ICYO

YOUTH INFORMATION

                           No: 2007/28

(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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150 year of Freedom struggle: 30,000 Youth will foot-march from Meerut to Delhi

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Walled City to turn fortress

36,000 Youths Will March To Red Fort To Mark 150th Yr Of Uprising

As 36,000 youths march into Delhi on the 150th anniversary of the historic 1857 uprising on May 11, the Walled City will be turned into a fortress. Delhi Police is busy making security and traffic arrangements for the grand celebration, security levels for which are higher than those maintained for the annual Independence Day celebrations.    As part of the event, a grand function has been planned at Red Fort, which will be attended by VVIPs including the President, Prime Minister, Vice President, important political leaders, MPs, ministers, diplomats, and selected delegates from neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.    ‘‘This is the first time that the President, Prime Minister and Vice President are coming together to the ramparts of Red Fort. The highest levels of security will be maintained for the event,’’ said a senior police official.    According to sources, security agencies will take over the Walled City area to conduct intensive checks. A day before the event, parts of Lajpat Rai Market will be evacuated and doors and windows of buildings facing the Red Fort will be sealed. Jammers will be installed to check for explosives.    Anti-sabotage checks are being carried out and every dustbin and letterbox in the vicinity of the venue and along VIP routes will be checked and sealed. Anti-sabotage squads have been created comprising members from different agencies including Delhi Police, ITBP, NSG, SPG, CISF, CRPF and the army to carry out the checks. Dog squads will also be called in to check for suspicious objects.    Security agencies have been instructed to instantly gun down any flying object that they spot. Sharp shooters have been stationed at some vital buildings to look out for suspicious people. All senior officers would be on duty at the venue. Estimates suggest that over 25,000 security personnel would be part of the specific arrangements in addition to district police staff, which has been instructed to be on high-alert.    As for traffic, about 30,000 people will march into Delhi from Meerut through Apsara border on May 10, the road along the Rithala-Shahdara Metro route across the Yamuna will remain closed for about six hours. ‘‘We will try and keep one carriageway running as far as possible,’’ said a senior traffic official.    The youths will reach the border at 5 am and walk about 10 km to their camp on Pushta Road, behind the electric crematorium (see map), through old Yamuna bridge by 11.30 am. They will be joined there by about 5,000 volunteers from NSS and Bharat Scouts and Guides. A selected gathering of about 5,000 representatives will meet for a function at Vijay Chowk in the evening.    Around 4 am the next morning, about 36,000 people will walk to Red Fort from the camp through Ring Road, Hanuman Setu, Chowk Chhata Rail and Chowk Chandni Chowk. They are expected to cover the two km distance in about an hour.    The VIPs will take their seats by 7 am and will move out at 8.30 am — the VIP movement is expected to affect traffic in central Delhi. Film stars Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukherji and Sanjay Dutt are also expected. After the function, the youths will march back to the camp by 10 am and disperse using buses. ‘‘Traffic around the area will be affected during the morning rush hour. Traffic will also be diverted on roads around Red Fort while the function is on,’’ said a senior traffic official

 (Megha Suri | TNN New Delhi/Times of India/11.5.2007)

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Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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.

indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations

ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

                           No: 2007/27

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

==================================================

ICYO - Platform of 356 Youth Organizations in India.       

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

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World Bank Provides Further

Support to Help India Curb the

Spread of HIV and AIDS

Washington, April 26, 2007 – The World Bank approved today a US$250 million credit to support India’s National AIDS Control Program (NACP) in its efforts to curb the spread and mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS in the country. The Third National HIV/AIDS Control Project is designed to improve prevention programs, and amplify care, support, and treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS.

The Government of India has embarked on an ambitious goal of halting and reversing the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2011, ahead of the 2015 target of the 6th Millennium Development Goal. It has developed and enhanced its response to the epidemic over the last two decades. This sustained commitment has yielded many benefits, including an effective blood safety program, increased numbers of clinics to treat sexually transmitted diseases and voluntary counseling and testing centers for HIV, special interventions among groups at highest risk of HIV, establishment of prevention of parent to child transmission services and care, support and treatment services for people living with HIV.

- Prevention is the top priority of the project. Aims to reach 80 percent of high-risk groups over a five-year period.

- Will support scaling up of interventions in highly vulnerable sub-sections of society such as long distance truckers and short duration migrant workers.

- Will provide treatment, care and support to people living with the disease is a key component of the project

- Aims to strengthen and develop skills within NACO, the State AIDS Control Societies and NGOs associated with the program

- A common and comprehensive M&E system will be supported

However with estimated cases of adult infection reaching 5.2 million in 2005 (as reported by the national surveillance system), significant challenges remain. “Despite these impressive achievements, HIV and AIDS remains a serious threat to India’s health gains,” said Isabel Guerrero, World Bank Country Director for India.“This project is important because it will support the government’s scaling up of prevention, care, support and treatment interventions nationwide. While the disease is concentrated among high risk groups, .

With 99 percent of the population still uninfected, prevention is the top priority of the project. The project aims to reach 80 percent of people at highest risk over a five-year period. It will support scaling up of interventions to reduce unsafe sex among sex workers and their clients and reduce HIV transmission among injecting drug users, and among highly vulnerable mobile populations.

In many parts of the country, prevention efforts to reduce HIV prevalence among groups with high risk behavior have not achieved full coverage. “The epidemic is clustered in certain geographical areas,” said Suneeta Singh, World Bank Lead Public Health Specialist and project co-task team leader. “Six states, representing 30 percent of India’s population already have what is considered to be a high prevalence of HIV. It is absolutely essential to strengthen programs that target the most marginalized groups at high risk of infection to prevent the disea.

India is also discovering the visible face of the epidemic with a significant number of people living with HIV and AIDS. Hence providing treatment, care and support to people living with the disease is a key component of the project. NACP began providing free anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in high prevalence states in April 2004 and now has over 80,000 persons on treatment. It is estimated that during the project period, care and support services will be provided to 380,000 people living with HIV and AIDS; and ART to 340,000 persons, 40,000 of which are children.

The project also aims to undertake strengthening and skills development within NACO, the State AIDS Control Societies and of NGOs associated with the program to better carry out the task of instituting good quality, greatly scaled up interventions in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and mainstreaming a response to HIV through other ministries and the private sector. A comprehensive M&E system will be supported, making in time information available for better management of the program.

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Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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

ICYO

YOUTH INFORMATION

                           No: 2007/24  (APRIL)

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

==================================================

ICYO - Platform of 356 Youth Organizations in India.       

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

==================================================

Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking

On 26 March, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), together with other United Nations agencies, governments and NGOs, announced in London the launch of The Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking.

The launch, hosted by Baroness Mary Goudie, Member of the British House of Lords and Board Member of Vital Voices Global Partnership, coincided with both the two hundredth anniversary

of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.

A series of events throughout the world will culminate in Vienna, Austria, with an International Conference against Human Trafficking from 27 to 29 November 2007.

Some 2.5 million people throughout the world are at any given time recruited, entrapped, transported and exploited -- a process called human trafficking -- according to estimates of international experts.

Trafficking in persons, whether for sexual exploitation or forced labour, affects virtually every region of the world. UNODC reports that persons from 127 countries become exploited in 137 nations.

"Slavery is a booming international trade, less obvious than 200 years ago for sure, but all around us," said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa. "Perhaps we simply prefer to close our eyes to it, as many law-abiding citizens buy the products and the services produced on the cheap by slaves."

Because human trafficking is an underground crime, with many undiscovered and unidentified victims, the true numbers are not known. The United States Government estimates that between 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year.

Human trafficking has become big business. The UN and other experts estimate the total market value of illicit human trafficking at $32 billion -- about $10 billion is derived from the initial "sale" of individuals, with the remainder representing the estimated profits from the activities or goods produced by the victims of this barbaric crime.

A Global Epidemic

Human trafficking is a global problem, which UNODC believes has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade. No country is immune, whether as a source, a destination or a transit point for victims of human trafficking.

Most victims of this modern-day slavery are women and young girls, many of whom are forced into prostitution or otherwise exploited sexually. Trafficked men are found in fields, mines and quarries, or in other dirty and dangerous working conditions. Boys and girl sare trafficked into conditions of child labour, within a diverse group of industries, such as textiles, fishing or agriculture.

A recent UNODC report Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns identifies Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, China, Republic of Moldova, Nigeria, Thailand and Ukraine among the countries that are the greatest sources of trafficked persons. Belgium, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey and the United States are cited as the most common destinations.

