Monday, September 30, 2019

Tanglewood Case 5

Case 5 Proposal Tanglewood prides itself on encouragement of diversity in the workplace. All hiring and promotion decisions should be made on the basis of character and quality of work. The ensuing lawsuit brings about a need to analyze Tanglewood’s selection strategies to ensure these practices are not hindering the promotion of diversity. The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP) requires that all organizations keep records that will allow for calculation and comparison of these statistics.The UGESP also requires that the four-fifth’s rule be calculated in all organizations. If is it shown that â€Å"a selection rate for any†¦group is less than four-fifths (4/5) (or eighty percent) of the rate of for the group with the highest rate† then this will usually be considered to be evidence of adverse impact. After review, the total number of Department manager positions reveals the number of whites employed at this level begins to rise over that of non-white or African Americans.At the next level of Assistant Store Manager, we see a astounding 92. 75% are white, which is nearly 10% higher than the ratios encountered at Associate and Shift Leader positions. Once you reach the highest job level, Store Manager, we see that 69. 56% are white and 30. 44% are non-white, but )% is African American. It appears this company has a ways to go to achieve adequate levels of diversity within the organization as a whole. Achieving Better EEO OutcomesBased upon the available information and prior knowledge of Tanglewood’s recruiting process and its successes, It is currently advised that Tanglewood should continue on the course of internal recruitment that is currently in place. The prior success speaks for itself and due to the major lack of substantial evidence that suggest this one particular party has been discriminated against would make changing the protocol for promotion an ill-advised decision. Tanglewood has a reputat ion for hiring minorities and establishing a culture that bases its reward system upon the ctions and work record of the people it promotes. Based upon the information in the case it appears that the law firm of Eaglette-Schubert is currently contacting other employees and encouraging them to band together in a law suit of Tanglewood. The attempted contacting of the employee (Mr. Root) by Ms. Gonzalez Tanglewood and his subsequent response to Ms. Gonzalez suggest that Mr. Root has the intentions of creating negative publicity and has been in contact with the law firm with whom are taking his case.In addition his actions based upon the information provided do not represent the level of loyalty and respect for the organization that is required of persons that are wishing to be promoted to higher levels within the organization. This neither information that we are provided does not provide nor give sufficient insight to this case that should/would warrant the need for Tanglewood to cha nge/adjust its current promotion system for employees. Promotion and Career Development ChangesTanglewood is known for its culture and philosophy to provide the best work environment and customer service in the retail industry. Tanglewood also prides itself on allowing employees to grow and develop through its management training programs; however, it is essential for Tanglewood’s current HR staff and executive management team to be particularly aware of the statistical numbers of its management staff and to continue to recruit and employ a good, diverse group of candidates to be considered for management.In an effort to increase the level of minorities employed in the management program, it its proposed that Tanglewood recruits from primarily minority institutions and groups. Tanglewood can also use external sources that focus and cater to minority employment. Tanglewood can also continue to promote their philosophy, work environment and commitment to excellent customer serv ice. Ultimately, Tanglewood’s philosophy and culture is to promote excellent customer service and to provide an outstanding work environment.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Ela Bhatt

Ela Bhatt : Hilary Clinton’s heroine – WASHINGTON: US secretary of state  Hillary Clinton  has hailed India's eminent social activist Ela Bhatt as one of her â€Å"heroines† for her pioneering work in empowering women. â€Å"I have a lot of heroes and heroines around the world,† Clinton said on Thursday, adding that one of them is Ela Bhatt, who started an organization called the Self-Employed Women's Association (Sewa) in India many years ago. She was a very well educated woman who had the options available to those in her class with her intellectual ability, but she chose to devote her life to organizing the poorest of the poor, women who worked in fields, who sold vegetables, who were domestics, who struggled to eke out a living for themselves and their families, women who were considered the last to eat, the least important,† Clinton said while speaking very highly of Bhatt. (Source:http://articles. timesofindia. indiatimes. om/2012-06-23/us/ 32381949_1_ela-bhatt-heroines-hillary-clinton ) Ela Bhatt is founder of  SEWA, India’s largest labor union which represents 1. 2 million women in the informal sector from women stitching embroidery and making food products to day-laborers, artisans, waste collectors, street vendors and small farmers. She has received numerous international awards for her work and is a member of  The Elders, a group of eminent global leaders who were brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007. The Gandhian Movement ; Penning of the book on the Gandhi movement The grand history of Khadia was retraced when Ela Bhatt, founder of Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), released the book `Mahatma ki chaon mein' or ‘Under the shadow of Mahatma' penned by her maternal grandfather late Dr Manidhar Shankarlal Vyas who was a freedom fighter and a revolutionary who had participated in the Dandi March. ———————————â₠¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- A founding member of Women's World Banking, Ela Bhatt is also the founder of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), one of the most successful organizations for the economic empowerment of women in India.She also founded SEWA Cooperative Bank in 1974. In 1989, she was the first woman appointed to the Planning Commission in India. Prior to this, she was a member of the Indian Parliament. Mrs. Bhatt's many awards include the Right Livelihood Award and the Ramon Magsasay Award and she was named to the Elders Project by Nelson Mandela in 2007. She has served on the WWB Board of Trustees since 1980, and was Chair from 1988 to 1998. Ela Bhatt â€Å"I realized that although eighty percent of women in India are economically active, they are outside the purview of legislation. † Ela's StoryBorn in 1933 to a middle class, well-educated family, Ela Bhatt has spent her life fighting for the rights and welfare of India's ‘invisible' worke rs. Her grandparents worked with Mahatma Gandhi in the non-violent struggle for Indian Independence from the British. Deeply influenced by Gandhi, Ela has followed his ideals all her life. She has pioneered the idea that people themselves, no matter how poor or uneducated, are able to solve their own problems if they organize together to do so. To help provide this, she founded SEWA, the Self-Employed Women's Association.Called â€Å"one of the best – -if not the best – – grassroots programmes for women on the planet,† SEWA proved so successful that it has become a model for micro-finance programs in other parts of the world. Ela started as a lawyer with the Textile Labour Association (TLA) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, a union founded by Gandhi, who had deep respect for India's textile producers. Working in the women's division, Ela soon found that women were doing many of the labor-intensive tasks needed in textile production, as well as in other fields of wor k. However, as workers, they were invisible.Out- raged, Ela said, â€Å"Personally, I don't think there can be any greater injustice to anybody in the world than to have one's work contribution negated†¦ Who is the backbone of any economy in the country? It's the poor! Yet they are not recorded as workers in the national census. They are described as non-workers! † Home-based workers are the least visible of all. In the textile industry, contractors give the women cloth pieces which are already cut out to form parts of a garment. The women sew the garments together at home and return them to the contractor. The women have to work fast and for long hours, because they are paid by the piece.Often, young daughters help with the sewing after school. The contractor would pay whatever he wished, often an extremely low rate of 4-5 rupees per day. The women, because they were unorganized, had no way to demand higher rates. Other women workers in the informal sector also had very difficult working conditions and were often exploited. These women included vegetable sellers, rag pickers, bidi rollers (a hand-rolled cigarette), incense makers, cleaners, laborers, cart pullers, and silk and cotton workers. â€Å"I realized that although eighty percent of women in India are economically active, they are outside the purview of legislation. Ela recognized that these women needed the help that they could get only through organizing together as a large group. To meet that need, she founded SEWA in 1972 to organize for better pay and working conditions. SEWA, which today has 250,000 members, helped workers at the lowest level of society become empowered to take control of their lives. It soon became apparent that women workers had a serious problem with money and banking. Even though many of the women worked twelve hours a day or more, they made little money, had no savings, and never had enough capital to improve their conditions.For example, a home- based textile assembler might have to pay high rent on the sewing machine she used. She never had enough money at one time to buy the machine. Even if a woman was able to get a little money together, the money often was not safe at home, where men felt entitled to whatever was in the house. If a women wanted to borrow money to further her business (for example, to buy extra vegetables to sell in the market), she would have to borrow from money lenders at outlandish rates, sometimes 50% per day.Since women's wealth was often in the form of jewelry, they also got funds through pawning. Because they were largely illiterate, these women were unable to sign their names at a bank and were unfamiliar with banking routines. A male relative would have to sign for them, gaining access to the money. In addition, bankers, who had never dealt with illiterate low-income women, treated them badly. SEWA had a meeting to which 2000 women came and told of their difficulties with the banks. Finally, someone said, à ¢â‚¬Å"Let's start our own bank! † Others agreed, and the idea was underway.SEWA Bank was registered in 1974 with 4,000 members. When money had to be raised to register the bank, the women, saying, â€Å"We are poor, but we are so many! † raised the needed RS. 100,000 within six months. Ela says that the idea that illiterate women cannot be decision-makers in finance is an untrue middle-class notion. A major problem was that the women could not sign their names. How could they be identified at SEWA Bank? SEWA found a way that was so successful it is now used in banks throughout India. Each woman was photographed holding a slate with her bank account number on it.One copy of the photo was in her bank passbook, while another copy was kept at the bank. This definite identification meant that women could now have money in their own names: men were no longer part of the process. When a woman joins SEWA Bank, the first step is saving. The woman must save an amount every week, no matter how small. Even if she makes only RS. 4, she is encouraged to save half a rupee. SEWA even provides a locked piggy bank for the purpose, and representatives from