Eve teasing (or sexual harassment as we call in West) is rather a common sight in India, esp in Mumbai and Delhi(as stats say) and often violent and cause of several deaths. My recent visit(to the south) made me feel the issue has dramatically reduced, thanks to increased media awareness and police enforcement and what I think is the greater opportunity for men to socially interact with women(thanks to a booming economy and workforce) but yet the issue is far from being dead and a deadly virus(like HIV)  that spreads from what seems to be fun and affects the innocent, who often get blamed for it.

The often used lame excuse by  some men(and some women) is to blame women for how they dress (in which case there should be no rape in Middle East!) and often law enforcement play the same game. In Banglore, the technology capital of India a ladies college has instructed all women to wear Sarees, what they deem to be ‘decently dressed’  and believe that eve teasing(sexual harassment) will magically disappear when that happens. While its commonly perceived that fair skinned women in ’sexy’ clothes are the target, a walk down any crowded place in India will prove that myth to be wrong. Women of all color and age are a target to these Vultures, though admittedly there has been an improvement over the years and yet common sight especially where young women folk together, be it outside colleges, beaches, malls or restaurants

Eve teasing has little to do with how Women dress and more to do with the attitudes of young(and old) men towards women. It is a disease that is prevalent among the young, old, rich,poor, educated, illiterate, urban, rural, religious,atheist in all segments of society. This BBC Story published recently Eve teasing in India: Assault or harassment by another name talks about the seriousness of the issue. Watch the video on how two young men were stabbed to death trying to protect two of their girl friends from eve teasers.

India’s history and culture that it preaches to the outside world often contradicts it actions.A land of Hindus who pray thousands of Goddess, make  hundreds of movies a year singing the praise of women, a country of billion + people where family planning is a big message for the government , the land of Kamasutra and tantric sex that has left the West amorous to India and yet a country where women in general, every one of them would have in their life time have faced a public sexual harassment case from men in a country where  the majority of them are still shy to ask for a condom in a store!  Welcome to India!

See below for Dean Nelson's article in The Telegraph.

When Barack Obama visited India last November he lectured his hosts on the responsibilities which come with the world leadership New Delhi craves.

The price of our own freedom is “standing up for others”, he said, mentioning Mahatma Gandhi’s role in challenging apartheid in South Africa as a reminder. When peaceful demonstrators are gunned down the world cannot remain silent, President Obama said.

“If I can be frank, in international fora, India has often avoided these issues. But speaking up for those who cannot do so for themselves is not interfering in the affairs of other countries. It’s not violating the rights of sovereign nations. It’s staying true to our democratic principles,” he told his hosts.

He was speaking about India’s failure to challenge Burma’s military junta over its human rights abuses, but the assessment holds true for India’s criticism of this week’s military action in support of the United Nations resolution to prevent Colonel Gaddafi’s forces attacking civilians.

After American, French and British fighter jets finally struck Libyan forces as they closed in on rebel Benghazi, where a massacre had been feared, India criticised the action and said the air raids would “exacerbate an already difficult situation for the people of Libya.”

Britain and America may be inconsistent defenders of those living under dictatorships around the world. There were no air strikes against China to stop the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, no-one acted to halt the genocide in Rwanda, and the numbers of civilians killed in drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas are enough to ridicule Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.

But on Saturday, as Gaddafi’s tanks and fighter planes locked onto their own people in Benghazi, anything but support for intervention would have condemned thousands of Libyans – who want only the same rights Indians have in the world’s “greatest democracy” – to a bloody end.

I didn’t like the tone of Obama’s lecture in New Delhi, and I do support India’s right to permanent membership of the UN Security Council as the home of the world’s second largest population.

But he did have a point about the kind of leadership India would bring: the kind that ducks tough choices and sticks to cobwebbed slogans, that wants the baubles of power but shirks its share of heavy lifting.

India has let Obama know he wasted his breath and reminded its other friends it isn’t quite the kindred spirit they’d hoped.

See below for the Canadian Press' article on the issue.