Distinct from the concept of forced labour, the act of human trafficking involves additional elements, for example the act of recruitment (often by deceitful promises); transportation; and the receipt and exploitation of the victim. Difficult conditions such as poverty, lack of opportunities, including unemployment, and displacement make people especially vulnerable.

Trafficking victims are held in bondage through physical and/or psychological force; they are not free to walk away. Even if they had the ability to escape from their enslavement, typically they have nowhere to go -- they often lack identity papers and have little or no money. Traffickers also threaten to harm the victims' families as an additional deterrent against trying to flee. Many are ill: HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are common among women and girls forced into prostitution.

Human trafficking is a crime

The UN Protocol Against Trafficking in Persons, in effect since December 2003, makes human trafficking a crime. The Protocol has been signed and ratified by more than 110 countries, yet the participating governments and their criminal justice systems have not effectively curbed the practice. Few criminals are convicted, and most victims never receive help -- on the contrary, many victims themselves are convicted of offences such as illegal entry or unlawful residence.

Among its goals, the Global Initiative aims to raise public awareness throughout the world as part of a larger strategy to eliminate human trafficking. This increased attention will enable effective prevention efforts, such as raising awareness among potential victims about the dangers of trafficking, reducing demand for services and products that rely on slave labour, protecting victims and improving law enforcement methods.

"Governments, businesses, NGOs and citizens everywhere have a responsibility to work together to address this modern-day slavery," says Melanne Verveer, Co-Founder and Chair of Vital Voices Global Partnership. "The new Initiative will be critical to progress in combating this global challenge. We urge everyone to join the 21^st century anti-trafficking movement."

Lured by the promise of a better life, victims often are misled or deceived by traffickers. They may initially consent to the recruitment as a means to escape from extreme poverty and miserable living conditions. Women who were promised domestic work or an education instead find themselves forced into prostitution or uncompensated labour. Parents are lured by the promise of good jobs and education for their children, who are then held as slaves.

"Trafficking in persons involves recruitment, transportation or the receiving of a person," says Kristiina Kangaspunta, Chief of UNODC's Anti-Human Trafficking Unit. "It involves abuse of power, violence, deceit and abuse of vulnerability for the purpose of ongoing exploitation that generates illicit income for the traffickers."

No Accurate Count

Because human trafficking is a crime, and therefore clandestine, accurate numbers are not available. Many experts believe 2.5 million represents the tip of a much greater iceberg. The International Labour Organization (ILO) calculates the minimum number of people in forced labour at 12.3 million, while research by Free the Slaves, an NGO based in the United States, estimates 27 million people in slavery.

German authorities place the number of victims trafficked into that country at between 2,000 and 20,000 each year, but in 2004 only 972 victims were registered.

The wide range of estimates highlights the need for better reporting. "We need accurate numbers," says Ms. Kangaspunta, "but all our numbers are based on second-hand information. How do you count something that is all underground? We can't go to official statistics because nobody knows about these crimes."

A Complicated Issue

The issue of human trafficking is immensely complex. Trafficking takes many forms. International groups draw distinctions between victims of human trafficking, migratory labourers and forced labour in one location, such as factory work in a village or agricultural work in local fields.

"It is all slavery," says Kevin Bales, President of Free the Slaves. "The difference is in the way people are taken into slavery." Some people are born into slavery. Though a common perception is that slavery has ended, it still persists. "Slavery is basically the same as it always has been," says Mr. Bales. "Slavery has always been about one person controlling another, often using violence, to make a profit."

Throughout history, slaves have been a capital investment for owners, costing as much as the equivalent of $80,000 apiece. The unfortunate difference in the 21st century is that modern slaves are inexpensive. With a swelling global population and immense poverty in much of the world, the price has dropped to about $100 a person, Bales reports. "That means they are disposable. People enslaved today are less likely to receive medical care if they need it, or decent food to keep them alive because they are so inexpensive."

Sexual Exploitation Common

Data collected by UNODC show that about 80 per cent of the victims of human trafficking, most of them women and young girls, are forced into prostitution. The remaining 20 per cent, usually the men and boys, face forced labour. About half are under the age of 18.

Those percentages may be misleading, says Ms. Kangaspunta. Most groups concerned with human trafficking focus on women and sexual exploitation and do not see the males in the fields, mines and construction jobs or even the women and children in sweatshops and domestic servitude.

The issue is politically sensitive because many countries and corporations have benefited from this kind of enforced, cheap labour.

Human trafficking has become big business, both for criminals engaged in trafficking and for those who profit from the free labour. "The economy of human trafficking is significant," said Executive Director Costa. " Since the world woke up to this terrible reality, the mass of people trafficked and exploited would populate a state like Kansas, producing an income equivalent also to that of Kansas, or Montana."

(UNews/April 2007,Vol62 No4)

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Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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

ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

                        Update

No.  2007 / 24 (April)

(E - newsletter from network of Indian youth organizations)

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India's Skewed Sex Ratio Puts GE Sales in Spotlight

INDERGARH, India -- General Electric Co. and other companies have sold so many ultrasound machines in India that tests are now available in small towns like this one. There's no drinking water here, electricity is infrequent and roads turn to mud after a March rain shower. A scan typically costs $8, or a week's wages.

GE has waded into India's market as the country grapples with a difficult social issue: the abortion of female fetuses by families who want boys. Campaigners against the practice and some government officials are linking the country's widely reported skewed sex ratio with the spread of ultrasound machines. That's putting GE, the market leader in India, under the spotlight. It faces legal hurdles, government scrutiny and thorny business problems in one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

"Ultrasound is the main reason why the sex ratio is coming down," says Kalpana Bhavre, who is in charge of women and child welfare for the Datia district government, which includes Indergarh. Having a daughter is often viewed as incurring a lifetime of debt for parents because of the dowry payment at marriage. Compared to that, the cost of an ultrasound "is nothing," she says.

For more than a decade, the Indian government has tried to stop ultrasound from being used as a tool to determine gender. The devices use sound waves to produce images of fetuses or internal organs for a range of diagnostic purposes. India has passed laws forbidding doctors from disclosing the sex of fetuses, required official registrations of clinics and stiffened punishments for offenders. Nevertheless, some estimate that hundreds of thousands of girl fetuses are aborted each year.

GE -- by far the largest seller of ultrasound machines here through a joint venture with Indian outsourcing giant Wipro Ltd. -- has introduced its own safeguards, even though that means forsaking sales. "We stress emphatically that the machines aren't to be used for sex determination," says V. Raja, chief executive of GE Healthcare South Asia. "This is not the root cause of female feticide in India."

But the efforts have failed to stop the problem, as a growing economy has made the scans affordable to more people. The skewed sex ratio is an example of how India's strong economy has, in unpredictable ways, exacerbated some nagging social problems, such as the traditional preference for boys. Now, some activists are accusing GE of not doing enough to prevent unlawful use of its machines to boost sales.

"There is a demand for a boy that's been completely exploited by multinationals," says Puneet Bedi, a New Delhi obstetrician. He says GE and others market the machines as an essential pregnancy tool although the scans often aren't necessary for mothers in low risk groups.

Earlier this month, prosecutors in the city of Hyderabad brought a criminal case against the GE venture with Wipro as well as Erbis Engineering Co., the medical-equipment distributor in India for Japan's Toshiba Corp. In the suits, the district government alleges that the companies knowingly supplied ultrasound machines to clinics that weren't registered with the government and were illegally performing sex-selection tests. The penalty is up to three months in prison and a fine of 1,000 rupees.

Both companies deny wrongdoing and say they comply with Indian laws. A GE spokesman said yesterday the company hadn't received court notification but its legal team would be looking into the charges.

Vivek Paul, who helped build the early ultrasound business in India, first as a senior executive at GE and then at Wipro, says blame should be pinned on unethical doctors, not the machine's suppliers. "If someone drives a car through a crowded market and kills people, do you blame the car maker?" says Mr. Paul, who was Wipro's chief executive before he left the company in 2005. Mr. Paul is now a managing director at private equity specialists TPG Inc., formerly known as Texas Pacific Group.

Critical Market

India has been a critical market to GE. Its outsourcing operations have helped the Fairfield, Conn., giant cut costs. The country also is a growing market for GE's heavy equipment and other products. The company won't disclose its ultrasound sales. But Wipro GE's overall sales in India, which includes ultrasounds and other diagnostic equipment, reached about $250 million last year, up from $30 million in 1995.

Annual ultrasound sales in India from all vendors reached $77 million in 2006, up about 10% from the year before, according to an estimate from consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, which describes GE as the clear market leader. Other vendors include Siemens AG, Philips Electronics NV and Mindray International Medical Ltd., a new Chinese entrant for India's price-sensitive customers.

