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The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.

The word POLICE is coined from the first letters of certain virtues which are Greek and Latin to the whole system itself.

Politeness

Obedience

Loyalty

Integrity

Courtesy

Earnestness

It is rather shameful and painful to say that an unbelievable percent of the police officials are criminals with a very clear cut criminal background and persistent relation with notorious criminals. A candidate joining the training academy or Police training camp will have all the abstemious natures of a real human being. There upon his transition starts from the innate to the hyper-egoist, ultra brutal creature which ever yarns to earn, attack and kill, one who is sapping out the very values of all human relations and gaining in the language, outlook, expression fully cannibalistic.

It is staggering that the people entrusted to protect us from crime have criminal convictions themselves. It is even more worrying that so many police officers convicted of serious crimes involving dishonesty, violence, rape and murder have been allowed to keep their jobs. The public entrust the police with the use of legal force precisely because they are taken to be self-disciplined and restrained, which is why anyone convicted of a violent offence should be dismissed. One cannot understand how a police officer convicted of serious crimes can perform his duty effectively. The trust that is absolutely vital in policing is seriously undermined when police officers are being convicted of crimes. Allowing police officers convicted of offences of violence or dishonesty to continue serving merely brings the vast majority of law-abiding and diligent officers into disrepute and making the whole system a sepulcher for virtues. Although there are vetting procedures for dealing with new applicants, there is no home office guidance for dealing with officers committing offences while serving.

There is a disturbing lack of consistency in how police force deals with officers who are convicted of crimes. Where an officer has committed misconduct, which can include a criminal offence, a range of disciplinary actions should be taken. Each case should be judged on its merit. The force concerned should then take action depending on a range of factors including the severity of the offence and its impact on an officer's ability to carry out his duties.

What is known to the public for decades is that there a nexus between Politicians, Police and Criminal elements and there is a proliferation of criminal gangs under political and police patronage. If our Democracy is to survive the onslaught of criminal elements - the organised crime on the system, there is need to take urgent and decisive steps. Politicians, devoid of a record of service, sacrifice and a mass base, need money and muscle power to keep their positions of power and to bludgeon their constituency into submission. Criminal elements in police thrive on wrongdoings and they need someone to keep the law away from their back and heels. Once the politician reaches a particular stature and develops a clout, he dictates terms to Police and Bureaucracy much to the delight of the criminal elements. The bonds become stronger and the triads find it difficult to survive without the help of the other and the point of no return is reached.

Existing criminal laws are woefully inadequate to deal with various manifestations of organised crime. There is need for a special legislation to deal with this menace. We need special courts and suitable modifications in the Criminal Procedure to make justice swifter. A stitch in time will save nine. The inability of the criminal justice system to deal firmly with infractions like rowdyism, gambling, prostitution, drugs etc lead to development of organised crime. Yesterday’s petty criminals turn out today’s dons. Hence, the need to nip budding criminals at the early stages itself.

Police, who are the gate keepers of the mighty criminal justice system and the bureaucracy, who are the dispensers of welfare measures to the society, are at the mercy of politicians for their survival. Politician’s displeasure bring down on them harassment like frequent transfers and disruption in career advancement. Hence, they quietly toe the line of politicians. Here police and bureaucracy act as catalysts for the growth of the nexus between the politician and criminal elements. To make the police and bureaucracy people oriented and act without fear or favour, control of politicians over them should be carefully structured.

A good number of high-profile police officials are under scanner for various offenses, ranging from an alleged connection with fake stamp paper scam kingpin to much more concentrated levels. This complicity between police and underworld are more evident in land deals.

Even 6o years after independence there is widespread unrest, discontent and conflicts among a large section of the population which is leading to the threat to the rule of law in India. Due to this people are losing faith in the system, ability of law enforcement agencies to maintain order and enforce the rule of law and to provide justice. In spite of the failures and derailment of the democratic system, India has survived and made progress due to the resilience of its people.

Politicians, devoid of a record of service, sacrifice and a mass base, need money and muscle power to keep their positions of power and to bludgeon their constituency into submission. Here there are many innocent people who are held guilty only because of the malicious act of few hypocrites. Politicians have become the refuge of black marketers, corrupt and the means, to wield influence and for personal exaltation. Our leaders are law into themselves. Politician of these days are eager to use their expertise and time for nation building, in making them self rich and dominate the officials and law abiding citizens.

