Background (Preamble): The approach to the issue of Sexual Harassment has always been a casual one.

Every woman in Mumbai, be it a mother, a sister or our friend has been groped or touched inappropriately at some point in time. So much so, that they are now silently bearing this humiliation as a fact of life. It is the 'Pink elephant' in the room that no one wants to talk about. What happened in Amboli with Keenan and Reuben is known to us. The act was brutal and the perpetrators should be booked, punished and the proceeding should be established but the root cause of what happened that night and the issue they stood up for was eve teasing. Hence this campaign ZERO TOLERANCE, which is a campaign for zero tolerance to Sexual Harassment. It is not just the casual approach. There is also a stigma attached to the entire issue, which prevents vulnerable victims from standing up and complaining. What makes matter worst is that Section 354 and 509 of IPC, are toothless provisions which have completely failed to tackle the issue. As a campaign we have three major goals: 1. Spread awareness especially amongst the youth, that Sexual Harassment is just not acceptable and we need to be ZERO TOLERANT, be it victims or onlooker (An onlooker can also complain and not just the victim). 2. Empower women through imparting information about their rights and the existing laws to book the culprit and combat the menace. (E.g. What exactly a girl do if she is touched in appropriately at public). 3. Petition Shri. RR Patil through a signature campaign both online and offline. To strengthen sections 354 and 509, make them non bail-able, a move that is under consideration by the government but has not been implemented. 4. Take legal recourse, by filing a PIL in the high court asking for clear directions that the present mechanism is insufficient to tackle the menace of Sexual Harassment and stronger law is needed in addition to robust procedure, which genuinely empower women. So join this campaign for the women in all our lives be it then our mothers, our sister, wives, daughter, friends or we ourselves! Support what Keenan & Reuben stood for ! Join the Zero Tolerance Campaign and spread the word. It's time we all got ZERO TOLERANT ! We usually take pride in us being Mumbaikars and the city being safe as far as women are concerned. But sexual harassment is a less talked about subject that afflicts 50% of the population. It is a known fact, that every woman, be it then as our mothers, sisters, wives or friends, has suffered this indignation at some point in time and so much so that most of them silently bear this humiliation. It has become impossible for woman to move freely without a constant worry and a deeply ingrained fear. What further, complicates matters is the attached stigma, which prevents most women from standing up against this crime. Police insensitivity in such cases and the lacunae in the law (Section 354 of the IPC is a cognizable but bailable offence, and bail is know to be granted in a vast majority of the cases; while section 509 of the IPC is non-congizable and doesn't even reflect on the criminal record of the perpetrator of the crime) compound the situation further. The Govt. of Maharshtra has demonstrated in the past, that it can act and produce results should it choose to. The best known example in recent memory being the Campaign against Drinking and Driving which has set a strong precedent till today, as regards the no-nonsense approach of the Govt. Machinery and agencies. We need to change the casual approach towards this evil crime, which can

only be done by strong enforcement of the existing laws, strengthening sections of the law which have lacunae as mentioned above and genuinely empowering women as opposed to mere lip service. You have been speaking about making section 354 as a non-bailable offence and the same had been widely reported in the press. Sadly, there has been nothing tangible and the proposal still remains on the anvil. The famous dictum, 'The role of the government is to make it easy for people to do good and difficult to do evil' is more relevant than ever.We therefore request you to act swiftly and decisively in this regard. We, the undersigned, call on Mr R R Patil, Hon'ble Home Minister, Govt. of Maharashtra to strengthen sections 354 and 509 of the IPC by making them both cognizable and non-bailable offenses as has been on the anvil. This is necessary given the universal and perrenial menace of Eve-Teasing' which is nothing but 'Sexual Harassment'. Also, we implore you to issue strict directions to the Police Machinery of the state to handle such cases stringently and with due sensitivity and in the manner appropriately laid down by the law, such that a strong message goes to society in general and lumpen elements in particular, so that a strong precedent can be set and incidents like these can be prevented in the future.

Cancer Patients Aid Association 5, Malhotra House, Opposite GPO, Mumbai - 400 001 Ms. SILOO JASDANWALLA Tel: +91 22 2269 8964, +91 22 2269 3790 Fax: +91 22 2269 7255

CORPORATE & ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE Smt. Panadevi Dalmia Cancer Management Centre King George V Memorial, Dr. E. Moses Road, Mahalakshmi, Mumbai - 400 011 GULSHAN HODIWALLA Tel: +91 22 2492 4000 / 2492 8775 Fax: +91 22 2497 3599 E-mail: admin@cancer.org.in

The 2011 Syrian uprising is an ongoing internal conflict occurring in Syria. Protests started on 26 January 2011, and escalated into an uprising by 15 March 2011. The uprising [34][35] is influenced by concurrent protests in the region, and has been described as "unprecedented." The demands of protesters include for President Bashar al-Assad to step down; for the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to allow other political parties; for equal rights for Kurdish people; and for broad political freedoms, such as freedom of press, speech and assembly.

