HOW CAN MEDITATION CURE STRESS IN YOUNG ADULTS

times of india 10.09.2018

Stress and depression are the biggest ailments troubling the youth. However, what we need is to develop a capacity to handle negative stress, writes Master Shiv

World Health Organisation’s definition of health, as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, captures the broad tenets of wellness. Globally, stress and depression are the top causes of illness and disability among the youth. Suicide ranks second among the main causes of death in young adults. At its worst, stress and depression can lead to suicide. This is also one of the biggest challenges faced by students in India. Recognising stress and depression at an early stage is critical for reducing mental and physiological breakdown in youth.

The factors that contribute to high risk are lack of sleep, poor eating habits and inadequate exercise. All this encompass an ideal combination for depression to set in. Day-to-day challenges such as managing peer pressure, high cost of education, propensity to land a decent job after education and failed relationships also force youth to remain stressed.

Unfortunately, despite attempts to create awareness, societal stigma is associated with stress and depression in the youth. This dissuades the youth or the family members to accept it as a medical problem, thereby debarring them from looking for solutions or going in for counselling to eradicate this extremely crippling phenomenon.

IMPLICATIONS OF STRESS

A survey shows that globally, a substantial percentage of today’s youth is suffering from some form of stress and depression. A Yale University research says stress and depression reduce the area of our brain responsible for self-control, thus reducing our coping ability. This affects the cardiovascular system leading to hypertension, which dramatically increases the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure that is proven by crippling illnesses among the youth. Moreover, it also impacts the digestive system causing bowel problems. However, the effect is reversed once stress and depression is handled.

WHAT IS MINDFUL MEDITATION

Mindful Meditation is a unique technique where one is not directed at being different from how we already are. Instead, it helps us become aware of what is real and true, moment by moment. It teaches us how to be unconditionally present; in other words, it helps us to connect with whatever is happening around us.

If breathing is good, which it is, then paying attention to the breathing pattern as a phenomenon has unprecedented powers and how that can be attained by youth is what should be the focus. This is proven after extensive research into investigating the benefits of Mindful Meditation — a practice in which one sits quietly while focussing on one’s breathing and body. The technique helps us to analyse the past, foresee the future and plan the present while addressing the physiological and psychological aspects of individuals initially and in advanced stages. Focussed, rhythmic monosyllabic vibrations, when internalised, can create the rise of positive energy, thereby reducing toxins.

(The author is a practising lifestyle and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) coach)

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New law says seeking sexual favour ‘a bribe’

New Delhi: times 10.09.2018

Seeking and accepting sexual favours can be considered a bribe under the new anti-corruption law with the accused getting up to seven years jail term, a senior government official said on Sunday.

The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, incorporates the umbrella term “undue advantage”, which means any gratification other than legal remuneration and also includes expensive club memberships and hospitality, the official explained.

The word “gratification” is not limited to pecuniary gratifications or to gratifications estimable in money, says the amended anti-corruption law.

The act had been notified in late July by the central government after getting assent from President Ram Nath Kovind.

The 2018 law amends the 30-year-old Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, that covers instances of corruption by public servants. The amended law also has the provision to punish bribe givers with a jail term of maximum of seven years. Before this, bribe-givers were not covered in any domestic legislation to check corruption. PTI

CRACKING DOWN

Loco pilot walks off, train blocks crossing for 14 hrs

Vincent.Arockiaraj@timesgroup.com

Trichy: 10.09.2018

Scores of people in Kumbakonam, especially those in Sakkottai and Nachiyarkoil, were unable to pass through the manned level crossing adjoining the station for over 14 hours on Saturday as a goods train lay there blocking their passage. Railway sources said the loco pilot abandoned the train after informing his superior that his duty hours had come to an end and he was unable to continue. However, functionaries of the railway union have blamed the crew controllers’ wrong planning for the incident.

Kumbakonam and nearby areas in Thanjavur district are known to have a number of modern rice mills. Hence, loading or unloading of paddy bags at the goods yard located adjacent to the Kumbakonam railway station is routine. According to sources, as usual, a goods train piloted by N Velmurugan arrived at the yard in Kumbakonam and the process of loading paddy bags commenced. When the process got over, it was 3 am on Saturday by which time the crew’s duty hours were over.

Velmurugan had driven the loco up to Kumbakonam railway station and brought the engine to a halt on the third platform. Subsequently, he had informed the crew control at Trichy railway junction of his inability to continue as he had already crossed his duty time of 12 hours. Railway sources said that the goods train was bound for Pollachi. As the pilot could not be convinced to continue his duty further, the crew control authorities relieved him. Meanwhile, since the train comprised 41 goods wagons, it had extended beyond a manned level crossing (MLC).

