Israel’s Defense Minister Yoac Gallant said the country has ordered a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip, as its military continues to launch air strikes on the Palestinian territory.
“We are putting a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed,” Gallant said in a video message, referring to the enclave that is overcrowded with 2.3 million people.
Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip with a new wave of rockets from the early hours of Monday morning, with clashes and shelling reported in the West Bank, Al Arabiya said.
Al Arabiya and Al Hadath sources reported that military planes bombed two mosques in Gaza on Monday morning.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it had hit more than 1,00 targets in Gaza and its tanks and drones were stationed across the strip’s openings in the border fence to prevent anyone from entering areas under their control.
Nearly 500 people, including children and women, have been killed in Gaza and thousands of others have been injured in Israel’s attacks.
A humanitarian corridor to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip following Israeli strikes must be opened urgently, a source from the Palestinian Red Crescent told Al Arabiya.
The United Nations said the number of displaced Gazans has risen to more than 123,000 as a result of the fighting between the Israeli military and Hamas since the attack on Saturday.
As of late Sunday, retaliatory Israeli airstrikes had destroyed 159 housing units across Gaza and severely damaged 1,210 others, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said a school sheltering hundreds of families was also hit.
Several Israeli news outlets, citing rescue service officials, said at least 700 people have been killed in Israel, including 44 soldiers.
The United Arab Emirates described attacks carried out by Palestinian Islamist faction Hamas against Israeli towns as a “serious and grave escalation.”
The UAE foreign ministry in a statement also said it was “appalled” by reports Israeli civilians were taken as hostages from their homes.
“Civilians on both sides must always have full protection under international humanitarian law and must never be a target of conflict,” the ministry added.
The UAE became the first Gulf country to normalise relations with Israel in 2020, breaking with decades of Arab policy toward the Palestinian cause.
Israel-Hamas : Backed by a barrage of rockets, dozens of Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and abducting others in an unprecedented surprise early morning attack during a major Jewish holiday on Saturday.
A stunned Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza, with its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the country is now at war with Hamas and vowing to inflict an ‘unprecedented price.’ In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside the Gaza Strip, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometres from the Gaza border. In some places, they roamed for hours, gunning down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response.
Gunbattles continued well after nightfall, and militants held hostages in standoffs in two towns and occupied a police station in a third. Israeli media, citing rescue service officials, said at least 300 people were killed and 1,500 wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in decades.
At least 232 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed and at least 1,700 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Hamas fighters took an unknown number of civilians and soldiers captive in Gaza, a deeply sensitive issue for Israel, in harrowing scenes posted on social media videos.
Hamas: `At least 350 people have been killed in Israel in the unprecedented attack launched by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which began on Saturday morning.
The retaliatory military action, Operation Iron Swords, launched by the Israel Defence Force, claimed over 230 lives in Gaza and the West Bank.
The intense fight between the Israeli military and Hamas militants is still ongoing in southern Israel. According to the latest report, rocket sirens have been sounded in regions like Sderot and Kibbutz Nir Am. An Israeli army spokesperson said the situation was not fully under control.
The Israeli bombardment of Gaza also continued into Sunday morning.
Srinagar, Oct 07: Questions are being raised on the engagement of senior stipendiary residents in Sher-E-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) at Soura Srinagar, with candidates claiming that neither merit nor entrance exam was used as a yardstick for the selection of candidates.
As per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), on 21/09/2023, under order number SIMS/ACAD/538, SKIMS put out a selection list for the engagement of 53 stipendiary senior resident doctors, and when the aspirants saw the list of selected candidates many raised this query that only blue-eyed candidates had been selected, especially in the department of surgery.
Among those selected in the surgery department, was the son of GMC principal Dr. Masood Tanvir Bhat and many other blue-eyed candidates.
According to both the aspirants and the senior official of SKIMS, neither the exams were conducted nor the merit was used for the selection of the candidates. The candidates were selected solely on the basis of performance in the interviews. However, the majority of the aspirants said that they were not asked more than three questions in the interview: 1. When did you complete your MS? 2. What was your thesis topic? 3. And who was your guide?
“We were not asked any questions, just three simple questions and then we were asked to go home. When the results came out, we were surprised that nepotism had played a major role in the selection. The selection should have been either on the basis of examination or merit, but they neither conducted the examination nor considered the merit as a basis for the selection. I am myself a third position holder in the MS in Surgery, but I was left out,” an aspirant lamented while speaking with The Watchdog on condition of anonymity.
Another candidate said that “the whole process was rigged,” and that they were already aware of who would feature in the list; it was the candidates who had connections. The process was not fair.”
“There was no transparency in the process. We are not sure what was the basis for selection. If the interview was a basis for the selection, then how come there were some candidates in the selection list who we did not even see during the interview?” another candidate asked.
One more candidate said that “some doctors who were already doing a registrar-ship at the SKIMS institute also featured in the list because their registrar-ship was about to end and they wanted to stay in the institute. If this keeps happening, how can new doctors get the opportunity to work in our prime institutes? It is unfair processes such as these that many of us are considering to start doing our practice outside Kashmir.”
