Puan: Indonesia Health Card and Smart Card Available Next Month

Jakarta Globe, Oct 28, 2014

A student rides a bicycle through an obstacle course during an agility test at a
school in Solo, Central Java, in this June 17, 2013, file photo. (JG Photo/Ali Luthfi)

Jakarta. President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla’s much-vaunted Indonesia Health Card and Indonesia Smart Card will be available next month.

Puan Maharani, the coordinating minister of human resources development and cultural affairs, said both cards would be launched “as early as next month,” according to Kompas.com.

The cards, which will be similar to the Jakarta Health Card (KJS) and Jakarta Smart Card (JKP) implemented when Joko was governor of the capital, provide a number of benefits to holders. They provide free health insurance for the poor; guarantee 12 years free education and provide for students’ educational needs; the cards also guarantee free higher education for poor students who pass the university entrance exams.

Joko and Kalla promised to introduce the cards to improve the nation’s health and education sectors during their presidential campaign.

Puan said she believed the cards were part of Joko’s “Mental Revolution,” as access good education and health services would improve the people’s quality of life.

A further ministerial meeting was planned to discuss details of the cards’ launch on Wednesday.

Day of action for Malala and girls' right to school

BBC News, Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education, 23 October 2012

A million people around the world signed a petition backing Malala Yousafzai

Knowledge economy 

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Gordon Brown

Almost one million people worldwide have signed their name to call on both the Pakistan government and the United Nations to achieve Malala Yousafzai's aim - that every girl has the opportunity to go to school.

Two weeks on, the wave of support for the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban, shows no sign of diminishing.

Now is the time for action on the second Millennium Development Goal for universal primary education.

The events of the last fortnight have shown that the global collective willpower to deliver on this aim is there.

The words "I am Malala" are not only a defiant challenge to the Taliban but a bold assertion that every single girl and boy should have the chance of an education.

A few weeks before her shooting, Malala told friends of her determination to campaign for the 32 million girls around the world who are not at school.

Out of school

By declaring 10 November - one month after the attempted assassination - "Malala and the 32 million girls day", we can start to make Malala's dream come true.

I will call for a global day of action, when I meet President Zardari of Pakistan next month to hand him our petitions and ask him to lead governmental changes in policy to secure girls' education in his and Malala's country. 

Gordon Brown: For 61m children
without schools "equality of opportunity
 remains a hollow dream".

For decades there has been a dangerous assumption that we are making year-on-year progress towards universal education - and yet the most recent figures published by UNESCO in their Global Monitoring Report show that 61 million children don't receive an education.

A further 200 million remain illiterate despite attending school. Equality of opportunity remains a hollow dream.

Pakistan is a case study of the challenge ahead, showing how much there's still to be done if we are to meet the Millennium Development Goal target. Some five million don't receive an education, three million of whom are girls.

This means that Pakistan has 49.5 million illiterate adults, two-thirds of them female.

What is just as shocking is that educational spending is not rising - as we might assume - but falling, from an already meagre 2.6% of Gross National Product in 1999 to 2.3%.

This represents just 9% of government spending (the equivalent figure for spending on the military is seven times higher).

Child labour

Pakistan's continuing failure is sadly replicated elsewhere. In some parts of the Indian sub-continent as well as in sub-Saharan Africa, one quarter of all children are out of school, amid worrying evidence that past gains are being reversed as aid for education is cut.

Students in Karachi hold up pictures of the wounded schoolgirl
Malala Yousufzai

Despite the recent creation of initiatives such as "child marriage-free zones" in Bangladesh, every year some 10 million girls globally are forced into loveless marriages - and out of the classroom.

Even though there was a successful Indian march against child labour, 15 million children under 14 are not in school today because they are working full time - on cocoa plantations, down mines, or carrying out other hazardous occupations.

We have around 40 months to meet our deadline for universal education. We have one chance left to deliver in these three years. If the tragic story of Malala tells us anything, it is that we must do all we can to achieve it.

Action is beginning to coalesce. Last month a new initiative, Education First, launched by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has brought together every UN and World Bank agency concerned with education, to offer poor performing governments, including Pakistan, a chance to deliver new school-places and train more teachers.

