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India Tops South Asia In Oral Cancer Cases Due To Smokeless Tobacco And Areca Nut Use: Study Reveals

Harsh — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 11:47:00 +0000

New Delhi: India has the highest number of oral cancer cases among countries in South Asia, driven by increased use of smokeless tobacco products like betel quid with tobacco, gutka, khaini; and areca nut, according to a study on Wednesday.

The study led by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and published in The Lancet Oncology journal showed that India logged 83,400 of the 120,200 oral cancer cases globally caused by smokeless tobacco (chewed, sucked, inhaled, applied locally, or ingested) and areca nut (seed of the areca palm) in 2022.

The consumption of areca nut (30 per cent) and betel quid with tobacco (28 per cent) were responsible for the most oral cancer cases among women, followed by gutka (21 per cent) and khaini (21 per cent).

Among men, it was khaini (47 per cent), gutka (43 per cent), betel quid with tobacco (33 per cent), and areca nut (32 per cent).

“Smokeless tobacco and areca nut products are available to consumers in many different forms across the world, but consuming smokeless tobacco and areca nut is linked to multiple diseases, including oral cancer,” said Dr Harriet Rumgay, a scientist in the Cancer Surveillance Branch at IARC.

“We found that more than 120,000 people across the world were diagnosed with oral cancer that could have been caused by using smokeless tobacco or areca nut. Our estimates highlight the burden these products pose on health care and the importance of prevention strategies to reduce consumption of smokeless tobacco and areca nuts,” he added.

The IARC study showed that 120,200 of the 389,800 oral cancer cases in 2022 could be caused by smokeless tobacco and areca nut use. This also means that by preventing smokeless tobacco and areca nut use, one-third (31 per cent) of all oral cancer cases could be avoided.

Further, more than 95 per cent of all oral cancer cases caused by smokeless tobacco and areca nut use occurred in low- and middle-income countries (115,900 cases).

India was followed by Bangladesh (9,700), Pakistan (8,900), China (3,200), Myanmar (1,600), Sri Lanka (1,300), Indonesia (990), and Thailand (785).

While “control of tobacco smoking has improved, prevention of smokeless tobacco use has stalled, and areca nut remains largely unregulated,” said Dr. Isabelle Soerjomataram, Deputy Head of the Cancer Surveillance Branch at IARC.

The study called for prioritising smokeless tobacco control, and developing a framework for areca nut prevention which must be integrated into cancer control programmes.

India needs to engage with Bangladesh much more proactively: Sudeep Chakravarti

Aseem — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:34:43 +0000

The prolific author Sudeep Chakravarti’s 10th book, Fallen City, is about Delhi, where two children, Geeta and Sanjay, were brutally murdered in 1978. He places the crime in a socio-political context. Chakravarti’s own life is as interesting as his work and he has just emerged after three years in Dhaka, where he set up a South Asia study department at a university. In an interview with Frontline, he speaks about his latest book, Bangladesh’s transformation over the years, the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the recent spate of violence against the nation’s Hindus, the protests in Kolkata, and more. Edited excerpts:

This could be the rare Indian book told through crime because it reenacts the murder of two children in Delhi’s Ridge area, which shocked the country. Eventually, it was a senseless killing and we never quite understand why it happened. It is disturbing. We are living in an age when there is a lot of true crime on Netflix for example. The name Billa Ranga is even today, associated with terrible criminals. They were eventually hanged. But their story is the randomness of the violence that struck me.

You are absolutely right. It translates to the nation. I think one of the reasons why we were transfixed as teenagers at that time is they [the children] were people like us, middle-class kids, who were trying to get ahead in life, doing interesting things, aspiring to get into what was being built to us at that point of time, not in 2024, but back in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, as the symbol of brave new India emerged; and these bright young kids are brutally taken away from society. It horrified people, it shocked people because of the sheer brutality of it and the sheer senselessness of it. And it also, I think, came at a certain time in India’s dark arc, or Delhi’s dark arc.

