Why am I excited to share this?

In a world which has been filled with cynicism and grim, dark news…of violence, genocide, threats of nuclear annihilation, and the calamities wrought by an increasingly angered mother nature, these videos are like a breath of fresh air and glimpses of that other world that young people are promising to create…….

We need to hear these voices of hope, idealism and confident calls from a new generation, for a South Asia where Peace, Harmony and soft borders would prevail.

Please watch, listen, read, share, and create millions of concentric circles of such dreamers and dreams…

Don’t dismiss these as ‘castles in the air,’ these are earnest pledges outlining incredibly practical steps for change…

And we need to seriously find ways to ensure that these young people are taken seriously, some of their ideas followed up, and as the say repeatedly, the power of youth in the region be allowed creative and constructive expression and opportunity.

My Vision for South Asia if I am the President / Prime Minister of my Country! 

This was the Theme for Youth for the 1st South Asian Commemoration of The Doyens of Peace organised on August 12, 2025 online with participation from 8 countries of South Asia

As many as 198 youth between 15 and 25 created two to five minute videos of innovative and fascinating blue prints that can measure up to every South Asian Aspirations!!

Sixteen Videos:  Top two from the 8 countries – were live cast followed by a Panel Discussion with eight Youth below 30 years of age on the subject “Visions in the Videos for South Asia and The Way Forward!!”

Collectively, through their videos from across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, young people have demonstrated their clear understanding of the major issues and have come up with creative solutions, demonstrating a commitment to non -violent approaches.

The common threads in creating inspiring Vision for South Asia were:

• Revive, Revitalise and Energise SAARC
• No to War and Hate;
• Yes to Peace and Love;
• Progress with Sustainability and Dignity for all;
• Climate Change – an urgent challenge across all boundaries;
• Act now on Gender Justice, Economic partnerships, Religious tolerance and fraternity;
• Prioritise collaboration on Education and Health.
• We demand Soft borders – freedom of travel and exchanges.
• We will work to end terrorism and create a nonviolent South Asia

The list is breath-taking and comprehensive, reflecting a maturity beyond their years

A Document Titled Vision of Youth for South Asia compiled and released on the occasion states:

“South Asia is naturally without borders. Therefore, instead of enforcing boundaries we ought to indulge in a coexistence which is strung along economic, political, social, and cultural lines. We must build strong foundations for such a future for which internal development and universal education are essential.

 To that end we must focus on raising national employment, creating native institutions of learning and investing in regional student-exchange programs and digital school networks.

*We acknowledge the truism that peace requires dialogue and freedom and the need for cross-border mobility and people-to-people diplomacy. This would become the soil to nurture peaceful resolutions to existing conflicts between countries.

We have to become very serious about joint river programs, regional emission reduction projects, and diversifying energy sources.

There is a need for a common vision of economic integration, sometimes through a South Asian economic bloc.

 This would follow and inform ecologically sensitive models of economic development on the national level, spearheaded by a young generation of educated, connected, and innovative people.

Soft-borders and linkages by sea would promote free trade, based on equality and shared concerns rather than domination.

The reinvigoration of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) is an embodiment of these visions.

Finally, the assumption of a leader’s responsibility brings seemingly distant issues to the fore and closer to our homes. 

This provides us with the impetus to apprehend a larger and more intimate reality such that we may identify erosions at its structure and tirelessly work together to sustain, improve, and change our world.

For all details please visit: (www.peacedoyens.org, Email: peacedoyepnssouthasia@gmail.com)

Related:

Moving beyond nationalism: a new vision for peace in South Asia

#SayNoToWar in South Asia, take part in the Global StandOut for peace

Tapan K Bose: A life devoted to human rights, peace, and resistance

The post From an octagenarian…still young at heart appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This means that South Asia has one of the highest population densities in the world, estimated as the number of people living in one square km.

While the entire world has a population density of about 60, South Asia has a population density of 303, over five times the world average.

In several cities of South Asia the population density can be many times more. In the most densely populated district of Karachi Central, the population density is 55,396. In Kolkata this is 24,252.

One of the implications of very high population density is that in any modern-day war which uses very destructive weapons, loss of life can potentially be much higher compared to most other countries. To mention two war and civil war-ravaged countries which have suffered high war-related mortality in recent times, Ukraine has population density of 67 while Sudan has population density of 29. This gives an indication of potentially how high war mortality can be in conditions of very high population density that prevail in South Asia.

These and several other facts regarding very high risks must be kept in consideration at a time when a lot of concern is being expressed regarding the increasing possibilities of escalation of war-risks involving India and Pakistan.