Every one of the countries with out-of-school children will be asked to draw up a plan setting out its precise needs in terms of teachers, school building and financing. At the core of each plan will be strategies for policing an end to child labour, enforcing the law against child marriage and clamping down on discrimination against girls.

Last chance

In April next year a joint summit between international agencies and governments will be held by Ban Ki-moon and the President of the World Bank Jim Kim at which precise plans will be finalised along with timetables and budgets.

Malala Yousafzai was brought to the UK for hospital treatment

During my visit to Pakistan next month I will begin this process with the Pakistan government and work on an agreed timetable.

The demonstrations, protests and online action we have seen in the last two weeks should inspire world leaders into action in agreeing the way forward.

Malala's personal campaign may have been halted temporarily, but the millions who now speak up on her behalf must now come together as one in the run up to 10 November so that we must wait no longer for action on education.

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Archangel Michael: The Declaration of Human Freedom

"... Children are meant to live lives under the beneficent protection of all, free of exploitation, with unhindered access to the necessities of life, education, and health care ..."

Archangel Michael: It’s Time to Let Go of the Old (AAM channeled by Linda Dillon) - New

“……

AAM: Let us speak first to the terrible — and I use “terrible” in its truest sense — terrible issue of racism, of hatred, of control. Because all racism, all fanaticism, whether it is political or religious or economic — there is a great deal of economic fanaticism on your planet still, and you see it every day -  is bred from a very peculiar mix, and it is bred from fear, entitlement, and what you may choose to call karma and what I will refer to as some past-life bleed-through.

These people are going to have a very hard time if they choose to resist and fight. And that is why we ask each of you to make sure that you are the transmitters and the beamers, but that you are not becoming involved in that morass of chaos, that they undoubtedly are creating and will create.

It is all stemming from a lack of self worth and self love, an unknowing of deservingness and of worth. Because when you are in your heart and you know, innately, deeply, fully of your connection to the One, of your divinity, and that you hold that love not in a superficial way that we so often witness upon your planet… it has improved, but it is still there. When there is really love there can be no hatred or disgust with those that you deem or designate as less than. It is such an absurd construct, that. Did we not understand the various levels and the emanations, we would simply shake our heads. So will this be wrenched from them? They have a choice, and, if they choose to continue to cling, then of course the choice is they will be relocated elsewhere. But what I am also saying, individually — and you think, “How can you do this, Michael, individually to millions upon millions of millions of people?” Well, I suggest you leave that to us. They will have their confrontations with their egos, and they will also have their opportunities to see their divinity and to acknowledge the equality of all beings.

For many, it will be extremely uncomfortable. But it is necessary. That is why we have encouraged so many to do the work, so that you are not at the last minute being wrenched in this way. That is partially what Syria is about. That is what Milala in Afghanistan is about. It is the choice, for people to look at that and say, “How can this be? And how could I hold such hatred in my heart?”

Now, these examples have been brought up to you time and again. The shootings, long ago, Martin Luther King, the freedom fighters, the executions, in Iraq and Iran. These are the mirrors that are held up to those who think they are better than, because that is the end result of hatred and entitlement.

It is pathetic.

SB: Lord, could I intervene at this moment and say that photos have been produced that suggest that Milala’s shooting was staged. There’s a photo of her not having any throat wound. There’s a photo of her walking to the helicopter. Was it staged, or not?

AAM: No, it was not staged. It was a brutal attack.

SB: All right. Thank you.

AAM: Was it staged by us? Yes!

SB: What do you mean by that, Lord?

AAM: I mean it is an opportunity. Is it real in physical form? Yes. Is it real in terms of an opportunity for people to say, “This type of persecution has need to end”? Yes.  ……….”

RI could become pioneer for muslim nations` progress: Iran's Minister

Antara News, Fri, December 30 2011

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Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Iran`s Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Security Dr Abdoreza Sheikholeslami said Indonesia could become a pioneer for the progress of other Muslim majority nations.

"Even a pioneer for the progress of the developing world," the minister said when receiving Indonesian Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri in Tehran as quoted by Sapto Waluyo, a social affairs ministry senior adviser on Friday.