Criminalization of police is an extremely serious problem, which has already reached dangerous levels. Implanting mechanisms to assure accountability of the police to the public it serves did not become priority, as it should have, which creates direct affect on the rule of law. The police system should be characterized as a regime force, which places the needs of politicians or powerful individuals over the demands of the rule of law and the needs of citizens. In the performance of their duty, law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons. It requires the police to uphold the rule of law, ensure safety of citizens, be responsible, accountable and protect democratic values.

It is painful to say that the activity of the police these days are meted out against the marginalized sections of the society. Almost everywhere, minorities and vulnerable groups such as the poor and women, experience a more crushing weight of police activity.

It is well known that the democratic governance would also require that the police force, described as the most visible arm of the states authority , reflects the norms and the ethos that people perceive as aimed at their common good. It was observed in the case that the officers charged with maintenance of law and order can use only that much force as in necessary for disposal of an unlawful assembly and suppression of riot. This principle had emerged from the common law. The police, who are the gate keepers of the mighty criminal justice system and the bureaucracy, who are the dispensers of welfare measures to the society, are going to any extend of cruelty and ill deeds to amass wealth and get promotions.

It is being urged that the immediate inquiry into the activity of the police should be made so that their arbitrary action remain under control and they don’t break the order of the rule of law which has prevailed for so long period. Everyone is in rush without any kind of concern for the rest wanting to be first, whether it is on the road or in any other walk of life to carve out short cuts for them to pass through and a psyche to justify their wrongs with an expectation only for others to follow the law and wait for the day when all other subject themselves to the rule of law so that they could follow suit. There is no initiative by the government to check such a breach.

There is no love sincerer than the love of food

Patients and their relatives have decried the strike embarked upon by the Association of Doctors, which has crippled the health care services. Total compliance with the strike by the doctors, will result in the discharge of all critically ill patients from the various hospitals. All the wards in the hospital will virtually be empty but for a few patients, whose conditions are not so critical and are being attended to by other medical staff such as nurses, among others.

Patients are being made to bear the brunt of the crisis between the government and doctors which is not fair. It's irresponsibility on the part of the government and the doctors to leave patients to die and suffer. Both should live up to their responsibility by working in the interest of the masses. Why must civil servants always use strike action to press home their demand? Just look at what this warning strike embarked upon by medical doctors has caused? Some patients have died due to lack of medical care. Doctors are not supposed to embark on strike no matter what happens. Their primary duty is to save lives, money or no money.

This doesn’t mean that the government should never address doctors’ grievances. They are complaining about salaries, allowances, the state of the hospitals and the threat they are facing from the relatives of the patients.

Let's face it, the truth remains that on no account should doctors go on strike. They are life savers and not killers. Anyway, it all boils down to the fact that many of them are not called into that noble profession; they are there for the money and will take any action to get money at the drop of a hat. If one is truly a doctor, his major motivation would be to save lives.

It is agreed that they have their legitimate grouse with the state but when two elephants fight, the grass suffers. People are dying and some are in great pains waiting for doctors to alleviate the pains. They must not forget the holiness of their profession. In other climes, medical doctors are given preferential treatment in the banks, shopping malls, eateries, highways, etc because duty can call at anytime, so government should, as a matter of urgency, look into their matter at a faster pace. The doctors say the strike action is not targeted against the patient but against the government for insensitivity to their plight. That is laughable because it is the patient who bears the brunt.

One of the fundamental tenets of a national socialized health care system is that health care is a shared responsibility. As a doctor, the share of the responsibility is arguably greater than that of the average citizen. This responsibility is an inherent aspect of the Hippocratic Oath. Therefore, it is unethical for doctors to strike for financial reasons. To draw an analogy between striking doctors and other striking sections is false, and only recognizes the superficial nature of the issue. Put simply, a teacher, a clerical staff or member of any other area of work, joining a picket line may bring a temporary halt to that individual’s work, which can be compensated at a later time by working more time to make good of the loss but a doctor joining a picket line may cause irreparable injury or even death to his patients.

This opinion may seem a little melodramatic, but the point is that the pursuit of a medical career has unique challenges, rewards and burdens. When one undertakes such a responsibility, one agrees to unconditionally, provide healing for the sick, and to do no harm to the life or lives he has trusted upon. Hence striking as a doctor presents philosophical and moral inconsistencies that cannot be justified by monetary motivations. Physicians, whether they are part of a nationally-funded health-care system or some other system, function as agents to provide health care and are interested in the well-being of their patients. In addition, they play a broader social, political, and economic role as a member of an institution that is a very vital part that makes up a system. Whereas other institutions like education, social assistance, environment, finance etc. etc play a different but comparative role in that all contribute to how our society runs.