A Canadian soldier who lost both legs in Afghanistan says the financial treatment of injured and wounded war veterans by the Harper government is an "abject betrayal" of the new generation of soldiers.

Maj. Mark Campbell, who stepped on a bomb in June 2008, said the new Veteran's Charter established in 2007 robs wounded soldiers of about 40 per cent of their income.

Campbell says the new system of lump-sum payments and income replacement pales in comparison to the post-Second World War practice of granting lifetime pensions.

He said the changes are akin to putting a couple of patches on a leaky bicycle tire, adding the $250,000 he received wouldn't be enough to pay for one day in his shoes.

Campbell said the Harper government should immediately revert back to the old pension arrangement and forget about attempting to fix the new legislation.

He said Canadians should be "outraged" at how poorly the government is treating its wounded veterans.

This is why Harper wants an election and this is why NDP will support the budget and this is why the Liberals need to start rethinking our plan..move more to the left or move to the centre right...where we should belong.

Harper and Kenney are bent on destroying the Liberal party and in part destroying Canada by promoting hatred against those who don't vote Conservative. The wedge will divide Canada.

If NDP supports the budget, I don't think Harper will seek an election. If given a chance I think they will prefer Fall 2012, but if the polling stay like this, you never know...

If the budget passes then he would have a lot of explaining to do to pull the plug. I thought Liberals can lose three to five seats, but if this trend continues, I would think five to seven in the GTA! Well the only good thing that can happen with the Conservatives winning in the GTA is that the Liberals will start respecting the moderates in ethnic communities or they will become like NDP in the GTA - keep pandering to the extremists and be a fringe party!

Click HERE for complete poll ratings.

Click HERE to read the article that prompted this latest entry.

Asha for education - Canada is the Canadian arm of Asha for Education, a not-for-profit oganization, whose stated mission is "to catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of underprivileged children." Currently, they have ongoing projects to address such girl child issues.

However, the problems are multifold. Because of corruption, city officials don't build toilets and if they are built, they are not maintained. Since there is no proper sanitation in villages, villagers use the toilets and don't clean up either. No one does, and no one does. Hence the toilets are locked. So the problems are in various levels.

We need enforcement and social education to bring change. What we do is play the old game...we pick a model village and bring change there, villages around them look at it and also want to do the same in their villages. 

People are slow to accept change.

See below for Kalpana Sharma's article from India Together

Swati and Anita are two young women from rural Maharashtra. They have one thing in common. Both dropped out of school once they completed Standard VIII. They wanted to complete their schooling. Both spoke passionately to me when I met them about their desire to study. Even their parents wanted them to study further. But circumstances would not permit this.

Both girls faced an identical dilemma. While the school up to Standard VIII was in their village or close by, the high school was some distance away. The only way to go there was by the local State Transport bus. While going to school was not such a problem as it was during the day, at the end of the school day, they had to wait several hours before they could catch the bus back. If for some reason the bus was cancelled, and this would happen with alarming frequency, they would have had to walk back to the village in the dark, something their parents would not contemplate. Hence, the only option was to drop out of school.

In contrast, the brother of one of the girls faced no such problem. As soon as he was through with his classes, he would hitch a ride on a passing truck and make his way back. This was not an option open to the girls.

Tragic situation

What is tragic is that both these girls are as bright as any you would meet in a city like Mumbai. The only reason they will not become the engineers and doctors of the future is because there is no reliable transport linking their village to the nearest school. And theirs are not remote villages in the interior of Maharashtra. Swati lives a mere hour away from Pune. If this is the story of Swati and Anita, think how many millions more like them must be chafing at being deprived for no other reason than a safe mode of transport.

We also know that many more girls drop out even before Standard VIII for another reason: the lack of toilets in schools. The latest ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) 2009, a comprehensive survey of government and private schools in 575 out of 583 rural districts in India, revealed that only 50 per cent of government schools have toilets and that four out of 10 government schools did not have separate toilets for girls. Even where there were separate toilets for girls, as many as 12-15 per cent were locked and only 30-40 per cent were "usable". I visited a school in Bihar where toilets had been constructed but within days their doors had been stolen and the toilet pans smashed making them unusable.

