Alessandra De Poli

Week after week, refuse and refugees pile up in a landfill in Insein, on the outskirts of Yangon. They include the kids attending the school in Nghet Aw San centre who have a chance to leave behind a life in the streets thanks to an NGO, New Humanity. Over the past two years marked by COVID-19 and civil war, the latter has multiplied its initiatives.

In a country where ethnicity has always been of paramount importance, the number of undocumented children is growing due to the collapse of the administrative system. This is especially true in Insein, a district on the outskirts of Yangon. More and more youth are being sent to a juvenile detention centre in Kaw Hmu. Young people engaged in resistance are also fighting for a new idea of Myanmar.

A social entrepreneur who first arrived in the country in 2009, after various experiences in the field of cooperation she now supports a pasta workshop that employs 15 women. While the Taliban impose yet another crackdown on the right to female education, the girls help each other by exploiting the open spaces left by the law.

The country has the highest number of such attacks worldwide. In 60 per cent of cases, victims do not report the attack because the wheels of justice turn at a snail’s pace. The reasons behind the violence are rooted in a patriarchal culture.

For Riccardo Redaelli, director of the Master in Middle Eastern Studies (MIMES) at the Graduate School of Economics and International Relations of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Milan), protests by young Iranians are the result of the country’s gradual economic, social, and political decline. Within the regime, some are aware that concessions need to be made to avoid a bloodbath, while protesters have no alternative model should the regime fall.

The skilled workers who have been laid off have up to 60 days to find a company that will sponsor them to stay in the United States. However, recruitment is blocked. For historical and cultural reasons, India produces thousands of graduates in STEM subjects every year. But the guarantee of employment is no longer certain.

Homeless, with little food and without even knowing whether family members are still alive or not: these are the conditions of the refugees who have been suffering the violence of the Burmese junta for over a year, the missionary recipient of the Cuore amico (Friendly Heart) award speaks with AsiaNews. At most, the Missionary Handmaidens of the Blessed Sacrament have been allowed to bring "spiritual comfort". The children, deprived of school for three years, are living one of the greatest tragedies.

This year India’s wedding season promises to be more lavish than ever after many couples postponed their nuptials due to the pandemic. According to some estimates, weddings are the fourth-largest industry in the country. But dowries are a sore point with more than 8,000 women dying as a result.

Manjeet Sarkar, Manaal Patil, and Ankur Tangade are three “untouchable” stand-up comedians who use comedy to eviscerate the caste system in which they grew up. While crowds laugh, some feel a little guilty at times. In India's big cities, discrimination is more subtle, but even here, when Dalits climb the ladder of success they have fewer footholds than their upper caste colleagues.

Sikhs for Justice plan to hold a second vote on 6 November, raising concerns in India about what it calls "anti-Indian" activities. Sikhs in Canada are only half a million but they exert great influence. The Indian diaspora is not insulated from politics in the old country.

Displaced people have a month to "relocate" and find accommodations. Reception facilities can no longer admit displaced people. The UN notes that over a million people have been displaced. Those who engaged in civil disobedience cannot be hired under penalty of arrest. “Depression, addictions, and trauma are on the rise among the young and very young,” sources tell AsiaNews.

More than 60 children died in The Gambia from toxic syrups made in Haryana. A third of the drugs sold worldwide come from India. The development of its pharmaceutical industry has been possible thanks to "reverse engineering" and process patents. Now the government wants to end its dependence on China and manufacture its own active ingredients.