However the single most important factor is not regarding the risk escalation of recent days. The most important fact is that India and Pakistan have stepped back from such high risk situations in the past to avoid war. If they could do so in the past, they should be able to do so now too, thereby saving South Asia from massive distress and disaster.

Both sides are heavily armed and are in a position to procure more weapons from bigger powers. Both sides are nuclear weapon powers and there are estimates of the two countries having a total of about 340 nuclear weapons, more or less in equal numbers.

War involving any such two countries A and B may take this path—in the first few days there is high loss of life from conventional weapons on both sides but with the passage of time the bigger conventional power A gains a clear edge, and then faced with a serious crisis, the weaker power B resorts to using nuclear weapons and in reply immediately the stronger power A also uses nuclear weapons.

Of course this is not a very likely path as leaders of both countries being well aware of the unacceptably high dangers of nuclear weapons are likely to stop short of using these but at the same time the possibility of use of nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out entirely, and this is a very big risk indeed, an unacceptably high risk.

The risks have also increased at present because of other big wars occupying the attention of great powers. However even otherwise the will-power for playing non-partisan mediator role has reduced and instead there is much more arbitrariness in evidence at the international level. The role of the United Nations has been steadily becoming less significant.

At the same time the existence of bilateral security arrangements or risk-minimizing arrangements between India and Pakistan are extremely weak and inadequate just now.

Hence the best policy for both countries is to quickly move back from any risks of war. Leaders of both countries simply have to display greater maturity and commitment to peace and if they do so, history will still remember them for saving South Asia from disaster.

People of both countries have deep respect for several sacred sites and places of great cultural heritage located in the other country. People of both countries have much to benefit from having better relations with each other. Let us not forget all this in the heat of the present day intense hostilities. If good sense of quickly stopping further escalation prevails today, in the coming years this wisdom and good sense will be greatly appreciated by the people as well as the upcoming generation.

The world is already deeply troubled by war and conflict. Let us not add to this by igniting a new one between two nuclear weapon countries. No other kind of war can be more risky than a war between two nuclear weapon countries.

Both countries have important development challenges ahead of them. The path of development and meeting the needs and aspirations of all people will be seriously harmed if war breaks out.

If this war breaks out then everyone involved will suffer to some extent and in some way or the other, and in the worst case scenario there will be the kind of massive destruction that only nuclear weapons can cause. Neighbouring countries not involved in the war will also be very adversely affected.

So the leaders of both the countries should do their best to avoid the possibility of such a war.

(The author is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, A Day in 2071 and Man over Machine—A Path to Peace)           

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India recorded the highest estimated number of cumulative excess Covid-19 deaths beating the USA, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and Pakistan, reported a Lancet report on March 10, 2022. The paper that looked at deaths due to Covid-19 between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021 also estimated that nearly 18.2 million people died globally as opposed to the official figure of 5.94 million.

With a goal to estimate excess mortality during the pandemic period, the Lancet published a paper wherein researchers searched various government websites, the World Mortality Database compendia, the Human Mortality Database, etc. and identified 74 countries and an additional 266 subnational locations where either weekly or monthly all-cause mortality data were reported for the required period. Further the paper used empirical assessments of excess mortality for 12 states of India.

The study found that the number of excess Covid-related deaths was largest in regions of South Asia, North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. However, in all this, India estimated the highest cumulative excess deaths at 4.07 million deaths, way ahead of the US, where the estimate stood at 1.13 million deaths. In Russia, estimates stood at 1.07 million deaths, Mexico suffered around 7,98,000 deaths. An estimated 7,92,000 deaths took place in Brazil while the estimated figure for Indonesia was 7,36,000 deaths and for Pakistan it was  6,64,000 deaths.

It may be noted that of these countries, Russia had the highest excess mortality rate at 374.6 deaths per 1,00,000 followed by Mexico (325.1 deaths per 1,00,000), Brazil (186.9 deaths per 1,00,000) and the USA (179.3 deaths per 1,00,000). The global all-age rate of excess mortality due to the Covid-19 pandemic was 120·3 deaths per 1,00,000 of the population. It exceeded 300 deaths per 1,00,000 of the population in 21 countries.

Estimated deaths much higher than reported in India

As per the report, excess mortality rates due to Covid-19 in some Indian states were similar to those of some high-income countries in the northern hemisphere. The report also computed the ratio of excess mortality rate to reported Covid-19 mortality rate to measure the undercounting of the true mortality impact of the pandemic. Accordingly, it found that the national-level ratios in south Asia ranged from 8·33 in India to 36·06 in Bhutan. The most extreme ratios in the region were found in the states and provinces of India and Pakistan, ranging from 0·96 in Goa, India to 49·64 in Balochistan, Pakistan.

