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India-born scientist Ramesh Raskar was awarded $ 500,000, one of the world’s largest single cash awards for invention, for his path breaking work on an ultra-fast imaging camera that can see around corners, eyecare solutions and a camera that can read closed books.
The Lemelson-MIT prize, given by the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), honours U.S. inventors working on science and technology projects for the betterment of the world.

Ramesh, 46, who is originally from Nasik, is an imaging scientist and Associate Professor at MIT.

In addition to working on low-cost eye-care solutions for the developing world and a camera that allows users to read pages of a book without opening the cover, Ramesh is the co-inventor of radical imaging solutions including femto-photography — an ultra-fast imaging system that can see around corners.
“Ramesh’s femto-photography work not only has the potential to transform industries ranging from internal medicine to transportation safety, it is also helping to inspire a new generation of inventors to tackle the biggest problems of our time,” said Dorothy Lemelson, chair of the Lemelson Foundation, in a statement.
Ramesh plans to use a portion of the Lemelson-MIT Prize money to launch a new effort using peer-to-peer invention platforms that offer new approaches for helping young people in multiple countries to co-invent in a collaborative way, the statement read.
Despite living in the US, Ramesh has stayed connected with his roots in India through his work. During the Kumbh Mela in Nasik in 2015, he collaborated with other scientists to launch ‘Kumbhathons’ (special innovation camps) to develop ideas for the evolution of smart cities in India. This included exploring innovative solutions in the areas of housing, sanitation and transportation of pilgrims at the festival.

Balkissa Chaibou dreamed of becoming a doctor, but when she was 12 she was shocked to learn she had been promised as a bride to her cousin. She decided to fight for her rights – even if that meant taking her own family to court.
“I came from school at around 18:00, and Mum called me,” Balkissa Chaibou recalls.
“She pointed to a group of visitors and said of one of them, ‘He is the one who will marry you.’
“I thought she was joking. And she told me, ‘Go unbraid, and wash your hair.’ That is when I realised she was serious.”
The young girl from Niger had always been ambitious.
“When I was little, I was dreaming of becoming a doctor. Take care of people, wear the white coat. Help people,” she says.
Marriage to her cousin, who had arrived with his father from neighbouring Nigeria, would make this impossible.
“They said if you marry him you won’t be able to study any more. For me my passion is studying. I really like to study. That’s when I realised that my relationship with him wouldn’t work well.”
Niger’s tradition of marrying its girls young – it has the highest rate of child marriage in the world – is partly rooted in its grinding poverty.

Chaibou, with her sister, says that she loves to study

“The dynamic works in this way: I have lots of children, and if I can marry off one child that is one child less that I have to feed,” explains Monique Clesca, the United Nations Population Fund’s representative in Niger.
Balkissa Chaibou’s parents had five daughters, so from their perspective marrying her to her cousin may have made economic sense.
But another reason for the tradition of early marriage in Niger is the belief that it reduces the risk of pregnancy outside wedlock.
“Nowadays some children are not well brought up,” says Hadiza Almahamoud, Chaibou’s mother. “If they are not married off at an early age, they can bring shame to the family.”
Chaibou continued to work hard at school, waking at 03:00 to study, but as she got older the looming marriage with her cousin became a distraction.
Then, one day when she was 16, the bride price, suitcases and a wedding outfit arrived.
“I felt pain inside of me, it really broke my heart,” says Chaibou. “Because I see that I am fighting to fulfil myself, and these people will be an obstacle to my evolution.”
She plucked up the courage to try to get out of the marriage after getting her junior high school diploma. “I told myself that I can try to pull myself together, see how I can escape this situation.”
Her mother understood her objection to the marriage but didn’t have the status, as a woman, to help her.
So Chaibou approached her father, suggesting that as a compromise she could marry but only see her husband in the holidays until she had completed her Baccalaureate.
But the tradition of the Tuareg – the ethnic group to which Chaibou belongs – is that the older brother has power over the children of his younger siblings.
Since Chaibou’s uncle – the father of her fiance – was older, her father dared not go against his wishes and preparations for a wedding continued.
In desperation Chaibou asked her school principal, Moumouni Harouna, for help.
He referred her to an NGO called the Centre for Judicial Assistance and Civic Action, which took legal action against her father and uncle for forcing her into a marriage she did not want.
Once in court, Chaibou’s uncle denied the accusation, she says, and claimed it had all been a misunderstanding, so the case was dropped.
But once she got home, her uncle threatened to kill her.
“He said that even if he had to wrap me up – even if he had to wrap me up in a body bag – I would go [to Nigeria],” says Chaibou.
She was forced to take refuge in a women’s shelter.