Iran was ready to cooperate in social development for the sake of more evenly spread progress in the world, he said.

Progress should not be monopolized by certain advanced countries, Abdoreza was quoted as saying by Sapto.

Minister Salim welcomed Minister Abdoreza`s cooperation offer and said Iran was a great country with a civilization dating back hundreds of years ago.

Both countries had the potential to become pioneers in efforts to bring about change in the world if the two nations could synergize their existing resources, according to Salim.

Minister Salim and his delegation also held a meeting with Deputy Governor of Isfahan Alizera Hamedani on Thursday (Dec 29).

Editor: Aditia Maruli

National campaign to send street children home

English.news.cn   2011-12-26

      

BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- China has launched a one-year inter-agency national campaign aiming to return most street children home, the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) said Monday.

The MCA will lead the campaign, which is joined by the ministries of education, public security, financial, health, human resources and social security, and housing and urban-rural development, an MCA statement said.

"We will try our best to identify most street children in cities and send them home by the end of 2012," the statement said.

Minister Li Liguo of Civil Affairs said, ministries concerned should strengthen communication and coordination, and speed up the revision of regulations on the relief of city beggars and vagrants.

The MCA also urged provincial governments to set up special offices coordinating the campaign. Several provinces, such as Hebei and Yunnan, have been working on this, the statement said.

Police will step up their efforts to identify and rescue street children who wander near railway stations, major tourist sites, business areas and subway stops, while civil affairs departments will assist investigation and provide shelter for homeless children, the statement said.

Urban communities and neighborhoods are asked by the ministry to report homeless children to local police. Police and civil affairs departments will cooperate to ascertain the whereabouts of their parents or guardians.

In home places of street children, education departments are urged to send them to schools or vocational schools, and those from needy families will have their tuition reduced or waived.

Health departments are required to offer street children easy access to medical facilities in emergency cases. Hospitals listed in the campaign will treat sick street children free of charge.

Editor: Yan

Myanmar, UNICEF cooperates in child rights affairs

Antara News, Wed, June 8 2011

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Yangon (ANTARA News/Xinhua-0ANA) - Myanmar and the United Nations Children`s Fund (UNICEF) are cooperating in jurisdiction over minors and protection of child rights as part of their bilateral cooperation programs, an official media reported Wednesday.

It was discussed between Myanmar`s Union Supreme Court, led by Union Chief Justice U Tun Tun Oo, and the UNICEF, led by visiting Chief of Child Protection Section Jeannette Wijnants, in Nay Pyi Taw Tuesday, said the New Light of Myanmar.

Other programs to be implemented through bilateral cooperation were also touched upon, the report added.

UNICEF has also been engaged in Myanmar`s relief work based on its core commitments for children.

UNICEF`s program covers six areas, including water, environmental sanitation and hygiene, health and HIV, nutrition, education and child protection within the framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UNICEF plays a key role in supporting Myanmar government in formulating the first ever national plan of action on protection of children in emergencies, and in the longer term, a national child protection system with improved policies and helping build capacity on child protection.

The UNICEF is the world`s leading development organization working for the well-being of children. For over 50 years, UNICEF has worked to protect the lives of children around the world, helping them realize fuller, richer, healthier lives.

Although UNICEF was founded in 1950 as a humanitarian agency to meet the emergency needs of children , UNICEF has concentrated on long-term development projects that benefit children.

Editor: Ella Syafputri

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India approves low-cost housing for slum-dwellers

BBC News, 2 June 2011

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The Indian government has approved an ambitious scheme to provide affordable housing to millions of slum dwellers.

Authorities say they want a slum-free India

The plan is expected to benefit 32 million people in 250 cities and aims to give property rights to the owners of the houses built under the scheme.

A cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has approved the first phase of the scheme, Home Minister P Chidambaram said.

The scheme aims to check proliferation of slums, he said.

The scheme is named Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Under the scheme, the federal government will provide financial assistance to states willing to assign property rights to slum dwellers.

The money would be used to build low-cost houses and improve the basic civic services in the slums.

The government has also announced setting up a $222m (£137m) fund to facilitate lending to urban poor for housing purposes.

