|Government|
For Whom the Forests Turn Red?
History has shown us that the remedy for red terror isn't white terror, or any other kind of terror. From Telengana onwards, whenever extreme Left ideology was suppressed violently, it has resurrected itself. But the Centre and the state governments have paid no attention to either the lessons of history or even their own reports. The Prime Minister repeatedly states that the Maoists are the gravest threat to the nation's internal security. The Home Minister proclaims that operations would be intensified to crush the Maoists. Whether the real purpose of the war is ensuring national security or furthering corporate interests, the ones who die are invariably the poor. When the government talks of intensifying the offensive, it means only that more security forces, more Maoists, more common people will get killed. 
Dalit
A Kerala land struggle is 'settled', questions remain
Over 1400 families who had started living on the rubber plantation of Harrisons & Crossfields -- the Chengara struggle -- will now get land in a deal brokered by the Chief Minister in the presence of the Leader of the Opposition. takes stock
Health
Adivasi
Trapped in Transition
Cholanaickans are the only remaining tribe in Asia living in rock-cave shelters and they are the only surviving hunter-gatherer indigenous community in the country. The community is undergoing a conflict between its basic instincts and the beckoning calls of the outside world. reports Genetic roulette
Jeffrey M Smith, an authority on genetically modified organisms and the author of Genetic Roulette, says that 65 health risks from GMOs provide irrefutable evidence. of harm. In this interview he explains why GM technology must be confined to the lab reports.
School textbook issue spirals into political row
The new class VII social science textbook in Kerala has become the cause of clashes. Groups agitating against the book allege its content is anti-religion, while the state curriculum board says it propagates religious tolerance. reports on the controversy.Landless and fighting, as ground beneath shifts
Some sections in Kerala are already blaming the land reform law
for hurting big industrial projects; meanwhile around 10,000
dalit and adivasi families are locked in a struggle for the
original entitlements that never came, reports .
Baba Amte: Restless and romantic
He was a zamindar by birth and a successful lawyer by training.
He charmed and transformed generations of youth and propelled them
into social and political activism. Baba Amte, who passed away last week,
was a rare combination of sensitivity and courage,
writes.
SEZ? Yes. Fisher Folk? Who Are They?
The proposed Coastal Zone Management notification, which is expected to replace the existing Coastal Regulation Zone notification (1991), will hit the coastline like a second tsunami, say activists. With the shifting of `zones', entire fishing communities will be moved out of coastal areas, making way for unbridled construction in the name of `development' reports.Lives Withering Away Like Driedup Trees
In Attapady block of Kerala's
Palakkad district, illicit liquor is taking a heavy toll among the
adviasis. Addiction to the brew has led to many deaths and suicides,
even as a complacent and complicit administration looks on. reports. 
Lives Strangulated by Needle and Thread
27-year-old Ratnamma, a garment factory worker, was forced to deliver a baby on the streets of Bangalore. 20-year-old Gayathri was run over by the bus belonging to the Bangalore garment factory where she worked. Garment workers in Bangalore are caught in an exploitative web, reports .Forever Forsaken Forest People
from Melbourne, Australia is a Consultant
Endocrinologist to the UmonHon among other tribes as well as Visiting
Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of Havana, Cuba.
While on an Indian tour early this month, he visited the Athirappilly
waterfall, 70 kms from Kochi. It is his experience with the Adivasis of
the near by Vazhachal forest area. Kerala Re-assessing the Environment
An expert working group
established to create a roadmap for the state's new independent
Department of Environment has made recommendations to strengthen
environmental conservation and protection. A number of state agencies,
especially the Pollution Control Board, have come in for strong
criticism. reports. Thirst Below Sea Level
Despite being enriched by two monsoons and
four rivers, Kerala's Kuttanad region has become `a desert of
backwaters' after many developmental trials, says Are New Teaching Methods Working?
Efforts to make learning more interactive and
more fun for students appear promising, but it may be too soon to judge
if they are positively impacting children's performance in standard
tests and surveys. Meanwhile, teachers complain that these efforts have
added to their already heavy burden. reports. Fight For Rights: Irene Fernandez.
- IRENE FERNANDEZ, winner of the
2005 Right Livelihood Award (the Alternate Nobel Prize) was in Kochi
recently. Daughter of pre-World War II migrant Malayalee parents, she
is a campaigner for migrant worker, plantation workers and women's
rights. Irene is also a trade union organiser, environmentalist and the
central committee member of the National Justice Party of Malaysia.
