24 Nov,2011

2nd North-South joint conference of IPPNW held at Kathmandu

More than 300 doctors and medical students, who participated in the Second North-South joint conference of IPPNW held at Kathmandu from 4-6 March 2011 reaffirmed their commitment to work for a world free of nuclear weapons, violence of all kinds and check on the proliferation of small arms. The conference was held on the theme “Peace Through Social Justice”. Conference opened with a message from the Prime Minister of Nepal Hon’ble Sh.Jhalla Nath Khanal, who could not personally attend because of the sad demise of former Prime Minister, Sh.Bhattarai. Inaugurating the conference, Dr.Vappu Taipale- Co-President IPPNW complimented the affiliates from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Japan, China and DPR Korea for their effort to jointly carry forward the mission of IPPNW. The conference dwelt on the topics, “Thereat to regional peace”, “Perspective of peace and security in Asia”, “Experiencing Human made nuclear cast atrophy in Hiroshima”, “Agenda for peace in the region” and “Regional collaboration and co-operation for peace in Asia”. Various speakers expressed serious concern at that the majority of population in Asian countries live under abject poverty and is devoid of even basic needs to sustain life, nutrition, shelter, clean drinking water, hygiene & sanitation, education and health. The social inequalities have further increased after the so called globalization which has strengthened the corporate sector and resulted in mass deprivation of the people. This lack of social justice provides potential ground to violence. A 71 members delegation of IDPD from the states of J & K, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh led by Dr.L.S.Chawla – President and Dr.Arun Mitra – General Secretary participated in this meet. The conference further warned that the arms race is the major factor of deprivation of large number of population in the world. The world spends over 20000 crore of rupees per day on arms race on the other side more than 15000 children die of hunger alone in the world. It would cost nearly Rs.7/- lack per day to provide them food to sustain life which is a miniscule amount in comparison to the expenditure on arms. There is urgent need for a worldwide people’s movement to force the governments to abolish nuclear weapons and check the proliferation of small arms. The Asian countries are by and large poor but ironically spend huge amount on arms purchase. It is of utmost importance that confidence building measures are undertaken in these countries through people to people exchange programmes and increase in trade relations so as to remove mistrust amongst each other. The conference demanded Visa Free movement for the citizens of SAARC nations. Dr L.S.Chawla presented keynote address in the session on “Agenda for Peace in the Region”, Dr.Arun Mitra addressed on the subject “Threat to Regional Peace”. Gen. Vinod Saighal presented a keynote address on the “Perspective of Peace and Security in Asia”. Dr S S Soodan chaired the Plenary session on “Regional Collaboration and Cooperation”. Dr.G.M.Malik was a speaker in this session. Dr.N.S.Bawa, Dr.Santokh Singh, Dr.Rajni, Dr.Manju Sharma, Dr.Jeetndra, Mr.Arshdeep Singh and Ms.Upasna intervened in the deliberations. Medical students’ conference was held on 4th March 2011 in the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.