Slums refer to makeshift housing or shanties found especially in urban areas, and are characterised by lack of basic facilities, squalor and overcrowding.  There is no regular supply of water, electricity or proper sanitation facilities. Slums are generally built on government land that is lying unclaimed or vacant. They are mostly occupied by migrant workers, unskilled labour, domestic workers and other such persons who cannot afford proper housing in the cities. Almost 49% of the total population in Mumbai lives in slums. Hence, its widespread prevalence is unquestionable.l

Conditions in slums

The conditions in slums are deplorable. The settlements are built in small, congested areas, near airports, railway lines and industries, rivers and other water bodies, and markets. The settlements are built with whatever material people there can find be if corrugated sheets or gunny bags or polythene bags. This is not only unhygienic but also creates complications during monsoon when there is flooding during heavy rains.

There is no regular supply of water through pipes. This makes obtaining clean drinking water very difficult. Used and dirty water is not properly disposed off through covered pipes, but is just roughly directed away from the settlements. Since there is no proper sewage or waste disposal system, garbage is accumulated near the slums or thrown into the water bodies in case the slums are near a water body. There are no proper sanitation facilities, and people tend to defecate in public. There is no regulated supply of electricity in slums, making living conditions very poor. In conclusion, the standard of living is extremely poor.

It should be realised by the society and the government that these slum dwellers are also human beings like us. The affluent section of the society must try to alleviate their sufferings. Health, education, proper, housing, electricity, water, sanitation, and jobs are some of the problems of the slum dwellers.poverty is their enemy one. Poverty leads them to indulge in many crimes. They should be provided basic amenities. Free accomodation, subsided rations, health care and education are a must to bring them back to social folds. Some persons do not like to leave slums. They dispose of the free land alloted to them by the state and prefer to move to other shanties. This tendency is to be checked. Precautions can help them change their attitude.

The elementary school classroom in a slum – By Stephen Spender Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces. Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor: The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper seeming Boy, with rat’s eyes. The stunted, unlucky heir Of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease, His lesson, from his desk. At back of the dim class One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream, Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.

What is CLAT…..?

CLAT is a national level exam controlled by central government. Through this exam one can get admitted into any Natinal Law University out of twenty two.

Various colleges and other institutes also fill their seats on behalf of the CLAT score. These Universities and colleges offer UG and PG courses for Law. Usually the exam was being conducted in online computer based till 2018 but due to technical glitches body decided to take exam in offline mode from 2019 and onwards.Exam is conducted by a permanent body established by NLUs. Exam is held once a year.

Eligibility..

for UG:

candidate should have passed/ appeared 10+2 with 45% (40% in case of SC/ST).

there is no age criteria for the candidate and no specified no of exam attempts.

For PG:

candidate should have hold LL.B or equivalent degree with at least 55% marks(50% for SC/ST).

Exam pattern:

time given: 120 minutes

question:150 each of one mark

negative marking of 1/4

total five sections

english-30 Gk-37 mathematics-15 logical reasoning- 30 logical aptitude-38

candidates selection is based on this exam pattern .candidate has to fill preferences for colleges and by that list merit list is prepared.

all the best…

thanks.

How the people are trying to suicide it’s make a way for them to rush out from the problem. But other question arises is it really commiting Suicide can be a solution for this. Probably not, but how the people are nowadays commiting Suicide it is really a tensed situation. As the social media platforms are there, but it seems like it is just making double pressure on a person.

As recently News, the actor who has around 9 million followers on Instagram. He committed suicide without writing a single word anywhere , it is really heart breaking.So, we really need to get the root of this problem. The youngsters are the majors who commits suicide.

The parents have to now make the different way of parenting through which they interact more thoroughly with their child. Also they should check his social platform activities and also support him morally. Moreover if the child gets into depression, they should go to physicatrist without any hesitation.This is the need of this era.

This is the time we have to take some really positive action and also cherish ourselves too. We should also endulge ourself in the process of hobbies which we like specifically. It really makes the mood and low down the mind pressure.

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The pandemic lockdown has a contradictory impact insofar as some species are concerned. On a positive note, we see some changes in the environment for the better because of the coronavirus lockdown. COVID-19 has killed thousands of people in the world but it has saved the Mother Earth from another angle. There has been perceptible change in our surrounding, be it land, air or water. The pollution levels had gone down and animals were freely roaming around, even in city roads. The change was evident for three months. The air was fresh enough to breathe, river water was cleaner and with vehicles much less the sound pollution came down considerably. Some experts were elated to find reappearance of rare species.

A report in The Hindu mentions that one of the spectacular things that happened in the nature is the spotting of a rare dragonfly for the first time in nine decades. The name of the insect is awkwardly longish: ‘Megalogomphus superbus Fraser’. It is grass-green, yellow and reddish-brown in colour with bottle-green eyes. The naturalists, Ravindran Kamatchi and S Gopala Krishnan, caught this dragonfly on camera for the first time. It is found in the birding outing at a farm near Kallar Garden in Mettupalayam, Coimbatore. The naturalists were out in the farm taking pictures of the resident birds of the Western Ghats known as Solaipaadi, woodpecker and flycatcher. Suddenly they saw the unseen dragonfly which is much bigger in size from the other dragonflies. They did not think about anything else and they clicked many pictures. They posted the picture on WhatsApp group and later realized that it is one of a rare kind. It is a rare discovery by them. BBC in an extensive report observes that animals in urban areas are exploring emptied streets and waterways, and delighting human inhabitants along the way. Human restrictions gave them the confidence to go deeper into our cities and stay for longer.