If girls dropout when they reach adolescence, it is often for no other reason than the lack of toilet facilities. Even in a city like Mumbai, the dropout rate amongst girls attending municipal schools is markedly higher than that of boys because of the absence of toilets for them.

The annual ASER study, facilitated by the NGO Pratham, is a constant and important reminder of the state of education in this country. In 2009, ASER surveyed 16,000 villages, 300,000 households and 700,000 children. There is nothing on this scale done by an agency outside government, hence its importance. But each year, when ASER results are made public, we are reminded that education is not just about quantity, or the number of children who enrol in school - a number that is increasing - but the quality of the education these children get. And that, although it is getting better in some states, is still shockingly poor.

Conducting simple reading and mathematics tests in schools, the survey reveals that a little over half of all children in Standard V in government schools cannot read a Standard II text book. This means a 10-year-old cannot read what a seven-year-old is supposed to be able to read. What then are these children learning even if they become a statistic showing increased enrolment and attendance in schools?

Disturbing trend

Precious little, it would seem. What they cannot learn in school, they do so by paying for private tuitions. One of the more disturbing statistics in the survey reveals that one in four children in Standard I in private schools is sent for private tuitions as are 17 per cent of Standard I students in government schools. Can you imagine that? Little six-year-olds being sent for private tuition. By the time they reach Standard VIII, over one third try and learn what they are clearly not taught in school through private tutoring. An analysis of the budget of poor people would reveal what a chunk of their earnings goes into such tuitions because they hold on to the belief that education will pull them out of poverty. But given the poor quality of education in these schools, their children will never be able to compete with those with ability to pay for better quality schooling.

Fortunately, not the entire ASER report is gloom and doom. One of the brighter moments in it is the fact that in Bihar, the state considered a basket case on most counts, the dropout rate for girls in the 11-14 age group has reduced from 17.6 per cent in 2006 to 6 per cent in 2009. So Bihar must be doing something right. In fact, one of the striking sights in Bihar today is of girls on bicycles, given by the government if they clear Standard VIII, going to the nearest high school.

The desire to ensure that children get a good education runs deep in most Indian families. Parents will sacrifice and save to invest in their children's future. Even poor families, including the homeless with no secure shelter, find a way of sending their children to school. The increase in the enrolment rate in India - 96 per cent of children between the ages of 6-14 are enrolled in school, government and private - is proof of that.

What urgently needs to be tackled is the quality of education, basic facilities like toilets and running water, and transport, particularly for girls. Even this will not suffice unless there is a notable change in the status accorded teachers who ultimately decide whether and what children learn. Instead of the inordinate amount of attention that continues to be paid to institutes of higher learning, or private institutions that promise to prepare rich children for studies abroad, something much more simple and basic can and needs to be done to educate India and Indians.

See the "State Multiculturalism has failed, says David Cameron" article from BBC News below.

At a security conference in Munich, he argued the UK needed a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to all kinds of extremism.

He also signalled a tougher stance on groups promoting Islamist extremism.

The speech angered some Muslim groups, while others queried its timing amid an English Defence League rally in the UK.

As Mr Cameron outlined his vision, he suggested there would be greater scrutiny of some Muslim groups which get public money but do little to tackle extremism.

Ministers should refuse to share platforms or engage with such groups, which should be denied access to public funds and barred from spreading their message in universities and prisons, he argued.

"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," the prime minister said.

David Cameron strode firmly into a debate where many politicians tread timidly.

In his view, such caution is part of the problem. In frank language he made abundantly clear he believes multiculturalism has failed. Any organisation that does not stand up to extremism will be cut off from public funds, and he wants the country to develop a stronger sense of shared identity.

It is the first time he has spoken so directly as prime minister, but there are echoes of what has gone before. Tony Blair edged away from multiculturalism in the years after the 7/7 bombings in London, and his ministers moved to stop funding any community organisation that did not challenge extremism. And what of Gordon Brown's continual quest to strengthen "Britishness"?