India has long struggled with an inordinate number of male births, and female infanticide -- the killing of newborn baby girls -- remains a problem. The abortion of female fetuses is a more recent trend, but unless "urgent action is taken," it's poised to escalate as the use of ultrasound services expands, the United Nations Children's Fund said in a report this year. India's "alarming decline in the child sex ratio" is likely to exacerbate child marriage, trafficking of women for prostitution and other problems, the report said.

The latest official Indian census in 2001 showed a steep decline in the relative number of girls aged 0-6 years from 10 years earlier: 927 girls for every 1,000 boys compared with 945 in 1991. In much of northwest India, the number of girls has fallen below 900 for every 1,000 boys. In the northern state of Punjab, the figure is below 800.

Wider Gap

Only China today has a wider gender gap, with 832 girls born for every 1,000 boys among infants aged 0-4 years, according to Unicef. GE sells about three times as many ultrasound machines in China as in India. In January, the Chinese government pledged to improve the gender balance, including tighter monitoring of ultrasounds. Some experts predict China will be more effective than India in enforcing its rules, given its success at other population-control measures.

Boys in India are viewed as wealth earners during life and lighters of one's funeral pyre at death. India's National Family Health Survey, released in February, showed that 90% of parents with two sons didn't want any more children. Of those with two daughters, 38% wanted to try again. While there are restrictions on abortions in this Hindu-majority nation, the rules offer enough leeway for most women to get around them.

GE took the lead in selling ultrasounds in the early 1990s soon after it began manufacturing the devices in India. It tapped Wipro's extensive distribution and service network to deliver its products to about 80% of its customers. For more remote locations and lower-end machines, it used sales agents.

The company also teamed with banks to help doctors finance the purchase of their machines. GE now sells about 15 different models, ranging from machines costing $100,000 that offer sophisticated color images to basic black-and-white scanners that retail for about $7,500.

To boost sales, GE has targeted small-town doctors. The company has kept prices down by refurbishing old equipment and marketed laptop machines to doctors who traveled frequently, including to rural areas. GE also offered discounts to buyers inclined to boast about their new gadgets, according to a former GE employee.

"Strategically, we focused on those customers who had big mouths," said Manish Vora, who until 2006 sold ultrasounds in the western Indian state of Gujarat for the Wipro-GE joint venture.

Without discussing specific sales tactics, Mr. Raja, of GE Healthcare South Asia, acknowledges the company is "aggressive" in pursuing its goals. But he points out that ultrasound machines have broad benefits and make childbirth safer. As the machines become more available, women can avoid making long trips into cities where health care typically is more expensive, he says.

Indian authorities have tried to regulate sales. In 1994, the government outlawed sex selection and empowered Indian authorities to search clinics and seize anything that aided sex selection. Today any clinic that has an ultrasound machine must register with the local government and provide an affidavit that it won't conduct sex selection. To date, more than 30,000 ultrasound clinics have been registered in India.

GE has taken a number of steps to ensure customers comply with the law. It has educated its sales force about the regulatory regime, demanded its own affidavits from customers that they won't use the machines for sex selection, and followed up with periodic audits, say executives. They note that in 2004, the first full year it began implementing these new measures, GE's sales in India shrank by about 10% from the year before. The sales decline in the low-end segment, for black-and-white ultrasound machines, was especially sharp, executives say. Only last year did GE return to the sales level it had reached before the regulations were implemented, according to Mr. Raja.

Complying with Indian law is often tricky. GE can't tell if doctors sell machines to others who fail to register them. Different states interpret registration rules differently. GE also is under close scrutiny by activists battling the illegal abortion of female fetuses. Sabu George, a 48-year-old activist who holds degrees from Johns Hopkins and Cornell universities, crisscrosses the country to spot illegal clinics.

Criminal Case

The criminal case in Hyderabad against Wipro-GE, a company representative, three doctors and an ultrasound technician followed an inspection in 2005 that found one clinic couldn't produce proper registration and hadn't kept complete records for two years. A team of inspectors seized an ultrasound supplied by Wipro-GE. The inspection team's report said it suspected the clinic was using the machines for illegal sex determination.

The owner, Sarawathi Devi, acknowledged in an interview that her clinic, Rite Diagnostics, wasn't officially registered at the time of the 2005 inspection. She said the ultrasound machine was owned by a "free-lance" radiologist who had obtained proper documentation for the Wipro-GE machine, but wasn't there when the inspectors had arrived. She denied the clinic has conducted sex determination tests. Later in 2005, Dr. Devi's records show she registered the clinic with the government and bought a Wipro-GE machine, a sale the company confirms.

The court case was part of a wider dragnet spearheaded by Hyderabad's top civil servant, District Magistrate Arvind Kumar. During an audit last year, Mr. Kumar demanded paperwork for 389 local scan centers. Only 16% could furnish complete address information for its patients, making it almost impossible to track women to check if they had abortions following their scans. Mr. Kumar ordered the seizure of almost one-third of the ultrasound machines in the district due to registration and paperwork problems. A suit also was lodged against Erbis, the Toshiba dealer.

GE's Mr. Raja says that, in general, if there's any doubt about the customer's intent to comply with India's laws, it doesn't make the sale. "There is no winking or blinking," he says.

A Wipro-GE representative is scheduled to appear May 7 at the Hyderabad court. An Erbis spokesman said he was unaware of the case in Hyderabad. A court date for Erbis hasn't been set.

A visit to the clinic in Indergarh, a town surrounded by fields of tawny wheat, shows the challenges GE faces keeping tabs on its machines. Inside the clinic, a dozen women wrapped in saris awaited tests on GE's Logiq 100 ultrasound machine. The line snaked along wooden benches and down into a darkened basement. On the wall, scrawled in white paint, was the message: "We don't do sex selection."

Manish Gupta, a 34-year-old doctor, said he drives two hours each way every week to Indergarh from much larger Jhansi city, where there are dozens of competing ultrasound clinics. He said even when offered bribes he refuses to disclose the sex of the fetus. "I'm just against that," Dr. Gupta said.

(Push Journal)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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

ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

No. 2007/23                                                             (April 2007)

(e-newsletter from

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations)

===========================

India Asks Civil Servants

About Their Periods

India's female civil servants are being told to provide details of their menstrual cycles in a new job appraisal form.

Women have been angered by the new form sent out this year which asks, among questions about their goals and skills, "when was your last menstrual period?" and "give details of your menstrual history."

It also says "all female officers" must list details of their last maternity leave. "This is insensitive. We feel strongly about this," said Seema Vyas, a civil servant in the western state of Maharashtra's administration department. "What will the government do with this information?"

All civil servants routinely undergo health check-ups, but the details of the tests are not supposed to be part of their appraisals. The form was based on guidelines issued by the Health Ministry, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

In Maharashtra women angered by the new appraisal form are to meet next week to organize a formal complaint to the federal government's personnel department, demanding the offending questions be excised.

There was no word on whether women bureaucrats in other parts of the country were planning to make similar demands, and the Federal Health Ministry said it had not yet received any complaints from female civil servants.

Nearly 10 per cent of India's 4,000 civil service bureaucrats are women. One female civil servant said on condition of anonymity that she and others were shocked by the move, which showed gender insensitivity at the top level of the Indian bureaucracy.

###############################

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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.

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.

ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

No 2007/ 22  (April 2007)

(E-newsletter from network of Indian youth organizations)

==========================================

ICYO - Platform of 356 Youth Organizations in India.     

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

==========================================

South Asian Conference on 

Youth & Democracy

Date: August 12-152007

Place: Pune, India

The role of young people is immense and vitally important in any democracy. As India and Pakistan completes the celebration of sixty years of independence on 15^th August, the Centre for Youth Development and Activities (CYDA) in association with like-minded organizations intend to organize a 3-day international conference on “Youth & Democracy in South Asia”. 

The objective of conference is to bring together, young people, youth activists and academicians from different walks of life and deliberate on concerns and issues of democracy in the context of young people. 

Today youth become mere spectators in the processes of development in almost all South Asian countries. Youth in leadership is almost vanishing and awareness as well as attitude towards civic engagement is disappearing. The expected outcome is increased involvement of youth in decision-making roles in democracies they represent.  If the democracies to function effectively youth shall become participants and a participant youth shall understand the meaning of citizenship, polices and governance and have the acquired skills to voice their concerns and ability to make system accountable.

The Conference will aim at discussing various dimensions that youth can and must play not only on issues that concern them but also in the formulations of policies that affect them.  Youth as well as academicians from South Asian countries as well as a few Asia Pacific regions are invited to participate. The conference will be inaugurated on International Youth Day, 12^th August and will end on 15 August 2007.

