Indian Culture - Festivals - Karva Chauth

Indian Festivals - Karva Chauth:

KARVA CHAUTH 2015: THE SIGNIFICANCE & HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE FESTIVAL

By Harnoor Channi-Tiwary 

Perhaps the one festival that all newly married women in North India look forward to is Karva Chauth. The festival traditionally followed to pray for the long life of the husband, is not so much about fasting. It is more symbolic in nature, a celebration of sorts, of the institution of marriage.

The roots of the festival go back into mythology. The katha read during pujatells the tale of Princess Veeravati who gets married to a king. On her first Karva Chauth, she decides to go visit her parents. The rigour of fasting all day renders her weak and she faints. Her seven brothers, who love her immensely, can not bear to see their sister in this state and trick her into thinking that the moon has risen. Just as she breaks her fast, she gets word that her husband, the king is dead. The queen is heartbroken and rushes to her husband’s palace. Enroute, she meets Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva who tell her that it is a penance and fasting on Karva Chauth will help bring back her husband. The tale ends happily as the king gains consciousness and they live happily ever after.

Getting Ready

Celebrated with great fervour in North India, married women start preparing for the festival a few days in advance. Their outfit is picked out, usually in bridal colours of red or pink. They buy new accessories to go with it and get henna put on their hands. In fact, the night before Karva Chauth is when henna artists charge the highest. Rates go as high as Rs.1000 per hand, depending on how intricate a design you want and in how much area on your hand/ arm.

Karwa Chauth Vrat Vidhi

If you’ve seen the film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, you will relate to the concept of Sargi. A tradition observed largely by Punjabis, it is a sort of food hamper that a mother-in-law lovingly assembles for her daughter-in-law. It includes foods that one is supposed to eat early morning before sunrise on Karva Chauth. It includes nuts, vermicelli kheer and even mathri. One is supposed to enjoy these treats before sunrise and have lots of water as you can not have any food or even water until the moon-rise.
 

India’s leading weight management expert,Gargi Sharma shares the following sargi tips for women observing Karva Chauth:

1. Include lots of fruits like banana, papaya,pomegranate, berries, apples etc. in the sargi

2. Avoid oily and fried foods like paranthasand pakoras in the morning as these are heavy and may make you dizzy. Eat a heavy meal like multigrain chapatti with vegetables or paneer.

3. Avoid tea or coffee as both of them tend to dehydrate you later in the day. Instead, drink up a glass of fresh juice, milk, buttermilk or a cup of green tea

4. Avoid mithai/ sweets and instead opt for dates, figs or apricots

5. Munch on a few nut like walnuts,almonds and pistachios

Karva Chauth Pooja

The day passes slowly but before you know it, it is evening. The women dress up and gather together to perform the puja. Thekatha is read aloud as the thali with a sweet, glass of water, a diya and other pujamaterials is passed around in a circle. All that is left now is to wait for the moon to rise.


Breaking the Fast

Different people break the fast in different ways. The one consistent tradition is to look at your husband through a sieve and then take a sip of water from his hands to break your fast. In recent times, men also choose to fast for their wives, breaking stereotypes. Everybody then enjoys a delicious meal together.
 

Having fasted all day, it is important that you be careful about how you break your fast. Gargi Sharma shares:

1. Start by drinking one glass of water and then munch on a few nuts. Take a couple of almonds, one or two walnuts and a few sunflower seeds.

2. Your stomach’s acidity levels are probably already high, so avoid drinking tea or coffee. It'll only make things worse.

3. Avoid oily, spicy and fried foods. Opt for light and easily digestible foods like idli,dosa, uttapam with sambhar/ vegetables,dalia, oat meal chapatti with vegetables orpaneer bhurji/steamed rice or pulao withdal, etc.

4. Eat some yogurt.

5. For those with a sweet tooth, you may eat two or three dates, a small piece ofdark chocolate or homemade kulfi to finish off your meal.

