV and AIDS communities, as well as among NGOs, community based organisations and medical circles, regarding the pros and cons of methadone versus buprenorphine. When I inquired, I was told that methadone is cheaper than buprenorphine, and it has to be used only once a day. But on the other hand, some of the people I spoke to told me that methadone can cause withdrawal symptoms, addiction and overdose.

Another bone of contention is the number of drug users to be enrolled on the programme. The number of drug users in the state is very high but only 50 will get methadone treatment. So what criteria will they use to make the selection?

Another initiative that will help treatment of HIV and AIDS in the state is the Early Infant Diagnosis programme, which was launched in December last year. Before this initiative, parents living with HIV and AIDS had to wait and agonising 18 months before they could find out whether they had passed on the virus to their child. This is because the babies could not have the necessary antibody test until they were 18 months old.

The new programme means babies can be tested between the ages of six weeks and six months. A final confirmatory antibody test will also be done later on but the earlier tests mean care and treatment can be started earlier, giving the children a better chance of survival.

This is very important in Manipur as the HIV epidemic has moved from high risk groups such as injecting drug users into the general population. The first HIV case was reported in the state in 1989 and by 1994, the first pediatric HIV infection was also reported.

There were more than 2,500 children living with HIV/AIDS in the state as of January last year, according to the Manipur State AIDS Control Society. I fear that the actual figure will be much higher because even after so many years of awareness and sensitisation, there is still a lot of stigma and discrimination regarding HIV and AIDS, making many HIV positive people hide their status. This in turn creates a sort of crisis situation for future generations in the state, because if the children are not there, then there will be no future for us.

Source: panos.org.uk

Mizoram Gas Crisis Limited To Aizawl

Aizawl, Mar 23 : The menace of cooking gas crisis in Mizoram is limited to the state capital Aizawl only while the rural areas are getting normal supply, officials disclosed today.

To mitigate the kitchen fuel shortage in Aizawl, a meeting of top officials here today decided that even those who were issued cooking gas cylinder from the emergency quota from the government should produce LPG consumer card and would be issued only after 15 days from the last time the consumer lifted his LPG cylinder.

The meeting, chaired by chief minister Lal Thanhawla, also decided that surprise checks should be conducted on hotels and restaurant to ensure that only commercial gas cylinders are used in the business establishments.

It also decided that surprise check be conducted on the LPG agents and distributors by a team of magistrate and IOC officials. The meeting also observed that the availability of cooking gas in the black market at anytime indicated some irregularities in the distribution system.

The meeting also expressed grave concern over multiple connections by a single family. According to the records of the state's food, civil supplies & consumer affairs department, there are currently 2.3 lakh LPG consumers in the state for which IOC allocates an average of about 1.2 lakh cylinders a month.

Given the fact that there are 221,077 households in Mizoram according to Census 2011 of which 52.5 percent use LPG for cooking and 44.5 percent still use firewood, a good number of families have multiple connections. The issue was raised by some journalists during a recent TV talk show on the LPG crisis.

Mr Lal Thanhawla reiterated that the cooking gas crisis is not only a national but an international phenomenon.

Even then, the Mizoram had constantly urged the IOC to hike the state's quota. He said if the state's quota is even distributed there would be no such serious shortage. The meeting was attended by food, civil supplies & consumer affairs minister H Rohluna and senior officials of the department.

India’s Human Rights Record To Face Scrutiny

India could face questions at UNHRC on issues ranging from AIDS stigma to religious freedom
By Elizabeth Roche

India’s human rights record will be scrutinized this week with UN member countries expected to quiz the world’s largest democracy on issues including the award of the death penalty, discrimination against minorities, action taken against bonded labour and manual scavenging, at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.

The once in four years’ scrutiny of India’s human rights record will take place on Thursday. The last examination of India’s rights record under the process known as “Universal Periodic Review” (UPR) took place in 2008.

Other countries whose human rights records will also be up for scrutiny include Algeria, Bahrain Brazil, Indonesia, Britain and South Africa. The review, which started on Monday, will be done by the 47 members of the UNHRC, which includes India’s neighbours Bangladesh, China and the Maldives besides Austria, Norway and the US.

India will be represented by a multi-ministerial delegation headed by attorney general G.E. Vahanvati, said a person familiar with the development.

According to preliminary information, Pakistan is not yet listed among the speakers at India’s review. The Indian government does not anticipate any uncomfortable questions over alleged human rights abuses in Kashmir, the subject of friction between the South Asian neighbours. India and Pakistan have started on a slow process of mending ties after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

“India is confident about its rights’ record. We don’t have anything to hide or defend,” said the person cited above.