It is high time the government takes notice and does things needed at proper times to alleviate the problems of the medical practitioners and making their jobs more appealing rather than making them feel that only crying babies get the bread, then only can we save the future of the public health sector. If not, then the value of human lives is set to dip as private sectors do not function for social welfare. Health will become another commodity too expensive to attain for the underprivileged. Obviously with emergency wards being left un attended and most day to day procedures being put off indefinitely the protesting doctors are looking like villains to a lot of people as the dilemma of the Hippocratic oath versus due compensation comes into the limelight.

However people need to understand that becoming a doctor even on subsidized education received by many of these individuals in government medical colleges is a very tough road to travel. Not only does it involve so many sleepless nights spent in a very stressful and competitive academic environment and working like donkeys on house jobs with no pay at all. It is no surprise therefore that many of our post graduate doctors decide to fly to fairer shores to seek better compensation for their services. Those that stay behind are summarily reduced to working in squalor like conditions with not just the stress exerted by our emotional society in emergency situations but without the just fruits which their hard labor deserves. Let’s admit it that the present pay for post- graduate doctors is just a pitiful sum, an insult for these individuals, as private chauffeurs in their very city make equal to or more than this amount. How do we expect these individuals to lead a life worthy of their hard work and education in this sum of money?

Strikes, all over the world, are seen as a weapon of last resort, even among labour unions that have no direct links with saving human lives. With the habitual grounding of the nation’s health system, no further proof is needed to conclude that the nation’s doctors have thrown their sacred oath, which places premium on saving life, to the dogs. For instance, no fewer than 50 patients’ deaths were linked to the strike embarked upon by doctors last year.

On the onset of a medical strike hapless patients with various types of infirmities have been abandoned and mortuaries are brimming with new corpses. Hospitals have thus become dangerous for in-patients and a no-go area for emergencies. For a state, of its large population and cosmopolitan status, the implication of the ongoing crisis in the state’s public hospitals is better be imagined. The discomfiture of patients with debilitating cases is captured in the tales of woes from those concerned. It is evident that those that are worse-hit are the deprived who have no means of patronising private hospitals.

The concerned government must design a vox populi vox dei step for negotiating and implementing the present demands of the doctors. States should start asserting their independent, though coordinate status in the system and reward doctors based on their resources. When government neglects them, doctors across the country should opt for a less-disruptive means of expressing their grievances. None will benefit from the total collapse of the system or from the needless deaths of the most vulnerable in the society.

The only way therefore is the compromises made from both the government and the doctors’ side to resolve these crises. We have suffered too much already, as it is we really cannot afford a country wide medical stoppage, the results of which would be catastrophic. Basic medical care is not an unattainable luxury folks its good all of us wake up before we make it one. Doing hours of long duty under stress saving human lives is not a simple talk deal. The minimum our system can do is to provide doctors with so badly missed basics where it is thoroughly failing time and again. Imagine the situation when the doctor in operation theater faces power cut and no support back up and gets beaten up by patients’ relatives for negligence who themselves in first place may have been responsible for casual attitude and delays.

A doctor also is a human being and obviously is entitled to a safe working environment. Many patients are brought to the hospital when all hopes are lost. What is the doctor supposed to do then? They try to explain the situation, but those who accompany these patients are not ready to listen and accept the reality. Instead they start man handling the doctors and then the press is called, political parties get involved etc. What is the way out?

Once a patient is brought to the hospital, and admitted, the doctors work on him hours on end. Despite all these efforts if the patient gives in to his illness. Who is to be blamed? Is it the doctor who has done all efforts in human reach to bring the patient back to life? Is it anything beyond a doctor’s efficacy?

A person who falls sick is treated initially at home or in the neighborhood by the local quack. When the condition of the patient is totally out of control he is brought to the hospital for treatment. This patient who is in a very critical condition when admitted in the hospital, after initial life care steps, needs investigation and procedures like ECG,EEG, scans, different laboratory tests, emergency surgeries and in many cases be put on ventilator. The aide of the patient neither provides the correct and full history, which will help at least in stabilizing the patient nor is ready to give consent to any of the above procedures. They are roaming under very false notion that these primary records of procedure are licenses and gateways for the doctors to escape as if they were waiting to kill and flee. If any causality happens, the whole blame is put on the doctor. The poor fellow will be subjected to suspension, enquiry and a lot many other unnecessary and unpleasant ordeals.

Doctors work for the betterment of the patients, first and foremost they are human beings and they try to cure each patient. Make no mistake about it that when they lose a patient they lose a part of their soul, because they work hard for the patient, to give him relief from his illness.

