Ticket to ride for female literacy across India

May 22, 2012

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Rampur Singhara, May 22: The daily trip to high school was expensive, long and eventually, too much for Indian teenager Nahid Farzana, who decided she was going to drop out. Then, the state government gave her a bicycle.

Two years later, she is about to graduate from high school and wants to be a teacher.

The eastern state of Bihar has been so successful at keeping teenage girls in school, the bike giveaways have spread to neighbouring states. Now the Indian government wants to expand it across the country in hopes it might help improve female literacy.

Before starting the programme in 2007, officials in Bihar, one of India's poorest and least developed states, despaired over how to educate the state's females, whose literacy rate of 53 per cent is more than 20 points below that of its males.

Dropout rate

"We found that the high school dropout rate soared when girls reached the ninth grade. This was primarily because there are fewer high schools and girls had to travel longer distances to get to school," said Anjani Kumar Singh, Bihar's principal secretary overseeing education.

Poor families could not spare the money for transport, or were reluctant to let girls travel so far away, fearing for their safety.

The programme was an instant success, with the number of girls registered in the ninth grade in Bihar's state schools more than tripling in four years, from 175,000 to 600,000.

"The results are remarkable. The school dropout rate for girls has plunged," says Singh.

In her crisply starched blue tunic uniform and white scarf, Farzana appears a carefree teenager, proud to have made it into the tenth grade. But she almost did not make it.

Her daily bus fare of 15 rupees (Dh0.99) to the new high school 6 kilometers from their home in Rampur Singhara village was an additional burden her father, a car mechanic, could not afford.

"I wouldn't have been able to keep Farzana in school for long," said Mohammad Shiraz Ahmad, her father.

A teacher told them about the free bicycles, and Farzana applied for the 2,500 rupee (Dh165) grant to buy the bike.

"The bicycle has changed everything," Ahmad said.

In remote villages, gaggles of school girls can be seen jauntily cycling to school.

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News Network
February 16,2020

New Delhi, Feb 16: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday said everyone is unhappy in the society and constantly agitating notwithstanding a "many-fold rise" in materialistic comforts and pleasures.

Addressing a gathering of Sangh workers and intellectuals here in Gujarat, Mr Bhagwat also said that even political parties who are not in power are also agitating.

"Inspite of increase in comforts and materialistic pleasures, everyone is unhappy and is staging agitations. Be it owner or servant, a party in opposition, the common man students, teachers, everyone is unhappy and dissatisfied," the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief said.

He was speaking on the topic "India's Role in the Present World Context".

Mr Bhagwat further said that bigotry, violence and terrorism are on the rise in the present world.

"India has to give 'dharma'  (wisdom) to the world so that knowledge spreads but humans do not become robotic. We have always talked about the concept of global family but not global market," he said.

The lecture was organised by "Madhav Smruti Nyas", an organisation backed by the RSS.

"To think that we are living in a better world is a half truth. Facilities are not evenly distributed. Rule of Jungle is prevailing. A capable person is crushing the weak to climb up. Knowledge is used more for the destruction of the world," the Sangh chief said.

Mr Bhagwat said people are also misusing social media by spreading "false information" to create controversies.

He also stated that trying to put "everyone into one uniform" is also a form of bigotry.

"US and Russia are super powers. China would become a super power too. Now, what super power nations did to others? They just took control of other countries for their own selfish agenda. These super powers gave it back only when they were asked to do so. Otherwise, they never gave anything to others," said Mr Bhagwat.

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News Network
April 3,2020

New Delhi, April 3: With 478 cases reported in the last 24 hours, the highest spike so far, India's tally of positive coronavirus cases on Friday rose to 2,547 including 162 cured/discharged and 62 deaths, as per the latest data of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As many as 647 positive coronavirus cases have been reported so far from across 14 States whose linkage can be traced to the Tablighi Jamaat cluster at Nizamuddin, the Centre said on Friday.

"A total of 647 cases of positive coronavirus cases have been reported from across 14 States whose linkage can be traced to the Tablighi Jamaat cluster at Nizamuddin," Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

"The cases can be traced in Andaman and Nicobar, Assam, Delhi, Himachal, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh," added Aggarwal.

The Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering including deaths in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana.

An FIR was earlier registered against Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad and others under the Epidemic Disease Act 1897, in the national capital.

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News Network
March 28,2020

Mumbai, Mar 28: Doctors in Mumbai have not been spared by the novel coronavirus. As Mumbai’s count for Covid-19 cases went up to 58, an octogenarian doctor from Saifee Hospital passed away on Friday. He was a suspected case of coronavirus with co-morbid conditions like diabetes and had a pacemaker implanted, said a press release from the state health department.

As per a statement from Saifee Hospital, he underwent a CT scan at Saifee Hospital and was diagnosed positive for Covid-19. The surgeon was transferred to the special isolation facility at PD Hinduja Hospital where he subsequently died. Behranwala’s close relatives had come down from England and were under quarantine.

In a statement, Saifee Hospital, where Behranwala underwent CT scan, said, "All containment and surveillance measures have been implemented to ensure the safety of our staff patients and visitors. Saifee Hospital reiterates that the Hospital is fully operational," said Dr Vernon Desa, Director (Medical governance and clinical compliance) Saifee Hospital.

In the second case, an Andheri-based doctor, aged 53, has been tested positive along with his 43-year-old wife and 20-year-old daughter. The family doesn’t have a travel history. The doctor reportedly came in contact with the virus through a patient. MCGM has taken samples of 60 patients who came in contact with the doctor. "As of now, no patient from his contact has tested positive," Assistant Commissioner, Vishwas Mote.

Another doctor who practiced at Vakola tested positive after he came in contact with a person having travel history to Italy, later tested positive. The doctor has been admitted at Raheja hospital and samples of his close contact have been taken.

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