News Wrap
AGD

Visual impairment remains a major issue in the numerous health care related challenges facing India and other developing countries. An estimated 285 million people in the globe are visually impaired. More than 90% of visually impaired people are in developing countries; and they suffer from myopia, astigmatism, cataracts and glaucoma. As in other developing countries, in India the visually impaired people rely on basic walking canes, to detect obstacles around them. Technologically advanced walking canes are equipped with ultrasonic sensors or laser technology. More than 95% of blind people in India, use basic walking canes. Recently Jatin Sharma, Tushar Chugh and Rolly Seth, comprising a team of three young engineers, have designed ‘visparsh’, a waist belt that helps a blind person and obstacles, that are on and above the ground. The inspiration has emerged from a motion sensing technology used for video-games. The belt like device, fitted with an optic sensor, detects obstacles as distant as 3.7 metres. The user is alerted by vibration signals from either the left, centre or right part of the belt, depending on where the obstacle is.

Devices such as ‘Visparsh’ are breaking down barriers for the blind. The ‘Smartcane’, designed by a group of students at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, is a white walking cane that uses ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles up to three metres, and sends vibratory signals to the user. A major advantage of ‘Visparsh’, compared with cane-like devices such as the ‘smartcane’, is that it frees the user’s hands. ‘Visparsh’ is initially costing Rs 8000, but prices are expected to fall to Rs 3000 with corporate sponsors and mass production.

Refugee camps in TN
About 103 Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee camps were constructed all over Tamil Nadu, following the July 1983 riots in Sri Lanka. Set up to accommodate Tamil refugees, some of the camps in Madurai district are full of shoddy treatment, lack of basic amenities and surveillance for the refugees. The round type apartment blocks at Anaiyur and Koodal Nagar are in a dilapidated condition, with damaged roofs and walls. With roofs caving in, some refugees have shifted out of their houses, and built temporary bamboo sheds, with Tarpaulin and transparent bamboo walls. Heavy rains inundate the camps, and the refugees are forced to made through water. The stagnant waters create health hazards. The majority of the refugees are poor and illiterate, and work as daily wage labourers in construction and whitewashing work for buildings in Madurai district. A sizeable number of graduate refugees are working as construction labourers. Private organizations avoid recruiting Sri Lankan Tamil refugees for stigma and fear.

The European Union has sponsored certain basic facilities like water tanks, and strips of cement roads. The Tamil Nadu state government has provided a primary school and fair price shops. A non-government organization has built a kindergarten school. The inmates of the refugee camps are always under vigil. They are generally denied work, and have restrictions to meet outsiders. Space is a constraint, and living conditions are cramped. Recently a group of young Sri Lankan Tamils set up a Business Processing Office (BPO) unit at a refugee camp in Madurai.

Legalities violated at Kudankulam
India signed the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant deal with the former Soviet Union in 1988. The highly dangerous and toxic ‘‘Spent Nuclear Fuel’’ (SNF) would be shipped back to the Soviet Union. The Pechiparai dam in Kanya-kumari district (Tamil Nadu) would supply the massive volumes of fresh water, required to cool the plant. There was no further progress in the agreement till 1997, even though the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, granted approval in May 1989. Another agreement between India and Russia, to revive the nuclear plant was signed in 1997. The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notifications of 1991 and 1994, made it mandatory for compulsory clearances by environmental regulators, before any new plant could be set up. The CRZ prohibits industrial activity within 500 metres of the coastal Tamil Nadu high tide line. The exception to this clause are industries and projects of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which require waterfront or foreshore facilities. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) which has built the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) is a commercial venture, registered under the Companies Act. The KKNPP is not exempted from the Coastal Regulation Zone, and the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant has been built in violation of CRZ notifications. No clearances have been obtained from any ‘Expert Appraisal Committee’.

Further, contrary to the original proposal to ship out the spent nuclear fuel to Russia, the highly radioactive fuel from the nuclear power plant now be stored, transported and reprocessed within India. Another major change is that the construction of six desalination plants would supply freshwater, instead of sending piped water from Pechiparai dam. The disalination plant could seriously affect coastal ecology and marine life, with implication for the livelihood of the fishing community. No country has succeeded in reprocessing more than a third of spent fuel.

Hashish and Afghanistan

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 25, Dec 30-Jan 5, 2013

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