Here are the mahurat timings to break your fast and perform the puja -

Karwa Chauth Puja: 4:56 pm to 6:13 pm
Moonrise on Karwa Chauth Day: 7:50 pm
Chaturthi Tithi: From 8:24 pm on 30th October to 6:25 am on 31st October

Articles on Medical Tourism India

Articles on Medical Tourism India:

This section hosts the latest and important articles on Medical Tourism India. These articles will give an insight on the trends in Medical Tourism India. The articles comprise of news articles, news clippings, general articles and medical articles.

List of articles on Medical Tourism India

• Medical Tourism: India is the Favorable Destination in the World - RNCOS Market Report

• India’s cost-effective and efficient medical sector has made it a favored destination for healthcare - India’s Health Minister Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss

• Indian government starts issuing M (medical) visa to the medical patients, and MX visas to the accompanying spouse, which are valid for a year - Union Minister for Tourism

• How a UK medical tourist saved about £14,000 for a surgery in India

Medical Tourism: India is the Favorable Destination in the World - RNCOS Market Report

Medical Tourism: India is the Favorable Destination in the World
The concept of Medical Tourism India refers to visit by overseas patients for medical treatment and relaxation. The opportunities in Indian Healthcare sector in medical infrastructure and technology are just as good as those in the West.

/24-7PressRelease/ - New Delhi, India, July 28, 2006 - As Indian healthcare sector develops, a new term has been coined called 'Medical Tourism', which is the process of people from all corners of the world visiting India to seek medical and relaxation treatments. The most common treatments sought are heart surgery, knee transplant, cosmetic surgery and dental care.

According to research reports on Indian Healthcare sector, the medical tourism market is valued to be worth over $310 million with foreign patients coming by 100,000 every year, and the market is predicted to grow to $2 billion by 2012.

Medical tourists choose India as their favorable destination because of the key opportunities in Indian healthcare sector in the form of efficient infrastructures and technology. The health insurance market and National medical systems here are well developed, which is convenient for visitors from the West and the Middle East. They also find the hospital expenses very affordable.

RNCOS in its market research report, "Opportunities in Indian Healthcare Sector" finds that 120,000 overseas patients came to India in 2005 for medical treatment and this is expected to expand by 30%. The healthcare industry overview shows that the medical infrastructure and technology in this country is in par with those in USA, UK and Europe. India can vie with some of its best hospitals and treatment centers in the world, and therefore make it a favorable destination.

The market research report addresses the following critical issues and facts:

• The merging trends in the Indian health care sector
• The key regulations and policy environment in the healthcare industry
• The future scenario of the healthcare market in India
• The key players in the health care market in India
• The opportunities that exist for the healthcare market
• The challenges faced by the Indian healthcare industry
• Other economic factors affecting the Indian health care market

RNCOS' report is based on extensive research that provides objective analysis of India's healthcare sector performance. The report would be helpful for clients in analyzing the opportunities prevailing and critical for the growth of this market. It will also help investors who can refer to the detailed data and analysis on the changing dynamics of the healthcare industry.

Source - 24-7PressRelease - RNCOS Market Report

India’s cost-effective and efficient medical sector has made it a favored destination for healthcare - India’s Health Minister

Government pushes medical tourism in India
NEW DELHI (ICNS) -- India’s Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss says country’s cost-effective and efficient medical sector has made it a favored destination for healthcare.

Dr. Ramadoss, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, said this while releasing the Incredible India Brochure on Medical Tourism August 30. The Indian systems of medicine like Ayurveda, Yoga, Panchakarma, Rejuvenation Therapy are among the most ancient systems of medical treatment, of the world, he said.

Southern states of India, especially, Kerala has developed Health Tourism as one of the products for the promotion of tourism in Kerala. He said most hotels and resorts are coming up with the spas and Ayurveda Centers as an integral part in Kerala. India has an international reputation of being a knowledge-based economy.” The available talent base of over 500,000 doctors and seven 700,000 nursing professionals, India can provide Medical and Health care of international standard at comparatively low cost, he said.

