12 NATIONAL

THE HINDU I HYDERABAD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

SHORT TAKES
Tripura most literate State, says CM
AGARTALA: Tripura has surged ahead of Kerala to achieve the top position in the literacy chart of India. It fell short of becoming a fully-literate State, but as of date its literacy stands at 94.65 per cent compared with Keralas 93.91 per cent. Our goal is 100 per cent literacy. We will attain that very soon, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said at a function to mark World Literacy Day on Sunday. Syed Sajjad Ali

Critics ay Maharashtra plan to link LPG subsidies to Aadhaar

Implementing in a hurry will exclude many poor families from this benet

Bavarian State Orchestra misled about nature of Zubin concert

Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: After opposition

RHETORIC VS REALITY

Priyanka Kakodkar

Outdated data on malnutrition: panel

NEW DELHI: Expressing surprise on the absence of latest official data on malnutrition, a parliamentary panel has asked the government to come up with a time-bound plan to reduce under-nutrition and ensure real time ow of information for proper monitoring. We are surprised to note that in this modern era of information technology, there is no recent official data on malnutrition. What is available is seven years old and outdated ... National Family Health Survey III data of 20052006, the panel said. PTI

MUMBAI:

Landslip cuts off NH 37; vehicles stranded

IMPHAL: Vehicular traffic along the 222-km long NH 37 connecting Jiribam adjacent to Assam with Imphal remains cut off from Saturday following a landslip near Rengkai village in Tamenglong district. Officials told The Hindu that torrential rains in the past few days had triggered the landslip. They feared that more landslips are likely to occur due to continuous rain. Iboyaima Laithangbam

Eyeing Guinness again with heaviest ladoo

RAJAHMUNDRY (A.P.): A confectioner here has prepared the worlds heaviest ladoo weighing 7,000 kg in a bid to enter the Guinness records for the third time. On an order placed by the Rajahmahendri Ganesh Utsav Committee, S. Venkateswara Rao has used 2,000 kg of sugar, 2,000 kg Bengal gram (channa dal), 1,500 kg of ghee and other condiments at a cost of about Rs.14.8 lakh at his Sri Bhaktanjaneya Sweets at Tapeswaram. PTI

Families across Maharashtra will lose their cooking gas subsidy by next March if they do not have bank accounts linked to Aadhaar numbers, the State government has announced. The move has provoked widespread criticism from those who fear it will exclude hundreds of poor households from this much-needed benet. The market price of cooking gas is around Rs. 950 to Rs. 1,000 a cylinder. Households are entitled to nine discounted cylinders each year which cost Rs. 450 each. Once the Aadhaar-LPG scheme became mandatory, families would not get discounted cylinders. Instead, the subsidy would be transferred directly to their bank accounts. To get the benet, however, people would have to get Aadhaar number, link it to their bank account and also to their consumer number at the LPG agency, officials said. The scheme to dispense unique identication numbers to citizens across the country was agged off in Maharashtras Nandurbar district in September 2010.

With 7.3 crore enrolments so far, the State has covered 65 per cent of its population and ranks second in the country after Andhra Pradesh. Officials say the Aadhaar number will help weed out duplicate or ghost beneciaries of welfare schemes. The direct cash transfer will ensure that subsidies reach the real beneciary and are not diverted, adds Information Technology secretary Rajesh Agarwal. But critics say there is a wide gap between official rhetoric and reality. The government talks about its enrolment gures. But even after enrolment, it takes 6-8 months to generate the Aadhaar number. A large number of poor families do not have bank accounts, which will take time to open. And then the account has to be linked to the LPG registration number, a process called seeding. Implementing this hastily will mean that many poor families will get excluded from this benet and it will cause a lot of hardship, said R. Ramakumar, assistant professor from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. So far the scheme is mandatory only in Wardha district where officials say the bulk of the population has been enrolled. Yet, activists say even here the problems are immense. Officials say 80 per cent of the popula-

ITS A LONG HAUL: In many cases, people have applied for Aadhaar numbers but have not received them.
FILE PHOTO: KAMAL NARANG

tion has been enrolled. What about remaining per cent that is a very large number of people left out, said Kiran Moghe of the All India Democratic Womens Association, who recently visited Wardha. In many cases, people had applied for Aadhaar numbers and not received them, she said. Also, the process of linking it to bank accounts and LPG numbers was done haphazardly and remained incomplete, she added. Un-

til the linkage is complete, the subsidy will not be delivered.

