SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2014 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 5CITY

LOCAL FORECAST:Partly cloudy sky. Fog/mistin the morning. Maximumand Minimum temperatureswill be around 29°C & 13°Crespectively on Sunday.

TEMPERATURE:Max 29.5°CMin 14.5°C

WEATHERGUWAHATI

Women crusaders against maternal health rights abuseSANJOY RAY

GUWAHATI, Dec 6 – In aState where health rights issomewhat an alien subject,some 40-odd women, mostlyfrom the tea garden commu-nity, are acting as ambassa-dors of maternal health rightsof the deprived population ofAssam.

In spite of all odds faced inthe form of socio-economicexclusion, these special bunchof crusaders are spearheadingthe campaign against everymaternal health rights viola-tion in 16 tea gardens locatedin Sonitpur district of Assam.

Heartening is the fact thatthese tea garden women havenow come out of their shelland made mobile technologytheir most potent weapon tofight maternal mortality espe-cially in areas where qualityhealth care is yet to make adistinct impact.

They are now armed witha SMS-based technology in-

Assam as a State too has thedubious distinction of havingthe highest maternal mortali-ty rate in India.

The NGOs – Nazdeek andPajhra – are combining com-munity training, technologyand legal intervention to in-crease accountability in thedelivery of maternal healthservices in tea gardens of As-sam through the women vol-unteers.

“All these volunteers havebeen provided cell phones.They are also given a specificcode for an area. Once theycome across any kind of viola-tion in any health institutionsin their area of concern, theyjust report to us. We then fol-low up and verify the issue anddepending on the gravity of theproblem, we do whatever isrequired,” said Barnabas Kin-do of Pajhra while talking toThe Assam Tribune.

The local administration isalso in the know about the nov-el intervention and providingsupport, Kindo said.

He said besides the areacode, they also use certainnumbers to indicate the natureof problem. Like for any kindof maternal health rights vio-lation, the volunteers need totype ‘00’ and likewise. Thereare other code texts to indi-cate an emergency case.

“The results are alreadyshowing. Health workers havebecome much more consciousbecause they know that anylapse on their part would bereported to the higher ups,”

he pointed out.“Further, based on the first-

hand information provided bythese women, we are compil-ing a detailed data which couldbe used for advocacy and liti-gation to demand betterhealth services in tea gardensof Assam and fight maternaland infant mortality rate,” Kin-do said.

The final report would helpthe policy makers to initiatetargeted intervention.

Eva Rani, one such volun-teer of Balipara Block whilesharing her experience said, “Icover Ghoramari area mostly.Earlier, 108 ambulances werereluctant to come to our placeto cover the maternal cases asit is in an interior area, but nowafter things were reported, theservices have improved.”

She said people are nowslowly becoming aware oftheir rights.

troduced under a projectcalled ‘EndMMNow’ (EndMaternal Mortality Now )rolled out by Nazdeek andPajhra, both NGOs, to reporton maternal health violations

at different level and that toowithin a few seconds.

Be it the case of undue pay-ment or health facility condi-tions, the volunteers reporton all kinds of health rights

violation, thereby setting ac-countability on the part ofthose at the helm.

The project is at presentexecuted in Dhakiajuli and Bali-para blocks of Sonitpur district

by Nazdeek and Pajhra, andmostly caters to the tea gar-den community, which overthe years has recorded thehighest maternal mortalitycases in India.

KMSS members staging a demonstration in protest against the moves to stop supply of ration to tea garden workers and hand over Assam’s land to Bangladesh,in Guwahati on Saturday. – AT photo

KMSS stages demosSTAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Dec 6 – Themembers of the KrishakMukti Sangram Samiti(KMSS) today staged demon-strations at various places ofthe State in protest againstthe moves to stop supply ofration to the tea garden work-ers and hand over Assam landto Bangladesh.

According to a press re-lease of the Samiti, its mem-

bers staged demonstrationsat Nagaon, Jorhat, Golaghat,Dibrugarh, North Lakhimpur,Dhemaji, Morigaon, Guwa-hati etc. Its members de-manded immediate repeal ofthe Indo-Bangla Land BorderAgreement and continuationof the supply of ration at con-cessional rates to the TEworkers. They also submit-ted memorandums to thePrime Minister and the ChiefMinister on these two issues.

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Dec 6 – Ex-tending support to the SwachhBharat Abhiyan, the Girijanan-da Chowdhury Institute ofManagement and Technology(GIMT) has distributed dust-bins among 15 selected schoolsof Guwahati.

According to the authoritiesof the educational institute, acampaign of the magnitude en-visioned by the Prime Minis-ter requires societal mobilisa-tion and active participationfrom all sections of the society.

“Educational institutions,especially the institutes ofhigher learning can play a ma-jor catalytic role in achievingthis laudable goal,” said a fac-ulty of the institute.

GIMT is also organising aState-level essay competitionas a part of the Swachh BharatAbhiyan on the theme :‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan –Role of Students.’