Many surgical procedures are available at one-tenth the cost of those in developed countries and “there is no waiting period for elective surgery, he added. However, he said the situation should not make authorities neglect the healthcare for Indians. There are many areas in which public healthcare needs to advance in order that India’s workers can be a productive force for the global economy. He minister said nearly 80 per cent of spending on healthcare is now in the private sector. India’s pharma sector has done commendable work in bringing low-cost essential drugs to the market, including international markets, the Minister said.

Ambika Soni, Minister for Tourism & Culture, emphasized that there is a need to promote India as the new emerging Medical Value Travel destination abroad. She said the private and public hospitals need to synergize their efforts to promote India as the Healthcare destination worldwide. The Healthcare Industry will also have to standardize their processes and make its functioning more transparent and accountable, she said.

She further said that India’s healthcare sector has emerged as the largest in the service sector. Indians now spend over Rs. 1, 00,000 Crore a year on healthcare, and the sector contributes 6.2 percent to the GDP. Experts project that by 2012, it will contribute 8 percent to the GDP and employ 9 million people.

But one of the many challenges it faces is to provide good quality, affordable healthcare to all. For this, there is a need to reduce inequalities, imbalances that exist between regions, cities and villages and different socioeconomic groups. The Minister said that India has done exceptionally well in the last three years in the tourism sector, with overseas footfalls expanding at near 20% average every year.

By January this year, 3.3 million travelers had already visited India, spending close to $ 5 billion. The domestic travel is also witnessing rapid growth. Some 368 million Indians are venturing out of their homes, based on rising incomes, lower aviation costs, and more leisure time. The World Travel and Tourism Council has forecast that tourism will grow at a rapid rate of 8.8% per year for the next ten years, the highest in the world. The Industry is projected to attract a capital investment of $21 billion by 2014, up from about $10.2 billion estimated in 2004, according to a WTTC survey.

Equally significant is the impact this growth will have on employment. The travel and tourism industry already accounts for one of every nine job opportunities created in India, currently aggregating over 20 million employees. It is estimated that this industry generates more jobs per unit investment than any other sector, she added. - August 31, 2006.

Source - Indian Catholics News

Indian government starts issuing M (medical) visa to the medical patients, and MX visas to the accompanying spouse, which are valid for a year - Union Minister for Tourism

Medical tourism on the rise in India
31 August, 2006 0104hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: With around one million tourists flocking to India for healthcare, a Rs 10,000 crore medical travel value expected by 2010, and a growth of 25% per year, medical tourism is booming like never before.

Union minister for tourism, Ambika Soni said the government is aggressively promoting India as a global healthcare destination to offer a holistic approach to health.She was speaking at the release of the Incredible India Brochure on Medical Tourism, organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Indian Healthcare Federation (IHF) here on Wednesday.

Seeing the huge potential in the sector, the government has also started issuing M (medical) visa to the medical patients, and MX visas to the spouse accompanying him, which are valid for a year.Two lakh medical tourists visited India last year, and the figure will grow by 50% this year.

India is being promoted as a healthcare destination in the ongoing 'Incredible India campaign,' being run by the tourism ministry. Soni said the campaign would promote Indian hospitals abroad as centers offering best medical services. In addition, availing medical services in India costs about a tenth of what it is in US, and one-sixth in UK.Not only this, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH), a body set up to ensure safety and hygiene norms for hospitals, has already started the process of granting accreditation with 70 hospitals in the process of getting approval, chairman of CII's national committee on healthcare, Dr Naresh Trehan said.

Dr Trehan said India now offers the latest techniques such as robotic surgery, and gamma-knife treatment for brain tumors. The efficacy of treatment compares with that in the West, with the death rate from coronary bypasses at 0.8% compared to 2.35% in the US. Union health minister A Ramadoss stated the government is considering the Clinical Establishment Bill that would mandate accreditation for hospitals down to the district and village levels.

Source - The Times of India - Indiatimes

An article from 'The Guardian'

This UK patient avoided the NHS list and flew to India for a heart bypass. Is health tourism the future?
Three months ago George Marshall fretted about the choice offered by his doctor in Britain. Diagnosed with coronary heart disease, the violin repairer from Bradford was told he could either wait up to six months for a heart bypass operation on the National Health Service or pay £19,000 to go under the scalpel immediately.

