The state of Assam in northeast India has the highest maternal mortality rate (MMR) in the country. One of the reasons for the abysmal record is that over three million people live on tiny islands along the Brahmaputra River without proper health infrastructure. Boat clinics on the river, an initiative of the Centre for North…
Swedish midwife, Christina Pedersen collaborating with Ipas- an organization headquartered in North Carolina, US and working around the world to increase women's ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights, especially the right to safe abortion visited the Tinsukia and Dibrugarh Boat Clinic Units in April 2012. Her report follows with photographs of the camps…
Sanjoy Hazarika will be interviewed on Rajya Sabha TV tonight (April) at 8:30 pm on the issue if racial profiling of people from the NER especially in Delhi. Earlier in the day he was to present on his views on 'Governance and Rights' on the UGC channel at 3:30 pm. last week he was interviewed by…
A severe cyclone accompanied by heavy hailstorm that ripped through Tinsukia district in the late afternoon of 23rd April claimed three lives ( figure is 5 in some reports), besides causing heavy damage to property.More than 40 villages under Kakopathar, Pengeree and Dhola police stations faced the fury of the cyclone. At Majbari village of…
It all started way back in 1979 when floods washed a large number of snakes ashore on the sandbar. One day, after the waters had receded, Payeng , only 16 then, found the place dotted with the dead reptiles. That was the turning point of his life. “The snakes died in the heat, without any…
C-NES’ Boat Clinic health camps are held under extremely challenging conditions. During summer there is no respite from the scorching sun and heat for health teams while conducting camps. Monsoons find the Boat Clinics struggling their way through angry rivers with strong water currents full to the brim, often overflowing banks. It is mandatory for…
By the Brahmaputra (Vol: 17) C-NES Newsletter (For the quarter January – March 2012) Editorial My dear friends and colleagues: Twelve years ago, on a cold January day in New Delhi, my CA, Praveen Jain, and I, having received the support and signatures of a Board of Trustees, headed by the distinguished economist and…
Sanjoy Hazarika, Managing Trustee of C-NES, has been invited to give a series of talks in Germany and screen his latest film on conflicts and its impact on women in the North East. Prof. Hazarika, who also holds the Saifuddin Kitchlew Chair and is Director of rthe Centre for NE Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia,…
A two and a half day C-NES Annual Review Meeting was organized at the world heritage site of Kaziranga Wild Life Sanctuary in Assam, along the Brahmaputra in an equally picturesque Wild Grass Resort, Kaziranga from 29th February to 2nd March 2012. Over 70 C-NES staff comprising of Medical Officers, District Programme Officers from the…
Last week, at a meeting without publicity and far from the headlines and hungry, aggressive media, a senior Assam health department official spoke wonderfully and evocatively in Assamese to a group of assembled doctors, health workers, organizers, activists and researchers, sharing his concerns and difficulties. The All-India National Family Welfare Survey (NFWS), released last year,…