1. Those are interested to attend or presentation the paper in conference, please send the concept paper (not more than 500 words) with full details (name, sex, age, contact address, country representing.

The organizer will provide the lodging boarding to selected participants only, the travel (including international travel) and others expense will be the responsibility of participants or nominating organization.

Interested participants send the above information to email id cyda@...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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.

ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

                           No: 2007/21

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

==================================================

ICYO - Platform of 356 Youth Organizations in India.       

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

==================================================

Women Group Launch a Mass Anti-Family Planning Campaign in Manipur,

Despite

Population growth of Manipur is Over & Above the National Average

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Deciding on Family Size Parents` Prerogative`

Akoijam Sunita

IMPHAL, Apr 2: Even though 64.5 % married women in Manipur do not want more than two children, United Women`s Front, one of the most recently formed women pressure groups in the state, is all set to launch a mass anti-family planning campaign throughout the state.

Ph Indira, assistant secretary, UWF maintained, "What the Indian government wants from Manipur is the land and not the people, and the family planning measures are part of several strategies to wipe out the native population."

Reacting to the announcement of the anti-family planning stance taken up by this organization, an official of the state family welfare department responsible for the implementation of family planning programmes said that even though in the early period of the implementation, very few women avail the facilities of family planning programme in Manipur, currently the programme is being implemented successfully.

She said, "Almost all the married educated women are using their choice method of family planning to avoid unwanted pregnancy after the birth of two or three children."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a working mother of two said, "I fully support family planning. Why should we go for big family when we don`t have the required support systems and an enabling environment? For my two children I have already chalked out a lump sum budget for their education and other needs."

She quickly added, "Money is a big issue but going for a manageable family size is not just about money. Moreover I don`t think it would be fair to bring in more babies when there are so much of shortcomings in our state."

For 47 years old Mobi, the greatest regret of his life is not taking timely family planning measures. He said, "As a casual labourer, making ends meet for myself is a challenge. I have 5 children and now I realized that having many children is not really God`s gifts, they are just human ignorance. I fully support family planning. It should be actually banned to have children beyond one`s ability to provide quality life."

As per the 2005-06 survey report of the National Family Health Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare throughout the country, 64.5 % of the married women in Manipur do not want more than two children. It further reported that 72.2 % of the married women in the urban areas are availing the facilities of family planning after having two children while the percentage was 60.2 in the rural areas.

The survey report also stated that 68.8 % of the married women with two sons do not want more children while 75.8 % of the women having one son and a daughter do not want further children. However, the report stated that only 28.3 % of the women having two daughters do not want more children. Moreover, 4.8 % of the married women of age range 15 to 49 are using any kind of family planning method available.

The population of Manipur has increase from 18.31 lakhs in 1991 to 22.94 lakhs in 2001 registering a decadal growth of 24.86 percent between 1991 and 2001 as compared to 21.35 % at all India level.

When asked as to how UWF is looking at expanding the family size given the constraints one faces in giving quality life, Indira said that the first priority will be given at reviving and making the government schools functional so that children can get quality education at affordable prices. She added that her organisation will take steps in making the people hard working and self-dependent by ensuring that government`s schemes for people`s welfare reaches the needy. She said that the drive against family planning will be taken up subsequently.

Finding the whole campaign amusing and impractical, a working mother of one said, "Family planning policy of the government is based on common sense and need for safeguarding the reproductive health of women. I think deciding on when to have baby and how many is entirely the prerogative of the parents. The emotional and mental preparedness of the parents and their ability to provide a quality life should be the decider for family size".

( http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=37157&typeid=1 )

-=-=--=-=-=-==--=-=-----=-=-=-==---=-=-=-=-==-=-=-

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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

Has youth activism come of age in India?

“Missing Girls” – Current legal and social challenges

Taking into account the alarming trend of declining child sex ratio and its causes, the amended Act - Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Technique (Prohibition of Sex Selection) – was enacted in 2003. The Act renders any act of sex selection illegal and stipulates legal restrictions on the owners and operators of the Ultrasound clinics, such as registration, maintaining records of all pregnancy related procedures and such other.

A team of Central Supervisory Board, a body set up by the Act to oversee the strict implementation of its guidelines, recently made surprise visits to a few Hospitals in Mumbai and Pune. The team found irregularities in record maintenance, even among well reputed hospitals, and took action to seal the machines. This and the following course of action indicate serious gaps in adherence and implementation of the PCPNDT Act. The future of the girl child is made even dismal, when such apathy towards the Act colludes with the prevalent social mindset that prefers son to daughter. Therefore, a public dialogue is required to meet the legal and social challenges in addressing the issue of ‘missing girls’.

The programme organised by Center for Youth Development and Activities (CYDA) on this issue, which will have a panel discussion, followed by question-answer session.

CYDA has recently conducted a national level study on the issue of declining child sex ratio with Lead Consultant Josantony Joseph, which was commissioned by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), India. The report of the study will also be released on the occasion.

Panel:

1. Dr. Rajshekhar Iyer, Medical Director and Appropriate Authority, PCMC
2. Dr. Devendra Shirole, Senior Secretary, IMA, Maharashtra
3. Audry Fernandes, Social Activist, Tathapi and member of the Advisory Committee, PCPNDT Cell, Pune District
4. Josantony Joseph, Lead Consultant to the UNFPA commissioned study

Date: Wednesday, 4^th April 2007

Time: 4.00 to 6.00 pm

Venue: Shramik Patrakar Sangh Auditorium, Ganjave Chowk, Pune

For more information and participation contact

Mr. Mathew Mattam,

CYDA
Ph: 020 – 25533168 email: cyda@...

SAARC Summit 2007 Must Act to End Cross-boarder Human Trafficking for sexual Purpose

The human trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and abuse of children and women is a major matter of concern in the SAARC region (South Asia). The SAARC countries signed and later ratified the ‘SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution’ but little progress has been made to translate those commitment into decisive action by the these seven countries.

The next SAARC Summit scheduled for April 2 – 4, 2007 to be held in New Delhi and it is high time to raise the concern and seek proactive role of all the parties.

To discuss these issues “Indian Network for Combating Trafficking” (INCT) organized a meeting on March 25, 2007 in New Delhi.

The INCT discussed the commitment made under the “SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution”.

Mr Ravi Narayan, Secretary General of Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO) welcomed the participants and briefed them about the current status of the “Convention” in some of the countries.

Ms Roma Debabrata, President of STOP explained the problem faced in recovery, repatriation and integration and hoped for early establishment of mutual legal assistance between the SAARC member countries.

Dr. (Ms) Jyotsna Chatterji, Secretary JWP-India urged the countries participating in the SAARC Summit to put in motion the Convention in total and called to establish a regional taskforce.

Ms Salma Ali, Executive Director of BNWLA, Bangladesh emphasized for protocol for rescuer operation and smooth repatriation system, to put on place as committed in the ‘Convention”.

The meeting finally agreed to emphasized on following points: 

-           According to the SAARC Convention, the task force is formulated on priority basis.

-           Protocol for rescue operation and smooth repatriation system.

-           Operationalize the mutual legal assistance between the SAARC member countries.

-           The bilateral and multidimensional dialogue and plan of action on standardized care and support for the survivors of trafficking.

The INCT urged to SAARC Summit to look into the above matter and act proactively to stop trafficking in persons and protect the human rights of the trafficked survivors.

The others organizations those contributed to the deliberations in the meeting include the National Youth Project, All India Seva Sangh, Mahatma Gandhi Sewa Ashram, Delhi Mahila Samaj and  Young Women’s Association (YWA) .

The INCT hosted the meeting. INCT is the national platform of organizations working for protecting children and women from trafficking and preventing commercial sexual exploitation of children in India. 

In this issue of Youth Information

- RHIYA Project officially comes to a close. Good Practices Dissemination meeting held.

- Male delegation visited ICYO.

- YES launch Global Fund for Youth Entrepreneurship.

- India host 4th APCRSH.

- Volunteer opportunity in Read India Campaign.

Upcoming events:-

- National Integration Youth Camp in Phalodi.

- National Workshop on the Strategic Use of Games

- Arya Youth Camps for spirituality development.

- Conference on "HIV/AIDS.

- Int. Children’s Art Competition.

- World Youth Congress 2008

- Global Youth Forum in Geneva.

- Int. Symposium on "The Role of Good Governance in Economic Development.

-                                                                                           

RHIYA Good Practices Dissemination Meeting Held

UNFPA implemented project RHIYA (Reproductive Health Initiative for Youth in ASIA) in seven Asian countries (Vietnam, Laos, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal and Sri Lanka) from period of 2003 to 2007 with the partnership of EU has officially come to end this year..  Under the RHIYA different project were designed for different country. The outcome result of these projects is encouraging according the implementing organizations.