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.

Parents get exasperated with their children when all the teachers complain that children are lazy and uninterested in studies. Even at home, they would throw temper tantrums when was told to do homework. Yet, one could not help feeling that there is something else behind their child’s stubbornness and reluctance when it came to studies. Finally, they will be diagnosed as being learning disabled. Today, such children are given therapy to help them cope with learning difficulties and do much better at school.

Learning disabilities in children may be detected only after a child begins school and faces difficulties in acquiring basic academic skills. However, there are a few things you can look out for to identify if your child needs help. Learning disability is a condition that affects a child and impairs his ability to carry out one or many specific tasks. These tasks include being able to read, write, speak, listen, and calculate. A learning disabled child is neither slow nor mentally retarded. An affected child can have normal or above average intelligence. This is why a child with a learning disability is often wrongly labeled as being smart but lazy. Learning disability can also be defined as a difference seen between a child's learning capacity and his actual learning ability This is because his brain finds it difficult to understand certain signals and prevents him from processing the information associated with those signals.

There is no one common factor that causes a learning disability in a child. In most cases, it is inherited. A child with a learning disability most likely has a parent who also displayed difficulties with learning skills but may not have been diagnosed. Learning disabilities have also been associated with impaired brain development due to a variety of factors such as premature birth, infection, oxygen deprivation, and exposing the foetus to drugs, alcohol or any other natural or artificial neurotoxins. After-birth causes include physical injury to the head, improper nutrition, and exposure to toxic substances, which interfere with normal brain development.

The earliest indication of a learning disability in a child is if he has difficulties in reaching basic developmental milestones. Some children take a little time to begin walking or speaking, which is perfectly normal. However, if your child still cannot walk by the age of two, he may have a learning disability. Besides not walking, he may also display uncoordinated movements. As he grows, he may display difficulty performing acts like fastening buttons or tying shoelaces, and have an awkward grasp over objects. A child who is confused by regular actions like brushing his teeth, dressing himself, etc. may have a learning disability. He may not be able to understand certain concepts like colour, size, or shape. He may get mixed up between the previous day and the next, and also not be able to understand the concept of time.

Many children are highly energetic. Sometimes, this energy can affect a child's ability to carry out assigned tasks and the child is perceived to be hyperactive. A hyperactive child has difficulty in focusing on one task at a time. He cannot sit still as he faces difficulties in normal interactions with other children of his age. The child could also be prone to temper tantrums when he is forced to socialise and will prefer to play by himself. Lack of attention usually occurs in tandem with hyperactivity. A child may appear not to listen when spoken to him directly and in many attempts he will ignore. He will also not remember what he was doing a few minutes back and will tend to misplace things like books, pencils, toys, etc. He may also have problems following simple instructions like picking up his toys.

A child with a disability in one learning area can sometimes have exceptional skills in other areas. For example, a child may be an advanced reader for his age but may not be able to solve simple mathematics problems like adding two numbers. He may read words or numbers backwards and not be able to distinguish between his left and right sides.

A learning disability cannot be diagnosed by a layperson. If you suspect that your child is facing difficulties with learning, talk to your child's school teachers and see if they confirm that your child is having difficulty at school. A child can overcome a learning disability to have a normal academic life and can even go to college and study professional courses.

Learning disabilities are problems that affect the brain's ability to receive, process, analyze, or store information. These problems can make it difficult for a student to learn as quickly as someone who isn't affected by learning disabilities. There are many kinds of learning disabilities. Most students affected by them have more than one kind. Certain kinds of learning disabilities can interfere with a person's ability to concentrate or focus and can cause someone's mind to wander too much. Other learning disabilities can make it difficult for a student to read, write, spell, or solve math problems.

Learning disabilities usually first show up when a person has difficulty in speaking, reading, writing, figuring out a math problem, communicating with a parent, or paying attention in class. Some kids' learning disabilities are diagnosed in grade school when a parent or a teacher notices the kid can't follow directions for a game or is struggling to do work he or she should be able to do easily. But other kids develop sophisticated ways of covering up their learning issues, so the problem doesn't get addressed until the teen years when schoolwork and life gets more complicated.

Those with verbal learning disabilities have difficulty with words, both spoken and written. The most common and best-known verbal learning disability is dyslexia, which causes people to have trouble recognizing or processing letters and the sounds associated with them. For this reason, someone with dyslexia will have trouble with reading and writing tasks or assignments. Some others with verbal learning disabilities may be able to read or write very well but struggle with other aspects of language, as they may be able to sound out a sentence or paragraph perfectly, making them good readers, but they can't relate to the words in ways that will allow them to make sense of what they're reading .Yet others have trouble with the act of writing as their memory struggle to control the many things that go into it, from moving their hand to form letter shapes to remembering the correct grammar rules involved in writing down a sentence.

