Archive by Author
Terror returns to Mumbai
Posted on July 26, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under India, International.
Here is a story I wrote with Andrew Buncombe on this month’s blasts in Mumbai. It was published in the Independent of London.
The spectre of terror and violence returned to India’s financial capital yesterday as three explosions were set off within a matter of minutes, killing at least 21 people and injuring more than 140. Officials described the incident as a terror attack but declined to publicly speculate as to who may have been responsible.
In the first attacks in Mumbai since November 2008, when Pakistan-based militants lay siege to parts of the city for almost three days and killing more than 160 people, the explosions were set off in crowded areas at evening rush hour. Reports suggested the blasts, described as coming from improvised explosive devices, all occurred between 6.50pm and 7.04pm.
Images from the scene of the explosions showed streets slick with blood, people suffering injuries and corpses under plastic sheets. The injured were ferried to hospitals across the city in taxis, trucks and any other available vehicles. Doctors called for blood donations and armed police cordoned off those areas struck by the blasts.
Last night, with cities across India placed on alert, the country’s Home Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, said in Delhi that the authorities had no information about further attacks. “I would appeal to the people of Mumbai and people all over the country to remain calm and to remain peaceful. There is no information [regarding] any other bomb or threat.”
He added that because of the timing of the blasts, “we infer that this was a co-ordinated attack by terrorists”.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, local media was already speculating that the blasts were the work of either Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Indian Mujahideen, a home-grown militant organisation that has carried out attacks elsewhere in India. Some reports said that yesterday was the birthday of Ajmal Kasab, the sole survivor of the 10 militants who carried out the 2008 attacks.
Yet the chief minister of the state of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan, also refused to be drawn on the issue of who was responsible. Speaking on television, he added: “It is another attack on the heart of India, an attack on Mumbai.”
Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s President, and its Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gillani, were among the first to condemn the blasts and offer their condolences. President Barack Obama offered American help in tracing those responsible. There was no word whether the attack would interfere with scheduled talks later this month in Delhi between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers.
The first of yesterday’s blasts hit at 6:50pm in Jhaveri Bazar, a jewellery market in Kalbadevi, the second at Opera House and the third in Dadar West, in central Mumbai. Police said the blast at Opera House appeared to have been the strongest and had caused the most injuries.
Mumbai has been the scene of repeated attacks. In 2006 more than 200 people were killed when explosive devices were detonated on commuter trains. After each attack, locals complain that for all their claims, police do little to improve security. Yesterday evening, people were again reeling from the realisation that the city had become struck by violence they could do nothing to prevent.
“It’s horrendous. Forget whether it’s terrorists or not. To attack unsurprising folks with an IED, I think is horrendous,” said Arun Kapur as he sat in front of his television set watching the news of the attacks in the northern neighbourhood of Bandra. His wife, Rita Kapur, added: “It’s so sad. We really feel so sad. Mumbai used to be such a safe city.”
No Comments
Three blasts rattle Mumbai
Posted on July 13, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under India, International.
PBS NewsHour interviews me about the string of blasts that hit Mumbai during rush hour this evening.
Hanna Ingber Win, GlobalPost’s Mumbai correspondent, said she visited one apartment building in Bandra in northern Mumbai. Residents there were closely monitoring developments on their TVs, updating their Facebook statuses to let people know they were OK and answering phone calls from relatives checking in from abroad.
“There was a feeling of anger that innocent civilians have been killed and a deep feeling of sadness among most people,” she said. But people also weren’t surprised that Mumbai had been attacked again, based on what they had gone through in 2008.
Mumbai — considered India’s cultural and financial capital — is a target because in many ways it represents what India has become. “It’s a very vibrant city with migrants pouring in everyday. It’s growing and booming. There’s a real entrepreneurial sense here,” she said.
Win also noted that those she spoke to said that while they can no longer live their lives without any fear of terrorist attacks, they still would go to Mumbai’s city centers. Their mentality was “you have to live your life and you do have to go on.”
And GlobalPost has a Raw Feed with my reporting from Mumbai. Watch the video here.
No Comments
Lessons from India’s Largest Slum
Posted on June 2, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Business, India, International.
MUMBAI, India — Barefoot children chase each other around large brick kilns billowing out smoke. In another area of Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums, girls in oversized dresses wander onto piles of garbage. And in a third, a boy chases a goat with a cricket bat, near an open sewer.