sewa come to the woman's home to take the savings to the bank.After acquiring the habit of saving, a woman will be allowed to take out a loan. Designed to meet the needs of low-income women, the loans are small with a long payback period, up to 36 months. Ela pioneered the concept of micro-lending, the idea that very small amounts, as small as $5, may be all that is needed to make a difference. Women used the loans for practical purposes: buying equipment they had formerly rented, expanding a business, installing indoor plumbing, and paying for children's education. Over 95% of the loans are repaid on time, a much higher repayment rate than for other banks.SEWA Bank also educates and assists the women through other services, such as day care, maternity protection, and job training. SEWA Bank, which now has over us $3 million in assets, has been so successful that there are now branches in other parts of India, and men have even asked to be included. It is important to realize that all this has been accomplished without any outside financial help whatsoever. The women did it themselves. Most important, the SEWA Bank model, through its concepts of micro-finance, has been used to empower poor women throughout the world.Towards this end, Ela joined with nine other women at the first UN World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975; these women shared the belief that the world's financial institutions must become accessible to low-income women. Incorporated in 1979, Women's World Banking now has 43 affiliates in 35 countries. Ela Bhatt has served as its chair since 1985. The far-reaching effects of Ela Bhatt's work have been recognized internationally through many awards, including the Right Livelihood Award (the alternate Nobel Prize) for ‘Changing the Human Environment' in Stockholm in 1984. Formal EconomyIn India today, only about 11% of workers hold regular jobs with formal employer- employee relationships. These jobs are documented and the workers are protected by whatever laws are available. Informal Economy Nearly 89% of India's workers are undocumented. Their work in the informal sector is usually not covered by legal protection that may be available to workers in formal sector jobs. They work either on their own, or as piece workers with a contractor or middleman, in relationships that depend on verbal agreement. Home-based Work Part of the informal economy, this work is done at home, usually by women.She gets raw materials from a contractor or middleman, assembles the finished product, and brings it to the middleman for payment. Often at the mercy of the contractor, she must accept whatever pay he is willing to give. This type of worker is the most invisible in the economy. Macro-Finance Works with the large amounts of money used by banks, governments, st ock markets, corporations, and other large institutions. Micro-Finance Micro-finance works with the very small amounts of money actually used by low-income people. It is often the most appropriate way to implement social programs at the grassroots level.Things to Do and Discuss 1 Imagine that you are a poor woman working in Gujarat, India. Construct a family, home, and job for yourself. You may want to consult a book or encyclopedia to get more information. What problems do you think you would have? How would you use a loan from SEWA Bank to improve the lives of yourself and your family? 2 How is women's work considered in your own country? In what ways is it similar or different from the situation in India? Do you think that changes such as SEWA provides would be useful in your country? ————————————————- Ela R Bhatt ——————— ————————— Extremely gentle and soft-spoken, yet firm and determined and widely recognized as pioneer in pushing for entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development leading to women empowerment – this is the practicing Gandhian economics and septuagenarian, Ela R Bhatt, popularly known as Elaben by members of Self Employed Women's Association or SEWA, which she founded in 1972. She helped the self-employed women to organize themselves. Its members include vegetable vendors, fisherwomen, bidi-rollers, weavers, and saltpan workers who were exploited for generations by middlemen.SEWA empowered them to explore direct market linkages, removing middlemen from the chain. Next it propagated the concept of self-reliance by producing and marketing to other villages leading to self-sustained village economy. It has formed 102 cooperatives including milk and grain and a Rural Distribution Network called RUDI to help women lin k with other villages in a 100-km radius. Next came a cooperative bank called SEWA Bank in 1974 to help these women have access to banking services which otherwise were not available.Like a banyan tree the SEWA today has spread to countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. ————————————————- Ela R Bhatt ————————————————- Extremely gentle and soft-spoken, yet firm and determined and widely recognized as pioneer in pushing for entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development leading to women empowerment – this is the practicing Gandhian economics and septuagenarian, Ela R Bhatt, popularly known as Elaben by members of Self Employed Women's Association or SEWA, which she founded in 1972.She helped the self-employed women to organize themselves. Its members include vegetable vendors, fisherwomen, bidi-rollers, weavers, and saltpan workers who were exploited for generations by middlemen. ————————————————- SEWA empowered them to explore direct market linkages, removing middlemen from the chain. Next it propagated the concept of self-reliance by producing and marketing to other villages leading to self-sustained village economy.It has formed 102 cooperatives including milk and grain and a Rural Distribution Network called RUDI to help women link with other villages in a 100-km radius. Next came a cooperative bank called SEWA Bank in 1974 to help these women have access to banking services which otherwise were not available. Like a banyan tree the SEWA today has spread to countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. ————————————â €”———- Ela Bhatt Of SEWA Awarded Indira Gandhi Prize For Promoting Peace :New Delhi, 18 Feb (Tehelka Bureau): Ela Bhatt is a name which has seen the transformation of close to 17 lakh people in the last four decades. As one of the founders of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), she has promoted the cause of women relentlessly allowing millions of them to become independent and self reliant. The impact of her work has been recognized consistently and it was lauded once again on Monday when she was honored by the President of India with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.This makes Bhatt only the third Indian in the history of the award to receive the prize constituted in the memory of the late Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. The other Indian recipients are former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and father of green revolution MS Swaminathan. Bhatt used the opportunity to re-examine the idea of peace and interpreted it as an instrument which disarms and renders war useless. Equating poverty with day-to-day violence, she found it to be no less destructive than war and said that its removal is essential for building peace.Stressing on the need to address the â€Å"realities of our own countries rather than catching up with the western economic models†, Bhatt urged the people to follow a principle which ensures six basic necessities- food, shelter, clothing, primary education, primary healthcare and primary banking- are available within a 100 mile distance. â€Å"If these necessities are locally produced and consumed, we will have the growth of a new holistic economy,† she said. ————————————————- The President praised her by calling the prize a â€Å"tribute to her unflinching zeal towards the betterment of women in society†New Delhi, 18 Feb (Tehelka Bureau):  Ela Bhatt is a name which has seen the transformation of close to 17 lakh people in the last four decades. As one of the founders of Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), she has promoted the cause of women relentlessly allowing millions of them to become independent and self reliant. The impact of her work has been recognized consistently and it was lauded once again on Monday when she was honored by the President of India with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.This makes Bhatt only the third Indian in the history of the award to receive the prize constituted in the memory of the late Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. The other Indian recipients are former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and father of green revolution MS Swaminathan. Bhatt used the opportunity to re-examine the idea of peace and interpreted it as an instrument which disarms and renders war useless. Equating poverty with day-to-day violence, she found it to be no less destructiv e than war and said that its removal is essential for building peace.Stressing on the need to address the â€Å"realities of our own countries rather than catching up with the western economic models†, Bhatt urged the people to follow a principle which ensures six basic necessities- food, shelter, clothing, primary education, primary healthcare and primary banking- are available within a 100 mile distance. â€Å"If these necessities are locally produced and consumed, we will have the growth of a new holistic economy,† she said   ————————————————- ————————————————-Dr. Ela Bhatt, recipient of the University of Chicago's 2007 William Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service, presented a public lecture on Novermber 27th in the Weymouth Kirkland C ourtroom. Ela R. Bhatt is widely recognized as one of the world’s most remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development. Known as the â€Å"gentle revolutionary† she has dedicated her life to improving the lives of India’s poorest and most oppressed women workers, with Gandhian thinking as her source of guidance.In 1972, Dr. Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) – a trade union which now has more than 1,000,000 members. Founder Chair of the Cooperative Bank of SEWA, she is also founder and chair of Sa-Dhan (the All India Association of Micro Finance Institutions in India) and founder-chair of the Indian School of Micro-finance for Women. Dr. Bhatt was a Member of the Indian Parliament from 1986 to 1989, and subsequently a Member of the Indian Planning Commission.She founded and served as chair for Women’s World Banking, the International Alliance of Home-based Workers (HomeNet), and Women in Infor mal Employment: Globalizing, Organizing (WIEGO). She also served as a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation for a decade. Dr. Bhatt has received several awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Right Livelihood Award, the George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, and the Legion d’honneur from France. She has also received honorary doctorates from Harvard, Yale, the University of Natal and other academic institutions.In 2007, Dr. Bhatt was named a member of The Elders, an international group of leaders whose goals include catalyzing peaceful resolutions to long-standing conflicts, articulating new approaches to global issues that are causing or may cause immense human suffering, and sharing wisdom by helping to connect voices all over the world. The Benton Medal The William Benton Medal for Distinguished Public Service is given to individuals who have rendered distinguished public service in the field of education. This field includes â€Å"not only teachers but also . . . veryone who contributes in a systematic way to shaping minds and disseminating knowledge. † Previous Benton Medal recipients include John Callaway, Katharine Graham, and Senator Paul Simon. ————————————————- Source: http://www. law. uchicago. edu/node/1502 ————————————————- ————————————————- The President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 18 February 