Those with nonverbal learning disabilities may have difficulty in processing what they see. They may have trouble making sense of visual details like numbers on a blackboard. Someone with a nonverbal learning disability at times may confuse the plus sign with the sign for division. Some abstract concepts like fractions may be difficult to master for people with nonverbal learning disabilities.

The behavioral condition attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often associated with learning disabilities because children with ADHD also might have a hard time focusing enough to learn and study. They are often easily distracted and have trouble concentrating. They may also be excessively active or have trouble controlling their impulses. But many with learning disabilities struggle for a long time before someone realizes that there's a reason they're having so much trouble learning. For most in their teen years, the first telltale sign of most learning disabilities occurs when they notice that there's a par between how much they studied and how well they performed. Or it may just be the feeling a person has that something isn't right. If this sort of worry haunts one, don't hesitate to share thoughts with a parent or a teacher.

Although a diagnosis of a learning disability can feel upsetting, it's actually the first step in resolving the condition. Once a particular problem has been pinpointed, parents and teachers can then follow strategies to help cope with the disability. And taking steps to manage the disability can often help restore a student's self-esteem and confidence. Ruling out vision or hearing problems is the first step in diagnosing a learning disability. A child may then work with a learning specialist who will use specific tests to help diagnose the disability. Often, these can help pinpoint that student’s learning strengths and weaknesses in addition to revealing a particular learning disability.

Students who have been diagnosed with a learning disability must work with a special teacher or tutor for a few hours a week to learn certain study skills, note-taking strategies, or organizational techniques that can help them compensate for their learning disability. Here teachers develop Individualized Education Program (or IEP), which helps define a person's learning strengths and weaknesses and make a plan for the learning activities that will help the student do his or her best in school. A student's IEP might include sessions with a tutor in a specialized classroom for a certain subject, with the use of special equipments to help with learning, such as books on tape or laptop computers for students who have dyslexia. If one has been diagnosed with a learning disability, he/she may need support just for the subjects that give him/her the most trouble. Normally schools have no special classrooms with teachers who are trained to help students overcome learning problems.

There's no cure for a learning disability. And one doesn’t outgrow it. But it's never too late to get help. Many with these disabilities adapt to their learning differences and find strategies that help them accomplish their goals and dreams.

'Wrong' is one of those concepts that depends on witnesses.

Some realities are unimaginable until we see it and get frozen at the sight. Yesterday many of us were so unfortunate to witness the collapse of a traffic constable who was working under very severe conditions, controlling the traffic at a busy junction of the “Venice of the East”. His is not the singular story. The whole lot of traffic cops is facing the same problems. The higher-ups provided traffic umbrellas with comfortable seating facility at junctions are inaccessible luxury for them, as they have to be on the streets to tackle roadblocks.

It seems that the traffic constables are taken as a group to bear and suffer the extremes as a part of their job. The whole lot of traffic personnel across the country work in similar conditions every day, as duty on busy roads is quite tiring as they have to stand and move constantly under the beating sun. During the rush hours the situation becomes worse as they are exposed to both pollution and heat. The particulates make the road very hot. Though most of the important junctions have automatic signals installed, these electronic traffic signal systems faint under the burning heat of the sun, making the poor traffic personnel stand on the road as the flow is disrupted. With a whistle between his lips and hands moving in all possible ways for the safety and well being of others, he is always looked down upon and abused by the riders and drivers.

Traffic constables play a crucial role in maintaining traffic. In fact, without their efficient services it is next to impossible to keep the traffic function smoothly. At the same time, it is equally true that they are subjected to job related stress, which sometimes become unbearable for them. They must work in all manner of lighting conditions, ranging from bright sunlight and blue skies to dark nights with no street lighting. They undergo frequent encounter belligerent, violent, intoxicated and annoyed clients.

In any place, a common man’s life moves along with its traffic. But he fails to think that life becomes smooth and less stressful only if the traffic is smooth. The traffic police, especially the constables play a significant role to keep the traffic moving where the population density is very high. The constables’ physical and psychological well-being is a crucial factor for enhancing their work efficiency.

