NewsDesk | The Press Institute

The Press Institute is now on your favorite social networking sites!

Sponsors

Union Rights for Street Sweepers

By Nusrat Ara, Press Institute Reporter, Kashmir

Once considered to be the bottom of the social strata, the street sweepers who keep the sewage drains running and the sidewalks clean, had no employee rights or benefits. For decades they worked 12-hour days for little pay and were subject to disease and injury. One man, Sheikh Mohammad Syed, who was not a sweeper, stepped in and began fighting for their rights.

Photos by Nusrat Ara

SRINAGAR, INDIA – When Ghulam Hassan Sheikh was 40 years old, he began everyday the same way – he picked up his twig broom and set out to clean the streets of Srinagar, the capital of India’s northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir. Working as a sweeper for the Srinagar Municipal Corporation, an organization responsible for cleaning the city streets by hand. Sheikh spent his life working 12 hours a day – from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. – with only a short break in the afternoon. Sheikh and the other street sweepers worked every holiday, including the holy Muslim Festival of Eid. They also worked when they were ill.

When others left their homes to head for work, Sheikh had already been working for hours – sweeping the streets and cleaning sewers with a broom and shovel. The job of a street sweeper is a difficult one. They have to keep the open drains alongside the streets running so that the waste water from toilets and kitchens does not spill over. And so it went, Sheikh spent many years of his life straining his back to clean excrement from the streets, inhaling dust from passing cars and working long days with no rights and little pay. Sheikh earned 350 Indian rupees per month, about $7, for the hard, menial labor.

That was more than 20 years ago. Today, the world of a street sweeper looks much different.

Mumtaza Bano, 40, a modern day sweeper, works for only six hours each day. She earns 12,000 rupees per month, about $250. With better pay and improved hours, Bano says she is able to manage her family duties with ease. These changes are thanks to the

Read Full Story
Foreign Employers, Local Agents Prey on Nepali Workers

By Tara Bhattarai, Senior Reporter, Nepal

As many as 700 Nepali men leave the country every day in search of good jobs abroad. New research and a Press Institute investigation revealed many of those workers are receiving phony contracts, being mistreated and in some cases injured or killed. With little enforcement or involvement from Nepali officials in Kathmandu, the men who provide vital remittances for their families have no protection or recourse.

Photo by Tara Bhattarai.

Ful Maya, who was expecting money from her husband Karna Bishwokarma after he went to Malaysia, heard the news of her husband’s death five months after he died. She recited the words from his first letter, “Now I am set to earn good money ... I will fulfill your every wish.” The next letter she received read, “Come to receive your husband’s corpse.”

KATHMANDU, NEPAL -- “My boss often thrashes me for no cause. My cheeks are swollen and my nose bleeds often. Father, please rescue me and save my life.” Gyan Bahadur read aloud from a letter he received from his son, Gopal, who is on a contract, working abroad in Malaysia.

The letter prompted Gyan, 50, who lives in the eastern hilly district Okhaldhunga, to come to Kathmandu and appeal to local authorities about the plight of his son who was working abroad, as many Nepali men do.

When he arrived in the capital, he went to the Labor Ministry, the Labor Department, the manpower agency and various local organizations to try, he said, to save his son. Showing the letter with tears in his eyes in the office of the Chief of the Labor Department in Kathmandu, he asked the chief, Keshar Bahadur Baniya, “Sir, please do your bit to help my son return to Nepal.”

Gyan said his pleas were ignored and all he received were hollow assurances. “I have drawn the attention of all the concerned offices about my son’s plight, but nobody has taken note of it,” he said.

Like many young Nepali men, Gopal had a dream of earning money and having a strong career. But because of his family’s poor financial status, Gyan said he was forced to send his son to work abroad. Several months earlier, one of Gopal’s friends found a job working in Qatar and suggested that he also look for a job there. Working with a “manpower agent,” who promised him a handsome salary, he decided to go to Malaysia. Gopal was assured he would make a strong living, with enough money to send

Read Full Story
Gay in Zimbabwe: Arrests, Limited Access to Health Care

By Gertrude Pswarayi, Press Institute Reporter, Zimbabwe

Homophobia within the government of Zimbabwe has resulted in the exclusion of sexual minorities from developmental programs and health care initiatives. Activists say gays and lesbians in Zimbabwe are the targets of hate messaging, discrimination and unjust policies with little end in sight.

