Ireland quietly comes to terms with dramatic change after abortion vote

Dublin: TOI  28.05.2018

Irish people paid homage on Sunday to an Indian immigrant woman whose death inspired a historic vote to repeal Ireland’s strict abortion laws while the Catholic Church rued the outcome saying it showed indifference to its teachings. In a referendum on Friday, the once deeply Catholic nation voted to scrap a prohibition on abortion by a margin of two-to-one.

The vote overturns a law which, for decades, has forced over 3,000 women to travel to Britain each year for terminations that they could not legally have in their own country. “Yes” campaigners had argued that with pills now being bought illegally online abortion was already a reality in Ireland.

Hundreds of people on Sunday continued to leave flowers and candles at a mural in Dublin of Savita Halappanaar, the 31-year-old Indian whose death in 2012 from a septic miscarriage after being refused a termination spurred lawmakers into action.

Katy Gaffney, a 24-year-old baker who travelled to Dublin from Berlin to vote, stood silently in front of the memorial crying. “I am relieved but devastated that it had to come to this,” she said. Otherspinned messages to the wall. One read: “I’m so sorry this happened to you before the country woke up. My vote was for you.” Another: “I’m sorry we let you down. It won’t be in vain.” The campaign was defined by women publicly sharing their experiences of going abroad for procedures, a key reason why all but one of Ireland’s 40 constituencies voted “Yes”.

The government of PM Leo Varadkar, who campaigned to repeal the laws, will begin drafting legislation in the coming week to allow abortions with no restriction up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy by the end of the year. Many lawmakers who campaigned for a “No” vote said they would not try to block the bill.

The outcome was a new milestone for the country of 4.8 million. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that “Ireland has once again made history.” He called the vote an essential symbol for women’s freedom.

In Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May faces a showdown with ministers and lawmakers in her Conservative party after refusing to back reform of highly restrictive abortion laws in the British province of Northern Ireland which has a 500km border with Ireland. In Ireland though, the once all-powerful Catholic Church, which has seen its public influence collapse since the 1980s after a string of child sex abuse scandals, took a back seat throughout the referendum campaign.

In churches across the country on Sunday there was only regret at the outcome.

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin told parishioners that the church had to “renew its commitment to support life.” REUTERS

Messages are left at a memorial in Dublin to Savita Halappanavar, the 31-year-old Indian dentist whose death in 2012 from a septic miscarriage after being refused a termination spurred lawmakers into action

BOOSTS CHANCES

Is fish the food of love and babies?

Nicholas Bakalar 28.05.2018 TOI

Trying to have a baby? Eating fish might help.

Researchers interviewed 501 couples who were trying to get pregnant without medical assistance. All kept diaries on their diet and other health and behavioural habits, including fish consumption and frequency of sexual intercourse. They followed the pairs for a year or until pregnancy.

They found that men who had two or more four-ounce servings of fish a week had a 47% shorter time to pregnancy, and women a 60% shorter time, than those who ate one or fewer servings a week.

Partners who ate fish also had sexual intercourse, on average, 22% more frequently, but the association of eating fish with pregnancy persisted even after controlling for frequency of lovemaking.

By 12 months, 92% of couples who ate fish twice a week or more were pregnant, compared with 79% among those who ate less.

The study, in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, controlled for age, education level, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity and other factors. The mechanism remains unclear.

“Seafood may help in semen quality, ovulation and other markers,” said the lead author, Audrey J Gaskins, a research associate at Harvard. “Or maybe these couples are the ones spending more time together. But if it’s fish that’s bringing them together, that’s still causal, although through a behavioural pathway, not a biological one.

“Women have been scared off fish because of the concerns about mercury, but there are low levels of contaminants in the seafood we commonly eat — canned tuna, salmon, shrimp and other shellfish.” NYT NEWS SERVICE

Porter no. 15: Life of 1st woman coolie at Jaipur rly station

Jaipur: times of india 28.05.2018

Manju Devi stands tall in her fraternity, being the first woman porter of the North-West Railways, in a profession that is considered a male bastion. She has been the sole breadwinner for her three teenage children. She lost her husband 10 years ago.

After overcoming family disputes and psychological hurdles and encouraged by her mother Mohini, Devi acquired her deceased husband Mahadev’s porter licence no. 15 and took to the demanding task of hauling luggage of passengers at the Jaipur Railway Station.

Authorities initially told her there were no women porters and hence it would be difficult for her. But she persisted and eventually given the badge number, she had said.

It took her a while to get a grasp of the realities of her job and the challenge included designing her own uniform. Now, clad in a red kurta and black salwar, she sets out every day to work in multiple shifts, to make ends meet for her family.

Devi was among 112 women who were felicitated by the ministry of women and child development, besides former beauty queens — Aishwarya Rai and Nicole Faria — mountaineer Bachendri Pal, Anshu Jamsenpa, missile woman Tessy Thomas and private detective Rajani Pandit.

She was among a gathering of 90 women achievers from different backgrounds at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 20, this year and President Ram Nath Kovind had said that he got “emotional” on hearing her story.