In the end, Mr Marshall chose to outsource his operation to India. Last month he flew 5,000 miles to the southern Indian city of Bangalore where surgeons at the Wockhardt hospital and heart institute took a piece of vein from his arm to repair the thinning arteries of his heart. The cost was £4,800, including the flight.

"Everyone's been really great here. I have been in the NHS and gone private in Britain in the past, but I can say that the care and facilities in India are easily comparable," says Mr Marshall, sitting in hospital-blue pajamas. "I'd have no problem coming again."

The 73-year-old found the hospital in Bangalore after a few hours surfing the internet. Mr Marshall decided to come after an email conversation with Wockhardt's vice-president and a chat with other "medical tourists" from Britain who had undergone surgery in the hospital.

"Once I knew others had come I thought, why not? In Europe hospitals in Germany and Belgium would do the operation for less than doctors in Britain. But Europe was still more expensive than here. And the staff speak English in India."

With patients such as Mr Marshall willing to travel across the globe to get treatment sooner or more cheaply than they could at home, Indian hospital groups see a huge market for their services. This was an article on The Guardian - UK.


Original Article on 'The Guardian'

NSA Ajit Doval warns Pak; says covert actions not cost-effective strategy

NSA Ait Doval warns Pak; says covert actions not cost-effective strategy

English Download App HOME NEWS FILMIBEAT BOLDSKY AUTO GADGETS TRAVEL MONEY PHOTOS VIDEOS WEATHER EDUCATION ONEINDIA SERVICES BUY INSURANCE Home » News » India NSA Ajit Doval warns Pak; says covert actions not cost-effective strategy Wed, Oct 28, 2015, 1:01 [IST] New Delhi, Oct 27: Terming "jihadi terrorism" as common threat to South Asia, NSA Ajit Doval today warned Pakistan not to engage in covert actions saying it is a very short-sighted strategy of the neighbouring country. He said Pakistan has never realised that it can be "profitable" and "most effective" for its economic growth and stability if it engages with India and rest of the South Asian countries. "Till that happens, what India can do. I think one is that we should continue to work hard to persuade Pakistan, to convince Pakistan, through our sincerity, whatever we can do and whatever we think is the language in which the Pakistan can understand it well. We should be able to convey and convince it," he said. Delivering the first 'Nagendra Singh memorial lecture' on 'Ensuring peace in South Asia: Role of India' organised by the International Goodwill Society of India, he said most of South Asian countries' security threats are internal. "There is only one threat which has got its footprints in almost all of the nations. Problem about this is that its origin, its nursery, is also the member of South Asian region. Islamic terrorism or jihadi terrorism, rather I should use the word, is one of the common threats. "Bangladesh is affected by it, Afghanistan is affected, India is affected, Pakistan is affected by it. Sri Lanka is affected," the NSA said. This is one common threat on which there could have been much of cooperation but probably two of the countries Afghanistan and Pakistan have become epicentre of that, he said. "Since Pakistan is part of the problem it could not become part of the solution," Doval said maintaining that "it is only Pakistan with which there have been problems". He said after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power one of the cornerstones of the government's policy was that "we have got to take all South Asian countries together". "And that was the idea when all the heads of the governments were invited for his swearing-in ceremony. It did start well it did give us lot of dividend. Probably thing with Pakistan have not developed as much but we are sure that some day we will able to do so," Doval said. He said another important requirement will be where Pakistan shifting from its strategic position where it feels that covert action can be effective low cost option of its security strategy because supporting terrorism or a covert action is a very low cost exercise.

