37 PERCENT DELHI GOVERNMENT SCHOOL TOILETS VERY DIRTY

37 PERCENT DELHI GOVERNMENT SCHOOL TOILETS VERY DIRTY

Thirty seven percent of toilets in the capital's government schools are 'very dirty' and in 'subhuman' condition, a survey done by the NGO CRY has revealed.The study by Child Rights and You (CRY) Thursday,29^th March,2012, said 318 toilets were scrutinised in 44 schools across the city and the situation was the worst in schools in the northwest, northeast and outer districts of Delhi.Interestingly, the survey revealed that 15 percent of the toilets in all the schools were reserved for staff and were much cleaner.'Due to the poor state of toilets, children of these schools have to urinate in the open,' said the study.

'Toilets reserved for school staff can't be used by the students…the gates of these toilets remain locked. These toilets were cleaner,' said the study.Further, despite most schools having permanent staff for cleaning toilets, only 39 percent did their job while the remaining 61 percent toilets were cleaned twice or thrice a month, it said.The survey said 76 percent toilets had unhygienic and dirty water supplied in their taps while 21 percent had blocked sewerage or broken doors or cracked walls in need of immediate repairs.'India has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 21 years ago and introduced the Right To Education Act, (but) the above findings show that the dream of achieving a child friendly state is still far and how policies are being violated in government institutions itself.'

                                                Prof. John Kurakar

RUBBING TOOTHPASTE ON GUMS PROTECTS AGAINST CAVITIES

RUBBING TOOTHPASTE ON GUMS PROTECTS AGAINST CAVITIES

Brushing your teeth twice daily may be sensible advice, but rubbing toothpaste on your gums after lunch also hugely lowers the risk of developing cavities.'Rubbing toothpaste on to your teeth (and gums) increases the flouride protection by 400 percent,' said Anna Nordstrom from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden who led the study.'This 'massage' method proved to be at least as effective as a third brushing in increasing the amount of fluoride in the mouth,' added Nordstrom.Gothenburg researchers were testing the effect of a high-fluoride toothpaste sold over the counter in Sweden. They asked volunteers to brush various numbers of times a day and also tested out the 'finger rubbing' technique, the Daily Mail reports.'Rubbing the front of your teeth with toothpaste can be an easy way of giving your teeth a third 'shot' of fluoride during the day, after lunch for example,' said Nordstrom.Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that prevents decay by strengthening the protective enamel coating on teeth.

                                                Prof. John Kurakar

CHILD’S MILK TOOTH CAN SAVE LIFE

CHILD’S MILK TOOTH CAN SAVE LIFE

Is your child about to lose her milk tooth? Instead of throwing it away, you can now opt to use it to harvest stem cells in a dental stem cell bank for future use in the face of serious ailments. Now that's a tooth fairy story coming to life.Still relatively new in India, dental stem cell banking is fast gaining popularity as a more viable option over umbilical cord blood banking.Stem cell therapy involves a kind of intervention strategy in which healthy, new cells are introduced into a damaged tissue to treat a disease or an injury.

'The umbilical cord is a good source for blood-related cells, or hemaotopoietic cells, which can be used for blood-related diseases, like leukaemia (blood cancer). Having said that, blood-related disorders constitute only four percent of all diseases,' Shailesh Gadre, founder and managing director of the company Stemade Biotech, told IANS.

'For the rest of the 96 percent tissue-related diseases, the tooth is a good source of mesenchymal (tissue-related) stem cells. These cells have potential application in all other tissues of the body, for instance, the brain, in case of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's; the eye (corneal reconstruction), liver (cirrhosis), pancreas (diabetes), bone (fractures, reconstruction), skin and the like,' he said.Mesenchymal cells can also be used to regenerate cardiac cells.

Dental stem cell banking also has an advantage when it comes to the process of obtaining stem cells.'Obtaining stem cells from the tooth is a non-invasive procedure that requires no surgery, with little or no pain. A child, in the age group of 5-12, is any way going to lose his milk tooth. So when it's a little shaky, it can be collected with hardly any discomfort,' Savita Menon, a pedodontist, said.'Moreover, in a number of cases, when an adolescent needs braces, the doctor recommends that his pre-molars be removed. These can also be used as a source for stem cells. And over and above that, an adult's wisdom tooth can also be used for the same purpose,' Gadre added.Therefore, unlike umbilical cord blood banking which gives one just one chance - during birth - the window of opportunity in dental stem cell banking is much bigger.'Of course, age is still a big factor,' added Menon. 'A child's milk tooth has more potency than a wisdom tooth. The ability of a young one's cells to multiply is twice as higher as anyone else.'Pankaj Kala is one of those who opted for dental stem cell banking for his child.