The selected eleven best practices of RHIYA project are documented by published. The EC and UNFPA jointly organized the ‘Good Practices Dissemination Meeting’ in Bangkok, Thailand from February 7-8, 2007.

The meeting was started with opening remark by Mr. Bill Musoke, Deputy Director of the Asia Pacific Division of United Nations Population fund (UNFPA) and Mr. Andrew Jacobs, Head of Operations, European Commission delegation, Thailand.

Thierry Lucas, RHIYA Programme Manager and the other members of the panel Ms. Andrea Irwin and Mr. Oliver Well were spoke on the overview of the good practices exercise of RHIYA Methodology and key achievements and Lessons learnt during the first session.

According to panelists ‘RHIYA Good Practice Documentation Exercise’ was carried out in 2006 to identify and document good practices from each of the seven RHIYA countries and to present them in a way that would be useful for implementers of SRH programmes for young people. Four thematic booklets containing 11 full cases studies are produced.

There were over 90 participants from 11 countries in the meeting. There were three representatives from India attended the event including Mrs.Poonam Mutreja from Mac Arthur Foudnation, Ms.Anjali from Mamta and Mr. Vijay Bharatiya from Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO).

The Indian delegates shared their experiences and raised points for enhancing the understanding. For ICYO it was an opportunity for wider interaction and understanding the different cultural background influencing the outcome of the projects. ICYO not only raised its some of its concerns on the sustainability but also appreciated the efforts of the young people in these countries who worked in challenging environment.

Among the groups in which ICYO participated were the case study presentation by young people from Laos about ‘establishing First youth Centre’ there, Creating Youth Friendly communities in Bangladesh, and case study from Pakistan where Teenagers & Tehsil Nazims (head of a local government tier), Mothers & Mullahs made new alliances for young people’s reproductive health. All were which is managed by the dedicated youths who are working in challenging environment.

ICYO also realized the importance of giving more political space and opportunity to youth in the seven countries where RHIYA work was done.

Towards the end, the EC delegation shared the  “Reproductive Health in EU Cooperation Strategy (2007-2013) – A shift in implementation modalities”.

All the documented good practices available at: http://www.rhiya.org/best.html

Delegation of ‘Community Organizations Development Council of Maldives’ visited India.

The three-member delegation from Community Organizations Development Council of Maldives was in India recently, on its expose trip. The delegation includes Mr. Ibrahim Manik, Chairman, Mr Abdul Sattar Hassan, Assistant Executive Director and Mr. Hussain Shareef, Assistant Director.

The delegation visited ICYO secretariat on 7th. The ICYO briefed about its activities. 

During their visit, ICYO arranged the meeting with representatives of some youth organizations from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The delegates exchange the views in the meeting.

The visited of delegation in India was coordinated by Commonwealth Youth Programme Asia Centre. 

Global Fund for Youth Entrepreneurship Launch by YES

The Youth Employment Summit (YES) Inc. launched the ‘Global Fund for Youth Entrepreneurship‘ (YES Fund) on February 7,2007 in a function held in New Delhi.

YES Fund is a 2006 Clinton Global Initiative aimed at “building a coalition of partners all over the world to work on creating markets and unleashing entrepreneurship".

Ms Poonam Ahluwalia, President, YES Inc. stressed in her address in launching that the need for working together sharing that no single organization can be capable of handling the huge and complex task of generating employment opportunities. Expressing her delight at the prospect of India hosting the YES Fund, she remarked that "India has shown the world how to face challenges, and move forward purposefully by building local infrastructure, and this knowledge has to be transferred all over the world”.

Honorable Mani Shankar Aiyer, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of

India welcomed the YES Fund to India and extended his support to the initiative to create youth entrepreneurs in the country. He applauded the fact that YES focuses on rural youth enterprise development for realization of the goal.” He added that the youth are not to be looked as objects of charity by businesses but as partners.

Next APCRSH in Hyderabad, India

The next APCRSH (Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive, and Sexual Health and Rights) will be held from October 29-30, 2007 in Hyderabad, India. The organizer is expecting more than 1,500 participants from population, reproductive health, reproductive rights, women rights, HIV and AIDS related civil society organizations, government officials, policy makers, donors and UN representatives.

The international steering committee meeting held in Hyderabad recently, finalized the agenda etc. The conference will focus on youth related issues in its track 2 of agenda.

ICYO will encourage the participation of youth organizations in the 4^th APCRSH.  

Join Read India Campaign

Pratham (NGO working for primary education of underprivileged children in India) recently launched a campaign called Read India, which aims to ensure all children in India from Standard 1-5 can read, write and do arithmetic. The deadline set by Pratham is 2009.

Pratham is looking for self-motivated and enthusiastic leaders to volunteer for this campaign and offering internships to students who would like to work for the Read India campaign from their place of living.

To join the READ INDIA campaign write readindia@... or contact Ronald Abraham at phone- 9818715553 or by email: ronald.abraham@...

Upcoming events:-

National Integration Youth Camp

The National Youth Project will organize the National Youth Camp in Phalodi, Rajasthan from April 9 – 11, 2007. The camp is open for youth (boys and girls both) and 500 youth are expected to participate.

The organizer will provide the group accommodation and simple vegetarian food. The 50% railway concession available if travel in a group of 5 or more.

For more detail and participation contact: icyoindia@...

National Workshop on the Strategic Use of Games

The ‘National Workshop on The Strategic Use of Games’ will be held from April 17 to 20, 2007 at Yuva centre, Khar Ghar, Mumbai and organize by  Akshara-a Women’s Resource Centre

The workshop is for collectively explore the use of games for consciousness raising and communication of gender justice issues.

It is a four day brainstorming, skills training and gender workshop to: to share interactive games and experiences of participating organisations; presentation of local games by participants and collectively give feminist inputs; to Conduct a gender training to introduce issues of gender rights and systems of discrimination; introduce participants to the Yuvati Mela, its games and info stalls

The workshop is open to activists and staff organisations, men and women, who would like to explore the possibilities of using interactive games to impart gender consciousness to young women in their area.

The registration fee is Rs 700/-. For participation contact aksharaprograms@...

Arya Youth Camps

Central Arya Youth Council (Kendriya Arya  Yuvak Parishad) New Delhi will organize two camps in Delhi in coming months. The one camp is for girls and other one for boys.

The Girls Camp will be held in kalkaji, New Delhi from May 20-27, 2007 and this residential camp is open for girls of age 12 to 18 years. The organizer is expecting the two hundred girls in the camp.

The second Youth Camp for boys, will be held at Pitampura in Delhi. This National Youth Camp is also open for youth age of 12 to 18. The dates are June 9-17, 2007.

The theme of both camps will be personality development and promote the nationalism among youth. Mr. Anil Arya, National President of Arya Yuvak Parishad hopeful that these week long (each) camps will help in inter-talent exchange among young people and character development in the participants. The presence of eminent persons from spiritual field will promote the religious faith among youth.

For more detail contact Arya Yuva Parishad  (Mr. D. K. Bhagat): dkbhagat@...

Conference on "HIV/AIDS: Corporate India's Response to Care and Treatment"

CII is organizing a Conference on "HIV/AIDS: Corporate India's Response to Care & Treatment", on March 30, 2007 in New Delhi.

The panel discussions shall focus on challenges and opportunities in access to care and treatment in HIV/AIDS.

Int. Conference on Asian Youth and Childhoods

The 8th International Conference on Asian Youth and Childhoods 2007 will be held from November 22-24, 2007 in Lucknow, India and organized by Circle for Child and youth Research Cooperation in India & J N Post Graduate College, University of Lucknow.

According to organizer the conference will provide opportunities for academicians and professionals from social sciences and related fields to interact with members inside and outside their own particular disciplines.

The conference will cover the topics includes, New trends in youth and childhood research; Asian youth and new trajectories; Youth, international migration and globalization; Inequalities in child and youth population; Young people and new technology; Young people and media; Child and Youth rights in Asia etc.

For more detail log on http://www.ayc2007.com

Int. Children’s Art Competition

As part of the activities to celebrate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and the end of the first Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, the Division for Social Policy and Development at the United Nations invites children from all over the world to participate in an art competition on the theme “We can end poverty”.

The entry is open for Children from all around the world from age 5 to 15 years old.

More information available on http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/poverty/

World Youth Congress 2008 Quebec

The 4th World Youth Congress will bring together 600 of the world's most dynamic young sustainable development activists from around the world to Quebec City in August 2008.