In an interesting coincidence the National Endangered Species Day this year was observed on 15 May— during the lockdown. The day is observed to pointedly publicise awareness about endangered species and the need to protect them. When the whole world, no less India, is witnessing a decline and even extinction of species the day assumes much significance. One would remember the video and picture of a small Indian civet which was spotted in Meppayur, Kozhikode district, Kerala. It became viral and attracted lot of positive and appreciative comments.

But the problem is that the important surveys by the Zoological Survey of India were hampered because of the lockdown. These surveys are vital in identifying new species and fauna. The main months of surveys in the Western Ghats are from March to May, which were during the peak lockdown season. The surveys require lot time and patience. The lockdown has in general affected the taxonomists and biologists in severe ways for the strict restrictions within the country. But when we were seeing the fascinating pictures of animals confidently roaming around without the fear of human beings we could perhaps hear them saying ‘what a wonderful world!’

For the last few days, severe tensions have been generated in the India- China border, that led to the martyrdom of our Indian soldiers. Yesterday, the grievous attack by the China PLA (People’s Liberation Army) leading to the death of 20 Indian Army in Galwan Valley of Ladakh, left us shattered because this was perhaps one of the deadliest event in the history of India- China border issues.

According to the media reports, several Chinese troops have made their way forcibly into the Galwan valley in Ladakh, the disputed region in the Kashmir Valley.

The reports say that in the month of May, Chinese forces began putting up tents, dugging trenches and moving heavy equipments through some underground passages, that had been regarded as an area of Indian territory by India. This was a aftermath result when India built a several kilometres long road, connecting to a high-altitude forward air base. Apart from this, the Galwan River has become a hotspot as here,the LAC (Line of Actual Control) is closest to the new road built by India along the Shyok River to Daulet Beg Oldi (DBO),the most remote and vulnerable area along the LAC in Ladakh.

Considering a heinous act done by China PLA (where they killed our 20 soldiers), the citizens of India, as a reaction to it, took an initiative in boycotting Chinese products. The Indians have now started coming out of their homes and burning the Chinese products on the roads. In fact, a buzz have been created by people on the social media platforms,where they are using a very trending hashtag called #HindiCheeniByeBye in order to boycott the things made in China. This was done after the Zee News came up with the idea of #HindiCheeniByeBye initiative.

In addition to this, Taiwan has also come forth in support of India. In its national daily – The Taiwan Times, Taiwan media has shown Shri Ram with His dhanush (bow) aiming towards the dragon (a symbolism for China).

Historically speaking, this act is a resemblance of the event when people of British India boycotted the Britain products. In this main scenario, Mahatma Gandhi emerged as a leading protagonist and encouraged Indians to boycott British goods as well as to buy Indian goods instead.This helped to regain the local economies in India along with reducing the British economy. This was the Swadeshi Movement indeed.

In the current scenario, we can see that Swadeshi Movement 2.0 has begin again, boycotting all the products that are made in China. Shunning China from the mainstream economy will boost up our own economy, that will pave the way for economic development of India. This will be an act of paying gratitude and respect towards the Indian Army too, who have been killed by the Chinese militants. So, as an ending note, it’s purely accurate to say that #HindiCheeniByeBye has emerged as a new mode of revolution in the 21st century India, hence.

Cyber bullying has emerged to be one of the most significant problems teenagers seem to face online on a daily basis in some way or the other. It affects people mentally and may lead to long term psychological problems in the future. There are many forms in which bullying can take place. However, cyber bullying was not a prevalent issue until the end of 2000 around which internet services were widely spread across the globe and needless to mention it brought about a plethora of positive as well as negative repercussions in the society.

Cyber bullying basically covers bullying that occurs using digital advancements which include but are not limited to mobile phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Social media plays a significant role in helping cyber bullying to be a growing issue amidst the other societal ones in this generation. Although anyone can become a victim of cyber bullying, teenagers seem to be the most affected ones among all age groups.
Cyber bullying covers a wide range when it comes to the form in which it takes place starting from hateful comments, abusive text messages, negative and false information, character assasination to doxing i.e puclicly posting private conversations/ information without a proper permission from their side. Creating fake profiles with a picture and information of someone else without their permission is also a form of doxing which at times can be really dangerous to deal with.

Triggering certain religious beliefs and values can also be considered as a form of cyber bullying which is mainly seen in countries like India and Bangladesh which have a drastic range of diversity and differences of religious believers residing within them. This issue can get really ugly sometimes and it may also lead to real life violent instances if not taken care of from the very beginning.