Using data from the civil registration system data for 12 states, and the mean reported deaths during the relevant periods in 2018 and 2019, the report obtained excess mortality estimates for select periods during the first and second waves. It also calculated a country-level residual using the residual from the 12 states.

Specifically, the report found that at the national level, India had an estimated 152·5 excess deaths (95 percent UI 138·6–163·3) per 1,00,000 of the population. This number is much higher than the data that was reported during the two Covid-waves. Covid-19 mortality rate was 18·3 deaths per 1,00,000 over the same period.

Further, heterogeneity in excess mortality among the 30 states of India was extremely high. From January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021, as many as 8 Indian states had excess mortality rates higher than 200 per 1,00,000 population, a level only exceeded by 50 other countries in the world. These states were: Uttarakhand, Manipur, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Goa had excess mortality rates that were lower than the global average of 120.6 deaths per 1,00,000 population (although 95% UIs overlap). Similarly, sub-national heterogeneity was evident in the excess death counts. Seven states had excess deaths higher than 2,00,000 as of December 31, 2021, namely: West Bengal (2,20,000 deaths), Madhya Pradesh (2,23,000 deaths), Tamil Nadu (2,60,000 deaths), Karnataka (2,84,000 deaths) Bihar (3,23,000 deaths), Uttar Pradesh (5,17,000 deaths) and Maharashtra (6,16,000 deaths).

“Although the excess mortality rates due to the Covid-19 pandemic among Indian states are not the highest in the world, because of India’s large population, the country accounted for 22.3 percent of global excess deaths as of December 31, 2021. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra had excess deaths higher than South Africa (3,02,000 deaths), with South Africa ranking tenth among all countries,” said the Lancet report.

States with ambiguous mortality data

Earlier, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and The Wire published data about Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh that showed huge data discrepancies in death-related data during the Covid-19 pandemic. As per the 2019 Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin, the actual crude death rate (CDR) for the state as a whole was to be 6.5 percent. Based on the rural-urban make-up of the surveyed population, the study expected the CDR in the surveyed areas to be around 6.7. However by 2019, the recorded CDR of 6.4 percent in this population was close to state-level expectations. There was not much room for further improvement in reporting to push the numbers up.

But in 2020 the CDR rose to 15-20 percent higher than expected either from 2019 data or from the state-wide CDR estimates from the annual SRS. In fact, the death rate during January-August 2021 was, over double the expectation. Even assuming the SRS significantly underestimated pre-pandemic yearly deaths but improved record-keeping to perfection during the pandemic, the deaths during the pandemic period were greatly above expectations.

The surveyed area had 55-60 percent more deaths during the 20 months from January 2020 to August 2021 than expected during that time. Across UP, this surge would amount to around 14 lakh excess deaths.

As per SRS and civil registration data, the state expects around 15 lakh deaths in a normal year. Further 14 lakh people also account for 0.6 percent of the state’s estimated 2021 population of around 23 cr people. Thus, the study claimed that the pandemic excess death toll amounted to almost a full year’s deaths.

Similarly, the report talked about Gujarat as a state with lower excess mortality rate than the global average. Yet, in May 2021, CJP reported data that estimated great under-reporting during the pandemic. On April 27, of the same year local newspaper Sandesh set aside five pages for obituaries in the Rajkot edition alone, while the state’s Covid-19 dashboard recorded only 14 deaths in the previous 24 hours. On the same day, the newspaper stated that 87 bodies were cremated following Covid protocol over the last two days while the government only recorded two Covid deaths.

This showed that despite Lancet report’s efforts to get official data, even the comparatively better surviving states in India were under great duress. Newspaper obituaries made for better indicators of death count in the area rather than official data, said CJP.

The Lancet report concluded that the full magnitude of COVID-19 was much greater in 2020 and 2021 than was indicated by reported deaths. It still called for further research and increased availability of ‘cause of death’ data for distinguishing the proportion of excess mortality directly caused by Covid-19. However, the study, coupled with previous reports of CJP show that there was great discrepancy especially in areas with a considerable Hindutva influence.

To verify this to certainty, the study stresses for ways to strengthen death reporting systems and mitigate political barriers to accurately track and monitor the continuation of the Covid-19 and future pandemics.

Related:

In 2021, COVID Deaths Surged in Stunning Fashion in Eastern UP, Investigation Finds
Covid-19: Which states fared worst and why?
Covid-19: Which states fared well and why?

