India and the Copenhagen deal

What happens when the rich blame the poor for everything that goes wrong? The poor stoop more unable to carry their increasing psychological and physical burden. This is happening now in the case of the 'developing' Asian and 'developed' Western countries. The 'developing' countries like India, though not exactly 'poor' in monetary sense, look like one in front of the Western countries, being made the scapegoat for anything that goes wrong under the sun.

The common visions of India that come to anybody's mind are the dirty environment and poverty, with young and the old begging for food with ragged clothes and dirty face. This vision of India as a weak nation with less efficient human resource has cost it the seat of influence in major organisations like the permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council many a time. It has been considered a weak voice even in solving internal issues like the Kashmir, terrorism, insurgency by Naxals and such rebellion groups.

Now, the Western countries are mounting pressure on India and China to sign the Copenhagen treaty to reduce carbon emissions in a bid to save the planet from a temperature increase of 2 degree or higher, which is considered dangerous. When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited India in July, she too pressurised the Indian government into agreeing to a time-bound and mandatory emission reduction protocol. This is highly unjustifiable. As it is very clear, it is a case of an obese person advising an emaciated one not to eat much in a famine situation, forgetting that his own gluttony was the cause of famine.

The United State emits an annual per capita carbon at an alarming rate of 24.3 tons, way above the global average of 1.9 tons and India's nearly 1.4 tons. And the current stock of green house gases in the atmosphere is the result of emissions over 150 to 200 years for which the developed countries like the US and the European countries are entirely responsible because then, India was a land of major forests and villages, without the dangerous, highly polluting industrial emissions. Nearly 1.3 billion of the India's population still lives in villages, with no access to continuous electricity, commercial activities and hence less emission of carbon and other byproducts. Yet we are being targeted for lack of strong commitments towards decreasing global pollution. Let alone the Copenhagen deal coming up in December, the US has not even bothered to ratify the Kyoto Protocol which would have brought pressure on it (US) to reduce its emissions to a fixed percentage. In short, the US wants to profit economically at the cost of the environment and global health.

However, India's major concern with regard to signing the Copenhagen deal is that it may result in retarding the economic development due to restrictions on industrial development. Signing the deal is a small but positive step towards environment-friendly governance and living. But once the deal is signed, countries like India and China will become easy martyrs on the altar of blame-game; most of the uncontrolled carbon emissions and environmental hazards will be attributed to us, the sitting targets, by the countries who have refrained from signing the deal. To contradict the statements that India is contributing more to the pollution, the Indian government has called for a National Action Plan (NAP) on Climate Change for focused energy and climate policy interventions: solar energy, energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, Himalayan ecosystem sustainable agriculture, strategic knowledge for climate change and a “Green India”.

The government has also called for boosting solar power production; reforestation so that a third of the country is forested, up from 23%; providing financial incentives for energy efficiency; research on glacier melt; and development of sustainable agriculture.

The Indian government’s other steps to control climate change include grassroots measures like increasing energy efficiency at the level of individual consumers, including a major drive to popularise energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps in households. The government hopes to increase sales of these bulbs by making them available for less than the market price, using the sale of carbon credits to fund this subsidy.

And now, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has reiterated that the rich countries have to take up the tab when developing countries like India rise to meet the economic aspirations of the nation. His viable alternative is that the technology companies worldwide should join hands and produce the technology necessary to beat carbon emission increase and also rise the economy of the countries. What happens at the Copenhagen summit is to be waited and watched. with bated breath because India's decision to sign or not sign the deal will have direct impact on its industrial development and economic growth.

Nobel Peace Prize: Controversial Nominations

Sir,

I agree with Vikram Muthanna's column "Yes you can... say NO" where he says that the Nobel Peace Prize has lost its prestige due to the award of Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama. But it is not the first time the Committee took controversial and unexplainable decisions in selecting the nominees for the Peace Prize.

The first such decision was taken in 1994 when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Yasser Arafat who was the Chairman of Palestinian Liberalisation Organisation (PLO) and known as an 'unrepentant terrorist'. He later declared that the PLO renounced terrorism and supported "the right of all parties concerned in the Middle East conflict to live in peace and security, including the State of Palestine, Israel and other neighbours".

Rabbi Shmuley, who wrote in Jerusalem Post, remarked that Arafat's 'lasting legacy is not lasting peace with Israel but the army of suicide bombers he launched against the Jewish State to dismember pregnant women and disembowel helpless children.'

Kaare Kristiansen, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee member, resigned from the Committee after it awarded the Peace Prize to Arafat.

The controversy again rose after the Peace Prize was awarded to Mohamed El Baradei in 2005, the Director of United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, who was famously called both the 'nuclear Policeman and salesman.' He was also criticised for being 'soft' on Iran's nuclear policies.

There are many such controversial nominations which has made the public worldwide lose their earlier reverence towards the Nobel Peace Prize. And now, by honouring Obama, who is yet to deserve the prize, the Committee has again baffled the world. Its reason for the award can only be known after 50 years and by that time, no one really cares. Were there no deserving candidate among the 205 nominations received?

