Campaign to fight anaemia in tribal population launched
Tribal Youth Against Anaemia
', to reach across 30 selected tribal hamlets. Combating anaemia in the tribal population was a challenge faced by administrators and local groups alike in Attappady.
A one-day workshop was held as part of the first phase at the Bhoothuvazhi Moopen Villa for kids on Saturday. More than 75 children from the tribal villages participated in the workshop, which was inaugurated by Rajendra Prasad, president of Thampu.
Former UNICEF consultant Manish Srikaryam spoke on child rights and adolescence, while Attappadi taluk adolescent counsellor Ayana Joy gave a talk on 'Nutrition Education and Remedies'. Binil Kumar S spoke on adolescence and skill development.
A residential camp will be held for three days in the third week of May. Karthumbi Kutti groups that were inactive for a few years will be restarted in 20 selected villages, Prasad said. Leaders chosen from the groups will participate in the summer residential camp. tnn
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Mint
a day ago
- Mint
He lost his arm in Gaza. His mother was determined to get him out.
Boom. The explosion was still ringing in Ibrahim Abuowda's ears when he saw the schoolyard crowd scatter and looked up to see a limb flying above him. 'I was wondering, whose arm is that?" the then-13-year-old recalled thinking, before fainting. A man he didn't know tried to carry him to safety but another explosion went off, sending shrapnel into Ibrahim's chest and injuring the man. The boy awoke when the man dropped him to the ground. Ibrahim's oldest brother then rushed to help. They ducked behind tires and a third explosion went off, this time piercing Ibrahim's back with shrapnel. Their mother, Amani Abuowda, was in the school sheltering with her husband and their other children. She raced toward the schoolyard, toward the bombs, toward Ibrahim. Other women in the shelter blocked her path, and locked her in a classroom to keep her from going outside. When the explosions stopped, she said, she couldn't find Ibrahim in the destruction. She walked in a daze to the nearest hospital. Scanning the throngs of injured people, she spotted her son, covered in blood and wearing an oxygen mask. Half of his right arm was gone. His blood pressure had plummeted. The medical staff told her he would not survive. The war in Gaza has taken an especially large toll on children. Gaza's health ministry estimates that as of early August, roughly 18,430 children have been killed in the conflict since October 2023—about 30% of the now more than 62,000 total deaths. The ministry says 156,230 people in Gaza have been injured, including thousands of amputees, but it hasn't been able to estimate current numbers for children due to challenges on the ground. Unicef says that just two months into the war, about 1,000 children already had one or more of their limbs amputated. With most of Gaza's hospitals destroyed or in disarray, some injured or ill children have left on highly publicized evacuation flights to Arab nations. A few of the most severely injured children have been quietly whisked away to America for treatment. Their evacuations are arranged by a loosely connected group of nonprofits and activists pulling strings, calling in favors and navigating the protocols and whims of four governments amid war. But first they have to figure out which children they can help. That process is often by chance: the right person at the right time scrolling through social media and stopping on one story. This week, the possibility of those transfers became more difficult. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said the U.S. would pause issuing visitor visas for people from Gaza as officials re-evaluate how they are vetted and to ensure people or organizations have no connections to Hamas. The move came after criticism from some conservative lawmakers and commenters. The Israeli military, in response to a request by The Wall Street Journal, said it had struck 'terrorist infrastructure" near the site where Ibrahim was injured, and that such strikes involve assessing that 'the expected incidental harm to civilians and civilian property is not excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage of the strike." Ibrahim's mother knew nothing about the intricacies involved in even one evacuation on the day he lost his arm, in November 2023. She only knew that her son had to live, and his best chance of that was to get out of Gaza. At Kamal Adwan Hospital, the medical staff were surprised that Ibrahim was still alive 24 hours later, his mother said. His arm had been tied up with a rope to stanch his bleeding. Doctors decided to operate on it even though they had run out of anesthesia and blood for transfusions. The boy said he was half-conscious when he felt the surgeon's saw cutting through his bone. Ibrahim was far from out of the woods. His arm stump, which ended below the elbow, needed daily dressings, to be kept sterile, and the hospital said the shrapnel lodged throughout his body could be life-threatening. But it could do no more. Abuowda, his mother, made a decision. She left her husband and other children, and helped Ibrahim onto a crowded bus for a 17-mile ride south to another hospital. There, doctors again said Ibrahim would die. He had lost so much blood that he continued to slip in and out of consciousness. Abuowda begged them for attention, but they were flooded with other patients who had better odds of