Poor will suffer the most

Those who suffer the most are the poor labourers who lose out on wages by standing in queues, Ms. Moghe pointed out. Even if all goes well, the cash subsidy would reach the bank account much after the gas cylinder was purchased. That means people will

have to pay Rs. 1,000 the market price for a cylinder outright. How will the poor be able to afford it? she said. Officials said each district was given a three-month grace period to get things in order. We will ensure that genuine beneciaries are not excluded. The scheme is being implementing keeping in mind that 80 per cent of each district will be enrolled by then. Also, Reserve Bank of India has issued a directive to banks that they should open accounts for all Aadhaar-holders. So those who dont currently have bank accounts will not be left out, said Mr. Agarwal. However, Ms. Moghe said banks were not following the spirit of the directive. RBI told banks to open a no-frills account, but they are insisting on an opening deposit, which is not possible for the poor. Critics are questioning the States right to make the Aadhaar number mandatory. The Aadhaar card was meant to be voluntary. Why is it being made compulsory, asked Mr. Ramakumar. He pointed out that a Parliamentary Standing Committee had rejected a bill that proposed making the Unique Identication Authority of India, which is overseeing the project, into a statutory authority.

from sections of Kashmiri civil society, the Zubin Mehta-led Bavarian State Orchestra concert in Srinagar on Saturday has now drawn internal criticism. Nikolaus Bachler, general manager of the Orchestra, has said they were misled about the nature of the event, even as German Ambassador to India Michael Steiner defended it from charges of elitism. Mr. Bachler said that they were under the impression they would be playing for the Kashmiri people, in the spirit of brotherhood and humanity, not at a restricted embassy concert. We were misled by the German embassy. We will raise this issue with the German government that art cant be exploited by anyone, be it governments or by embassies or any political groups. Mr. Bachler suggested that it was because organisers had turned it into an exclusive, elitist event for a selected, invited crowd that this became a political issue, which was a pity and against the aim of art. He added that all the 80 musicians had waived their fees. We didnt waive fees for an embassy concert. Be sure this will be an issue in Germany. But Mr. Steiner agged the issue of security. As I always said, security of the orchestra and all our guests was, and had to be, my rst priority. He said he was delighted they could welcome 2,700 guests at Shalimar

All walks of life were represented The overwhelming majority of our guests were local shopkeepers, craftsmen, houseboat owners, doctors, artists, students, teachers, neighbours of Shalimar Bagh, you name it
MICHAEL STEINER German Ambassador to India

Bagh, far more than envisaged. The Ambassador also said that this was not merely a VIP event. All walks of life were representedThe overwhelming majority of our guests were local shopkeepers, craftsmen, shawl wallahs, houseboat owners, doctors, artists, students, teachers, neighbours of Shalimar Bagh, you name it. Mr. Steiner added that the world was the guest in Kashmir.

Im a Kashmiri too, says Zubin

Mr. Mehta reached out to his critics. Referring to hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, he said, Geelani Sahib, I am your friend. You dont believe it. I wish all of our opposition would have come and enjoyed the music. He added he was not only a Parsi, but also a Kashmiri. We are not politicians. We cannot change boundaries but we can start a process of healing. He added that if Kashmiris wanted, he would return this time, to perform in a stadium.

Uddhav ays police order on protection of women

Staff Reporter its premises. Shiv Sena president MUMBAI: The issue of wom- Uddhav Thackeray shot ens safety at Ganesh back on Sunday: If Gamandals during the up- nesh mandals have to procoming festival has trig- tect the women devotees, gered a war of words then why is there a need between the Mumbai Po- for police? Following the lice Commissioner and recent gang-rape of a phothe Shiv Sena. tojournalist, the police On Saturday, Commis- have been organising regsioner Satyapal Singh said ular meetings with repreGanesh mandals would be sentative bodies of public banned from organising Ganesh mandals to ensure the event next year if any safety of women devotees. woman was molested on It is the responsibility

Auto driver held for molesting foreigner

AMRITSAR: An autorickshaw driver was arrested here on Sunday for allegedly molesting a young woman from Denmark, police said. Vicky molested the woman near the railway station on Friday. The victim complained to the police on Saturday. IANS

Commissioner asks organisers of Ganesh mandals to ensure that women visitors are not molested
of the organisers to ensure that female devotees, who ock to take blessings of Ganesha, are not eveteased or molested. If any such incident occurs, it

would go against the organisers, Mr. Singh said on Saturday.