That arc for me began with 1975, the beginning, the imposition of the Emergency, then the cessation of the Emergency, the Opposition coming into play, the fall of the Congress empire, the Gandhi empire, the generation of the Janata government, the strange goings-on, like the hard Hindu right, conservative right being a part of a coalition government with a left-of-centre coalition. Billa and Ranga emerged as hyphenated villains. And ironically their names continue to capture us to this day even though we tend to forget about Geeta and Sanjay. So, in a way, it was paying homage to people of my generation. Dreams that were taken away so brutally. It gave me an opportunity to talk about something that could be described as a true crime but interweave it with the socio-political environment and actually the mood of the moment.

Also Read | Time for a turnaround in Bangladesh

You have researched the newspapers, and spoken to top-notch journalists. What were the events happening simultaneously as the crime took place? Atal Bihari Vajpayee goes on to address the protesters at the Delhi boat club and he is hit with stones. Would you just tell us about that?

Indeed. And, remarkably, most people do not realise that Vajpayee was a member of the Janata government. I spent months delving through archives looking through newspapers, clippings, and microfilmspools. To come to Vajpayee’s incident, it was remarkable that he took it upon himself because even then he was an affable guy. He wanted to speak and he wanted to calm things down. He saw his role as a diplomat, the chief diplomat for India, but also in a way a chief diplomat for the government.

Interview with Sudeep Chakravarti

In an interview with Frontline, author Sudeep Chakravarti speaks about his latest book, Bangladesh’s transformation over the years, the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the recent spate of violence against the nation’s Hindus, the protests in Kolkata, and more. In an interview with Frontline, author Sudeep Chakravarti speaks about his latest book, Bangladesh’s transformation over the years, the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, the recent spate of violence against the nation’s Hindus, the protests in Kolkata, and more.
| Video Credit:
Frontline

You have written multiple books. One of your books, which I liked, was Red Sun about the Naxal movement. You have written books on the Northeast, on Bengal, and the Battle of Plassey. But your life’s journey has involved an amazing amount of travel. And you have spent the last three years in Bangladesh. You were there when Sheikh Hasina was deposed.

I have a great engagement with Bangladesh. When I was there in the early 90s, I was one of the few people who believed in the idea of South Asia. So, the magazine I was with at the time, India Today, let me travel all over South Asia. I have actually seen the transition of Bangladesh over the past 30 years—from a military dictatorship into a democracy. I interviewed Sheikh Hasina when she was the leader of the Opposition, a very different Sheikh Hasina then: she went from being a very sharp, approachable leader of the Opposition to an autocratic premier of a country where she lived in an ivory tower. I had the good fortune to travel across Bangladesh and even interview people who are considered to be hardcore ultra conservative Islamists like Ghulam Azam.

I’ve seen Bangladesh go from a conservative phase to a self-professedly liberal, secular phase, which became conservative in its own right because the Awami League became more and more autocratic and the leaders became more and more autocratic. So, you have the irony of a democracy becoming an autocracy over time. And Sheikh Hasina was a symbol of that. I think it is necessary to explore this.

At the same time, Bangladesh was doing so well on development indices.

It did. I always describe it to my students and also when I write to speak, as inequity. You have a situation where Bangladesh, like India, has tremendously positive growth. Its infrastructure has grown by leaps and bounds. It is a forward-looking country, economically, and socially, in many indices, including human resources. In many ways, it may be a more equitable society than India. And yet, because of the political command and control, you effectively have had for the last 10 years, an increasingly autocratic and self-isolating power structure.

Many institutions, political institutions, judicial institutions, and policing institutions in Bangladesh, were weakened on account of this autocracy. And Sheikh Hasina was at the apex. And so, the economic progress, unfortunately, because of nepotism and cronyism, you had growth at certain levels. But I would describe it as a comet: the comet was the growth invited to the growth party, but not the tail of the comet. There was a disconnect, so there was great resentment because there was inflation and corruption. Tens of billions of dollars are being taken away from Bangladesh by crony capitalism. So, Bangladesh was inherently weakened from within, by the autocracy, by the kleptocracy.

