Biometric Data to keep tap on Beggars
At the end of a daylong futile search for job, Mohammad Javed made his way to a temple in Old Delhi’s Meena Bazaar in the hope of getting some prasad. Little did he suspect a ‘raiding squad’ swooping down on him and bundling him off to Sewa Kuteer, a beggars’ home at Kingsway Camp. “I do not beg. I came here to work. But when there is no work we go to the temple to take the prasad. And if somebody gives a little money I don’t mind taking it, but I don’t ask for it,’ pleads the 26-year-old, who ran away from home in Sultanganj, Patna, six years ago. Javed will probably escape punishment for ‘begging’ this time but his data has been entered into a biometric identification system, which means he has been tagged a beggar by the government for the rest of his life.
At Kingsway Camp an experiment is under way. Delhi’s Department of Social Welfare (DSW) has installed a biometric machine at its classification centre there. It records the picture, fingerprint and the height of the person brought there by the department’s raiding squads, besides his/her address, begging history and health record. The system is part of a grand plan to rid the city of beggars by the 2010 Commonwealth Games. “We have increased the pace of raids. In 2005, we caught 1,000, while the number went up by 475 in 2006. In 2007, we apprehended 2,533; target is 5,000,’ says a DSW official. Continue reading »
Filed under Delhi, India, Livelihood | Comment (0)
Culprit Iron in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s - Cause
The cause of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases has long intrigued scientists. Researchers of University of Warwick and IIT, Kanpur, zeroed in on a protein, the malfunctioning of which, they say, could be a possible cause for the diseases.
The study noted that transferring, a protein that transports iron from the blood to the brain, may not be doing its job well. That may lead to exposure of other cells to iron, and their subsequent degeneration and the diseases. The protein binds iron on to its surface. It then curls around the iron and seals it. This prevents the iron from getting exposed to other cells till it reaches its destination organ—the brain.
In the experiment, transferring was placed on an open surface and observed over a period of time.
“We simulated conditions for ageing so that the existing molecules interacted with each other. We found the molecules self-assembled into fibres and iron that was earlier wrapped inside the protein started settling in bands along the length of the fibre,’
Filed under India, Livelihood, Research | Comment (0)
No Return of The Native
Wizened old Jidemadamma has to depend on her neighbours for meals. Her son and daughter-in-law have gone to Kodagu to collect pepper from trees and will not be back before two weeks. They took the children along because I cannot move around much. Earlier, all of us stayed together here. Now there is nobody, says the septuagenarian, sitting outside her hut in Kaneri Colony, one of the 62 hamlets in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Wildlife Sanctuary in southern Karnataka.
Jidemadamma is among the few Soligas, an indigenous community, left in the hamlet. Soligas, literally meaning the bamboo children, are known for their environment-friendly practices and sustainable collection of minor forest produce. But most have migrated in search of livelihood since the government banned collection of non-timber forest produce ‘honey, lichen, amla, soapberry and soapnut’ their main source of income, about two years ago. Same is the story in other hamlets inside the sanctuary in the Western Ghats. Continue reading »
Filed under Environment, India, Travel, WildLife | Comment (0)
Custard Apples belong to South America, or India?
Custard Apples belong to South America. A recent excavation in a small town in Uttar Pradesh has unearthed custard apple seeds there. The seeds date to the Neolithic era—3rd-2nd century bc. Is it possible then that there existed some kind of communication between India and South America?
Researchers who carried out the study say yes. “We found one whole seed and three to four broken seeds,’ says A Pokharia of Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleoethnobotany, Lucknow. The study was carried out in Tokwa, an archaeologically important site in Mirzapur district. The seeds had heavy carbon coating. Based on radiocarbon dates of other Neolithic sites in the region, the author concluded that the seeds belonged to the 3rd-2nd century bc. The study was published in Current Science (Vol 94, No 2).
There are other studies that say that the Portuguese introduced custard apples in the East in the 16th century ad. Pokharia refutes such claims. Continue reading »
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We Have been Cheated
RAVLEEN KAUR talks to three donors, Rajendra Kumar, Shahid and Dileep, who were duped by Amit Kumar. They were rescued from a flat in Faridabad on February 8. Rajendra Kumar did most of the talking.
How did you come into contact with Amit Kumar?
We met a person at the Old Delhi Railway Station who took us to a Faridabad guesthouse to work as cooks. We were told the guesthouse was frequented by foreigners very finicky about health matters. So we were asked to undergo medical tests. But no sooner were the tests conducted we fell unconscious. I saw Amit Kumar and one Vicky before falling unconscious. I woke up with severe abdominal pain. Continue reading »
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Bring back the Cadaver - Organ Donation
“I understand it is not easy for the living to donate a kidney; but then why is the government not encouraging transplants from cadavers,’ asks esrd patient Nozeer H Canteenwala. This aspect of the problem has been obscured in the media spotlight over illegal organ trade. Most doctors believe that cadaver organ transplants hold the key to change.
“When the organ trade act came into effect in 1994, the focus was on banning trade in human organs and setting up of a system for cadaver donations. After the Amit Kumar expose, the media has been concentrating on illegal organ trade. But what about a control mechanism?’
asks Rana of the Indian Society of Nephrologists. Continue reading »
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