Jan/11/2012

Jayalalithaa launches new health insurance scheme

A new health insurance scheme for providing free medical and surgical treatment to 1.34 crore families in Tamil Nadu was on Wednesday launched by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa at an annual outlay of Rs. 750 crore.

Under the “Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme”, replacing the previous DMK regime’s insurance cover, a family would get a health insurance cover up to Rs. one lakh per annum for four years, an official release said.

In the case of certain diseases, the insurance cover could go up to Rs. 1.50 lakh. The scheme, to be implemented by public sector United India Insurance Company, would be applicable to every member of a family whose annual family income is less than Rs.72,000.

Jarawa footage: Andaman administration to serve notice to TV channels

The Andaman and Nicobar administration on Tuesday said that it would serve legal notice on two Delhi-based TV channels telecasting a video footage showing a group of tribal women being ordered to dance for tourists by a policeman.

British newspaper, ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Observer’, a weekly, had released video footage of police involvement in ’human safaris’ in the Andaman Islands. The videos were recently aired on the two Delhi-based channels.

The policeman had allegedly taken a bribe of £ 200 to take tourists into the protected Jarawa reserve.

While Andaman and Nicobar police remained tight-lipped about the incident, administration sources told PTI that legal notice would be served on the two TV Channels regarding this matter as the footage was one-sided and they had not taken the version of administration or cross-checked with it.

The sources said the administration was “totally against Jarawa tourism” but ruled out closure of the Andaman Trunk (ATR) road ordered by the Supreme Court a decade ago to protect the Jarawa habitat. The road cuts through South Andaman where the Jarawa reserve is located, linking Port Blair with Diglipur in North Andaman.

The official said any decision on closure of the road, the lifeline of the Middle and North Andamans, would take time as it was a policy decision but said an alternative route via sea was being chalked out to bypass the Jarawa reserve.

A Supreme Court ruling in 2002 on the Shekhar Singh Commission report had ordered closure of the ATR road to protect the Jarawas.

The scandal, first exposed by Survival International, an NGO in 2010, involves tourists using an illegal road to enter the reserve of the Jarawa tribe.

Tour companies and cab drivers ‘attract’ the Jarawa with biscuits and sweets, The Guardian and The Observer had said in their report published in January last year.

The video showed a group of Jarawa women being ordered to dance for tourists by a policeman, who had reportedly accepted a £200 bribe to take them into the reserve.

One tourist had previously described a similar trip to the newspapers. “The journey through tribal reserve was like a safari ride as we were going amidst dense tropical rainforest and looking for wild animals, Jarawa tribals, to be specific”, he said.

Survival International has called for tourists to boycott the road.

Working with a local organization, SEARCH, Survival has distributed leaflets to tourists arriving at the Islands’ airport warning of the dangers of using the road.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said, “This story reeks of colonialism and the disgusting and degrading ‘human zoos’ of the past.”

“Quite clearly, some people’s attitudes towards tribal people haven’t moved on a jot. The Jarawa are not circus ponies bound to dance at anyone’s bidding,” Mr. Cory said.

The lone Member of Parliament from the Islands, Bishnupada Ray told PTI that the video tapes were very old and government should take immediate action against this.

Nobel laureate economist stresses on holistic sustainable development

Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz has stressed on the need for a holistic approach to sustainable development and removing the inequalities and disparities that have been on the rise in different parts of the world.

The Columbia University Professor, in his interaction with Lord Meghnad Desai here on Tuesday night, pointed out that governments would have to play a more proactive role in shaping the economic policies that are more tuned to the hopes and aspirations of the people.

“Economic reforms have to address the key issues affecting people and have to bring about qualitative changes in their economic conditions,” he pointed out.

Mr. Stiglitz stressed on the need for harnessing natural and human resources in a proper way for the benefit of the people and restructuring the economy through a slew of reforms aimed at bringing about changes in the living conditions of the common man.

Mr. Stiglitz said the driving force behind the success of any economy is the participation of people in a big way and civil society.

NGOs and SHGs in the development process can catapult any state or nation toward the path of economic prosperity, he said.

Highlighting the economic emergence of Asian giants China and India in the global economy, Mr. Stiglitz said to ensure continued momentum, more emphasis should be given to investment in human capital, infrastructure development and capital knowledge coupled with high savings.

“The gap in per capita income between the Asian countries and the West has to be narrowed down considerably,” he added.

Mr. Stiglitz said the International Monetary Fund would have to play a proactive role like the World Bank on reducing poverty and inequalities that can cause economic and political upheaval.