· March, 2013

Stories about South Asia from March, 2013

Majority Religion In A Country Is A Curse

  30 March 2013

Sri Lankan blogger Patta Pal Boru opines that the majority religion in a country is a curse as the simple weight of the established religion (inertia) gets people thinking about the wrongs rather than the rights favoring the fringe or the other religions.

Google's Bangladeshi Independence Doodle

  25 March 2013

Aminul Islam Sajib reports that Google featured Bangladeshi National Flag as a Doodle on the occasion of the Independence Day of Bangladesh (26th March, 1971) which was a long time demand from Bangladeshi netizens.

Can India Win The Fight Against Tuberculosis?

  25 March 2013

24th March is observed as World Tuberculosis Day and this year, the various stakeholders dedicated to fight tuberculosis - government agencies, the medical community, NGOs and health activists, took time out to take stock of how India was faring in it's fight against the dreaded disease.

Nepal’s Politics in Crisis Once Again

  23 March 2013

Nepal’s political parties have again failed to respect the people's mandate to elect a prime minister and instead have installed Chief Justice (CJ) Khila Raj Regmi as the head executive (chairman of the interim electoral council of ministers). Shiromani Dhungana at United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal writes about...

Fixing Taps to Save Water In India

  23 March 2013

Author and painter Aabid Surti may have won awards for his writing and art, but he has also made a mark in another field: water conservation. For the last seven years, the 77-year-old has spent his Sundays going to apartments in Mumbai, and volunteering to fix leaking taps.

Strike On Facebook Protesting Strikes

  23 March 2013

In recent months continuous strikes (Hartal) by political parties have paralyzed Bangladesh. A number of Facebook users have had enough and called for a Facebook strike on 23rd of March 2013 from 9:00pm until 10:00pm (UTC+07) protesting the strikes.

Jailed For Exposing Moral Policing, Indian TV Reporter Gets Bail

  19 March 2013

Television journalist Naveen Soorinje, who was arrested on November 7, 2012 after exposing a shocking incident of moral policing and assault on a group of young men and women by members of a far right-wing fringe group in Mangalore, India, was finally granted bail yesterday by the Karnataka High Court.

Parveen Rehman Killed, Pakistan's Largest Slum Loses its Guardian Angel

  16 March 2013

Parveen Rehman, a leading social worker in Pakistan was shot dead close to the country's largest slum Orangi, in Karachi were she had worked tirelessly for three decades. A trained architect, Parveen documented land in the ever-growing city to protect it from Karachi's notorious land mafia, who she had been receiving death threats from for years.

Indian Censor Board Restricts Papilio Buddha, A Gandhi Critic Movie

  12 March 2013

Papilio Buddha, a Malaylam language feature film, had initially been banned by the Indian censor board for defaming the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi until it got cleared for screening with the “adult” certification. Netizens question the decision of the censor board and the underlying reason.

TV Journalist Attacked In Maldives

  12 March 2013

Ibrahim ‘Aswad’ Waheed, Head of News of Raaje TV, an independent television channel, was attacked by unidentified persons recently in the Maldivian capital Male. Maldivian journalists joined in protests demanding press freedom and protection of journalists which can be seen in pictures at photo-blogger Bug's blog.

The State of Torture in the World in 2013

  10 March 2013

On January 23, 2013, an excerpt from the annual report of l'ACAT-France, A World of Torture 2013, makes a fresh assessment of the state of torture in the world [fr]: “A report called A World of Torture in 2013, assesses torture practices that continue to be alarming, from Pakistan to...

How India Should Approach Website Blocking

  10 March 2013

In recent months blocking of urls has been much debated in India. Nikhil Pahwa at MediaNama, who is not fond of blocking content on the Internet, suggests how India should approach website blocking.

All About Social Curation

  9 March 2013

Gaurav Mishra explains social curation and describes how Media, organizations and brands can curate contents to drive social engagement.

Changing Attitudes on Child Marriage in India

  9 March 2013

In rural India, two out of five girls are child brides. Though Indian law has made child marriage illegal, girls and boys bonded by traditional social norms and values are most likely to get married early defying the legislations. But the situation is changing as a number of women, who had been married as children, are speaking out against child marriage.

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Rezwan
Rezwan is the South Asia editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.