Cash prizes will be distrib-uted to the winners. The firstprize winner will get Rs30,000, the second prize win-ner will get Rs 20,000 and thethird prize winner will get Rs10,000. All participants will beawarded with a certificate ofparticipation.

The schools/ junior colleg-

Essay contest for school students on cleanliness

Inspectionson KFCpremisesconducted

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Dec 6 – TheFood and Safety wing of theState Health and FamilyWelfare department todayconducted inspections on thepremises of popular fast foodchain restaurant KFC locatedin Lachit Nagar and Chris-tianbasti areas.

A team led by Senior FoodSafety officer Tarun Das andFood Safety Officer SamiranBaruah collected foursamples of spices, preparedchicken and rice during theinspection and sent them foranalysis in the State PublicHealth Laboratory, Bamuni-maidam.

There were allegationsthat sub-standard food withartificial colour wereserved to the customers. Asimilar case was detectedin New Delhi, the officialssaid.

As per the Food Safetyand Standard Act, 2006, ifany restaurant or food joint isfound serving unsafe food,the owner might faceimprisonment up to fiveyears along with fine. In caseof sub-standard food, theamount of fine may go up toRs 5 lakh, said SamiranBaruah while talking to thisreporter.

Baruah said that moresuch restaurant would beinspected in the next fewweeks.

Of late, the Food andSafety branch has beenconducting a series ofinspections.

es of the winners will befelicitated.The best essay willbe published in the forthcom-ing issue of GIMTECH, theannual GIMT magazine.

The competition is open tothe students of class IX to ClassXII. The essay can be writtenin English or Assamese withmaximum limit of 1,200 words.Entries should be submitted inneat and legible handwriting,written on one side of the pa-per and each entry should con-tain a title page with the theme,name of the participant, class,name and address of the school/college and contact number onit along with a recent passport

size colour photograph.Each entry also needs to be

forwarded by the head of theinstitute of the participant. Thelast date for receipt of entriesis December 15 this year. En-tries should be submitted bypost to the institute in a closedenvelope with ‘State level Es-say Competition’ written on it.

The result will be declaredon January 25, 2015 on theGIMT website and in The As-sam Tribune.

On the other hand, the Na-tional Science Day is going tobe celebrated by the instituteon February 28, 2015 at the col-lege campus. On this occasion,

two competitions viz., posterpresentation on the theme ‘Useof waste material’ and quiz com-petition will be organisedamong the school students ofGuwahati from class VIII to XI.

Apart from this, a populartalk will be held on the sameday where resources personsfrom reputed institute/univer-sity will be invited.

The institute has also decid-ed to conduct a mock test forthe benefit of the candidateswho are aspiring to appear inthe engineering entrance ex-amination viz., JEE (Main) in2015. The mock test will beconducted according to JEE

(Main) guidelines tentativelyon March 22, 2015.

“Students who appear in thismock test will be benefitted inthe sense of exposure and prac-tice which will help them to se-cure high scores in JEE(Main)2015,” said Prof S K Dutta,Principal of the institute.

The mock test will be offlinein nature. Students from sci-ence streams appearing in the12th standard examination in2015 are eligible for appear-ing in this mock test. The syl-labus and test pattern will besame as that of JEE (Main)2015. It will be a three-hourtest. Each correct answer willresult four marks while eachwrong answer will result in thededuction of one mark.

The entire question paperwill be objective type of mul-tiple choices. Calculators andmobile phones will not be al-lowed inside the exam hall.

Students are required to reg-ister their names through on-line in the institute’s websiteby March 8, 2015. Students arerequired to pay Rs 100 in cashwhich is refundable after an-nouncement of the result.

In the first phase, the test willbe held in Guwahati city at threevenues – Shrimanta ShankarAcademy, Panbazar, ShrimantaShankar Academy, Dispur andGirijananda Chowdhury Insti-tute of Management and Tech-nology GIMT, Azara.

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Dec 6 – TheGuwahati Press Club todaywitnessed the release of As-omiya Gohana GathuriBuranji, a book by a youngartisan and Assamese jewel-lery designer from Ranthali(Nagaon district), Utpal Bania.

The book, illustrating the2,000-year-old history of As-samese jewellery, was re-leased by actor Indra Bania andsenior journalist Zarir Hussain.

Book on traditional jewellery releasedThe chief guests on the occa-sion were actress Minu Bania,Chetana Das and director/ac-tor Enu Borah.

Releasing his second liter-ary venture, Utpal Bania saidthat let alone foreigners andpeople from other parts of In-dia, even a very few Assamesepeople living outside the Stateknow about the traditional jew-ellery of Assam despite its sig-nificance in Assam’s historyand heritage.

“Coming from Ranthali, a

place of immense historicalimportance, I have always feltworried that a 2,000-year-oldtradition like this, if continuedto be ignored, will be forgot-ten completely one day.”

Bania had earlier launchedhis first book The History ofTraditional Assamese Orna-ments in May this year.

Alhough Ranthali has beenmanufacturing traditional As-samese jewellery since ages,it has not been able to grab thedesired spotlight.

A meet on the occasion of BR Ambedkar’s death anniversary, in Guwahati on Saturday. – AT