Wednesday, 09 November 2011 22:38

Written by World and Media

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Over two million women and girls go missing in India and China every year. In both countries, excess deaths occur at all stages in the lives of women under 60. Pre-birth discrimination is the principal cause in China.

The figures come from a major report by the World Bank, the 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development (press release).

The World Bank attempted to calculate what the gender ratios in low and middle-income countries would be if, having taken into account their overall health environment, they were otherwise like high-income countries.

It found that nearly 4 million girls and women go "missing" each year due to pre-birth discrimination or excess mortality after birth. Nearly all (85% or 3.3m) were in China, Sub-Saharan Africa and India.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011 15:53

Written by Niamh Griffin

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Development work in India is about more than the extreme poverty portrayed in the west according to a leading campaigner in the care for the elderly sector.

Dr Alakananda Banerjee, head of the Dharma Foundation in New Delhi said there is much work to be done in the less obvious areas of healthcare.

“India is not what is displayed outside, what western people want to see. India is not just about elephants and cows on the road,” Dr Banerjee said at the First International Conference for Age-Friendly Cities in Dublin.

The doctor, head of the Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation with Max Hospitals, said healthcare training for the elderly can have huge benefits for the rest of the community.

Friday, 29 July 2011 12:02

Written by Niamh Griffin

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One year on from the floods in Pakistan, thousands are still living in camps according to the United Nations with many others still needing more permanent housing.

Sitting in his office in Islamabad last summer, aid worker John Long listened to the news with a rising sense of disbelief.

“It was coming in on an hourly basis. 70,000 people displaced from here, 60,000 people displaced from there. Your mind just numbs, it’s overwhelming. What are you meant to do?”

What you’re meant to do when you’re deputy head of a United Nations relief office is simple; help everyone. And while millions have been helped, the scale of the disaster means relief work is on-going.

The Irishman says flooding had more impact in a few days than years of terrorist activity with more than 18 million people left homeless.

Friday, 18 February 2011 11:28

Written by IRIN ad/cb

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[KABUL] Girls can attend separate schools provided students and teachers wear the hijab, and the curriculum and education environment are in keeping with religious and cultural values, Taliban commanders have told elders in southern Afghanistan.

“The Taliban have told us that they are not against schools for girls,” said Haji Nazar Mohmmad, a tribal elder in the southern province of Kandahar’s Spin Boldak District.

Local people in Marof, Daman and Panjwaye districts said they had received similar assurances from the insurgents.

The Taliban appear to be changing their attitude to female education, according to the Ministry of Education (MoE) which said there had been no opposition to the reopening of dozens of schools in the past year.

Wednesday, 19 January 2011 16:10

Written by World and Media

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Last night's earthquake in Pakistan refocuses attention on conditions in Balochistan. A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit southwestern Pakistan last night, a region yet to recover from devastating floods in 2010.

The quake was more than 80 km (50 miles) underground, close to the town of Dalbandin in Balochistan province. Seismologists believe that if the earthquake had happened closer to the surface, the consequences would have been much more severe.

Rescue teams are trying to assess the impact in the large but sparsely populated region. Dalbandin is 55 km from the epicentre and is estimated to have a population of about 15,000.

Six months after the floods in Pakistan, millions of families are still in need of emergency assistance. Children are particularly vulnerable.

In addition, thousands of survivors are still struggling with the psychological trauma of the floods, a problem that is unlikely to have been helped by the earthquake.

Tuesday, 11 January 2011 12:13

Written by Senan Hogan

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Women need to take their place alongside men to help build peace across the world, human rights activist Dr Sima Samar has said.

Last week Dr Samar won the 2010 Tipperary International Peace Prize and the judging panel said she risked her life to fight for the rights of women and girls in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Dr Samar leads the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and has also served as an UN Special Rapporteur to monitor human rights.

The activist said the Tipperary Award will be an inspiration to Afghan women in enhancing their commitment towards peace building and in the elimination of injustice and discrimination.

Monday, 03 January 2011 18:41

Written by Senan Hogan

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The 2010 Tipperary International Peace Prize has been awarded to Afghan human-rights activist Dr Sima Samar.

The Tipperary Peace Convention said in statement said that Dr Samar was "an amazingly brave woman who has risked her life to fight for the rights of women and girls in both Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Dr Samar leads the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. A medical doctor by profession, she served as the UN Special Rapporteur to monitor human rights in Sudan from 2005 to 2009.

Also on the shortlist for the Tipperary Peace Prize was former Irish president Mary Robinson and the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who was finally released after 15 years of house arrest in November. The UN's top official in Gaza, Irishman John Ging, was also in the running for the accolade.