Developers and some political figures look at Dharavi, centrally located in the increasingly congested city of Mumbai, and see a goldmine. They want to tear down the eyesore, move the current population into high-rises with electricity, water and sanitation and turn the bulk of the area into profitable housing and commercial property.
The architect who is behind the latest redevelopment plans, Mukesh Mehta, says the new Dharavi will benefit the current population as well as India’s economy as a whole.
“If 33 percent of [the] urban population lives in slums — they may live in sub-human conditions, but still, they are a drain on the economy,” he told CNN. “Tomorrow they start becoming contributors to the economy.”
Many of Dharavi’s residents along with activists, journalists and urban planners agree that the area needs redevelopment. They welcome the idea of bringing proper infrastructure like water and sanitation to the shanties and other informal homes there.
But they also say that Dharavi is much more than merely an unhealthy, polluting, trash-strewn slum. It is a self-sustaining ecosystem that in many ways operates quite well and serves needs not being met elsewhere.
Dharavi offers important economic, development, environmental and social lessons for Mumbai and India at large.
Continue reading and watch the video at GlobalPost.
No Comments
In India, Divorce Among the Elderly Is on the Rise
Posted on June 2, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under India, International, women.
MUMBAI, India — The profile reads like many others: Vegetarian Hindu seeks Gujarati-speaking non-smoker to be life partner. Interests include traveling and old Hindi songs.
But unlike most men on Indian remarriage sites, this bachelor is 73.
Another profile says the woman is a divorced Bohra Muslim. She’s 4′5″, a Gemini, and her “About me” section on Secondshaadi.com reads: “Fat woman. Understanding. U can be fat or slim. No problem. Have to earn lakhs [1 lakh equals $2,200].”
This candidate for love — and lakhs — is 90.
Over the past couple decades India has seen divorce become more and more common among young, urban couples. Now, even elderly couples are doing what was once considered unthinkable: saying goodbye to their spouses after decades of marriage and moving on.
Continue reading at GlobalPost.
No Comments
India: How to Keep the Water Flowing
Posted on May 16, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under India, International, environment.
MUMBAI, India — No large city in India offers all its residents a constant supply of water, and most provide water at unreliable times.
The wealthy manage this by paying for tanks, pumping systems and filters, as this chart by Professor Srinivas Chary, the director of urban government at the Administrative Staff College of India, shows. The poor must spend their own precious resource: time.
Among families across India and much of South Asia who receive piped water, the women spend a significant chunk of their days waiting — and waiting — for the water to arrive. They often have to delay or miss going to work or the market or performing other obligations while they wait. Once the water comes, they rush to fill every bucket and container they have.
If the women choose to leave and the water comes during their absence, they may have to wait another five or six days until they get another chance.
A group of graduate students from the University of California, Berkeley, decided to tackle this problem of unreliable water supply by creating a system that harnesses the ubiquity of mobile phones in India and dependability of crowd-sourcing to provide accurate information on water availability.
Continue reading at GlobalPost.
No Comments
India: The Cheerleader Who Went Too Far
Posted on May 14, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Culture, India, International, women.
MUMBAI, India — A beautiful blonde South African cheerleader came to India, dazzled cricket fans with her glamorous looks and fancy moves, and partied with the players after games. But then, and here was her fatal flaw, she blogged about it.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) reportedly fired the young woman, Gabriella Pasqualotto, and sent her back to South Africa this week after it became known that she was the anonymous writer of a blog detailing cricket after-parties.
The blog, called “The Secret Diary of an IPL Cheerleader,” appears on The Alternative Cricket Almanack website and tells of the parties after matches where “the music pumps, the drinks flow and the cricketers come and go.”
Pasqualotto, who cheered for the Mumbai Indians, writes in her blog, “cricketers are the most loose and mischievious sportsmen I have come across,” and names a few “naughty” Australian players.
The young woman’s blog sheds light on not just what the stars do behind closed doors but also how India’s cheerleaders — virtually all attractive, voluptuous white women in scantily clad outfits — are treated by fans.
“We are practically like walking porn!” she writes. “The men see your face, then your boobs, your butt, and then your boobs again! As we walk, all you hear is ‘IPL, IPL!’ with a little head jingle!”
Continue reading at GlobalPost.