For more detail log on: http://www.wyc2008.qc.ca

Global Youth Forum

The GAID will organize the Global Youth Forum and will take place in Geneva from May 24-25, 2007.  The Forum is open for the youth leaders of age between18-25 from all over the world.

Int. Symposium on "The Role of Good Governance in Economic Development"

Int. Symposium on "The Role of Good Governance in Economic Development" will be held from August 1-3, 2007 at the World Bank Headquarters, Washington DC.

200 young professionals and students will attend the second annual symposium “Good Governance in Economic Development” and examine the issue of corruption and inefficient governance as a challenge to economic development.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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

ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

 No 16 / March 2007

(E - newsletter from network of Indian youth organizations)

==========================================

NEW UN ESTIMATES

PREDICT 2.5 BILLION

INCREASE IN

WORLD POPULATION

BY 2050

The world's population is on track to surpass 9 billion persons by 2050, according to the newly released 2006 Revision of the official United Nations population estimates and projections, which also predict that the number of elderly persons will hit 1 billion.

"One of the surprises is that population growth is most concentrated in the 60 plus age group," Hania Zlotnik, the Director of the UN Population Division, told a press briefing on March 13, 2007 in New York held to launch the report.

"The place where the action is is the older population," she said. "The biggest change will occur in the developing world, and developing countries will have to cope with the situation" by investing in both education and care of the elderly.

According to the 2006 Revision, the world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion over the next 43 years, passing from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050. This increase is equivalent to the total size of the world population in 1950, and it will be absorbed mostly by the less developed regions, whose population is projected to rise from 5.4 billion in 2007 to 7.9 billion in 2050.

In contrast, the population of the more developed regions is expected to remain largely unchanged at 1.2 billion, and would have declined were it not for the projected net migration from developing to developed countries, which is expected to average 2.3 million persons annually.

As a result of declining fertility and increasing longevity, the populations of more and more countries are ageing rapidly. Between 2005 and 2050, half of the increase in the world population will be accounted for by a rise in the population aged 60 years or over, whereas the number of children (persons under age 15) will decline slightly. Furthermore, in the more developed regions, the population aged 60 or over is expected nearly to double (from 245 million in 2005 to 406 million in 2050), whereas that of persons under age 60 will likely decline (from 971 million in 2005 to 839 million in 2050).

"The world population is ageing because of the great success in reducing population, the success of humanity in controlling its numbers," Ms. Zlotnik observed.

According to the 2006 Revision, fertility in the less developed countries as a whole is expected to drop from 2.75 children per woman in 2005-2010 to 2.05 in 2045-2050. To achieve such reductions, it is essential that access to family planning expands in the poorest countries, the Population Division said, pointing out that without this, the world population could increase by twice as many people as those alive in 1950.

Reacting to the findings, the Executive Director of the UN Population Fund, Ms Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said they serve as a wake-up call to the urgency of giving couples the means to exercise their human right to freely determine the sizes of their families.

"Currently, about 200 million women in these countries lack access to safe and effective contraceptive services," said Ms. Obaid in a news release. "Funding for family planning must be increased to meet the needs of these women, not only to determine the world's future, but also to prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce maternal and infant death."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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 

ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

Update No. 14/ March 2007

(E - newsletter from network of Indian youth organizations)
***********************************************

India Young, But Not the Youngest Nation

Rema Nagarajan | TIG

New Delhi: Much has been made of India’s large young population. Nearly 70% of India’s population is younger than 35 years and reams have been written about how young India is. Yet, it is nowhere near having the lowest median age in the world.
   The list of countries with the lowest median age is dominated almost entirely by Africa, although it is for all the wrong reasons. A look at the life expectancy in most of the African nations provides a clue as to why they are the youngest countries.

   Very high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in many African countries, particularly in the south, seems to be taking a heavy toll. Few African countries have an average life expectancy beyond 50 years. In fact, of the 10 countries that form the southernmost part of the African mainland, seven have an average life expectancy of 40 years or less. In the case of Swaziland, it’s as low as 32.6 years.

   The others have a life expectancy of just a little above 40, the highest being Namibia with 43.4 years. With a few among the population living beyond their 40s, it’s no wonder that the median age of these countries are the lowest in the world—ranging from 15 years in Uganda to 18.6 in Rwanda.

   In fact, 41 of the 50 youngest countries in the world are African, but again, in most cases this is essentially due to a very low average life expectancy. Since having a young population—because most die before they even attain middle age—cannot be an advantage, it’s better to compare countries which have a life expectancy of at least 60 years.

   Even by this yardstick, however, India is nowhere near being the youngest nation. Of the 215 nations for which data on both median age and life expectancy is available, there are 47 which have a life expectancy of above 60 and a median age lower than India’s 24.9 years.

   Many of these are very small nations like Sao Tome and Principe or Mayotte, but the list includes several not-so-small countries like Oman, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Cambodia, Syria and Nicaragua—all with median ages ranging from 19 to 21 years. India’s median age is much above Bangladesh’s 22.2 or Egypt’s 24. In fact, most countries in West Asia and in Central America are part of the list of countries with lower median ages than India, and reasonably high life expectancy.

   When it comes to countries with the highest median age,there are few surprises. Japan has the second highest median age of 42.9 years, next only to Monaco with 45.4. Japan’s life expectancy is the highest in the world at 81.25. It is followed by Germany, Italy and several Scandinavian countries. The UK has a median age of 39.3 with a life expectancy of 78.54 and the US has a median age of 36.5 and life expectancy of 77.85.

(Times of India/12.03.2007)

**************************

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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.

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. 

ICYO  - Youth Information  March 2007/No 14

                                 E-News from

  Indian Committee of Youth Organizations

Largest Network of Youth Organizations in India.

STOP abusing, exploitation, trafficking of Children and YOUTH

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Bottom-up Approach" to
Curtail Human Trafficking,
Including Awareness-Raising Campaigns
at the Local-level.

- Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

UN Officials Press for Urgent Action to End Human Trafficking, a 'Modern-Day Slave Trade'

5 March 2007 – United Nations officials today called for increased efforts – by Governments, civil society, law enforcement agencies, the private sector and international organizations including the UN – to curb human trafficking, especially in women and girls.

Although this year marks the bicentennial of the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, "the fact that there are forms of slavery in our world today should fill us all with shame," Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told delegates from around the world who converged at UN Headquarters in New York to attend the International Conference on Trafficking in Women and Girls. "As an African woman, I would add that it also fills me with rage." 

She advocated increased cooperation among Governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media, among other groups, to halt trafficking, prosecute those guilty of perpetrating such crimes and to protect victims.

Ms. Migiro also urged States to join the Global Initiative to fight Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, a new UN program which will be launched later this year in Vienna. "We must act together to stop a crime in our midst that deprives countless victims of their liberty, dignity and human rights."

Citing trafficking's global scope, General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa said that it impacts millions of people, particularly those in poor countries, and is a multi-billion dollar industry that lines the pockets of organized crime.

"I cannot imagine a more terrible crime than the sale of women and children to be exploited and abused by others," Sheikha Haya told the Conference's participants. She lauded strengthened international legal instruments, such as the 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking, Especially Women and Children, which entered into force on 25 December 2003, and said that such agreements must be applied effectively.

Also, Sheikha Haya suggested a "bottom-up approach" to curtail human trafficking, including awareness-raising campaigns at the local-level, having vulnerable groups join in discussions on finding solutions to the problem and improving local economies to prevent "risky migration practices."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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.

indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations

Youth Information Update

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

March 2007/ No 13

==================================================

ICYO - Platform of 356 Youth Organizations in India.       

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

==================================================

Girls at U.N. Meeting Urge Global Action 

UNITED NATIONS -- A 16-year-old Nepalese girl burst into tears describing her work in a match factory to help support her mother. A Jordanian teen spoke out about violence against girls in rural areas. A former child soldier from Congo cried when she recalled her suffering as a sex slave.

The three are among more than 200 young people attending a high-level meeting of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, which this year is focusing on discrimination and violence against girls. They spoke at a panel and a news conference about issues that concern them, ranging from rape, trafficking and prostitution to education, child labor and AIDS.

"The most important message is that governments should ensure that every working child gets a free education," said Sunita Tamang, lamenting that in her community in Nepal "people think that if you educate a girl child, it will only embarrass you."

There was a time, she said tearfully, when she couldn't go to school because she had to work to help her mother, a single parent. But now, through a program supported by the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, she attends classes in the morning and works in the factory making boxes for matches in the afternoon.

In her spare time, Tamang started a club with other working children to campaign for education for youngsters who have to work and for an end to violence against children.

