India staring at cancer explosion: Experts

[KhanHaripur]

January 21, 2011

India is staring at an explosion of cancer burden as the disease is likely to double or triple among its population in the next 20 years, oncologists said.
The incidence of cancer for the last decade has been a straight line as there has been a rising trend in some cancers offset by a reduction in others.
However, epidemiological findings of some unique cancers in North-east suggested the explosion of cancer burden in the next two decades, the scientists said.
It must be noted that in spite of the rising trend, the number of cancer cases are still about a third or fifth of what is seen in the developed world. However, India is at the beginning of an explosion of cancer burden due to several factors and drastic steps need to be taken to prevent the explosion, Tata Memorial Centre(TMC), director, Dr RA Badwe said.
In general, the outlook for cancer appears bright due to low incidence in India and efforts to reduce mortality without much increase in the incidence are unique globally, Badwe said at the 21st Indian Nuclear Societys annual conference here.
But in future with factors like increasing population, increasing longevity, less of physical activity (obese cancer) and urbanisation of rural India, the burden of cancer is likely to double or triple by 2030, said Dr KM Mohandas, director, Centre for Cancer Epidemiology of TMC.
TMC has also found some unique cancers in some parts of India nasopharyngeal and esophageal (food pipe) cancer in Northeast and gall bladder cancer in Gangetic and Brahmaputra river belt, he said.
Few large epidemiological studies are underway to find out etiology of these cancers and a large screening study with Barium swallow is also underway to see if early detection of esophageal cancer is possible, Badwe said.
Figures related to tobacco-related cancer (smoking and non-smoking), which constitutes 50% of the cancer cases in the county, may remain as it is, Badwe said.
Over, 65% of cancer in India is contributed by tobacco related, breast and cervical cancer. 30% of cancers arise in head and neck region is caused due to non-smoking tobacco used in India and this is amenable to prevention as well as early detection, he said.
An alarming rise in breast cancer and ovarian cancer is very fortunately matched by a corresponding and welcome reduction in uterine cervical cancer, maintaining the overall incidence of cancer relatively unchanged in women, the TMC director said.
Uterine cervical cancer is due to infection which is amenable to prevention and early detection, he said.
In men, it is lung cancer which is on the rise and is a major killer, whereas two other forms of the disease stomach and penile cancers have shown a downward trend, he added.
The data on screening for oral cancer is not robust enough to implement screening as service but it is suggestive of being beneficial in saving lives, the cancer expert added.

 

[sngilani]

Same is true for Pakistan. It could be worse if current political instability continues.

 

[KhanHaripur]

