What are the hygienic ways of managing public conveniences in post-disaster situation?

Communicable diseases or epidemics need not occur in the post-disaster situation unless large number of peoples are evacuated or displaced from their homes and placed in the crowded and insanitary campus. The sanitary deficiencies in these campuses may expose the habitats of the camps to serious health hazard during their stay over there. Proper disposal of excreta and solid waste and vector control are of primary importance and require immediate attention. We shall discuss here some of the hygiene ways of managing public conveniences in post-disaster situation. i) Excreta Disposal: Unsatisfactory disposal of excreta is common after natural disasters. In the absence of proper sanitation measures, any of the following may result:

More flies and more breeding places Unpleasant smells Underground and ground water contamination Food contamination by flies Increase in disease incidence

a) Existing Sewerage System: The sewerage system and treatment plant may be put out of service due to natural disaster. Earthquake may destroy the sewerage network, pumping station or treatment plans. Similarly, floods may block the sewerage system and inundate the treatment plant. Immediately after any disaster situation, a detailed survey must be carried out and a damage report must be prepared. Based on this report various measures can be taken on high priority.

Rapid repair of sewers, with temporary arrangements to bypass damaged section, Cleaning blocked sewers, Disinfecting the treatment plant after dewatering format and making it operational; Temporary arrangement for discharging sewage.

b) Temporary Shelter and Camps: For temporary shelters, the appropriate sanitation measures are necessary. The choice is usually between shared and individual facilities. Individual family facilities are always preferred, as the satisfactory maintenance of shared facilities is always a problem. But most of the time, individual family facilities are not possible and only shared facilities can be provided for relief campus. During the identification and development of the camp, the first priority must be to designate a specific area for people to excrete. The method requires a very careful supervision and management to keep pollution at a minimum. Men, women and children must be encouraged to use it and prevented from defecating in the open. This area must be fenced and must be kept clean by regular removal of excreta from the site and use of disinfection. Open surface defecation, if it has be restored to, can be improved by digging shallow or deep trenches into which people can excrete directly. In this method, the faeces can be covered with fresh soil on daily basis to get better sanitation.

Other methods recommended for post-disaster sanitation are aqua privy, mobile latrine and separate urinals. ii) Solid Disposal: The accumulation of refuse or rubbish in a camp can constitute a health risk. The rubbish either is buried, burnt or remove from the campsite. To expedite the disposal of refuse, separate containers for storing and collection of organic and inorganic wastes must be utilized. The refuse thus collected must be disposed off either through sanitary landfill, incineration or burial. In the rural areas, special care must be taken for the collection and disposal of animal dung. The best method of disposal is to bury it into trenches. Another serious problem in post-disaster stage is the disposal of dead animals. Burial is the only solution for big animals while burning is feasible for small animals like cats and dogs. When carcasses are large, it is not possible to burry all of them without heavy excavation equipments. The carcasses awaiting burial should be sprinkled with kerosene to protest them from the predatory animals. The waste water from make shift hospitals, water points, mass feeding centers and milk distribution centers must be disposed off properly. The usual way is to drain away this water into a soak pit. Vector Control: The post-disaster situations are most favorable for rapid increase in the population of insects and rodents. These can create a health risk and soil and destroy large quantities of food items, which are already scarce in disaster emergencies. The vector problem generally develops in densely crowded conditions where sanitation conditions are inadequate. Flies, fleas, lice, mites, mosquitoes and bedbugs are disease vectors that develop in uncontrolled environment. Vector control must follow a definite plan and programme. Special teams must be organized to control various types of vectors. The team leader must have adequate knowledge and experience in combating this type of situation.

Why Human Resources are regarded as vital for Economic Development?

Human resources are vital from the point of view of economic development. In the first place, people are used as an instrument of production and are available as factors of production to work in combination with other factors. Secondly, they are the consumers and the objective of economic development is to maximize their economic welfare. In other words, people are the means to achieve economic development and also the end in them selves. The nature and size of population, therefore, is a crucial factor determining economic development of a country. 1. Adverse effect of population on economic development: Labour, no doubt has a positive contribution in the process of production and development of an economy. But a rapid rising population acts as an obstacle on smooth economic progress. (a) Due to rapid growth of population, the per capital income in India has remained either stagnant or shown a very marginal increase in spite of a substantial increase in national income during the plan periods.