Read more at: http://www.oneindia.com/india/nsa-warns-pak-says-covert-actions-not-cost-effective-strategy-1911512.html

Huge investment needed for Railways' development

Huge investments are needed for development in the Indian Railways:

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today said massive investment was required for development of railways in the first five years. The minister also advocated for skill development as a tool to eradicate poverty from the country. "For the development of railways, we need massive investment in the first five years," Prabu said here. A sum of Rs 8.5 lakh crore is needed for the development of railways which will be collected from World Bank and LIC institutions, he said. Railways today got Rs 2,000 crore from Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the first tranche of its financial assistance for investment in 50 projects involving construction of new lines and electrification of routes as part of its capacity augmentation programme. "Skill development is the need of the hour as it will help in removing poverty from the country," Prabhu said here while addressing a function at Agroha Dham organised by Aggrawal community. "We all need to work towards the development of our country," he said. On the occasion, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the Haryana government has completed its one year tenure on October 26. Khattar said he cannot claim that he has completely eradicated corruption but has reduced it considerably within one year. The chief minister said the government is developing a system supported by information technology where nobody could indulge in corruption even if he or she wanted to. Khattar also reiterated his commitment to elevate Hisar airport to an international airport. The work for four-laning of national highway between Rohtak, Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa was inaugurated by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and the work would be completed in next six months, he added. Union Minister for Power Piyush Goyal also congratulated the Chief Minister for successful completion of one year and said people should work together for the all-round development of the society. Speaking on the occasion, Prabhu said the Aggarwal Samaj has undertaken various works for the development of the country and added that every section of the society should learn from Vaish Samaj. He further said the Indus Valley Civilisation had started from Haryana and the state is self-dependent in all spheres.

Read more at: http://www.oneindia.com/india/huge-investment-needed-development-railways-suresh-prabhu-1911526.html

Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light

What is Paedophilia?

Paedophilia: bringing dark desire

The Jimmy Savile scandal caused public revulsion, but experts disagree about what causes paedophilia - and even how much harm it causes

In 1976 the National Council for Civil Liberties, the respectable (and responsible) pressure group now known as Liberty, made a submission to parliament's criminal law revision committee. It caused barely a ripple. "Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in with an adult," it read, "result in no identifiable damage … The real need is a change in the attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage."

It is difficult today, after the public firestorm unleashed by revelations about Jimmy Savile and the host of child abuse allegations they have triggered, to imagine any mainstream group making anything like such a claim. But if it is shocking to realise how dramatically attitudes to paedophilia have changed in just three decades, it is even more surprising to discover how little agreement there is even now among those who are considered experts on the subject.

A liberal professor of psychology who studied in the late 1970s will see things very differently from someone working in child protection, or with convicted sex offenders. There is, astonishingly, not even a full academic consensus on whether consensual paedophilic relations necessarily cause harm.

So what, then, do we know? A paedophile is someone who has a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children. Savile appears to have been primarily an ephebophile, defined as someone who has a similar preferential attraction to adolescents, though there have been claims one of his victims was aged eight.

But not all paedophiles are child molesters, and vice versa: by no means every paedophile acts on his impulses, and many people who sexually abuse children are not exclusively or primarily sexually attracted to them. In fact, "true" paedophiles are estimated by some experts to account for only 20% of sexual abusers. Nor are paedophiles necessarily violent: no firm links have so far been established between paedophilia and aggressive or psychotic symptoms. Psychologist Glenn Wilson, co-author of The Child-Lovers: a Study of Paedophiles in Society, argues that "The majority of paedophiles, however socially inappropriate, seem to be gentle and rational."

Legal definitions of paedophilia, needless to say, have no truck with such niceties, focusing on the offence, not the offender. The Sex Offenders Act 1997 defined paedophilia as a sexual relationship between an adult over 18 and a child below 16.

There is much more we don't know, including how many paedophiles there are: 1-2% of men is a widely accepted figure, but Sarah Goode, honorary research fellow at the University of Winchester and author of two major 2009 and 2011 sociological studies on paedophilia in society, says the best current estimate – based on possibly flawed science – is that "one in five of all adult men are, to some degree, capable of being sexually aroused by children". Even less is known about female paedophiles, thought to be responsible for maybe 5% of abuse against pre-pubescent children in the UK.

