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indianexpress:  The State Labour Department may have rescued 43 child labourers from hotels and other establishments across the city since April this year, but the number of child labourers in the city could actually be far higher as many cases do not come to light, especially those of children working as domestic help. This was revealed by activists from the Action for Rights of the Child (ARC) at a press conference today.

“Many children have been rescued from hotels, dhabas and other eateries, but there are also many children working as domestic help. But most of these cases remain hidden, and even if they do come to light, households cannot be raided as easily,” said ARC member Manish Shroff. Nirmala Hiremath of Mobile Creches said that a large number of child labourers are also found at construction sites.

In a study conducted by child rights organisation Childline, 328 child labourers were found in hazardous and non-hazardous occupations in the months of April and May this year. Of these, 54 were found working in hotels, while 70 were ragpickers,23 were child beggars and 24 worked in shops. Another 77 children took up odd jobs at places like railway stations.

On the eve of Children’s Day on November 14, ARC reiterated its firm stance against all kinds of child labour, including domestic labour. “Many people feel domestic labour is acceptable because they say at least the children get square meals in the day. But the fact remains that their childhood is lost. Moreover, there are many cases of abuse and violation of rights as there is no regulation in domestic labour,” said India Sponsorship Committee project coordinator Audrey Ferreira

indianexpress: The family members of slain BPO employee Jyoti Kumari Chaudhary on Tuesday said that there were many loopholes in the security mechanism of BPO companies, and this led to the murder of Chaudhary. The family members stressed the need for a better, comprehensive procedure with appropriate and `tough to beat’ system of checks and balances. “Such a system will ensure safety, prevent such attacks and lead to early detection of crimes. However, we understand that no security system is foolproof,” the family members said in a public statement issued here.

Shishir Pundalik, a family member, who addressed a press conference, said, “We strongly disagree with those who claim that all is well with BPO security. This incident shows the gap between the claim and the reality. It is easy to belittle or blame the victim and hide the enormity of the crime in mere statistics but we maintain that the perpetrators had committed the crime by deceit. No provisions are enough unless it can save human life,” Pundalik added.

The public statement further said that Jyoti, her colleagues, employer and family were deceived into a false sense of safety and wellbeing by the perpetrators of this heinous and gruesome crime. The security system and provisions in place were clearly inadequate or insufficient to be an effective deterrent; neither could it detect lapses immediately. The system was in fact too easy to compromise as it has become evident, the statement said.

“As known to us, the accomplice was also sitting in the vehicle at the time of the pickup. The situation was manipulated so as to look as if security provision requiring male employee to be picked earlier was being adhered to. This provision on it own is clearly not enough to avert such mishaps,” Pundalik said.

indianexpress: THE fresh round of talks between the Bajaj Auto Limited (BAL) management and the official workers union, the Vishwakalyan Kamgar Sanghtana, began today with the workers demanding a renewal of wage contract and re-opening of the Akurdi unit.

The workers, who had been agitating for the last two months for reopening the plant, presented their demands before the management. Union president Dilip Pawar said that they had an long hour discussion. “We have demanded the renewal of our pay-scales as well re-starting of Akurdi production unit. We have been permitted to enter the unit, but our future is still uncertain,’’said Pawar.

The talks were attended by vice-president C P Tripathi, deputy general manager Prakash Gadkari and personnel manager Diwakar Kulkarni. With the workers re-joining work from November 8, the VKS is demanding a renewal of their contract as well as “starting of production.’’ The fresh talks resumed after the workers were let into the Akurdi plant which was shut down on September 1. When contacted, Gadkari said that they will not be re-starting the plant and since there is “no production, there is no question of renewal of wage contract.’’ However, he sounded positive about going ahead with a series of talks.

The next meeting is scheduled in the coming week. Two meetings were conducted in the presence of Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the second actually bearing fruit. It led to workers being allowed to enter the factory premises.

indianexpress: INITIATING various citizen-friendly measures, the Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to set up a “green channel” giving priority to senior citizens, physically-challenged persons, defence personnels, sportspersons and renowned artistes having any official work with the civic body.

“Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi has directed the issue of a circular to all the PMC departments, giving priority to introduce green channel facility for senior citizens in the civic body,” Joint Municipal Commissioner Arun Patil told The Indian Express.

The green channel initiative is to give priority to the files related to senior citizens, physically-challenged persons, defence personnels, sportspersons and renowned film, stage artists.