surviving. Abuowda was 37, and before the war, ran a beauty salon while her husband ran a convenience store. They had four sons and three daughters, the youngest then 7. Ibrahim was their spirited and playful fourth child. The mother started stealing gauze and disinfectant to clean her son's wounds herself. She turned to Palestinian journalists outside the hospital, asking them to videotape her picking shrapnel out of Ibrahim's body. She thought making a commotion would get the attention of the medical staff. It worked. A hospital manager promised to help and on their 10th day at the hospital, Ibrahim received two units of blood, then another surgery on his arm. Once infected tissue was removed, the stump ended above the elbow. Those days were some of the most difficult for Ibrahim. He would be lost in thought, rocking his body back and forth while sticking his thumb in his mouth, Abuowda said. At one point he begged her to bring him a knife so he could end his life. Such was his guilt over keeping his mother away from the rest of the family. Around the hospital, the bombardments closed in. An explosion hit the room next door to Ibrahim, killing a girl who was supposed to leave Gaza just a few days later. Some of the medical staff began to flee. Emergency medicine doctor Dr. Haytham Ahmed stayed, and so did Ibrahim and his mother. In January 2024, Ahmed borrowed a journalist's microphone and recorded a video of Ibrahim speaking from a hospital bed. 'I can't eat, write or play," he says in Arabic. 'I wish I could get back to what I was like before." Ahmed felt the boy needed to leave Gaza and hoped that a video might get him the attention of a humanitarian group that could help. 'It's a chance, not a promise," he told Ibrahim's mother. The doctor went up to the fourth floor where there was just enough phone signal to post the video on Instagram. In Amman, Jordan, Maya Haddad, an employee at the American nonprofit Kinder Relief, had been transfixed by the footage out of Gaza. After the war broke out, Haddad had given up her job as a special needs teacher to focus on helping families in Gaza. She quickly became plugged into a network of Palestinian journalists inside Gaza who were in touch with aid workers. She sometimes fielded over 100 messages a day from people in Gaza seeking help. One morning, Haddad received a text from a friend in Paris. It was the video of Ibrahim. Haddad tracked down Abuowda's phone number through a journalist contact, although by the time she got in touch, the mother and Ibrahim had fled the hospital and were sleeping on the street. The first order of business was to find them shelter. They eventually ended up at an American field hospital that had just opened. Haddad and Abuowda soon began speaking about the complicated process of leaving Gaza. Patients with severe enough conditions could request permission from Gaza's Ministry of Health to leave; health officials would pass on names to Egypt, which at the time was allowing foreigners and some wounded Palestinians in at the border. Egypt would then pass names onto Israel for consideration. Abuowda and Ibrahim were already trying that process, but Haddad said that she didn't see their names on the lists of approved evacuees. Haddad confirmed with an official contact at Gaza's health ministry that it had been submitting both names. The official told Haddad that her database showed Abuowda was rejected at least 15 times by Israel between November 2023 and Feb. 18, 2024. Cogat, the Israeli military unit that coordinates humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territories, didn't respond to requests for comment. U.S. officials say that Israel often bars Palestinians it deems to have some connection to Hamas from leaving. Abuowda said neither she nor her relatives were involved with Hamas. Their escape from Gaza had hit a roadblock, when a message appeared on Abuowda's phone that February: 'Hello, do I have the mother of Ibrahim? With you is Tareq Hilat from the United States and I work with PCRF." Ibrahim, now 15 years old, rests his head after eating lunch.A page in Ibrahim's notebook shows his name, written with his remaining hand, his left. Hilat, a medical student at the University of South Carolina, had also found Ahmed's video. Between his studies, he had joined Palestine Children's Relief Fund, an American nonprofit helping evacuate children from Gaza. Before the war, PCRF had facilitated medical evacuations for patients with complicated cases on a regular basis. It was difficult work then but had gotten exponentially harder. Like Kinder, the staff there reviewed dozens of posts of children every day, trying to make contact with their families. Abuowda was encouraged by Hilat's energy and optimism. She gave him consent for Ibrahim's evacuation and treatment in the U.S. Hilat had already been reaching out to hospitals to see which could take on injured Palestinian children pro bono. In March 2024, he sent Ibrahim's medical files to Shriners Hospitals for Children, headquartered in Florida. The group had facilities across the U.S. and specialized in amputation and burns cases. It had a history of accepting kids injured by war, including from Ukraine. In Gaza, Ibrahim was doing a bit better, yet there was so little food that he and his mother sometimes went for days without eating. Every day, Hilat checked the official list of approved evacuees to see if PCRF's children appeared. On March 21, 2024, the list showed Ibrahim—but not his mother. Hilat knew that Egyptian