Debate still rages, too, about the clinical definition of paedophilia. Down the years, the American Psychiatric Association'sDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – "the psychiatrist's bible" – has variously classified it as a sexual deviation, a sociopathic condition and a non-psychotic medical disorder. And few agree about what causes it. Is paedophilia innate or acquired?Research at the sexual behaviours clinic of Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health suggests paedophiles' IQs are, on average, 10% lower than those of sex offenders who had abused adults, and that paedophiles are significantly less likely to be right-handed than the rest of the population, suggesting a link to brain development. MRI scans reveal a possible issue with paedophiles' "white matter": the signals connecting different areas of the brain. Paedophiles may be wired differently.

This is radical stuff. But there is a growing conviction, notably in Canada, that paedophilia should probably be classified as a distinct sexual orientation, like heterosexuality or homosexuality. Two eminent researchers testified to that effect to a Canadian parliamentary commission last year, and the Harvard Mental Health Letter of July 2010 stated baldly that paedophilia "is a sexual orientation" and therefore "unlikely to change".

Child protection agencies and many who work with sex offenders dislike this. "Broadly speaking, in the world of people who work with sex offenders here, [paedophilia] is learned behaviour," saysDonald Findlater, director of research and development at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a charity dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse, and, before it closed, manager of leading treatment centrethe Wolvercote Clinic. "There may be some vulnerabilities that could be genetic, but normally there are some significant events in a person's life, a sexually abusive event, a bullying environment … I believe it is learned, and can be unlearned."

Chris Wilson of Circles UK, which helps released offenders, also rejects the idea that paedophilia is a sexual orientation: "The roots of that desire for sex with a child lie in dysfunctional psychological issues to do with power, control, anger, emotional loneliness, isolation."

If the complexity and divergence of professional opinion may have helped create today's panic around paedophilia, a media obsession with the subject has done more: a sustained hue and cry exemplified by the News of the World's notorious "name and shame" campaign in 2000, which brought mobs on to the streets to demonstrate against the presence of shadowy monsters in their midst. As a result, paranoia about the danger from solitary, predatory deviants far outweighs the infinitely more real menace of abuse within the home or extended circle. "The vast majority of sexual violence is committed by people known to the victim," stresses Kieran Mccartan, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of the West of England. Only very rarely is the danger from the "stranger in the white van", Mccartan says.

The reclassification of paedophilia as a sexual orientation would, however, play into what Goode calls "the sexual liberation discourse", which has existed since the 1970s. "There are a lot of people," she says, "who say: we outlawed homosexuality, and we were wrong. Perhaps we're wrong about paedophilia."

Social perceptions do change. Child brides were once the norm; in the late 16th century the age of consent in England was 10. More recently, campaigning organisations of the 70s and 80s such as the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) and Paedophile Action for Liberation were active members of the NCCL when it made its parliamentary submission questioning the lasting damage caused by consensual paedophilic relations.

Even now there is no academic consensus on that fundamental question – as Goode found. Some academics do not dispute the view of Tom O'Carroll, a former chairman of PIE and tireless paedophilia advocate with a conviction for distributing indecent photographs of children following a sting operation, that society's outrage at paedophilic relationships is essentially emotional, irrational, and not justified by science. "It is the quality of the relationship that matters," O'Carroll insists. "If there's no bullying, no coercion, no abuse of power, if the child enters into the relationship voluntarily … the evidence shows there need be no harm."

This is not, obviously, a widely held view. Mccartan uses O'Carroll's book Paedophilia: the Radical Case in his teaching as "it shows how sex offenders justify themselves". Findlater says the notion that a seven-year-old can make an informed choice for consensual sex with an adult is "just preposterous. It is adults exploiting children." Goode says simply: "Children are not developmentally ready for adult sexuality," adding that it is "intrusive behaviour that violates the child's emerging self-identity" and can be similar in long-term impact to adults experiencing domestic violence or torture.

But not all experts are sure. A Dutch study published in 1987 found that a sample of boys in paedophilic relationships felt positively about them. And a major if still controversial 1998-2000 meta-studysuggests – as J Michael Bailey of Northwestern University, Chicago, says – that such relationships, entered into voluntarily, are "nearly uncorrelated with undesirable outcomes".

Most people find that idea impossible. Butwriting last year in the peer-reviewed Archives of Sexual Behaviour, Bailey said that while he also found the notion "disturbing", he was forced to recognise that "persuasive evidence for the harmfulness of paedophilic relationships does not yet exist".