2013 conferred 2011 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development Award to Ela Ramesh Bhatt, a renowned Women social worker.The award was given away at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. Ela Bhatt was given away the award for life time achievements in women empowerment, promotion of gra ssroot level entrepreneurship as well as contribution towards promotion of equitable development and peace. Ela Bhatt has her organisation SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association). President Pranab Mukherjee while giving away the award announced that SEWA was a vehicle of self employment and self reliance for the Indian women, while at the same time being synonymous with the rural inclusiveness. Ela Bhatt †¢ Ela Bhatt is the founder of more than 1 million SEWAs in India. Since years, Ela Bhatt has been working for women empowerment and bringing women out of poverty through promotion of Self Help Groups. †¢ SEWA has empowered women with freedom as well as financial self- reliance (Source: http://www. jagranjosh. com/current-affairs/ela-bhatt-conferred-2011-indira-gandhi-prize-for-peace-disarmament-and-development-award-1361254391-1) ————————————- It honours the hard work of the poor: Ela Bhatt Tuesday, Feb 19, 2013, 16:44 IST | Place: Ahmedabad | Agency: DNA Says Ela Bhatt on receiving Indira Gandhi peace prize.Noted social worker Ela Ramesh Bhatt was on Monday conferred the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development by President Pranab Mukherjee. After receiving the award, Elaben (80), founder of Self-Employed Women's Association (Sewa), said the prize is recognition of hard work by the all poor working women and their leadership worldwide, who hold peace, disarm violence and reduce poverty with their honest work. She said that award has given her the opportunity to explore what constitutes the peace. â€Å"I have often stated that poverty is violence.This violence is by consensus of society that lets other human beings go without roti, kapada and makan. Poverty is not god given. It is a moral collapse of our society. Garibi hatao to me also meant, indeed, shanti banao. Garibi Hatao is a peace song,† said founder of Sewa which has 17 lakh members now. She said that when Mahatma Gandhi talked about Swaraj, he talked about economic decentralisation. She urged people to ensure that six basic needs are met from resources within 100 miles. ————————————————- â€Å"I call it the 100-mile principle.If food, shelter, clothing, primary education, primary healthcare and primary banking are locally produced and consumed, we will have the growth of a new holistic economy that the world will take note of,† she said. She insisted that catching up with the western economic models will turn us into incompetent followers, not leaders. ————————————————- (Source: http://www. dnaindia. com/ahmedabad/1801728/report-it-honours-the-hard-work-of-the-poor-ela-bhatt ——————â €”—————————- Ela Bhatt conferred prestigious Indira Gandhi PrizeFeb 18, 2013 Ela Bhatt, a well-known social worker, was honored for her life time achievements in empowering women and promoting grass root level entrepreneurship. Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), was presented with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for the year 2011 by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee at a glittering ceremony today. Ela Bhatt was honoured for her life time achievements in empowering women, promoting grassroot level entrepreneurship and for her contribution towards promoting equitable development and peace.Ela Bhatt is known globally for her work over decades (though officially only since 1972) that has created SEWA with a membership in excess of 1. 3 million. She also founded the SEWA Cooperative Bank in 1974, which has an outreach of 3 million women —    simple figures that speak volumes of her dedicated efforts and leadership to successfully bring women out of poverty into a life of self-confidence and esteem. Speaking on the ocassion President Pranab Mukherjee said Ela Bhat's orgainisation SEVA has today become synonymous with rural inclusiveness and a vehicle of self employment and self reliance for women.The President praised her work for bringing women out of poverty and empowering them with the freedom to choose and attaining financial self-reliance through the promotion of Self Help. Congratulating her, the President said her life and work is reflective of the philosophy and ideals espoused by India's former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in whose memory the prize was instituted. The President said Ms Bhatt’s example would spur many more initiatives in our country and elsewhere, aimed at renewal of society and all-round development of people. If women are under represented in the productive efforts of our economy, i t is not only injudicious but also detrimental to the cause of social progress,† the president. â€Å"Due to the untiring efforts of Ms. Bhatt, SEWA has become an effective vehicle for promotion of self employment and self reliance amongst women. To realize these goals, the organization has been providing support services in the areas of savings and credit, health care, child care, legal aid, insurance, capacity building and communication. It has become a multi-dimensional entity – a labour collective, a co-operative and a women’s movement. ————————————————- Speaking on the occassion, India's Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh said, â€Å"By saying that poverty is the moral failure of a society, Ela-ben throws down the gauntlet to society at large. Her own attempt to attack poverty by organizing poor women and helping them empower themselves economical ly is at once aimed at the twin evils of poverty and gender discrimination. † Ela Bhatt : The ‘gentle revolutionary’; a pioneer in women’s empowerment and grassroots development, founder of the more than 1 million-strong Self-Employed Women’s Association in India.There are risks in every action. Every success has the seed of some failure. But it doesn't matter. It is how you go about it. That is the real challenge. † Ela Bhatt has been a member of The Elders since the group was founded in 2007. Profoundly influenced by Gandhian thinking, she advocates local, grassroots solutions for those who are poor, oppressed or suffering the effects of violent conflict. She joined her fellow Elders to encourage peaceful Palestinian protest and self-reliance during The Elders’ two delegations to  Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.One of India’s foremost women’s rights activists, Ela Bhatt welcomed the Elders to India in F ebruary 2012, where the group lent their support to young people in the state of Bihar campaigning to end  child marriage  in their own communities. One of India’s foremost women’s rights activists, Ela Bhatt welcomed the Elders to India in February 2012, where the group lent their support to young people in the state of Bihar campaigning to end  child marriage  in their own communities. â€Å"We are poor, but so many†Ela Bhatt is one of the world’s most remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development. Known as the ‘gentle revolutionary’, she has dedicated her life to improving the lives of India’s poorest and most oppressed women workers. In 1972 she founded the  Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union for women workers in India’s huge informal sector, who make up 94 per cent of the female labour force and yet have never enjoyed the same rights and security as those in f ormal employment.Today SEWA has more than 1. 2 million members across nine Indian states. â€Å"We may be poor, but we are so many. Why don’t we start a bank of our own? Our own women’s bank, where we are treated with the respect and service that we deserve. †Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Chandaben, SEWA member The following year, Ela Bhatt founded the  Cooperative Bank of SEWA. The bank helps women to gain financial independence and raise their standing in their families and communities – and puts into practice the Gandhian principles of self-reliance and collective action.Empowering women workers Among the organisations Ela Bhatt has created and inspired, she founded and chairs: * Sa-Dhan (the All India Association of Micro Finance Institutions in India) * The Indian School of Micro-finance for Women * Women’s World Banking * The International Alliance of Home-based Workers (HomeNet) * Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing, Organizing (WIEGO)| She has also served as a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation for more than ten years.In recognition of her work to improve the status of women and the working poor in India and elsewhere, Ela Bhatt was awarded the first-ever Global Fairness Initiative Award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Right Livelihood Award, the George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, and the Legion d’honneur from France. She has also received honorary doctorates from Harvard, Yale and the University of Natal. ————————————————- Women, work and peace Ela Bhatt,  18 February 2013 â€Å"Poverty is day-to-day violence, no less destructive than war. Receiving the 2011 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, Ela Bhatt re-examines our idea of peace, arguing that equity, local economies and the empowerment of women through work are central to supporting economic freedoms, and therefor e peace. Honorable President of India, Honorable Shrimati Sonia Gandhi, Honorable Prime Minister of India, and distinguished dignitaries and friends: Thank you for this singular honor. I humbly accept the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development on behalf of the self-employed women of  SEWA. This year, SEWA is 40 years old; I turn 80.We are a sisterhood of 17  lakh  [1. 7 million]. Our journey is long and perhaps endless. This prize has given honor to all working poor women and their leadership worldwide, who hold peace, disarm violence and reduce poverty with their honest work. And therefore, it gives me deep contentment to be here today. I still hope someday they will hold a central place in our economy. This peace prize gives us an opportunity to re-examine our ideas of what constitutes peace. Certainly, absence of war is not peace. Peace is what keeps war away, but it is more than that; peace disarms and renders war useless.Peace is a condition enjoyed by a fair and fertile society. Peace is about restoring balance in society; only then is it lasting peace. In my view, restoration and reconstruction of a society are essential and key components of the peace process worldwide. If we look carefully at our world, we find that where there is unfair distribution of resources, there is unrest. When people cannot enjoy the fruits of their labors fairly, when they are forced off their land and homestead and forest, we have the basis of an unjust society. Where there is violence and conflict, we invariably find poverty.And where there is poverty, we find anger and acute struggles for justice and equity. And we see governments resorting to repression for ensuring ‘law and order’. I have often stated that poverty is violence. This violence is by consensus of society that lets other human beings go without  roti  and  kapada  and  makan. Poverty is not God-given. It is a moral collapse of our society. Poverty strips a per son of his or her humanity and takes away freedom. Poverty is day-to-day violence, no less destructive than war. Poverty is lack of peace and freedom. In fact, removing poverty is essentially building peace.I know I am not saying anything new. Garibi Hatao  to me also meant indeed  Shanti Banao. Garibi Hatao  is a peace song. In India, we are proud of our multicultural society. Bahudha  is at the heart of what makes us who we are: social diversity, political diversity, religious diversity, biological diversity. But in our rush to modernise let us not forget one of our greatest assets: our economic diversity. In our markets, we have the street vendor, the cart seller, the kiosk