Issue 60 Vol III, March 31, 2008

C O M M E N T

'Troops and Tourists HIV carriers into Kashmir'
Ajmer Alam Wani

“90 per cent chances of spread of AIDS are through infected blood transfusion and only one per cent through sexual intercourse”

If one goes by the top AIDS expert of Jammu and Kashmir, the troops, paramilitary troops, tourists and migrant labourers had been acting as HIV carriers into that hapless state. Unofficial sources put the number of military troops and Para military forces deployed in the state to seven hundred thousand.

This was revealed in a recent workshop of Family Planning Association (FPA), wherein Director State AIDS Prevention and Control Society (SAPCS), M.A Wani. He alleged that troops, paramilitary forces, tourists and outside the state labourers are acting as HIV couriers.  He figured out that 1,210 cases of AIDS have so far been reported in Jammu and Kashmir. Truck drivers are also acting as the HIV carriers. AIDS is also spreading due to the intravenous drug usage. He said “About 92 per cent of AIDS victims in J-K are in the age group of 20 and 50 years,” he mentioned. "However, only 16 per cent of these victims are from the Valley.”

Wani added that while cancer continues to be the most life threatening and life consuming disease in the state, AIDS is becoming common among the younger generation. He asserted that 25 lakh deaths have already been reported in India since 1984 when the first case was reported in 1984 in Chennai.

Wani also expressed concern over the growing numbers of Intravenous Drug Users (IDUs) in Kashmir saying, “Kashmir has thousands of IDUs. The IDUs alone make up more than four per cent AIDS cases in India.” He informed that 250 IDUs had been identified in the interiors of Dal Lake and Bemina.

“These people are mostly unemployed and related to tourism industry,” he said adding that the FPA has been working on identifying the IDUs.

The SAPCS has so far short listed six Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and sanctioned projects to four of them. “The NGOs help the IDUs in de-addiction besides clearing the stigma from the society about the HIV positive patients,” Wani said adding that every year, SAPCS comes up with publications regarding AIDS prevention.

To create awareness Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education has also decided to include a compulsory paper on AIDS for the ninth standard and have at least one question related to this topic in the final exams for 10th standard.  SAPCS is training Imams, teachers and students to educate the people at the grass root level. “We have covered about 70 per cent of Higher Secondary Schools, 90 per cent medical staff including doctors and nurses. They work as ambassadors of our project,” he added.

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Journalists welcome democracy in Pakistan, plead for independence

SOUTH Asian Free Media Association's Regional Executive Body has welcomed the transition to democracy in Pakistan with the hope that it would culminate into a sustainable and undiluted system of democratic governance including a free media and an independent judiciary.

The Regional Executive Body (REB), SAFMA's highest consultative and decision-making body consisting of four representatives from each country of the South Asia, met in Lahore at the South Asian Media Centre for two days, March 23 and 24. It deliberated upon various regional and national media issues besides peace and cooperation in the region. SAFMA President Mr. Laxman Gunesekara chaired the meeting and Secretary General Mr. Imtiaz Alam presented the annual report for 2007 and a work plan for 2008-11.

The Executive Body expressed satisfaction over the democratic transition in Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan and showed its concerns over the situation in Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It welcomed the installation of a democratic setup and hoped that the elected leadership of Pakistan would kick-start the Indo-Pak peace process and double its efforts for the restoration of peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas.

The Regional Executive Body specifically called upon India and Pakistan to liberalise their visa regimes and remove hurdles in the implementation of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement. It hoped that the new government would pursue slain former prime minister Ms Benazir Bhutto's peace dream in the spirit of both the Shimla and Lahore process without, however, jeopardising the achievements made through the composite dialogue process in the recent years.

SAFMA Secretary General Mr. Imtiaz Alam called upon the government of Sri Lanka to ease restrictions on the media and asked the warring parties to end hostilities and resume dialogue to find a just and sustainable solution to the conflict in the country.

The SAFMA body decided to hold its SAARC Journalists' Summit IV on July 31 and the annual meeting of South Asian Media Commission July 30 in Colombo to focus on free movement of journalists and media products across South Asia. Eighth SAFMA Regional Conference will be held in Afghanistan in November this year. Two hundred journalists from the region will take part in the moot to discuss Media, Peace and Development.

SAFMA also planned to set up networks of women journalists in all the eight countries of the region. SAFMA will also hold a documentary festival and workshop in Mumbai this year.

SAFMA plans other initiatives to infuse life into a stale Indo-Pak peace process and initiate Track-II diplomacy between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Journalist delegations from Pakistan and Afghanistan will be exchanged and parliamentarians from both the countries will meet to push the peace agenda forward. Similarly delegations will be exchanged between West Bengal and Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, the two Punjabs and Mumbai and Karachi.

SAFMA, a SAARC associate media body, called upon the Pakistan government to withdraw seven media laws and the draconian Code of Conduct for the electronic media introduced by the former military regime. SAFMA Pakistan offered the government to provide seven alternative draft laws, and an alternative code of conduct for adoption by the Parliament. It also called for creation of autonomous corporations for the state-controlled media like Pakistan Television, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation and the Associated Press of Pakistan. SAFMA is planning to introduce electronic media productions for public service, peace and harmony in the region.

The Regional Executive Body paid rich tributes to Ms Benazir Bhutto and all those who sacrificed their lives for democracy and peace in the region.

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Britain’s new democracy at work

Thousands of Indians and other Asians as well in UK may be deprived of their rights to full political participation, if wide-ranging plans to overhaul British citizenship rights and responsibilities become effective. A leading British daily, the Independent reported that a white paper, Citizenship: Our Common Bond, submitted by the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, on streamlining eligibility and rights of those acquiring citizenship has also stipulated, amongst other recommendations, that the right of voting, so far automatic for any Commonwealth citizen who has stayed more than six months in Britain, should not be accorded.

The newspaper further said, “The relevant proposal affecting Commonwealth citizens is: Providing that only citizens should have the fullest rights to political participation. The right to vote of non-citizens should be phased out while retaining the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and Irish citizens who have Irish citizenship by connection to Northern Ireland.”

Commissioned by Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown to streamline line citizenship process, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith’s proposals will be taken up in Parliament this November. Hundreds of thousands of Indian nationals who are already here are worried that their right so far to fully participate in various political processes, from standing for the House of Commons, for becoming member of councils or even voting in parliamentary elections, council polls and other political activities, would be axed.

With this the very idea of Commonwealth is under threat. Until now all Commonwealth citizens, including from India, become eligible to vote after staying here for over six months. The Commonwealth citizens were accorded full political rights, including the right to stand in British elections, in recognition of the significance Britain attaches to the idea of Commonwealth and its imperial links with its members.

It has been a unique arrangement in that even EU nationals, living in Britain, do not have full voting rights. Nor do British nationals in most Commonwealth countries, including India, enjoy reciprocal rights. How about those who take citizenship in other countries? Does similar fate awaits them in this highly globalised world.

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