Here are some interesting articles that I found online this week.

Global

In a fascinating article, the Times of India reports that young girls who are being pushed towards marriage before legal age are refusing, and citing the desire to further their education as a reason. Studies done in India on the subject of child and teenage marriages carry shocking results. One found that “45 per cent of women– currently between 20-24 years– were married before the age of 18.” Another stated that “16 per cent of women, aged 15-19, were already mothers or pregnant at the time of the survey. It was also found that more than half of Indian women were married before the legal minimum age of 18, compared to 16 per cent of men aged 20-49 who were married by the age of 18.” Reasons for early marriage of girls include poverty – the desire to remove a person from the family’s responsibility – and the higher desirability, and thus lower dowry, for young girls.

The issue of illegally early marriage and childbirth is much more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas. It results in a lower educational level for women, a greater risk of complications in childbirth, and a higher rate of infant mortality. Due to the sexual activities of the older man in the marriage, these women are also put at a greater risk for STDs. The article states that “An analysis of the HIV epidemic shows that the prevalence of HIV infection is highest in girls between 15-24 and peaks in men between five to ten years later.”

The New York Times had a story of success against this system: a woman born into an “untouchable” caste in India, married young, yet who today had her own business and is self-sufficient.

National

The Star Telegram reports on local student support for the D.R.E.A.M Act, which would “provide a path to citizenship for college students who came to this country as children, have been in the U.S at least five years, and have not been in trouble.” The Act would allow these students, among other things, access to Federal student loans and the ability to be legally eligible for work once they graduate.

Due to budget shortfalls, many states are cutting back on programs that offer home-care services for people unable to take care of themselves, who otherwise would likely end up out of their house and in a nursing home. Proponents of home-health argue that this move will not actually save states money, as the patients will be more likely to end up in hospitals or nursing homes, at the state’s expense. Some states, including Texas, have frozen the level of home-health services, even as demand rises.

By the end of the next few weeks, the vast majority of states will have adopted a set of national education standards. Texas has stated it is not interested in participating in this drive to even the standards for students across the country, while lowering the cost for states in developing their own set of normative levels.

Finally on the National level, the Senate passed a bill which would increase unemployment pay to Americans who had been out of work and looking for more than six months.This move comes at a good time, as unemployment insurance claims jumped this month.

Local

The City of Fort Worth is taking a break on a decision regarding a federal grant that could be used to build Fort Worth a public streetcar system. Many residents feel that a streetcar system would provide low-cost, attractive public transportation  – a major plus for the city. The city is unsure of whether it can provide matching funds to accept the grant and pay for the streetcar system, which is estimated to cost 80 to 130 million dollars. There are also concerns regarding funding for other transportation projects in the city.

Also, several people spoke about how the Directions Home program, the City of Fort Worth’s year-old homelessness prevention program, had positively impacted their path to self-sufficiency. Fort Worth, facing a budget shortfall, is unsure of whether the program’s funding will be maintained at its current level. So far, the program has aided 322 people in finding places to live, not only giving them a “key to a door” but a major step towards self-sufficiency.

And, since I’m writing this, we couldn’t go without some

Health-related news:

The ongoing battle to eradicate polio has been plagued by setbacks, including a large outbreak in Tajikistan and new people being infected with a mutated version of a live virus given to immunize someone else. The live-virus vaccine is safe for the person administered to but, if the contained virus later mutates, could affect a small number of other persons, infecting them with the disease. Fear of the live-virus vaccine, which is cheaper than other polio vaccination forms, could cause serious setbacks in the race to eliminate this terrible disease, which causes paralysis in some cases. In the U.S, the age of the iron lung was ended quickly with Jonas Salk’s 1955 discovery of an effective vaccine.