Like the revolutionary movements in Tunisia and Egypt, it has taken the form of protests of various types, including marches and hunger strikes, as well as rioting, vandalism of government property, and vandalism of private property, in a sustained campaign of civil resistance. As protests continued, the Syrian government used tanks and snipers to force people off the streets. Water and electricity were shut off and security forces began confiscating flour and food in particularly [36][37] restive areas, including Daraa, Douma andHoms. During the course of the uprising, the Syrian Army has stormed the cities of Daraa, Douma, Baniyas, Hama, Homs, Talkalakh, Rastan, Jisr ash[38] [39][40][41] Shughur, Deir ez-Zor and Latakia, among other towns, and occupied parts ofDamascus. The violence escalated as the crisis wore on, with the killing reaching its highest level in early [42] August. Activists, fleeing civilians, and soldiers who defected claimed that soldiers who refuse to fire on [43][44][45] civilians are executed by theSyrian Army. The Syrian government has denied the reports of [46] defections and blames "armed gangs" for causing trouble. More than 3,500 people have been killed, many more injured, and thousands of protesters have been [47] detained. Dozens of detainees have reportedly been tortured and killed. Since the beginning of the uprising, the Syrian government has made several concessions, though widely considered trivial by protesters demanding more meaningful reform. On 21 April, the government repealed an emergency law that had been in place since 1963, which allowed the government sweeping authority to suspend constitutional rights. Yet crackdowns on protesters have continued to heighten since the beginning of the uprising. On 24 July, a draft law was created, to be debated by parliament, to allow more political parties, under the conditions that they were not based on religious, tribal or ethnic beliefs and does not discriminate against gender or race. Protesters have dismissed the law as superficial, as Article 8 of the Syrian Constitution, which grants the Ba'ath party the role of leader of the state and [48] society, would need to be repealed. There have been several international reactions to the uprising. The Arab League, the European [50] [51] Union, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, theOrganisation of Islamic [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] Cooperation, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States have among others condemned the use of violence against the protesters. The government of Iran, Al-Assad's [57] government's regional and political ally, initially suggested the demonstrations were a foreign plot, but [58] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has since called for reforms and an end to violence. However, [59][60] military intervention has been generally ruled out by foreign powers. On 12 November the Arab League issued an ultimatum to end violence by 16 November or Syria's membership in the organization [49] would be suspended.
[49]

Background
[edit]History Main article: Modern history of Syria

Former President Hafez al-Assad (right), and his brother Rifaat al-Assad (left), who personally supervised the Hama massacre.

Current president Bashar al-Assad, second son of Hafez al-Assad

The ruling Ba'ath Party first came to power in a 1963 military coup d'tat, although the country remained politically unstable until 1970 when Defence MinisterHafez al-Assad seized power and declared himself President, a position he would hold until his death in 2000. Syria was under Emergency Law from [62] 1963 to 2011, which effectively suspended most constitutional protections for its citizens. Syrian governments justified this state of emergency by pointing to the fact that Syria was in a state of war with Israel. Since then, Syrian citizens may only approve the President by referendum and do not [63] hold multi-party elections for the legislature. Despite internal power changes, such as the 1966 coup and the 1970 Syrian Corrective Revolution, the Ba'ath Party has remained the sole authority in [64][65][66] Syria. After the 1970 Revolution, President Hafez al-Assad led Syria for nearly 30 years, banning any opposing political party and any opposition candidate in any election. In 1982, at the climax of a six-year Islamic

[61]

