Thought to be the world’s largest human gathering, more than 20 million Hindu pilgrims ritually bathed on the opening day of the festival
Continue reading...Category Archives: South and Central Asia
‘Example to the world’: Sri Lanka president plans to copy Duterte’s war on drugs
President Maithripala Sirisena praises Philippines over policy that has led to thousands of extrajudicial killings
Sri Lanka’s president has praised his Philippines counterpart Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, which has taken thousands of lives, calling it an “example to the world”.
In a speech during a visit to the Philippines this week, Maithripala Sirisena said he intended to replicate Duterte’s ruthless approach to tackling illegal drug use.
Continue reading...‘A three-generation project’: riverside development divides Indian city
The next 15 megacities #6: New facilities by the Sabarmati will provide Ahmedabad with much-needed public space, but at what cost?
As the sun dips below the horizon, young lovers make themselves more comfortable on benches overlooking the Sabarmati river. Walkers stroll along the concrete promenades, and mothers enjoy a moment of respite under newly planted saplings while their children play in the adjoining gardens.
Few Ahmedabad residents could have imagined this scene a couple of decades ago. Back then the Gujarati city’s tidal river banks were lined with slum housing – precariously constructed on land polluted by industrial effluent and untreated sewage, and home to some of the most marginalised communities in the city.
Continue reading...Justin Trudeau lookalike found in Afghan talent show
Wedding singer Abdul Salam Maftoon was called the Canadian prime minister’s ‘lost twin’ after appearing on Afghan Star
An Afghan talent show contestant’s striking resemblance to Justin Trudeau has turned him into an unlikely celebrity in the war-torn country.
Abdul Salam Maftoon, a wedding singer from a village in the remote and impoverished northeastern province of Badakhshan, had never even heard of his more famous doppelganger until a judge on the popular television music contest Afghan Star pointed out the uncanny likeness.
Continue reading...Destroy ‘period huts’ or forget state support: Nepal moves to end practice
After the custom of consigning menstruating women to outdoor sheds claimed three more lives, a new system of penalties offers hope of change
Chhaupadi, the practice of banishing girls and women to a hut or shed when they have their periods, is common in Dilu Bhandari’s village in Nepal.
But two months ago Bhandari, a 26-year-old mother of four, watched as her husband destroyed the tiny hut in which she had previously been sent to live once a month. The family had been told by local authorities that if she continued to observe the custom, they would no longer receive state food support. Forced to choose between a food allowance for her twin boys and abandoning the traditional practice, the choice was effectively made for them.
Continue reading...The Indian village where child sexual exploitation is the norm
Poverty and caste discrimination mean that children in Sagar Gram are being groomed by their own families for abuse
Many families in India still mourn the birth of a girl. But when Leena was born, people celebrated.
Sagar Gram, her village in central India, is unique that way. Girls outnumber boys. When a woman marries, it is the groom’s family that pays the dowry. Women are Sagar Gram’s breadwinners. When they are deemed old enough, perhaps at the age of 11, most are expected to start doing sex work.
Continue reading...Bangladesh strikes: thousands of garment workers clash with police over poor pay
Dozens of factories have closed after more than a week of protests in which one person has died
Thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh who make clothes for top global brands have clashed with police as strike action over low wages entered a second week.
Police said water cannon and tear gas were fired on Sunday to disperse huge crowds of striking factory workers in Savar, a garment hub just outside the capital, Dhaka.
Continue reading...Afghanistan bucks global trend with sharp rise in civilian casualties
Number of innocent people killed or maimed in Afghan war rises 36% despite overall fall in casualties worldwide
Civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan from explosive weapons rose by more than a third last year, against a downward trend globally, according to a survey seen by the Guardian.
Most of the 4,260 civilians killed or injured in explosions in the country in 2018 – up from 3,119 in 2017 – were victims of suicide attacks, found a report by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).
Continue reading...Reuters journalists to remain in Myanmar jail after losing appeal
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo jailed for seven years for breaching country’s Official Secrets Act
The two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar for their reporting on the violence against the Rohingya in Rahkine state have lost their appeal, with the court upholding their guilty verdict and lengthy prison sentences.
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had each been handed prison sentences of seven years in June after they were found guilty of breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act after it was claimed they were in possession of classified documents.
Continue reading...India: teenage girl murdered and mutilated by family for eloping, say police
Girl killed with help of a butcher friend, say police in Bihar in so-called ‘honour killing’
Police in eastern India say a teenager who was found dead this week with her body dismembered and mutilated was murdered by her family in a so-called “honour” killing.