security guards sometimes let mothers of young children through the border crossing even if their names weren't on the exit list. He suggested that Abuowda try with Ibrahim the very next day. The two went on foot. An official on the Gaza side waved them through. On the Egyptian side however, the security official refused to let Abuowda pass. In her excitement, she had let slip that they were headed to America. The man then insisted that an official from the U.S. Embassy meet them at the border. They tried the same crossing and failed twice more over the next few weeks. Each time, Ibrahim walked back to the hospital in silence and climbed into his cot, burying his head into the covers. His mother, who didn't have a bed, retreated to her sleeping spot on the ground underneath Ibrahim's cot. She heard her son's faint weeping. She wept too. In September, a State Department official reached out to Hilat at PCRF to ask for a list of children it wanted to evacuate. The border crossing with Egypt was now closed, but the U.S. government had worked out an alternative exit route through Israel into Jordan. Hilat chose 10 children with some of the most dire situations among hundreds of names. There was 2-year-old Rahaf Saed, who had lost both of her legs in an explosion that also injured her mother. There was Nasser Abu Draby, 8, who was missing a hand and lost his father and two siblings. There were two brothers—Ahmed Ayyash, 8, who sustained a major injury to his left leg and Kenan Ayyash, 9, who still had open wounds on his arm. The rest were teenagers. Ibrahim, who had turned 14, made the list. Shriners agreed to take all the children. On Nov. 7, the U.S. told Hilat that only two of the children and their companions had the green light from Israel to leave. The companions of Ibrahim and of seven other children hadn't been approved. Then, on Nov. 21, to Hilat's surprise, the U.S. told PCRF that Israel had approved the remaining cases—children and companions—with no explanation. Amani Abuowda, right, talks with Vivian Khalaf of the Palestine Children's Relief prays after dinner. Days later, all the families gathered at the European Hospital in southern Gaza to get into a World Health Organization vehicle that would drive them out. Many of them had never been beyond Gaza's fences until that day. At a hotel in Amman, PCRF staff led the families to a buffet-style dining room where they were told to help themselves. Abuowda said she and the other mothers began to cry, thinking of their hungry relatives in Gaza. On the flight from Jordan to the U.S., Abuowda prayed again and again for God to protect them. It was their first time flying. They landed in Chicago in December. The freezing weather was a shock to them, as was the snow that covered the ground a few weeks later. Abuowda and Ibrahim's first stop was the house of a young American couple who were Egyptian and Syrian, but didn't speak much Arabic. The families used a combination of broken Arabic and English to understand each other. A few days later, a PCRF volunteer took Abuowda and Ibrahim to Shriners Children's Chicago for the first time. The doctors began running tests on Ibrahim, including a CT scan of his abdomen and pelvic area. They thought the shrapnel was small enough that his body would absorb it over time, so chose not to remove it. In January, the hospital presented Ibrahim with options for a prosthetic arm. One had a metal hook, while another was shaped like a hand. Neither option seemed particularly versatile to the boy, who said he had imagined something more like a bionic arm. He went with the plastic hand and months of physical therapy followed. The weight of the limb and the straps around his back have been hard for Ibrahim to get used to. He has to use his shoulder muscles to pick up a cup. Ibrahim has at times returned to his boisterous self. He was able to enroll in the second half of eighth grade, and is learning English and discovering the joys of using a calculator for math. The highlight of his summer so far was going on the roller coasters at Six Flags. Abuowda is building an online teaching platform for Arabic and religion. But her thoughts frequently turn back to Gaza, where the rest of the family is living in a tent and have to move constantly due to the fighting. The flow of agonizing news is relentless. Her father died in an explosion in Gaza. More recently, her son Mohammed was caught in an explosion when he was out looking for food; shrapnel flew into his head, killing him quickly. Another son, Muath, has made it to Egypt, where he is trying to get medical treatment for his injury. Abuowda says her eldest son was detained late last year and is on a list of Palestinians at Ofer prison, an Israeli facility in the occupied West Bank. Her girls depend on their father now. 'We miss you so much. You can yell at us, just come back soon," they keep saying. The youngest is now 8. Abuowda and Ibrahim's visitor visas allow them to stay in the U.S. up to five years, but they are heading to Egypt soon, so they can at least reunite with Abuowda's son there. What they really want is to go back home, to Gaza. But it feels out of reach for now, perhaps more improbable than their journey out. Write to Chao Deng at
The Print
2 days ago
- The Print
Have we reached a stage where we can say we're proud of India? The data says so