“The report is only recommendatory in nature. It is not binding. There is no voting involved and no resolution that India will have to accept,” said the person, adding that the recommendations made in the 2008 review were not fully accepted by the Indian government either.

Still, India could face a number of uncomfortable questions—from steps taken to prevent torture and stigma against HIV/AIDS infected people to ensuring religious freedom, according to a list of queries from countries including Germany and Britain that has been emailed to Mint by the Working Group on Human Rights (WGHR), a group of voluntary and non-governmental organizations that has prepared its own report on rights issues in India.

The WGHR report will be one of the three looked into by the UNHRC members, the others being those presented by the Indian government and the National Human Rights Commission. Other queries that India could face include steps to prevent discrimination against religious minorities, communal violence, declining sex ratio and protection of children’s rights.

“This kind of a review is unacceptable given that we are a democracy and we have been recognized the world over for our credentials,” said former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal. “That India needs to explain itself on human rights is unnecessary given that we have an open system of functioning, a very active civil society and a wide consensus on how to deal with issues.”

In its report, the government has listed laws and legislation passed by Parliament to protect women’s and children’s rights, efforts to bring transparency in governance and protect human rights—especially in insurgency affected areas. On repealing controversial laws that empower the country’s security forces with special powers to combat insurgency, the government report said that these measures were necessary to deal with security challenges. Repealing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has been a contentious issue in India with the armed forces opposed to it—specially in dealing with insurgency in Kashmir and Manipur.

Junior home minister Jitendra Singh told Parliament on Tuesday in a written reply that 344 people have been killed because of communal violence in India since 2009.

“We are an open book. In a democracy, little can be hidden,” said the person cited above.

But adverse observations by the WGHR and the NHRC could make the going tough for India in Geneva.

The government report “lacks critical analysis of the actual realization of rights and implementation of laws and schemes in India,” said Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, whose group HAQ is part of the WGHR and looks into child rights’ violations. A WGHR statement said that background documents prepared for the review “point towards serious failures of the state in promoting and protecting human rights.”

Forced acquisition of land for industrialization had displaced and dispossessed a large number of India’s tribals, the statement said, adding that “economic growth is taking place by destroying livelihoods and further impoverishing the most marginalized groups.”

Lawyer Vrinda Grover, member of the WGHR, expressed concern over excessive powers to security personnel in India’s insurgency affected areas like Kashmir and the North-East, holding it responsible for human rights violations and deterring any political dialogue in the “disturbed areas”. Concerns have also been expressed about the rights of Dalits. Though India has an affirmative action programme to empower Dalits, the government has failed to implement the policy, the WGHR release said.

Some of these concerns were also reflected in the NHRC report that also spoke of others—overcrowded prisons, complaints against India’s police forces and bureaucracy for abuse of power and abysmal child and maternal care.

“Given the enormous human rights challenges faced by India, the second UPR offers a major opportunity for India to admit its shortcomings, move from a defensive to a constructive engagement with the UN,” said Miloon Kothari, who heads the WGHR. “It is our hope that the recommendations emanating from this (second) UPR will assist India in moving in the urgently required new direction.”

The Indian Obsession With Fairer Skin Sinks To A New Low

By Amrit Dhillon

The fairness cream industry is gigantic.

A new vagina lightening cream is helping peddle self-hatred to women.

THE Indian obsession with fair skin has always been a distasteful phenomenon. The fairness cream industry is gigantic, with men as well as women lathering these silly potions on their faces to make their skin a few shades lighter.

Pregnant women in rural areas believe they will give birth to light-skinned babies if they consume lots of ''white'' dairy products such as milk, cream, yoghurt, and butter. Dark models and actresses struggle for work as their skin isn't regarded as desirable.

Now an Indian company has taken this bizarre self-hating obsession to a new level with a ''feminine'' hygiene product that not only promises to keep a woman's genitalia ''fresh'' but also lighten the skin around the vagina.

The television ad for Clean & Dry Intimate Wash shows an attractive, modern woman sitting at home looking wistful. Her partner (presumably her husband) is in the same room and seems to be ignoring her.

The next scene shows her in the shower, where a piece of animation shows the unsightly brown hue around her crotch (blurred mercifully) giving way to a lighter flesh colour.

In the next scene, the partner is far more interested in her and the newly confident woman, now in shorts and looking flirtatious, grabs his car keys, puts them in her pocket and invites him to give chase.

He responds by lifting her into his arms lovingly. Clearly all is well between them now that her vagina is lighter skinned. Online, the advert reads: ''Life for women will now be fresher, cleaner and more importantly fairer and more intimate.''

This fairness mania maddens me. If some Jews used to suffer self-hatred, at least you knew it was because previous generations had undergone persecution for centuries. If some African Americans used to have low esteem and tried to lighten their skin and straighten their hair, at least you knew that a history of slavery must have cast a shadow on their confidence.

But what can explain this Indian hatred of the colour of their own skin? Yes, I know that the British Raj was white, but Mughal rule in India lasted much longer and the Mughals were not white, so the ''colonial complex'' theory doesn't quite do the job.

If the theory were correct, Indians would hanker after slanted eyes as the Mughals were Mongols from Central Asia, but Indians refer to their own people from the north-east disparagingly as ''chinky-eyed''.
What is so repugnant about this product is that it is guilty of a double self-hatred - of race and gender. Indian women should be ashamed of their dark skin and, as women, should be ashamed of genitalia that is dark and, presumably, unappealing.

In the West a couple of decades ago, companies tried to peddle a nefarious vaginal spray to keep a woman's private parts fresh. Doctors and feminists pointed out that a daily shower or bath was all a woman needed to be fresh.

In any case, why did the man not need sprays to keep his organ fragrant? And why has no one manufactured a ''skin-tightening'' product to improve the turkey giblets look of male genitalia?

Mercifully, the Indian product has become controversial and Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni (a woman), has asked the Advertising and Standards Council of India to ban it.

Women's groups have been outraged and vocal about the product. As one woman wrote online: ''This is the ultimate insult - skin whitening for your vagina.''

But I wonder how it got this far? You wonder why the advertising team had no doubts about it.

Why no one at the company wondered if such a product was insulting to women. Why the actor and the actress in the ad failed to realise that the idea they were peddling was noxious.

It's bad enough that fairness cream ads make it seem as though a dark-skinned woman will never have a career or get a husband until she is fairer.

But to sell something which is so utterly misogynistic - that hoary stuff that feminism had to fight, about female genitalia somehow being dirty and repulsive, which is why European art for centuries showed women with no pubic hair - shows an astounding degree of ignorance about how the world has moved on from such backward notions.

It is really time for Indians to change their attitude towards their own skin. Just as African Americans launched a Black is Beautiful campaign in the US, so India needs a similar self-affirming movement. Fast.

Amrit Dhillon is a freelance journalist based in New Delhi.

Manipur, Kerala Qualify for Santosh Trophy Semifinals

Cuttack, May 23 : Kerala qualified for the semifinals after notching up a 3-1 victory over Maharashtra in the 66th Santosh Trophy National Football Championships at the Barabati Stadium on Tuesday.

Kerala came from behind to beat Maharashtra 3-1 to top the Group A Quarterfinal round. After this win, Kerala finished on seven points from three matches while Maharashtra ended on six points.

Maharashtra, who won their first two matches and needed a draw to make it to the last four, took the lead in the 8th minute with Kailash Patil converting from the spot. But Kerala hit back soon as Sujit equalised in the 17th minute.

In the second half, Kannan scored twice to seal the issue for Kerala. He scored his first in the 72nd minute and then put it beyond Maharashtra's reach scoring in the 81st minute.

In the Group B decider at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Manipur played a 2-2 draw with Goa and advanced to the semifinal piping Goa on better goal difference.

Both teams finished on 7 points from 3 ties but Manipur had better goal difference (+7) in comparison to Goa's (+3).

For Manipur, Thoi Singh scored the first goal in the 19th minute which was neutralized by Gabriel Fernandes in the 26th minute. Prathesh Shirodkar put Goa in the lead in 45th minute but Govin Singh restored parity in the 70th minute.

Meanwhile, defending champions West Bengal, who had earlier bowed out of the tournament, defeated Punjab 2-1 in their last Group League match.

After Gurmeet Singh (16th minute) put Punjab in the lead, Mohd Mukhtar and Tapan Maity scored one apiece for West Bengal in the 17th and the 87th minute.

West Bengal finished on four points from 3 matches while Punjab couldn't open their account.

In an inconsequential match, Meghalaya beat Uttar Pradesh 3-0. Ronnie scored the first goal for Meghalaya in the 7th minute, while Bansharai doubled the score in the 18th minute. Timmy Ryngkhlem scored the third goal in the 82nd minute.

Meghalaya finished on three points from three matches while Uttar Pradesh lost all their matches.