Her school principal put her in touch with an NGO that could advise her

“The first night spent here I didn’t sleep well,” she says. “I was thinking too much about my parents, about the situation they were in, especially with the anger of my uncle. I was sure he would insult them and threaten them, so I didn’t have a clear mind.”
But faced with the threat of jail, the wedding party returned to Nigeria and after a week Chaibou was able to go home.
“When I put on my school uniform… I felt like my life was renewed. As if it was a new beginning,” she says, describing the day she started college.
Her mother says that she and her husband have now changed their views on forced marriage.
“We are finished with [it] in this family. We are scared of it,” she says. “If a girl grows up she can choose her husband. We can’t do it.”
Mariama Moussa – president of the shelter Chaibou took refuge in – says domestic violence is a serious problem in Niger and that forced marriage is one of the root causes.
“When you force them, as a result there is a succession of violence that they can suffer in their home,” she says. “There is physical violence, psychological violence… When the husband cannot tolerate her any more, he can hit her, or make her leave, even in pregnancy.”
Chaibou is aware that now she has won her freedom it is important for her to succeed in her studies and repay her family’s sacrifice.
“I know my family’s hope is on my shoulders. Everyone counts on me. Everyone has their eyes on me,” she says.
Now 19, she campaigns for other girls to follow her example and say “no” to forced marriage. She visits schools and has spoken to tribal chiefs about the issue.
She has also spoken at a UN summit on reducing maternal mortality, a phenomenon linked to early marriage.
“Before [the age of] 15 the body is not ready to have a child,” says Clesca.
“About 34% of adolescent deaths in Niger are maternal mortality, which gives you a sense of the problem.
“It is important for the Balkissas of this world to stand up because it shows the other girls that ‘Hey, I can do this.’
“And yes we have seen a ripple effect. One girl says no and others are crowding around her [saying] ‘What did you do? I mean, why did you say no?'”
Balkissa Chaibou is getting closer to becoming a doctor. She passed her International Baccalaureate and is currently at medical school.
“I’m not saying don’t marry,” she tells one group of schoolgirls.
“But choose the right moment to do so. The advice I have for you is to fight – study with all your might. I know studying isn’t easy but you must force yourself because those studies are your only hope.”
Article and Image source – bbc.com

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One girl under the age of 15 is married every seven seconds, according to a new report by Save the Children.

The study says girls as young as 10 are forced to marry much older men in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, India and Somalia.
Save the Children says early marriage can trigger a cycle of disadvantage across every part of a girl’s life.

Save our girl children

Conflict, poverty and humanitarian crises are seen as major factors that leave girls exposed to child marriage.
“Child marriage starts a cycle of disadvantage that denies girls the most basic rights to learn, develop and be children,” said Save the Children International CEO Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
“Girls who marry too early often can’t attend school, and are more likely to face domestic violence, abuse and rape. They fall pregnant and are exposed to STIs (sexually transmitted infections) including HIV.”
The report, called Every Last Girl, ranks countries based on the hardest place to be a girl based on schooling, child marriage, teen pregnancy, maternal deaths and the number of women in parliament.
Chad, Niger, Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia were ranked at the bottom of the index.
The report says girls affected by conflict are more likely to become child brides.
It says many refugee families marry off their daughters as a way to protect them against poverty or sexual exploitation.

Aracely was 11 when she married her husband, who was 34. Now 15, she is raising her son on her own

The charity used the example of a 13-year-old Syrian refugee in Lebanon it called Sahar – not her real name – who was married to a 20-year-old man. Now 14, she is two months pregnant.
“The wedding day, I was imagining it would be a great day but it wasn’t. It was all misery. It was full of sadness,” Save the Children quoted her as saying.
“I feel really blessed that I am having a baby. But I am a child raising a child.”
The report says girls also suffer during humanitarian crises such as the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone where the shutting down of schools led to an estimated 14,000 teen pregnancies.
The UN children’s agency, Unicef, estimates that the number of women married in childhood will grow from 700 million today to around 950 million by 2030.
The Save the Children’s report coincides with International Day of the Girl on Tuesday.

Source- bbc.com
Image credit – dailymail.co.uk, cloudmind.info, nytimes.com

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

When we hear the word krantikari(Revolutionary), we go back in time, to the pre independence era and names like Bhagat Singh and Chandra Shekhar Azad come to our minds. But we don’t have to go that far. In this dog-eat-dog world, everybody is part of a revolution, breaking the shackels that lock our spirit and keep us bound in mediocrity. Former Lieutenant Robin Chaurasiya, is one such revolutionary, who was expelled from the U.S. Air Force after she declared that she is lesbian. She then helped organise a successful campaign to change US armed forces policy, after which she returned to India and started an NGO ‘Kranti’, a Mumbai-based NGO that empowers marginalized girls from the red-light areas, aged 12-20, to become agents of social change.

The girls in Kranti, the krantikaris, are either the victims of trafficking or the daughters of sex workers, who never thought that their daughters would be able to live a dignified life in a conservative society like India. Most of the mothers support Robin’s kranti and the ones who are problematic have mental health or drug/alcohol addiction problems. We also work to get the mothers into therapy and mental health programmes, says Robin.

“Your background should always be your strength and not your weakness.” – Kranti

The school is diverse with different ages, literacy levels, languages, ethnicities, religions, castes and abilities. The curriculum includes creative thinking, writing, yoga, meditation, geography and music along with the classes in English, theatre and health education. During the weekends, the girls watch films, visit exhibitions and volunteer for an NGO of their choice.
They have conducted workshops for more than 100,000 people and delivered several TEDx talks around the world. They staged a play they wrote about their experiences across the USA, performing at the headquarters of Google and Facebook. They were among the top 10 finalists selected for the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize in which, 8,000 applicants from 140 countries were nominated.

