Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
IT WAS on the day following Independence Day this year that Chuni Kotal, the first woman graduate from the Lodha Sabar community of West Bengal, who was working for a master's degree in anthropology, decided to take her own life. Apparently, she couldn't cope any longer with the jibes and …
"PENGAL ondru serndal mudiyadhadhu," (If women unite, they can solve all problems), says 27-year-old Nagamani, an active member of Srirumallar Mahila Sangha (women's association) of Dhenkanikottai, a densely populated village near Hosur in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. Nagamani's sangha is one of five functioning in Dhenkanikottai, thanks to MYRADA, …
THE RECENT decision to delay indefinitely the introduction of the long-acting female contraceptive Norplant-6 comes as good news for women's groups who have actively campaigned against its introduction in the Indian family planning programme. Norplant-6 consists of a set of six matchstick-size tubes, filled with progesterone, a steroid hormone, which …
WOMEN are the worst victims of environmental degradation. A number of voluntary organisations now realise the crucial linkages between women and the environment and that only by empowering rural women so they have greater control over natural resources can they have better control of their own lives. Controlling commons THE …
A RECENT study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine has established that women with osteoporosis suffered fewer fractures after treatment with estrogen. Osteoporosis is a potentially debilitating disease characterised by weakened bones and an increased risk of fractures. Estrogen is already being used to prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. …
THE RIO Earth Summit was probably the biggest media event of any UN conference in history, much more so than the last big bash -- the women's conference at Nairobi. Women are only women, after all, but the earth is the mother of us all. Something like the fear of …
EVE MAY not have been the mother of the human race after all. Molecular biologists have been arguing that the genetic components of human beings indicate that all family trees lead back to a single African woman, nicknamed Eve, who lived about 200,000 years ago. But there is a school …
Last November, at an international meeting on women and the environment, some of us were arguing with UNFPA officials over the use of risky, long-acting contraceptives like Norplant in population control strategies. A German environmentalist interrupted: "But your women are already dying for want of health care and drinking water." …
TWENTY years after the women of UP's Chamoli district hugged trees to save them from contractors' axes, the echoes of the call "Chipko" still ring in the district's hills. With new challenges to be met, the women's fight to preserve the Himalayan ecology continues. The Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal, which …
THE crowd gasps as a sadhu pierces his tongue with a trishul. Chants of awed reverence go up as a baba lights the hawan kunda (sacrificial pyre) with super-natural powers and another passes a flaming torch over his body. It is to expose such miracles and to promote scientific awareness …
NEEM is being tested as a contraceptive that can be injected or applied in the vagina. While the contraceptive effect of the injection is expected to last for as long as six months, the vaginal application is for use at the time of intercourse and is 1b believed to be …
THAT rural Indian women are the worst victims of environmental degradation is well-known. But what happens when women assert themselves? This is the story of the four-year-long struggle of the women of Muvasa village in the Panchmahals district of Gujarat who made degraded common land arable. To my mind, it …
IS one born a woman or does one become one? Were women all through history burdened by inequitous norms and rules even during the period when surplus accumulation did not form the basis of social order? Are women innately non-violent and nurturing beings, particularly in interacting with nature? The two …
The traditional Indian strategy of resolving conflict by non-cooperation, the satyagraha, has been revived in the Chipko, or "Embrace the Tree", the movement to protect trees from commercial felling. This paper traces the development of the philosophy and the non-violent resistance activities from the beginnings of Chipko in the early …
From Kashmir to Burma, where tigers once lived amid lush forests, a vast tract of land has been laid bare by the timber industry. In its wake have come landslides, drought and yet further poverty. The only hope for the hill people is a Ghandian like movement which villagers have …
BIOLOGY Yellow pigment clue to evolution Bilirubin, responsible for the yellowish tinge in the skin, eyes and nails of jaundice patients, has for the first time been identified in plants. The pigment was discovered in Strelitzia reginae Aiton, commonly know as the Bird of Paradise plant. It is indigenous to …
Catalysing safe design for public spaces should be among the top priorities to make cities safe for women, children and the elderly I first let this pass without comment—the Rs 1,000 crore Nirbhaya fund for women’s safety proposed in the Union Bdget. Many have glossed over this with a reverent …
The theme is to address issues applicable to “user centered design and occupational wellbeing”. Focus areas of HWWE 2014 would cover appropriate ergonomics application in every sphere of our lives.
Naina Kidwai, India chairperson of HSBC has edited a book containing 30 essays by women who lead large organisations in India. In this special episode of Nothing But the Truth, Karan Thapar discusses how difficult it is for women to rise to the top. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/programme/naina-kidwai-book-successful-women-india-nothing-but-the-truth-karan-thapar/1/438507.html