As we head toward 'Azaadi Ka Amrit Kaal', let us remember the sacrifices of our freedom fighters and pay homage to our ancestors by keeping the growth engine turbocharged and bringing energy and prosperity to all. Have we reached a state where we can hold our heads high and say that we are proud to be India? Is our mind without fear? Can we sleep safely and conscionably at night, knowing that our people are being done right by? For me, the run-up to 15 August has always been a time of introspection, to laud the successes of the past year and to understand where we need to improve. We have just celebrated India's 79th Independence Day, and as we traverse into the 79th year of our existence as a free nation, I reminisce on these famous and oft-quoted lines of the 'Bard of Bengal', Rabindranath Tagore. 'Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.' Population and fertility India's population has nearly quadrupled since the 1951 census, from approximately 361 million to about 1.455 billion. A child born in 1947 was expected to live for 32 years. A child born in 2025 has a life expectancy of 72 years, slightly below the world's average of 73.4. Life expectancy is considered an indicator of a nation's development level as it is a reflection of the population's health and well-being. It is influenced by factors like access to healthcare, standards of living and socioeconomic conditions. Developed nations boast higher life expectancies due to better resources and an improved quality of life. Fertility rates dropped from nearly six births per woman in the 1950s to approximately 2 now, close to replacement level. This demographic transition has been central to India's changing economic and social profile. In 1947, India had around 7,000 hospitals and dispensaries with 700 primary care centres. In 2025, this has expanded to about 24,000 government hospitals, supported by numerous private hospitals. India, today, is a destination for medical tourism. Infant mortality in the 1950s was 146/1000 births, and today it stands at 25, according to UNICEF. Maternal mortality rates have declined by 83 per cent during the period from 1990 to 2020. Also read: Dismiss debate on EC functioning as 'hoo-haa', then hail India as 'robust democracy' Economy and growth We have seen a lot of negative hype about the state of India's economy in the last month, with LOP Rahul Gandhi endorsing President Trump's opinion on India's 'Dead Economy'. But facts and numbers say otherwise. India's GDP in 1960 was estimated at around $37 billion, with a per capita income of less than $85. Growth in the first decades hovered around 3.5 per cent. According to the IMF, India's nominal GDP for 2025 (FY26) is expected to be $4,187 billion, with per capita income projected to be around $2,800. Real GDP growth has averaged 6–7 per cent annually in recent years. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra strongly refuted Trump's statement. 'We are contributing about 18 per cent, which is more than the US, where the contribution is expected to be much less—about 11 per cent or something. We are doing very well, and we will continue to improve further,' he said. India is expected to grow at 6.5 per cent compared to the IMF's global outlook of 3 per cent. A Deloitte report authored by economists Dr Rumki Majumdar and Debdatta Ghatak says, 'Entering the new fiscal, India's economic outlook is buoyed by three key engines: a resilient consumer base, a broadening investment landscape, and a digitally skilled, dynamic workforce. Urban spending is rising, private capital expenditures are showing green shoots, and India's tech-adaptive talent is driving innovation and showcasing its global capabilities.' The report was released around the same time as Rahul Gandhi's statement about the economy. India has gone from a primarily agrarian economy at Independence to a growth engine of STEM and AI. Far from a dead economy, right? Also read: India's strategic pillars are crumbling. Complacency is not an option Poverty reduction In the last ten years, especially, India has made major progress in drastically reducing poverty. A World Bank Report states that the percentage of people living in extreme poverty—defined as surviving on less than $2.15 a day—dropped from 16.2 per cent in 2011–12 to just 2.3 per cent in 2022–23, lifting around 171 million people above this threshold. This is in stark contrast to 1956, when BS Minhas of the Planning Commission estimated that 65 per cent, or 215 million Indians, were poor. Since 2021–22, job creation has grown faster than the working-age population, with employment rates improving, particularly for women. Urban unemployment fell to 6.6 per cent in the first quarter of FY 2024–25, the lowest level recorded since 2017–18. Recent figures also show a shift of male workers from rural to urban areas for the first time since 2018–19, while women in rural areas are increasingly finding work in agriculture. Education and literacy At the time of Independence, only 12 per cent of Indians were literate, and in 1950, more than eight out of 10 Indians were illiterate. By 2011, literacy rose to 74 per cent, with gender gaps narrowing significantly. As of 2023, it stands at 80.3 per cent. School enrollment ratios improved rapidly post-2000, supported by programmes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Right to Education Act. Primary school enrollment, especially for girls, has gone up. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao has given further impetus to girl child education. And even though there was a setback during Covid-19 years, we aim to achieve 100 per cent literacy by 2047. Also read: India talked big on Russia-Ukraine mediation. Alaska meet offers a window Electricity, water and sanitation At Independence, access to electricity, clean water, and sanitation was minimal. Just 3,000 of over 5,00,000 Indian villages had an electric pole in 1950. By 2023, 99.5 per cent of Indians had electricity access. Urbanisation doubled, from approximately 18 per cent in 1951 to around 37 per cent in 2024. The proportion of Indians with access to clean water has increased significantly due to Government schemes such as Jal Jeevan Mission and Har Ghar Jal. According to PIB, 74 per cent of rural homes now have access to tap water. At Independence, India was primarily an open defecation country. In 2014, PM Modi launched the Swach Bharat Mission and promoted the discussion around toilets to bring about a behavioural change. SBM Rural built over 100 million household toilets and 2,30,000 community and public toilets between 2014 and 2019. This was the first time that the taboo subject of toilets was discussed in India, marking a shift in the mindset of people. An emerging global superpower The geopolitical landscape is rapidly changing. India was once a global superpower, respected for trade, freedom, religion and economic development, giving rise to the moniker 'Sone ki Chidiya'. All this changed when various invaders altered the culture and ethos of the country and turned us into an impoverished nation. Now, India is regaining the ability to stare down global leaders who push for policies contrary to our national interests. We are also happy to help out our neighbours like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Myanmar without extracting our pound of flesh or using derogatory terms like 'aid'. Vaccine Maitri was a case in point. Dealing with sovereign nations is an art, and we are sending the message that we are helping as friends, not engaging in disrespectful one-upmanship. India is also taking on world issues such as climate change and has so far been able to walk the diplomatic tightrope of Palestine/Israel and Russia/Ukraine. The recent India-Pakistan skirmish and Operation Sindoor have also given the world a taste of India's abilities as an 'atmanirbhar' military nation, where we gave the F-16s a tough run for their money. It was a very different scenario from the 1962 war, when housewives knit socks for our Jawans as they were ill-equipped for combat. However, to paraphrase Nehru's favourite poet, Robert Frost, we have miles to go before we sleep. And in the run-up to 2047, dialogues should be about Viksit Bharat 2047, including dialogues on, but not limited to, women empowerment, literacy, youth employment, sanitation, education and health for all, instead of all the divisive politics of caste and language. This cannot be achieved unless the entire population of this country stand together in solidarity, with one voice and as one people. Meenakashi Lekhi is a BJP leader, lawyer and social activist. Her X handle is @M_Lekhi. Views are personal. (Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Time of India
5 days ago
- Time of India
Bird flu cases detected in 2 Rampur poultry farms
Lucknow: With some cases of bird flu detected in two poultry farms in Rampur, the state govt has stepped up monitoring and inspection of poultry farms across the state to prevent the spread of the infection. After the detection of positive cases, the department of animal husbandry declared a surveillance zone in an area of one to 10 km around the farms. A senior official said that the situation was controlled locally and remained normal across other parts of the state. In all other districts of the state, the situation remains normal. Samples of dead birds from a third farm were sent to Bhopal for testing and the report is expected in a day or two. Dr Rajendra Prasad, additional director of poultry in UP, stated that directives have been issued to all districts and poultry farms are being continuously inspected. The borders of Bilaspur, Rampur and Swar, adjoining the Uttarakhand border, have been sealed. The Maharaja Poultry Farm is being sanitised, after which it will be sealed. "On Tuesday, reports of bird deaths were received from Sharma Poultry Farm in Swar Tehsil. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo Samples have been sent to Bhopal for testing, and the report is expected in a day or two. If the report is positive, action will be taken according to Union govt's action plan," he said. The first report of bird deaths came from Captain Poultry Farm in Rampur. The matter was investigated and samples were sent to the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases Laboratory in Bhopal, which reported that the deaths were due to bird flu. Dr Brijesh Kumar Tripathi, deputy director, poultry, claimed that the situation was under control and that an area within one km radius of the impacted farms had been declared an infected zone, where domestic birds, eggs, etc., have been destroyed. The farms were sanitised and sealed. In the surveillance zone, Rapid Response Teams (RRT) were conducting continuous surveillance and samples were being collected to ensure that the infection has not spread. "This area has been declared a restricted zone, preventing birds and eggs from entering or leaving. The virus is destroyed at 70 degrees Celsius in 30 minutes, so boiling eggs and poultry products reduces the risk of infection," he said. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Happy Independence Day wishes , messages , and quotes !