Nkululeko Ncube, 21, says he is a shadow of who he once was. The once vivacious and gregarious young man is now living in isolation. His community has shunned him.

Last year, Ncube was a successful salesman for a local stationery company. Things were going smoothly for him until he entered into a relationship with young man from the same neighborhood of Luveve in Zimbabwe’s second largest city of Bulawayo. For close to four months, their relationship was blissful. One night they were caught kissing in a garden outside a Christmas party. Ncube says all hell broke loose. His life has not been the same since. He and his partner have endured discrimination and violence.

“My mother enticed us into a room and locked us inside for almost an hour,” Ncube recalled. “Then two men, wearing blue work suits, entered with big sticks to beat us like wild animals. One of the men hit my head with so much force that I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness my body had deep lacerations that required emergency medical attention, but no one was there to help me,” Ncube said.

Ever since, the two men have been shunned from their homes and are not welcome in their community. They have slept under bridges, eaten anything they could get their hands on and have taken baths in the heavily contaminated streams of Bulawayo.

After two weeks in the wilderness, Ncube decided enough was enough. He tried to sneak back home only to find he had been fired from his job. He is not able to attend the marketing course he has been studying in for the last two years. Worst

Read Full Story
Decades into Conflict, Thousands Still Missing

By Nusrat Ara, Press Institute Reporter, Kashmir

In the last 20 years, more than 80,000 people in Kashmir have been killed. Another 10,000 have disappeared. One grassroots organization led by families of the missing is fighting for answers.

“It is no longer the fight for my son. It is fight for all the disappeared. They are all my sons,” said Parveena Ahangar.

As night falls in Srinagar, the capital of the northernmost state of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir, Parveena Ahangar begins to grow restless again. Her son is still missing.

She still thinks of the clothes he wore the last time she saw him. She thinks of the night someone rushed in to tell her that Indian troops picked up her son, who was asleep at his uncle’s house. He was 16.

That was 19 years ago. Today, Ahangar, 49, is still waiting for her son to surface.

This stocky mother of five is one of thousands of mothers who have suffered the disappearance of children and family members in the two-decade long armed conflict here. An armed insurgency against Indian rule broke out in Indian administered Kashmir in 1989.

But unlike so many of those mothers, Ahangar is still fighting on behalf of her missing son and for all of the families who have had members disappear. “It is no longer the fight for my son. It is fight for all the disappeared. They are all my sons,” says Ahangar, the Chairperson of the Association of Parents of the Disappeared Kashmir (APDP) an organization she founded in 1994 to bring families of the disappeared together.

Divided between India and Pakistan, Kashmir is claimed by both countries. Three wars have been fought in attempt to control it, after India gained independence from Britain and subsequent partition in 1947. An armed insurgency against India broke out in the Indian portion of Kashmir in 1989, where anti-India sentiment still runs deep.

Today, decades after fighting began, Kashmiri separatists

Read Full Story
White Lily Revolution Seeks Justice for Indigenous Women

By Cristina Avila, Press Institute Reporter, Mexico

Eufrosina Cruz is no stranger to challenging the status quo. She ran away from home when she was 11, after watching her older sister become a bride at 12 and a mother at 13. After a failed bid for mayor, in which she was disqualified for being a woman, this 29-year-old woman is a college-educated accountant and founder of a new foundation dedicated to empowering the indigenous women of Mexico.

OAXACA, MEXICO – She is cursed and persecuted by her home community. She has received death threats. Federal police follow her to protect her life. Still, she described herself as “the freest woman in the world.“ She is Eufrosina Cruz.

Cruz is from the village of Santa Maria Quiegolani, a community in the southern highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico. In this indigenous village, Zapotec, not Spanish, remains the primary language of the 1,500 residents. But there is something else peculiar about this town. Here, women are not considered citizens. The ancient rules of the community do not allow women the right to vote.

That’s why when Cruz ran for mayor, it caused quite a stir. Though many people in the village voted for her, some even claim she won, local authorities denied all votes cast for her “because she is a woman,“ said Valariano Lopez, the current deputy mayor. He confirmed that all ballots cast for Eufrosina Cruz were nullified.