Critics, however, say the scheme is unlikely to benefit the hundreds of millions of people who live on less than 20 rupees (50 US cents) a day.

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India aid programme 'beset by corruption' - World Bank

BBC News, By Jill McGivering, 18 May 2011

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Attempts by the Indian government to combat poverty are not working, according to the World Bank.

Less than half the hand-outs reach the needy
in some Indian aid programmes.

The governing coalition spends billions of dollars - more than 2% of its gross domestic product - on helping the poor.

But a new World Bank report says aid programmes are beset by corruption, bad administration and under-payments.

As an example, the report cites grain: only 40% of grain handed out for the poor reaches its intended target.

India's coalition government is spending massively on programmes to reduce poverty.

Embarrassment

This was the first time India's major schemes had been evaluated.

The World Bank says the public distribution programme, which soaks up almost half the money, has brought limited benefits.

It gives subsidised food and other goods to the poor.

The report says one landmark scheme, launched more than five years ago, aims to guarantee government work for the rural unemployed.

But the World Bank found that it was failing to have an impact in the poorest states because of under-payments and bad administration.

All this is embarrassing for the Congress party, which leads the coalition government.

It promised to reduce the gap between the small percentage of wealthy Indians and very large percentage of poor ones, who feel excluded from the economic boom.

This report suggests that however good intentions may be, the delivery still needs a lot of work.

Although India is seeing rapid growth, more than 40% of its population still lives below the poverty line.

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Dutch initiative takes on food prices in India

RNW, 7 May 2011, by Devi Boerema

(Photo: Devi Boerema)

Rising food prices are threatening South Asia’s economy. Families already living just above the poverty line are now struggling even more due to the recent explosion in vegetable prices. And a new report released by the Asian Development Bank predicts an even grimmer future if prices continue to rise.

Though Asian countries have made a steady recovery from the economic crisis, the poorest of society are not benefiting. ADB predicts that 64 million people will fall below the poverty line if food prices rise any further.

The images of grain rotting in ill-equipped storage spaces are still fresh on the minds of many Indians. At the end of last year, while the lower classes were starving, tonnes of grain were going to waste because crop surplus preservation is still difficult in India.

But, with the launch of a Dutch initiative last month in Mumbai, this could soon be a thing of the past.

Experienced farmers

During India's Food Forum, the Food Tech Holland initiative was launched. This is a consortium of Dutch companies specialising in food production and logistics.

The Dutch climate, with its four very different seasons, is not ideal for growing vegetables. So vegetable growers had to adapt. And in doing so, Dutch farmers learned how to overcome almost any food preservation challenge - positioning them perfectly to become leaders in the field of food processing.

Project manager Eric Oving: "All companies connected to the Food Tech Holland initiative offer an efficient way to produce and process food. Their solutions effectively reduce the cost of the end product. They have already proven themselves in Europe."

Room for improvement

Currently about 40% of Indian food goes to waste during storage or transport. In comparison to Europe, where waste is only a few percent, there is a lot of room for improvement.

The recent rise in the price of onions is a good example of the importance of proper vegetable storage. With well kept stocks, surplus onions could have been released onto the market when this year’s yield turned out to be disappointing, preventing tear-inducing price rises.

Traditional cooking

The Dutch company Tolsma especially focuses on storage of onions and potatoes, vegetables that are normally affordable and a staple in traditional Indian cooking.

Dim-Jan de Visser: "At the moment, onions are mostly stored in the open air in India. Due to the humid climate, almost 40 percent of the yield is lost every year. When the supply gets smaller at the end of the season, the prices rise."

Long road

Tolsma offers a wide range of solutions to warehouse owners. But Mr De Visser stresses that storage facilities are not the only hurdle on the road to better food production.

"The whole chain of food producers has to adapt to a new way of working in India. Everyone has to benefit. If people are left out because of more inefficient production techniques, it will cause unrest among the many farmers in this country."

As the gap between lower and middle class India grows, their food needs do too. Now that they can afford it, the middle class is becoming more critical about the quality of the food they buy. This new segment of the Indian market is interesting to Dutch vegetable seed breeding company Rijk Zwaan.