Autocratic order
The Sena said the diktat, which even the British would not have dared to issue, was extremely foolish and autocratic. The Shiv Sena has been taking the responsibility of protecting women and will continue to do so if the police are unable to help, he said.

Shortage of drugs hits abortion services nationwide: study

Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: There is a significant decrease in access to abortion drugs since the middle of 2012 following the 2011 Census results that created a nationwide alarm by revealing the worst-ever child sex ratio. Unsafe abortion is the third leading cause of maternal deaths in India, contributing to eight per cent of all maternal deaths annually morbidity attributable to unsafe abortions is much more. Experts believe the Census results seem to have put pressure on policymakers and implementing authorities to address the problem of gender biased sex selection by curtailing availability of abortion services, particularly in the second trimester when the sex of the foetus can be known. Some State and district authorities have intensied enforcement and regulation of abortion providers and chemists, resulting in shortage of drugs and services which has adversely impacted women who need an abortion. Medical experts and health activists say there is a need to reverse this trend and make these drugs available to access to safe and legal abortion services for women who need them, and also to prevent them from resorting to illegal and life-threatening sources of abortion. Our ability to offer safe abortion drugs has been severely compromised due to difficulty in procuring medical abortion drugs, both as an institutional buyer and women not being able to purchase the drugs even with prescriptions, according to Kalpana Apte, assistant secretary genCM YK
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Most government facilities across States are not offering medical abortion services

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Fifty-eight per cent of the chemists in Maharashtra stopped stocking abortion drugs

eral (Programmes), Family Planning Association of India (FPAI). The FPAI has over 40 clinics across the country providing safe abortion services. The problem is made more acute because most government facilities across States are not offering medical abortion services because procurement process for medical abortion drugs are not in place despite funds allocated for the same in the annual plans under the National Rural Health Mission, Dr. Apte told The Hindu. It is estimated that 6.4 million abortions take place in India each year. Half of these are unsafe performed in unhygienic conditions by untrained providers. More than 80 per cent of women in the country still do not know that abortion is legal and available. The latest World Health Organisation guidelines on Safe abortion: technical and policy guidance for health systems recommend the use of mifepristone and misoprostol safely for up to 12 weeks. In a survey done in Maharashtra by the India chapter of Ipas, an international nonprot organisation working for safe abortions, Mifepristone and misoprostol were available in only 10 per cent of the chemist shops in Maha-

rashtra while none of the chemists in Mumbai stocked the drugs. Selling abortion drugs requires a chemist to keep the details of the woman seeking such drugs along with a copy of the prescription. The process is cumbersome and even a minor error may make them liable for prosecution and harassment from enforcement agencies. Thirty two per cent of the chemist shops reported never stocking these drugs and 58 per cent of the chemists interviewed reported that they had stopped stocking medical abortion drugs in the recent past. Most said that increased burden of documentation for dispensing these drugs (91 per cent) and threats from drug inspectors or some authority (56 per cent) against stocking was the reason behind their decision not to keep these drugs. A multi-city study was conducted across 238 chemist shops in eight cities of Maharashtra exactly a year ago. Data was collected by an independent agency to assess retail stock of selected schedule-H drugs, mainly mifepristone and misoprostol. Chemist shops were chosen using cluster sampling with a focus on those located near hospitals, and nursing homes. The alarming trend of chemists having stopped stocking abortion drugs found in the Ipas study is not an isolated phenomenon. We are hearing reports of medical abortions drugs unavailability in other States like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan also where the drug enforcement specically targeted to medical abortion drugs has been at a heightened level post the 2011 Census, Ipas country director Vinoj Manning said.
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