Since you were in Dhaka recently, were Hindus specifically targeted in the violence that unfolded?

I did not feel insecure, but maybe because I am trained as a journalist, so I don’t feel that way when I am out. I am just, sort of, personalising it to tell you that I did not feel insecure at any point in time, but that doesn’t mean that others did not. So, there were instances of Hindus being attacked. Also, like in East Pakistan’s [present day Bangladesh] history and Bangladesh’s history, minorities in general have been attacked from time to time. Whenever there has been a political dislocation, which has let loose the dogs of war, in anarchy, people who can leverage command and control, will always try to go and grab whatever power they possibly can.

So, this is a classic case of a repeat, if you will. It’s happened several times in Bangladesh’s existence. It happened in East Pakistan’s history when there was political anarchy and there have been political transitions, typically the minorities were attacked. They were attacked this time also because there was a power vacuum, but they were absolutely not attacked to the level at which the Indian media were dog-whistling. The whole episode was completely blown out of proportion and I imagine this is a mixture of misinformation riding on disinformation. I want to categorically state this.

There should not be any confusion about that. By then, the interim government was in power. They were neighbourhood watches being kept in Dhaka when instances of temples were attacked, some Hindu businesses were attacked, and some shops were burned. Nobody is denying this. But you had Hindu organisations in Bangladesh beseeching Hindu organisations in India saying, will you please let us be Hindus in Bangladesh because we are quite alright, thank you very much. We do not need your help. That is number one. Number two, I have seen, and Bangladesh has seen that it is not a perfect situation and it is not safe for anybody, including the Hindus.

Neither is Bangladesh entirely safe right now because of this vulnerable situation, this transitional situation for Muslims of Bangladesh too. Because anarchy affects everybody. The true stories that have not been played up, amped up as much in the Indian media, for obvious reasons perhaps, is that you had Jamaat people, neighbourhood watches, and standing guard. It happened in 1984 in Delhi, where neighbourhood watches to protect Sikh families.

Some of the disturbing images included Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s and Rabindranath Tagore’s statues being brought down. Tagore’s “Amar Sonar Bangla” is the national anthem. Do you think all of that will change in the future? Do you think they might even have a new national anthem?

I don’t think they would have a new national anthem, because there has been a pushback. All across Bangladesh, people gathered on the streets to sing Amar Sonar... Cultural activists, and sculptors, pooled resources, and they went and with their own hands, fixed as many statues as they could of Tagore. Bangladesh has a very fond space for him.

The Bangladesh story is, of course, eternal, since you are a Bengali and you have written a book called The Bengalis.

I have survived both Bengals—Bengalis in India and overseas, and I’ve also survived Bengalis in Bangladesh. And the book contains all of them.

Soon after the events in Bangladesh, which all of us in India followed, we saw this protest coming out in Kolkata. Indeed, in the beginning, there was some superficial commentary that Bengalis, this side, got instigated by the protests, but it has obviously taken a life of its own. Do you think that what hashappened in India is entirely different?

No. I think the outrage or the atrocity in Arjun Hospital in Kolkata happened around the time that the protest movement and the killings had peaked in Bangladesh. And the hasty departure of Sheikh Hasina coincided with that. So, I think the public mood in Bangladesh did spill over, I think, inspirational, if you will, to Kolkata, and to other parts of Bengal and in many ways, across India, because there was outrage. But I think it has taken on a life of its own. But it was for different reasons altogether. That actually brings us back to the loop of a fallen city where we are outraged over crimes against women.

And, of course, that was Geeta and Sanjay, a boy, too. But repeatedly, we have Nirbhaya here. We have Tilottama in Kolkata. We seem to be outraged over these grotesque atrocities being perpetrated. And it is 45 years since Geeta and Sanjay Chopra’s death several years since Nirbhaya, and several years since a Netflix series on Nirbhaya, and so many unspoken and unheralded atrocities across India. It is just a shame and a tragedy that the criminal justice system of India, in all these decades, has not been able to keep pace with the needs of security of the women and children and the citizenry of India. I mean, that is a tragic deficit. And I don’t know how we can overcome this.