(b) The growth of population has created a serious shortage of food grains for which the country was compelled to import food- grains from outside. (c) Increasing population with growing children increases the number of unproductive population in the country. (d) Increasing population aggravates the unemployment problem which is found in an underdeveloped country like India. (e) The volume of investment falls as a rising population increases the volume of consumption in our country. (f) An increasing population reduces the quality of life of the masses and makes them less efficient. (g) Increasing population in rural areas leads to subdivision and fragmentation of land and reduces productivity in the agricultural sector. 2. Population-growth pattern: The pattern of India's population-growth can be divided into three periods over the past century from the analytical point of view, the points of division being 1921 and 1951. The growth of population during first two decades was less than 16 million persons accounting a less than 0.2 per cent growth rate per annum. The reasons for this slow growth can be found from a high death rate caused due to natural calamities, epidemics and lack of medical facilities. The year 1921 is regarded by the Census Commission, as the year of 'Great Divide. From this year, the death rate declined significantly due to introduction of better medical facilities in the country while the birth rate did not show any tendency to fall. The net increase in population from 1921 to 1951 was 110 million persons. After 1951, population increased in the country at a very alarming rate. It almost doubled itself from 348 million in 1948 to 685 million in 1981. The past two decades have been experiencing a decline in both birth rate and death rate compared to the previous years. If this trend continues, the expected growth rate of population will be less than 2% per annum. Density of Population: According to 1991 census, the average density of population per sq. k.m. in India was 267 persons as against 216 in 1981. But as per 2001 census the density of population is 324. It is highest in Delhi9,294, next being West Bengal at 904 and lowest being 13 per sq. k.m. at Arunachal Pradesh. Among the States that have recorded significant decline in growth rate are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Gujarat, Goa and Kerala (lowest growth rate - 9.4 in Kerala). The six most populous States - U.P., Bihar, M.P., West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, account for 60.9 % of the country's population in 2001 census. A disturbing fact of 1991 census was the decline in the ratio of female for 1000 male persons. The sex ratio declined from 934 in 1981 to 929 in 1991. But in 2001 the sex ratio has increased to 933. The sex ratio stands at I05S at Kerala, 986 at Tamilnadu. 990 in Chhattisgarh and 773 (lowest) at Chandigarh. Population Policy:

The rapid growth of population in the country necessitated for a positive population policy to restrict the growing population. India is the first country in Asia to adopt a comprehensive population policy and family planning programme in 1952. The family planning programme started at a modest rate with an expenditure of Rs. 70 lakhs during the 1st Plan, which increased to Rs. 5 crores during 2nd Plan, to Rs. 30 crores in the 3rd Plan. In the 4th Five Year Plan Rs. 315 crores were allotted for family planning programme with the objective of reducing the birth-rate. During the 5th Plan period, there was a significant change in Government's attitude towards family planning and emphasis was shifted from clinical approach to an integrated policy of health, family planning, nutrition and child-care policy. The basic objective was to encourage the small family norm through proper financial incentives and motivational programmes. The Plan aimed at reducing the birth rate from 40 per thousand to 25 per thousand by the end of the plan. During this period, the new population policy was introduced. New Population Policy, 1976: The main features of 1976 policy are as follows: (a) The Government proposed legislation to raise the age of marriage from 18 for girls and 21 for boys. (b) Programme was made to expand female education in all States. (c) Monetary incentives have to be provided in order to attract people for family planning. During the 6th Plan the objective was to reduce the net reproduction rate to unity by 1996 for the country as a whole and by 2001 A.D. for all States from the present level. The 8th Plan, realizing the situation revised the target to achieve unity net reproduction rate by 2011 - 16 A.D. Swami Nathan Policy: In July, 1993, an Expert Group under the chairmanship of Dr. M.S. Swami Nathan was appointed to formulate a draft for the new population policy by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The draft plan was basically concerned with gender inequality and the discrimination against the women. It calls for decentralizing the family planning programme to the grass-root level and calls for empowering one million women members from the Panchayat level to carry out the programme. It further suggested the setting-up of Population and Social Development Commission to operate a Population and Social Development Fund. The committee also pointed out that population, poverty and environment degradation has close linkage and hence all the variables should be simultaneously manipulated to achieve the objective. The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held at Cairo in 199 also laid stress on empowering women as a means of improving the quality of life, which is same as the India's New Population Policy.

