A documentary regarding women power entitled SHAKTHI has just been released regarding gender in India, figuring SWATE, one of the sister movements of AREDS in Karur.
Here also in Spanish.
A documentary regarding women power entitled SHAKTHI has just been released regarding gender in India, figuring SWATE, one of the sister movements of AREDS in Karur.
Here also in Spanish.
This 1st of October is 30th anniversary of the United Nations designated day to focus and raise awareness about the well-being and needs of the elderly people. "The world marks the 30th anniversary of the International Day of Older Persons as we reckon with the disproportionate and severe impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought on older persons around the world – not only on their health, but on their rights and well-being." António Guterres, UN Secretary-General has said.
2020 to 2030 is the 'Decade of Healthy Ageing'. Over the next 30 years, the number of older persons worldwide is projected to be more than double, reaching more than 1.5 billion persons. 80% of them will be in low and middle-income countries. Projections indicate that number of 60-plus people in India will increase to 14.3 crore in 2021 and 17.3 crore in 2026.
Since several years, WSM has facilitated exchanges between OKRA and GK regarding elderly, looking at the changing demographics and ageing. This theme and approach have been shared with the Asia partners and now also in other continents.
For this 1st October 2020, OKRA contributed to having messages from two Belgian ministers here. GK organized a discussion meeting in Bangladesh, with Sherpur Upazila Health Officer Dr. Happy Hossain. All the workers of the public health center, Sherpur along with the senior people of the area, Executive Director of the Public Health Center, Golam Mostafa Dulal attended the program. In 2018, GK supported public health centers to form 10 ′′senior clubs′′ in different rural areas of Bangladesh. The clubs provide social services with primary healthcare for seniors and helped keep elderly active and involved.
Nationwide protest held by NDWM, NDWF and CFTUI under the National Platform Domestic Workers to demand National Legislation for Domestic Workers, Cash transfer to the domestic workers affected by Covid crisis and to implement the Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Memoranda were submitted to the MPs, Labour Ministers in different States, Labour Commissioners and District Collectors. These are images from States of Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil nadu, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Orissa, Jharkand, Karnataka, Delhi, UP, Kerala, MP and Goa.
The European Parliament adopted a joint resolution on the situation in the Philippines, including the case of Maria Ressa. Please find the text here. The resolution is a negotiated compromise between all 6 democratic political groups in the European Parliament.
It highlights among others:
It calls on the following:
The UN special rapporteur for Human rights recently issued a report on how the many measures governments have taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are in line with a human rights based approach. From the two page summary:
"In this report, submitted in response to resolution 44/13 of the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur argues that the world was ill-equipped to deal with the socioeconomic impacts of this pandemic because it never recovered from the austerity measures imposed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008-2011. The legacy of austerity measures is severely underfunded public healthcare systems, undervalued and precarious care work, sustained declines in global labour income shares, and high inequality rates coupled with average decreases in statutory corporate tax rates." ...
"With public services in dire straits, one-off cash transfers are a drop in the bucket for people living in poverty, whether in developed, developing, or least developed countries. Maladapted, short-term, reactive, and inattentive to the realities of people in poverty, the new wave of social protection hype must hold up to human rights scrutiny. This report identifies eight challenges that must be addressed in order to bring social protection in line with human rights standards."
You can read the full report here.
The session started with a welcome speech by Ms. Irada Parajuli, executive Committee Member of NCGR. She was followed by Ms. Aastha Anirjit Bastakoti, a girl activist and a peer educator in Jcycn’s Girls Empowerment Program, who shared her experiences with tackling the social problems in her community, and municipality through organization and collaboration. She shared the support she gained, the challenges she faced and gave an inspiring speech to motivate fellow youth to raise their voices and work for social transformation by starting from ourselves, and to put words into practice.
Honorable Jagat Bishwakarma, Ministry of Youth and Sports shared the contextual need for programs like these and extended his gratitude and wishes to all Nepalese youth, in and out of Nepal. Focused on the theme of International Youth Day 2020 “Youth Engagement for Global Transformation”, he highlighted the need to create spaces for youth to be engaged and the need to forward a campaign where we can move ahead, together with youth to transform our society, while fighting practices harmful to us, especially child marriage, violence against children and girls, and discrimination, for a better future.
Mr. Sushil B.K.; writer, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Expert and activist, gave a presentation regarding the role youth can take play in eliminating harmful social and cultural practices like Gender Based Violence, Caste best Discrimination, Chhaupadi, Dowry System, and Child Marriage, with the comparative portrayal of the society’s reality and what we need to achieve. Milan Dharel, Executive Director of National Child Rights Council highlighted the need of a critical perspective in youth to move ahead, the need to build trust, and more importantly, be our own role models so that our words are reflected in our actions. This was followed by a speech from Mr. Pushkar Khati, Member Secretary from the Social Welfare Council Nepal, who focused on the need for accountability in youth, self-reflection, and the need to spread that spirit among all the youth in the nation.
