It is observed that Indian Railways have very recently arranged betterment of train coaches to facilitate passengers comfort during journeys. Much attention is given for upkeep ness by cleaning of the coaches. Railway may consider to add and rearrange the under noted provisions made in compartments for betterment as well as easement to elderly and disabled persons. Incidentally it is felt that the proposal will involve barest minimum additional cost to Railways.
1). Presently one western type of commode system lavatory is provided in each reserved compartment with sufficient toilet papers. Most of the passengers do not use toilet papers as the system is not prevailing and popular in this country. More over sufficient papers supplied, vanishes quickly for reasons known to every body and as such no useful purpose is served. Since water tabs are provided in compartments for washing facility, Railway may like to consider providing Jet spray system fixed at each commodes so that every body (including aged & disabled person) are benefited. Jet Spray system at commode system has become very popular now a day by common people as the system is very advantageous / useful to aged and disabled person.
2). Although there exist instructions from Railway authority that effort will be made for providing lower berths to passengers aged above 55 / 60 years, but in various cases it is observed that aged passengers had to travel by upper berths under compelled circumstance.
Unfortunately the ladders / steps provided in coaches to climb upper berths are not friendly to general passengers including aged persons and this also disturb lower berth holders by upper berth passenger during use at night journeys. Under the circumstance it is urged that Railways will reexamine the issue in view of constraints explained and consider providing ladder friendly to passengers in general to climb / get down upper berths.
3). Suggestions made earlier for improvement of passenger amenities etc by Railways are reproduced for consideration and implementation.
a). Some 20-25 years back we used see a white line mark of 1Mtr along the both side edge of a road for slow speed pedestrians and vehicles where foot paths are not available. On a high speed busy traffic road this white demarcated area was considered as a safe area for very sickly and disabled persons. Reintroduction of this system will definitely be very useful to PWDs as well as others sickly personal at various railway premises.
b). At different major railway stations it is always very difficult to move, proceed further to board in a train by sickly, old aged and Person With Disability. At times even persons having full sympathy towards PWD and old aged persons failed to help due to rush for trains. Situations become very grave at stations like Sealdah, Chhannai, Howrah, Mumbai and Delhi where hundreds of local passengers used to travel daily. Railway administration may like to consider marking a passage width of 2Mtrs from main entrance up to each platform with white or any international accepted color so that PWDs and other week persons may avail conveniently. This demarcated area for PWDs and like others will however equally availed of by all passengers but will allow easy passage to PWDs and like other disables. Time to time announcement will serve as a consciousness of the general public. Simply demarcation as proposed will be of immense help to PWDs.
c). Similar action is proposed to be introduced by Metro Railways of the country. As a large number of office commuters had to catch trains according to their own schedule, they had to run violating every thing but a clear and visible ‘Demarcation’ and there by resultant general consciousness will definitely demand allowing PWDs and others allowing passage way. Demarcation as proposed if implemented will be very much helpful to PWDs, sickly and old aged persons.
d). It is seen that hand railings are not provided at star case of different old office / railway stations / commercial buildings for going to upper floors / pathway. As it becomes very difficult for sickly, PWDs and Old Aged persons to move in an easier manner it is necessary to provide hand railing facility to all such areas where hand railing facility do not exist. A proper guide line in this regard needed be issued by the appropriate authority of Government of India.
A common scenario may be seen everywhere at different railway stations, especially at metro stations that space available along the hand rails are occupied by young boys and girls for reasons not connected with traveling purpose. The said occupation of space tantamount to create inconvenience to other commuters including PWD, sickly and old aged disables. Proper announcement in this regard and time to time clearance by departmentally engaged unit may be helpful to arrest the unwanted problems.
Incidentally it is to mention that in the year 2004 I have requested Sri. A. Gupta, Chief Engineer, M.Rly./ Kolkata to provide hand railings to all star cases for convenience of PWD commuters which was accepted by him and had issued necessary instructions on spot.
e). Being a PWD while traveling in AC coach it has been experienced at the time of detraining at major stations like Delhi, Chennai, Howrah, Hardware etc. that huge numbers of collies enters into compartments and jamming the entire passage in hunt of customers. In most cases numbers of collies entered in the compartment are 2 / 3 times greater than that of number of passengers boarded in compartment. As a result most of the collies do not get customers for them and thereby being dissatisfied / aggrieved starts either forcing or starts arguing with the remaining slow moving sickly, old aged, PWD and female passengers taking advantage of very few passengers remaining in the compartment and inside compartment not visible from outside because of AC glass sealed coach. During my last visit to South India while detraining at Chennai Egmore station we had not engaged any collie in a similar situation as were having only some hand bags with us. Some collies started arguing in local language and behaved in ugly manner with my daughter which I had to protest. As I am a physically challenged PWD they did not touch me but followed up to main road abusing me in local language. Some local people having sympathy for us wanted to know the issue. Since I cannot talk to them I wanted to express my trouble to them with local language interpreter, Tamilian friend from Kolkata over my Mobile phone. But alas, my mobile phone and money bag pick pocketed at compartment while I was being pushed out by said collies. Definitely no body will appreciate such situation to happen in future. Railway administration may like to restrict entrance of collies in all AC compartments where inside is not visible from out side and ensure restriction is implemented properly to avoid unwanted situations in future. Only one collie may be allowed to enter on demand by a particular passenger.