“I weighed 30 kg and the passengers’ luggage was also 30 kg but it was nowhere to the burden of feeding three children,” Devi narrates in jest. PTI 


BREAKING THE BARRIERS: Manju Devi looks on as she shares a relaxed moment with her male colleagues, in Jaipur, on Sunday

Our daughter’s soul is now consoled: Savitha’s parents

Belagavi: 28.05.2018  times of india

“Our daughter’s soulis nowconsoled,”the parents of a woman who died of complications in 2012 after being denied abortion by doctorsin Irelandsaidon Sunday, a day after the country voted to repeal its stringent abortion laws in a landmark referendum.

“It is a landslide opinion in favour of repeal of the abortion laws that has supported our cause,” Savita’s father Andanappa Yalagi said.

One of the key cases influencing the debate on abortion in Ireland was that of dentist Savita Praveen Halappanavar, who died of sepsis in the Galway University hospital after being denied an abortion during a protracted miscarriage in 2012.

The 31-year-old woman’s deathhadtriggered a massive debate in that country over the issue of life-saving abortions.

Hailing the result of the referendum, Akkamahadevi, Savita’s mother said, “It is also a win for Kitty Holland who took up the mission and created awareness among the Irish people on the unnatural law.”

Kitty Holland is a journalist with the Irish times, who broke the story of Savitha’s death. PTI 

TIME WELL SPENT

Too much screen time is taking a toll on kids’ health

Rujuta Diwekar times of india 28.05.2018

A few years ago, my partner and I were looking for a centrally located hotel in Manhattan that wouldn’t cost us the world. Travel websites directed us to one right in the middle of the city with just one con — a noisy lobby as it was a popular night stay option for school trips. Ah! Kids screaming across hallways is no disturbance for us Indians, so we promptly booked it.

The next day we walked into a hotel lobby packed with more than 100 school kids and a handful of teachers. As I walked towards the elevators, I felt something amiss. And then it struck me — there was no noise. There were 100-odd kids but they weren’t talking to each other, much less screaming or running around. They were all slouching on various chairs and sofas, or against the wall, backs rounded, heads down and eyes zeroed in on their phone screens.

Back home we have all seen that parents of kids, even as young as 18 months, are walking into flights, restaurants or even our homes

with the iPads in hand. It’s like parents are under constant pressure to ensure that their children are not bored. And nothing like a phone, iPad or tab to overstimulate the bored child. Well, research is constantly saying that boredom is critical for a child and, in fact, essential for creativity to blossom. But then I am no expert on that subject so let me focus on what I do for a living — weight loss.

The problem with screen time is that it comes with sitting which we all know by now is an independent risk factor for developing lifestyle diseases. And when obesity strikes, it rarely asks if you were playing Fortnite, learning a new language on your gadget or just watching Peppa Pig. In that sense it is democratic, if you are watching, you are sitting, and if you are sitting, obesity is coming.

I.family was a major research project on health, food and lifestyle of European families for over five years and focused on children and obesity. They found a positive correlation between screen time, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (packaged juices, colas, etc) and anthropometry (incidences of overweight and obese kids) across the EU region. One of the reasons for this are the blurred lines between entertainment and advertisements that our kids consume on the gadgets. These findings resonate with the reality across the globe, especially in our part of the world.

A recent study has also shown that the incidence of non-alchoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in Indian kids is rising. This is essentially a lifestyle disease but left unattended, it could lead to liver damage similar to that seen in alcoholics. The standard advice for this is to reduce junk food, especially that loaded with sugar, and to exercise. But when it comes to kids, we have to work at understanding the driving factors and how gadgets influence both consumption of junk food and sedentary behavior.

The fact that a lot of school work is now done on laptops and tabs makes it even more important that parents lay down strict rules for screen time — be it gaming, social media or anything else. It’s easier said than done and we often tend to give in to pester power, a child’s ability to demand the gadget and throw a tantrum until the demand is met. For all parents, who feel helpless against this universal force, science is saying what your grandmom always knew — saying NO to kids for gadgets and the resulting junk food demand protects them from cardio-metabolic risks in the future.

Diwekar is a Mumbai-based nutritionist.

This is the second part of a series



DIGITAL DANGER: Parents need to set rules for screen time, whether it’s homework or play

TOP 4 FINDINGS ON KIDS AND GADGET USE

1 Having TV in the bedroom is a risk factor for obesity

2 Screen time during meals is particularly harmful

3 60mins of recommended daily physical activity is often not met due to gadget use

4 Food choices in children are influenced by media consumption (packaged cereals over homemade breakfast, consumption of juice, colas etc)

Source: EU-funded I.family study

REAPING RESULTS

What keeps Virudhunagar students ahead of the curve
Patronage Of Nadars & Devanga Chettiars, Alumni Helps Schools Score Well In Class X & XII

Padmini.Sivarajah@timesgroup.com 28.05.2018

A national survey names Virudhunagar among 115 ‘backward aspiration districts’ which need to be developed by 2020. But when it comes to school education, the district south of Madurai has been a leader for more than two decades.