Many candidates demanded a high level of inquiry into the matter and invoked the lieutenant governor to take stock of the workings at SKIMS.
“From cradle to grave, there is corruption everywhere, whether that is an appointment of a peon or an appointment of a senior doctor. Education and healthcare are the backbone of any country, and when such pious institutions are destroyed through corruption and nepotism, you can imagine what would be the future of a country,” Dr. Abdul Bari Naik, a social activist, commented while speaking with The WatchDog.
When The WatchDog reached the dean of academics SKIMS, Dr. Bashir Ahmad Laway, for comments, he said that the selection of the candidates was done on dynamic criteria.
“We could not take the merit as a yardstick in the selection because a candidate can have good grades, but he might not be so good at other things. Similarly, we did not go for the written test because then we had to worry about the secrecy and the paper leak issue. Therefore, we were satisfied to go for the selection at the discretion of the selection committee,” Dr. Laway added further.
The selection committee included the following officials from SKIMS: Director, Dean, Medical superintendent, Director of finance, and expert HOD for the concerned department. However, many candidates said that the concerned HODs were not present to assess their performance during the interview, raising questions whether the process for selecting 53 senior resident doctors at SKIMS was done fairly—(KNO)
“Over the last few weeks, hospitals are seeing increase in number of seriously-ill RSV patients,”saidDAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.
Dr Hassan said young children and elderly are coming to hospitals with severe pneumonia requiring oxygen, some needing intensive care and support of ventilators to help them survive the respiratory distress.
RSV is not new. We see it every year during winter months. RSV particularly affects young children. It can be life-threatening in infants and older adults.
“Most years, infections typically occur in the late fall and winter, often overlapping with flu season. But since last year we are seeing early surges,” he said.
The DAK President said RSV kind of took a backseat during Covid pandemic. People were hardly exposed to the virus because of Covid precautions like masking and social distancing. Now with reopening it seems to be coming back again.
“Very young children born just before or during the pandemic had no exposure to RSV and didn’t build immunity against the virus. And now they are getting exposed to the virus and it is hitting them really hard,” he said.
Dr Nisar said the symptoms of RSV include runny nose, cough, fever and difficulty in breathing. Infants can manifest with irritability, trouble breathing and refusal to feeds.
RSV is a respiratory virus and spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
“This year we have vaccine against RSV. The vaccine is recommended for people aged 60 years and older. The vaccine is also approved for pregnant women in their third trimester which will protect the new born babies’ up to six months of age. For very young children we have RSV antibody which will help prevent severe disease in this vulnerable group,” he said.
“Till we have vaccine available, people should continue with precautions like hand washing and cough etiquettes. If you are down with cough or fever stay home and wear a mask. Infants and very young children should be kept away from sick people,” he added.
Urdu will not be mandatory in the written examination of Naib Tehsildar, the posts which are due to be advertised shortly
“Whenever the posts are advertised and the examination for the post of Naib Tehsildars are held, the youth of major parts of Jammu region will also get an opportunity to appear. This is a very good news for us,” said one of the youth who was a Hindi Language student.
In fact, there was jubilation among the educated youth of many districts of Jammu province after they came to know that they too will be able to appear in the Naib Tehsildar examinations as Urdu language is no more mandatory for the papers.
“Earlier, the posts of Naib Tehsildars were virtually confined to Kashmir division and few districts of Jammu region where students keep Urdu as subjects. Others were denied opportunity to appear in these exams. The administration has undone the injustice done with Jammu youth said another College Student.
The jury of 53rd International Film Festival in Goa has slammed the controversial movie ‘Kashmir Files’, which revolves around the killings and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 from Kashmir Valley. Calling it “propaganda” and a “vulgar movie”, Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, who headed the jury, said “all of them” were “disturbed and shocked” that the film was screened at the festival.
“It seemed to us like a propagandist movie inappropriate for an artistic, competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. I feel totally comfortable to share openly these feelings here with you on stage. Since the spirit of having a festival is to accept also a critical discussion which is essential for art and for life,” Mr Lapid said in his address.
The Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi starrr, directed by Vivek Agnihotri, was featured in the “Panorama” section of the festival.
It has been praised by the ruling BJP and has been declared tax-free in most BJP-ruled states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have praised on the movie.
Many, however, have criticised the content, calling it a one-sided portrayal of the events and claiming it has a “propagandist tone”.
In May, Singapore banned the movie, citing concerns over its “potential to cause enmity between different communities”.
Early childhood development, or ECD, for short, encompasses a child’s cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor development. Research has found that an estimated 250 million children are not meeting their developmental potential in the first five years of life. The risks that threaten children’s development include poverty, malnutrition, infectious illnesses, stress in families, violence, inadequate care and protection, and a lack of early learning opportunities. Without interventions, these early risks have lifelong implications on health, on behaviour, and productivity.
We also know that early childhood is a critical window of opportunity when children are particularly sensitive to experiences that promote development. This is why interventions targeting this age are so important. In the last 30 years, we have learned a great deal about what types of interventions work to support early childhood development. However, we have been less successful in replicating and scaling up these interventions in different contexts around the world to reach the large numbers of children who need these services.