f). Traffic control system for a city have been introduced considering easy movement, safety and hazard less utilization of both by vehicles and pedestrians. There is no doubt that the best system available has been introduced for traffic control. PWDs specially persons who can move a few yards with the help of an escort finds it difficult to attend to an office situated at a spot where either a vehicle is prohibited or entering / getting down not allowed. In certain areas garaging of a vehicle not allowed. Had to get down from vehicles far away from Howrah station main or nearby any approachable gate and had to walk through running vehicles / large number of commuters running to catch their local trains. The problems of PWDs who cannot move freely were discussed with different traffic controller, traffic experts of the city who opined as follows:-
Authority controlling traffic may like to consider as a special case for PWDs holding Handicapped Certificate issued by
Government authority for more than 50%Disablity with them allowing to enter with vehicles to a restricted area for traffic(Other than Prohibited Areas) and by earmarking a suitable gate at Howrah etc stations for entrance of vehicles carrying PWDs having H.C over 50% Disability. Traffic controlling management may like to review the situation keeping in view the difficulties faced by PWDs to solve problems and betterment.
Article by: Chinmay Kar
Any suggestions for further betterment of Railways & beneficial to railway commuters are invited. Suggestions may be posted at appropriate space provided or may be sent to Kodakkal Shivaprasad at kodakkalshivaprasad@gmail.com or Chinmay Kar at chinmaykar@yahoo.co.in
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He has been a radio producer (Earthstar Radio, San Francisco), organized and worked with the homeless, and is an advocate/activist in the nonviolent protest movement for safe energy, human rights, and peaceful solutions.
He is USA Vice President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association whose mission is to build a parallel world body to the United Nations, an emerging Earth Federation with a Provisional World Parliament under the Earth Constitution.
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First published at:
">Roger Kotila PhD Dr Gary G Kohls MD[/caption]
is a retired physician who practiced holistic, non-drug, mental health care for the last decade of his forty year family practice career. He is a contributor to and an endorser of the efforts of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and was a member of MindFreedom International, the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
While running his independent clinic, he published over 400 issues of his Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter, which was emailed to a variety of subscribers. (They have not been archived at any website.) In the early 2000s, Dr Kohls taught a graduate level psychology course at the University of Minnesota Duluth. It was titled “The Science and Psychology of the Mind-Body Connection”.
Since his retirement, Dr Kohls has been writing a weekly column (titled “Duty to Warn”) for the Duluth Reader, an alternative newsweekly published in Duluth, Minnesota. He offers teaching seminars to the public and to healthcare professionals.
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">Gary G Kohls George Monbiot[/caption]
Studied in Oxford University, columnist with The Guardian newspaper, also the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, No Man’s Land, How Did We Get into This Mess? Politics, Equality, Nature and other.
Prof Johan Galtung was born in Oslo. He earned the PhD degree in mathematics at the University of Oslo in 1956, and in 1957 a year later completed the PhD degree in sociology at the same university.
Prof Johan Galtung received nine honorary doctorates in the fields of Peace studies, Future studies, Social sciences, Buddhism, Sociology of law, Philosophy, Sociology and Law.
State Councilor of St. Petersburg, Russia. Founding President, Global Harmony Association (GHA) since 2005. Honorary President, GHA since 2016. Director: Tetrasociology Public Institute, Russia. Philosopher, Sociologist and Peacemaker from Harmony. Author of more than 400 scientific publications, including 18 books in 1-12 languages. Author of Tetrism as the unity of Tetraphilosophy and Tetrasociology – science of social harmony, global peace and harmonious civilisation. Director, GHA Web portal “Peace from Harmony”. Initiator, Manager, Coauthor and Editor in Chief of the book project “Global Peace Science” (GPS).
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First published at :
">Leo M Semashko Robert C Koehler[/caption]
writes for the Huffington Post, Common Dreams, OpEd News and TruthOut. He considers himself a “peace journalist.” He has been an editor at Tribune Media Services and a reporter, columnist and copy desk chief at Lerner Newspapers, Chicago. Koehler launched his column in 1999. Robert Koehler has received numerous writing and journalism awards over a 30-year career in USA. He writes about values and meaning with reverence for life. He is praised as “blatantly relevant” and “a hero of democracy”.
