Twenty-two year old Manjula reached the radio station before daybreak one day in August last year and started broadcasting Tsunami alerts at 5:00 a.m. Early morning listeners were caught unaware as they are used to the community radio station, Kalanjiam Vaanoli, beginning its broadcast only at eight. By mid-morning, Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and the surrounding…
A two member team comprising of Ms D. Daniel from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, US and Mr Santosh, UNICEF Consultant, visited the Barpeta Unit II Boat Clinic in lower Assam on July 14, 2011. The team joined the health team on the Boat Clinic during their trip to conduct a health camp at Rowmari…
On July 7, 2011, the Registrar-General of India (who is also the Census Commissioner) – and which office, for some unfathomable reason, best known perhaps to some babu in the GOI, remains located in the Ministry of Home Affairs, instead of the Ministry of Family Welfare – released the figures for MMR, IMR and TFR…
C-NES Newsletter (For the quarter April – June 2011) Editorial Delhi needs to follow Gogoi’s lead The Assam Chief Minister, cruising on his massive mandate in the recent Assembly elections, is wasting no time in getting down to business. In a flurry of activity, Tarun Gogoi has, these past days, instructed members of his Cabinet…
With the highest Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) the Centre’s latest estimates are a mixed bag for Assam . MMR is the rate of women who die in child birth as a proportion of the population. Against a national average of 212, the MMR in Assam is 390, the highest in the country, according to the…
Dr. Manmohan Singh’s declaration that a quarter of Bangladesh’s population were anti-India and radicalized by Islam so embarrassed the Centre which had put it blithely on its website on the basis, one surmises, of “transparency” and then swiftly withdrew the statement (without anyone explaining officially why). “… we must reckon that at least 25 percent…
The role of media in influencing readers and viewers has been rarely under as much stress as these days following the closure of The News of the World, Britain largest selling newspaper, after its editors and reporters were involved in a phone and email hacking scam where they bribed police, misused a murdered girl's cell…
The consistent agitations in Assam by student movements and other organizations opposing illegal influx from Bangladesh is the stuff, if not of legend, than the story of the mobilization of communities in the region in a rare way. The campaign began in the late 1970s although the issues are far more historic and date back…
Managing Trustee Sanjoy Hazarika held a meeting with senior officials of the National Rural Health Mission in New Delhi to discuss the ongoing partnership between C-NES and NRHM in Assam. The meeting, on 5 July, between Mr. Hazarika, Mr. Pradhan, head and Executive Director of the NRHM, and Mr. Naved Masood, Special Secretary was held…
The Assam Chief Minister, cruising on his massive mandate in the recent Assembly elections, is wasting no time in getting down to business. In a flurry of activity, Tarun Gogoi has, these past days, instructed members of his Cabinet to formulate their priorities in a document so that he can incorporate these into his annual…