'I lost my mother to cardiac arrest when she was just 45. She was also a diabetic. After that I decided that I will do everything possible to protect my family from harm. I missed the opportunity of umbilical cord blood banking in the case of my daughter when she was born; so when she was six, we went for dental stem cell banking,' Kala, who is in the jewellery business in Mumbai, told IANS.'It's been two years now and I have decided to go for the procedure for the second child too. Even my wife will go for stem cell banking using her wisdom tooth. In my case, however, it will be difficult since I had gone for root canal treatment in my wisdom tooth and therefore it's not healthy,' he added. Anish Jain, another parent who has got his son's milk tooth extracted for stem cell banking, said: 'I know stem cell therapy is a relatively new field, but I didn't want to have regrets later about not doing anything that could help my child if he suffers from any ailment.'As of now, dental stem cell banking in India is offered by a select few companies, like Stemade and Store Your Cells. The procedure and then preservation of the stem cells can cost around Rs.100,000 for a period of 21 years.'Around 20 percent of those who have come to us for dental stem cell banking are doctors,' said Gadre, who added they collect 60-70 samples every month.'Research is still on in stem cell therapy; so to tell people that harvesting your stem cells can save you from any serious disease is still a premature statement,' said a doctor.

                                                                       Prof. John Kurakar

FANSA FAMILY FROM BANGLADESH ARRIVED IN KATHMANDU

FANSA FAMILY FROM BANGLADESH

 ARRIVED IN KATHMANDU

"I am very happy that my dream coming to Nepal has come true and I am very excited to visit Pokhara tomorrow to learn about the EcoSAN practices,"says Ruqsana Parvin, programme officer with Freshwater Action Network South Asia Bangladesh. A team of 10 members from different parts of the Bangladesh arrived in Kathmandu on 30^th March 2012 for a three day exposure and learning visit to Nepal. The programme has been designed to exchange the experiences, ideas and learning on WASH between the Bangladesh members and the grassroots communities in Nepal.

On the day one, the team will be visiting THE SEWA Nepal, where it has launched a program called ‘Take a pee, earn a rupee’ in Darechowk, Chitwan village. The program has brought drastic changes in Darechowk after its launch. People have stopped defecating in the open because of the provision of ECOSAN toilets, "Darechowk is cleaner and residents are enjoying better yields,” said Shreerendra Prakash Pokharel, President of THE SEWA Nepal.  [Further reading: http://www.freshwateraction.net/content/take-pee-make-rupee ]

Most of the members are here for the first time to experience such learning visit. FAN Nepal is hosting this visit as a part of the FANSA family objective to harness the knowledge sharing. Though it is a short notice and extremely occupied with the national business, FAN Nepal team showed their wholeheartedness in organizing such inter-country programme that they need to be commended for.

                                                                 Prof. John Kurakar

FACEBOOK OFFERS RS 1.34 CR PACKAGE TO ALLAHABAD ENGG STUDENT

FACEBOOK OFFERS RS 1.34 CR PACKAGE TO ALLAHABAD ENGG STUDENT

Allahabad: Social networking giant Facebook has hired an engineering student here for a fat annual pay package of Rs 1.34 crore, one of the biggest offers made to alumnus of any technical institution of the country. According to P Chakravarti, Director of the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT), a B.Tech student from the institute, who has requested that his name be withheld for 'security reasons', received a letter on March 27 from Facebook confirming his appointment and the annual pay package on offer was stated to be USD 262,500 (around Rs 1.34 crore).

Interestingly, the MNNIT Director said the recruitment process began with a mail from Facebook 'in October last year which was followed by nine rounds of telephonic interviews' before he was finally selected for the plush job which would require the student, who hails from Kanpur, to move to Menlo Park in California after finishing his software engineering course at the institute. 'Many students from our institute have bagged lucrative jobs. We have knowledge of at least 30 of our alumni getting selected with packages of more than Rs 10 lakh from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe etc', Chakravarti said.'However, this one has been unprecedented and we are sure that no other student from any of the other institutions in
the city or the more than two dozen National Institutes of Technology across the country has so far been offered such an awesome pay package', he added. PTI

                                                      Prof. John Kurakar