Where the world sees lost causes, I see revolutionary leaders, says Robin. She is working on facilitating the improvement and advancement of her students, elevating their faith and trying to create leaders out of them, which makes her a revolutionary in the truest sense of the word.

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In 2014, India’s Supreme Court, recognized transgenders as a third gender and ruled that they had equal rights under the law in the country, estimated to have two million transgenders. The landmark ruling provided members of the community with rights to marry, inherit property and also be eligible for quotas in jobs and educational institutions. However, despite the Apex Court ruling, social stigmatization, discrimination and exploitation had marred development, to an extent where basic human rights were denied to transgenders. They continued to be disowned by their own families, denied jobs, forced into sex work and begging to earn a living.

Trans-Human Rights??
“It’s boiling down to ensuring dignity for transgenders but how can we have that as long as we are having Section 377?” – Akkai Padmashali, a prominent transgender activist in Kerala.
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was enacted in 1860 during the British rule of India. It criminalizes sexual activities “against the order of nature”, arguably including homosexual sexual activities. In 2009, the section was decriminalized with respect to sex between consenting adults by the Delhi High Court but nevertheless was not amended or repealed. In 2013, the Court held that amending or repealing Section 377 was a matter that should be decided by the Parliament and not the judiciary. However, earlier in 2016, a three member bench headed by Chief Justice of India, T.S. Thakur, that the curative petitions submitted by the Naz Foundation will be reviewed afresh by a five-member constitutional bench.
But while the country debated, Kerala became the first state to unveil a transgender policy, aiming to provide a platform for voicing the rights of equality, dignity, development and expression for the community. During an inaugural ceremony of the first International Conference on Gender Equality, held near Kovalam, State Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson, handed the ‘State Policy for Transgenders in Kerala 2015’ to Akkai Padmashali. The policy, although a first step, has been welcomed by many. At a time when most transgenders are still forced into begging or the sex market, the policy, aspires to end social stigmatization and discrimination while enforcing constitutional rights of transgenders.
Education has always been of prime importance toward spreading awareness and in line with the goals of the transgender policy, Kerala is all set to make history again. On December 30, 2016, Kochi, a major port city in Kerala, geared up to inaugurate India’s first transgender school, Sahaj International School. The event was inaugurated by transgender rights activist and artist Kalki Subramaniam, with students selected from different sections of the community, including a migrant and a disabled person, at Thrikkakara in Kerala’s Ernakulam district. A residential school, Sahaj, will be led by six transgenders working with the TransIndia Foundation and accommodate 10 transgenders under the National Open School system. It will provide education equivalent to class X and XII and include training for soft skills, stitching, organic farming, oration and personality development. V.S. Raveendran, regional director of NIOS, also mentioned that the school would soon be a special accredited institution of NIOS.

Inauguration of India’s first transgender school
Like most initiatives for change, this feat was not easy either. Even finding a venue for the school had become an ordeal, but many like transgender activist, Vijayraja Mallika, who also heads the school, never gave up. “We approached some 700 people and 51 households, and all of them turned us away. They seemed to think that we were looking for space for prostitution,” Ms Mallika told the BBC. However, despite opposition by many, there are still some in society who are coming forward to join hands for the cause. Today, the school has the support from a pool of 60 trainers including doctors, teachers, social workers and engineers, who are all committed to make their contribution to help strengthen the community’s stand in society.
“Today is an important day, a historical day, historical time… An important day, time we are opening a learning center for transgenders. Nowhere in India it has been initiated so far. That way this will be the pioneer for many other organisation in different states, a model to follow. The most important tool for the underprivileged, discriminated marginalised, oppressed community is education, because education brings light, knowledge, truth and confidence. Education brings the path to the beautiful life, because transgender people like me, we are abandoned by our families. Most of our biological parents  don’t accept us and because of this reason most of us are left on the street and forced to beg and do sex work. This has to change if we have to change the destiny of those people who were abandoned by their families and who had lost opportunity to get educated,” Kalki said (Indian Express).
The school is initially functioning with the help of few Sponsors, but later, government aid may also be sought to support the functioning and growth of the school. Christian organisation pro-Life sector and National Open School have also come forward to support the initiate along with a pool of teachers and social workers who have volunteered to teach classes. Others such as Muhammad Y. Safeerulla, the district collector, have also committed the administration’s full support for the welfare of transgenders.

UN ex-Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon in India
Stigmatization of the community, have always made it difficult for transgenders to be included in the mainstream and seek the fundamental rights. Policies and schools such as this would help end discrimination and help transgenders get education and find security, sustainability and more importantly, their human rights. The Kerala school is thereby all set to be a model, a trendsetter and an example for others to follow. Ms. Mallika informed the BBC, that once successful, the facility would be expanded and admit more people across the country and would help transgenders become eligible for decent jobs and a dignified living.

Image source: BBC, lgbthealthwellness.com, UN Free & Equal

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