Today, Cruz has used her political defeat to begin a state and nationwide fight for indigenous women’s rights. She launched a national-level effort to reform ancient indigenous practices that limit the freedoms of women throughout southern Mexico. In the process, she said, she found her own voice and a way to empower others.

Cruz is no stranger to challenging the status quo. She ran away from home when she was 11, after watching her older sister become a bride at 12 and a mother at 13. Today, at 29, Cruz is a college-educated accountant and founder of a new foundation dedicated to empowering the indigenous women of

Read Full Story
Violence, Lack of Opportunities Plague Nigerian Women

By Obisakin Christianah Busayo

“Empowerment of women is the secret weapon of the development in Africa,” declared former World Bank president, James Wolfensohn at a benefit in Nigeria in 2006. “The problem is you (men) beat them up. Gender violence has got to stop,” he said flatly.

ILE-IFE, NIGERIA -- Moni Alagbe, 44, is good looking and successful. She makes an above average salary and is the mother of beautiful daughters. Despite her public persona, Alagbe is miserable.

Her husband beats her nearly every day, for the smallest of errors. Her crime? She gave birth to daughters instead of sons.

“I receive [a] beating for every mistake I make because I am a mother of girls,” she said through tears. “I could not give him boys.” Alagbe said her marriage was blissful at first. But now, her husband is considering bringing another woman into their home – one who can give him a son.

For many experts working toward the goal of sustainable development in Africa there is one nagging issue that continues to hinder progress – the oppression of women. For years, international figures from Hillary Clinton, United States Secretary of State, to James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank, have argued that African nations have not progressed partly due to the disrespectful and violent treatment of the continent’s women.

Ritual killings, sexual abuse, rape and prostitution are still common throughout Africa, and Nigeria is no exception. The degradation of women has continued for many reasons – patriarchal societal rules as well as limited jobs and other opportunities. Many argue that the primary obstacle remains that women are under-represented in local and national leadership.

“Empowerment of women is the secret weapon of the development in Africa,” declared Wolfensohn at a benefit in Nigeria in 2006. “The problem

Read Full Story
Subpar Health Care for Poor

By Juana de Jesús Pérez Mendez

In San Cristobal, health services provided to the community’s poorest residents are subpar. Equipment is lacking. The facility is filthy. But families are obligated to keep their appointments here or they risk losing monetary aid from the government.

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS -- Amidst broken windows and makeshift walls, sewer rats play among boxes of nutritional supplements for malnourished babies and nursing mothers.

This is the clinic at the Municipal Recreational Center (CEDEM) in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, where more than 33,000 of the city’s poorest residents obtain medical services each year.

The bulk of the CEDEM clinic’s patients participate in Oportunidades, a government program with the stated mission of “promoting human development among the population living in extreme poverty.“ The program offers a range of services to marginalized families including scholarships and cash to defray food and electricity costs. Oportunidades participants receive free health services including prenatal care, nutritional assessment and the prevention and detection of cervical cancer.

The health services provided are obligatory for families enrolled in the program. If someone misses scheduled doctor’s appointments, their monetary aid is docked or eliminated.

But many of the families who receive help from Oportunidades complain that they receive substandard treatment at the CEDEM clinic, and that the clinic’s offices and examining rooms are dirty and unhygienic. Complaints about pap smears are particularly common. Women complain that the tests, essential in the detection of cervical cancer, provoke pain and bleeding, and many say they have never seen their test results.

In light of the clinic’s conditions, these families find themselves in a tough situation. If they stop going to

Read Full Story
Women in Prison

By Rosario Adriana Alcázar González

As Adela Pérez, convicted of killing her infant son, raises her new baby in a prison outside of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, her cellmates struggle with isolation, overcrowding and competition for basic necessities.

“Sleep little one, sleep. It’s better to sleep because the day is long,“ whispered Adela as her brown-skinned, five-month-old baby cries inconsolably. “Sleep, Enrique, sleep,“ she says, rubbing his little back with dark, dry hands.