"What is unachievable if given an opportunity?" she asked at the crowded panel session. "Look at me _ I work in a match factory and today I have been able to come here and share my feelings and experiences with you all."

Golfidan Khader Al Abassy, 18, of Jordan, described the discrimination against girls in families, schools and in the workplace in her country and the shortage of programs that focus on girls' participation.

"I hope it will be in the near future that we will have the same opportunities as boys," she said. "The most important message which I want to send for all over the world ... (is) that the girls have a lot of power ... so if we give them the chance to prove themselves, they will be great persons. ... We have to believe in them."

Madeleine _ whose last name was withheld for security reasons _ was recruited at age 11 into the Mai-Mai militia, a ragtag group of impoverished fighters with varying loyalties who operate across huge swaths of eastern Congo. She spent two years with the militia, fighting on the front lines, and was demobilized in 2004.

At Friday's panel, she urged the international community to bring those responsible for crimes against girl soldiers in Congo to justice.

"We regret we were forgotten by those who should help us in doing justice to us, especially regarding the unusual sexual exploitation that we endured, which was merely sexual slavery," the 15-year-old said.

"We regret the International Criminal Court has not so far taken into account this aspect which would help ease our pain," she said.

So far only one Congolese warlord has been ordered to stand trial before the war crimes tribunal on a charge of sending children into battle.

Chinyanta Chimba, 17, raised by a single mother in Zambia who was determined that she go to school even if it meant no food on the table, is president of the Student Alliance for Female Education, a school club that seeks to change negative cultural and traditional practices and educate girls about HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and child rights.

"The main thing I would say to all the girls out there is that they should know that they have their own rights and it is time that we all stand up as young girls and speak out," she said.

Chimba said there has been "great encouragement" for the girls from the older participants at the two-week conference, which has brought 6,000 men and women to U.N. headquarters from around the globe.

She said she had believed women would never stand up for their rights, "but looking at what is happening today, it really gives me courage."

"I've got two ambitions," Chimba told the news conference. "The first one is to be a doctor ... and the second ambition is I want to become the first-ever female secretary-general of the U.N."

Journalists, diplomats and U.N. staffers in the room burst into applause. (PUSH Journal)

indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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.

indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations indiancommtteeofyouthorganizations

ICYO –

YOUTH INFORMATION

                        Update

March 2007 /12

(E - newsletter from network of Indian youth organizations)

==========================================

Issue 24 MARCH 2007

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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

Ø       Youth Participation increased to end Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Children

Ø       New World Bank Country Director meets the representatives of Youth Organizations

Ø       45 Per cent of Indian girls married off before 18

Ø       Call for greater Youth Participation to Combat Climate Change, Commonwealth Ministers say

Ø       Literacy drive for tribal girls

Ø       Creating awareness on HIV/AIDS and TB: NGOs meeting cum workshop held in Delhi

Ø       Theme of Women’s Day: ‘Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women’

Ø       Indian President to inaugurate Commonwealth ICT Summit

Ø       Winning student essayists to participate in Regional Youth Forum

Ø       Mr. Karayil Sukumaran nominated in Regional cell of Gramin Vikas Andolan

Upcoming Events:

Ø       World Bank’s Youth Essay Competition on Corruption

Ø       Symposium – The Youth Parliament

Ø       Regional Meet of Trafficking Survivors

Ø       Int. Leadership Camp

Ø       4th World Youth Congress

Ø       Regional Training Programme in Peace Building & Development

Rise in Youth Participation to End Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Children

The First World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CESC) was held at Stockholm, Sweden in 1996, since than governments, civil society organizations and people has more awareness, many laws in place, National Action Plans (NPA) developed. On other side the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CESC) and Commercial Sexual Abuse of children (CSA) are on rise.

ECPAT International has analyzed the ten years work progress and published the country ‘Monitoring Reports’ worldwide. In this series, the four south Asian country (Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan) reports were launched in Kathamandu, Nepal on February 8, 2007.

The large numbers of programmes and activities to fight against CESC are underway but most significant is the increase of ‘youth participation’ in such activities, said Mr. Mark Capaldi, Deputy Director, ECPAT International while  launching the Reports. According to Mr. Capaldi ‘Global Monitoring Report on the status of action against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children’ will help in developing National Action Plan and further strengthen it.

The Report provides a baseline of information on actions taken and remaining gaps for addressing CSEC, in each country based on the framework of the Agenda of Action against CESC, to enable more systematic assessment of progress implementation of the commitment.

Dr Tufail Mohammed, ECPAT Board Member (South Asia) said that the trafficking of children for sexual exploitation is a pressing problem in Asia and this region constitutes both destination and transit countries.

Earlier, Ms Junita Upadhyay, Focal Person for South Asia of ECPAT Int welcomed the guests. Mr. Biswo Khadka, Director, Maiti Nepal and Mr. Gauri Pradhan, Chairperson, CWIN also presented his views on the occasion.

The event was attended by media persons, representative of various international and national NGOs from Nepal, representatives of ECPAT member/affiliate organizations from South Asia.

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO) represented by its Secretary General Mr. Ravi Narayan.

New World Bank Country Director Meet the

Representatives of Youth Organizations

Mr. Praful Patel, World Bank’s Regional Vice President for South Asia, announced the appointment of Ms. sabel Guerrero as the new Country Director for India.  Ms. Guerrero will formally assume office on March 1, 2007 but she visited India in second week of February. On February 13, 2007 she invited the representatives of Youth Organizations in World Bank office in New Delhi.

In this information meeting all the NGO representatives including Mr.Ravi Narayan from ICYO gave the detail about  their work. Ms Guerrero also discusses various issue related to young people. Mr. Philip O’Keefe moderated the meeting.

45 Per cent of Indian Girls Married off Before 18

It's a social ill that continues to shame India. Nearly 45 per cent of women in India, aged between 20 and 24, are married off before they reach 18, the legal age to marry. What's worse, the number is over 50 per cent in eight states. 

While 61 per cent of women in Jharkhand were married off before 18, the number stood at 60 per cent in Bihar, 57 per cent in Rajasthan, 55 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 53 per cent each in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and 52 per cent in Chhattisgarh. 

Lack of education was found to be a major factor fuelling this trend. Over 71 per cent of women who got married below the age of 18 had received no education. 

These are part of the findings of the latest National Family Health Survey-III, carried out in 29 states during 2005-06. 

The survey, conducted by 18 research organizations, including five population research centres, and designed to collect and provide vital information on population, family planning, maternal and child health, child survival, nutrition of children and status of women, also unmasks another worrying trend. Six states — Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and West Bengal — which reported a lower percentage of under-18 marriages among women during the NFHS-II survey conducted in 1998-99, show an upward trend in NFHS-III. Officials say more and more women in these six states are being married off at the age of 15. 

Call for Greater Youth Participation to Combat Climate Change,

Commonwealth Ministers Say

Education on climate change at all levels is key, Commonwealth environment ministers say at 13th Commonwealth Consultative Group on Environment meeting.

Young people need to be more involved in the climate change issues, Commonwealth environment ministers have said. Ministers called for greater participation of the youth in international policy debates around climate change issues at a meeting at the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters in Gigiri, Nairobi, on 5 February 2007.

"Ministers felt that it was important for young people to be present at international meetings to share their views on an issue that will be a critical concern for their generation," Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Director of the Commonwealth Secretariat's Economic Affairs Division, said.

"They also stated that young people could develop relevant skills through direct involvement in technical workshops, and that all of this would help to bring greater continuity and resilience in approaches to climate change."

Ministers agreed that strengthening education on climate change at all levels would help societies to address the challenges.

They asked the Commonwealth to develop a focused and sustained capacity-building programme to address the needs of developing countries.

Environment officials also saw a role for the Commonwealth in examining the policy concerns of developing countries, in particular in helping to ensure that small states and least developed countries are not marginalized in future climate change negotiations.

Literacy Drive for Tribal Girls

Only 34.7 per cent tribal women are literate and that is far below the India’s national average of 54 per cent and fifty-four districts with a tribal population of over 25 per cent and where female literacy levels are below 35 per cent were selected for the literacy drive.

The government of Indian plans to come out with a special package to improve literacy levels among tribal women. The plan envisages setting up of 'district education support agencies in tribal areas with low literacy levels to ensure that tribal girls go to school. The volunteers would meet the families of tribal to convince them about the need to send their children to school.

Creating Awareness on HIV/AIDS and TB:

NGOs Meeting cum Workshop held in Delhi

The TB Association of India organized the NGOs meeting cum workshop on February 20, 2007 in New Delhi with the theme ‘Creating Awareness on HIV/AIDS and TB’.

