Siddharth Chatterjee: Perspectives-My work in the United Nations, the Red Cross and the Indian Army

Starting on Monday, April 7, 2014 more than 800 million voters began to cast their ballots at 930,000 polling stations in the first phase of an election process that will last for more than six weeks. This arrives at the end of a particularly ugly campaign cycle where politicians have traded allegations and counter-allegations of corruption. It is clear that unless corruption becomes the most important election issue for the average citizen when going to the polls, things are unlikely to change. Indeed, it is our civil society and 'we, the people' who have to stand up peacefully and resist corruption. Here is the Link. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/siddharth-chatterjee/corruptionan-epidemic-of-_b_5083293.html

March 8, 2014 was International Women's Day. It also marked the 39th year since the United Nations declared the year 1975 as the International Women's Year. This year's theme is, "Equality for women is progress for all." But what does this day mean for India's women? My take. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/siddharth-chatterjee/international-womens-day-_15_b_4853058.html

Despite the fact that there are an estimated 200,000,000 people in the world with an intellectual disability, the profound challenges they face in the Global South is a key development issue that is just now coming to light. Ultimately, having options means having choices. And thankfully, some key actors like the Special Olympics in the development community have chosen to take steps in this big fight. A tribute to Tim Shriver whose mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver, started the Special Olympics and Tim carries the light that illuminates the plight of intellectual disability with aplomb and great zeal. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/siddharth-chatterjee/the-tyranny-of-intellectu_b_4642382.html

Child marriage is both the symptom of a patriarchal society unwilling to let women progress and the cause of other gender-based issues such as economic marginalization and poor health care. It will be impossible to completely eradicate child marriage without changing archaic social values in South Asian society. 11 October 2014 is the  International Day of the Girl Child . Will this New Year be a harbinger of positive change?  Here is a link to my article. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/siddharth-chatterjee/married-young-the-scourge_b_4560523.html

It suddenly feels like Harold Ramis's famous film,  Ground Hog Day . I served with UNICEF in South Sudan from June 2000 to September 2001, bringing humanitarian and life-saving services to a war-torn, drought ridden and impoverished part of Africa which was aptly called  'Operation Life-Line Sudan' . South Sudan was in a secessionist war with the North but there was also a brutal internal war between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), led by John Garang and his Deputy Salva Kiir, (now President of South Sudan), and the Sudan People's Defense Force (SPDF), led by Riak Machar (the former Vice President of South Sudan). The tragedy of that internal war, I witnessed then, appears to have come back to haunt South Sudan, the world's youngest nation. My take on what needs to be done to ensure lasting peace in South Sudan. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/siddharth-chatterjee/south-sudan-unravellingth_b_4507207.html

Nelson Mandela once said, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."   11,420 children were killed in Syria between March 2011 and August 2013. Among them, 389 were killed by snipers, 764, executed and 100, tortured. Who is protecting the rights of these children? Surely, our humanity and compassion has to be awakened at the prospect of the such grave violation of children's rights, not just in Syria but in over 22 countries all over the world! Here is a link to my OP-ED.     http://www.forbes.com/sites/ realspin/2013/12/06/obama-and- putin-must-stop-the-appalling- slaughter-of-syrias-children/

The underlying problem is not in Syria or in the Horn of Africa, the site of another polio outbreak this year, but in Pakistan and the other two endemic countries that have never interrupted transmission of the virus: Afghanistan and Nigeria. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/polio-syria-putting-children-above-politics-2013111745158504393.html