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Image: Amnesty India

On May 22, 2018, Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at Amnesty International released a briefing note titled, “Myanmar: New evidence reveals Rohingya armed group massacred scores in Rakhine State”. It may be seen HERE.

In the briefing note, Amnesty International stated, “A Rohingya armed group brandishing guns and swords is responsible for at least one, and potentially a second, massacre of up to 99 Hindu women, men, and children as well as additional unlawful killings and abductions of Hindu villagers in August 2017, Amnesty International revealed today after carrying out a detailed investigation inside Myanmar’s Rakhine State.”

From the statement of the Amnesty International it appears that they have gathered enough evidence to implicate the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) in genocidal massacres. Apparently, the evidence against ARSA is more clear and convincing than the evidence against the armed forces of Myanmar and the Buddhist mobs. While releasing the briefing note Tirana Hassan also refuted Myanmar government’s criticism that the international community was being one-sided while at the same time denying access to northern Rakhine State. Tirana Hassan added that, “the full extent of ARSA’s abuses and the Myanmar military’s violations will not be known until independent human rights investigators, including the UN Fact-Finding mission, are given full and unfettered access to Rakhine State.” 
 

Two versions of Massacre at Kha Maung Seik

According to Amnesty International it appears that one of the most prominent alleged massacres of Hindu Rohingyas in Kha Maung Seik (also known as Fakira Bazar) in Maungdaw Township was done by ARSA activists on August 25 and 26. Amnesty International claims that ARSA had abducted the eight Hindu women survivors, forcefully converted them to Islam, compelled them to marry and cohabit with the murderers of their husbands, parents and brothers. Amnesty International also claims that the eight Hindu women told the fabricated the story of Myanmar army and Buddhists killing of some 93 Hindu civilians to cover up their genocidal killing of Hindus, fearing for their own lives and the lives of their children who were also abducted by ARSA. 

Hindus from Myanmar had joined streams of Muslim Rohingyas to seek refuge in Bangladesh after the killing of 86 people from their community in the ethnic violence in the neighbouring Buddhist-majority country. According to a news story in the First Post, a Bangladeshi government official had said that “a total of 414 Hindus from (Myanmar’s) Rakhine state took refuge at a Hindu village in Cox’s Bazar.” However, Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council President Rana Dasgupta, who visited the village, had claimed that the figure of Hindu refugees was 510, mostly women, children and the elderly, who were crammed into a wooden barn. Dasgupta said ordinary Rohingya Muslims escorted them to borders from where these Hindus entered Bangladesh along with thousands others (click HERE).
 

The post Nailing the Lie: On Amnesty’s Report on ‘Hindu’ Rohingyas appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Slowly, but surely, the story of the peopling of South Asia is being unravelled, using genetic data and their analysis. The latest in this series, is a preprint of a paper by David Reich, Vagheesh Narasimbhan and others in biological archives, The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia in www.biorxiv.org . Biologists, following mathematicians and physicists, are now uploading their papers before they are refereed and published in journals, making important results available much earlier.

The major findings in Reich-Narasimbhan paper is that it confirms the Eurasian Steppes ancestry as a component in the Indian population, dating it to about 2,000-1,200 BCE (Before Current Epoch). This is very much in line with the other evidence – both archaeological and linguistic, which posited similar dates. What is striking and new in this paper, is the importance of Iranian farmer genetic component in South Asia, which predates the steppes ancestry considerably. This should not have been logically unexpected. We know that the first evidence of agriculture in South Asia has been found in Mehrgarh 9,000 years back – a clear indication of its coming across the Bolan Pass from Iran. Obviously, agriculturalists and agriculture moved together, as they did in different parts of the world.

The paper deals with both Central and South Asia, and there is indeed a continuum that we need to look at to get the complete picture of Eurasian migrations. However, we are restricting the discussion here to its implications for South Asia.

The paper postulates that the Indus Valley Civilisation would have consisted of a mixture of ancient hunter gatherer South Asian population and the neolithic farmers coming from Iran. It is this population that acted as a bridge in creating the Ancient North Indian and the South Indian populations, with the North Indian population having a greater steppe component than the South Asian population, but both with significant Iranian farmer ancestral genetic component.

This large international group of scholars spanning the continents, looked at both ancient DNA and DNA from current populations. The ancient DNA has been extracted from a number of burial sites from three broad regions: Iran and the southern part of Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, which authors call Turan), from the western-central steppes and northern forest zone encompassing present day Kazakhstan and Russia, and from Swat Valley in northern Pakistan (“South Asia”). Unfortunately, the ancient DNA from Rakhigiri, which has been dated to be around 4,600 years old, has yet to be published; therefore we do not have ancient DNA of the Indus Valley people in these samples. The Swat Valley samples are after the entry of the steppe population, therefore carry their signature as well.

