Japanese Parliament approves adulthood age at 18
Tokyo, June 13 : The Japanese Parliament on Wednesday approved a bill to lower the age of adulthood from 20 to 18 years, a measure aimed at encouraging the participation of young people in the society in the face of a rapidly ageing population.
The measure, set to come into effect in April 2022, would allow young people over the age of 18 to marry without parental consent, although the legal age for drinking alcohol, smoking or gambling would continue to be 20, Efe news reported.
Men above 18 and women over the age of 16 were already allowed to get married in Japan with parental consent, but the new measure eliminates this clause and also raises the legal marriageable age for women to 18.
The new law is in line with the one already approved by the Parliament, or Diet, in June 2015, which reduced the minimum voting age from 20 to 18, the largest electoral reform in the country since 1945, putting it at par with most other democratic countries.
Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa, following her vote in the Diet's Upper House, highlighted the significance of the new law that will empower those above 18 years of age to make their own life choices.
There will also be reviews of 22 other laws related to nationality and the issuance of passports.
The Diet last week also approved an amendment in the consumer contract law to protect vulnerable young consumers from economic fraud, so that transactions in which the seller exerts some kind of pressure on the consumer -- even if they are above 18 -- could be cancelled.
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
