MyVoice: Views of our readers 29th September 2021

Commendable initiative

India, one of the world's biggest suppliers of vaccines will resume the export of surplus vaccines in the ensuing month to fulfill its commitments towards the vaccine initiative Maitri.

The vaccination drive which commenced in January this year with which India rolled out millions of doses as aid despite the massive requirements of its own vaccination drive has been really appreciated by many countries.

Made-in-India drugs are cheaper particularly for low-income and developing markets and are more suitable for countries with weak cold chains and infrastructure facilities.

To date, India has supplied nearly 66 million free vaccines around the world to 95 countries. With the enhanced production of vaccines through technology transfer, India is now in a position to meet the domestic requirements as well as to export to the needy countries in the coming fourth quarter under the 'vaccine Maitri program.

As per the recent statistics, the domestic vaccination rate has increased drastically in the last few weeks with more than one crore doses administered on several days. This is a really good achievement and pride to India.

Further, India put a step further and developed the world's first DNA vaccine against covid-19 that can be given to everyone above 12 years of age.m RNA vaccine is also under clinical trials.

With the advancements in vaccine technology, the nation's vaccine production may touch 66 crore doses by December and India seems to be confident to meet the target requirements for successful completion of her dream, the world's largest vaccination drive.

Dr Krishna Kumar Vepakomma, Hyderabad

Our rivers deserve better

Rivers in India are revered. However the manner in which they are treated is deplorable. The conditions of the rivers are same all over the nation. The corpses thrown into the rivers were exposed by the media during the pandemic peak.

They are often used to dump garbage and untreated sewage flows into them without anybody complaining or taking any action against the culprits. This has made the water unfit for drinking and even for bathing.

We need to learn from other countries on how to take care of our natural resources like water. The nations have never considered rivers as mothers and goddesses but take care of them more than we do.

Anthony Henriques, Mumbai

Eliminate noise pollution

Noise pollution is a danger we often laugh off. We think that it's not that serious of a problem but it's a slow poison which only grows with each passing day.

We think that the problems we are having with our blood pressure, the stress we are feeling, the ever growing cases of heart diseases is all because of diet and sedentary life style of the city dwellers and we often forget about noise pollution.

Noise pollution is a very big contributor to heart diseases, high blood pressure, skyscraping levels of stress and irregular sleep patterns.

The cases of high blood pressure and heart disease in children is very common in today's time, children are often hooked to games where high pitched sounds are common which takes a toll on their health.

Parents should take the responsibility to make their wards understand the effects these high pitched sounds in games or the use of ear earphones can have on their overall health.

The administration in all the cities over the country can take steps to reduce noise pollution by restricting vehicles on road after midnight because it is seen that a motorcycle engine on road produces about 95 decibels and sounds above 70 decibels over a prolonged period starts damaging our hearing capacity. These steps should be taken at the earliest or else we are looking at a disease-ridden future.

Noopur Baruah, Tezpur

Women lawyers and judiciary

Chief Justice of India N.V.Ramana speaking to woman judges and lawyers at an event backed 50 per cent reservation for women lawyers in judiciary and bar councils comes as a whiff of fresh air to women due to their unequal representation in a male dominated society.

Society's indifference since time immemorial failed to redress gender inequality only added to their miseries. The classic example is women's reservation stuck up too often despite unending debates and discussions in every forum about significant strides made by women in every field to accord equal status to women on par with men.

In fact, when it is a proven fact that women in her sphere does work as useful as a man, it is implied that neither can do without the other.

Despite their accomplishments, it is unfortunate there is divided opinion among political parties, as a result the problem persists. In view of the above, CJI highlighted the urgent need to maintain gender equality for progress reminded the executive for course connection while at the same time asking women to demand their right to equality in every sphere including judiciary, legal education and universities as guaranteed in the constitution to bridge the gap in judiciary so as to improve substantially quality of justice delivery system is a step in the right direction.

All in all, this would go a long way in forcing patriarchal society, politicians and bigwigs of the society to change their mindset and accord equal status to women on par with men in every domain.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad