Page 63 - Social Issues
Congress demands action against 'fake' NRC objections in Assam's Kokrajhar
With resentment brewing among a section of people here over "indiscriminate" notices being served to them by NRC authorities, the Congress has submitted a memorandum to the District Registrar of Citizen's Registration, seeking suspension of the "arbitrary" practice. In its memorandum, the district Congress committee alleged that minorities were being harassed even after due verification of their documents during the preparation of the complete draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), published last year. The NRC aims to separate "genuine" citizens from "illegal immigrants". The complete draft of the register, published in July, 2018, had excluded 40.07 lakh names out of the 3.29 crore applicants. A window ending December 31, 2018, was provided for those who wanted to file claims for re-inclusion. Within this same period, people who suspected that foreigners have made their way to the list were also allowed to file their objections. The final list is slated to be released by July ...
Teen girls more vulnerable to bullying than boys: Study
Teenaged girls are bullied more often than boys, and are more likely to consider or attempt suicide, a study has found. Researchers from Rutgers University in the US conducted analyses of the data from a US survey from 2011-2015. "Bullying is significantly associated with depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, suicide planning, and suicide attempts," said Nancy Pontes, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Nursing-Camden. "We wanted to look at this link between bullying victimisation, depressive symptoms, and suicidality by gender," Pontes said in a statement. Pontes said that, in general, girls are more often bullied than boys, and girls are also more likely to consider, plan, or attempt suicide compared with boys, regardless of being bullied or not -- although boys are more likely to die by suicide. In this study, researchers looked at significant associations and not direct causal links. Using two methods of statistical analysis, the study, published in the journal ...
More than 150,000 displaced in northwest Syria in one week: UN
An escalation in attacks on northwest Syria has displaced more than 150,000 people in the past week, the UN said on Tuesday, as the regime and Russia stepped up bombardment. "We are alarmed by ongoing reports of aerial attacks on population centres and civilian infrastructure, resulting in hundreds of civilians dead and injured," said David Swanson of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA. "More than 152,000 women, children and men have been displaced in Aleppo and Idlib governorates over the past week alone," he told AFP. The northwestern part of Syria controlled by jihadists is made up a large part of Idlib province, as well as adjacent parts of the Aleppo and Hama provinces. The Idlib region has been protected from a massive regime offensive by a September deal inked by Damascus ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey. But the region of some three million people has come under increasing bombardment since the jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, a former .
Govt approves lowering of NEET-PG cut-offs by 6 percentile for 2019-20
The Health Ministry, in consultation with the Board of Governors in the Medical Council of India (MCI), has decided to reduce the qualifying marks for NEET-PG for 2019-20 by six percentile. Now, general category candidates with minimum mark of 44 percentile, persons with disabilities category with minimum of 39 percentile and SC/ST and OBC category candidates with 34 percentile will become eligible for admission to postgraduate medical courses for the academic year 2019-20, an official statement said. "All states/UTs were requested to make necessary arrangements for allowing students as per revised qualifying marks in any further rounds of counselling this year," the statement stated.
FIA arrests 17 people, including 13 Chinese, for girls' trafficking in Pak
A total of 17 people, including 13 Chinese nationals, have been arrested in Pakistan for their alleged involvement in smuggling young Pakistani girls to China after luring them into fake marriages and then into forced prostitution. The Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) arrested seven people, including three Chinese nationals, on Tuesday who were part of a human trafficking gang. The FIA Rawalpindi arrested the gang led by Chinese national Song Chuaoyang who was also arrested, Geo News reported. Deputy Director FIA Kamran Ali said the Chinese nationals were involved in fake marriages with Pakistani girls and later used them for prostitution and organ removal. On Monday, at least 10 Chinese nationals, including a woman, were arrested in Pakistan for allegedly luring young Pakistani girls into fake marriages then forcing them into prostitution in China. The FIA arrested eight Chinese nationals, including a woman, on Monday, after two other Chinese nationals were arrested during a ...
Sri Lanka President wants repatriation of refugees
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena Tuesday appealed to the Colombo-based top foreign diplomats for their assistance to repatriate 1,600 refugees, mostly Pakistanis and Afghans, currently accommodated in the island nation. "I want your help to send them back. We can no longer care for them. Some of them have got involved in illegal activities too," Sirisena said while addressing the foreign envoys. In the aftermath of the deadly Easter suicide attacks, refugees and asylum seekers were displaced after landlords came under local pressure to evict them. Hundreds of refugees have taken shelter in mosques and a police station in Negombo, the western coastal town where one of the church bombings took place, after facing intimidation following the blasts. At least on four occasions since the attacks, dozens of frightened migrants, including many children, older people, and others with special needs, travelling to safer areas had to return to the overcrowded Negombo police ...
Fearing another failure in Class X exams, Guj girl hangs self
A teenage girl allegedly committed suicide in Udhna in Surat as she feared she would fail her Class X board exams once again, police said Tuesday. Priyanshi Rajbhar (17) had failed to clear the Class X exams two times earlier and anticipation of failure once again was causing her distress, an official said. "She hanged herself in her home on Monday night. She left a suicide note in Hindi in which she stated that she was fed up with life as she had failed in the exams two times," he said. In the suicide note, she wrote, "I am fed up with my life. I have failed twice in the exam. Mummy and Papayou are very nice. You love me a lot. But I am sorry that I could not prove to be your good daughter".
Indian businesses in Africa suggest steps to increase trade, investment
Indian businesses in Africa have suggested the government here to take steps such as improving line of credit system, setting up of banks and liberalise visa policies to increase trade and investment with Africa, the commerce ministry said Tuesday. These issues were highlighted by Indian business community in Africa during an interaction organised by the ministry and Indian High Commissions and embassies of eleven African countries over Digital Video Conference (DVC) on May 3 and 6. It was attended by over 400 members of Indian business community in 11 African countries -- Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Mozambique, Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, and Madagascar. The other issues raised by them include starting direct flights between the India and African countries; exploring possibility of rupee trade to address the issue of shortage of dollars; creation of common database of buyer-suppliers; development of a robust trade dispute settlement mechanism; and ...
British Indian woman plans book on daughter's suicide
An Indian-origin woman, whose daughter committed suicide after suffering physical and emotional abuse at the hands of an ex-boyfriend, is working on a book to chronicle the tragedy and raise awareness around the issue of domestic abuse among Britain's South Asian communities. Daksha Dalal, who has been campaigning ever since her daughter Meera was found dead at their family home in Syston, Leicestershire, in February 2016, has now teamed up with the UK-based author and domestic abuse campaigner Saurav Dutt to work on 'Fall In Light: A Mother's Story', set for release next month. "A loss of a child is an intense grief that you will never, ever be able to overcome," Dalal said. "Sometimes I go to sleep and I don't want to wake up. But I have to raise awareness of this kind of abuse, especially in the South Asian community, so that not one more single person feels so defeated and weakened that they have to take their own life," she said. Meera Dalal, a 25-year-old professional employed ..
Senior BJP leader surrenders security in protest
BJP's state unit secretary Ashok Koul on Tuesday surrendered his security as a mark of protest against the alleged withdrawal of security of a party leader who was killed by militants in Anantnag district on Sunday.
Cong insulted PM by calling GST as Gabbar Singh Tax: BJP
Accusing the Congress of being far from ground reality, the BJP Tuesday said by calling the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as 'Gabbar Singh Tax', the party had insulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The Congress leadership does not know about the issues faced by traders and had unleashed inspector raj to harass them. On the contrary Modi ji thinks about the welfare of traders," Ravikant Garg, chairperson of UP Vyapari Kalyan Board told PTI here. "What is the relevance of calling GST as Gabbar Singh Tax. Is it (tax money) going into Modi ji's pocket? You are insulting the prime minister by making such statement," he added. The opposition parties have spread fear and misguided the people by portraying GST as an evil whereas it has given relief to the traders and businessmen, Garg said. "In the past there were 9 central taxes, and 12 taxes levied by the UP government. Initially the traders may have faced teething trouble, as they were not used to it, but the problems were technical in ...
Piramal Enterprises, Canadian pension fund set up renewable energy trust
Piramal Enterprises Tuesday said it has signed an initial pact with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to co-sponsor a USD 600 million renewable energy-focused infrastructure investment trust (InvIT). "With an initial corpus of USD 600 million( about Rs 4,162 crore), and the option to scale further, the InvIT would seek to acquire up to 1.5-2 GW of stable and cash generating renewable assets on a hold-to-maturity basis, with a firm focus on diversification of both asset type as well as off-taker profile," Piramal Enterprises said in a release. As per the release, both Piramal Enterprises and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) will act as co-sponsors of the proposed InvIT and hold up to 75 per cent of the units. CPPIB has committed USD 360 million and holding up to 60 per cent while Piramal Enterprises has committed USD 90 million and holding 15 per cent. The InvIT would seek to raise capital from other like-minded investors for the remaining 25 per cent. In the interim and
Over $ 600,000 raised for treatment of 13-year-old Indian-American hate crime victim
Over USD 600,000 has been raised in just eight days through crowd-funding for the treatment of a 13-year-old Indian-American girl fighting for her life after an Iraq war veteran in California mowed her and her family in a suspected case of hate crime. On April 23, Dhriti Narayan, a grade 7 student, her brother, father and other family members were crossing a road in Sunnyvale when they were struck down by a former soldier, Isaiah Peoples, 34, reportedly to be suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Peoples, an Iraq war veteran, injured seven others, who were crossing the road, including Dhriti's father and her 9-year-old brother. The family was targeted apparently in hate crime because the motorist thought they were Muslims, police said. Peoples, who was unharmed in the incident, is facing eight counts of attempted murder and is being detained at Santa Clara County Jail with no bail set. According to a crowdfunding page, GoFundMe, set up to help the family cover her ...
FIA arrests 10 Chinese nationals for trafficking Pakistani girls to China
At least 10 Chinese nationals, including a woman, have been arrested in Pakistan for allegedly luring young Pakistani girls into fake marriages then forcing them into prostitution in China, the country's premier probe agency has said. The Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) arrested eight Chinese nationals, including a woman, on Monday and last week, two Chinese nationals were arrested when a marriage ceremony was being performed in Fasialabad, about 150 kms from Lahore. "On Monday, we have arrested seven Chinese men and a Chinese woman for their alleged involvement in trafficking of Pakistani girls to China for the purpose of prostitution," FIA Punjab Director Tariq Rustam told PTI. The FIA swung into action following reports of Chinese nationals being involved in organ trade and forced prostitution of Pakistani girls, mostly from the minority Christian community, after marrying them and taking them back to China. Rustam said that their leader, indentified as 'Candice', was among ...
Singapore oulaws 'revenge porn', 'cyber-flashing'
Singapore has outlawed "revenge porn" and "cyber-flashing" -- sending unsolicited images of one's private parts -- the latest country to clamp down on sexual offences committed online. "Revenge porn", when ex-partners share intimate photos or videos without permission, has become a problem globally because of improvements in technology and the popularity of social media, with many governments legislating against it. Singapore's parliament passed a bill Monday that made distributing or threatening to distribute intimate images a crime, punishable by up to five years in jail, in addition to a fine and caning. "Intimate images could become widely shared and on platforms, and may be impossible to completely remove. They have the potential to cause great harm to the victim," said K. Shanmugam, law and home affairs minister. "Cyber-flashing" will be punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine. If the recipient is younger than 14, it is punishable by up to two years in jail, a fine or ...
Social media has little effect on life satisfaction of teens: Study
Social media has little effect on the life satisfaction of teenagers, according to a large-scale study conducted in the UK. Researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at University of Oxford used an eight-year survey of UK households to study how long teenagers spent using social media on a normal school day and their corresponding life satisfaction ratings. This is the first large-scale and in-depth study testing not only whether adolescents who report more social media use have lower life satisfaction but also whether the reverse is true. The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), used improved data and statistical approaches and found most links between life satisfaction and social media use were trivial. However, there were some bidirectional effects: Lower life satisfaction led to increased social media use and vice versa, researchers said. These bidirectional effects were more consistent for females than for males, ...
Delhi HC quashes FIR against AAP's Somnath Bharti
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday quashed an FIR filed against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Somnath Bharti in a domestic violence case lodged by his wife.
Social media use adversely affects girls more
While social media use has limited role in lowering life satisfaction of teenagers, the effects are more among girls than boys, says a study of 12,000 British teenagers.
Delhi church seeks security from 'perceived threat' from illegal occupants
The 'Free Church' on Sansad Marg here has written a letter to the Deputy Commissioner of Police on Tuesday over a 'perceived threat' from illegal occupants inside the church and sought assurance of security from the police.The church alleged that the illegal occupants created a ruckus on being disallowed entry from the main gate of the church campus. The letter detailed the threats as being 'abusive and physically threatening' in nature. It also stated that whatever restrictions were imposed 'were in adherence to the orders of the DCP.'"We prohibited entry of their vehicle from the main gate of the campus. While several church members were present, the incumbents had no fear and attempted to break down the gate and incite violence within the church," reads the letter.However, the Delhi Police said the situation is nothing like what the church has indicated."The management of the church is having a dispute with residents who live inside the campus since more than 100 years. The church .