In the open floor session, participants discussed about various ways socio-cultural transformation through youth is possible, including government and stakeholder joint action programs, regularity of collaboration, personal accountability, inclusion of youth with disability, and gender minority, and an organized movement. Dignitaries and participants discussed the government policies targeted at youth, how it has progressed throughout the years but also the gaps in implementation, and especially equitable implementation disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy and youth. Dipendra Sharma from Care Nepal shared his field based experience and the issues that are prevalent in the society, which are especially discriminatory towards girls. The province 5’s head of province of NHRC Ms. Samjhana Sharma also talked about the role the human rights commission has played, and what kind of practices to progress are seen. Activists Bhakta Bishwakarma, Rabin Nepali, Karun Nepali from Raleigh International, and Journalist K.B Rana also shared their views in the discussion forum.
After the open floor session, Mr. Madhav Dhungel, Vice President of National Youth Council Nepal discussed various programs brought forth by the National Youth Council (NYC) for the engagement of youths, entrepreneurship, capacity building and employment of youth and the role it plays in development of the nation. He also went into how NYC has been mobilizing youth in collaboration with other stakeholders with a goal to generate a progressive society, and working as a bridge between youth and opportunities. He elaborated on how this can result in a transformative society with active, and engaged youth that are more aware.
Ms. Manmaya Bhattarai Pangeni, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women Children and Senior Citizens elaborated that 2020 is the year of Generation Equality and how the meaningful participation of youth is important and we need to be creating spaces for them. It is equally important to groom children from an early age and provide them with moral education so that we generate strong youth who are socially responsible. She gave examples of good international practices that have developed a culture of progressive youth. The program ended with a vote of thanks from Mr. Pradeep Lamichhane, Chairperson of SDGs Studio.
In celebration of the International Youth Day 2020 with the slogan, “Youth Engagement for Global Action”, the main ceremony was celebrated with various virtual programs, on 12th August with Prime Minister KP Oli as the chief guest, and in the virtual presence of international guests from Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, China and India. The program was led by National Youth Council, in joint collaboration with various other Civil Society Organizations like Jcycn, UNOY, NCGR, SPCSN, AYON, Nepal Scouts, and 100 others. Welcome for the program was done by the Ms. Bipana Sharma, on behalf of AYON, Jcycn, NCFLG Forum and the entire youth. Prime Minister KP Oli focused on youth being the pillar of the nation and how investing in youth is investing in the future. He mentioned that the government of Nepal has allocated 7.6 billion Nepalese Rupees from different ministries and departments in youth sector, and that the priority of the government is to empower youth with knowledge, skills and tools. International Speakers and guests like Honorable State minister H.E. Md. Zahid Ahsan Russel, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Country representative Ms Valerie Julliand, Resident Co-ordinator of United Nations in Nepal, Secretary, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mr. Md. Akhter Hossain, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Chairman, National Youth Services, Sri Lanka Theshara Jayasinghe Training Director, National Youth Service Council, Mr. Rasitha Delapola, Sri-lanka, and Deputy Director, International Youth Exchange Centre, Mr. Zhang Hua, China also shared their words highlighting the need to mobilize and engage youth for a better tomorrow.
International Youth Day 2020, like every year, was successfully celebrated with programs all over the nation.
“My name is Sunanda. I have a sister and also a brother who became handicapped in an accident. I have been working as a domestic worker for 8 years now. For the moment, I only work in two houses, because I’m getting older and I have stomach problems. I didn’t have the courage to speak with my employer about raising my salary or about having any holidays. I was too afraid of losing my job. However, I was interested in exploring new possibilities. In 2011, I attended a meeting of domestic workers in my area. I was impressed, as they were speaking about the rights of domestic workers. After that, I attended the meetings regularly. I became aware of my rights and I had more courage to stand for them. I left my previous job because I didn't get a salary increase. I am no longer afraid of losing my job, since I have many contacts with other domestic workers who can refer me to other and better jobs. What's more: I am the leader of the group now. I mobilize people for meetings, programmes and demonstration and I help the workers with enrolling in the Welfare Board.”First, NDWM (National Domestic Workers Movement) is working with domestic workers, child domestic workers and migrant workers in 23 states of India. They work towards achieving dignity for them, at both a national and international level. NDWM and its federation NDWF (National Domestic Workers Federation) gather over 50.000 domestic workers monthly. Around 40.406 members were given awareness on labour rights, such as minimum wages.