The traffic population has grown ten times in the last two decades and the number of traffic policemen has remained almost the same. Imagine the job where one has to stand in the middle of hundreds of noisy and polluting vehicles throughout the working day. Stress among policemen would manifest in the form of fatigue, depression, inability to concentrate and impulsive behaviour. These danger signals are quite common among the traffic policemen whose nature of work is such that they hardly can maintain their normal health.

A traffic constable occupies the lowest rung in the hierarchy of the police department but he is often regarded as the most important foot soldier of the police force, whose importance is unique, especially to the metropolis. Sadly, this uniqueness has rarely been highlighted or recognised. Maintaining traffic is an acquired skill, an art form which comes after years of spending a lot of time on the busiest streets and dealing day in and day out with a whole lot of situations. Only physical agility is not enough to deal with and find a solution for problems on the roads, presence of mind is very important along with adroitness.

The routine is followed throughout the day, with different problems and situations arising. But for anyone standing for such long hours on the road, facing the hazards created by man under the blistering sun on the job, as well as a host of different situations to handle can be physically draining. Even going to the bathroom is a complicated task. Officials have to resort to using public toilets in a mosque or hospital. These inconveniences combine to make their job a terrible ordeal,not to mention the health risks. The smoke emitted by vehicles is inhaled by traffic policemen all day. As a result, more and more officers are contracting breathing problems and related diseases. Even face masks, the only preventive tools used by traffic policemen, are bought out of their own pockets.

Besides battling frightening traffic, handling irate drivers and chasing insolent teenagers, the traffic police officials have no benefits, resources or facilities to make their job easier. Everyone is quick to slander the traffic police, accusing them of all ranges of corruption, but they, officials at the lower rung of command, have nothing to do with these allegations. Lack of efforts on the part of the police department, to make their job easier, is only adding to their woes.

Hell is full of musical amateurs.

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FANTASTIC!!! ALL PLAYED WELL.WHO WON? WHO LOST? JUDGE……….

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,

Natural calamities definitely interrupt lives and upset some parts of the globe in vitriol and disappear in a short while. But certain actions of men which are least farsighted push all living things slowly but irrecoverably to ruin through a process of negative evolution. Endosulfan is the best example for this procrastination. Our constitution has provisions to award capital punishment to those convicted for murder or massacre. Through capital punishment in a way all the sufferings of the convict are ended abruptly. Deliberate actions causing irremediable damage and ruin to others all through their lives by pain and agony needs punishment of a greater degree.

Indians as a whole other as the members of the ruling party at the centre are looking forward the stand India is going to take at the meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) of Stockholm Convention. Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan and Forest Minister Benoy Viswam have written to the Centre demanding that it should adopt a stand in favour of ban.

Endosulfan the deadly chemical, even very name of which stirs up the tragic images of its living victims in every heart that loves its co-beings. Children born with stag-horn limbs, scaly skin, dermatitis, protruded tongues, deformed eyes, extra fingers and toes, cleft palates, clubbed feet and harelips, hydrocephalus, renal and respiratory disorders, cognitive and emotional deterioration, memory loss, poor sensory-motor reflex, ophthalmic inertness , cerebral palsy, epilepsy, infertility; youths who underwent compound surgery, artificial limb fixation, young mothers who opted repeated abortions rather than being mothers of deformed children; youth who look like children and children who look like stunted olds.

Endosulfan is highly toxic, persistent and bio-accumulative is a wide spreading contaminant of the environment. This long-term pesticide is used to kill insects and mites on various crops including cotton, tea, coffee, cashew, cardamom, fruits, vegetables, rice and grain. Semi-volatile in nature is known to spread through air, water, soil, food and other means to even the most remote corners of the world like the Antarctic contaminating the global food supply and drinking water. It is passed from mothers to their unborn children. The production and use of this dangerous chemical will let its levels in the environment and humans to rise, even in locations distant from production and use.

It is an endocrine disrupter, interfering with normal hormone production activity in both males and females, and can significantly affect the nervous system. It mainly accumulates in fatty tissue, placental tissue, umbilical cord blood and breast milk and hence the foetus will be exposed through mother’s blood, and the child after birth again gets re-exposed through the breast milk. Foetus and infants are the most vulnerable to its violent irreversible effects.

Kasargod's endosulfan tragedy and its reasons are solid proof to this. The State Agriculture Department started planting cashew trees on the hills surrounding the villages in the northern areas of Kasargod district in 1963. In 1978, the Kerala Plantation Corporation, which in later years assumed the likeness of a rogue body in the eyes of the people, took over these plantations.

