Posts by Neena Bhandari

The Invisible people – asylum seekers

1 Comment read Features, Migration

The writer was a finalist in the 2020 NSW Premier’s Multicultural Communications Public Interest Award for this story

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 12 October 2019 (The Week): Australia is a sought-after destination for Indian students, travellers and skilled migrants from India, but it is a little-known fact that Indians also come here to seek asylum.

According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), population statistics based on data received from the Australian government, 51 asylum seekers from India in Australia were found to be refugees in 2018. Many of them are waiting to be resettled; others have been waiting for their asylum claims to be processed, some for six years or more, in Australia’s offshore immigration facilities in the Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru.

Nisar Ahmad Haji, an Indian national from Kashmir who was processed as a refugee in October 2015, is still waiting to be resettled. A refugee is someone, who has been recognised under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to be a refugee.

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What does the future hold for Australia’s biggest urban park?

0 Comments read Environment & Development

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, Foreground, October 3, 2019: Western Sydney is growing fast and so is the need for open space. Three award-winning projects reveal how new investment in careful park planning and design can enhance the value of green space for communities, now and for decades to come.

Greater Western Sydney has one of the fastest growing populations in Australia. Currently home to 1.9 million people, the region’s population is projected to reach three million by 2036. This population growth and related development poses potential challenges to the preservation of what is the largest urban parkland in Australia, the Western Sydney Parklands (WSP).

Continue Reading on Foreground.

© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.

Chlorine dispensers fitted to public taps cut child diarrhoea

0 Comments read Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 13.08.2019 (SciDev.Net): A low-cost device that infuses small amounts of chlorine into water drawn from public taps can reduce  child diarrhoea by 23 per cent, according to a study conducted in Bangladesh.

Diarrhoeal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years of age and is responsible for killing some 525,000 children every year, according to the WHO, while UNICEF says nearly 60 per cent of deaths due to diarrhoea worldwide are attributable to unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene and sanitation.

Results of the study, published in Lancet Global Health this month (8 August), showed a reduction in the consumption of antibiotics among families that used water from taps fitted with special dispensers containing chlorine tablets that gradually dissolve and treat flowing water.

Continue Reading on SciDev.Net Asia & Pacific Edition.

© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.