Members of the public said the train was found halted at the station from 3 am till around 5.30pm on Saturday when it finally started chugging towards Trichy.

TRAFFIC NIGHTMARE

For UGC nod, Madras univ shifts staff to dist edu centre

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 10.09.2018

The regular departments of the University of Madras have lost 12 faculty members, two contract lecturers from constituent college and another contract lecturer, to the Institute of Distance Education (IDE) last week. The university syndicate unanimously gave its nod to the transfer in order to get the recognition of University Grants Commission to run some 50 courses sought after by 28,000 students during the previous academic year. Earlier, the UGC declined recognition on the grounds that there were insufficient faculty members.

As the UGC demands that there must be at least two fulltime faculty members at associate and assistant professor level per discipline for open and distance learning courses, some members from the regular departments — commerce, computer science, English, Tamil, mathematics, criminology, economics, history and psychology have been ‘temporarily’ shifted out. Two of four faculty members from English, two of six from Tamil, two of eight from mathematics and two of five from criminology departments were transferred. History department has only two teaching staff on its roll, hence contract lecturers from constituent college were shifted.

“Having five lecturers itself was insufficient and there is a need to increase the present strength. If the regular staff are asked to handle IDE, we will struggle. We have hired guest faculty to cope with the shortage,” said criminology professor and head, M Srinivasan. The department heads were kept in the dark and informed of the transfer, before an order copy was issued to the faculty.

Students of Tamil language and literature department are perturbed. “Our semester just started, and we have lost two lecturers. Research scholars are roped in to take classes,” said a first year PG student. The onemonth deadline by UGC to “rectify the deficiency” in IDE ends on September 16.

Vice-chancellor P Duraisamy said the move was temporary. “We will start the recruitment process. It will take at least one month to complete IDE admissions. By then, we will appoint staff, and they (regular staff) will return to parent departments,” Duraisamy said. The IDE director in-charge had an interface with the UGC on Friday to get recognition.

Cabinet advice binding on guv, say legal experts
Rajiv Case Convicts Await Guv’s Signature

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  10.09.2018

Legal experts and lawyers representing two of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on Sunday said the Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit is bound by the decision taken by the council of ministers and has to act on it. He can delay the decision, but cannot deny it, said a section.

Leading constitutional lawyer Mohan Parasaran felt the directive of the Supreme Court is clear and the governor has to now act by going by the state cabinet resolution to release the convicts. “The Supreme Court has clearly said the state government has all the powers and the state cabinet has resolved for the early release of the convicts. The governor is bound by that and they will be released. Governor is the constitutional functionary and he has to only act on the advice of the state cabinet resolution,” Parasaran told TOI.

Counsel for Nalini Sriharan, M Radhakrishnan concurred that the Supreme Court’s direction last Thursday clearly stated that the “authority concerned” would be at liberty to decide Perarivalan’s application as deemed fit and the “authority concerned” is the Tamil Nadu government. “The Supreme Court cannot give a direction to either the President or the governor. So, the direction is only to the state government,” he said. “The governor can delay the release, but cannot deny it,” he added.

Political analyst Tharaasu Shyam, however, presented a different view. “The executive powers of any state government is only within the boundaries of the state. Naturally, that applies in the case of a state governor too. We should take into account that earlier, a five-member Supreme Court bench has already ruled that this (Rajiv Gandhi assassination case) is a CBI case and hence concurrence of the Union government is must to remit the sentence of the convicts,” he said.

Hence, the appropriate government here is the Union government and not the state government, he said, adding, “The present state government has done this only to divert the attention away from the issues surrounding it”.

Meanwhile, A G Perarivalan’s counsel S Prabhu termed the 2014 cabinet decision as a mere political statement, because of which it was challenged in the Supreme Court. He urged the government to submit a comprehensive report along with the resolution. “The report should shed light on the reformation, health and family aspects of the convicts,” Prabhu said.

SC ruling banning lawyer strikes: BCI calls for nationwide protest

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  10.09.2018

Chennai:

Lawyers across the country are up in arms against the recent Supreme Court judgment restraining Bar Associations from giving calls for strike, boycott or abstention of court proceedings in any event.

The top regulatory body of advocates, the Bar Council of India (BCI), has called for a nationwide demonstration condemning the move to ‘throttle their democratic rights’ in October at New Delhi.

It is not only the judgment — dated March 28 — that bothers the legal fraternity, but also the move made by the Union government to ‘take away the powers of Bar Councils over legal education’ by introducing the draft bill of the higher education commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act), 2018.

This apart, a communication issued by the Union ministry of law, dated June 7, to the BCI asking for a consolidated report on strikes, abstaining from work by advocates/ bar associations, the loss caused and action proposed for the quarter from January to March 2018 has irked the legal fraternity.