The latest thing

Mini cucumbers and tiny cherry tomatoes are the newest thing on the Indian market. High end restaurants and hotel chains love to serve their guests these healthy little snacks.

Hans Bouman of Rijk Zwaan says he's aware that only a small percentage of the Indian people will be able to afford the luxury vegetables. But, he says, that doesn’t mean Indian farmers won’t benefit from this new trend.

"If a farmer can deliver a better and more special product than his competition, he will be able to get a better price for his crops. He may not be able to afford the price of the end product, but he will earn more from his corps."

Cooperation

To improve food storage, the Indian government has announced the development of fifteen mega food parks. These parks will have to ensure a high quality of food production and storage. Food Tech Holland has already been invited by the ministry of food processing to discuss possibilities for cooperation.

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Water is pumped for heating from a depth of three
kilometers (Photo: RNW)

President calls on Asean to prepare food security program

Antara News, Sat, May 7 2011

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Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on ASEAN member countries to prioritize food security programs for the people in the region.

Opening the 18th ASEAN Summit at the Jakarta Convention Center here on Saturday, the head of state reminded the world of fluctuations in food prices and energy which tend to continuously increase on international markets.

"Food security is posing a big challenge to ASEAN and therefore, effective and real cooperation among ASEAN member countries is badly needed in prioritizing a guarantee to provide supplies for the people," he said.

One of the steps toward this end, the president said the implementation of integrated food security framework in a more comprehensive manner in the field of research and development as well as investment in food was seen as a must, he said.

In addition, Yudhoyono said ASEAN should give more attention to formulating food supply system which may help farmers get rid of poverty.

In his capacity as ASEAN Chairman in 2011, also reminded the ASEAN member countries of the importance to overcome energy security problems.

ASEAN, according to him, should arrive at a innovative solution by finding new energy resources required to increase energy supply, thus reducing energy consumption which may leave a negative impact on the environment.

The use of renewable energy should be attempted by applying ASEAN energy efficiency and conversation program for which economic and social development in member countries could be accelerated.

For that purpose, ASEAN needed to strengthen regional cooperation in developing renewable and alternative energy including the development of hydro-power and geo-thermal energy. "Hence we have to develop the energy research and development center in our region," Yudhoyono said.

"History has shown that a rise in food and energy prices will directly increase the number of poor people. In the meantime, we really understand and feel that reducing poverty is not as easy as it seems," the head of state said.

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

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Despite rapid growth, India lets its girls die

Associated Press, By MUNEEZA NAQVI, May 4, 2011

In this photo taken Wednesday, April 13, 2011, one year and 9-month-old
Sania cries as she is weighed only 5 kilograms (11 pounds) on a scale
after eating a meal at a ward for malnourished children at a government
hospital in Morena in the Central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh.
The starving girls point to a painful reality revealed in India's most recent
census: Despite a booming economy and big cities full of glittering malls
and luxury cars, the country is failing its girls. Early results show India has
only 914 girls under age 6 for every 1,000 boys. The census in Morena
showed that for every 1,000 boys only 825 girls in the district made it to
their sixth birthdays, down from an already troubling 829 a decade ago.
(AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi)

MORENA, India (AP) -- The room is large and airy, the stone floors clean and cool - a welcome respite from the afternoon sun. Until your eyes take in the horror that it holds. Ten severely malnourished children - nine of them girls.

The starving girls in this hospital ward include a 21-month-old with arms and legs the size of twigs and an emaciated 1-year-old with huge, vacant eyes. Without urgent medical care, most will not live to see their next birthday.

They point to a painful reality revealed in India's most recent census: Despite a booming economy and big cities full of luxury cars and glittering malls, the country is failing its girls.

Early results show India has 914 girls under age 6 for every 1,000 boys. A decade ago, many were horrified when the ratio was 927 to 1,000.

The discrimination happens through abortions of female fetuses and sheer neglect of young girls, despite years of high-profile campaigns to address the issue. So serious is the problem that it's illegal for medical personnel to reveal the gender of an unborn fetus, although evidence suggests the ban is widely circumvented.

