JACKIE CHAN SELECTED AS MEMBER OF CHINESE PARLIAMENT

Mo Yan, the winner of Nobel Prize for literature, 2012 and Jackie Chan, the movie star were given a political role in China by being selected as members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, one of the houses of Chinese parliament.

Mo Yan and Jackie Chan were among 2237 people selected by China's new leaders led by Xi Jinping as the members of CPPCC National Committee. Out of 2237 people, 399 are women. Xi Jinping is the new general secretary of the Communist Party. He will become the President of China after two Houses of Parliament have meeting in March 2013.

Apart from Mo Yan and Jackie Chan, other known face to be given a seat in this political party includes former NBA star and popular basket ball player Yao Ming.

CPPCC comprises of the members from different fields and they were selected without any election process. The party includes 893 members of the Communist Party. The chosen officials include members of non-Communist parties, military officers, officials, representatives from environmental, social, cultural, political and economic fields.


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SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WOMEN AT WORKPLACE B ILL APPROVED

Rajya Sabha on 25 February 2013 approved the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill. The bill seeks protection for women in all type of organised, unorganized as well as Private Sectors, including the sexual harassment of domestic help as well as agricultural workers.

The bill had made it mandatory for every organization with 10 or more employees to form an internal complaint committee to deal with the complaints of sexual offences. The committees should be disposed of within 90 days and organizations that fails to follow the guidelines, would be penalized with 50000 rupees. Organisations that repeatedly violate the provisions of the bill would be penalized to a greater level and the offence may lead to the cancellation of the licenses or registration of the business conduct.

Under its list of offences, the bill covers sexual remarks, sexual favour demands, any act of unwelcome touch and physical advance and showing pornography. The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament in September 2012.



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NACO SIGNED MOU WITH MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE


National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare signed the first MoU with the Ministry of Shipping on 14 February 2013 as a part of its efforts to highlight issues relating to HIV/AIDS.

According to the MoU, NACO will provide HIV/AIDS/STI preventive, care support and treatment services to port workers as well as community around major ports including fishermen, seafarers, truckers, single male migrants and other vulnerable population etc. It also aims to provide stigma free environment and promote greater involvement of people living with HIV in all major port areas.


UNDER MOU, MINISTRY OF SHIPPING COMMITS ITSELF TO FOLLOWING POINTS

• Make available health infrastructure and human resources for prevention and management of HIV/AIDS/STI.

• Designate responsibility to personnel at suitable level to plan, implement and monitor
HIV/AIDS/STI services.

• Ensure identified health personnel from the facilities are provided capacity building by
State AIDS Control Societies.

• Promote safe sexual practices among vulnerable population in port setting with necessary support from State AIDS Control Societies.

• Ensure dissemination/display of IEC material pertaining to HIV/AIDS/STI at ports/health facilities and outreach activities.

• Ensure ICTC/PPTCT/ and STI services and ensure availability of rapid HIV diagnostic kits
(3 different antigens/principles) as per NACO guidelines and specifications.

• Set up designated STI/ICTC Clinics at major ports for vulnerable population including truckers and transport workers and ensure availability of STI drug kits as per NACO guidelines and specifications.

• Coordinate and strengthen referral linkages with State AIDS Control societies and implementing partners like targeted interventions TI NGOs/drop in centre/community care centres and network of HIV Positive persons.

• Ensure record keeping and reporting to SACS as per prescribed format.

• Commit resource (Manpower, material and money) for HIV/AIDS/STI in budgets/or CSR
component for sustainability to his endeavor.

• The NACO commits itself to the following points

• Share nationally approved treatment protocols, guidelines and standards pertaining to
STI/HIV/AIDS.

• Providing technical support and build capacity of ports health personnel to facilitate integration of HIVIAIDS in the Health Services.

• Providing training to major port health personnel (Doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians on syndromic case management of ST1, which could be direct training or training of trainers as per the number of personnel.

• Providing training to major port health personnel (Doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians) on integrated counseling and testing services for HIV, which could be direct training or training of trainers as per the number of personnel. Provide technical
support for implementation of IEC and awareness activities around major ports with support of ports authorities.

• Sharing reporting formats and monitoring mechanisms.

• NACO/SACS will coordinate and provide necessary technical support to Ministry of Shipping /major ports to integrate STI/HIV/AIDS services.