Mobile phone in India
Mobile Phone Boom: Reality Check
The front page of Tribune happily informs of the spread of mobile phones in India courtesy latest statistics released by Telecom Regulatory authority of India (TRAI). “The total number of telephone scribers have now touched 806.13 million”. It’s an all positive report but what about the other side? First, are all these subscribers genuine? Take a clue from front page news carried by Time of India which informs 117 separate mobile connections were taken in the name of one woman in Mumbai. While the poor woman had no clue of all this. The misuse of identity documents is a matter of serious concern! A friend of SARCAJC points that recently, mobile operators had called for identity documents from existing users, which were provided. But how to ensure that these identity documents will not be misused? Second, there is lack of awareness about SAR rating on handsets of mobile phones. Team SARCAJC went to check SAR ratings on various leading brands of mobile instruments, but the sales people were totally ignorant about SAR rating. The “attractive “packing box of mobile phones did not carry any SAR rating, so first buy it and then check in accompanying brochure! But majority of customers who were buying mobile phones didn’t know anything about SAR rating. Third, the ugly large mobile towers have come up in Big & small cities-without any consideration to their impact on public health- near schools, near hospitals, in residential colonies, on roof of hotels near residential complex. There seems to be no escape. A friend of SARCAJC points that action is sometimes taken only when neighbours complains along with RWA. Another friend of SARCAJC points that this creates a conflict and therefore many neighbours try to ignore. Given the harmful effect of radiation from these towers, is ignoring the way out? The radiation emitting from these mobile towers are silent killers, why can’t concerned authorities be proactive and take them off? Keep guessing, while loads of advertisements everyday appears in newspapers for installation of mobile tower in classified section of several leading newspapers (appeared today too). Is someone listening? (6 march 2011)