Electronic waste, or "e-waste," is any broken or unwanted electronic device or appliance.
E-waste includes computers, TVs, mobile phones and other items discarded by their original users.
Rapid changes in technology, low costs and obsolescence have created this rapidly growing trash problem around the globe.
http://upiu.com/articles/e-waste-honor-goes-to-india-capital
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Pushpa, now 40, had married Lalu Ram, a day laborer in New Delhi. After only six months of their marriage, Pushpa said, Lalu started abusing her physically and mentally. He left his family and would visit only once a year. After 22 long years of struggle, Pushpa learned about Mahila Panchayat -- Council of Women -- a program funded by the Delhi Commission for Women and run with the help of about 20 nongovernmental organizations in the capital.
Following the concept of community-based activism that was endorsed by Mahatma Gandhi, Mahila Panchayat focuses on domestic violence against women.
“After listening to Pushpa, we immediately notified her husband for a hearing in our office," said Chandrakanta, a paralegal working for Vikasini, one of the supporting NGOs. "After two or three such hearings, the case was solved. This is the general procedure we follow. In the second stage we visit the houses of affected and conduct the hearings there with all the (local council) members.”
As a result of the hearings, Pushpa now receives the equivalent of $110 per month from her estranged husband, four times her previous earnings as a domestic worker.
Pushpa’s story is just one among countless women in India suffering from domestic violence, which in Indian law is defined as “all forms of physical, sexual, verbal, emotional or economic abuse.”
Though the problem of domestic violence has been well documented globally, the council is one example of solutions being found locally.
“We started with only four panchayats and now the number has grown to 84 in Delhi itself," said Chitra Panchkaran, Vikasini senior coordinator who has worked with the program since it started in 2004. "It seems that our objective to sensitize women about their own exploitation and then making them aware of the available options for empowerment, has been achieved.”
“We have handled cases from Bihar, Rajasthan and (Uttar Pradesh). We have been successful in solving 80 to 90 percent the cases that we receive. This indicates how much the society needs NGOs and programs like these to battle social evils. Moreover, we do not involve the police or the judiciary in the proceedings.”
For Rajbala, another benefactor of the program, the benefits are tangible, and personal.
“It feels like a second home," she said. "I feel secure here in panchayat. We discuss gender issues, solve problems and visit the homes of women who face domestic problems in the locality. I feel stronger.”
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By Sumit Kumar, Written for UPI
Headless Durga sculptures standing in the morning sun welcomed visitors to the private hut of artist Ganesh Chitrakar. They looked harmless, even though they are at the center of an environmental dispute between government officials and traditional artists.
Chitrakar came to New Delhi 20 years ago from West Bengal to make the Durga figures, following a tradition a family tradition spanning generations. Once a year, the statues, mostly of female dieties, feature prominently in the Durga Puja festival, one of the most important Hindu holidays in India. Chitrakar and other artists count heavily on profits from the sale of sculptures. As for the figures themselves, most are dumped into rivers after the festivities end.
"There is profit," he conceded, "but it comes only after deducting the payments made to the artisans I bring from West Bengal to Delhi. I also have to look for decoration and ornaments of the idols from Kolkata, which leaves us with very less amount of profit. There are other festivals too but Durga Puja guarantees that all of our work will be bought. We are artisans from many generations and our livelihood depends on it."
While the festival is a time for celebration, it is now also a cause for controversy. Government officials and some national media have blamed chronic water pollution on the dumping of statues and other festival-generated trash.
Every year about 1,000 clay idols of different shapes and sizes are thrown into the section of the Yamuna River running through Delhi. Lead-based paints and other chemicals used for coloring the statues' fabric along with other material add unmeasured quantities of toxins to the already polluted water.
A Times of India article reported a huge fish kill in the Yamuna River behind the Taj Mahal at Agra about a week before the end of this year's festival. The newspaper quoted an environmentalist as saying a shortage of oxygen in the muddy water may have been a cause but it also noted the river's normal polluted condition.
A Web site managed by the Center for Science and Environment said the Delhi stretch of the river is badly contaminated and is also teeming with disease-causing bacteria. This continues despite a government plan inaugurated in 1993 to clean up the river. A government report earlier this year called the Delhi portion of the river a sewage drain, with municipal, industrial and agricultural runoff listed as other pollution sources.
The 40-mile stretch of the Yamuna, barely 2 percent of its total length, is estimated to contribute more than 80 percent of the pollution load in the 850-mile-long river.
For Chitrakar, it's a simple case of officials seeking scapegoats instead of solutions.
"I have been making idols since childhood and we never faced these problems then," he said. "Factory waste hasn’t been even looked upon by the government but still we are being (accused) first. It’s the industries which are polluting Yamuna."
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Daniel Craig did it in Casino Royale, David Belle did it in the french movie District B13, Cyril Raffaelli in Die Hard 4.0, Akshay Kumar does it every now and then in soft drink ads. The list is endless. Man, since his existence, has loved to move, to feel freedom, to isolate himself from the world, even for an instant, some way or the other. Parkour is a French word devised by David Belle and Hubert Kounda, which means ‘The art of moving’, quite synonymous to the long standing hedonism of humanity towards movement.
Founded by David Belle and Sebastien Foucan in
Parkour or Free Running hails its route from the armed forces training courses, and can be also termed as its developed form. Safety is of prime concern in this sport as the moves are extremely dangerous. Proper training and exercise before practicing it for real is advised.
However, in spite of it being considered as dangerous in the first place, there are many positives. It makes the body extremely fit, strong and flexible. Mentally it has been established by a study by Neuropsychiatrie de l'Enfance et de l'Adolescence in
The sport is dangerous, yet it gives a high to people who practice it quite comparable to skydiving or bungee jumping. Although not directly connected to Parkour’s emergence as an urban youth culture, many consider Jackie Chan as the pioneer of Parkour. Many stunts enacted in movies like Police Story and Rush Hour, illustrate the physical feats and movements that are emphasized in Parkour.
The sport has its own nomenclature. David Belle, very carefully observes the moves of monkeys and cats for innovations in the sport, which are believed to be the best free runners. Some of the moves have crazy names, for instance, Monkey vault, Diving Kong, Cat balance, Cat leap, Wall claw etc, are directly derived from the animals.
In
Serial blasts had rocked
My mother was talking to my elder brother in
And, that was it, when I realized that there is something with this month of September and me. What followed in the rest of the months of the year was always magical. It was this month in first year in college when I had discovered, that I can fall in love too. And the next three years will never remain the same as I had expected.
We grew closer to each other, more than anyone else in the class. The next September I doubted that if it was just friendship, when one day I scolded her over her revealing dress and the next day she covered herself so much so that her image of a fashion icon went into ashes, or that day when we exchanged answer sheets during the examination. She would return them to me with a special note every time about finishing my paper fast.
I doubted it more when she just came to me when I was playing cricket in the canteen and say I’m hungry.
I replied to the message, and asked if she was alright too. She didn’t reply. She never did that whenever I tried to break that virtual ice between us. But, I knew that its my final September, and this was enough for me to act.
My Facebook status last year had established me as much in love, but the girl was a mystery to all till now. And, perhaps the mystery was now a disappointment for her. ‘I am dying to hear, who is that lucky girl’ was a message I got on facebook from her.
The examinations were to follow, and we had to organize our college fest. I was more than busy to distract myself to other things. I decided to postpone the proposal, to the day I was born 20 years ago, I was so sure.
And the day came. She refused, the same day.
(Fiction)