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First published at :
">Robert C Koehler Robert J Burrowes PhD[/caption]
has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?‘
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">Robert J BurrowesProf Richard Falk[/caption]
an international relations scholar, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, author, co-author or editor of 40 books, and a speaker and activist on world affairs.
Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies, and since 2005 chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. His most recent book is Achieving Human Rights (2009).
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First published at :
">Richard FalkDr Gray Corseri, PhD[/caption]
is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment. He has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including, TMS, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and Counterpunch.
He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.
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First published at :
">Gary CorseriAntonio Carlos Silva Rosa, Editor, TMS[/caption]
born 1946, is the editor of the pioneering Peace Journalism website, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, an assistant to Prof. Johan Galtung, and Secretary of the International Board of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
He completed the required coursework for a Ph.D. in Political Science-Peace Studies (1994), has a Masters in Political Science-International Relations (1990), and a B.A. in Communication (1988) from the University of Hawai’i.
Originally from Brazil, he lives presently in Porto, Portugal. Antonio was educated in the USA where he lived for 20 years; in Europe/India since 1994.
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First published at :
">Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa
John Scales Avery is a theoretical chemist, Associate Professor Emeritus, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is noted for his books and research publications in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin, evolution, as well as human cultural evolution, has its background situated in the fields of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory.
He is an Indian citizen & permanent resident of Australia and a scholar, an author, a social-policy critic, a frequent social wayfarer, a social entrepreneur and a journalist;He has been exploring, understanding and implementing the ideas of social-economy, participatory local governance, education, citizen-media, ground-journalism, rural-journalism, freedom of expression, bureaucratic accountability, tribal development, village development, reliefs & rehabilitation, village revival and other.
For Ground Report India editions, Vivek had been organising national or semi-national tours for exploring ground realities covering 5000 to 15000 kilometres in one or two months to establish Ground Report India, a constructive ground journalism platform with social accountability.
He has written a book “मानसिक, सामाजिक, आर्थिक स्वराज्य की ओर”on various social issues, development community practices, water, agriculture, his ground works & efforts and conditioning of thoughts & mind. Reviewers say it is a practical book which answers “What” “Why” “How” practically for the development and social solution in India.
worked as a mediator for the church in Belfast; as faculty at The School of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, and as Executive Director, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation. He has founded several Indian NGOs, is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
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First published at -
">Vithal RajanRene Wadlow[/caption]
is the President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation on and problem-solving in economic and social issues.
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">Rene WadlowBaher Kamal[/caption]
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Baher Kamal
Egyptian-born, Spanish-national secular journalist. He is founder and publisher of Human Wrongs Watch. Kamal is a pro-peace, non-violence, human rights, coexistence defender, with more than 45 years of professional experience. With these issues in sight, he covered practically all professional posts, from correspondent to chief editor of dailies and international news agencies.
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Credits :
">Baher KamalRosa Dalmiglio with Lama Mongolia[/caption]
She is a member of the China Council Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe (special art, culture and humanity), which touches the hearts of all people and portrays the strong willpower so encouraging to 60 million Chinese disabled persons.
Ms. Dalmiglio is Intermediary Agent of CICE, Centre International Cultural Exchange, a direct subsidiary of the Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China. CICE is a comprehensive institution engaged in cultural exchange programs, professional publication and presentation of cultural art works such as exhibits, receiving foreign art troupes and artists, holding international cultural research programs, and producing intercultural and interreligious documentary films.
She is a member of China Disabled Person’s Federation, CDPF. She is also a member of the International Women Federation, which is concerned with the financial ethics of women s enterprises in underdeveloped areas.
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credits:
">Rosa Dalmiglio
Director, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies.
A recipient of Cultural Doctorate of Philosophy of Economics from USA. He is an active member of various professional bodies, namely -
He participated and presented papers in various International/national/regional seminars, conferences etc.. He remained member of the Academic Council of Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar. An unwearied researcher has about 200 research papers published in various international and national journals of repute and 15 research monographs to his kitty. Besides, he has authored/co-authored /edited 15 books which have been well received and highly acclaimed during his three decades of professional career. He was honoured by various national and international awards, namely, Guru Draunacharya Samman, Vijay Rattan Award and so on.
Dr Ron Paul served in U.S. House of Representatives three different periods: first from 1976 to 1977, after he won a special election, then from 1979 to 1985, and finally from 1997 to 2013.