“Stop crying, please. They’re going to yell at us,“ she said, pacing around the small patio. She looked around with fear, “Shut up, please. I don’t want problems with the others,“ said Adela, afraid of being reprimanded by the cell block guards or by one of her 45 “housemates.“

Adela Pérez, 23, is serving a 10 year sentence in the women’s area of State Readaptation and Prevention Center Number 5, called Cereso 5, 20 kilometers outside of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. Perez gave birth in prison, two years after meeting Manuel Pérez, Enrique's father, who is serving time for robbery in the men’s section of the center.

There are 15 Ceresos in the state, which house over 3,500 people. Three of these correctional centers, located in Cintalapa, Tapachula and San Cristóbal, have wards for females where over 300 women accused of murder, robbery, fraud and crimes against health (drug possession or trafficking) live.

Until 2000, male and female prisoners were housed in the same prisons. But former governor, Pablo Salazar, who left office in December 2006, implemented a series of prison reforms that concentrated all women prisoners in special areas within three Ceresos. “This decision was made because the incidence of crime is lower among women, and so it was difficult to maintain programs or womens’ wards for just two

Read Full Story
Bringing Down Blood

By Marissa Revilla

In Chiapas, abortion is legal in some circumstances, but social and bureaucratic barriers put up by government workers often delay and prevent women from obtaining what would be legal abortions. Women who are raped or whose lives are in danger often seek clandestine services rather than tangle with government obstacles.

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS -- Ending an unwanted pregnancy is risky in Mexico, where, according to the National Geography and Information Institute (INEGI), 31 percent of abortions end in death.

Though abortion is illegal in most circumstances in Mexico, women here find ways. They turn to midwives who prescribe herbs to “bring down blood.” They throw themselves down stairs. They find back-alley clinics or feminist doctors. Rich women fly to the United States.

Though many abortions are never tallied or reported, INEGI data showed that at least 850,000 abortions are performed in Mexico every year, the vast majority are clandestine.

Mexican law allows abortion in three instances: in cases of rape, when the fetus is deformed and when the pregnancy puts the woman’s life in danger. But women who should legally be allowed to obtain abortions are often unable to.

Maria, 44, and Hilda, 19, both sought abortions. Both fit the criteria for a legal abortion. Both nearly died. They narrowly avoided becoming statistics, adding to Chiapas’ sky-high maternal mortality rate, the highest in Mexico. The second-highest cause of maternal mortality in the state? Hemorrhages resulting from abortions.

Maria, a mestiza educator, became pregnant in 1987, at age 25. The pregnancy was unplanned, but she decided to go through with it. During the first month, severe pain and bleeding sent her to a gynecologist who explained that hers was a high-risk pregnancy and that Maria’s life and the life of the fetus were in danger. The doctor prescribed eight months of bed

Read Full Story
The Children of Maseca

By Delmy Tania Cruz Hernandez

Corn flour giant Maseca dominates the tortilla market in Mexico. New government regulations aimed at tortillerías have raised concerns and old memories about Maseca's questionable rise to the top.

SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS -- Among the smells of flowers, mandarins and fish in the Castillo Tielemans Market in San Cristóbal de las Casas, something is missing.

The smell of nixtamal, fresh corn dough. That tantalizing and familiar smell that once wafted from the pink door of the tortillería La Insurgenta is gone. Former owner Monica Rodriguez closed the shop in August. It was one of the last tortillerías in the city to sell tortillas made from fresh corn, not mass-produced corn flour.

Traditionally, tortillas are made using a time-consuming process passed down through generations. Women cook corn with slaked lime then grind the mixture to make nixtamal, a dense corn dough that is patted by hand into tortillas.

But there’s another, newer, way to make tortillas, one that in the last 20 years has transformed Mexico’s tortilla market. All this new method requires is corn flour and water. Today, 46 percent of the tortillas sold in Mexico are made with corn flour. The largest corn flour producer in the world is Maseca, which controls 71 percent of the market and operates factories in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Walking down the narrow, cobblestone streets of San Cristóbal, Maseca’s presence is everywhere. In nearly every neighborhood, there is at least one Maseca tortillería, instantly recognizable by its white façade and the yellow and green Maseca corn ear logo. According to figures from the Health Secretary of San Cristóbal, 70 percent of the city’s tortillerías use Maseca.

When Rodríguez decided to open a tortillería that used

Read Full Story