Seven steps taken by the Government to improve Indian agriculture after independence
Various measures taken by the central and state governments from time to time, some of them are: 1. To begin with government took lead in providing various facilities on its own. In course of time different types of activities were entrusted to specific public agencies. 2. The government abolished the zamindari system. It was followed with the consolidation of small holdings to make them economically viable. 3. Another important input was the widespread use of radio and television for acquainting farmers in new and improved techniques of cultivation. 4. The crop insurance was another step to protect the farmers against losses caused by crop failure on account of natural calamities like drought, flood, hailstorm, cyclone, fire, diseases etc. 5. Easy availability of capital or investment input through a well-knit network of rural banking and small scale cooperative societies with low interest rates were other facilities provided to the farmers for modernisation of agriculture. 6. Special weather bulletins for farmers were introduced on radio and television. 7. The government announced minimum support price for various crops removing the elements of uncertainty. It ensures minimum price for the crop grown by the farmers.

Can India prosper, while its agriculture stagnates ? Essay

The NDA leaders were making tall claims of India shining and about achieving higher rates of economic growth. According to them, we would soon achieve the rank of developed countries. All these claims seem to have no tangent but based on figures of quarterly growth rates -and that too in the year of rebound of agricultural growth after the serious setback suffered by it due to severe drought ill in proceeding years. Food grains production in the year 2001-2002 was 212 million tonnes which had declilled to only 182. 6 million tonnes i.e. by 13.9 percent in the drought year of 20022003. This year, the food grain production is expected to be about the same as in 2001-2002. Because of this trend the overall economy would record an annual growth of more than 8 percent. However, if we take a long-term view, the GDP growth rate, during the five years of the NDA rule, 1998-1999 to 2003-2004, comes out, more than 5.8 percent, almost equal to the growth rate of GDP achieved during the proceeding ten-year period, 1988-1989 to 1998-1999. Let us analyze where India stands in the world context. The figures are relating to average per capita GDP and indicators of standard of living in India, those in the developed countries and the world as a whole are presented in the following table Potential and performance of our agriculture: With good area of arable land and temperate climate India is richly endowed by Nature for agriculture production. Our arable to the total land area is 51 percent against the world average of only 11 percent only. Even if half of the average rainfall is received, if preserved and delivered to fields, our entire arable land can produce two crops a year. We are also fortunate in having a temperate climate which enables us to grow crops throughout the year; whereas in most parts of the world due to severe winters only one crop can be grown in a year. The crude fact is that we are not fully utilizing our natural resources. More than 38 million hectares of our land which though cultivable has been left uncultivated, classified as "cultivable wasteland," or "old and current fallows." This area of 38 million hectares is more than the total cultivated area of four countries viz. Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Japan which provide succour to more than 400 million people Living in those countries. Not only our rain water is being wasted but more and more of our good top soils are being eroded, and our ground water is also getting depleted. The government given little attention to prevent the waste of valuable natural assets, land and water. Plan expenditure on "irrigation and flood control," which was 10 percent of the total plan expenditure during the Sixth Plan period, was brought down to only 6.7 percent during the Ninth Plan. Similarly, plan expenditure on "agriculture and allied activities," which was 6. 1 percent of the total plan expenditure during the Sixth Plan, was brought down to only 4.4 percent during the Ninth Plan. The performance of the farm sector during the Ninth Plan has been very disappointing, though in all those five years, rainfall was near normal. Against the target of 4.5 percent per annum growth rate of agricultural GDP, the achievement was only 1.81 percent per annum, and against the target of3 .05 percent per annum growth rate of foodgrains production, the achievement was only 1.23 percent which is much less than the growth rate of our population. Consequently, both poverty and undernourishment have increased in rural India.