During his first term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul founded the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE), a non-profit think tank dedicated to promoting principles of limited government and free-market economics. In 1984, Paul became the first chairman of the Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a conservative political group founded by Charles Koch and David Koch 'to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation.' CSE started a Tea Party protest against high taxes in 2002. In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two new organizations, with Citizens for a Sound Economy being renamed as FreedomWorks, and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation becoming Americans for Prosperity. The two organizations would become key players in the Tea Party movement from 2009 onward.
Dr Paul proposed term-limit legislation multiple times, while himself serving a few terms in the House of Representatives. In 1984, he decided to retire from the House in order to run for the U.S. Senate, complaining in his House farewell address that 'Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare.... It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic.'
He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry.
In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces.
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Credits:
">Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.Jason Hickel[/caption]
He is international consultant of the UN – FAO and international consultant for sustainable development and sustainable future of humankind of Universal State of the Earth - USE.
On 8th October 2016 he was appointed as The Chairman of the Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment protection Committee of the USE, the Supreme Council of Humanity - SCH from Athens, Greece and London, UK.
He is researcher working on: Nature; the Nature, Space and Environment protection; the Climate change system; System thinking; Globalization and global studies; Networking, Complexity and Swarm research: Sustainable Development and Sustainable Future of Humankind. He was among the pioneers researchers (1986 – 1994) to apply nature, space, and environment protection in a local community by activities we call today Local Agenda 21 Processes – a holistic program for survival of our civilization under new challenges of the third millennium.“Commencing from Local Community Sustainable Future and moving towards Sustainable Future of the Global Community of Humankind”.
He is independent researchers with many domestic and international publications and talks. Together with many researchers in co-operation worldwide within philosophy, operational research, global studies, case studies and complex problem solving research, system thinking, requisitely holism, networking and complexity, swarm research, integration and disintegration of matter and energy and universal upbringing, education and lifelong learning. He is contributing a systemic, requisitely holistic and a better understanding of the present. His latest research within the system theory, system thinking, networking, complexity and swarm research may provide a possible answer enabling people to better understand our world of humans.
During 2014 he completed 50 years of research work (1964 - 2014). This year he completed 50 years of been Dr. Vet. Med. Since 1986 he worked on the protection of Humanity, Nature, Space and Environment and completed 30 years of research.
For research on the climate change system and the book “System Thinking and Climate Change System (Against a big “Tragedy of Commons” of all of us), Ecimovic, Mayur, Mulej and co-authors, 2002, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize 2003. His work on “The Information Theory of Nature” was his second nomination for The Nobel Prize during 2007 in Physics. His third nomination for The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was for “The Environment Theory of the Nature”, published in the book “Three Applications of the System Thinking”, Ecimovic, 2010. Within last 10 years he has contributed trilogies: “The Nature”, “The Sustainable Future of Mankind” and “The Life 2017” – please see at: www.institut-climatechange.si
I grew up in Chile, got my medical degree there, began an academic career in 1970, and left for the USA due to the military coup in early 1974. My first job in the USA was working as a public nutrition professor in the international programme of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.
I started to travel to Africa in 1975, and worked a year in Cameroun in 1980 helping to prepare their five-year nutrition plan. I then moved to New Orleans, to Tulane University’s School of Public Health, and taught in the department of nutrition for ten years, before moving to Nairobi where I was an advisor in the Ministry of Health. Seven years there got me into extensive consulting in Africa, often on nutritional issues. In 1995 moved to Vietnam where I worked for two and a half years in the Ministry of Health as a senior primary health care advisor.
Many years of touching the reality on the ground, in Latin America, then the USA, then Africa and Asia, has made me understand that the real challenge is in the social and political determinants of malnutrition. I have devoted my writings and teaching to that. Over the years, I have found an important shift in my colleagues’ attitude and understanding towards acknowledging the basic causes of malnutrition. But yet I see little happening as a result. I submit that it is our guild’s lack of experience in the political arena that explains this dichotomy. I devote much of my energy to bridge this gap, and am a fervent advocate of empowering claim holders to demand needed changes from duty bearers. Nutrition is a perfect port of entry for that. Equity, social justice and people’s empowerment in a human rights sense is what really will make a difference.
There is no alternative but to deal with nutrition problems as indivisibly linked to social, political and environmental problems. We need to address them as such. The question is: are we all prepared to do that? The answer, in my view, decides whether we are part of the solution or part of the problem. Travelling and living in different parts of the world has reinforced my conviction that we need to get down from our academic ivory towers, and need to change the curricula of our young and upcoming colleagues, to give them the tools to act in such a context. To me, public health nutrition cannot be anything but that.
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">Claudio Schuftan Dr MDProf. Ram Puniyani[/caption]