The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of civic officials with RTI activist Vihar Durve who pushed the civic administration in launching the initiative for the convenience of the public.

However, the persons seeking the special PMC service will have to submit a photocopy of their identity along with their application to the civic administration so that it can be given special treatment.

“The civic administration will confirm the identity of the applicant and will make a special mark on the file for faster processing,” official sources said.

indianexpress: IN last three months, four incidents of wall collapse have been reported in the jurisdiction of the Pune Cantonment Board. In June, one person was injured when a wall collapsed in Kolsa Galli. In September, another person was injured at PCB residential quarters at Kamble Coach House near Centre Street where over a dozen others had a narrow escape. In September again, a wall collapsed at the fire brigade building and now another wall collapse incident reportedly occurred in the same building on Monday.

The PCB in May had declared a list of 14 old buildings, comprising those owned by the board as well the private persons, as unsafe. It had set a two-week deadline for the residents to move out. Though the board has listed 14 buildings, there are some 100 odd buildings in the PCB which are in a pathetic condition and need urgent repairs, say civic activists.

Activists say a majority of the old buildings were occupied by tenants for decades together paying rent as low as Rs 100. The owners outright deny permission to their tenants to carry out repairs. They offer the excuse of pending courts cases as the reason behind not carrying out the repairs.

Following the wall collapse incidents, PCB CEO SK Sardana announced that the board would invoke emergency laws to get the residents vacated from the dilapidated and extremely old buildings. Sardana had said that the Public Premises Eviction of Unauthorised (PPEUO) laws under the Cantonment Act 2005 which stipulate evacuation of residents from any building or premises for public safety would be invoked. However, the PCB did not take any further action. The CEO had asked the engineering department to prepare a status report on the number of old buildings which too has not been prepared till date.

indianexpress: WITH minimum temperatures remaining on the higher side, the post-Diwali winter chills are still away for the State. The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday recorded a maximum temperature of 32.2 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 16.9 degree Celsius. The Met officials have given a forecast of cloudy skies with the minimum temperature around 16 degrees Celsius.

IMD director (weather central) Dr Medha Kolhe said that the minimum temperatures have been above normal. “The long wave radiation from the earth’s surface is trapped by the clouds and therefore there is an increase in temperatures,’’ she said. She said the winter setting in is neither late nor early and this is the usual pattern.

The season is also seeing the Met officials keeping an eye on cyclones. According to Kolhe, the period between October and December is the cyclone season for India. Presently, there is a severe cyclonic storm, Sidr, in the Bay of Bengal, 380 km north-west of Port Blair. It is expected to move north-north westerly direction and intensify further. “However, we do not expect any changes because of this system in the state immediately.”

techtree: India Digital Life Style Distributors (IDLDPL) have launched the sleek Yes YMP8 MP3 player in the Indian market.

The White 1GB MP3 player comes with built-in USB 2.0 full speed connector, and connects directly to a PC for charging and transferring information with a single cable.

It supports MP3, WAV, and WMA formats, and users can adjust equalizers from seven different modes, including Normal, Bass, Rock, Jazz, Classic, Pop, and User.

The YMP8’s LCD display is capable of emitting seven back-lit colors, including Purple, White, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Cyan. The display can show titles of songs, as well as battery life information. The YMP8 also features a voice recorder. It weighs-in at 20 grams, and is able to fit into the palm of one’s hand.

The newbie is available through most large retail stores and B2C Web sites for Rs 2,199. It comes with an attached neck strap.

techtree: Sony Ericsson has launched its latest Walkman phone, the W910i, featuring Shake Control and SensMe.

The W910i is a HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) 3G Walkman phone, which comes with a large 2.36-inch bright crystal 262,000 TFT screen and a 2 mega pixels camera with 2.5x digital zoom.

The ‘Shake Control’ feature allows users to skip to the next or previous track by flicking the W910i one way or the other, while shaking the phone back and forth shuffles the play list. Meanwhile, ‘Motion Sensor Gaming’ allows controlling of game functions by balancing the phone on the palm.

By using the ‘SensMe’ feature, users can create play lists based on moods, rather than on artists or albums. The tracks are presented as dots in a matrix, according to tempo and style.

Another feature is the ‘Auto Rotating Display’, which automatically adjusts the display according to the way the phone is held. So images or videos are rotated according to the orientation of the phone.

The W910i has a central media library that can be accessed from a single icon on the phone menu. In addition, using the Media Manager PC program, media files can be organized on the PC.