A Road Map to Khalistan

British left United India just after two years of culmination of World War-II but prior to their departure pushed the South Asian countries into number of conflicts due to their defective partition plan. Number of boundary disputes, identities issues, and water conflicts cropped up as result of faulty demarcation. India expectedly has proven to be the hub of all clashes. For examples as result of conspiracy between British rulers, Gandhi and Maharaja Hari Singh, India forcefully has landed her forces in Kashmir against the wishes of masses and later on Junagarh and Hyderabad states have also been captured by India. Similarly Muslims of East Bengal, Maoists of North West of India and the third largest community Sikh which is 77% of East (Indian) Punjabs population (now) have been denied from separates states. On the other hand British in 1948 made successful efforts to establish a separate state Israel for Jewish minority whose population was only 713, 000.
Therefore, Sikhs and other deprived communities of India have started their struggles of independence to attain rights of self determination and to save their identities. Out of these, Kashmiri, Maoists and Sikhs are three on going major movements and freedom fighters of the revealed campaigns are continuously facing brutality of Indian Armed and Security Forces. Sikhs struggle for their independence and sovereign state has came on lime light once they were not given their due share in the legislations and employments and also also been forbidden freely to perform their religious obligations.
According to Sikh Encyclopedia Barely 13.22 per cent of the population of pre Partition Punjab (1941 census), they were now 38.5 per cent of the combined population of the East Punjab and PEPSU (Patiala and East Punjab States Union). In 1956, PEPSU was amalgamated with East Punjab to from a single state the Punjab. The formation of a Punjabi speaking Punjab in 1966 by separating some territories to form the new state of Haryana and the Union territory of Chandigarh, and transferring some others to Himachal Pradesh, the percentage of the Sikhs in the new state rose to 60.22 in the census of 1971, to 60.75 in 1981 and 62.95 in the 1991 census. The increase in numbers was reflected not only in a higher percentage in the Punjab, but also in India as a whole. The encyclopedia further states that the proportion of Sikh population to that of India which was 1.47 per cent in 1941, rose to 1.72 in 1951, 1.78 in 1961, 1.89 in 1971 and 1.90 in 1981. The bulk of the Sikh population of India (77.9%) lives in the Punjab. Major Sikh concentrations outside Punjab are in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, in that order. Within the Punjab, the Sikhs, by and large an agricultural community, are mostly settled in villages.
One of my reader Dr Awatar Singh Sekhon has written an article (SOVEREIGNTY AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE DARBAR SAHIB COMPLEX: SIKHS HOLY AND HISTORIC HOMELAND) on the Sikh demand which seem to be quite genuine. He also emailed his article to me for my consumption. I decided to share the same with my readers knowledge that how a third larges community of India thinks.
Dr. Awatar writes that, The Sikhs have been carrying out their Struggle to Regain Their Sovereignty, Independence and Political Power, by peaceful means, since 14th March, 1849, and it will continue until the sovereignty is reclaimed successfully and their Sikh Nation, Punjab, liberated from the occupation of the Brahmins autocracy/Zamhooriat/Zulamhooriat. Until the Sovereignty is reclaimed, it is proposed that a radius of 30-mile be declared, from the focal point of Darbar Sahib Complex, as an independent zone of the Sikhs holy and historic homeland, free from any personnel, armed forces, police, intelligence, finance, all sort of communications, administration, free from those agencies which have any connection with the Brahmins and pro-Brahmins of the alleged Indian democracy or those people which had been subservient to the Afghans, Mughals, Sikhs, British, Portuguese and others [for more than 3,500 years] until the day the British India Empire transferred political power to the unelected leadership of these subservient Hindus, the Brahmin-Baniya clique. The administration, management and control of the 30-mile radius of the Darbar Sahib Complex will be maintained by special forces civil and armed created by the Darbar Sahib Complexs force, to be known as the Sovereign Khalsa Force (SKF), which will be working under the directions of the body elected by the Sarbat Khalsa Institution, in accordance with the Sikh Way of Life, Sikh Code of Conduct or Sikh Rahit Maryada.