Veteran campaigner Irene Fernandez in conversation with about her work
among Malaysia's migrant workersSoft-Pedalling The Cola Ban
While the LDF government was quick to
ban colas in Kerala, it mounted only a mild defense when this was
challenged in court by the manufacturers of the drinks. Ignoring
evidence of groundwater depletion and contamination, it argued only
that the drinks were unsafe for consumption. and report. Environment
Coca cola in the Dock; Liable to Pay Damages
A high power committee appointed by the govt of Kerala has indicted Cocoa cola and has fixed the total loss due to their functioning at Rs 216 crores. The report has recommended the setting up of a tribunal for payment of compensation. Environment
Kerala mangrove island under threat, cabinet divided
Kerala's biodiversity board has asked Chief Minister V S Achutanandan to reject single window clearance for the 'High Tech City' project at the exhilarating Valanthakad island in the backwaters outside Kochi.
reports. Economy
Kerala Prescription for Economic Crisis
The Kerala government asked the Centre for Development Studies to suggest remedial measures to overcome the global melt down. A critique reports. Agriculture
Who will grow food?
Kerala Assembly on July 24 passed a legislation prohibiting indiscriminate reclamation of paddy fields, the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Bill, 2007. The new Bill protects paddy fields, but farmers find fewer reasons to cultivate rice.
reports.
Economy
Kerala revises controversial school textbook
The K N Panikkar committee recommended a change in a controversial chapter of a social sciences textbook that triggered violent agitation on the grounds that it promoted atheism and communism. has more. Kerala's unconvincing shot at the environment ministry
Kerala's;s Left-dominated 141-member legislative assembly adopted a resolution on 11 July urging New Delhi to withdraw the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification of 2006. The resolution says the notification is "against the interest of Kerala State, nature, environment and people." reports on the controversy. Malayalam TV serial makers soften feminism for the market
In Kerala womens worlds are made and unmade every day on TV channels as mutually contradictory messages on womanhood are aired. reports Producers Sneak Into Indian Delegation, Endorse DDT
How did two major operators in the POPs manufacturing-sector become part of India's official delegation to a conference which aims to eliminate their production and use? reports on the embarassing, but unabashed capture of officialdom by a
manufacturer.The environmental refugees of Brahmapuram
Recently, disaster struck all 53
families of the Chellipadam village in a Kochi suburb, when nearly 25
lorries, all carrying stinking garbage from the city rolled in with
heavy police escort and dumped decaying garbage in their midst. The
villagers had to flee their homes unable to stand the stench. and have more. Death of New-borns and the Kerala Model
38 babies died in one hospital in
Thiruvananthapuram over the past four months, shocking a state which
boasts of the lowest infant mortality rate in the country. The much
discussed and extolled Kerala model of health development is ailing,
reports Storm Continues Over Silent Valley
The Kerala government is proposing to
construct a new dam only a few kilometres from the site of one of
India's great environment struggles in the Silent Valley National Park.
But cooked data and ignored court orders have once again invited the
wrath of conservationists. reports. A Red Dawn That set Too soon
50 years from the scene of action, it can be
safely said that the 28-month long EM Sankaran Namboodiripad government
of April 1957 laid the foundation stones of the present day Kerala.
Whether the merits of the maiden government's reform attempts were
consolidated in the following five decades is another story altogether,
writes .
Kerala spearheads community-care health revolution
A unique home-based palliative and chronic care movement is sweeping through Kerala. Thousands of trained citizens are volunteering two hours a week to take care of the chronically ill in villages and cities. Funding for this community-based scheme that has won WHO recognition comes in cash and kind from citizens, including schoolchildren, bus drivers, labourers and others reports Economic or Exploitation Zones?
Trade liberalisation and the proliferation of Special Economic Zones are expected to provide livelihood opportunities for thousands. This employment is expected to balance the huge revenue losses, large-scale displacement of farmers and regional development disparities resulting from SEZs. But what are the working conditions that are actually being created in these zones? reports. Market-driven and sustainable?
In a significant move, the Kerala government has decided to promote the production and marketing of organic food..
Rescuing the coconut economy
A community-based microcredit programme attempts to revive the economy of coastal Kerala's villages..
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