22, March 2019 22/03/2019 – Posted in: Daily News – Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Zoroastrianism in India

 

News Flash

In a recent interview with The Hindu, Mumbai-based Parsi brothers chartered accountant Kerssie Wadia and his businessman brother Vispy say their religion doesn’t treat any race as pure or impure.

In 2004 both started Association for Revival of Zoroastrianism with an aim to set up a universal fire temple, which will be open to all. They were opposed for this move but finally now the fire temple in Pune has been opened. It is Called Asha Vahishta Zoroastrian Centre, the new fire temple completes three months on March 25.

Zoroastrianism, or Mazdayasna, is one of the world’s oldest religions. It is a monotheistic faith (believes in single creator God). Dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology predicting the ultimate destruction of evil is the main cosmological understanding of this religion.

The teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra) are the main source of this religion and he is considered the prophet of Zoroastrianism. The main deity is Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord), a Supreme Being.

 

Major features of Zoroastrianism

  • Messianism.
  • Judgment after death.
  • Heaven and hell.
  • Free Will

 

Parsis in India

There may be fewer than 200,000 Zoroastrians in the world, by some accounts. India’s Parsis have been facing a relentless demographic decline. In the decade till 2011, when the last national census was held, their numbers fell from 69,601 to 57,264 . Their numbers have been falling every decade since 1941, when it had reached a peak of more than 1,00,000. Between 1971 and 1981 it fell by 20%, the sharpest decline till the latest decennial count. The main pilgrimage centre in India is Udvada in Gujarat, home to the “Iranshah”, an ever-burning sacred fire said to have been brought to India from Iran in 715 AD.

 

Return to Roots

Return to Roots is a youth-initiated program designed to strengthen community identity amongst Zoroastrian youth the world over.

The idea of a Zoroastrian Return to Roots Program was born out of the increasing disconnect between those Zoroastrians in the diaspora with their ancestral communities in Iran and India. It is a unique means of fostering community links and identity by taking small groups of youth on trips to explore their religious, social and cultural heritage.

 

Vision

  • Reconnect Zoroastrians in the diaspora with their origins in India and Iran
  • Foster a sense of community and identity
  • Focus on youth and the future generation
  • Create a network of RTR global alumni
  • Build a Return to Roots foundation & corpus of funding for future generations of Zoroastrians

This is working under the auspices of the UNESCO PARZOR Foundation.

 

Parsi Immigrations in India

  • Most live in Mumbai, where they grew to be a dominant force in public life under British rule; and in Gujarat, where the first immigrants landed, fleeing persecution in Iran between the eighth and 10th centuries AD.
  • A second wave of “Iranis” arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, escaping Qajar-era pogroms. Many of their descendants now live and work abroad.
Jiyo Parsi, which is funded by the government and supported by UNESCO’s PARZOR (Parsi-Zoroastrian) Foundation, Bombay Parsi Punchayet, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, aims to stop or at least slowdown this decline.

Apart from providing medical services to infertile couples, the scheme runs a slick campaign to encourage more young people to marry and have more kids.

Source: The Hindu

 

World Water Day

 

News Flash

March 22 is World Water Day — a day about tackling the global water crisis in households, schools, workplaces and farms.

 

Safe water

Safe water means water that is free from contamination, and available whenever needed. The world cannot grow and prosper if there are people without access to safe water.

  • Lacking the availability of safe drinking water results in diseases.

The theme this year is ‘Leaving no one behind’.

Women, children, refugees, and disabled people sometimes face discrimination when they try to access water. This is against the basic human right to water — which entitles everyone to water for drinking, personal sanitation, washing clothes, food preparation, and household hygiene. This year’s World Water Day will focus on the reasons why so many people are being left behind.

 

Sustainable Development Goal 6

Sustainable Development Goal 6 is crystal clear: water for all by 2030. By definition, this means leaving no one behind.

 

Crisis of water

  • 2.1 billion people live without safe water at home.
  • More than 700 children under five years of age die every day from diarrhoea linked to unsafe water and poor sanitation.
  • Globally, 80% of the people who have to use unsafe and unprotected water sources live in rural areas.
  • Around four billion people — that is, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population — experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year.
  • 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030.
  • For the 68.5 million people who have been forced to flee their homes, accessing safe water services is highly problematic. Per Day Water recommendation by UN : The amount of water recommended by the United Nations for drinking, washing, cooking and maintaining proper hygiene is a minimum of fifty litres per person per day. This amount is about two and a half buckets of water per person per day.

 

WHO Recommendation for drinking water

Based on estimates of requirements of lactating women who engage in moderate physical activity in above-average temperatures, a minimum of 7.5 litres per capita per day will meet the requirements of most people under most conditions. This water needs to be of a quality that represents a tolerable level of risk. However, in an emergency situation, a minimum of 15 litres is required. A higher quantity of about 20 litres per capita per day should be assured to take care of basic hygiene needs and basic food hygiene. Laundry/bathing might require higher amounts unless carried out at source.

Source: NDTV

 

 

Improvement in TB programmes in India

 

News Flash

Even though India scores high on its determination to eliminate tuberculosis by 2025, its current efforts aren’t enough to do so even by 2100, according to a new report by The Lancet Commission on TB.

  • India had nearly 30% of the world’s new cases in 2017.
  • The Commission developed a model of the so-called “care-cascade” – the sequence of steps a patient must go through in order to be cured which include approaching a doctor, getting diagnosed, starting treatment and adhering to the regime.
  • A deal at any stage increases the window during which the patient remains infectious, thus spreading the disease further.

 

Suggestions

  • Need to improve competencies of private medical professionals, whom patients overwhelmingly approach first. This is where the delays are the greatest, and improvements can yield the most gains.
  • Subsidising diagnostic tests.
  • Optimising treatment adherence.

Still meeting its 2025 elimination goal seems very difficult. Eliminating TB means bringing incidence down to less than one per 10 lakh; currently, the ratio is 204 per lakh.

World TB Day The theme of this year’s World TB Day, which falls on March 24, is ‘It’s time to end TB’. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued new guidance to improve treatment of multi drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and recommended shifting to fully oral regimens to treat people with MDR-TB. This approach is multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral platform to accelerate actions to end TB.

The WHO package is designed to help countries close gaps in care ensuring no one is left behind. Key elements include:

  • An accountability framework to coordinate actions across sectors and to monitor and review progress
  • A dashboard to help countries know more about their own epidemics through real-time monitoring – by moving to electronic TB surveillance systems.
  • A guide for effective prioritization of planning and implementation of impactful TB interventions based on analyses of patient pathways in accessing care.
  • New WHO guidelines on infection control and preventive treatment for latent TB infection
  • A civil society task force to ensure effective and meaningful civil society Engagement

Source:  The Hindu