insurgency throughout the country, Hafez al-Assad conducted a scorched earthpolicy against the town of Hama to quell an uprising by the Sunni Muslim community, including the Muslim Brotherhood and [67] others. Tens of thousands of people, including 1080,000 civilians, were killed in the Hama [68][69][70][71] massacre. The issue of Hafez al-Assad's succession prompted the 1999 Latakia incident, when violent protests and armed clashes erupted following 1998 People's Assembly's Elections. The violent events were an [72] explosion of a long-running feud between Hafez al-Assad and his younger brother Rifaat. Two people were killed in fire exchanges between Syrian police and Rifaat's supporters during a police crack-down on Rifaat's port compound in Latakia. According to opposition sources, denied by the government, the [73] protests resulted in hundreds of dead and injured. Hafez al-Assad died one year later, from pulmonary fibrosis. He was succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad, who was appointed after a constitutional [64][65][66] amendment lowered the age requirement for President from 40 to his age of 34. Bashar, who speaks English and some French and has a British-born Syrian wife, was said to have "inspired hopes" for reform, and a "Damascus Spring" of intense political and social debate took place [74] from July 2000 to August 2001. The period was characterized by the emergence of numerous political forums or salons where groups of like minded people met in private houses to debate political and social issues. The phenomenon of salons spread rapidly in Damascus and to a lesser extent in other cities. Political activists, such as, Riad Seif, Haitham al-Maleh, Kamal al-Labwani, Riyad al-Turk and Aref [75] Dalila were important in mobilizing the movement. The most famous of the forums were the Riad Seif Forum and theJamal al-Atassi Forum. The Damascus Spring ended in August 2001 with the arrest and imprisonment of ten leading activists who had called for democratic elections and a campaign of civil [76] disobedience. Renewed opposition activity occurred in October 2005 when activist Michel Kilo launched with leading opposition figures the Damascus Declaration, which criticized the Syrian government as [77] "authoritarian, totalitarian and cliquish" and called for democratic reform. Kurdish-Arab riots have prompted increased tension in Syria's Kurdish areas since 2004. That year the Al-Qamishli riots against the government began in the northeastern city of Al-Qamishli. During a chaotic soccer match, some people raisedKurdish flags, and the match turned into a political conflict. In a brutal reaction by Syrian police and clashes between Kurdish and Arabgroups, at least 30 people were [78] [79] killed, with some claims indicating a casualty count of about 100 people. Smaller clashes with Kurdish protesters and government measures have continued since. The al-Assad family is a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam that numbers an [80][81][82] estimated 612 percent of theSyrian population, and has maintained "a tight grip" on Syria's [82] security services, generating "deep resentment" among the Sunni Muslims that make up about three [83] [84] quarters of Syria's population. Minority Kurds have also protested and complained. Al-Assad [85] declared that his state was immune from the kinds of mass protests that took place in Egypt. Bouthaina Shaaban, a presidential adviser, blamed Sunni clerics and preachers for inciting Sunnis to revolt, such [86] as Qatar-based Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi in a sermon in Doha on 25 March. According to The New York Times, the Syrian government has relied "almost exclusively" on Alawite-dominated units of the security services to fight the uprising. His younger brother Maher al-Assad commands the army's Fourth Armored Division, and his brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, is deputy chief of staff of the army. His family is said to fear that failure to take a hard line on protesters could embolden them, bringing much larger [82] crowds into the streets.
[72]

Bone-marrow is a soft, fatty tissue found inside of bones that produces blood cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets). Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body. White blood cells act to ward off infection. Platelets aid in blood-clotting. Bone-marrow transplants are performed for: deficiencies in red blood cells (aplastic anemia) and white blood cells (leukemia or lymphoma) aggressive cancer treatments (chemotherapy or radiation therapy) inherited (genetic) diseases (such as thalassemia) immune-system disorders (such as congenital neutropenia and severe-combined immunodeficiency syndrome) Indications

Bone-marrow transplants prolong the life of patients who might otherwise die. As with all major organ transplants, however, it is difficult to find bone-marrow donors, and the cost of surgery is very high. The donor is usually a sibling with compatible tissue. The more siblings you have, the better the chance of finding the right match. Occasionally, unrelated donors act as a source for bone-marrow transplants. The hospitalization period is three to six weeks. During this time, you are isolated and under strict monitoring because of the increased risk of infection. Attentive follow-up care is required for two to three months after discharge from the hospital. It takes about six months to a year for the immune system to fully recover from this procedure. Relatively normal activities are resumed after consulting with your doctor.

Bone marrow is the spongy tissue inside some of your bones, such as your hip and thigh bones. It contains immature cells, called stem cells. The stem cells can develop into the red blood cells that carry oxygen through your body, the white blood cells that fight infections, and the platelets that help with blood clotting. If you have a bone marrow disease, there are problems with the stem cells or how they develop. Leukemia is a cancer in which the bone marrow produces abnormal white blood cells. With

aplastic anemia, the bone marrow doesn't make red blood cells. Other diseases, such as lymphoma, can spread into the bone marrow and affect the production of blood cells. Other causes of bone marrow disorders include your genetic makeup and environmental factors. Symptoms of bone marrow diseases vary. Treatments depend on the disorder and how severe it is. They might involve medicines, blood transfusions or a bone marrow transplant.