The evidence of the ancient DNA has been co-analysed with genome-wide data from present-day individuals from 246 ethnographically distinct groups in South Asia. This analysis consists of both statistical analysis and creating models of population mixing – admixture models – using older DNA, possible mutation rates, etc. The researchers then choose the models of mixing that approximate most closely to the population distribution that we see today.

What the Reich-Narasimhan paper shows is that the earlier Reich paper (we are calling this the earlier Reich paper as he was the lead author of this paper) postulate of Ancestral North Indian (ANI) and Ancestral South Indian (ASI) populations need to be modified. What we have instead, is a South Asian hunter gatherer population – called by Reich-Narasimhan as Ancient Ancestral South Asian (AASI) population, and then the two pulsed migrations. One pulse that originates around 5,000 years ago from Iran – the Iranian farming population. This creates what Reich-Narasimhan call the Indus Periphery population in North West South Asia. These probably – though not explicitly stated – are the Indus Valley civilisation people. At any rate, the authors seem to use this population group as a proxy for the Indus Valley people. This Indus Periphery population then mixes with the AASI population over the next 1,000-1,500 years to create the Ancestral South Indian (ASI) population.

The second pulse is the entry of the Eurasian Steppes people from Central Asia into India, carrying central Asian genetic markers. This mixes with the existing Ancestral South Indian population, creating the Ancestral North Indian (ANI) population. Its markers are found in higher proportion in the North Indian Brahmin and Bhumihar populations than in other communities. The existing South Asian population is the result of mixing in various degrees between the ANI and ASI populations.

Of course, different research groups could come up with different models of how the people carrying these genetic markers – of the ancient hunter gatherers, the Iranian farmers, and the steppe people – have migrated within India and have mixed together. What is unlikely to be disproven is that the current Indian population carries these distinct genetic components of the Iranian farmers or Eurasian Steppes people. Or to prove the hypothesis that the there was a large dispersion from India to Central and West Asia, and then to Europe – Out of India hypothesis – as the Hindutva ideologues would have us believe. The picture of Anatolian and Iranian farmers spreading slowly across Eurasia, followed by the Eurasian Steppes people spreading West – towards Europe, and South – towards West Asia and South Asia, is far too complete to be overturned.

The story of the spread of the steppes people from Kurgan/Yamna culture s – the area between Caspian and Black Sea – has drawn far more attention than that of the farmers from the West Asia. Part of this is clearly the fascination of both Europeans and North Indians with the origin of their languages. It is the Yamna people, who were the original proto Indo-European language speakers and carried it West, towards Europe, and South, towards Central, West and South Asia.

The story of the spread of agriculturalists however, is equally compelling. It shows that the postulate of demic expansion – agriculturists marching across the globe along with agriculture – while mixing with the original hunter gatherer populations was not wrong. This is the march of wheat and barley from Anatolia and Iran, across Europe, Central Asia and South Asia. They just got this expansion, which happened much earlier than the expansion of the steppes people, wrong in terms of language. The demic expansion did not carry the Indo European language with them. This was done by the steppes people.

This, of course, leaves out the other demic expansion that is linked to rice. In India, it has impacted eastern India. Reich-Narasimhan paper has relatively less to say about this, a gap which needs to be filled to have a more complete picture of the peopling of South Asia.

An important conclusion that can be drawn from this paper, is that the study of history has to contend with pulsed events – events accompanying rapid change – as well as slower changes. That history is not just simply a story of gradual changes; changes occur slowly, interspersed with rapid changes.

The other conclusion is that language of the conquest, and the language of civilisation can be different. The Indo European speakers spread their language, through conquest, a conquest made possible by their domestication of the horse, and their mobility. It is their mobility that allowed them to dominate over such large areas. The influx of pastoral people – with new weapons and mobility – have overturned many settled agricultural communities in history. We saw this with the rise of Turkic tribes – the Ottoman Empire, and the Mongols ruling over most of the Eurasian land mass as well. Both of them took over much bigger populations, with far more advanced civilisations. We should not therefore be surprised by similar events happening in more ancient times.

For the historians, there should be a sigh of relief. The painstaking work that they have done with archaeological and textual evidence is very close to the new genomic evidence. And it may yet help us provide pointers in deciphering the Indus Valley script, as we now know the possible relatives that we should look at.

