* In every South Asian country, except Bhutan Maldives South Asia , which will be released regionally in January.
* Not all of India Pakistan Sri Lanka Nepal
By Sruthi Gottipati
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Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg NewsLaborers
working at a construction site in Noida,
Uttar Pradesh.
|
What is the biggest problem companies in India
It’s not access to land, skills shortages, the vagaries of government
policy or its red tape-laden bureaucracy.
It is electricity.
In every South Asian country, except Bhutan Maldives South Asia , which will be released regionally in
January.
That was one of several surprising findings of the report, which is
focused on the quantity and quality of jobs in South Asia in the last decade and is based on more
than a year’s research.
Isabel Guerrero, World Bank vice president for South Asia , who worked on the report, sat down
with India Ink recently to explain its findings.
“There has been a lot of growth of jobs in South Asia and the quality of these jobs has been
improving,” Ms. Guerrero said.
“Jobs in every sector, every group of workers, all of them have seen an
increase in wages.”
The good news, the report says, is that total employment in South Asia , excluding Afghanistan Bhutan
In almost all of the countries, the largest portion of workers is
self-employed. But don’t think of a mass of small shopkeepers and businessmen:
nearly a third of workers in India Bangladesh Pakistan
But an interesting finding of the report, as Ms. Guerrero pointed out,
is that the quality of these jobs — measured by growth in real wages or falling
poverty — has improved for all segments in the labor force. In India
Typically, salaried workers have the highest wages and lowest poverty
rates, the self-employed are poorer, and casual labor, especially those in
agriculture, have the lowest wages and highest poverty rates. The proportion of
workers in different employment types has remained largely unchanged over time.
In other words, even if workers are not moving to better jobs the ones
they have offer better wages.
In India
Not all of India Pakistan Sri Lanka Nepal
In the case of Pakistan Nepal India
The report found that labor force participation of women in South Asia is one of the lowest in the world.
And the lowest rates are in the largest countries: only a fifth of
Pakistani women work outside the home, and a third in Bangladesh India
It is not that women are not working. According to the report, household
duties were cited as the most important reason for women not joining the labor
force.
Ms. Guerrero also notes an important trend: When more women work,
violence in the family also increased – but only initially. Eventually men see
that women are bringing valuable income into the home and the violence reduces.
“It doesn’t happen overnight but it is happening in South Asia ,” Ms. Guerrero said.
Solving India
Ms. Guerrero said countries can take advantage of a dip in the
electricity load due to time or climate differences. Central Asia , for instance, has surplus power in the
summer, which it can export.
Ms. Guerrero also gives the example of Nepal India
“Looking at the power question in a regional way is the way to go for
the future,” she said. “It’s a win-win for both sides.”
IN LIBYA
[The lack of control came into sharp focus last week, when former rebel fighters arrested Col.
By Kareem Fahim And Adam Nossiter
 |
Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Volunteers in Surt removed bodies of people apparently killed
in reprisal by Many had their hands bound and had been shot
in the head. anti-Qaddafi militias.
|
The volunteers said the victims included at least two former Qaddafi
government officials, local loyalist fighters and maybe civilians. The killers,
they believed, were former rebel fighters, belonging to anti-Qaddafi units that
had used the hotel as a base in recent weeks. It appeared to be one of the
worst massacres of the eight-month conflict, but days after it occurred, no one
from Libya
The interim leaders, who declared the country liberated on Sunday, may
simply have their hands full with the responsibilities that come with running a
state. But throughout the Libyan conflict, they have also shown themselves to
be unwilling or incapable of looking into accusations of atrocities by their
fighters, despite repeated pledges not to tolerate abuse.
The lack of control came into sharp focus last week, when former rebel
fighters arrested Col.
On Monday, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the chairman of the Transitional
National Council, as the interim governing body is known, announced the
formation of a commission of inquiry into the death of Colonel Qaddafi.
In his announcement, Mr. Abdel-Jalil acknowledged that pressure from
foreign powers and rights groups — including some that supported the rebellion
— had prompted the decision to investigate how Colonel Qaddafi wound up dead
with a bullet to the head. Mr. Abdel-Jalil referred to “demands of the
international community” for an investigation.
But it was unclear from his comments how much authority the committee
would have to pursue an investigation and whether anyone might be held
accountable. He also suggested that anti-Qaddafi fighters may not have been the
ones who killed him, hinting that the fatal bullets might even have come from
Colonel Qaddafi’s own supporters. That suggestion is sharply at odds with the
video evidence that has surfaced of Colonel Qaddafi’s death.
As in several previous instances during the uprising when anti-Qaddafi
fighters were suspected of abuses or of extralegal killings, the leaders of the
rebellion face a delicate balance as they try to bolster their own legitimacy
by courting or coddling powerful militia leaders. The interim leaders have also
failed to establish a chain of command among the armed militias, despite
repeated attempts to form a national army.
Some of the anti-Qaddafi fighters have been accused of arbitrary arrests
and torture, and others have been implicated in killings. In August, Gen. Abdul
Fattah Younes, the rebel’s top military commander, was killed in Benghazi
At the time, Mr. Abdel-Jalil suggested that Colonel Qaddafi’s loyalists
might have been responsible, even as his colleagues conceded that rebel
fighters were the chief suspects in the killings. No one has been prosecuted
for the killing.
On Monday, in offering his new theory for how Colonel Qaddafi may have
died at the hands of his own disciples, Mr. Abdel-Jalil suggested that they may
have feared he would implicate them in atrocities if he had survived and been
put on trial.
“Let us question who has the interest in the fact that Qaddafi will not
be tried,” he said. “Libyans want to try him for what he did to them, with executions,
imprisonment and corruption. Free Libyans wanted to keep Qaddafi in prison and
humiliate him as long as possible. Those who wanted him killed were those who
were loyal to him or had played a role under him. His death was in their
benefit.”
This theory appeared to be an attempt to deflect sharp international
questions about the government’s handling of Colonel Qaddafi’s final moments.
The body, which has been on public display since Thursday in the western city
of Misurata
The colonel’s death has ended the fighting for now, but abuses by former
rebel fighters continue: they were seen looting generators, cars and an
exercise bike in Surt on Monday.
The Mahari Hotel, which overlooks the sea, was filled with suspicious
signs about the killers, but nothing conclusive. The names of anti-Qaddafi
brigades were scrawled on a whiteboard in the lobby, including brigades called
Tiger, Lion, Panther and the Sand. Several of the brigades listed were from
Misurata.
At a graveyard near the hotel, a local doctor looked after the massacre
victims, photographing the bodies and pulling a tooth from each victim,
collecting evidence for the men’s families and for a criminal trial, should one
take place. He ordered an assistant to splash water and spray insect repellent
on the decomposing corpses that were waiting for burial.
Several of the victims wore fatigues. The hands of one man, who looked
to be in his 20s, were bound behind his back. Several victims wore bandages,
leading the volunteers to speculate that they had been patients at the city’s
main hospital who were detained when the former rebels captured it.
Another doctor, watching, shook his head. “What kind of democracy costs
all this blood?” he said.
The doctor, who requested anonymity because he feared retribution by
former rebel fighters, said that if the killings were not investigated, the
inaction would fuel dangerous resentments. “There will be no peace in Libya