Behind the scenes, ministers are reviewing the "prevent" strategy, the policies designed to try to deal with extremism. But the review, which had been planned for publication this month, is likely to be delayed. It is not clear yet how Mr Cameron will translate his strong words into action.

Human rights

"Let's properly judge these organisations: Do they believe in universal human rights - including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government? Do they encourage integration or separatism?

"These are the sorts of questions we need to ask. Fail these tests and the presumption should be not to engage with organisations," he added.

The Labour MP for Luton South, Gavin Shuker, asked if it was wise for Mr Cameron to make the speech on the same day the English Defence League staged a major protest in his constituency.

There was further criticism from Labour's Sadiq Khan whose comments made in a Daily Mirror article sparked a row.

The shadow justice secretary was reported as saying Mr Cameron was "writing propaganda material for the EDL".

Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi hit back, saying that "to smear the prime minister as a right wing extremist is outrageous and irresponsible". She called on Labour leader Ed Miliband to disown the remarks.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Council of Britain's assistant secretary general, Dr Faisal Hanjra, described Mr Cameron's speech as "disappointing".

He told Radio 4's Today programme: "We were hoping that with a new government, with a new coalition that there'd be a change in emphasis in terms of counter-terrorism and dealing with the problem at hand.

"In terms of the approach to tackling terrorism though it doesn't seem to be particularly new.

"Again it just seems the Muslim community is very much in the spotlight, being treated as part of the problem as opposed to part of the solution."

In the speech, Mr Cameron drew a clear distinction between Islam the religion and what he described as "Islamist extremism" - a political ideology he said attracted people who feel "rootless" within their own countries.

"We need to be clear: Islamist extremism and Islam are not the same thing," he said.

The government is currently reviewing its policy to prevent violent extremism, known as Prevent, which is a key part of its wider counter-terrorism strategy.

Bunglawala from Muslims4Uk says Mr Cameron is "firing at the wrong target"

A genuinely liberal country "believes in certain values and actively promotes them", Mr Cameron said.

"Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law. Equal rights, regardless of race, sex or sexuality.

"It says to its citizens: This is what defines us as a society. To belong here is to believe these things."

He said under the "doctrine of state multiculturalism", different cultures have been encouraged to live separate lives.

'I am a Londoner too'

"We have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values."

Building a stronger sense of national and local identity holds "the key to achieving true cohesion" by allowing people to say "I am a Muslim, I am a Hindu, I am a Christian, but I am a Londoner... too", he said.

Security minister Baroness Neville-Jones said when Mr Cameron expressed his opposition to extremism, he meant all forms, not just Islamist extremism.

"There's a widespread feeling in the country that we're less united behind values than we need to be," she told Today.

"There are things the government can do to give a lead and encourage participation in society, including all minorities."

But the Islamic Society of Britain's Ajmal Masroor said the prime minister did not appreciate the nature of the problem.

"I think he's confusing a couple of issues: national identity and multiculturalism along with extremism are not connected. Extremism comes about as a result of several other factors," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

Former home secretary David Blunkett said while it was right the government promoted national identity, it had undermined its own policy by threatening to withdraw citizenship lessons from schools.

He accused Education Secretary Michael Gove of threatening to remove the subject from the national curriculum of secondary schools in England at a time "we've never needed it more".

"It's time the right hand knew what the far-right hand is doing," he said.

"In fact, it's time that the government were able to articulate one policy without immediately undermining it with another."

Listen to him.

I'm fanatically in favour of democracy be it Egypt or Burma, but we also need to be pragmatic that it be a grass root driven one, not like Iraq. We want to support democracy in Egypt because we hope it will make the country better and if our desire is to make the country better, then we need to be pragmatic to ensure a smooth transition.

See Ian MacLeod's article in the National Post below for more on the above issue.

See below for Ashraf Khan's Toronto Star article with more details.

Lawyers showered the suspected killer of a prominent Pakistani governor with rose petals when he arrived at court Wednesday and an influential Muslim scholars group praised the assassination of the outspoken opponent of laws that order death for those who insult Islam.