The proposed 30-mile radius of the Darbar Sahib Complexs Khalsa Zone is the pre-requisite of the Sovereignty of the Sikh Nation, Khalistan, Punjab or the Republic of Khalistan. The proposal is made keeping in mind that a vast majority of the Sikhs, Sikh Diaspora, living in all continents, viz. North America, Europe, Australia, Far East, Africa and elsewhere, will not experience any difficulties and will not have to get the Brahmins autocracys visa to visit the Darbar Sahib Complex and other Gurdwaras of historic significance. The Sikhs would not like to have their passports made available to the agents of the Brahmins autocracys missions merely for the visa endorsement. Their travelling documents will be made available to only the employees of the Sovereign Khalsa Zone Forces (SKZF). Their wellbeing, after entering the SKZ, will be looked after and ensured by the SKZF. The administration of the SKZ will enter into the bilateral agreements to look after the interests of the SKZ as well as to address the international questions relating to the Sovereignty of the Darbar Sahib Complex Zone. The Sarbat Khalsa administration will remove all jathedars/band leaders, employees of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee and Akali Dal (all factions), executives and members and those who collaborated with the Brahmins autocracy in Operation Bluestar of June, 1984, and thereafter, from their offices. The new members will be elected/nominated by consensus to the SGPC, Akali Dal and the Mukh-Sewadar of the Supreme Seat of the Sikh Polity, Akal Takht Sahib.
No jathedar, SGPC or Akali Dal executives will remain in their office, especially those who have been appointed by the Punjab and/or Brahmins autocracys New Delhi administration. The proposal is made to the Guru Khalsa Panth and the House of Baba Nanak in view of the following: No one will dare to launch a military attack like the undeclared war on the Sikh Nation in the form of a brutal military Operation Bluestar of June, 1984, and subsequent operations by the army and armed personnel of the alleged Indian democracy. (One) None of the Sikhs elected representatives has accepted/endorsed/signed the Indian Constitution 1950, which denies the Sikhs their Sikh Identity, see Article 25 (International Journal of Sikh Affairs 16(1), 2006). (Two)The Sikhs struggle for Sovereignty, Independence and Political power include the Punjab of 15th August, 1947, partitioned by the British India Empire and not the one re-divided by Indira Gandhi in 1966.(Three). The Sikh Nations natural resources and their by-products will be the sole property of the Sikh Nation.(four). The western border of the SKZ will be looked after by the two nations only, i. e the SKZF on behalf of the Sikh Nation and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. (Five) In view of the genocides of the non-Hindu and non-Brahmin minorities, the Sikhs (1.2 to 3.2 million), Musalmaans (over 500,000), Christians (over 300,000), Dalits (tens of thousands), etc., since 15th August, 1947, and to preserve the sanctity, humiliation and dehumanization [being committed] by the Brahmins autocracy/Zamhooriat/Zulamhooriat alias the alleged Indian democracy is the prime cause to create a 30-mile radius from the focal point of Darbar Sahib Complex, Amritsar, the Sikh Nation, PUNJAB.(Six) No person like Sudarshan, Togadia and anti-Sikh forces man or personnel will dare to carry out their anti-Sikh and Hindu, Hindi, Hindutav propaganda.(Seven) the Darbar Sahib Complex and the Sikhs holy and historic homeland are not the property of the Brahmins autocracy. The Sikhs holy and historic Home land belong to the Guru Khalsa Panth and the House of Baba Nanak Sahib, the founder of the Sikh Faith.(Eight) The SKZF will ensure the protection of the worshipping institutions of non-Sikhs.
In short, era of democracy and globalization and its very difficult to keep the masses under one shelter on same piece of land without giving them their rights. In India the minorities are being victimized and dealt ruthlessly by non state actors, RAW and Armed Forces. On 18 December 2010, a team of CBI an elderly Bengali man Naba Kumar Sarkar, 59 popularly known as Swami Aseemanand from Tihar confessed in court of Delhi, that he remined in killing of Nine people in Mecca Masjid blast. He also unveiled that how a few Hindutva leaders, including himself, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Dayanand Pandey, Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and others in 2008 remained involved against the brutality of minorities. Pakistan very rightly asked India to hand over investigation report of Samjota Express. World community should press India to handover Col Prohit to Pakistan for his trial since victims of the train still waiting for the justice. Sikhs, Kashmiries and Maoists would defiantly be soon successful in getting their independent states. Sikh should go for the road map which is laid down by their own comrades Dr. Awatar Singh for Sikh future sovereign state in East (India) Punjab.
Article Source:
By: Zaheer-ul-Hassan
http://www.daily.pk/a-road-map-to-khalistan-22372/