This year Virudhunagar topped the state by registering a pass percentage of 97.05% in the state board Class XII examinations and ranking third with a pass percentage of 98.29% in the SSLC examination. Educationalists attribute the stellar performance to role of the nadar and devanga chettiar communities in spreading the value of good education in the district, the proactive role of the districts' alumni and motivational teachers.

In the early 1900s, when a handful of entrepreneurs started ventures in the district, Virudhunagar became the hub of oil factories, Sattur of food products and Sivakasi of fireworks. A majority of the employers and employees belonged to the nadar community. The employers established schools, managed by Nadar Uravinmura to ensure better education and jobs for the wards of their employees.

“Employers felt that developing the community was a must and education was the tool,” says S Vinayaga Moorthy, secretary and correspondent of the 111-year-old BPV Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Palayampatti. The school which had 80 students in Class X registered 100% pass in SSLC examination.

Alumni of schools in the district play a vital role in motivating students and lending monetary support to their alma mater.

Many students of BPV Matriculation Higher Secondary School, for instance, have settled abroad, yet never fail to visit their alma mater when they are in India. “Old students are a part and parcel of the school’s development, and Nadar Uravinmurai spends a lot of its community fund on education,’’ says Balakrishnan, an alumnus of the school who worked in the US.

In the 1950s when then chief minister K Kamaraj opened more than 6,000 schools in the state and initiated the free noon meal scheme in schools, the government extended support to schools run by these two communities. Though teachers are no more recruited exclusively from these communities, the appointed ones continue the tradition of bringing out the best in students.

P B Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary, State Platform for Common School System, says the working class views education as a solution to better their situation. This section is a driving force behind many parents in the district sending their wards to school. “Also, unlike Chennai, children in Virudhunagar do not have many distractions like malls and cinema halls. Children in a place like Chennai are brought up to face cutthroat competition. But one who overworks and sees a competitor in everyone cannot perform well. Virudhunagar has fewer private schools that propound such cutthroat competition. Government schools here have teachers who are motivated to teach students without exerting unnecessary pressure on them,” he says.

“Teachers should be given due credit for taking slow learners under their wings and helping them perform better. Also, the education department holds regular reviews to monitor the progress of all students. These factors contribute towards good results,” says R Mohan, headmaster of Chathirareddiarpatti Higher Secondary School in Virudhunagar.

Raja Mohan, a teacher in Aruppukottai, says that there are 129 schools in the Aruppukottai educational district, including areas like Reddiarpatti, Sattur and Thiruchuzhi. Almost 60 are government schools and 40 government-aided schools run by the two communities. Some of the aided schools were established in 1920. These schools offer free education to children from very poor backgrounds. “Parents also feel comfortable to send their children to schools run by their communities,” he said.

All the 162 girls who wrote the plus two examinations this year at the Thangammal Periyasamy Municipal Girls Higher Secondary School passed. I Sumitra, a topper with 1123 out of 1200 marks, wants to be a chartered accountant. V K Jayashree, the school’s headmistress, says although the school is situated in Virudhunagar town, children from remote villages come here to study. “The district administration and the education department closely monitor the functioning of the schools."

Half-ticket? Height can’t be the only yardstick, conductors told
‘Produce Birth Certificate Of Child Or Pay Full Bus Fare’

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 28.05.2018

Taking a ‘tall’ child with you in a government moffusil bus? Ensure that you carry the child’s birth certificate. Without age proof, conductors will charge full fare for the ticket even if the child is eligible for the half-fare concession.

With increasing losses in revenue, various state transport corporations last week reiterated to conductors not to consider only the earlier yardstick — a height of 130cm — while giving a child the discount if they fail to provide a birth certificate as age proof.

As per Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Rules, children between the ages of three and 12 must only be charged half the fare in all government buses expect those which are operated as town or metropolitan services.

If they are unable to produce birth certificate as proof, the conductor should check the height of the child and collect half the fare only if the height of the child does not exceed 130cm, an official said. Markings at the entrance of the bus and on the grille behind the driver’s seat allow conductors to check a passenger’s height.

Passengers complain that conductors do not accept ID proof such as Aadhaar and ration card as proof. “It is unfair to reject ID proof issued by various government agencies. It is practically impossible for all passengers to carry birth certificates with them,” said consumer rights’ activist K Kathirmathiyon.

Based on a complaint he made a few years ago, transport corporations made it mandatory for buses to paint or fix a board inside the bus explaining the rules. However, this is seldom followed.

There have been several instances in which conductors denied a seat to these children asking parents to seat them on their laps instead.

In response, Khadar Ibrahim from SDPI transport union said, “Ticket checkers penalise us if we do not adhere to these rules strictly.”

The inspections have increased after after a bus fare hike in January led to a drop in passengers and revenue. Ytansport corporations now insist that conductors be strict as far as age proof is concerned, Ibrahim said.