Bangladesh and Bengal: How different are they?

Very similar, and yet very different. I cooked up a term for it. I call it “Banglasphere”. That is my definition of wherever Bengalis live. So Bangladesh is part of Banglasphere, and so is West Bengal. But I think this. They are very distinct entities. Many people in West Bengal either do not get or do not wish to acknowledge that Bengalis in Bangladesh are Bengalis too. That you have an entity, you have a Bangladeshi life of its own, that you have the fact that the country is called Bangladesh, the land of the Bengalis.

Also Read | Bangladesh: Modi government’s diplomacy debacle

Where is the better Bengali literature coming out of? Is Bangladesh vibrant?

Bangladesh considers itself to be a repository of Bengali culture, of the Bengali language. You have the Bangla Academy in Dhaka. You have high-quality literature coming out of Bangladesh. There is a peculiarity in Bangladeshi literature. They love the short story form. So, there is a lot of the writing that comes out of Bangladesh, in terms of fictional writing, there’s a lot of poetry, like in West Bengal, but there is a remarkable volume of short stories.

Tell us about this demand to get Sheikh Hasina back.

Right now, I think there is going to be a kind of diplomatic chess game going on where because India gave shelter to Sheikh Hasina as a great friend and ally, which is all well and fine, but you do need to keep in mind the repercussions of that. I might use the fact that Sheik Hasina continues to be in India as a diplomatic lever to gain diplomatic concessions for Bangladesh, which is, I think, quite the right thing to do because many extant issues were dampened during her premiership: for instance, the sharing of river water. 54 rivers from India flow into Bangladesh. It is not just the Ganga and the Brahmaputra: 52 other rivers also decant into Bangladesh. We need to sort that out.

There needs to be a river water commission, like the Mekong River Commission between India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. That needs to happen. It was completely stalled. Mamata Banerjee needs to get her act together and not stall an agreement over the Teesta to save her vote bank in north Bengal. I think the stakes are too high right now. And for national interest, India needs to be engaging with Bangladesh much more proactively than it has been.

To my mind, they’ve been treating Bangladesh like many other countries of South Asia. And I’ve written this and spoken about it frequently as a zamindari. India is the zamindar and South Asia is the zamindari. There has been, even with outreach and with regional outreach, a tendency to overreach as well. And I think it is no coincidence that you have had senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs make damage control visits to the Maldives, make damage control visits to Nepal.

Damage control visits to Bangladesh. I am sure they will get down to it.

That needs to happen.

Saba Naqvi is a Delhi-based journalist and author of four books who writes on politics and identity issues.

Australia pulls out of Afghanistan cricket series over Taliban’s restrictions on women | CNN

Ashish Singh — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:28:12 +0000

Sydney
CNN
—

Australia’s men’s cricket team has withdrawn from a series of upcoming matches against Afghanistan in protest over the ruling Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls’ education and employment, Cricket Australia (CA) said in a statement Thursday.

The teams were scheduled to play three One Day International (ODI) games in the United Arab Emirates in March, but CA decided to cancel the series after “extensive consultation” with “several stakeholders including the Australian government,” the statement said.

“CA is committed to supporting [and] growing the game for women and men around the world, including in Afghanistan, and will continue to engage with the Afghanistan Cricket Board in anticipation of improved conditions for women and girls in the country,” it added.

In December, the Taliban announced the suspension of university education for all female students. The move followed a decision in March to bar girls from returning to secondary schools, coming after months-long closures that had been in place since the hardline Islamist group took over Afghanistan in August 2021.

Later that month, the Taliban ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, warning that non-compliance would result in the revocation of their licenses.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) responded to CA’s decision on Thursday, describing it as “pathetic” and “an attempt to enter the realm of politics and politicize the sport.”