In spite of all the favorable conditions for agricultural production our productivity per hectare of most crops is much less than the world average and half of those already achieved in agriculturally advanced countries. Achieving bigger productivity in agriculture is the surest way to reduce incidence of poverty. The States, Punjab and Haryana, whose yields per hectare are the highest in India, and other States with the minimum incidence of poverty. Maharashtra which is said to be the most industrialized State in India, has much higher incidence of poverty than Punjab and Haryana. The main reason for the poor performance of our farm sector has been the long punishing adverse terms of trade against agriculturists. Lower increase in prices off amount puts d to those off arm inputs have led to poor profits, poor capital formation and on in the farm sector. Capital formation in agriculture as a percentage of total capital formation in the country which was 15.4 percent in 19801981, fell to 9.9in 1990-1991 and to only 7.7 to 2000-2001. It is this sharp decline in capital formation in the farm sector that has led to its stagnation. The Government of India claims that to provide support to farmers, it very judiciously fixes MSPs of farm products and buys those from farmers when they fail to sell their produce in open markets at prices higher than the MSPs. Both these claims are not true. MSPs of wheat and paddy have always been fixed at levels lower that the indices of wholesale prices of "all commodities," with base year 1970-1971=100 Farmers have been paying a higher level of prices for their purchases than what they have been receiving by sale of their produce. In other words, the terms of trade have always been against farmers. The claim of purchases of fam1 products by the government from farmers at MSPs to prevent dishes sales by them is also not quite true. An analysis of the government purchases reveals that no less than 75 percent of the total government purchases of foodgrains are made only in three States, viz. Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. The contribution of these States to the total national production of foodgrains is only about one-fourth, Farmers of rest of India who contribute nearly three-fourths to the total production of foodgrains in the country, hardly get any benefit from government purchases. Even the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices has, in its latest report, said, "If the procurement arrangements are not equitably expanded and extended to the new and emerging areas, it will send a wrong signal and minimum support prices for the farmers of these States will remain only on paper, leading to large scale discontentment." For 75 percent farmers in the country, the promise of purchase of their produce at MSPs has so far remained only a promise on paper. Our policy makers have ignored the fact that it is the people of any country who make or mark the future of that country, and not only the politicians, industrialists and technicians. The latter can, no doubt, play an important role in the economic development of the country; but if the vast majority of our people particularly the farmers are left wallowing in poverty and ignorance, nothing much can be achieved. If we really want to make progress, we should first pay more attention to agriculture and human development. The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people living day by day with no food. And they never-curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them."-1977 interview.

Essay on India as the fastest emerging space power

"Kalam said; if one does not do anything, one does not experience any problem. But if you do any mission, any task, problems will arise. That problem should not become your master. You should become the master of the problem, defeat that problem and succeed." The foregoing was the piece of advice given by Prof. Satish Dhawan to Dr. A.RJ. Abdul Kalam in 1972 when Prof. Dhawan and Prof. Brahm Prakash asked Dr. Kalam to be the Project Director for the first Satellite Launch Vehicle at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). Prof. Dhawan bucked up Dr. Kalam: "I will give you the required budget. We must do it in seven years. All manpower will be available to you from the organization and from all the centres. We will all work together. Even the Chairman will work for the programmeIt is a very important programme." The first experimental fight on August 10, 1979 failed on account of a leak of oxydiser-red, fuming nitric acid. The experiment failed, but Dr. Kalam did not fail. He sought to locate the cause of failure and the task was made easy by the Chairman of the Failure Analysis Board. The Chairman of the Board and then member-secretary of Board, Dr. Madhayan Nair interviewed 125 scientists and staff about the failure. He analysed over 200 data records. A report was submitted by experts who pinpointed the failure of the air-conditioning plant, which led to dust entering the valve system of the control power plant, resulting in its malfunctioning. Dr. Kalam saw to it that all systems went through rigorous checks. He made constant visits to work centers to see to it that the zeal of the scientists did not flag on any score. July 18, 1980 was a proud moment for India when India's space scientists launched the Satellite Launch Vehicle 3 (SLV-3) rocketing India into the Space Club. The rocket put the 38.5 kg Rohini satellite into orbit in just 12 minutes. The hero of the saga was none other than Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Twenty-five eventful years have gone by and both Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Dr. Kalam have scripted one success story after another. The one-time space scientists, Dr. Kalam is now former President of India and ISRO has become a space organization with manifold programmes and achievements that have won kudos from both developing and developed countries. The US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the space agencies in Europe and Russia are keen to foster joint venture programmes in India. The scientist never stops growing or learning. It was the ever inquisitive scientist in him that brought Dr. Kalam to VSSC in Kerala on July 28, 2005 to rub shoulders with his old colleagues. He worked here for 20 years and laid before ISRO a vision plan for the next fifteen years. India was the sixth nation to join the elite space club in 1980, and the world took note of it. On this firm foundation laid in 1980, Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) can today launch a payload of 5,000 kg. ISRO is able to meet the various demands of the nation in remote sensing communications, meteorology, television, telecommunication, tale-education and several other scientific experiments. Except for a solitary failure in 1993, every Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) flight was a success over the past twelve years. AS far as communication satellites are concerned, what is required is a launch capability of 3.5 tonnes and ISRO has come out with a configuration of GSLV (Mark III) that would have the capacity to carry four tones. The launch is scheduled to take placed in late 2007.