During the early eighties the Corporation started its frightening aerial spraying of endosulfan in an extensive area of the cashew-growing hills and valleys spread over villages. For them endosulfan was a cost-effective remedy to the Bubonic plague caused by the tea mosquito bug, a destructive insect responsible for yield losses in cashew, a major foreign-exchange-earning cash crop of the state.

The ignorant villagers were thus exposed to the chemical, initially as they stood cavernous at the innovation of helicopters spewing the pesticide, or during their daily chores, through the water flowing down the hills, contaminated food, vegetables, fuel wood or even as plantation workers without protective clothing during the spraying.The Corporation ignored the truth that such aerial spraying of pesticides should be done very close to the top level or that it should not be sprayed continuously for a long time over an area. Copters often flew much above the specified height over the cashew trees to avoid power grids causing the spread of this highly toxic chemical to much wider areas contaminating all the biotic and abiotic sources of the area. All the warning signals of fatality like dead birds, frogs and fish in the streams and rivulets; cattle, and wildlife found dead in the plantation areas were ignored completely. Local people started experiencing acute toxicity symptoms after the spraying of endosulfan, over and inside their bodies.

India is the largest producer and user of endosulfan, with many manufacturers and formulators involved in the production and sale. Both the manufacturers and government agencies have continuously denied the severe harmful effects of endosulfan and maintained that the tragedy in Kasargod was the result of the improper mode of application of the pesticide. On October 25, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr. K.V. Thomas was seen reiterating this argument at a seminar in Kasargod. It is a controversial argument (babbling) that stands against the accumulating evidence of peer-reviewed scientific studies the world over and an increasingly popular demand for a global ban on endosulfan which is opposed vigorously from all corners.

A public outcry and court cases ensued. The government first ordered a temporary ban in August 2001 but subsequently, in March 2002, confined it to the aerial spraying of the pesticide. However, in August 2002, following a report of an inquiry by the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), Ahmedabad, which linked many of the ailments to the use of the pesticide, the Kerala High Court ordered an interim ban on its use, until, it said, an inquiry committee constituted by the Union government submitted its report. But the O.P. Dubey Committee, which gave a clean chit to the use of the pesticide, marked the beginning of a series of such inquiries and temporary bans on endosulfan in Kerala that were ordered as a matter of routine, whenever public outrage boiled over or when courts intervened.

The State Pollution Control Board again stopped the aerial spraying of endosulfan, in December 2004 on the basis of the Kerala High Court order(2002) and the Union government ordered in October 2005 that the sale, distribution and use of endosulfan in the State of Kerala shall remain prohibited till the results of another expert committee became available and a further decision was taken by the Central government. The C.D. Mayee Committee appointed thereafter endorsed many of the controversial claims of the earlier committee led by Dubey.

Though the aerial spraying of endosulfan in the cashew plantations of Kasargod was stopped, the use of the pesticide became more widespread in Kerala with the chemical being smuggled in from neighbouring States in large quantities for use in rubber, tea and cardamom plantations and in farms. The morbidity patterns, as seen among the victims in Kasargod, have gradually come to be reported rather alarmingly from many other agricultural districts of the State, like Idukki, Wayanad and Palakkad. Having known the irreparable debilitating effects of the pesticide on an entire generation of people in Kasargod, the State government could not ignore their plight for long. In 2006 the Left Democratic Front government eventually acknowledged the suffering of the victims and offered a compensation of Rs.50,000 to the survivors, pension for families of victims, and medical and social rehabilitation facilities – though it was inadequate for the victims.

On November 18, the National Human Rights Commission issued notices to the Central and State governments seeking explanations on media reports that the aerial spraying of endosulfan in Kasargod had affected people severely. The very next day, even as the State government and several political leaders began to call for a nationwide ban on the use of endosulfan, the Kerala Pollution Control Board issued a notification reintroducing a State-wide ban on the pesticide under pollution control laws. The endosulfan victims of Kasargod once again became the centre stage, through the media focus on and the pressure from international NGOs against India's opposition to the proposal for a global ban at the Stockholm Convention, under the pretext, among other reasons, that there is still no robust evidence to prove the health and environmental impact of the pesticide.

Endosulfan is now banned in over 62 countries, including those in the European Union and in the United States too because of high toxicity to humans and other organisms and its quality of persistence in the environment. Significantly, the U.S. ban was announced by its Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 7, 2010, as follows. “The EPA is taking action to end all uses of the insecticide Endosulfan in the United States. Endosulfan, which is used in vegetables, fruits, and cotton, can pose unacceptable neurological and reproductive risks to farm-workers and wildlife and can persist in the environment.” Agricultural products containing endosulfan are no longer registered in Australia. The three current approvals for endosulfan have also been cancelled, and the five products containing the chemical will be phased out over the next two years.