Over the last three decades, we have also amassed evidence that there are multiple risks across a complexity of factors that threaten children’s development. And therefore, single sector interventions alone, while necessary, are not sufficient to promote their ability to thrive. Nurturing care is the provision of stable, emotionally supportive environment that protects children from the threats and provides them with responsive, developmentally stimulating opportunities for healthy development, learning, and interaction. It is provided by the child’s parents, family, caregivers, teachers, and community in the immediate home, childcare settings, pre-primary classrooms, and beyond. So a coordinated response means we must ensure that every child receives all of the services they need, and that their families and caregivers have resources and support to care for them. It also means teachers and carers have the tools and capacities to foster early development and learning, that communities are empowered to advocate for the needs of young children, and families and governments are accountable to their youngest citizens. While there has been increased global, and national funding, and policy commitment to early childhood in the recent years, few effective interventions promoting early childhood development have achieved scale.
A greater emphasis on implementation research and practice is necessary to inform evidence and knowledge for effective, sustainable, and high quality early childhood interventions that can be delivered at scale. ECD is the progressive attainment of sensorimotor, social-emotional, cognitive, and language capacities, as well as a sense of self that are driven by our biology, our genes, and the environment. These capacities are the building blocks for future human capital, enabling us to think, solve problems, communicate, express our emotions, form relationships, create and develop new ideas.
The period of early development begins at conception and continues to about eight years of age. Here we see children transitioning from their family and home environment, to early childhood care and education services, to primary school and their neighbourhood environments. Therefore, young children need a range of interventions to promote ECD.
The World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the World Bank Group put forward the Nurturing Care Framework in 2018. This framework describes all of the inputs young children need in order to thrive. This includes good health, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, security and safety, as well as opportunities for early learning. These interventions are not just needed in the first five years of life. But, really, we need to ensure that children continue to receive inputs so that they transition safely and successfully to school and to community environments. The NCF or the Nurturing Care Framework is not meant to be business as usual. It is not enough for us to consider what inputs children need but to ensure that the environment enables children to receive those inputs.
That means building the strengths and the capabilities of caregivers so that they can ensure their children are receiving adequate health, nutrition, that they are safe, and that they’re learning, that caregivers and children are supported by empowered communities, and the empowered communities, the families are supported by services. These services must work together across child protection, social protection, health, and education. And these services, the communities that we live in, our families, our children are supported by policies. At the national level, there are many, many policies that support children and families. But we need to make sure that they are working to serve children and families no matter where they live.
There are multiple interventions that can be delivered throughout the early years and the life course beyond. We need to ensure that all of these interventions come together to allow children to thrive. So what do we mean when we say interventions, platforms, systems, and policies? In addition to the essential interventions of health and nutrition, we need to ensure that ECD is promoted through parenting programs. That is, the skills that parents need to support the healthy development, early learning, responsive care, and care for feeding of their children. It includes the guidance that families might need to prevent violence, to establish safe and healthy routines, for care for their children’s health, hygiene, and nutrition.
It includes interventions in early childhood care and education. It includes interventions that are needed in the first years of primary school. It includes paying attention to the needs of children with disabilities or those who are at risk of developmental delay. It includes supporting mental well-being not only for children but for the caregivers that work with children and for their families. It includes ensuring our neighbourhoods are safe spaces, child-friendly spaces, adding also includes giving opportunities for caregivers to have education, income generation, and training so that they have access to the resources that they can choose to invest for their children in a way that is right for their family.
All of these interventions are supported by platforms. Investing in early child development– living up to our commitments under the Convention on the Rights of the Child– should be a priority for every society. The reason why is crystal clear. It makes sense on every level. Ensuring the best possible start in life for every member of society is an effective– and cost-effective– way to advance the productivity, creativity, resilience, and overall development of everyone. It helps to expand economic opportunities and can be a factor promoting the resolution of conflicts and grievances.
Rigorous studies have repeatedly demonstrated that the early years of a child’s life lay the foundation for lifelong growth and potential. Investing in policies and programs that target early childhood development will open up multiplier effects throughout the child’s life and across entire generations. It drives greater economic progress, and potentially much more inclusive and sustainable development.
Every child has a right to develop to the maximum extent possible. Every child has the right to a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development. Guaranteeing access to early childhood development programs for those in greatest need is a policy tool that has great promise to break down cycles of exclusion.
Children who live in poverty, who live with disabilities, who are growing up without parental care in the streets, in institutions, or in situations of conflict or displacement, children from indigenous peoples or marginalized minority communities, or migrant families– these are among the most vulnerable, at-risk people in our societies. We are already seeing a huge increase in children being forced to work to feed their families or forced into child marriage. Children are being exposed to heightened threats of experiencing or witnessing physical and psychological violence.
To promote ECD, children need to be nourished and healthy. In addition, they need an environment that supports children’s development and learning. For very young children, this might include a variety of early learning opportunities in the home with their family. Responsive care is a key ingredient. That is the
ability of the caregiver to understand the child’s needs and their wants and to be able to respond to a child in a developmentally appropriate way.
Shabir Ahmad is a UPSC aspirant/emerging writer from Raiyar, Doodhpathri.
