Awareness on diabetes
Principal secretary, health, Brajesh Mehrotra on Friday emphasised on the need to generate mass awareness about diabetes, at a meeting convened by the State Health Society, Bihar, in collaboration with the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
At the meeting in a city hotel, Mehrotra said: "Unless we take care and create mass awareness about diabetes, its complications and initiate proper treatment, it will pose a great challenge to us. The health department, along with private firm Novo Nordisk Foundation, is conducting a diabetes control programme in a few districts of the state. As part of it, primary centres for diabetes care are being run in public-private partnership mode. The centres conduct mass awareness programmes apart from diabetes screening and practical training camps for medical professionals."
The managing trustee of Novo Nordisk Foundation, Melvin D'Souza, said the organisation, in association with the health department, has screened 1,91,904 people and found 5,009 of them to be diabetic.
Seminar on lawyers' role
The Basudeva Prasad Legal Aid Society organised a seminar on the role of lawyers in present political scenario, in the city on Friday. Speaking at the occasion was former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. He said: "Lawyers occupy a significant position in society and the time has come when they should play an active role in the political arena, giving society a new dimension."
Senior advocate and former president of the Indian Association of Lawyers', Yogesh Chandra Verma, said lawyers should be aware of their social responsibilities apart from discharging their professional duties. He added: "The time has come for lawyers to lead the society, as they are intimately connected to the people on account of their profession. They (the lawyers) will prove to be the best leaders." He claimed if more lawyers donned the hat of people's representatives, the quality of discussion in the state legislatures and Parliament would improve.
Among the others present at the seminar were Manjhi loyalists Brishen Patel, Narendra Singh and Mahachandra Prasad Singh.
Fight harassment at work
Mahila Jagran Kendra, a non-government organisation, conducted a training programme on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013, at AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies in Patna on Friday. Delhi High Court lawyer Abha Singhal Joshi, Women's Helpline in-charge Pramila Kumari and Patna Women's police station house officer (SHO) Mridula Kumari were the key speakers at the programme.
The event aimed at achieving clarity on the issue of sexual harassment and the responsibilities of committees in the organisation looking into the cases. Understanding of what constitutes sexual harassment at the workplace, role of the complaints' committee and how to deal with the cases were discussed at the training workshop.
Delhi High Court lawyer Joshi said: "Sexual harassment is a serious manifestation of sex discrimination at the workplace and a violation of human rights. It is not an isolated phenomenon but a manifestation of gender discrimination in society. It is a widespread and everyday occurrence, though seldom recognised. Women, victims of sexual harassment, are reluctant to even admit to it because of the social stigma attached to it."
SHO Mridula said almost all types of harassment or violence against women lie in the society's patriarchal structure where a male always considers himself to be superior than a woman.
"This superiority complex manifests itself in various kinds of discriminatory practices against women in general and also against working women," she added.
