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Some 330 babies of less than one month of age die in the country everyday while eight million or 48 per cent of the children below five years are underweight.
   This is the state of child survival in Bangladesh as revealed in a global report launched by UNICEF, which still says Bangladesh is on track to attain the target-4 of the UN Millennium Development Goals for reducing under-five mortality rate to 50 per thousand by 2015 from current rate of 65.
   Matching achievements of only five other countries, Bangladesh has halved the child mortality rate since 1990, according to the report ‘The State of the World’s Children 2008: Child Survival’ released on Monday.
   ‘Bangladesh has made remarkable progress… This is even more outstanding that South Asia as a region has the second highest number of child deaths in the world,’ David Bassiouni, UNICEF representative in Bangladesh said at the national launch of the report at a city hotel.
   Asked if the recent price-hike would affect the country’s attainment of the UN goals on poverty, hunger and nutritional status, he said the 2008 report had lagged behind the latest development and acknowledged that a major challenge was to mitigate effects of inflation.
   Referring to ‘a number of inequalities’ in child health data, Bassiouni mentioned that disparities in education, income and access to services were still affecting child survival in the country.
   The UN children agency representative added that human resources allocation, especially in the peripheral health facilities, was still low and inequitable in Bangladesh.
   ‘If we can successfully address the issue of price-hike by efforts to mitigate effects, we will achieve the goals of improving healthcare situation in terms of child survival and health of mothers. The government has a number of programmes,’ said AKM Zafarullah, secretary to the health ministry.
   As urban slums, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, coastal regions and other ecologically vulnerable areas are falling behind, their distinct problems need to be addressed carefully, Abdul Faiz, director general of health services said explaining Bangladesh perspective of the report.
   He, however, expressed confidence that Bangladesh would achieve the MDG-5 of reducing maternal mortality to 147 per 100,000 by 2015 from the latest rate of 320.
   The UN agency report called for integrated health strategies, especially community-level integration of essential services for mothers, newborns and young children, and sustainable improvement in national health systems to save children’s lives.
   More needed to be done to increase access to treatments and means of prevention, so that devastating impact of pneumonia, diarrhoea, childhood injuries and severe acute malnutrition could be better addressed, a UNICEF release said.
   Out of deaths of almost 10 million children worldwide in 2006, South Asia had 3.1 million such deaths, only second to Sub-Saharan Africa which recorded 4.8 million such deaths the same year.
   But in terms of underweight children below five years’ age, the South Asia region topped the list with 42 per cent as against 28 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa, whereas rate is 25 per cent on an average in the least developed countries.
   Everyday, more than 26,000 children under the age of five die around the world, mostly from preventable causes and nearly all of them are in 60 developing countries, said Christine Jaulmes, chief of communication and information at UNICEF’s Dhaka office while presenting the report.
   She pointed out that achieving the MDG would mean that lives of around 30 million children and two million mothers would be saved between 2005 and 2015.
   ‘If we make maternal, newborn and child survivals a global and national imperative, then we can save the life of millions of children,’ Bassiouni said underlining the importance of scaling up interventions to save children and mothers.

At least 40 people, including an infant, were injured when ansar men deployed at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University clashed with patients at the outdoor ticket counter Monday.
   Dozens of ansar men swooped on outpatients and visitors and clubbed them indiscriminately, confining one in their camp for hours.
   Witnesses said the trouble erupted when an ansar member intruded into a queue at the outpatient department of the hospital’s children ward at around 10:45 am.
   Ansar member Sultan forcibly pressed one patient in a queue ahead of many others who were waiting for long.
   As an elderly patient protested, the ansar man pushed him.
   A five-month baby was injured as its mother fell on the floor during the melee.
   The baby’s father, Jasim Uddin, got furious and slapped the ansar man, who immediately rushed to the ansar camp of the hospital and informed his colleagues about the incident.
   Then several dozens of ansar members arrived there and started charging batons indiscriminately on the outdoor patients. They also dragged Jasim to their camp and severely beat him up.
   Patients, attendants, medical representatives and a section
   of the hospital employees instantly protested against the incident and locked in clashes with ansar men, leaving at least 40 people injured.
   Ansar members indiscriminately used clubs while angry protesters pelted stones on them.
   The trouble continued for more than one hour and a half turning the whole hospital premises into a battle ground and creating panic among the patients, visitors and hospital staff.
   Huge contingent of police, members of Rapid Action Battalion and the hospital authority brought the situation under control at 12.:45 pm and rescued Jasim from the BSMMU ansar camp.
   The hospital authority formed a four-member committee headed by Professor Kawsar Ali, head of Children Ward to probe the incident. The committee has been asked to submit report in three days.

