India’s Assam scraps colonial-era Muslim marriage law
Guwahati, India Reuters India’s Assam state has scrapped an 89-year-old law that allowed marriage involving underage Muslims, against opposition from leaders of the minority community who called the plan an attempt to polarise voters on religious lines ahead of elections. Assam, which has the highest percentage of Muslims among Indian states at 34 per cent, […]
Fears of waterborne disease rise in Bangladesh as floods recede
Dhaka, Bangladesh/Guwahati, IndiaReuters Authorities in Bangladesh are bracing for the spread of waterborne diseases and racing to get drinking water to people stranded in their homes by flooding across a quarter of the country, an official said on Thursday. Nearly 2,000 rescue teams, along with the army, navy and air force, were trying to reach […]
Floods swamp more of Bangladesh and India, millions marooned
Dhaka, Bangladesh/Guwahati, India Reuters Floodwaters inundated more of Bangladesh and north-east India on Tuesday, officials said, as authorities struggled to reach more than 9.5 million people stranded with little food and drinking water after days of intense rain. Particularly heavy monsoon rain has brought the worst floods in more than a century in some parts of […]
Bangladesh military scrambles to reach millions marooned after deadly flooding
Dhaka, Bangladesh/Guwahati, India Reuters Soldiers on small boats delivered relief material on Monday across flooded towns and villages in Bangladesh, after more than nine million people were marooned in the low-lying country and neighbouring India following heavy rains, officials said. At least 32 people have been killed in Bangladesh since late last week following monsoon […]
Monsoon floods kill 42 people, millions stranded in Bangladesh, India
Dhaka, Bangladesh/Assam, India Reuters At least 25 people were killed by lightning or landslides over the weekend in Bangladesh while millions were left marooned or homeless in low-lying northeastern parts hit by the worst monsoon floods in the country’s recent history, officials said. In the neighbouring Indian state of Assam, at least 17 people were […]
Half a million Indians flee floods in north-east brought by rain
Guwahati, India Reuters More than 500,000 people have fled their homes in India’s north-eastern state of Assam to escape heavy floods triggered by pre-monsoon rains that drowned seven, authorities said on Wednesday, as they warned the situation could worsen. One of the world’s largest rivers, the Brahmaputra, which flows into India and neighbouring Bangladesh from […]
Run, rebuild, repeat: Floods eat away at India’s Indigenous land
MOUSHUMI BASU, writing for Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how the Mising tribe is bearing the brunt of changing weather patterns in India’s Assam state…
Postcards: With Assam silk and trees, Indians fight climate change and trafficking
ANURADHA NAGARAJ, writing for Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on an initiative to help small scale weavers in India’s north-east…
Indian state launches assault on drugs as UN warns of Bangladesh-like crisis
Guwahati, India Reuters A north-eastern Indian state that has for years been a big transit point for illicit drugs originating in neighbouring Myanmar has launched a massive crackdown on the trade, seizing record amounts and arresting nearly 2,000 people since May. Assam, four of whose neighbouring states have open and rugged borders with Myanmar, connects […]
India’s most populous state seeks to promote two-child policy
New Delhi, IndiaReuters India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has proposed legislation that aims to discourage couples from having more than two children, becoming the second state ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party to make such a proposal. If Uttar Pradesh were a country, its 240 million people would make it the world’s fifth […]