Over2Shailaja

Child Marriages Still Persist in India, What Can Change it For The Better?The controversial Rajasthan Compulsory Registration of Marriage Amendment Bill has once again brought the problem of child marriages in the limelight. The bill which had made registration of all marriages, including child marriages mandatory, was recalled shortly after it was passed as it triggered endless criticism. But since we are on the subject of child marriage, let’s face how deep rooted this problem is. The depraved and illegal practice of child marriage prevails and persists in many Indian states despite the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, which prohibits marriages of girls before they are 18 and boys under 21 years of age. The NFHS data shows the magnitude of child marriage and it ranges from 20 - 40 percent of all marriages in Indian states. Data published by the National Crime Records Bureau also shows that in the year 2020 there was a near 50 percent increase compared to 2019 in child marriages. While this could be because of better reporting, there is an all-round acceptance that the pandemic had indeed accelerated child marriages. Under the Central law, a child can request an annulment of the marriage upto two years after reaching adulthood. Rightly, here the criticism is that the law puts the whole onus on victims – mere kids without financial or social support – to have their marriage be declared void. Child marriages are a social evil which snatches away childhood and development. It is unacceptable that a progressive country cannot stop young girls from being forced to undergo underage marriage. Why should they have to deal with pregnancies and child rearing only because a regressive society wills it that way? While all this paints a bleak picture, in episode seven of Over2Shailaja, I try to delve into how things might change for the better. Tune in! Host: Shailaja Chandra Guests: Dr KC James, the Director of the International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai; Kriti Bharti, Child Rights Activist; Priyank Kanoongo, Chairman of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights; Dr Ravi Verma, Regional Director for the International Center for Research on Women's Asia Regional Office Editor: Shelly Walia Music: Big Bang Fuzz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

35min

Between Unsubstantiated Claims & Authentic Ayurveda, What Should Consumers Know?Ayurveda has been a part of our daily rituals for generations. Apart from being a system of medicine, it extends its sweep to agriculture, animal health, diet, beauty, and rejuvenation. This sector especially saw a noticeable growth ever since the onset of the pandemic, with an upsurge of interest in Ayurveda and its capacity to ward off infections by building immunity (Ayurveda, however, is not a cure or remedy for COVID-19). Be it by using home remedies, decoctions, chyawanprash, herbs like ashwagandha and guduchi or branded drugs sold by thousands of patented Ayurvedic manufacturers – almost every family in India has resorted to the use one or more forms of Ayurvedic medicine. Immunity boosting became the buzz word around this time, however, unsubstantiated claims made by well known proprietors of Ayurvedic medicines have also led practitioners of modern medicine to question claims of herbal medicines being effective in the prevention or treatment of COVID-19. To be sure, India’s traditional knowledge digital library is recognised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation. In fact, 35,000 Ayurvedic formulations from the classical Ayurvedic texts have been converted into five UN languages and has been made available to patent claim examiners in the patent offices in Europe, the US, Japan, UK, Canada, and Germany. Yet, what are the concerns around Ayurvedic medicines, which cautions people against continuous use of these products? What are the strengths and limitations of Ayurvedic medicines? Can a collaborative approach between other forms of modern medicine and Ayurveda benefit us? While we don’t have a simple agreed way of defining safety and efficacy or of Ayurvedic drugs, is it fair to apply the allopathic gold standard of Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) to traditional medicines? Tune in! Host: Shailaja Chandra Guests: Dr Kishore Patwardhan, Professor of Ayurveda at Banaras Hindu University; Dr V Sujatha, Professor of Sociology at JNU, who has penned several books on Ayurveda; Dr Geetakrishnan, well-known Ayurvedic practitioner who is presently in WHO; Dr Maël Voegeli, a French emergency medicine doctor who is currently studying the rasa shashtra branch of Ayurveda with AVP Research Foundation in Tamil Nadu and in Kerala. Editor: Shelly Walia Music: Big Bang Fuzz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

46min

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