No Comments
India Steps Up the Fight Against Piracy
Posted on May 12, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime, India, International.
MUMBAI, India — Over the past few years, Somali pirates have posed a bigger and bigger challenge to India, disrupting its trade, capturing its merchants, attacking closer to its shores and — like a game of Calvinball — changing the unwritten rules as they go.
But India will not give up.
Faced with a growing threat from these men in boats, India is stepping up its fight with a variety of measures aimed at ending the menace. The efforts, say maritime security experts, also provide India an opportunity to flex its muscles on the world stage and show that it is willing and able to be a strong regional and global power.
“It’s a very big priority for us,” said P.K. Ghosh, a senior fellow at Observer Research Foundation with an expertise in maritime security. “The Indian government is taking [piracy] very seriously.”
Continue reading at GlobalPost.
No Comments
How Bohra Muslims Set Themselves Apart
Posted on April 26, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under India, International, Religion.
MUMBAI, India — Covered from head to toe, the women stood separate from the men and in many ways acted out traditions common to all Muslims.
They prayed in Arabic and beat their chests. Thousands of Dawoodi Bohra Muslim women cried as their leader, Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, spoke on the occasion of his 100th birthday at the Saifee Mosque in Mumbai’s Bhendi Bazaar.
But rather than wearing black burqas, like other religious Muslim women in India, these Bohra women wore hot pink.
They also wore deep reds, forest greens, bright blues. Every color imaginable, it seemed — except black.
Some say that’s no coincidence.
The traditional costume, called a rida, worn by Dawoodi Bohra women represents one of many ways this community of about 1.2 million people differentiates itself from other Muslims in India, say sociologists and historians.
India’s 161 million Muslims tend to be a marginalized minority with lower education and income levels than the country’s Hindus and Christians. There is also long-standing prejudice against Muslims by those who perceive the community as violent, poor, socially backward and sexist. This can cause discrimination against Muslims in everything from housing to jobs.
The Bohras want none of that.
Continue reading and see the slideshow at GlobalPost.
No Comments
India: Disabled More Vulnerable to AIDS
Posted on April 4, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Health, India, International.
MUMBAI, India — Subash and Vimal Barve live in a 200-square-foot shack deep in the slums of Ghatkopar East, a suburb of Mumbai. Outside their home, rats run over broken cement slabs and children pick through a fly-infested dump that ends at the couple’s doorstep. Inside, Vimal prepares a pot of chai as Subash, blind and HIV positive, stares straight ahead.
Life wasn’t always this hard.
A decade ago, the couple lived a middle-class life. They owned an apartment in Goregaon, a northern suburb of Mumbai, and a shoe shop in nearby Andheri. At one point, Subash employed eight assistants and earned 50,000 to 100,000 rupees ($1,100 to $2,200) a month. They rode around town on a motorbike, and when they went to the market, they never questioned how much food they bought.
“We have gone from a time when we had a lot of money to nothing,” said Vimal, sitting on the floor of her home.
Subash is one of about 320,000 disabled people living with HIV in India, according to a 2007 report by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). There is a higher prevalence of disabled people living with HIV than in the general population because of factors related to poverty, it states. Poverty increases vulnerability to HIV, and people with disabilities are over-represented among the poorest of the poor.
However, despite this correlation, those with disabilities who are living with HIV have not been targeted by assistance programs in India, according to Heather Ferreira, a program officer for the HIV/AIDS program at World Vision India.
Less than 2 percent of those with disabilities living with HIV receive support from HIV programs, the DFID report states.
Continue reading at GlobalPost.
Follow Hanna on Twitter: @Hanna_India
No Comments
India: Euthanasia Allowed in Extreme Cases
Posted on March 27, 2011, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Health, India, International.
MUMBAI, India – Nearly four decades ago a janitor at a Mumbai hospital raped a young nurse, strangling her with a dog chain. The nurse, Aruna Shanbaug, plunged into a vegetative state from which she never recovered.
Thirty-seven years later, the courts say she could be allowed to die — should those who care for her deem it the best decision. Right-to-die activists are heralding the landmark ruling as as step forward, though in a somewhat surprising turn of events, the nurses who care for Shanbaug have not chosen to exercise this new right.
Regardless, the court’s decision to allow passive euthanasia has once again provoked debate over whether terminally ill patients should be allowed to die willfully.
Continue reading at GlobalPost.