Health adviser AMM Shawkat Ali on Monday said the government has decided to form a task force with representatives from both public and private organisations for formulating a national policy on nurses’ training and education.
   ‘The health and family welfare has already decided to constitute a task force to bridge the existing gap between supply and demand of nurses both at home and abroad,’ the adviser said at a ‘national consultation on institutional and regulatory reforms for training of highly skilled nurses for overseas employment’ .
   Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit in collaboration with Development Res-earch Centre on Migration, Globa-lisation and Poverty, UK organised the consultation in Dhaka.
   ‘Bangladesh has a staggering shortage of over 60,000 doctors, 2,80,000 nurses and 4,80,000 technologists. So we have to take initiatives to minimise the gap between supply and demand in the country. At the same time, there is huge potential market of skilled nurses abroad,’ Shawkat Ali said, adding that the country can earn huge foreign exchange by sending nurses abroad after giving them necessary training and education.
   Over the last couple of years, he said, the government had amended the guidelines aiming to establish more nursing institutes and introduce nursing courses at private universities. ‘The government has incorporated the issue in foreign employment policies.’
   The health adviser highlighted the need for skilled nurses of international standards to enable Bangladeshi nurses in getting employment opportunities abroad.
   Mohammad Farash Uddin, founder vice-chancellor of East West University, chaired the inaugural session. He said, ‘Bangladesh receives around $ 7 billion remittances every year. It could have been much more, if we could have exported nurses sufficiently.’
   Farash Uddin also urged the government to introduce honour’s course at the universities.
   In their keynote speech, Tasneem Siddiqui of Dhaka University and Margaret Appiah of University of Ghana identified some challenges of the health sector and suggested increasing the number of nurses with BSc degree, teaching staff and nursing training institutions both in public and private sectors.
   They laid emphasis on creating competitive edge for Bangladeshi nurses for local as well as international markets, increasing share of professional and skilled migrants from Bangladesh vis-à-vis semi skilled and less skilled, reducing fraudulence and exploitation in processing of overseas migration.

Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, an umbrella organisation of labour rights groups, has disputed the finance adviser’s comment that ‘government-managed industries cannot thrive’ due to the attitude of state-employed workers.
   ‘The government is just passing the buck, that is, shifting the responsibilities on to the workers,’ SKOP members said in a statement Monday.
   The finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, said Saturday industrial units ‘cannot run effectively under government management.’
   ‘The employees of government-run companies do not work properly,’ the adviser said, addressing a discussion on the proposed budget and development of the northern region.
   ‘They just wait for the salary at the end of the month, although government-owned industries are making huge losses year after year,’ said Mirza Aziz.
   The labour leaders in their statement said: ‘Many of our denationalised industries, once reputed, are on the verge of ruination today.’
   ‘It is because our past governments had adopted erratic industrial policies, as advised by the World Bank and the IMF, that our jute, steel, machinery and other flagship industries have lost their shine following nationalisation, which is also being upheld by the present government,’ the SKOP members said.
   ‘The finance adviser’s opinion only substantiates our allegations.’
   ‘Erratic policies, administrative failures, unwarranted interference by the ministries, corruption and bureaucratic glitches have almost destroyed the nationalised industry sector.’
   ‘The denationalised industrial units have also faced closures without exception, which has resulted in exacerbating unemployment instead of creating job opportunities,’ said the labour leaders in their statement.
   The statement was signed by SKOP coordinator Wazedul Islam Khan, and leaders of Jatiya Sramik Federation, Jatiya Sramik League, Jatiya Sramik Jote, Jatiya Sramik Federation Bangladesh, Mukto Sramik Federation, Labour Federation, Samajtantrik Sramik Front, Trade Union Shangho and Free Trade Union Congress.