Science is very cruel to myths and illusions. For those, who confuse civilisation with “Aryans” have to live with the historical truth that the “Aryan” Vedic speakers were pastoral people and did not build the Indus Valley civilisation. Nor are they the original inhabitants of South Asia. They were just one among many of the late movers from the North West, who came to India using either the Bolan or the Khyber Pass. Genomics should now finally settle the question of who are the Indo Aryan language speakers, just one branch of the Eurasian Steppe population.
 

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Despite the improvement in mortality, diarrhoea remained among the leading causes of death in Indian children below the age of five, killing an estimated 321 children every day in 2015, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
 
Diarrhoea, which results in dehydration–is also a leading cause of malnutrition globally. In 2016, India ranked 114 of 132 nations on stunting (low height for age).
 
In 2015, deaths from diarrhoea in Indian children under five accounted for 10% (117,285) of all deaths in the age-group, higher than 7% (3,273 children) in Myanmar, 7% (5,442 children) in Kenya and 9% (39,484 children) in Pakistan–countries with lower per capita incomes–as IndiaSpend reported on July 29, 2017.
 
Between 2000-2012, India’s under-five mortality declined by an average of 3.7% annually, according to this September 2013 study published in the Lancet. “Even though the deaths among children under five years have declined, the proportional mortality accounted by diarrheal diseases still remains high,” said this 2015 paper referring to the Lancet study.
 
More affected children received rehydration therapy
 
This reduction in deaths, as we said, was driven by the inception and success of many programmes for immunization, and control of diarrhoeal diseases through promotion of oral rehydration salts (ORS), improving breastfeeding practices and institutional births, explains the Lancet study quoted above.
 
India has adopted the Integrated Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (IAPPD) in 2014 to address the gaps.
 
Besides strengthening existing approaches, IAPPD aims to achieve higher coverage of interventions including appropriate infant and young child feeding, provision of safe drinking water and improved sanitation, Vitamin A supplementation, measles vaccination, Hib vaccination to prevent pneumonia and meningitis, hand washing and personal hygiene and provision of ORS, zinc.
 
ORS is a mixture of clean water, salt and sugar which is absorbed in the small intestine and replaces the water and electrolytes lost through faeces. Zinc supplements reduce the duration of a diarrhoea episode by 25%, and are associated with a 30% reduction in stool volume, according to the WHO.
 
In 2015-16, 60% children with diarrhoea received some form of oral rehydration–through ORS packets (51%) or gruel (28%) or increased fluids (7%)–up from 43% in 2005-06, NFHS-4 data show.
 
The proportion of children with diarrhoea who received rehydration therapy from ORS packets increased from 26% in 2005-06 to 51% in 2015-16. Yet, India did worse than neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh in providing ORS and zinc tablets to children, as IndiaSpend reported on November 18, 2016.
 
No more than 38% of children with diarrhoea received continued feeding and oral rehydration, as recommended, according to the report.
 
In 2015-16, advice or treatment was sought from a health facility or provider for 68% of children with diarrhoea, up from 60% a decade ago.
 
More than 90% of treatments for childhood diarrhoea are incorrect, as IndiaSpend reported on February 18, 2015. Largely unqualified medical practitioners, unfamiliar with relatively simple life-saving medications, prescribe antibiotics and other potentially harmful drugs, the report said.
 
Sanitation gaps keep prevalence of diarrhoea high
 
In 2015-16, 9.2% Indian children below the age of five had diarrhoea–up from 9% in 2005-06, according to NFHS-4 data.
 
The prevalence fell 2 percentage points among children aged 6-11 months, “when complementary foods and other liquids are introduced”, while it fell 0.8 percentage points among children aged 12-23 months, “when children begin to walk and are at increased risk of contamination from the environment”.

 
Improved sanitation is a key measure to prevent diarrhoea, according to this May 2017 WHO factsheet.
 
In 2015-16, states that had low usage of sanitation facilities such as Jharkhand, where 24% of households used improved sanitation facilities, Bihar (25%) and Odisha (29%), also had high proportion of children under five who suffered from diarrhoea–7%, 10%, and 10%, respectively–according to data from NFHS-4, as IndiaSpend reported on July 29, 2017.
 
Improved sanitation refers to a household with its own toilet, connected to a piped sewer system or flush to septic tank, flush to pit latrine, ventilated improved pit/biogas latrine, pit latrine with slab, twin pit/composting toilet, which is not shared with any other household.
 
As of March 20, 2018, individual household toilets were constructed in 52.16% of the targeted 12 million rural Indian households under the ministry of drinking water and sanitation’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Grameen), data show.
 
Fewer children received recommended diet, liquids during a diarrhoea episode
 
In 2015-16, only 7% of Indian children under five years with diarrhoea were given more liquids than usual, as recommended by WHO–down from 10.2% in 2005-06, NFHS-4 data show.
 