Ms Maya Singh, Member of Rajya Sabha inaugurated the meeting. She emphasized for active role of civil society organization to eradicate the TB. Dr R. P. Vashit, State TB Officer informed that 40 per cent population has the TB virus in the body therefore need of continue programme to check the TB virus and need of complete course of treatment for TB patients.

ICYO attended the meeting.

Theme of Women’s Day:

‘Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women’

A working group of representatives from UN agencies and offices in Bangkok will present the 2007 observance of International Women’s Day on 8 March in Bangkok. The 2007 theme, ‘Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women,’ highlights the critical need to create and maintain a political and social environment in which violence against women is not tolerated. It also emphasizes the particular importance of political will and the involvement of men to achieve this goal. According to the UN, violence against women is a significant cause of death and disability among women aged 16 to 44. One in five women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action includes violence against women as one of 12 critical areas of concern requiring urgent action towards attaining the goals of equality, development and peace. It states that violence against women is a violation of women’s human rights and an impediment to the full enjoyment by women of all human rights.  (UNESACP NEWS)

Indian President to Inaugurate Commonwealth ICT Summit

Indian President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam is scheduled to inaugurate a major Commonwealth summit in New Delhi. On 23 March 2007, President Kalam will kick off the Commonwealth Connects International e-Partnership Summit, a global information and communication technology (ICT) event.

Winning Student Essayists to Participate in Regional Youth Forum

Twenty-five university students from 15 ADB member economies will participate in the Asian and Pacific Youth Forum on Sustainable Development, which will take place in Kyoto, Japan on 17 March. The students submitted winning essays to a region-wide essay competition on sustainable development held between September and November 2006. The competition generated more than 600 essay submissions, and was sponsored by ADB and ROAD, a network of Japanese university students concerned about development issues, through ADB's Japan Special Fund, financed by the Government of Japan.

Mr. Karayil Sukumaran nominated in

Regional Cell of Gramin Vikas Andolan

Mr.  Karayil Sukumaran, Secretary  of Karayil Yuvajana Kalasamithi, Payyannur, Kerala has nominated as the member of the CAPART regional cell  for implementing the Gramin Vikas Andolan programme. 

The Gramin vikas Andolan is aiming at awareness generation at all levels, the convergence of all other programmes of Government of India particularly those of the Ministry of Rural Development would enhance the ultimate output and lead to sustainable economic development of the rural community.

The central cell, regional cell and the selected NGOs should take all measures at the respective level such as National, state, district, block to ensure convergence of programmes of similar nature.

Mr Sukumaran is also the board member of ICYO.

Upcoming Events:

World Bank’s Youth Essay Competition on Corruption

2007 International Youth Essay Competition on corruption organized by the World Bank and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs invites the submission the essay from all over the world. The essay competition is open to students and non-students alike, aged 18-25. The last date of submission is March 15, 2007.

For detail information and participation log on http://www.essaycompetition.org/content07_36_1

Symposium – The Youth Parliament

A grand Youth Symposium – The Youth Parliament will be organized at IIT Roorkee during Cognizance’07, the annual techfest of IIT Roorkee at 23rd – 24th March 2007.

The aim behind the symposium is to give the youth a platform to express their views and thoughts on the issues and to invite suggestions from their side, which in turn will lead to the formation of Prabuddha and Samartha Bharat,

The topic of the Symposium includes:

1. " India 's first vision dates back to 1857, the vision of a free and independent India , the vision that guided the anti-colonial movement and made India independent in 1947. India then joined the list of the developing nations and needed a second vision urgently to become a developed nation. "

2. Is there a need of another vision or revolution which leads to a radical change in our thought process, policymaking and self-actualization or are we progressing steadily towards development? If you believe in the former option, what will be that vision (in respect of the common man / youth) and the path ? If it's the latter, how can the youth accelerate the growth towards a developed and free India ?"

For more details log on www.iitr.ernet.in/Symposium

Regional Meet of Trafficking Survivors

The NATSAP & VIMUKTHI ( Vimukthi is a VOCSET CBO) is planning to conduct a Regional level meet with 250 VOCSET - Victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation & Trafficking at Vijayawada in AP on 8th March20 07 on the eve of "International Women's Day". The organizer expected the representative of VOCSET from coastal and Rayalaseem region districts of Andhra Pradesh in the meeting. The State level police officers, officers of Women and child welfare dept, Local MPs, & MLAs will also be invited to participate in this programme.

The agenda of discussion includes: to continue section 8 (with small changes) & 20 of ITPA; to make an amendment to the ITPA by adding a new clause " Traffickers shall pay the compensation to the Victims" and sealing of the properties of traffickers; issue of Identity cards; deriving support and collaboration of from Police and Dist Admn for rescuing minors and women from trafficking.

For more information contact e-mail: helpap2002@...

Int. Leadership Camp

The 3rd International Leadership camp will be held from April 18-28, 2007 in Dumaguete City, Philippines. The theme of the camp is "Reuniting the World's Youth of Today for a Safer and Better Tomorrow"

The purpose of this leadership camp is to create avenues for participants to be trained as a leader/agent of change. Holistic leadership training is one where the training targets are both cognitive and effective. It is likewise oriented to developing appropriate skills and for formation of relevant values and attitudes.

Saceda Youth Lead and National Youth Commission, Philippines will organize the camp. For more detail contact: sacedaleadership@... 

4th World Youth Congress

The 4th World Youth Congress on the theme “Youth-led Development” will bring together 600 world’s most dynamic young activists in the field of sustainable development, in order to demonstrate that young people are one of the most valuable resources in governments’ and international development organizations’ mission to reach the Millennium Development Goals.

The Congress will organize by Peace Child International, World Youth Congress 2008 and Taking It Global (TIG) in Quebec, Canada from August 10 – 21, August 2007.

For more information log on http://www.wyc2008.qc.ca/about/

Regional Training Programme in Peace Building & Development

The Peacebuilding & Development Regional Training Programme provides practical experience and skills for scholars and practitioners working in conflict and post-conflict environments in South and Southeast Asia.

The Training progamme will be organized by Peace building & Development Institute in Sri Lanka in Partnership with American University’s Peacebuilding & Development Institute in Washington, DC. The programme will start from April 23, 2007.  Participants choose from one of two training sessions offered weekly, and are encouraged to attend as many weeks as possible. The second week training session will be on Youth and Conflict.  

For more information contact: PDIAsia@...

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Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

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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

ICYO –

YOUTH INFORMATION

                        Update

February 2007 / 7

(E - newsletter from network of Indian youth organizations)

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Call for nomination:

Tunza International Youth Conferences

The TUNZA International Youth Conference has the vision of the organization to "foster a generation of environmentally conscious citizens who will better influence decision-making processes and act responsibly to create a sustainable world".

The TUNZA International Youth Conference will be organized by UNEP in Liverkusen, Germany from August 26-30, 2007.

The Conferences (for young people between 15-24 years), provides opportunities for young people to learn from one another, share experiences and ideas on community-based environmental actions and develop joint strategies on promoting environmental protection.

The TUNZA conference 2007 follows in the footsteps of the 2005 TUNZA conference in Bangalore, India.

Nomination Criteria

• For candidates to be considered their birth dates must fall strictly between 26 August 1984 and 26 August 1992.
• Candidates must be nominated by their organizations and must be active members.
• Only nominations from organizations working on or interested in environmental and sustainable development issues will be considered.
• Each nomination must have two candidates - one female and one male. But only one of them will be elected (Please note that applications will not be considered unless the above is fulfilled).
• All nominations must reach UNEP on or before 28 February 2007.

For more information please log on http://www.unep.org/tunza/youthconference/About/index.asp
or contact to:

The Children and Youth Unit, Division of Communications and Public Information, United Nations Environment Programme, P.O Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya.
Tel: 254 -20-7623937 Fax: 254 -20-7623927/4350

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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.

ICYO – YOUTH INFORMATION

                                                                           February 2007/Issue 6

                      (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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Announcement

International Workshop on Youth Values Development 

The International Youth Centre (IYC), Kuala Lumpur will be organized the ‘International Workshop On Youth Values Development’ from March 18-25, 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The workshop will be organized in cooperation with the University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia, Asian Youth Council (AYC), Committee for ASEAN Youth Cooperation (CAYC) and the Malaysian Youth Council (MYC).

The theme of the workshop is “Operationalising Youth Values for Maximizing Human Capital” and comprise of: Paper presentations, country paper presentations, Forum, group discussions, deliberations and field visits.

The workshop shall be determining approaches and methods to develop and instill positive values among young people., while the following objectives are set

a.         To share development approaches on developing human values