Water crisis, heat stress to bring down food supply in India and across the globe

New Delhi, Mar 17: Two meat vendors were allegedly beaten up and robbed by seven miscreants, including three Delhi Police personnel, in east Delhi's Shahdara, a senior officer said.

The incident took place in Anand Vihar area on March 7 when the two meat vendors were travelling in their car and hit a scooter.

The accused, alleged to be 'gau rakshaks', urinated on the victims' faces and threatened to kill them, the police said on Thursday.

Reportedly, a case was registered four days later, even though the victims had approached the police immediately.

All the seven men involved in the incident were booked and the three policemen, one of them an assistant sub-inspector, were suspended, the police said.

Nawab, who supplies meat to the Ghazipur slaughterhouse and a resident of Mustafabad, was headed home in his car with his cousin Shoaib when he hit a scooter near Anand Vihar. They were carrying meat in the car, according to the FIR.

The scooter driver demanded Rs 4,000 in damages from them. Just then a PCR van arrived there and one of the policemen took Rs 2,500 from the meat suppliers and gave it to the scooter driver, the FIR stated.

The policeman then demanded Rs 15,000 from the meat suppliers and threatened to take them to the police station if they did not pay up, it said.

The victims alleged the policemen in the PCR van called four other people and took them to an isolated spot. Nawab and Shoaib were confined and thrashed by the accused, who also tried to cut their hands with a knife. The accused also urinated on their faces and threatened to kill them, it added.

The policemen also accused them of slaughtering cows and threatened to dump their bodies in a drain after killing them.

The policemen allegedly extorted Rs 25,500 from the victims. The victims were "injected" with some narcotic and made to sign a few "blank papers" by the policemen, the FIR stated.

The victims sustained injuries on their limbs and back, and were taken to the GTB Hospital, the police said.

A case was filed on March 10 against the accused on charges of extortion and voluntarily causing hurt, they said.

A senior police officer said they are verifying the allegations of the complainant.

However, as per preliminary inquiry, departmental action has been initiated against the three policemen, who have been suspended till inquiry, the officer said.

Mangaluru, Mar 9: Dr. Preethi Lolaksha Nagaveni, a Legal Scholar from Mangaluru, has once again delivered a joint oral statement before the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 7th March 2023 along with Dr. Amit Anand. 

The Oral statement was delivered under the topic, “Impacts and Challenges faced by persons with disabilities in situations of risk and the role of State and Non-State actors in addressing them”.

Dr. Preethi has earlier presented three joint oral statements before various UN committees.

Dr Preethi in WHO Database

Recently World Health Organization [WHO] has included her Book Chapter in its official “WHO COVID-19 Research Database”. The book titled ‘COVID-19 IN ASIA -LAW AND POLICY CONTEXTS, published by Oxford University Press, New York in which Dr. Preethi along with Prof Susan Breau, Dean of faculty of Law, University Victoria, Canada has written a chapter on “International Health Regulations and Compliance in Asia”.

The authors have critically examined the limitations of the International Health Regulations due to which the WHO was in crisis in managing the COVID -19 pandemic and recommended appropriate amendments to the said Regulations. 

Work cited by the UN Committee

Dr Preethi, along with Dr. Amit Anand, had submitted inputs to the United Nations Committee on Child Rights as part of Day of General Discussion on “Children’s Rights and Alternative Care” which was held on 16th and 17th September 2021, during the 88th Session of the Committee at the United Nations Office in Geneva. In their report, the young scholars have suggested ‘The Measures to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children in Residential Care Homes in India’. Taking cognizance of the importance of the report submitted by the young scholars, the United Nations Committee on Child Rights has not only published it in the official website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) but also cited their report in its Background Document on “Children’s Rights and Alternative Care – September2021”.

New Delhi, Mar 18: Food supply in India and across the globe will go down by at least 6 per cent by 2050 as water crisis and heat stress caused by climate change will hit productivity, the Global Commission on Economics of Water (GCEW) has warned.

The commission is convened by the Government of the Netherlands and facilitated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Its latest report used a large dimensional computable general equilibrium model to project impacts on global irrigated food production and food security.

Food supply decreases were projected for two climate change scenarios or representative concentration pathways (RCP) based on the intensity of the greenhouse gas emissions. The optimistic RCP 4.5 based on drastic cut in emissions and RCP 8.5 the worst-case scenario. The model used 2014 as base year.

"Even under the best-case climate change scenario of RCP4.5, most African countries experience an increase in people with severe food insecurity by more than one third," the report 'The What, Why and How of the World Water Crisis' said.

The "best case" scenario for India meant a 6.52 per cent fall in food supply while it was 16.1 per cent in the worst case scenario. In China, it was 8.97 per cent and 22.4 per cent, respectively while the fall in the US was pegged at 4.8 per cent and 12.6 per cent.

Food insecurity affects 72-81 crore people globally and is linked to water insecurity. The fall in production, the study said, will push 100 crore people into severe food insecurity, the report said.

In another report titled 'Turning the Tide', the GCEW issued a seven-point agenda for collective action: managing global water cycle with just and equity, adopt outcomes-focussed approach to water conservation, cease underpricing water, phase out subsidies in agriculture and water, establishing just water partnerships, fortifying freshwater storage systems and reshape the multilateral governance of water.