ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

                                                            February 2007/III

                      (E-Newsletter from network of youth organizations in India)

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ICYO - Platform of 356 Youth Organizations in India.       

ICYO - India’s largest network of urban and rural youth.

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Northeast India Tribal Group Offers Cash Reward to Women With More Than 12 Babies

 

Tribal leaders in India's remote northeast are offering cash rewards to women who bear more than a dozen children in a bid to keep from being outnumbered by settlers from elsewhere, a leader said.

 

In the past two months, Khasi tribal chieftains in Meghalaya state have paid 16,000 rupees (US$348; euro270) each to four such women including 45-year-old Amilia Sohtun, who has 17 children, said H.S. Shylla, a member of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council.

 

Tribal elders defended the move, which has infuriated many women and health activists "Our community faces a genuine threat of being outnumbered by outsiders, and the only way we can prevent our race from becoming extinct is to ensure our population rises soon enough," Shylla told.

 

The council is an elected administrative body of tribal leaders in Meghalaya. It works with the state government on development issues, and makes decisions regarding customary community rules. The Khasis, numbering less than a million, are the majority community in Christian-dominated Meghalaya, which has 2.5 million people.

 

The community is worried about an unabated influx of migrants from outside the state, Shylla said. However, some in the state decried the incentive programme. "We oppose the idea because no one has the right to keep having babies unless she can provide them with a quality life," said Theilin Phanbuh, an activist in Shillong. "It is for the authorities to check the influx or settlement of outsiders in traditional land belonging to our people. Increasing our community's population by having more children is not the answer," she said. Meghalaya health activist Hasina Kharbhih also slammed the idea.

 

"A woman's body is not a machine that she can go on having babies. The government must intervene on the Khasi Council's decision because of the health issues involved," she said.

Shylla said the decision to pay mothers of more than 12 "has been generally welcomed."

 

The Council has received four more requests for cash incentives from women with more than a dozen children, Shylla said. In Meghalaya's matrilineal society, a man moves into his bride's home and their children take the mother's maiden name.

 

Meghalaya is one of the seven states in India's remote northeast where fears of migration from other parts of India and neighboring Bangladesh have helped fuel separatist revolts. (The PUSH Journal)

 

India's Health Indicators Show Some Improvement But Still Lag Far behind Wealthier Nations

 

Nearly half of India's children are malnourished, putting the country in the same league as some of the world's poorest countries even though fewer infants are dying and more pregnant Indian women are seeing doctors, according to government data released on 9^th February.

 

The figures from India's National Family Health Survey offered a snapshot of a country that has made gains in recent years, yet is struggling to match its dramatic economic achievements with equal improvements in the health of its more than 1 billion people.

 

The data also highlighted persistent gaps between the health of rural and urban India, and the awareness of health issues among men and women, who in many parts of India remain second-class citizens, at best. But the most glaring problem illustrated by the data was the health of India's children. With about 46 percent of children underweight a negligible improvement over the last survey, conducted in 1998-99 India is in the same league as nations like Burkina Faso and Cambodia. In China, Asia's other rising economic power and the country India so often compares itself with, only 8 percent of children are underweight.

 

The improved infant mortality rate down to 57 per 1,000 births from 68 in 1998-99 remains dramatically higher than that seen in Western nations, such the Netherlands, where it is 4.  In every category where a comparison between the health of people in the countryside and cities was offered, those in rural areas lagged far behind. The rural infant mortality rate, for example, was 62 per 1,000, compared to 42 the in urban areas.

 

Such statistics show India "should be worried," said Werner Schultink of UNICEF. "It's going to be difficult for India if wants to use its human resources to develop the nation but does not make improvements."

 

The survey the third conducted since 1992-1993 covers about 200,000 people between the ages of 15 and 54, more than half of them women, and was conducted through face-to-face interviews all across India between December 2005 and August 2006. It has no significant margin-of-error.

 

Only selected figures were released and the full report was expected soon.

 

According to nearly 51 percent of women made at least three visits to the doctor when they were pregnant, up from 44 percent in 1998-99. Some 41 percent has children in a hospital or clinic, up from about 34 percent in the last survey.

 

Some 57 percent of Indian women who are or have been married have heard about HIV a big jump from the 40 percent reported in 1998-99 but still likely to be criticized as far too low for a country's with 5.7 million people infected with the disease, the most in the world.

 

The data also indicated that a much higher percentage of men in the same group 80 percent had heard about the disease. No comparison with the data from previous surveys was offered for men.

 

The difference may have something to do with the fact that men are much more likely to be exposed to the country's media the survey found 80 percent of men had access to media, while only 65 percent of women did. (The PUSH Journal)

 

Workshop on HIV/AIDS Accountability and Transparency

Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians Promise to Get Involved in HIV Prevention

 

In spite of the availability of funds, HIV and AIDS continue to spread. Several observers pointed some factors, including the lack of accountability and transparency in the programme; where parliamentarians can play effective roles. With this view, the AFPPD had organized an "Asian Parliamentarians' workshop on HIV and AIDS with Focus on Accountability and Transparency" from January 24-25, 2007 in Bangkok.

 

Parliamentarians from region discussed the causes and possible ways to prevent more infection, and the status of accountability and transparency. The expert from UNFPA, UNAIDS and FHI assisted them. At the end of the workshop, each parliamentarian made personal commitments before going back to their respective countries.

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Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

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Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO) is a registered non-profit, non-governmental network organization, committed in developing areas of mutual cooperation and understanding among different youth voluntary agencies, youth groups, clubs and individuals working in the field of youth welfare in India. 

ICYO functions as an umbrella organization of youth NGOs in India. It's family consists of
over 356 organizations spread in 122 districts of 22 states from different corners of India.

Our goal:
To improve and extend the youth work and services through Youth Organizations;
To enhance and demonstrate youth work in the society;
To promote effective youth programmmes;
To organize network of civil society organizations working towards the development of youth work;
To organize seminars, conferences, workshops, trainings;
To maintain international relation with organizations promoting young people in their programmes and activities

Affiliation: 

Consultative (Roster) Status with ECOSOC, United Nations;
Consultative Status with Commission on Sustainable Development;
Full Member of World Assembly of Youth (WAY); Asian Youth Council (AYC);
Youth for Habitat International Network (YFHIN); CRIN, South Asia Youth
Environment Network (SAYEN), Affiliate group of ECPAT International, Thailand;
ATSECE-DELHI, Indian Partner of AIDS Care Watch Campaign;
Steering Committee member of World Bank's YDP Network;
Working relation with Indian Association of Parliamentarians (IAPPD);
International Medical Parliamentarians Organizations (IMPO);
Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD);
World Youth Foundation, Malaysia