The graph of cyber bullying in India seems to have taken a sudden spike in the scenario due to its wide availability and access to various internet services that have been made available for almost everyone across the country. Statistics show 7 out of every 10 people face harassments online in the form of online insults and abuses and misusing of personal pictures.

Although anyone can become a victim of cyber bullying regardless of their gender and age, teenage girls happen to be the ones who are more likely to be harassed on a daily basis.
There have been many instances where these kinds of harassments have led to heinous crimes like murder, rape and suicide. According to a recent report(TOI), a 17 year old committed suicide after her friend morphed her picture and uploaded it on social media. In 2018 a boy from UK killed himself after being subjected to cyber bullying. In the same year a 25 year old woman killed herself after being subjected to constant bullying over WhatsApp by her acquaintances due to her friendship with a muslim man. Gurmehar Kaur, an Indian woman had been subjected to online harrassment in the form of abusive comments, text messages as well as murder and rape threats. Her fault was she dared to express her opinions on concepts like War, politics and Peace.There are hundreds of other similar incidents that are allegedly growing day by day.

Considering the current scenario, it seems like more safety tools and apps need to be recommended to everyone in order to create a safe online environment for everyone. Privatization should be enhanced in every way possible so that it helps in making a difference which is highly needed in our society.

– Suvasree Bandyopadhyay

Sighs get their start in one group of neurons, but instructions from various areas of the brain depend on the reason, research with mice finds.

Humans and other mammals sigh automatically once every few moments to maintain proper lung function. This so-called basal sighing is part of the normal breathing process and happens automatically, without us having to think about it. But beyond serving an essential physiological purpose, sighs also occur as behavioral responses to emotions ranging from stress and annoyance to relief.

We want to understand how all of these diverse inputs, both emotional and physiological, lead to the same behavioral output,” says Peng Li, a physiologist and assistant professor at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute.

Understanding the brain’s control of emotions is a central goal of neurobiology and psychiatry, but it is difficult due to the challenges in teasing out emotional brain states and their complex outputs.

Because sighs offer a simple, measurable output from the brain, Li and his colleagues use them to learn more about how neural circuits communicate to regulate behavioral responses. They investigate how distinct neural circuits enable the brain to control sighing and breathing in different contexts, by studying the circuits in mice—which also exhibit both basal and emotional sighing and have brains that are architecturally similar to those of humans.

Previously, Li and colleagues identified the neurons and pathways that regulate basal sighing. In this newest study, the researchers traced up from these so-called NMB-neurons (short for neurons expressing Neuromedin B) to see what signals they were receiving when mice were under stress and found a dozen forebrain regions that send direct inputs to the sigh-control center.

When the mice were confined to a small space, inducing a claustrophobic-like state, their sighing rate increased by two to three times. Using genetic tools, the researchers identified another type of neurons in one of the forebrain regions, called hypocretin-expressing (HCRT) neurons, that were firing under stress and sending signals to the NMB-neurons. The researchers then artificially activated the HCRT-neurons, without confining the mice, and saw the same change in sighing rate.

When the researchers silenced the NMB-neurons, both basal sighing and stress-induced sighing drastically decreased in the mice. When they silenced only the HCRT-neurons, however, only the stress-induced sighing decreased while basal sighing was unaffected.

The researchers found that HCRT-neurons also were responsible for an increased breathing rate when the mice were under confinement stress. Since NMB-neurons only control sighing, and not regular breathing, this finding indicates that the HCRT-neurons are sending signals to other parts of the brain simultaneously to activate different stress-induced behaviors.

“So we’ve found the circuit that regulates all types of sighing, but activates sighs for different reasons using input signals from different parts of the brain. And we found another group of neurons that induces sighing in response to this claustrophobic stress, but also regulates other claustrophobia-related outputs,” says Li, who is also an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and Medical School.

These findings give us clues about how the brain is wired to control various behavioral and physiological responses to emotions.”

The findings will appear in Cell Reports.

Support for the research came from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the University of Michigan, the Walter V. and Idun Berry Foundation, and the Francis Family Foundation. Coauthors are from Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The work performed for this study was approved by the U-M Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee and the Stanford University Administrative Panel on Laboratory Animal Care.

Emotions are distinct patterns of behavioral and physiological responses triggered by stimuli that induce different brain states. Elucidating the circuits is difficult because of challenges in interrogating emotional brain states and their complex outputs. Here, we leverage the recent discovery in mice of a neural circuit for sighing, a simple, quantifiable output of various emotions. We show that mouse confinement triggers sighing, and this “claustrophobic” sighing, but not accompanying tachypnea, requires the same medullary neuromedin B (Nmb)-expressing neurons as physiological sighing. Retrograde tracing from the Nmb neurons identified 12 forebrain centers providing presynaptic input, including hypocretin (Hcrt)-expressing lateral hypothalamic neurons. Confinement activates Hcrt neurons, and optogenetic activation induces sighing and tachypnea whereas pharmacologic inhibition suppresses both responses. The effect on sighing is mediated by HCRT directly on Nmbneurons. We propose that this HCRT-NMB neuropeptide relay circuit mediates claustrophobic sighing and that activated Hcrt neurons are a claustrophobia brain state that directly controls claustrophobic outputs.