“By prioritizing political interests over the principles of fair play and sportsmanship, Cricket Australia is undermining the integrity of the game and damaging the relationship between the two nations,” the statement added.

“The decision to withdraw from playing the upcoming ODI series against Afghanistan is unfair and unexpected and will have a negative impact on the development and growth of cricket in Afghanistan, as well as affect[ing] the love and passion of the Afghan nation for the game.”

The ACB said it was considering what action to take on the matter, including the possibility of writing to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and “rethinking the participation of Afghan players” in Australia’s domestic Twenty20 competition, the Big Bash League (BBL).

The ACB statement followed comments from prominent Afghan player Rashid Khan.

Khan, who played for the Adelaide Strikers in this year’s BBL, accompanied a statement on Twitter with the words: “Keep politics out of it.”

“I am really disappointed to hear that Australia have pulled out of the series to play us in March,” Khan wrote.

“I take great pride in representing my country and we have made great progress on the world stage. This decision from CA sets us back in that journey.

“If playing vs Afghanistan is so uncomfortable for Australia then I wouldn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable with my presence in the BBL. Therefore I will be strongly considering my future in that competition.”

CA had previously backed out of a proposed Test match against Afghanistan due to be hosted in Tasmania in November 2021 over the Taliban’s ban on women participating in sports.

“Driving the growth of women’s cricket globally is incredibly important to Cricket Australia. Our vision for cricket is that it is a sport for all, and we support the game unequivocally for women at every level,” CA said at the time.

Australia’s sports minister Anika Wells on Thursday said Canberra supports Cricket Australia’s move.

“The Australian government welcomes Cricket Australia’s decision to withdraw from the upcoming men’s One Day International series against Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s increased suppression of women and girls’ rights,” she tweeted.

Although the Taliban repeatedly claimed it would protect the rights of girls and women, the group has done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms for which women have fought tirelessly over the past two decades.

The United Nations and at least half a dozen major foreign aid groups have said they are temporarily suspending their operations in Afghanistan following the ban on female NGO employees.

Amir Malik is on a drive to make golf more inclusive for Muslims | CNN

Ashish Singh — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:56:01 +0000

CNN
—

Amir Malik is a man in love with golf. Yet golf has not always loved him back.

A devoted sports fan since his childhood in Kingston upon Thames, London, he was fascinated with golf long before he took his first swing. But knowing nobody else who played, Malik settled for a sideline view.

That all changed in 2012, when his former boss invited him to try his hand at a driving range.

“From the first ball I thought, ‘This is it. This game is incredible,’” Malik, now aged 38, told CNN.

“I’ve played a lot of sports, but there aren’t too many when you go to bed thinking about it and you can’t wait to get up to go back and play again.”

Eventually, Malik was ready to take his game to the next level. Joining a municipal club in 2017, he began competing in Sunday morning tournaments.

It was at these events that the “ugly side” of the game was swiftly revealed to Malik, who felt isolated by the jarring clash of club culture and his Muslim faith.

The discomfort would begin before a ball was struck, as Malik says he drew questioning looks at his refusal to partake in wagers over in-house competitions, as gambling is forbidden in Islam. Out on the course, stepping aside to observe salat – ritual Islamic prayers performed five times a day – further heightened his anxieties.

“You would feel scared, intimidated. How are people going to react?” he recalled.

“We always made sure we were out of the way, but you were made to feel very, very uncomfortable.”

His unease was exacerbated by the commonplace tradition of clubhouse drinking after competitions. As Malik doesn’t drink alcohol, he was left to hand in his scorecard and make an early exit.

As he improved and played more prestigious courses, discomfort often escalated into outright hostility. Malik, who is of Pakistani descent, said he has experienced racism on the golf course.

“You turn up and immediately you can feel the vibe and the atmosphere, the way you’re spoken to, the way you’re treated,” he said.

“And you’re just like ‘Wow, just because I’ve got a beard, I’m brown, and I don’t look like you, you probably think I can’t play or you don’t think I know the etiquette.

