Printing press owners in dilemma
By Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Entrepreneurs running printing businesses in the city are in a dilemma. They have been virtually caught between the proverbial devil and the deep sea.

The Estate Officer has resumed several residential premises for the alleged misuse of carrying out printing activity in residential areas. On the other hand, the industrial sites allotted on payment in the industrial area Phase I are reportedly under the illegal occupation of migrant labourers who have set up jhuggis and even constructed pucca booths where STD PCOs have come up.

At the moment, the cases of resuming the sites are in the last stages as the Advisor to the Administrator, Ms Vineeta Rai, is hearing the cases personally. The sites are not yet vacant, thus the printers cannot move out, allege site owners.

More than a decade ago, the printing business in the city used to be run in residential areas. In those times, the printing machines used to make a lot of noise, provoking protests from residents. Finally in 1988, the Estate Office decided to allot alternative sites to the printers.

In all these years, the Administration could not give vacant possession of these sites, located adjacent to Labour Colony Number 4 to all the printers. Close to 50 sites owners are still without the vacant possession, claims Mr N.K. Arora, President of the Press Site Owners Association. Migrant labour from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who have built jhuggis on the sites refuse to budge and the number of encroachments keeps on rising, while the printers have been waiting for 10 years to start their business.

In a recent incident, a pucca booth came up where a STD PCO was allotted and it was operational. Following complaints by the owner of the site, the booth was demolished while the STD PCO was cancelled last week. Interestingly, over the years, the encroachers have also been issued ration cards by the Food and Supplies Department, further strengthening their claims.

Printers say that a large number of small printing jobs are nowadays carried out on sophisticated machines that do not create any noise. Thus they should be allowed with some kind of restriction in the residential areas.

Negligible work on woman welfare
By Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Aug 24 — Negligible work has been done for welfare of women following the international Beijing conference in 1995. This forms a part of the assessment by Non-Government Organisations of the actual work done.

Dr Pam Rajput, head of the centre for Women Studies in Panjab University, who was a senior delegate, says the report, to be discussed at Bangkok later this month, will be presented at the international conference in 2000. It will present a picture of ground realities and recommend future plan of action. The recommendations will form part of United Nations Organisation's agenda.

A significant portion of the project deals with the fronts where the centre has not lived upto promises made at the conference, including important areas like education. The government delegation assured six per cent expenditure on education. However, it does not exceed three per cent.

A national policy on empowerment of women was drafted in 1996. It still awaits implementation. Change in governments at the centre is being seen as the biggest deterrent in implementation of welfare schemes.

Other areas promised by the government include appointment of a human rights commission which can keep an accurate tab on atrocities against women. Other significant areas assured by the government include national policy on women, a mechanism to monitor implementation and health care schemes. However, reports indicate insignificant contribution by the government.

The National Development Council was to review all development programmes and targets. Despite official rhetoric and bureaucratic elequence, the draft policy still lies in cold storage, the report says. The reasons include frequent change in governments and inability to get it passed by successive governments.

The past lok sabhas have averaged 30 females, which is about six per cent of the total. The Rajya Sabha averages nine per cent. State assemblies average four per cent.

Nearly 71 per cent of women are subjected to sexual abuse. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have the maximum number of prostitutes.

India has the largest proportion of female illiteracy. The gender disparity is high among scheduled castes and tribes.

India focuses excessively on contraception and pregnancy, the report says. Less attention is paid to diseases, particularly communicable diseases. The physical and social criteria of a human being are often ignored.

It is also pointed out that official reports rarely discuss existing problems. Other problems include insufficient financial resources, database and trained personnel.