 

[KhanHaripur]

A history of blisters

April 10, 2008. The world caught a glimpse of Indias ornamental pluralism. A mlange of tresses unveiling, and somewhat nullifying, what India claimed to maintain from the outside. Universal Periodic Review, just as Ban-Ki-Moon had prophesied, shone down the show child of democracy and secularism draped in a fancy dress for the world to awe.

Indias much trumpeted commitment to tolerance; its forward looking constitution and all inclusive polity set in a multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society seemed too little to dress the felt unwillingness on part of India to be on parity with the international community when it came to human rights violations against the marginalized. As Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch aptly puts it: Indiais a vibrant electoral democracy with an abysmal human rights record.
Despite a wand of constitutional and legislative arrangements, the international laws against Human Rights violations are not self-executing in India (Peoples Forum for UPR), since India chose to only cosmetically sign and not ratify and/or domesticate these treaties to make them law, most crucial of which are, Convention against Torture and other Cruel and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) OP 1 and OP 2, Rome Statute of International Criminal Court, etcetera.
Torture is not a crime in India (Asian Legal Resource Center, ALRC). To try an abuser employed by the state, the act of violation has to qualify any other crime under the Indian Penal Court. To make convicting the abuser beyond impossible, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) the only Ombudsman type watchdog that has a major role in the drawing of National Action Plan of Human Rights in India is not an independent agency that can solely and apolitically investigate instances like custodial torture. Amnesty International also laments widespread torture in police custody especially of members of the marginalized groups, as well as that of generally acknowledged political interferences and of corruption in India when it comes to religious minorities, scheduled castes, women and children. Failure to incorporate laws for protecting marginalized communities particularly Dalits, Sikhs, Christians and Muslims, scheduled castes, women and children has caused deep fissures between the theory and practice of what India deems secularism.
The Human Rights Committee pointed out during the UPR that some parts of India remain subject to declaration as disturbed areas such as Punjab, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir and these states are using emergency powers. The effect of emergency powers in these areas ought to be closely monitored. Particularly during counter-insurgency operations, security forces have been committing crimes like extra-judicial killings, disappearances and torture especially in Punjab from the onset of Operation Bluestar in the 1980s, and currently in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur and the red corridor.
Impunity afforded to the law enforcement officials, security forces and police, through special legislations, is a crucial problem in India. Various researches reveal a definite pattern of impunity owing to governments policy. Whats eminent is a constant failure to prosecute violators during counter-insurgency operations in Punjab from 1985- 1996 and violations ad continuum in Jammu and Kashmir.
Police and paramilitary forces are protected under section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code while the army is provided with additional impunity when deployed in areas of internal conflict under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958. In both the legal instruments, the law enforcement personnel are barred of any allegation during the discharge of their official duties without express sanction from the federal government.
Serious crimes committed by law enforcement apparatus are rarely investigated, pass up prosecution. This coupled with a lack of genuine political will, traditionally shields abusers employed by the state in a way that the perpetrators do not only remain unaccountable but are rewarded for killing suspects and terrorists leisurely turning court of law into a redundant exercise; citations of which are lavishly furnished countrywide, everywhichway, inside the vault of its much celebrated constitutional history.
In an Amnesty International Report titled: India: Break the cycle of torture and impunity in Punjab, it is learned that torture and custodial violence is still routine despite termination of militancy period in the late 90s. Two reasons of which AI lists is the setting up of a norm over the years that afforded paramilitaries special powers. And secondly, the fact that none of the violators of human rights during the militancy years, among the law enforcement officials, were tried which left an atmosphere in which state officials felt as though they were above the law.
Mass attacks on religious minorities is another saga of brilliant failure on part of the government at prosecuting public officials; whether it is attacks upon Sikhs in 1984 or upon Muslims in 1993 or 2002 despite Nanavati or Srikrishna Commission that concluded involvement of government officials in the pogrom of Sikhs 1984 and Muslims 1993, respectively.
Although, in the National Report through the UPR system, India boasted its internal systems of inquiry and punishment to tackle violations by security forces, details of the same hardly ever saw the light of day. Soldiers and paramilitaries are customarily buffered by laws that make it extremely difficult to prosecute them in civilian courts. This doesnt only affect victims and their families but also leads to cynicism and distrust of the government in the affected communities. For instance, a human rights lawyer in Kashmir, Jalil Andrabi, was killed in March 1996. A special police team investigating the murder identified Major Avtar Singh and a few soldiers under his command responsible for his abduction and murder, yet, some 14 years later Major Singh and his men have yet to be brought to justice while the latter has been allowed to immigrate to Canada.

The gruesome case of Jaswant Singh Khalra is textbook example of Impunity enjoyed by the Indian Law Enforcement Agencies. A human rights activist in Punjab who unearthed thousands of secret cremations committed by the Punjab Police was killed in October 1995 during an illegal detention. It took ten years before a judge convicted 6 police officials for their roles in the abduction and murder of Khalra, during the time police tried its best to intimidate key witnesses by framing false charges upon them ranging from bribery to rape to robbery to establishing terrorist organization. The Then Director General of Police, KPS Gill whom key witnesses testimony implicate for Mr. Khalra illegal detention, torture and eventual killing is still working as government official as counter insurgency officer in sensitive areas, scot-free.

From the letters of Mrs. Paramjit Kaur Khalra to the Government of India, to the whereabouts of Mr. Pal Singh, to the everyday tragedies in the face of Karnail Singh (Indias Grim Record on Torture, VFF) and the illegal detention and corporal torture of a juvenile named Rohit from a small town in UP; millions of Sikhs, Muslims and Christians await the efforts of international community and implore the world to urge India into the fold of Human Rights bearers by signing basic international treaties that bind it to mercy that is long due, so that the tabooed and bereaved minorities of India that are illegally abducted, detained, tortured and cremated (read disappeared/fake encountered) are at least aware of their crimes.
Article Source:
By: Deepika's Corner
http://deepikascorner.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/a-history-of-blisters/

 

[KhanHaripur]

Indian Air Force (watch reality here)