Major Indian Tea Company Takes Over Tea Estates in Malawi

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">KOLKATA, India (NNN-Bernama) -- One of India's leading petrochem and major tea companies has bought two tea estates for 1.21 billion rupees (US$22 million) in the south eastern African country of Malawi. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is for the first time that the Kolkata-based tea compnay, Dhunseri Petrochem & Tea Ltd (DPTL), has made an entry in the overseas tea plantation business, Xinhua news agency reported. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With this takeover, DPTL has joined the elite club of Indian tea companies like Tata Global, McLeod Russel India and Jay Shree Tea & Industries which have made their foray in foreign tea plantation business. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">DPTL chairman C.K. Dhanuka said: "We have been scouting for tea estates in Vietnam and Africa. After several rounds of negotiations with Global Tea & Commodities, we have been able to clinch the deal." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The tea estates of Makandi and Kawalazi in Malawi produce nearly 9 million kg of tea annually with yield around 4,000 per hectare. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"There are two factories in the estates for processing tea. The teas are exported to countries like Russia. Our Singapore subsidiary Dhunseri Petrochem & Tea Pte will own these tea estates in Malawi," said Dhanuka.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dhunseri has been in the tea industry for half a century in India. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With 10 tea estates and three leaf factories, the company produces 12 million kg of tea annually and sells packet teas in India's northern state of Rajasthan, where the company is a leading player. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"We want to expand our plantation business both in India and abroad," Dhanuka said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Indian tea companies prefer to acquire tea estates in Africa and Vietnam as the cost of production is much lower thanks to cheap labour. -- NNN-BERNAMA <o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Major Indian Tea Company Takes Over Tea Estates in Malawi

KOLKATA, India (NNN-Bernama) -- One of India's leading petrochem and major tea companies has bought two tea estates for 1.21 billion ...

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New Study Encourages Abortion Reform in Malawi

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Medical experts say unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal deaths in Malawi<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">By Lameck Masina from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Blantyre</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Malawi</st1:country-region></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The United States-based reproductive rights organization Ipas in collaboration with the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Malawi</st1:country-region>’s Ministry of Health recently conducted the study entitled Abortion in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malawi</st1:place></st1:country-region>: Results of a Study of Incidents and Magnitude of Complications Due to Unsafe Abortions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Godfrey Kangaude was one of the researchers of Ipas. He said the study wanted to find out how many women are inducing abortions which can in turn lead to deadly complications.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Part of the findings is that in 2009 alone 70,000 women had induced abortion,' he said, "and we also estimated that the abortion rate is about 24 abortions per 1000 women of child bearing age. So you can see that this is a high number of induced abortions.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">However, abortion is illegal in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malawi</st1:place></st1:country-region> except under circumstances where it threatens the life of a mother.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Section 149 of the country's penal code penalizes anyone who performs an abortion to 14 years imprisonment, while any woman who solicits one can be put in jail for up to seven years.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">However Kangaude said despite the penalties, many women still seek to have the procedure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“[My] first concern is that the law despite being restrictive does not prevent women from accessing abortions," he explained. "What just happens is that these induced abortions tend to be clandestine and unsafe (which results in deaths of many women).”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Statistics from the country’s public hospitals show that 17 percent of maternal deaths are because of complications due to unsafe abortions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Kangaude said this means that the law does not support the reproductive health rights of the women but instead infringes the rights of these women.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Because instead of accessing safe abortion services," he said, "they (women) go for other services since the public health systems do not provide these safe abortions to women who need them”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He said the danger is that most of these women develop fatal complications like hemorrhage, ruptured uterus and infertility.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The study has therefore asked government to consider liberalizing abortion laws so that all women should have access to abortion using safe methods from trained medical practitioners.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“For example," he said, "if the woman feels that she has ill health and needs an abortion and if the pregnancy is as a result of sexual coercion or if  indeed the woman really feels that she cannot carry on with the pregnancy due to economic reasons”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">National Coordinator of the Islamic Information Bureau Sheikh Dinala Chabulika said it would be inhumane for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malawi</st1:place></st1:country-region> to legalize the procedure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“In Islam, he explained, "abortion is only allowed when there is proof from a medical doctor that the life of a mother will be in danger during delivery."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Some people commenting on social networks like Twitter and Facebook say Western religious views were imposed on Africans during colonialism and do not understand why people still cling to them today.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">They say it’s time for African countries with restrictive abortion laws to revisit them just as many former Western colonizers have.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">African countries which have liberalized them include <st1:country-region w:st="on">Zambia</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Human rights campaigners say one of the pacts <st1:country-region w:st="on">Malawi</st1:country-region> has signed, the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maputo</st1:place></st1:city> protocol, supports greater reproductive rights for women.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Grace Malera is the Executive Secretary of the Malawi Human Rights Commission.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maputo</st1:place></st1:city> protocol has got an article that is subscribing to liberalization [not only]," he said,” when the pregnancy is threatening the life of the mother but [also when there are pregnancies] resulting from rape and incest.  In terms of the human rights, that’s a right to health issue and we need to address it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">But Ministry of Heath spokesman Henry Chimbali says government authorities are currently looking at the findings of the study before they take next course of action. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

New Study Encourages Abortion Reform in Malawi

Medical experts say unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal deaths in Malawi By Lameck Masina from Blantyre , Malawi The United ...

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