The organic farming communities have also stepped up their assault on the chemical, saying it interferes with hormones and is linked to breast cancer. They added that they won’t sell it, as it's not really needed – and there are far better insecticides out there to do the job, and they try to promote products that are more environmentally friendly and target specific.

Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority said that it does persist in the environment for very long periods after use and that's why it presents risks. The issue is how the risks are managed, an APVMA spokesman said. Having known the ill health effects of Endosulfan and allowing its use is more a reflection of the inability to manage risk, as it is a weakness on the part of an institution.

During manufacture or when used as pesticide Endosulfan enters air, water, and soil. Itis often applied to crops using sprayers. A part of endosulfan in the air may travel long distancesbefore it lands on crops, soil, or water. On crops Endosulfan usually breaks down in a few weeks. When released to soil attaches to soil particles. Near hazardous waste sites Endosulfan is usually found in soil. Some of the endosulfan in soil evaporates into air, and some breaks down in soil itself taking much time. It may be in soil for several years before it all breaks down. Rainwater can wash endosulfan that is attached to soil particles into surface water. Endosulfan does not dissolve easily in water. Hence in surface water it is attached to soil particles floating in the water or soil at the bottom. The small amounts of endosulfan that dissolve in water break down over time. Depending on the conditions in the water, endosulfan may break down within 1 day or it may take several months. From the surface water evaporates into air and breaks down. As it does not dissolve easily in water, only very small amount of endosulfan are found in groundwater. Animals that live in endosulfan-contaminated area can build up endosulfan in their bodies. The amount of endosulfan in their bodies may be several times greater than in the surrounding soil and water.

Breathing air containing contaminated with endosulfan, it can enter the body through lungs and then into the bloodstream. How much and how fast this will happens depends on the saturation level. Through contaminated food, water, or soil, it enters the body and passes from stomach into the bloodstream. However, studies in animals reveal that it passes slowly through the stomach into the body tissues while taken orally. Through contact it passes through the skin into the bloodstream. Studies in animals also show that when endosulfan is applied to the skin with no cuts wounds or infections, it passes slowly into the body tissues. But if there are cuts, wounds, infections or healed wound scars with tender skin it will pass in very. From waste sites, processing units or storage sites, the most likely way it enters human body is from skin contact or breathing contaminated dusts.

Exposure to very large amounts of endosulfan for short periods can cause adverse nervous system effects (such as hyperexcitability, tremors, andconvulsions) and death. As the brain controls the activity of the lungs and heart, lethal or near-lethal exposure results in failure of these organs. Other short-term, high-level exposures cause harmful effects on the stomach, blood,liver, and kidneys. In considerably longer exposures, there is possibility of the impairment of body's immune system. The kidneys, testes, and liver are affected by long term exposure to even low levels of endosulfan. The seriousness of these effects increases when exposed to higher concentration including damage to the genetic material within the cells. Some studies show that large amounts of endosulfan damage the testes. Pregnant animals given endosulfan by mouth had some offspring with low birth weight and length, and some with skeletal variations.

Like the widely banned pesticides DDT, chlordane and dieldrin,endosulfan is an organochlorine and as such, is persistent in the environment. Due to its ability to evaporate and travel long distances in the atmosphere, endosulfan has become one of the world’s most widespread pollutants. Within two days of spraying, up to 70% of endosulfan can volatize from leaf and soil surfaces, and can then be transported by wind over long distances. It has an estimated atmospheric half-life of 27 days (± 11 days), although this figure could be far higher, depending on air temperature. A further 2% of the sprayed chemical is carried off in surface run-off, while 1% remains in the soil. Therefore, around 73% of the applied pesticide leaves the site of application. The US EPA notes that, “Monitoring data and incident reports confirm that endosulfan is moving through aquatic and terrestrial food chains and that its use has resulted in adverse effects on the environment adjacent to and distant from its registered use sites”

The half-life of Endosulfan in water varies from 35-187 days under anaerobic conditions. The Stockholm Convention regards a chemical as being persistent in water if its half-life is greater than 2 months. Endosulfan is persistent in water under some conditions.

The Stockholm Convention regards a chemical as having the potential for long-range atmospheric transport if its half-life in air is greater than 2 days. Endosulfan has an atmospheric

half-life of 27 days (+ 11 days), at 75° C under experimental conditions. The much lower temperature in the trophosphere results in a much longer half-life in the air there.