The body of the 16-year old from Gaya, a city in Bihar state, was discovered on Sunday. Pictures of her mutilated remains were widely shared on social media along with claims she had been doused in acid, sparking protests and candlelit vigils in the city.
Continue reading...Mother and two boys suffocate in Nepal’s latest ‘period hut’ tragedy
Practice of banishing women to small outbuildings during periods claims further victims despite country declaring practice illegal
A woman and her two sons have suffocated to death in a windowless shed to which they were banished in the latest tragedy linked to the illegal practice of chhaupadi, whereby women in Nepal are forced to sleep in “period huts”.
Police said Amba Bohara, 35, had spent four days in the cowshed with her sons Ramit, nine, and Suresh, 12, when her father-in-law discovered their bodies on Wednesday morning.
Continue reading...India’s sick left out in the cold as New Delhi’s top hospital struggles to cope
Patients awaiting treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Science are living in tents and on pavements for months at a time as the centre reels under the weight of demand
The night-time cold in New Delhi is biting. As the temperature plunges, Alam Ansari’s twin daughters, born prematurely, have only their parents’ body heat to keep them warm while they huddle in a crowded tent on the road outside the capital’s top hospital.
They are not alone. Each day, about 8,000 people from across the country queue outside the outpatients department for treatment. Mainly from poorer backgrounds, they sleep in tents or on the ground.
Continue reading...India outcry after scientists claim ancient Hindus invented stem cell research
The organisers of a major Indian science conference said they were concerned by speakers citing religious texts and ideas at the event
The organisers of a major Indian science conference distanced themselves on Sunday from speakers who used the prestigious event to dismiss Einstein’s discoveries and claim ancient Hindus invented stem cell research.
The Indian Scientific Congress Association expressed “serious concern” as the unorthodox remarks aired by prominent academics at its annual conference attracted condemnation and ridicule.
Continue reading...Indian PM lampooned for ‘manufactured’ interview
Narendra Modi accused of being afraid of media after rare interview that failed to ask tough questions
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been accused of being afraid of the media, after consenting to a rare interview – just one of a handful in four years as PM – on New Year’s Day in which he answered a range of questions that critics compared to “free-hit deliveries” in cricket.
Related: India: world's biggest election has suddenly become competitive
Continue reading...Protests break out in India after two women become first to enter Sabarimala temple – video report
Two women have visited a Hindu temple in Kerala after India's supreme court lifted a centuries-old ban. They had tried to enter last month but were stopped by protesters
Continue reading...Two Indian women enter temple after centuries-long ban on women
Event comes as hundreds and thousands of women form a 380-mile human chain in support of gender equality
Two women have become the first to enter a Hindu temple in India’s southern state of Kerala after the supreme court lifted a centuries-old ban on women.
The temple was later “purified” by priests at the famous Sabarimala temple, which does not permit menstruating women inside. They closed the temple for several hours to conduct ancient rituals to remove the “polluting” female presence.
Continue reading...Inside Mother Camp: the woman tackling Afghanistan’s drug problem
Laila Haidari risks her life to run the country’s only private rehabilitation centre, helping hundreds of addicts a year
Laila Haidari is considered a criminal, despite never committing a crime. The 40-year-old works with drug addicts in Kabul. “The addicts I work with are considered criminal and dangerous and by extension I am considered criminal,” she says.
Despite opposition and death threats, eight years ago, Haidari opened the city’s only private drug rehabilitation centre, which so far has helped nearly 4,800 Afghans who would otherwise have ended up on the streets, or worse, dead.
Continue reading...India: world’s biggest election has suddenly become competitive
PM Narenda Modi weakened after Rahul Gandhi’s Congress ends 2018 with string of regional victories
The world’s largest exercise in democracy looms in 2019. In the beachside towns of Kerala state, the mountain villages of the Himalayas and across the dusty cities of the Gangetic plain, an estimated 850 million people will cast their votes in India’s national election sometime between March and May. And the race just got competitive.
A few months ago the prime minister, Narendra Modi, looked invincible. His party had followed its thumping national election win in 2014 with a run of victories in India’s largest states. The Congress party, which ushered India into independence 70 years ago and had been its default ruler since, was reduced to a rump, with leaders from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) boasting the country would soon be “Congress-mukt” (Congress-free).
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