— Shwetha Pangannaya

Century-old Cheluvamba Hospital: This is no way to treat pregnant women and new-born babies

Have you visited the Maternity Ward at the century-old Cheluvamba Hospital in city? If you haven't, here we give you a peek into the way the pregnant women and the new-born babies are treated by the hospital ayahs and nurses. No pregnant woman, who once gets admitted to this hospital, will ever want to visit it again, come what may.

Pregnant women and those who have just delivered a baby need special attention and proper care as their physical and psychological conditions are fragile, particularly after the intense labour pain they undergo during the delivery.

However, at home, they are given proper care with good nutritious food, warm clothing, rest and care. Those poor women, who have to be admitted to hospitals, naturally go to government hospitals hoping that the admission and treatment are free or at best, minimum. Unfortunately, as the old adage goes, nothing is free in this world. Government hospitals are the living examples of that adage. They have turned out to be holes in the already empty pockets of the poor.

Cheluvamba Hospital, earlier known as Vanivilas Hospital, was setup in 1880, that is 129 years ago to provide medical services to poor and needy women. Here too nothing is free. Not even the bed you sleep on or for that matter even the floor you get to sleep, when there are no beds. Apart from beds, to avail even medicines and other facilities at the Hospital after admission, one has to pay bribe. A few patients, who have spent a couple of days at the hospital and since discharged, narrated their harrowing experiences thus:

Pushpalatha, who was two months into her pregnancy, had come to the hospital for a routine check-up but was advised to get admitted in the hospital as her child had to be aborted due to some complications. She revealed the scenes she saw at the hospital. It was a common practice for the ayahs and nurses to beat women in labour pain, when they start crying in pain. They are told to shut their mouth and stop crying by asking them what could be the most humiliating remark in public: "Did it hurt when you enjoyed sex? Why cry now?!"

Pushpalatha's neighbour, who too had been admitted to the hospital for her delivery, recoun-ted her experience. She had lost three children due to blood sugar complications at very young age. When she came here for the delivery of her fourth child, the 40-year-old pregnant woman was harassed because of her poverty, as she was unable to pay money to the ayahs and nurses as and when they demanded. The couple had to even sell the woman's mangalasutra to pay bribe to the ayahs and nurses.

It is only money that gets things done here. Greed for money is so rampant that immediately after delivery, the family members have to cough up money just to know the gender of the baby — Rs. 150 for the girl child and Rs. 200 for boy child ! Patients have to start paying them the moment they step in to the hospital until they get discharged. Entry to the hospital for the relatives of the patient is restricted from 6 am to 8 am and 4 pm to 6 pm. The person guarding the entry door demands Rs.10 every time a relative enters the hospital after visiting hours.

The problems of patients and their poor families are not restricted to money matters alone. The renowned Cheluvamba Hospital lacks even beds, cots, bedsheets not to mention medicines and trained staff. On entering the ward, the first scene one encounters is utter chaos. Women who have just delivered are made to sleep on the floors along with their new-born babies, on a thin bedsheet. Those who can afford to pay money are provided with a bed and cot while others have to sleep on the unclean floor. Sometimes, space will not be available even to sleep on the floors in spite of being admitted.

The most pathetic sight is that of the babies, which have not yet opened their eyes to the world. They too are made to sleep on the damp floor, with the possibility of contracting infections. The other common sight is the women’s relatives running around frantically for hours trying get a bed for the pregnant women or mother and the new-born baby.

One relative of a patient, speaking to SOM on condition of anonymity, said that when women are admitted to the hospital and are required to undergo laboratory tests, they are asked to go to private labs in city, in spite of the facility being available within the hospital. There are many instances of pregnant women being sent out to diagnostic centres at 1 am in the night, in spite of the fact that labs and blood banks are located right inside the hospital premises. Imagine the suffering of these pregnant women going through excruciating labour pain even in the middle of the night.

Inside the hospital, the corridors reek of DDT powder. While investigating the cause for this, we saw patients vomiting right in an open area between the corridor and what appeared to be a garden at the centre. As the toilets were not cleaned and were always overflowing with filth and garbage, and sometimes too crowded, these women had no other option but to use these open spaces. DDT powder was just sprayed on top of it all to cover up the mess. Toilets are not cleaned regularly and their number is quite inadequate considering the number of patients who are admitted.

On the ground floor, an empty room with a board 'Ward No.4' was dumped with discarded cots and used beds. It is surprising that the concerned authorities never thought of cleaning this room and making it available for the patients, in spite of the fact that so many women lie on bare floors for lack of adequate space.

The patients and their relatives too are responsible in a way for the mismanagement and the filth surrounding the hospital. They spit and throw garbage everywhere, unaware that it is a hospital and should be kept clean as many who come here are illiterate and are from rural background. Adequate dustbins could be provided by the hospital authorities with signboards advising them to use the same.

The hospital administration too seems to be blind to all these things. When will Cheluvamba Hospital get a rebirth and become patient-friendly?