owner, the shop owner, and the supermarket owner, all plying their trades at the same time.Let them cater to different strata of society, co-existing and competing in a natural, organic way. Let our planning include ample room for the millions of small entrepreneurs and self-employed, who cater to the widest strata of society, to flourish and grow. They are the agents of an economic development that reaches the grassroots; they weave the living web of social and economic relationships that will bind our nations together. Gandhiji talked about  swaraj; he talked about economic decentralization. I would urge us to ensure that six basic primary needs are met from resources within 100 miles around us. I call it the â€Å"100 mile principle†.If food, shelter, clothing, primary education, primary healthcare and primary banking are locally produced and consumed, we will have the growth of a new holistic economy, which the world will sit up and take note of. And it  is  possible in and around India – in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan – women have done it. Catching up with western economic models will turn us into incompetent followers, not leaders. But if we address the realities of our own countries, we can create a development that makes u s leaders of our destiny. Let me make clear, however, that the 100 mile principle is not a recipe for isolation.I am not asking at all that we go back but move forward with heightened awareness about how and where we spend our money and what our work is doing to us and those around us. In fact, technologies can help to share knowledge and ideas across countries. However, we do need to get away from a world where people grow what they do not eat, and eat what they do not grow; where they have lost control over their basic production and daily consumption; where they have become part of a system whose outcomes are determined by people far away, in a manner not in their interest and outside their control.This awareness is already growing among the younger generation the world over. In India, we have a running start because our local economies are still alive. Let us give them the respect they deserve by investing in people who survive despite our neglect. And where do we start? I have faith in women. Women have shown, if we care to observe, that disarmament in the end is not a treaty by two nations to render arms useless, though such treaties are much-needed in this world. In my experience, as I have seen within India and in other countries, women are the key to rebuilding a community. Why?Focus on women and you will find an ally who wants a stable community. She wants roots for her family. You get a worker, a provider, a caretaker, an educator, a networker, a forger of bonds. I consider thousands of poor working women’s participation and representation an integral part of the peace and development process. Women bring constructive, creative and sustainable solutions to the table. Also, in my experience, productive work is the thread that weaves a society together. When you have work, you have an incentive to maintain a stable society. You cannot only see the future, but you can plan for the future.You can build assets and invest in the next generation. Li fe is no longer just about survival. Work builds peace because work gives people roots, as well as allowing them to flower; it builds communities and it gives meaning and dignity to one’s life. Work restores man’s relationships with himself, with fellow human beings, with the earth and the environment, and with the great spirit that created us all. Being one of The Elders, I listen to Nelson Mandela, dear Madiba, telling us frequently that â€Å"money won’t create success, but the freedom to make it, will. True, in Gaza, the men and women said to me, â€Å"Without work we can neither forgive nor forget, because what have we to look forward to? † In a Sudanese camp, I heard refugees crying for work, not charity. After the earthquake in Kutch, when I visited the area, everywhere I went the women, who had lost everything, said to me, â€Å"Ben, have you brought work? † By work, I do not mean sweatshops and cheap labour in factories that leave a perso n a slave to yet another kind of exploitation.Treating land and forests and people and even work as a commodity cannot build a fuller human being, nor a holistic society. Such work strips them of the multifunctional, multicultural character of work that fosters a dynamic and organic growth in society. A woman who tends a small plot of land, grows vegetables, weaves cloth, and provides for the family and the market, while caring for the financial, social, educational and emotional needs of her family is multifunctional worker and the builder of a stable society.One who labours long hours at a factory where he has no control of his work or his skills, contributes one product to society whose work is ‘measured’ and therefore given greater credence by us, while her work is unaccounted and ignored. It is the GDP at the household level that matters. The use of word ‘domestic’ in GDP should not be overlooked. Peace and development cannot be measured in numbers. I do hope that one day peace and development will shine on the face of our land and the people, and the world will enjoy the wisdom of my India.Thank you very much. Ela Bhatt delivered this speech upon accepting the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, on 18 February 2013 in New Delhi. ————————————————- Source: http://theelders. org/article/welcoming-my-fellow-elders-india Welcoming my fellow Elders to India â€Å"We hope to listen to girls affected by child marriage, their parents, their teachers and community leaders – and amplify their needs and concerns in our conversations with government, media and other influential people. Ela Bhatt is joined in India by her fellow Elders Desmond Tutu, Gro Brundtland and Mary Robinson at the start of a week-long visit focusing on the empowerment of girls and women. I am very happy to be welcoming my frie nds Desmond Tutu, Gro Brundtland and Mary Robinson to India. This is the first time the Elders have travelled here as a group, and I hope that by the end of our visit to Delhi and Bihar, we will have become even â€Å"wiser†. Our aim is to listen and learn, not lecture. I also hope this is the beginning of a continued relationship with the people and leaders of India.As some of you may already know, the Elders work together as independent global leaders, supporting peace-building and human rights. These issues are closely related in my view. Peace, human rights and human development go hand in hand, and the Millennium Development Goals – the international benchmarks for progress on poverty, health, education and other issues – are a very important tool. I strongly believe that peace is not a political issue, it’s a human one, and will only be achieved when everyone has the freedom to grow at their own pace and to fulfill their potential.In India, the focu s of our visit is to support Indian girls in particular to realize their full potential by drawing attention to the practice of child marriage. In this way, we hope we will also contribute towards India’s own development as a peaceful partner in the global family of nations. In the developing world an estimated one in three girls is married before the age of 18. One in seven marries before 15. Around ten million girls a year are affected by child marriage and one third of them live in India. Child marriage is, however, a truly global practice.It occurs across all major religions and regions, from West and East Africa to South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and communities in Europe and the United States. There are many reasons why child marriage happens, but we now recognize that marrying later, delaying pregnancy and continuing girls’ education, providing them adequate skills and financial literacy, are all important ways to support development and build a more peaceful world. As I mentioned, the Elders are not here to lecture or prescribe.Nevertheless as home to a significant proportion of the world’s child brides, addressing this issue in India is very important on the global scale. What we hope to do is to listen to girls affected by child marriage, their parents, their teachers and community leaders – and amplify their needs and concerns in our conversations with government, media and other influential people. I am very sympathetic to the difficult decisions that families must make here in India. Even if they want their daughters to be educated, there are often no schools nearby, especially outside the big towns and cities.Physical security is a real concern if girls have to travel long distances or stay in dormitories away from home. In India, family and community are also central to most people’s security – both physical and financial. Marriages are not just between individuals, but weave together families and communities in mutually supportive networks. This makes marriage complex and important to social cohesion. Like everywhere in India, we are seeing change. I have seen differences in age of marriage from my mother’s generation to my own, and my daughters’. But it is far too slow.We hope that the Elders’ contribution will help to create an enabling environment where everyone works together – government, young people, media, NGOs, and businesses too – so that girls can become equal members of the family, not second class members, and can truly fulfil their potential. We look forward to sharing our thoughts along the way, and hope that you will join the conversation too. ———————————————————————————— Peace by practice: Mandela Day 2011 Ahead of Mandela Day 2011, Ela Bhatt asks how we can live up to NelsonMandela's example and discusses the power of â€Å"thinking local† to change our communities and create a better world. To me, Nelson Mandela is a supreme symbol of freedom’s struggle. Next week, on 18 July, he will celebrate his 93rd birthday, a daythat around the world people now recognise as ‘Mandela Day’. Let us take this opportunityto reflect on the life of a man we have come to know and respect as a great leader, one who sacrificed his own freedom for the freedom of his people. How best do we honour his achievements? What can we do to live up to Madiba’s example? Looking for a solutionIt is often said that the problems facing our world are too overwhelming or intractable – that you find endless conflict, injustice and poverty. I agree that if you want to fixthe world’s problems, you have a mightytask. In my own country, India, the scale of the poverty we see is enough to break you r heart. After decades of independence, freedom has still not come to everycitizen – discrimination has taken new forms, and the poorest of the poor live on the margins, the invisible engine of our so-called ‘Tiger economy’. When we see such suffering, it is natural to wish to solve everything at once.We turn to our governments for a solution, and feel frustrated when theyfail to act. But I have never been one to argue that governments have all the answers. Change is up to us Our greatest source of strength is right under our noses; the families, work-places and communities that give us strong foundations, on which equal societies are built. Thinking local, we can turn power upside down. In my work with Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), I have seen some of the poorest, most vulnerable women transform their lives and the communities theylive in.From being home-based workers, landless labourers or illiterate food vendors they have claimed their right s and have become the owners of their own resources, the beneficiaries of their own land. They meet resistance from the authorities at everystage but theystand firm, together, saying â€Å"We are poor, but so many! † I believe strongly that to bring widespread change, we must first make that change ourselves. Another great teacher, Mahatma Gandhi, imagined this as ripples in water, small circles of change that grow ever wider.Our actions have an impact we may never even see. Peace by practice Rather than find yourself immobilised