If that assertion does nothing else, it underlines the need for more research on paedophilia – something on which everyone in the field at least is agreed. There is, too, broad consensus around the idea that the approach to paedophilia must be about management and prevention: on stopping potential offenders making that contact (or downloading that image).

Initiatives such as Stop It Now!, which Findlater runs, exemplify this: a telephone helpline offering advice to people worried they may be having inappropriate sexual impulses. A similar German programme,Prevention Project Dunkelfeld, has as its slogan: "You are not guilty because of your sexual desire, but you are responsible for your sexual behaviour. There is help."

For convicted abusers, Circles UK aims to prevent reoffending by forming volunteer "circles of support and accountability" around recently released offenders, reducing isolation and emotional loneliness and providing practical help. In Canada, where it originated, it has cut reoffending by 70%, and is yielding excellent results here too. The goal of all treatment, Findlater says, is "people achieving a daily motivation not to cause harm again. Our goal is self-management in the future."

For Goode, though, broader, societal change is needed. "Adult sexual attraction to children is part of the continuum of human sexuality; it's not something we can eliminate," she says. "If we can talk about this rationally – acknowledge that yes, men do get sexually attracted to children, but no, they don't have to act on it – we can maybe avoid the hysteria. We won't label paedophiles monsters; it won't be taboo to see and name what is happening in front of us."

We can help keep children safe, Goode argues, "by allowing paedophiles to be ordinary members of society, with moral standards like everyone else", and by "respecting and valuing those paedophiles who choose self-restraint". Only then will men tempted to abuse children "be able to be honest about their feelings, and perhaps find people around them who could support them and challenge their behaviour before children get harmed".

• This article was amended on 3 January 2012. The original incorrectly suggested that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was published by the American Psychological Association, and misspelled Dunkelfeld as Dunkenfeld. This article was further amended on 21 January 2013 because the original referred to Sarah Goode as a senior lecturer at the University of Winchester. This has been corrected to say honorary research fellow.

Young boys for rent:

• Dr Fawad Kaiser

“The people of Lut rejected (his) warning. We sent against them a violent tornado with showers of stones, (which destroyed them), except Lut’s household: And (Lut) did warn them of Our punishment, but they disputed about the warning” — Surat al-Qamar: 33-36.
The mount of Sodom, a barren wasteland, rises sharply above the Dead Sea. No one has ever found the destroyed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah but scholars believe that they stood in the Vale of Siddim across from these cliffs. Possibly the flood waters of the Dead Sea engulfed them following an earthquake. Pompeii, the symbol of the degeneration of the Roman Empire, was also involved in sexual perversity. Its end was similar to that of the people of Lut. The destruction of Pompeii came by means of the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius. Whatever else one makes of these stories, they are about homosexual rape and, like any rape, it is an act of violence. In short, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all references to it elsewhere in scripture, provide guidance for modern day believers about the immorality of homosexuality.
Director Mohammed Naqvi and British producer Jamie Doran’s film Pakistan’s Hidden Shame was shown in UK on Channel 4, revealing the punishing reality of paedophilia occurring in the northern areas of Pakistan. The documentary, mainly set in the city of Peshawar, interviews homeless boys of different ages recalling their experiences of sexual abuse and male prostitution. The documentary claims that nine out of 10 children in Peshawar have been victims of paedophilia. It also includes interviews with the truck drivers who have committed such crimes. Unashamed, callous and remorseless, one of the drivers admits to having raped more than 10 boys. When confronted, PTI Chairman Imran Khan admitted, “It is one of the most sad and shameful aspects of our society. I am totally embarrassed by this and that we have not really been able to protect them.” 
I do seek to condemn these people for their violent, criminal and inhumane desires. Everyone should be free to develop their own conscientiousness but I feel that people like these are dangerous monsters in the ways they seek to impose themselves on innocent and young children for their sexual desires. Poverty and social inequality in the third world may have resulted in predisposing these young children for sexual exploitation but these sexual predators have allowed themselves to become paedophiles and are within themselves the major implementers of this brutal sexual exploitation and abuse of young children that has taken our society to the brink of destruction. 
Most men who use child prostitutes are the monstrous paedophiles of popular stereotype. The reasons and justifications they give for their behaviour are derived from ideas about sex, gender, money and sexual frustrations that are widespread and indeed shameful in the societies they come from. Over the past many decades, male child prostitution and child sexual abuse have not been very newsworthy topics and responsible media coverage has been almost silent when compared to its projection of silly breaking news that gets annoyingly repeated and reported on cable television channels in Pakistan. Child prostitution and child sex abuse are widely assumed to involve paedophiles, abnormal individuals who specifically seek out contexts in which pre-pubertal children will be made sexually available to them. Though shocking, these morally repugnant paedophiles make the problem of child prostitution in Pakistan a serious matter of grave consequence. 
If we want to understand the reasons behind child prostitution, we have to concern ourselves with questions about poverty, immorality and the demand for prostitution more generally. This means addressing much broader and more difficult questions about prostitution, gender and sexuality. It means questioning the way in which we socialise with our children and the attitudes that we tolerate. When I watched the stories in the documentary that men tell about their own child prostitute exploitation and the reasons they use to justify the sexual abuse of minors in the sex trade, painful as it is, the combination of poverty and sexual frustration appears to be the leading factor behind the plague of child prostitution on the streets of Peshawar. I do not differ with this ugly truth but grounded beneath this criminal mind is the thrill of predatory paedophile power play these men have over vulnerable children. 
The vast majority of child abusers I have interviewed in Pakistan were entirely morally indifferent to questions about why the children and teenagers they exploit were willing to enter into prostitution contracts with them. This notion of children in prostitution as sexually experienced, as spoiled goods, as agents in their own exploitation and as exploiters of adult men’s frailty even was the widespread response amongst many child abusers. Some even felt that the prostitution contract could be morally executed with women they know to be debt-bonded to a brothel owner, or with 10 and 11-year-old children they know to be homeless, destitute and/or addicted to drugs. They reason that they are under no obligation to give help or care to the child or to anyone else without sexual favour in return.
Until we acknowledge that the commercial sexual exploitation of children is more than just a law enforcement issue, we will not be able to produce an effective response. Unless we are willing to face the unpalatable fact that the people who use child prostitutes are monstrous members of our society, produced by us, we are in danger of formulating policies and anchoring television shows that, at best, do nothing meaningful to address the problem and, at worst, intensify the vulnerability of those already most vulnerable within prostitution.
We need to insist that governments recognise and take on board the complexities of prostitution as a whole and address the inequalities of economic, social and political power that underpin it, rather than treating problems such as minors in the sex trade or trafficking as simply or primarily law enforcement or criminal justice issues. We must also begin to think critically about how to transform our own societies’ attitudes towards rectitude, crime and punishment. 


The writer is a professor of Psychiatry and consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in the UK. He can be contacted at fawad_shifa@yahoo.com

Karachi (Pakistan) is becoming g hub of male prostitution

Karachi fast becoming a hub of male prostitution:

Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi’s Empress Market is fast becoming a hub for male prostitution.

One can find dozens of male ‘prostitutes’, who mainly are in the age group of 15 to 25 years, waiting for customers in this busy marketplace, but not everyone can identify these men selling ‘unnatural’ sex.

By the manner in which these men communicate with their potential customers, one can hardly make out what they are up to.

Explaining the art of identifying a likely customer, a male prostitute, who didn’t disclose his name, said, "It’s all about making eye contact and the rest is understood.”

Asked how he ended up in this profession, he said he was molested by his schoolteacher at a young age, which changed his whole life.

“I was molested by my schoolteacher when I was 11. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. But gradually I started enjoying it,” he said.

He said that while some men or ‘boys’ are in this trade for money, some work as gigolosonly for enjoyment. “Some do it just for fun and don’t accept money,” he said.

“Policemen or guards force us into sex without payment, but rarely, as we avoid going to places where they could be present,” he said.