Most of the non-urea fertilisers including the organic which are sold in the market are highly adulterated, revealed a report of the Soil Resource Development Institute.
   The SRDI analysis report of the 2007-08 fiscal also said that the degree of adulteration in the fertilisers is in some cases up to 77 per cent.
   The farmers, who cannot discern the standard of the fertilisers, are being cheated by the unscrupulous private fertiliser producers who sell the spurious products in the market, experts said.
   Random use of these substandard fertilisers also causes yield loss of crops and reduces land fertility, they said.
   The SRDI has prepared the report based on its laboratory tests of some 3934 fertiliser samples, out of which 2043 were found adulterated. The institute received the samples over last one year from different sea and land ports, law enforcing agencies, different government and private agencies and individuals.
   The analysis found 21 per cent sample of triple super phosphate, 9 per cent of di-amonium phosphate, 75 per cent of single super phosphate, 26 per cent of muriate of potash and 41 per cent sulphate of potash, 71 per cent of zinc sulphate and boron, 77 per cent of NPKS or mixed fertiliser—nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and sulphur, 50 per cent of cheleated zinc, 21 per cent magnesium sulphate, 45 per cent gypsum, 77 per cent fused magnesium phosphate and 41 per cent organic and others fertilisers adulterated. The report, however, showed that the urea and the sample of rock phosphate had no adulteration.
   According to the Fertiliser (management) Act- 2006, the less ingredients found in a sample of a particular fertiliser compared to the government directive or grantee-composition would be identified as adulterated, the report said, adding that the unscrupulous producers use dolomite, magnesium sulphate, red colour soil, sodium-sulphate and sand for adulterating the fertilisers.
   Training of grassroots agriculture officials on upazila nirdeshika, a land and soil database, and training on quick fertiliser testing can help check widespread fertiliser adulteration, said SM Shaheed, former director of the SRDI.
   The SRDI has tested some 670 out of 875 samples of NPKS or mixed fertiliser and found acute deficiency of different nutrients which indicates bad intension of more returns by the unscrupulous traders, the report highlighted.
   The laboratory test found that the organic and other fertilisers contained only 1-3 per cent organic carbon which is not acceptable compared to the nutrients in the soil.
   The chairman of Bangladesh Fertiliser Association, Kafiluddin Ahmed said the government usually allow the import of non-urea fertilisers like TSP, MoP and DAP after inspection several times inside and outside the country to ensure the specification by the government.
   The chairman, however, differed on the test result saying confirmation of adulteration in a particular sample requires at least three tests.
   The government has already stopped production of some 87 fertiliser factories, out of 122, which lacked required logistics and did not follow the government specification.
   Monitoring by the government agencies would reduce the evil practice of adulterating fertilisers, the chairman hoped.
   ‘We are conducting regular monitoring and taking action against the substandard fertilisers following the rules of the Fertiliser Management Ordinance’, said the agriculture secretary M Abdul Aziz.