bythe scale of the world’s problems, look around you. Even when a problem is right under your nose, it is easyto ignore it – we curse fate, blame tradition or sayâ€Å"it’s God’s will. † But you will not have to search far before you find people who are hungry, lonely, downtrodden, persecuted – sometimes we just need a reason to reach out to them. When Nelson Mandela founded The Elders, he invoked the idea of ubuntu: that we are human onlythrough the humanity of others.What he describes is more than charity, it is a certain outlook or way of life. Byserving others, we actuallyfulfil our own humanity – these actions are full of faith, a form of prayer. This Mandela Day – a dayfor personal, local action – let us spend our energies serving our own communities to honour the 67 years Nelson Mandela dedicated to fighting for a better world. (Source : ————————————————- Harvard varsity to honour Ela Bhatt (Source: http://articles. timesofindia. indiatimes. com/2011-03-14/ahmedabad/28687384_1_ela-bhatt-sewa-honour )BOSTON: The prestigious  Harvard University  will honor Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), for her â€Å"life and work† that has had a â€Å"significant impact on society† . Bhatt (77), whose trade union has helped over a million women in  India  gain access to opportunities for themselves and their families, will be awarded the Radcliffe Institute Medal by Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She would be presented the medal, awarded annually to individuals who have substantially and positively influenced society, on Radcliffe Day on May 27.Some of the illustrious past winners include  Toni Morrison  in 2007,  Margaret Atwood  in 2003, Billie Jean King in 2002 and  Alice Walker  in 1992. â€Å"The Radcliffe Institute is proud to honor her this year, in which gender in the developing world is one of its dominant themes,† the Institute said. Recipient of several prestigious awards, Ela Bhatt founded SEWA in 1972. Conceived as a women's trade union, SEWA has grown into an NGO that offers micro-lending , health and life insurance and child care — all overseen by more than a hundred women-run cooperatives.In January 2010, SEWA membe rship had reached 1. 2 million. Bhatt has been recognised for her long battle for social justice. In November last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had honoured Bhatt with the Global Fairness Initiative Award for helping move more than a million poor women in India to a position of dignity and independence. Radcliffe Day is the Institute's annual celebration of women, as well as the alumnae and fellows of Radcliffe College and the Radcliffe Institute.It is traditionally held on the day after Harvard's commencement. The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University is a scholarly community where individuals pursue advanced work across a wide range of academic disciplines, professions and creative arts. Within this broad purpose , the institute sustains a continuing commitment to the study of women, gender and the society. ————————————————- An exhibiti on on Ahmadabad’s forgotten heroine TNN  Nov 17, 2012, 06. 44AM ISTAHMEDABAD: She was respected by lakhs of textile workers and the poor – Anasuya Sarabhai(1885-1972), fondly known as ‘Motaben', holds a unique place in the history of the country. She is best remembered for joining hands with  Mahatma Gandhi  in leading the historic strike of mill workers in Ahmedabad, which eventually led to the founding of the country's first Textile Labour Association (TLA), in 1920. A 13-day exhibition, starting on Saturday is being held in the city, chronicling Motaben's life. It also marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Sewa (Self-employed Women's Association) as well as the 127th birthday of Anasuya Sarabhai. Her reputation among mill workers, and the love and trust they showed in her leadership, were key to Gandhiji's eventual success,† says Somanth Bhatt, who conjured up rare pictures of Anasuya for an exhibition at Shantisadan on Mirzapur Road in the walled city. â€Å"Anasuyaben's thoughts and spirit nurtured Gandhi's ideologies. This is the first time a labour organization is getting involved in an exhibition for a labour leader, Motaben,† says founder of Sewa, Ela Bhatt, who first worked with Motaben in 1955. Shantisadan was where Ansuyaben lived and founded the labour movement. This is a rare oppurtunity to exhibit history in the place where it occured. The unique thing about this exhibition is that it is presented in a way that speaks about Anasuyaben in her own words and photographs,† says Bhatt. She further adds, â€Å"Many would not know this but Motaben was the force behind the major labour laws of our country. In my opinion, Motaben and her contribution to the reedom struggle and labour movement should become part of school textbooks. † ————————————————- Ela Bhat Source : http://www. tole rance. org/activity/ela-bhat) â€Å"I realized that although eighty percent of women in India are economically active, they are outside the purview of legislation. † Ela's Story Born in 1933 to a middle class, well-educated family, Ela Bhatt has spent her life fighting for the rights and welfare of India's ‘invisible' workers. Her grandparents worked with Mahatma Gandhi in the non-violent struggle for Indian Independence from the British. Deeply influenced by Gandhi, Ela has followed his ideals all her life.She has pioneered the idea that people themselves, no matter how poor or uneducated, are able to solve their own problems if they organize together to do so. To help provide this, she founded SEWA, the Self-Employed Women's Association. Called â€Å"one of the best – -if not the best – – grassroots programmes for women on the planet,† SEWA proved so successful that it has become a model for micro-finance programs in other parts of the worl d. Ela started as a lawyer with the Textile Labour Association (TLA) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, a union founded by Gandhi, who had deep respect for India's textile producers.Working in the women's division, Ela soon found that women were doing many of the labor-intensive tasks needed in textile production, as well as in other fields of work. However, as workers, they were invisible. Out- raged, Ela said, â€Å"Personally, I don't think there can be any greater injustice to anybody in the world than to have one's work contribution negated†¦ Who is the backbone of any economy in the country? It's the poor! Yet they are not recorded as workers in the national census. They are described as non-workers! Home-based workers are the least visible of all. In the textile industry, contractors give the women cloth pieces which are already cut out to form parts of a garment. The women sew the garments together at home and return them to the contractor. The women have to work fast and for long hours, because they are paid by the piece. Often, young daughters help with the sewing after school. The contractor would pay whatever he wished, often an extremely low rate of 4-5 rupees per day. The women, because they were unorganized, had no way to demand higher rates.Other women workers in the informal sector also had very difficult working conditions and were often exploited. These women included vegetable sellers, rag pickers, bidi rollers (a hand-rolled cigarette), incense makers, cleaners, laborers, cart pullers, and silk and cotton workers. â€Å"I realized that although eighty percent of women in India are economically active, they are outside the purview of legislation. † Ela recognized that these women needed the help that they could get only through organizing together as a large group. To meet that need, she founded SEWA in 1972 to organize for better pay and working conditions.SEWA, which today has 250,000 members, helped workers at the lowest level of societ y become empowered to take control of their lives. It soon became apparent that women workers had a serious problem with money and banking. Even though many of the women worked twelve hours a day or more, they made little money, had no savings, and never had enough capital to improve their conditions. For example, a home- based textile assembler might have to pay high rent on the sewing machine she used. She never had enough money at one time to buy the machine.Even if a woman was able to get a little money together, the money often was not safe at home, where men felt entitled to whatever was in the house. If a women wanted to borrow money to further her business (for example, to buy extra vegetables to sell in the market), she would have to borrow from money lenders at outlandish rates, sometimes 50% per day. Since women's wealth was often in the form of jewelry, they also got funds through pawning. Because they were largely illiterate, these women were unable to sign their names at a bank and were unfamiliar with banking routines.A male relative would have to sign for them, gaining access to the money. In addition, bankers, who had never dealt with illiterate low-income women, treated them badly. SEWA had a meeting to which 2000 women came and told of their difficulties with the banks. Finally, someone said, â€Å"Let's start our own bank! † Others agreed, and the idea was underway. SEWA Bank was registered in 1974 with 4,000 members. When money had to be raised to register the bank, the women, saying, â€Å"We are poor, but we are so many! † raised the needed RS. 100,000 within six months.Ela says that the idea that illiterate women cannot be decision-makers in finance is an untrue middle-class notion. A major problem was that the women could not sign their names. How could they be identified at SEWA Bank? SEWA found a way that was so successful it is now used in banks throughout India. Each woman was photographed holding a slate with her ban k account number on it. One copy of the photo was in her bank passbook, while another copy was kept at the bank. This definite identification meant that women could now have money in their own names: men were no longer part of the process.When a woman joins SEWA Bank, the first step is saving. The woman must save an amount every week, no matter how small. Even if she makes only RS. 4, she is encouraged to save half a rupee. SEWA even provides a locked piggy bank for the purpose, and representatives from sewa come to the woman's home to take the savings to the bank. After acquiring the habit of saving, a woman will be allowed to take out a loan. Designed to meet the needs of low-income women, the loans are small with a long payback period, up to 36 months. Ela pioneered the concept of micro-lending, the idea that very small amounts, as small as $5, may be all hat is needed to make a difference. Women used the loans for practical purposes: buying equipment they had formerly rented, ex panding a business, installing indoor plumbing, and paying for children's education. Over 95% of the loans are repaid on time, a much higher repayment rate than for other banks. SEWA Bank also educates and assists the women through other services, such as day care, maternity protection, and job training. SEWA Bank, which now has over us $3 million in assets, has been so successful that there are now branches in other parts of India, and men have even asked to be included.It is important to realize that all this has been accomplished without any outside financial help whatsoever. The women did it themselves. Most important, the SEWA Bank model, through its concepts of micro-finance, has been used to empower poor women throughout the world. Towards this end, Ela joined with nine other women at the first UN World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975; these women shared the belief that the world's financial institutions must become accessible to low-income women. Incorporated in 1 979, Women's World Banking now has 43 affiliates in 35 countries.Ela Bhatt has served as its chair since 1985. The far-reaching effects of Ela Bhatt's work have been recognized internationally through many awards, including the Right Livelihood Award (the alternate Nobel Prize) for ‘Changing the Human Environment' in Stockholm in 1984. Formal Economy In India today, only about 11% of workers hold regular jobs with formal employer- employee relationships. These jobs are documented and the workers are protected by whatever laws are available. Informal Economy Nearly 89% of India's workers are undocumented.Their work in the informal sector is usually not covered by legal protection that may be available to workers in formal sector jobs. They work either on their own, or as piece workers with a contractor or middleman, in relationships that depend on verbal agreement. Home-based Work Part of the informal economy, this work is done at home, usually by women. She gets raw materials from a contractor or middleman, assembles the finished product, and brings it to the middleman for payment. Often at the mercy of the contractor, she must accept whatever pay he is willing to give.This type of worker is the most invisible in the economy. Macro-Finance Works with the large amounts of money used by banks, governments, stock markets, corporations, and other large institutions. Micro-Finance Micro-finance works with the very small amounts of money actually used by low-income people. It is often the most appropriate way to implement social programs at the grassroots level. Things to Do and Discuss 1 Imagine that you are a poor woman working in Gujarat, India. Construct a family, home, and job for yourself. You may want to consult a book or encyclopedia to get more information.What problems do you think you would have? How would you use a loan from SEWA Bank to improve the lives of yourself and your family? 