The new vistas on distance education were opened up recently when the President of India inaugurated the first interactive network on EDUSAT-an Education Satellite that could widen its reach by promoting the self-learning method by laying emphasis on the question and answer methodology. It would also ulilise digital library facilities that were now being put in place so that it could be made accessible to students in remote areas. Eventually EDUSAT would be connected with the village knowledge centres being set up in different parts of the country. This apart, about 1,000 primary schools would benefit from EDUSAT. Twenty major institutions, including the Indira Gandhi National Open University, the University Grants Commission and the All India Council of Technical Education would start telecasting educational programmes using EDUSAT in 2005 itself. Over 1,000 teacher-training institutes will also use EDUSAT transponders for telecasting lessons. The advent of communications technology, especially Satcom, has enabled taking the benefit of medical science to a large section of the people in remote and inaccessible villages. Since 2001, when the space- based telemedicine network was established ISRO has been providing telemedicine technology and connectivity between rural/remote hospitals and super speciality hospitals and connectivity for mobile telemedicine units in rural areas, especially in the areas of ophthalmology and community health. Starting as a point-to-point system connecting the doctor and the patient alone, it has evolved into multipoint connectivity through servers, linking remote hospitals, rural units and super speciality hospitals in different parts of the country. An impact study conducted by the ISRO on 1,000 patients showed that thanks to telemedicine, the patients had saved 81 percent of the cost because of savings in travel, stay and treatment at city hospitals. ISRO had also combined with the IT industry to do extensive work in developing software and hardware for medical applications. The development of technology-based healthcare delivery systems through the satellite medium could substantially augment existing healthcare, especially in rural and remote areas. ISRO has also promoted tie-ups with industries and academic institutions. The Public Sector Units (PSUs) and the private industry are able to meet almost all the requirement of the Space Department.There a strong linkage with about 300 industries associated with the production of hardware. The VSSC does only research and development work and prototyping. The production is done by the industries in elaboration with the Centre for exclusive use in the country's programmes. As far as academic institutions, VSSC works with the Indian restitute of Technology (IIT) and the University of Hyderabad. It has interaction with more than 50 academic institutions. Though VSSC has been able to realize the vision of Vikram Sarabhai r respect of remote sensing and communications, the organization faces problems in regard to launch vehicle technology since they do not get inputs from anywhere. It faced two failures in launching the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV). They served as great lessons in technology and the organization has stood to gain from these failures. ISRO can be really proud of its indigenisation: from 80 percent to 82 percent of the systems and subsystems are indigenously fabricated. The only area the organization is dependent is on imports of avionics designs. But even here ISRO hopes that it can overcome the problem in just two years. ISRO is also working on reusable launchers; these reissuable rockets will come back after putting the satellites in orbit. One such reusable system is called hyper plane with 100 takeoffs and 100 landings. India's pioneering work in the field of hyper plane is the result of innovative thoughts of Air Commodore (retired) R. Gopalaswami. ISRO is yet to decide whether to have single- stage or twostage rocket systems as reusable launchers. Why reusable launch vehicles? The idea is to reduce the launch cost. At present, the cost is about $15,000 to $20,000 per kg of payload. To reduce it, ISRO has to change from expendable vehicles to reusable vehicles. The reusable vehicle will be an aircraft-like module-a version of the hyper plane

visualised by the President-that can re-enter the atmosphere withstanding the high temperature that would be generated on re-entry. ISRO proposes to launch a reusable vehicle by the end of 2005 or early next year. The spacecraft would remain in orbit for three to 30 days. In orbit, it will carry out micro-gravity experiments. Then it will debit to return to earth. It would land at sea using three parachutes that would bring down the velocity to 15 metres a second. The objective is to demonstrate reusable launch vehicles. A larger reusable vehicle i under development at ISRO and it would be ready in three to four year; While inaugurating a symposium on launch vehicles, organized i connection with the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the first successful launch of the satellite vehicle SL V-3, at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram on July 28,2005, Homble President Dr. Kalai exhorted India to join the race to set up mining and manufacturing industries on the moon and Mars. He said that the next industries revolution would take place in space and that India should prepare itself for manned space missions to the moon and Mars. He said the count: should develop the capability to refuel, repair and maintain satellites orbit. Hectic days are ahead for India, the fast emerging space power. ISF is collaborating with the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) to draw research students towards the lunar mission. A number of universities their own are also planning to start programmes connected with the lunar mission. In a nutshell, Chandrayaan-1 will provide challenging opportunities for planetary research for the younger generation. Many of the global players who have themselves gone ahead in space exploration are keen to tie up with India in different facets of space probes. For instance, India may launch Russian satellites for a global navigational system in 2006. The launch will take place under an Indo-Russian accord on the joint use of the Russian satellite communication, GLONASS, signed in December 2004 during the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin's visit to India.