Even limited nuclear war between India and Pakistan can put two billion people at risk globally

UN Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons is an opportunity to abolish nuclear weapons
Ludhiana, November 9, 2017: Nearly 17000 nuclear weapons possessed by the nine counties, USA, Russia, England, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea are enough to annihilate all flora and fauna on earth. As per the studies even a limited nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan can put 2 billion people at risk. More over expenditure on nuclear arms race is so huge that if this is diverted for welfare purpose, it can provide quality health care to whole population globally. World nuclear arms expenditure is around 7 lakh crores rupees per year. According to the World Bank half of it is enough to alleviate poverty from the earth. India is the biggest buyer of arms in the world. Similar is the situation with Pakistan which ranks number 5th in arms purchase. As a result of huge expenditure on arms health indicators of both countries are very low. Our country’s Centre’s Public health expenditure is 0.26% of the GDP while on arms race it is 1.62% of the GDP which is six times more than that on health. There is need to launch a strong public movement for total abolition of nuclear weapons and mutual dialogue to check the arms race. This was said by Dr Arun Mitra, Co-President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear war (IPPNW) today while addressing a seminar on “Nuclear Ban Treaty can prevent catastrophic health crisis”. The seminar was organised in the evening section of the Government College for Boys on 8th November2017 under the chair of Prof. Charanjit Kaur, in charge of the evening section.

Whereas tension in different areas around the globe is is an extremely serious matter, there is a ray of hope that peace movements are uniting in strength. Award of Nobel Peace Prize 2017 to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a recognition of the collective efforts done by the peace movements for nuclear disarmament. It was after hard work by the ICAN that after long drawn negotiations in the UN the treaty was adopted by 122 votes in favour and only one in against on 7th July 2017. It has now become a formal document which prohibits the development, testing, production, possession, stockpiling, use, or threatened use of nuclear weapons. The Treaty completes the process of stigmatizing and delegitimizing nuclear weapons on the basis of their catastrophic health, environmental, and humanitarian impacts. It is time that the nine nuclear weapons possessing states who did not participate in the final negotiations, should see writing on the wall & respect the voice of the world and join this treaty to prevent the catastrophic effects of nuclear weapons from occurring.

Prof. Vivek Sharma welcomed the chief speaker and Prof. Paramjit Singh gave a vote of thanks. Prof. Parvinder Kmar helped in organising the event.