2 How is women's work considered in your own country? In what way s is it similar or different from the situation in India? Do you think that changes such as SEWA provides would be useful in your country? ————————————————- Interview with Ela Bhatt Founder of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) A good combination of struggle and constructive work Create, as a strategy, alternative economic organizationsAhmedabad, Gujarat, India | Ela Bhatt. Photo by Nic Paget-Clarke. | | Self-employed  vegetable vendors in Ahmedabad. Click  to see a series of photos. Photo by Nic Paget-Clarke. | Ela Bhatt  is the founder of the  Self Employed Women’s Association(SEWA) and was SEWA’s first general-secretary. Based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, SEWA is the largest single trade union in the country with a membership of 687,000 women. SEWA’s members are vegetable and garment vendors, in-home seamstresses, head-load ers, bidi rollers, paper pickers, construction workers, incense stick makers, and agricultural workers.They come from India's â€Å"unorganized sector† and organize for their just dues and rights. 96% of all women workers in India are in this sector. Among their achievements is the SEWA Bank whose capital is made up entirely of their own contributions. The SEWA Bank was founded in 1974 by 4,000 women each contributing ten rupees. This interview was conducted August 31, 2003 by Nic Paget-Clarke for In Motion Magazine in Ahmedabad. Also see interview with  Jayshree Vyas  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  Managing Director of SEWA Bank. * The Independence Struggle * Self-employed laborers * A leading role in the women’s movement You have to be for something * In Gandhi’s thinking * Civil disobedience and sit-in strikes * Satyagraha and street vendors * Face-to-face talk * Alternative economic organizations * Cooperatives and trade unions * Full employment and self-reliance – social change * The diversity of our society * Literacy education * Democratic values * To serve * Changes in the garment industry * Globalization: the construction industry * Embroidery and migration * Only because we had an organization * The interests of the local producers * Using the technology * Changing the balance of powerThe Independence Struggle In Motion Magazine:  What made you think you needed to start the organization SEWA? Ela Bhatt:  I’m a product of the later years of the freedom movement, the independence movement of my country. As we were studying in school and then in college our teachers and everybody around was talking about independence. In the family, also, there was the atmosphere of the independence struggle. My own grandfather, my mother’s father, was in the Salt March. He was in jail. My mother’s two brothers were in jail. (Editor: begun March 12, 1930, the Salt March led by Mohandas (Mahatma) K.Gandhi was a 24-day march from his ashram in Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea to make salt and protest the British ban of an Indian’s right to make salt. ). When I was studying in college, our teachers asked us to go the villages and live with the villagers. Mainly against injustice, against poverty. We never had to question how to do it because Gandhiji had shown the way — how to go about it and what kind of discipline you have to follow. There I met my husband (

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Music and Soundscapes Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Music and Soundscapes - Research Paper Example The sound effects, sounds that are made outside of the scene and applied, are used in tandem with the scene (Klaus 136). In the clip from Jaws, the music has a duality, revealing both the joy of the chase and the seriousness of what they are about to accomplish. As the tension builds, so does the tension of the music. There is a playfulness, even within the music score that accompanies this scene. As the captain goes to shoot the shark, the tension builds even higher. Once the first shot is in, it builds towards him taking the next shot, but then descends as the barrel descends into the water. The music is complex, reflecting the moment. This is in contrast to the simplicity of the theme music that is so well known about the shark. In this scene, the humans feel that they are in control and that they are working the shark towards their own ends. However, there is a sense that this is not true, thus the playfulness within the music reflects something of the self-delusion that they are experiencing (Movie Clips. ‘Barrels’ Jaws (1975). The sound in the ‘Opposites do not Attract’ in When Harry Met Sally is a series of sounds that are developed to reflect the situation. The two lead characters are riding in a car so the rush of the car as it travels underlies the sound.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Capital Funding in School Districts Research Paper

Capital Funding in School Districts - Research Paper Example Replacing old buildings with new buildings, repairing old buildings, incorporating more facilities to the existing building etc are expensive acts. It is difficult for the school management or the authorities to find funds for the renovation or replacement of the school buildings from the tuition fees alone. According to a rough estimate done by the 2003 State Auditors Office report, statewide need is around $4.7 billion for the school building replacement or renovation (Colorado Department of Treasury, 2010). In short capital funding is necessary for the American schools to ensure the safety of the existing school buildings or to make new buildings. This paper briefly analyses various aspects of capital funding in schools. Capital funding or bonds in schools are the funds allocated to the schools by the government for the modernization of the school buildings according to locally agreed priorities established in the Schools Asset Management Plan. The government wants to raise the standards of education in schools and for that purpose, ample infrastructure facilities are necessary in the school compound. Capital funding is given to the individual schools by the authorities based on the requirements estimated by the school authorities and the local authorities. In UK, school capital funding is intended for the â€Å"standards focused projects which contribute to achieving government targets for educational improvement. Projects must have a minimum value of 500,000 of which 20% of the funding must be met from Local Authority/local sources† (Capital Funding for School Buildings, 2010) â€Å"It is important that school districts have the resources to help schools recover from unexpected natural damage. As a result of this capital funding, students in School District can focus their attention on the business of learning, and not the condition of their school†(Governor Quinn Highlights $4.3 Million in Capital Funds for New Belleville Elementary School). Transfer

Thursday, September 26, 2019

As instruction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

As instruction - Essay Example It therefore, can be said that each of us, follow a definite philosophy which guides our actions and our efforts to gain knowledge and accordingly base our judgments of the people or event. J. S. Mills, an eminent philosopher, In his book ‘On liberty’ has extensively discoursed on liberty of thought and discussion and has tried to explain its wider meaning with respect to the control exerted by society on an individual. Through the ages, liberty and freedom of choice has been the most important issue for the rulers and the community at large. The rulers and people in authority have been using their power to exert control over the community and individuals. Mills has argued that no government or individual has the right to suppress the independent thought of other individuals largely because the new thoughts are catalyst to the changes, which are part and parcel of human existence. The extent of the influence of their control on the liberty of individuals is the most vital aspect of interplay of human relationship within the society. The governmental and constitutional paradigms of liberty are important factors in the larger interests of the society. But there are some intrinsic and unarticulated social control over the individuals within the society, which may be defined by the doctrines of the time and religion. According to Mils ‘for a long time past, the chief mischief of the legal penalties is that they strengthen the social stigma’ (Mills, chapter 1). While to some extent, one can agree that excess control does corrodes of moral and ethical values, but some control is necessary to maintain law and order within the social fabric. But Mills theory on liberty of thought and discussion is highly relevant with the issue of teaching the theory of evolution and the theory of intelligent design in public school.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his Essay