While 31% children received the usual amount of liquids, 57% children with diarrhoea were given less to drink–up from 37% a decade ago.
 
“To reduce dehydration and minimise the effects of diarrhoea on nutritional status, mothers are encouraged to continue normal feeding of children with diarrhoea and to increase the amount of fluids,” the NFHS-4 report said.
 
In 2015-16, only 31% Indian children with diarrhoea were fed according to the recommended practice of giving the same or more food to the sick child–down from 39.4% in 2005-06.
 
In comparison, 56% sick children were given less food than usual during an episode of diarrhoea–up from 41.8% a decade ago.
 
(Tripathi is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

The post India’s Child Deaths From Diarrhoea Down 52% In Decade, But Pakistan, Bangladesh Do Better On Solutions appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Protesting for political freedom outside the Supreme Court in Malé. Dying Regime via Flickr, CC BY

The Maldivian police have reportedly entered tourist resorts in their hunt for political opponents. In response to these authoritarian actions, protests erupted in the streets of the capital, Malé.

Even within the country, it’s not clear what exactly is happening. With contradictory and confused reports emerging minute-by-minute, other countries are now advising their citizens either to refrain from travelling to the Maldives, or to exercise caution if they do so.

This situation has also soured the diplomatic relationship between India and China after another former Maldivian president, Mohamed Nasheed, expressed his desire to see India send troops to help keep the piece. China, which has recently invested in the Maldives, responded that India “has no justification for intervening in the Maldives crisis”.

On the face of it, this might look like a political power struggle with causes both domestic and international. But there’s something else at work too: the Maldives’ very particular religious politics.
 

Hardline turn

Maldivian authorities claim that 100% of its population are Muslims, and you need to be Muslim to be a citizen. Conservative Islamic groups in the country have been vocal in their support of the current leadership.

In the 2013 election, when Yameen replaced Nasheed, the rhetoric used against Nasheed portrayed him as anti-Islamic. One pamphlet widely circulated on social media read: “President Nasheed’s devious plot to destroy the Islamic faith of Maldivians.” The current ruling party also organised a rally with the slogan “my religion, my nation” during this time of crisis.

A protest against president Abdulla Yameen.

Conservative religious elements are very visible in the Maldives. One Maldivian friend told me that someone yelled at him because his small shorts were an affront to Islamic values – and in today’s Malé, the niqab (the full veil) is more visible than ever before.

I myself recently visited the Maldives to talk to different universities about setting up exchange programs between my own university and Maldivian ones. As a scholar of religion, I was surprised to hear from these institutions that they had conducted research on Muslim extremists in the country. Among the countries that produce recruits to the so-called Islamic State (IS), the Maldives makes one of the highest per capita contributions: there are estimated to be more than 200 Maldivians fighting for IS in Iraq and Syria.
 

The Saudi factor

One international player in this crisis is Saudi Arabia. Like the Chinese, the Saudis have invested plenty of money in the Maldives – it recently granted the Maldives a US$150m loan to pay off its foreign debt. The political opposition in the Maldives blames Saudi Arabia for spreading the conservative and violent form of Islam that the current regime espouses.

According to the opposition, the Saudis finance conservative Maldavian imams who spread Wahhabist doctrines across the country. International relations scholar Azra Naseem also sees a pattern between the radicalisation of Maldivians and the influence of Saudi Arabia. As Naseem puts it:
 

The increasing hegemony of Salafist/Wahhabist ideologies over Maldivian religious and social cultures and thought, and its control of religious discourse, forbid Maldives from speaking of not just another religion but also to pick up on any other strand of thought in Islam other than their own. Sufism, which is so much a part of South Asian Islam … is discouraged in the Maldives if not outright outlawed.

These conservative trends are at work across South Asia. Sri Lanka, for example, is feeling the growing influence of so-called da’wa (missionary) movements such as Jamaat-e-Islami and Tablighi Jamaat. These movements started their missionary activities in the 1970s, but they have since become part of a violent and deadly conflict between so-called reformists (conservatives) and Sufis. The same dynamics are at work elsewhere too. But so far, only in the Maldives has a full-blown political crisis broken out – and the outcome of that crisis might yet turn out to be a preview of things to come elsewhere.

Andreas Johansson, Director of Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET), Lund University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Hand-painted Bollywood Mudflap in Ahmedabad – Bollywood is a part of shared Hindustani culture. Meena Khadri/Flickr. Some rights reserved.Pakistan and India celebrate 70 years of independence next week. That also means 70 years of hostility and conflict between the two states over the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir – divided by the Line of Control into Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered territories. Tensions and unresolved grievances around these historic disputes continue to feed wider regional instability. Home to over one fifth of the world’s population, the human and developmental consequences of protracted conflict in South Asia are immense.