In the four page detailed communication dated September 5, issued to all the state bar councils, the BCI has asked all the bar associations of the country to conduct an awareness drive on September 17 to drive home the point that such judgments are passed ‘to shut mouth of the leaders of lawyers and to directly or indirectly help the government in passing anti-lawyers legislatures such as the Draft Bill of Higher Education Commission of India to override the provisions of the Advocates Act, 1961’.

“All the bar associations will hold a meeting of the general body therein they would discuss threadbare, what is the purport, what is the consequences of the judgment wherein not only the leader of the bar rather every member of the bar is going to be affected,” the communication said.

There will also be a nationwide agitation beginning from the Supreme Court to the Parliament which will be held in October. “The date will be decided later, but we are going to hold a demonstration in Delhi,” the letter said.

The BCI has also resolved to demand the abolishment of Section 34 of the Advocate Act, which empowers the high courts to frame rules regarding the condition on which a person can practice in the high courts and subordinate courts.

Times View

Unfortunate. That best describes the Bar Council of India’s instigation of lawyers across the country to assemble in Delhi and take out a rally to the Supreme Court or the Parliament. If the Centre’s proposal to assume jurisdiction over legal education is the reason, bar leaders must move courts for remedy — just as they would advise their clients hit by state policy.

The pathetic standard of legal education, in fact, offers decent justification for the Centre to strip the BCI of its say over law syllabi and colleges. If the apex court’s recent ruling totally outlawing strikes and boycotts is the reason, then the BCI should welcome it instead of planning a siege on the constitutional seats such as the Supreme Court or the Parliament. Call for ban on post-retirement posts for judges looks motivated, given the timing of the demand. The Centre should deem the siege threat as a misadventure and tackle it with an iron hand.

TN resolves to release 7 Rajiv convicts
Recommendation To Purohit Based On SC Order; But No Deadline Yet
D Govardan & Shanmughasundaram J TNN

Chennai:

A week after the Supreme Court asked the Tamil Nadu governor to consider the mercy petition of A G Perarivalan in the Rajiv Gandhi

assassination case, the state cabinet met on Sunday and passed a resolution asking governor Banwarilal Purohit to release all the seven convicts in the case under Article 161 of the Constitution.

“The recommendation of the state cabinet, headed by chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, will be sent to the governor immediately,” fisheries minister D Jayakumar told reporters at the end of the cabinet meeting that lasted for two hours. “The governor is the executive authority. He will execute the government’s decision,” Jayakumar said without committing to a deadline.

State law minister C Ve Shanmugam said the government was firm on ensuring that Amma’s (Jayalalithaa’s) resolve to release the prisoners was “realised”. “This comes under the provision of Article 161 of the Constitution, and based on the Supreme Court’s recent order, we have recommended to the governor to release them,” Shanmugam said.

“The SC has clearly said the state government has the powers to act on this. The cabinet has now resolved to recommend the release of all the seven convicts. The governor is bound by that and they will be released soon,” noted lawyer and constitutional expert Mohan Parasaran told TOI. All the seven convicts, Nalini Sriharan, Murugan alias Sriharan, Perarivalan alias Arivu, Robert Payas, Ravichandran, Santhan and Jayakumar, are in jail for the last 27 years.


Experts divided on prisoners’ freedom

While most legal experts and the convicts’ counsels say the governor has to act as per the recommendation of the cabinet — with some saying that he may at best delay the decision but cannot deny it — political analyst like Tharaasu Shyam differ. “The executive powers of a state lies within the boundaries of the state. SC has already ruled that it is a CBI case, and remission is possible only with the Centre’s concurrence,” he said. P 5

FRESH HOPE

Perarivalan’s mother meets CM, thanks him

Even as the convicts hope for an early release, it is pertinent to note that CBI had argued, even in the recent past, that its Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), probing the larger conspiracy aspect behind Rajiv’s assassination, had proved the role of all the convicts, including Perarivalan, and the same had been upheld by the top court.

The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that the Centre’s approval was mandatory for releasing the convicts as the case was being probed by the CBI.

In August 2011, the Tamil Nadu assembly had passed a
resolution to recommend to the Centre to commute the death sentence of the convicts to life term imprisonment. Subsequently, in February 2014, the then chief minister J Jayalalithaa had announced that her government has decided to release all the seven convicts in the wake of the SCcommuting the death sentence of some convicts into life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, Perarivalan’s mother Arputhammal met the chief minister and thanked the government for taking a decision favouring the release of her son and six others. “It has brought peace to the families of the seven, who have been in jail for 27 years,” she said.