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end How should this function in the - Essay Example However, during the 2nd century, there was an increasing belief in the resurrection and the ultimate judgement of those that die before the day of judgement. The belief is that the dead will be woken up and some will proceed to enjoy everlasting life while the rest will suffer everlasting disgrace and reproach. This paper will review the effect of the creeds, particularly the Nicene Creed on the faith of modern-day Christians, by exploring its meaning, why it is a creed and its relevance for Christians. Discussion The Christians of today get the basis, for the interpretation of the creed, by exploring the subject covered by the creed during the time of Jesus. During his time, the New Testament tells of the division that existed in the understanding developed around the question, among the Sadducees and the Pharisees, like it is mentioned through Acts 23:8, Mark 12: 18 and Mathew. 22:23 (Muldoon, 2013). However, the position of Jesus about the question was made clear through the accou nt of the gospels. Among the eschatological accounts contained in the bible, which talk about the end of the world, the most memorable is contained in Mathew chapter 25. Through the account, Jesus said that after the return of the son of man, alongside the angels, all nations will be assembled before him, so that he can choose those to be blessed and those to be damned (Ayres, 2006). From the passage, the stand of Jesus is clear that, after people die, God judges all and separates the good from the bad. The stand taken by Jesus, amidst the division about the question of the future and what happens to the dead offers Christians the basis, for arriving at the understanding that death does not separate God from his people; that death does not end all (Ayres, 2006). Further, the stand adopted by Jesus gives the Christians of today, the faith to stand by all good values, walking according to the decrees of God and to remain faithful in their service to God. The emphasis of faith in God i s evident from the ultimate course taken by God after his return, which offers Christians the faith that, in whatever things and experiences they go through, he expects them to stand by his values (Muldoon, 2013). Through Standing by him, the ultimate promise, which is the backbone of their faith, is contained in the role of God in deciding those to be blessed and the ones to suffer the pain of damnation. The meaning of the creed is straight forward and clear, when making the promise to those that keep their faith in the lord. First, it starts by emphasizing the nature of the coming of the son of man, contrasting it with the past times when he came to the world, because he will be accompanied by the glory of a king (Muldoon, 2013). It emphasizes that he will come in glory, and with the main goal of judging all people, whether they are living or dead. The emphasis of the judgement of the dead and the living, gives emphasises to the importance of keeping faith while alive in the world , due to the knowledge that death will not mark the end of God’s people (Ayres, 2006). For the Christians that still keep their faith in God, the promise is clear that, whether he will return to find them alive or dead, the price will be the same – which is an eternal place in the new kingdom (Bauckham, 1993). The promise offered to those that kee

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Finance Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Finance Paper - Essay Example Bahamas for example has 301 licensed banks whereas the British Virgin Island only has 7. Offshore banking has a countless number of rewards, ranging from low to no taxation, to greater privacy and anonymous accounts, as well as protection against financial instability. With that being said, I would like to emphasize what these banks also offer. Offshore banking has aided terrorist by laundering their financial resources, allowing them to fund terrorist activities that are partially impossible to detect. It also highlighted in the collapse of the company Enron, where the company used offshore banks to avoid paying millions of dollars in US Tax. Offshore financial centers have very significant reasons for their existence. These financial resources provide financial services; these financial services can be divided into three broad groups: (i) Private investments, (ii) Asset protection, (iii) Estate planning (Higgins, 2000). Private investments are the significant part of the offshore f inancial centers. In the private investments, investments are handled and managed with an intention of reducing the potential tax liabilities. Additionally, private investments are done to increase the protection which is granted or provided under the legal confidentiality provisions. Asset protection comes with the use of international jurisdiction. In this category, with the help of international jurisdiction, the residence of client is separated; and asset protection helps protecting the income and assets from political, legal and fiscal risks. Estate planning is about assets and their administration. In estate planning, mostly assets, all types of assets, are properly administrated with the help of legal and fiscal jurisdictions (Higgins, 2000). With the help of financial institutions; like, international business corporations (IBCs), insurance companies, mutual funds, offshore corporations, and some of the recent gaming companies, a large and huge amount of funds are deposited in OFCs. With these available funds, different types of investment are made to generate some economic and financial contributions in the economy. Little work has been done to understand and determine the role and contribution of offshore banking in the creation and generation of employment and employment opportunities. It is the creation and availability of employment opportunities by the OFCs that provide the importance and significance of offshore banks as far as their role for the development of economy is concerned. Any sector is valued and measured in the economy on the basis of its contribution to the economy. Mostly, there are two ways in which this contribution is measured and analyzed: One, the money contribution of offshore banking. This means the amount of tax paid by the offshore banks in the economy determines and measures its value for the economy. There is another contribution given and provided by the offshore banks. That is of economic nature- creation and generatio n of employment opportunities. Various examples are available that clearly indicate and highlight that offshore banks are licensed. After getting license, they have established various branches in different parts of the world. A large amount of investment has been made to make offshore banking functional and useful.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Utopia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Utopia - Essay Example The term was introduced by Thomas Moore, who invented the term to describe his imaginary Island where the inhabitants of the island enjoy the perfect social, legal and political system. An Island, where nothing is amiss, nothing is wrong and people lead what we can call a â€Å"Utopian or flawless† form of life. In modern Latin, â€Å"utopia† means â€Å"nowhere†. As years passed by, Thomas Moore’s famous word became an adjective to be used to describe not just his island but any state of perfectness. In the lives that we live every day, from the moment we learn about the terms â€Å"happiness† or â€Å"flawless† we start on a journey to pursue them and turn our own little lives into something that we consider blessed. But, the truth is no one is ever really happy or satisfied. I am not saying it s a crime to be not or dissatisfied but the fact is that Thomas Moore’s word â€Å"utopia† has little space in our lives. â€Å"Richa rd Cory† a short, narrative and meaningful poem that I came across, vindicates my argument substantially. He was gracious, generous, well schooled and wealthy yet at the end of the poem he ends up shooting himself in the head. Herein, we see that even though Richard Cory had all the materialistic possessions that a person needs for his survival, he was not satisfied and his life was not worth living at all. At first it seems almost necessary to describe Mr. Cory’s life as a Utopian life since everything seemed so perfect yet the end of his story makes us think otherwise- How can the term Utopia be used for a state that is nonexistent?

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Biochemistry perspective Essay Example for Free

Biochemistry perspective Essay Diabetes is an ailment which is caused due to high amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. The main reason for high glucose levels in blood is due to the inability of body to utilize it properly. Glucose comes from the digestion of sugar and foods rich in carbohydrates that enable the liver to create glucose. The high concentration level of glucose in blood is termed as Hyperglycemia. In 1910, Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer suggested people with diabetes were deficient in a single chemical that was normally produced by the pancreas. He proposed calling this substance insulin. The term is derived from the Latin insula, meaning island, in reference to the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas that produce insulin. (Patlak, 2002) Insulin: An Introduction Insulin is a polypeptide containing 51 amino acids arranged in two chains. The chain A contains 21 amino acids and chain B contains 30 residues. These two chains are cross linked by two sulphur bridges by cysteine residues. Insulin is formed by proteolytic cleavage of its 84 amino acid prescursor Proinsulin. Insulin has a molecular weight of 5808 Da. It has the molecular formula C257H383N65O77S6. Insulin structure varies slightly between species. Its carbohydrate metabolism regulatory function strength in humans also varies. Porcine which is pig insulin is close to humans. The image above is computer-generated image of insulin hexamers. The zinc ions holding it together and the histidine residues are involved in zinc binding. Insulin Action A pharmacological action of insulin includes carbohydrate metabolism, protein metabolism, lipid metabolism and other actions. Insulin increases the use of sugar in the tissue and stimulates transportation of glucose into the cells. Insulin also stimulates protein synthesis and growth. It increases synthesis of messenger RNA and decreases gluconeogenesis. A gluconeogenesis is a formation of glucose from glycogen. It also increases amino acid uptake in the muscle. In adipose tissues, insulin increases fatty acid synthesis, glycerol phosphate synthesis and triglyceride deposition. Other action of insulin includes prevention of ketone boy formation and increases potassium uptake. After the release of insulin from the pancreatic beta cell into the interstitial compartment, it enters the circulation after crossing endothelial barrier. Insulin action effect at the cellular level is achieved by activating and suppressing the activity of enzyme. It can also be achieved by changing the rate of synthesis of enzymes at the level of transcription and translation. Insulin stimulate glucose uptake into fat cells by glucose transporters. Glucose transporters are small vesicles which contain specific protein macromolecules. Insulin increases the rate of fusion of these vesicles with the plasma membrane, and activates the transporters to transfer glucose across the plasma membrane into the cell. Insulin synthesize hoxokinase, an enzyme which phosporylates glucose as soon as it enters the cell. Insulin is an anabolic hormone. It encourages the storage of fats and the synthesis of proteins. Each receptor of insulin contain a pair of alpha subunits, which are located on the outer surface of the membrane, and a pair of beta subunits which crosses the membrane and stick out at both the outer and inner surfaces. Both alpha and beta subunits are held together by disulphide (S-S) bonds to form an aggregate. In humans, the insulin receptor gene is located on chromosome 19. Insulin binds to the receptor at a specific site on the alpha subunit. This causes increased phosphorylation of the receptor by ATP, mostly tyrosine residues of the intracellular portion of the beta subunit. Increased phophorylation of these tyrosine residues activates the beta subunit to function as a kinase enzyme. Some intracellular effects of insulin that occur after insulin-receptor binding may be mediate through nucleotide regulatory proteins (G proteins) a family of proteins associated with the inner surface of the plasma membrane. Cyclic AMP also has some intracellular effects of insulin. The major function of insulin is to counter the concerted action of a number of hyperglycemia-generating hormones and to maintain low blood glucose levels. Because there are numerous hyperglycemic hormones, untreated disorders associated with insulin generally lead to severe hyperglycemia and shortened life span. In addition to its role in regulating glucose metabolism, insulin stimulates lipogenesis, diminishes lipolysis, and increases amino acid transport into cells. Insulin also modulates transcription, altering the cell content of numerous mRNAs. It stimulates growth, DNA synthesis, and cell replication, effects that it holds in common with the insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and relaxin. Specific protease activity cleaves the center third of the molecule, which dissociates as C peptide, leaving the amino terminal B peptide disulfide bonded to the carboxy terminal A peptide. Insulin secretion from beta cells is principally regulated by plasma glucose levels. Increased uptake of glucose by pancreatic b-cells leads to a concomitant increase in metabolism. The increase in metabolism leads to an elevation in the ATP/ADP ratio. This in turn leads to an inhibition of an ATP-sensitive K+ channel. The net result is a depolarization of the cell leading to Ca2+ influx and insulin secretion. In fact, the role of K+ channels in insulin secretion presents a viable therapeutic target for treating hyperglycemia due to insulin insufficiency. Insulin, secreted by the beta-cells of the pancreas, is directly infused via the portal vein to the liver, where it exerts profound metabolic effects. These effects are the response of the activation of the insulin receptor which belongs to the class of cell surface receptors that exhibit intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity as shown in the figure. Insulin produces its action through specific insulin receptors which consist of two subunits ? and ?. Insulin receptor complex then initiates a chain of biochemical reaction involving cAMP, protein phosphorylase, protein kinase, phosphatase and lipase. A diabetic condition result when receptor of insulin is desensitization. Therefore, Insulin is used medically in diabetes mellitus. Patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus depend on insulin (commonly injected subcutaneously) for their survival because they make no hormone. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus have either low insulin production or insulin resistance or both. Therefore, they require insulin administration when other medications become inadequate in controlling blood glucose levels. Actions of insulin-insulin receptor interactions at the level of IRS1 and activation of the kinase cascade leading to altered activities of glycogen phosphorylase and glycogen synthase. The insulin receptor is a heterotetramer of 2 extra cellular alpha-subunits disulfide bonded to 2 transmembrane beta-subunits. With respect to hepatic glucose homeostasis, the effects of insulin receptor activation are specific phosphorylation events that lead to an increase in the storage of glucose with a concomitant decrease in hepatic glucose release to the circulation. Only those responses at the level of glycogen synthase and glycogen phosphorylase are represented. This image shows Insulin-insulin receptor actions on glycogen homeostasis showing the role of protein targeting glycogen, PTG in complex formations involving many of the enzymes and substrates together. Also diagrammed is response of insulin at the level of glucose transport into cells via GLUT4 translocation to the plasma membrane. GS/GP kinase = glycogen synthase: glycogen phosphorylase kinase. PPI = protein phosphatase inhibitor. Arrows denote either direction of flow or positive effects, T lines represent inhibitory effects. In most nonhepatic tissues, insulin increases glucose uptake by increasing the number of plasma membrane glucose transporters: GLUTs. Glucose transporters are in a continuous state of turnover. Increases in the plasma membrane content of transporters stem from an increase in the rate of recruitment of new transporters into the plasma membrane, deriving from a special pool of preformed transporters localized in the cytoplasm. GLUT1 is present in most tissues, GLUT2 is found in liver and pancreatic b-cells, GLUT3 is in the brain and GLUT4 is found in heart, adipose tissue and skeletal muscle. In liver glucose uptake is dramatically increased because of increased activity of the enzymes glucokinase, phosphofructokinase-1 (PFK-1), and pyruvate kinase (PK), the key regulatory enzymes of glycolysis. Lack of Insulin Usually the inefficiency and lack of insulin are bracketed together, as both situations result in diabetes. There are two types of diabetes, diabetes insipidus and diabetes melitus, which is by far, the most common. Diabetes mellitus in turn has two types: Type 1, also known as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, IDDM Type 1 is characterized by decreased productions of insulin so must be treated with insulin. It is most often found in children and adolescents. Type 2, also known as non-insulin dependent diabetes melitus, NIDDM Type 2 is caused by either decreased insulin production or abnormal cell sensitivity to the insulin that is present. It may be treated with diet alone, with oral hypoglycemic agents, or with insulin. It is more commonly diagnosed in adults. (Perspective Press, 240-43) Insulin does not cure diabetes. It is merely a treatment for the diabetes. Over time, many complications can occur in diabetic patients taking insulin. Some of these are coronary heart diseases, peripheral vascular diabetes, eye disorders, renal failure, and limb amputations. Because of reduced circulation and nerve damage, diabetic patients are essentially prone to developing foot ulcers, a major cause of amputations. They are able to feel foot infections, which allow it to grow and cause permanent damage. Proper foot care is essential and includes avoiding injuries oral restricting circulations, cleaning wounds, controlling infections, relieving weight from the ulcer area, and improving circulation. A new genetically engineered drug, becaplermin, promotes the healing process in diabetic foot ulcer. Lack of insulin or ineffectiveness of it may trigger some response from the body. The predominant tissue responding to signals that indicates fluctuating blood glucose levels is the liver. One of the most important functions of the liver is to produce glucose for circulation. Both elevated and reduced levels of blood glucose trigger hormonal responses to initiate pathways designed to restore glucose homeostasis. Low blood glucose triggers release of glucagon from pancreatic Alpha-cells. High blood glucose triggers release of insulin from pancreatic Beta-cells. In elderly people pancreas either fails or does not secrete right amount of insulin. In this patient insulin per injection becomes drug of choice when oral antidiabetics have failed. Insulin was also used to induce shocks in schizophrenics. Insulin secretion is controlled by concentrations circulating glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids, various hormones and neuron-transmitter agents. In the fasting state, when glucose concentrations are low, insulin secretion is minimal. As glucose concentrations rise after the utilizing carbohydrates meal the raised glucose concentration stimulates insulin secretion. Insulin resistance develops over time. Therefore, doses have to be increased. This occurs because of the development of insulin antibodies in the blood. This also can be somewhat corrected by changing the type of insulin injection and by giving cortiscosteroids which are immunity suppressant drugs. Yet, it also produces negative effect by increasing blood sugar and this is why they are not used. Types of Insulin There are many types of insulin and many salt forms of it. It can be derived synthetically of from different animal sources such as beef and pork. There is now genetically engineered human insulin available. Different insulin differs in the onset of action and the duration of action. Some are mixed together to achieve a desired effect such as a quick onset but a longer duration of action. The most common mixtures is regular insulin with NPH insulin (70units NPH and 30 units regular insulin per milliliter) The different categories of insulin’s are: 1. Short-acting insulin types: regular insulin (crystalline zinc insulin), semilente insulin (prompt insulin zinc suspension), insulin lipsor; 2. Intermediate acting insulin types: NPH (isophane insulin suspension) and linte insulin (insulin zinc suspension); 3. Long-acting insulin types: PZI (protamine zinc insulin suspension) and ultralente insulin (extended insulin zinc suspension). Administration Insulin is injection instead of giving orally because it is destroyed in the gastrointestinal tract. Also, the molecule is too large to be absorbed by the intestinal membrane. Therefore, injection of soluble crystalline insulin is given by subcutaneous injection which is quickly absorbed. Peak effects of insulin are achieved quickly and also excreted quickly within a few hours. However some insulin such as simelente is absorbed slowly. The peak is reached slowly and is sustained. This type of insulin excretion is also very slow and sometimes partly destroyed by insulinase enzyme in the liver. Controlling glucose level with insulin injections is a complex task since: a) Glucose concentrations fluctuate based on food ingestion. b) Cell sensitivity to insulin changes. Exercise increases sensitivity while stress, pregnancy, and some drug decrease insulin sensitivity. As a result some diabetic patients take multiple injections for a short-acting insulin preparation to produce peaks in insulin concentrations and a long acting formulation to establish a baseline concentration. Variable rate infusion pumps are also used. Patients who use insulin need to be instructed on the rotation method of taking their medication. Insulin is absorbed more rapidly with administration in the arm or thigh, especially with exercise. The abdomen is used for more consistent absorption. Glucose levels should be checked as per physician orders. All insulin must be checked for expiration date and clarity of the solution. Insulin should not be given if it appears cloudy. Vials should not be shaken but rotated in between the hands to mix contents. If regular insulin is to be mixed with NPH or lente insulin, the regular insulin should be drawn into the syringe first. Unopened vials should be stored in the refrigerator, and freezing should be avoided. The vial in use can be stored at room temperature. Vials should not be put in glove compartments, suitcase, or trunks. Humulin is a new type of insulin and is often the patients preference because it can be taken orally. It is imperative that the physician be called if any adverse reactions to the medications are observed. (Jahangir Moini, P 150-154) Undesirable Effects Insulin The main undesirable effect of insulin is hypoglycemia. This is common, and can cause brain damage. Intensive insulin therapy results in a threefold increase in severe hypoglycemia. The treatment of hypoglycemic is to take a sweet drink or snack, or, if the patient is unconscious, to give intravenous glucose (50% w/v solution) or intramuscular glucagon. Rebound hypergly (Somogyi effect) can follow excessive insulin administration. This results from the release of the insulin-opposing or counter-regulatory hormones in response to insulin-induced hypoglycemia. This can cause hypercemia before breakfast following an unrecognized hypoglycemic attack during sleep in the early hours of the morning. It is essential to recognize this possibility to avoid the mistake of increasing (rather than reducing) the dose of insulin in this situation. Allergy to insulin is unusual but may take the form of local or systemic reactions. Severe insulin resistance as a consequence of antibody formation is rare. A high tire of circulating anti-insulin antibodies is more likely to occur with bovine than with porcine insulin. Note, however, that virtually all patients treated with animal insulin have antibodies against the hormone, albeit usually flow. Human insulin is less immunogenic than animal insulin but may still evoke an antibody response, since the source of the hormone is not the only determinant of immunogenicity; insulin undergo physical changes before and after injection which can increase their potential for provoking an immune response. (HP Rang et al, 200-270) References 1. Patlak M. 2002. New weapons to combat an ancient disease: treating diabetes. Available on http://www. fasebj. org/cgi/content/full/16/14/1853e 2. Perspective Press. 2003. The Pharmacy Technician 1st edition: Morton Publishers. P 240- 243. 3. Jahangir Moini. 2005. Comprehensive Exam Review for the Pharmacy Technician: Thomson Delmar. P 150-154 4. H. P. Rang, M. Maureen Dale, James M. Ritter, Philip Moore. 2001. â€Å"Pharmacology†: Churchill Livingstone. P 200-270