"My mother-in-law says a boy is necessary," says Sanju, holding her severely malnourished 9-month-old daughter in her lap in the hospital. She doesn't admit to deliberately starving the girl but only shrugs her own thin shoulders when asked why her daughter is so sick.

She will try again for a son in a year or two, she says.

Part of the reason Indians favor sons is the enormous expense in marrying off girls. Families often go into debt arranging marriages and paying elaborate dowries. A boy, on the other hand, will one day bring home a bride and dowry. Hindu custom also dictates that only sons can light their parents' funeral pyres.

But it's not simply that girls are more expensive for impoverished families. The census data shows that the worst offenders are the relatively wealthy northern states of Punjab and Haryana.

In Morena, a sun-baked, largely rural district in the heart of India, the numbers are especially grim. This census showed that only 825 girls for every 1,000 boys in the district made it to their sixth birthdays, down from an already troubling 829 a decade ago.

Though abortion is allowed in India, the country banned revealing the gender of unborn fetuses in 1994 in an attempt to halt sex-selective abortions. Every few years, federal and state governments announce new incentives - from free meals to free education - to encourage people to take care of their girls.

In Morena, a Madhya Pradesh state government program offers poor families with one or two daughters a few thousand rupees (a few hundred dollars) for every few years of schooling, and more than 100,000 rupees ($2,250) when they graduate high school.

But while a handful of Indian women have attained some of the highest positions in politics and business - from late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi - a deep-rooted cultural preference for sons remains.

Even the government has accepted that it has failed to save millions of little girls.

"Whatever measures that have been put in over the last 40 years have not had any impact," India's Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said last month when announcing the census numbers.

In Morena's homes, villages, schools and hospitals lie some of the answers to why the country keeps losing girls.

In the district hospital's maternity ward, a wrinkled old woman walks out holding a just-born girl wrapped in a dirty rag like an unwelcome present. Munni, who uses only one name, is clearly unhappy. Her daughter-in-law has just given birth to her sixth girl in 12 years of marriage.

Will the daughter-in-law go through another pregnancy?

"Everyone wants boys. A boy takes care of you in your old age," Munni says.

As a mother-in-law, Munni will likely have enormous control over her son's wife, influencing how many children she has and nudging or bullying her to bear a son.

The hospital insists it strictly obeys the law against using sonograms to reveal the gender of a fetus, says R.C. Bandil, who heads the facility. The sex ratio at birth at his hospital is as high as 940-945, he says. "Why is it 825 for the 0-6 group?" he asks.

Part of the answer lies in his own hospital's malnutrition ward.

"Women cry when they have girls," nurse Lalitha Gujar says as she spoons powdered coconut, peanuts and sesame seeds into bowls of fortified milk to nourish the tiny children.

All nine mothers of the sickly infant girls say they want sons - to look after them when they get old, because their sisters-in-law have more sons, because their mothers-in-law demand male children.

"If a woman has a boy, for a month she will be looked after. If she has a girl, she'll be back in the fields in three days," says Sudha Misra, a local social worker.

An exhausted mother who faces neglect, poor nutrition and blame for producing a daugher is likely to pass on that neglect, social workers say. For an infant, that can mean the difference between life and death.

"A malnourished child will get sick and the chances of death are very high," Bandil says.

Males get first priority. "First the husband is seated and fed, then the brothers and then whatever is left is fed to the girls," says Bandil. "If there are two mangoes in the house, first the boy will get to eat."

For the very poor, the pressures to bear sons result in mistreatment of both the baby girl and mother. And rich women are not immune to this mistreatment if they fail to bear male children.

For those with money, it's often about being able to locate a radiologist who, for a cost, will break the law and reveal the sex of the fetus, or being able to fly abroad for such tests.

A 2007 study by the rights group ActionAid India found that gender ratios were worse in urban areas, and that sex-selective abortions were more common among wealthier and higher-caste people who could afford ways to learn the gender of fetuses.

The law is not enough to combat "a society that values boys over girls," says Ravinder Kaur, a professor of sociology at New Delhi's Indian Institute of Technology.

"Laws are good because they may act as a deterrent" she says, but sex-selective abortions continue underground because "people find more devious ways."

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