The Non-Government Teachers’ Registration and Certification Authority has adopted a performance improvement project aiming to speed up the activities of the organisation, officials told New Age.
   ‘Since its inception in 2005, three certification tests were held during the period between 2005 and 2007 and we have decided to adopt the project from the fourth certification test expected to be held in late October,’ said Kazi Akhtar Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the Non-government Teachers’ Registration and Certification Authority.
   The parliament passed the Non-Government Teachers’ Registration and Certification Authority Act 2005 on February 9 to contain corruption in teachers’ recruitment. It came into effect on March 20.
   The act makes the NTRCA certificate mandatory for the aspirants of teaching positions in non-government junior and high schools, colleges, madrassahs, and technical and business management institutions. The NTRCA holds a test in every year and the successful candidates get certificates which remain valid for five years.
   ‘The successful candidates had to suffer a lot as they needed to collect certificates from the NTRCA office located at Dhanmondi in Dhaka,’ the chairman said, adding “To reduce the suffering we have decided to send the certificates of successful candidates to their home addresses by post under the PIP project’.
   ‘We have decided to introduce the candidate’s information form from the fourth certification examination’, he said.
   The NTRCA officials have also finalised a set of guidelines for question setting and moderation with the help of experts at public examinations.
   Under the NTRCA certification test, every candidate has to appear for two papers—-one compulsory and another optional with 200 marks

A Chuadanga court on Monday convicted five robbers and sentenced them to 39 years’ imprisonment each for possessing arms and ammunition.
   The convicts are Motiar, Saiful Islam, Shahidul Islam, Abdur Rob and Toriqul Islam.
   According to the prosecution, tipped off, the police arrested the five robbers in possession of a shutter gun and bullets at a house at village Batikadanga under sadar upazila on August 26, 2006. An arms case was filed.
   After examining records and 16 witnesses, additional district and sessions judge Motahar Hossain handed down the verdict under two separate sections of the case.
   All the convicts were in the dock when the verdict was pronounced.

The South Asian environment ministers are set to sit in Dhaka on July 3 for designing an action plan to address climate change issues through regional cooperation.
   Foreign ministry officials said chief adviser to the caretaker government Fakhruddin Ahmed is scheduled to inaugurate the meeting. The ministerial meeting will be followed by an expert level meeting on July 1 and 2.
   Against a backdrop of growing concern over adverse impact on climate change particularly sea level rise in the region, the meeting is going to be held here as per the decision taken at the 29th session of the SAARC council of ministers in New Delhi in December last year.
   The expert level meeting will make an in-depth assessment of the adverse impact on climate change in the region and suggest taking measures to face the situation through cooperation, officials said.

The politburo of the Workers Party of Bangladesh on Monday called on the Election Commission to refrain from delimiting the parliamentary constituencies before the upcoming general elections, saying that such a move would delay the elections scheduled for December.
   The party’s politburo in a press statement said that the delimitation of constituencies would have a negative impact on the general elections and it has already frustrated and angered voters across the country.
   The leaders of the leftist party called on the Election Commission to hold elections without changing the previous constituencies.
   In the hearing on the delimitation, the chief election commissioner categorically said that the loopholes in the delimitation law had created tremendous differences in the number of the voters in the constituencies of the villages and cities.
   CEC ATM Shamsul Huda’s comment proved that he was not satisfied with the delimitation law, said the politburo.
   The Constitution has given the Election Commission the power to delimit parliamentary constituencies, but it has not made it mandatory to do so.
   Besides, the Election Commission is going to hold the stalled elections of 2007, so delimitation is not essential, said the politburo.

The Asian Development Bank country director, Hua Du, is leaving Bangladesh in the first week of next July after her five years’ stay in the country.
   ADB sources said Hua Du, who has been working as head of the mission in Dhaka since 2005, will join the bank’s head office in Manila.
   During her tenure, the ADB official made effective contribution in strengthening the working relations between the bank and the Bangladesh government at different levels, the sources said.

Four people were killed and 30 others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck at Naimuri on Hatikumrul-Bonpara road in Solonga upazila of Sirajganj on Monday.
   Three of the deceased were as Monsur,35, Mainul and Rafiqul while another deceased man could not be identified.
   Sources said the Rajshahi-bound bus from the capital collided with a truck coming from opposite direction at about 4:00pm, killing four people on the spot.
   The injured were admitted to sadar hospital and various clinics.