As we reflect on the past, surely now is the time to change the ongoing saga of India-Pakistan relations? If we move beyond national identities and change our view of security and of the Line of Control, we have a chance of building a new vision of peace in the region. 
 

Nationhood and cultural identity

While sovereignty and national identities are celebrated on the anniversary of the birth of the two states, if we want to progress, it is also necessary to think about these differently. It is only by expanding current narrow definitions of sovereignty and nationhood – enabling a broader, more inclusive understanding of these ideas to take root – that new realities will form, divides will be overcome and a new vision for the future will emerge. In order to support such a transformation and build a more peaceful South Asia, we should look to shift understanding of cultural difference. 

There is a trend in the region towards asserting religious and communal identities, which strengthen divisions, pit India and Pakistan against each other and cause animosity between religious groups. Pakistan has long been in the grip of sectarianism and religiously motivated extremism, which often allows anti-India sentiment to dominate in political and policy spheres. In recent years, similar tendencies have also increased in India. In particular, Hindu nationalist sentiment has been stoked in the country, creating an increasingly hostile environment for India’s Muslims and other minority groups.

Shared cultural factors often highlight, in particular to outsiders, the irrationality of the conflict between India and Pakistan.

Yet there are multiple cultural factors which span the region and unite rather than divide. Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu together – the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan), songs and poetry, Bollywood and cricket, are just a few examples of shared cultural heritage. These factors often highlight, in particular to outsiders, the irrationality of the conflict between India and Pakistan. Kashmiris themselves have a close, shared historical identity. It is all these uniting factors which must be underscored in order to prioritise more inclusive identities and positive relationships. 

Rethinking security 

Alongside identity, security in this context must also be considered differently. The crisis in the Kashmir Valley over the past year, which began following the killing in July 2016 of popular militant Burhan Wani, has provoked a repressive response from New Delhi. This has highlighted how the focus of the security establishments in both capitals continues to be on territorial integrity, in order to defend each state’s position vis-à-vis Kashmir. A fundamental rethink away from state-driven concepts of national security, towards human security – an approach which prioritises the safety and security of the people living in the territory – is essential.

The current state-focused security paradigm can lead to tensions arising between citizens and their governments and can even feed people’s sense of insecurity and subjugation. A shift in priorities could allow more collective responses to social problems to emerge, improving relationships between different members of a community. Notably, this could include the betterment of relationships between citizens, authorities and institutions. Surely the lives and livelihoods of a state’s citizens are the most pressing priority? 
 

A new definition for the Line of Control

Reconsidering how we view security, we should also look at how we perceive the Line of Control itself. How can steps be taken to bring people together across this dividing line? Indeed, how could the Line of Control be transformed from a dividing line into a linking line? A number of measures to build confidence and trust between India and Pakistan and between groups on the two sides of Jammu and Kashmir have been established.

Initiatives such as cross-Line of Control trade and travel have enabled a small shift in the lived reality of the Line of Control for some people in Jammu and Kashmir – away from a dividing line and towards a linking line connecting them to family members and fellow traders on the other side. Limited barter trade between divided Kashmiris at two crossing points was set up nine years ago, and has continued with only short interruptions due to severely deteriorating security situations. While its impact has been limited, the success of the initiative is indicative of the fact that a rethink is possible. 

The support for the trade has continued, despite political upheavals and a worsening of relations, providing a glimmer of hope for wider transformation of the Line of Control. However, it must be more profound. The irrelevance or porousness of the Line of Control could fundamentally change the situation for the people of Jammu and Kashmir and enable political and social realities to be reimagined and recreated. 

What is needed now is courage and imagination: courage and imagination for politicians to work together with Kashmiri civil society, and with those already working for peaceful change, in order to build a vision of a new future.

Charlotte Melly currently works as South Asia Projects Manager at peacebuilding NGO Conciliation Resources. Her work focuses on supporting peacebuilding processes in relation to the conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Charlotte holds an MPhil in International Relations and a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages from the University of Cambridge

Courtesy: Open Democracy
 

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The genetic evidence shows significant migrations from Eurasian steppes into South Asia. The Indo-Aryan language speakers have a higher signature of Central Asian genes, and even higher for the male population. 

This interview was first published on Newsclick.in.

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How can visualising hate crimes in south Asia enhance understanding and serve as a basis for organising policy and public action?
 

Image credit: Information Guru

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