“It used to really frustrate me because you sense it, you feel it, you grow up in it, you know what it feels like. And it’s not until you hit one straight down the middle of the fairway – when you’ve smoked a drive – that people then think, ‘Oh, he can play,’ and it’s too late by then.”

Malik’s passion for golf was not soured by his experiences. On the contrary, they spurred him to scout out other British Muslims who shared his love of the game.

Encouraged by “pockets” of interest he had seen on his travels, in December 2019 Malik put a name to his new venture – the Muslim Golf Association (MGA) – and sent out invitations to a charity golf day at The Grove, a prestigious venue just outside London.

The MGA’s maiden event would be open to all religions; prayer facilities would be provided and there would be no alcohol or gambling. Malik was stunned by the response. Within 24 hours, all 72 places had been booked, with over 100 people on the waiting list by the week’s end.

The event, held in August 2020, raised £18,000 for charity, and the sight of over 60 players praying together in the Grove’s courtyard marked a watershed moment for Malik.

“That for me was just amazing,” he said. “That we could get guys together, feeling safe and comfortable and just be on our own platform.”

Since then, the MGA has partnered with the Marriott hotel chain to stage a tri-series tournament beginning in 2021, with the winners of this year’s edition securing an all-expenses paid trip to the Turkish golfing paradise of Belek.

“I looked at golf and thought, it’s a sport played by White, old, rich men, period,” Malik said. “We’ve now got an opportunity to actually show the world that non-Whites can play this game and we’re pretty damn good at it.”

The overwhelming response to MGA events among Muslim women has been equally exciting for Malik. After launching a trio of pilot sessions in Birmingham last year, 1,000 players have already signed up to the string of women-only taster events scheduled across the country over the next two months.

Malik believes Muslim women in the UK are being held back from participating in more sports because of a lack of all-female facilities and sessions.

The MGA has no dress code, which means women can play in a niqab (face veil) and an abaya (long robe) if they wish, and it hires sections of courses for its exclusive use for taster events, to ensure a comfortable experience for new players.

“The response has been absolutely incredible, mindblowing,” Malik said. “I say to women, ‘I don’t care what you wear, what you look like, just come with a smile and with a pair of trainers and we’ll take care of everything else.’ We’ve not done anything revolutionary, we’ve just made it accessible, and the demand is incredible.”

To date, MGA events have attracted over 1,300 participants. Looking forward, the organization aims to take its efforts global to reach as many new players as possible.

Growing up, Malik had to look to other sports for Muslim role models, such as England cricketer Moeen Ali. From Muhammad Ali, to Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, to Mohamed Salah, countless Muslim athletes have carved out glittering careers across a range of sports, yet professional golf offers a comparative scarcity of examples.

According to a survey cited by England Golf, the country’s governing body for amateur golf, just 5% of golfers in England are from ethnically diverse groups.

By establishing relationships with groups such as the MGA, England Golf’s chief operating officer Richard Flint believes the barriers that have contributed to a lack of diversity in the game can be understood and broken down.

“No-one should feel uncomfortable walking through the doors of a golf club or facility simply because of their age, race, ethnicity or gender,” Flint told CNN.

“As a modern, forward-thinking organization, we want golf to be open to everyone and change negative perceptions around the game that belong in the past.”

While Malik hopes to soon see Muslim players competing on professional tours, he says he did not form the MGA to produce a Muslim Tiger Woods.

“If that happens as a byproduct, then great,” he said. “But if we can get the golf industry to take a long, hard look at itself and make itself accessible, make itself open and diverse, then that’s a huge achievement.

“The golf course doesn’t discriminate. The ball doesn’t ask what color, race or gender you are … yet it’s been a very closed club that’s been open to very few people.

Malik believes it’s time for change. “Golf has a lot of exceptional values and traditions, which I still think it needs to keep firm, but it has to evolve … if it were to open itself up and let other cultures and traditions bring all that great stuff to this game, it could be absolutely wonderful.”