National Seminar on India under Siege: Way Out

National Seminar on India under Siege: What’s the Way Out?
Date: 27th May, 2011
Venue: CONSTITUTION CLUB, Rafi Marg, New Delhi
Organized by: Rashtriya Swabhiman Aandolan

Over six decades since its independence, and two decades since it
embarked upon the epochal economic liberalization, it’s sad and
shocking that this nation has been sinking into an ever deepening
quagmire of corruption and kleptocracy. It now has the dubious
distinction of one of its scams figuring as the second in the list of
scandals and scams in the all-time Top 10 Abuses of Power, only next
to ex-American President Richard Nixon's ''Plumbers'', a secret unit
tasked with digging up dirt on Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg.
The top distinction too may not be far off as the government’s “dirty
tricks department” are in hot pursuit of key investigators in the yet
unfolding Hassan Ali saga. It’s a troubling commentary on the state of
affairs that the Supreme Court has to express its surprise on being
kept in the dark on the issue. This has landed India into debates even
internationally, which raise veritable questions about its health, an
year back:
Is the nation in a coma?
(Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/article993024.ece
)

However deep and multi-farious the crises may be, the people of India,
especially its youth will rise to the occasion. That’s the firm belief
which drives this seminar. We have a glimmer of hope that there must
be a light at the end of this tortuous tunnel. We shall explore ways
in which the glimmer of hope can turn into a forceful storm that will
ensure our victory over the monstrous forces of corruption and state
kleptocracy and end the “Cycle of Corruption”.

Unravelling a Simple Truth about Corruption
(Source: http://chandra-vikash.sulekha.com/blog/post/2011/05/unravelling-a-simple-truth-of-corruption-why-there.htm)

We cordially invite you to participate in this day- long seminar and
to create together a vision for India that’s fair and inclusive,
secure and self-respecting and one that we and coming generations can
take pride in.

Programme Schedule

0900hrs-0915hrs: Registration
0915hrs-0930hrs : Seminar Inauguration: Shri TN Chaturvedi, former
Comptroller and Auditor General of India and former Governor of
Karnataka has gracefully agreed to inaugurate the seminar.
0930hrs - 1015hrs: Keynote address: Eminent social activist and
thinker Shri KN Govindacharya
1015hrs-1330hrs: Sessions
1. Reforms- Legal, Bureaucracy, Police, Electoral and Others
2. Field Experiences in the fight against corruption
3. Black money trail
Speakers: Subhash C Kashyap, Vineet Narain, Prakash Singh, Amitabh
Sinha, Chhavi Rajavat, Shiraj Ansari, Akhil Gogoi, Ram Bahadur Rai, Mr
Ravindra Kishore Sinha, BR Lall, Prakash Dubey, Prof Arun Kumar and
Dr. Subramanian Swamy
Moderated by: Surajit Dasgupta and Sudesh Verma
1330hrs-1415hrs: LUNCH
1415hrs-1600hrs : Sessions contd.
1600hrs-1830hrs: Open House session: What’s the way out?
Moderated by: Chandra Vikash
1830hrs-1900hrs: Valedictory address : Shri KN Govindacharya

RSVP
Surendra Bisht: 093231-96743
Rakesh Dubey: 094250-22703
Surajit Dasgupta: 96504-44033
Meena Dabas: 98117-45333
Sudesh Verma: 98734-15077

More Indian families selctively aborting girls for Boy

In Media briefing Prof Prabhat Jha in New Delhi today explained the social structure of Indian society craving for male child in preference to girl child.
His concern to break this Guardian knot by the society needs our re-look of the emerging social structure with more inputs of education,and integration.

New research published Online First and in an upcoming Lancet shows that, in Indian families in which the first child has been a girl, more and more parents are aborting their second child if prenatal testing shows it to be a girl, presumably to ensure at least one child in their family will be a boy. These declines in girl to boy ratios are larger in better-educated and in richer households than in illiterate and poorer households, and now imply that most people in India live in states where selective abortion of girls is common. The Article is led by Professor Prabhat Jha, Centre for Global Health Research, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues from India, including the former Registrar-General of India, Dr Jayant K Banthia.
The 2011 Indian census revealed about 7•1 million fewer girls than boys aged 0-6 years, a notable increase in the gap of 6•0 million fewer girls recorded in the 2001 census and 4•2 million fewer girls recorded in the 1991 census. In this study, the authors analysed census data to determine absolute numbers of selective abortions and examined over 250,000 births from national surveys to estimate differences in the girl-boy ratio for second births in families in which the first-born child had been a girl.

They found that this girl-boy ratio fell from 906 girls per 1000 boys in 1990 to 836 in 2005; an annual decline of 0•52%. Declines were much greater in mothers with 10 or more years of education than in mothers with no education, and in wealthier households compared with poorer households. But if the first child had been a boy, there was no fall in the girl-boy ratio for the second child over the study period, strongly suggesting that families, particularly those that are more wealthy and educated, are selectively aborting girls if their firstborn child is also a girl.

After adjusting for excess mortality rates in girls, the authors' range estimates of number of selective abortions of girls rose from 0-2•0 million in the 1980s, to 1•2-4•1 million in the 1990s, and to 3•1-6•0 million in the 2000s. Each 1% decline in child sex ratio at ages 0-6 years implied between 1•2 and 3•6 million more selective abortions of girls. Selective abortions of girls are estimated at between 4 and 12 million over the 3 decades from 1980 to 2010.

The authors point out that the between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, more than twice the number of Indian districts (local administrative areas) showed declines in the child sex ratio compared to districts with no change or increases. They also point out that, the Indian Government implemented a Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act in 1996 to prevent the misuse of techniques for the purpose of prenatal sex determination leading to selective abortion of girls. Yet they add it is unlikely that this Act has been effective nationally.

The authors conclude: "The selective abortion of female fetuses, usually after a firstborn girl, has increased in India over the past few decades, and has contributed to a widening imbalance in the child sex ratio. Reliable monitoring and reporting of sex ratios by birth order in each of India's districts could be a reasonable part of any efforts to curb the remarkable growth of selective abortions of girls."