Mumtaz Qadri, 26, made his first appearance in an Islamabad court, where a judge remanded him in custody a day after he allegedly sprayed automatic gunfire at the back of Punjab province Gov. Salman Taseer while he was supposed to be protecting him as a bodyguard. A rowdy crowd slapped him on the back and kissed his cheek as he was escorted inside. The lawyers who tossed handfuls of rose petals over him were not involved in the case.

As he left the court, a crowd of about 200 sympathizers chanted “death is acceptable for Muhammad’s slave.” The suspect stood at the back door of an armoured police van with a flower necklace given to him by an admirer and repeatedly yelled “God is great.”

More than 500 clerics and scholars from the group Jamat Ahle Sunnat said no one should pray or express regret for the killing of the governor. The group representing Pakistan’s majority Barelvi sect, which follows a brand of Islam considered moderate, also issued a veiled threat to other opponents of the blasphemy laws.

“The supporter is as equally guilty as one who committed blasphemy,” the group warned in a statement, adding politicians, the media and others should learn “a lesson from the exemplary death.”

Jamat leader Maulana Shah Turabul Haq Qadri paid “glorious tribute to the murderer ... for his courage, bravery and religious honour and integrity.”

Mumtaz Qadri told interrogators Tuesday that he shot the liberal Taseer multiple times because of the politician’s vocal opposition to the harsh blasphemy laws.

Qadri is a name commonly adopted by devout men of the Barelvi sect.

Mumtaz Qadri is accused of pumping more than 20 rounds from his assault rifle into Taseer’s back in an Islamabad street on Tuesday. The commando, who had been assigned to protect his victim, has yet to be charged with a crime.

A senior police official who interrogated Qadri said he was determined to stand by his confession that he was proud to kill a blasphemer. The official said Qadri had looked for a chance to kill the governor since joining his security squad on Tuesday morning, but did not get the opportunity at the presidential or senate buildings.

His chance came when the squad was called to escort Taseer from a restaurant on Tuesday afternoon, the official said.

After the attack, Qadri threw his weapon down and put up his hands up when one of his colleagues aimed at him, pleading to be arrested alive, the official said.

In the northwest city of Peshawar, more than 40 students rallied for Qadri’s release. “All of us students are proud of him, of what Mumtaz did,” protester Faisal Khan said.

Taseer, 66, was a senior member of the ruling party and close ally of U.S.-backed President Asif Ali Zardari. He is the highest-profile political figure to be assassinated since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was slain three years ago.

An outspoken moderate in a country increasingly beset by zealotry, his death was a reminder of the growing danger to those in Pakistan who dare to challenge Islamist extremists.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other senior ruling party officials joined up to 6,000 mourners who gathered under tight security to pay silent homage to him at the funeral at his official residence in the eastern city of Lahore.

His assassination added to the turmoil in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where the government is on the verge of collapse and Islamic militancy is on the rise.

Khusro Pervez, the commissioner of Lahore, said city authorities had deployed additional police to keep the peace before and after the funeral. Thousands of police guarded the governor’s residence and other key sites.

The governor’s residence has been the scene of angry street protests in recent weeks against Taseer’s call to repeal blasphemy laws that order death for anyone convicted of insulting Islam and his support for a Christian woman sentenced to die for allegedly insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Political allies questioned why Taseer hadn’t been better protected.

In a nod to his campaign for legislative reform, the leading Islamabad newspaper Dawn reported in a front page headline: “Blasphemy law claims another life.”

Although courts typically overturn convictions and no executions have been carried out, rights activists say the laws are used to settle rivalries and persecute religious minorities.

Taseer’s admirers called the governor a courageous opponent of Pakistan’s shift in recent years away from South Asia’s Sufi-influenced moderation to the more fundamentalist approaches to Islam found in some areas of the Middle East.

His death also came as a blow to the ruling party, which is struggling to retain power after the defection of a key ally from its governing coalition that left it without a majority in parliament.