by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 11, 2006 | reservations, sealing
JFK said: “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future”. Wonder what he would have felt about their situation in India..
last week three blasts rocked Malegaon, most of the victims were children, many beggars who had come on this holy Friday to the mosque and the cemetery, traveling long distances to earn a few extra rupees.
This morning the picture of two young rag pickers was carried in a national daily. The sealing of shops in an effort to beautify Delhi had in one blow taken their livelihood as they did not know where to sell their daily collection.
In a few days the child labour law will come in force and many kids will be homeless and in search of food.
The little kids in the picture are filled with hope and dreams as they sit quietly in the middle of a garbage dump, oblivious of the odours or even the flies, or the heat. They want to learn, knowing intuitively that it may change their lives.
Fuelled by images they see on the box, they dream of being a Sachin, or a Salman. Some want to be doctors, others teachers… many even belong to the innumerable social divisions that benefit from umpteen reservations. But there is a catch: none have the required certificate to prove it and getting on is a nightmare. No one has told them about the value of that piece of paper, on the other hand many have denigrated its value by telling them it shameful forgetting of course to enlightened them about the many benefit they entail.
And for those who have a certificate, the door are closed as they will never get beyond the infamous 33 %. I was even told by a secondary school teacher that they taught only 40% of the course as that was sufficient to pass.
On the other hand the numerous population count that have been done include the caste. Now does it not become imperative for the government to issue the required caste certificate one wonders?
Maybe someone should take notice of this and act so that if one of the children in the picture breaks all barriers and gets to the gates of higher learning, he is able to benefit from what is his right.
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by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 10, 2006 | utpal
When Kim called a few week back to say he wanted to feature project why in his The Strait Times, I was surprised wondering what I had done to receive such an honour. I must confess that in the days preceding his arrival, I spent many hours wondering whether we would meet his expectations.
Kim landed with his photographer Fen and his warm smile was enough to set my mind to rest. It was a warm Sunday morning where we had to drive miles to meet little Utpal, and then go to a baby christening in the slum. As the day went by I knew that I had met another person who saw with his heart and that he would able to see project why as it should be seen.
Never mind the garbage dump in lieu of class rooms or the rather makeshift structure that we work in, Kim and Fen caught the love and passion that infuse our work, the smile of the special children as they dance and sing with abandon, the mischief of the boys who know that project why is the only place where they can claim their childhood and the hospitality of the humble rickshaw driver as he proudly serves them tea in his home.
We talked, or rather I talked and he listened, sometimes taking notes as I poured out my dreams, my hopes, shared my achievements and my failures not withholding anything as I knew that there was no need of pretending or shying about anything.
As I write these words, I have not seen what Kim wrote but the number of mails that have dropped in my mailbox and moved me to tears, are proof enough of the fact that the magic of Kim’s words has been the best ambassador of my dreams.
Click here to discover some of the heartwarming messages from Singapore
Read Kim’s story Suffer not little children here
by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 8, 2006 | Uncategorized
Have not written about mr. p for a long time. well it is said that no news is good news. he is doing great in school and his mom is doing great at the rehab centre.
His surrogate dad has been lurking around, trying to find the right excuse to scrounge a few pennies for his next drink. Needless to say that at this moment in time my detractors are having a field day filling his fuzzy inebriated head with vile ways on how to extort some money. I know that there is nothing he can do apart having nuisance value that can be easily dealt with.
But something stops me each time I think of dealing with this problem.
Moliere the French playwright wrote: It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. These words keep flashing in my mind and it took me a while to understand why.
N is a drunk, but he is also the only father figure mr p has known. I cannot forget the special bond the two had and the genuine love mr p felt for this man. I cannot set aside the fact that in spite of everything he is the one who gave the stability of a home, no matter how erratic, to this child for the first 4 years of his life.
One day when mr p grows up and when I am not around, he may ask himself or others why I did not help his father. That day I do not want to have to fall in his eyes so it becomes incumbent for me to try my very best and do something for N. I may not succeed, but a least I would have acted and done my best and would be able to look into mr p’s eyes and say “I tried”!
This evening the now famous trio of maamji, radhey and amit bhaya will take N to a AA meeting, the same road that I took with mrp’s mom four months ago.
This is the only honorable things to do.
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by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 7, 2006 | Uncategorized
One of my favourite authors has been oriana fallaci. In her often acerbic and cutting words I have many a times found inspiration.
In her letter to a child never born, which is a commentary on life itself she says: ” to fight is much better than to win, to travel much better than to arrive: once you have won or arrived all you feel is a great emptiness… and to overcome your emptiness you have to set out on your travels again, create new goals..”
With a few alterations this could be a very apt description of what we are facing at pwhy today. True that we did not quite arrive or win, but we have reached moment in time when things have to be redefined and new goals set.
I always held that pwhy had to remain dynamic and adapt to situations. When I set this out, I was thinking of the programmes and the need to adapt them to field requirements, but today I see that they apply also to the management and running of the project.
In my quixotic belief that good was inherent in each one and just needed to be sought, I never thought that problems would arise from within the team. I guess I never imagined that there I would be faced with detractors and continued in my naive conviction that no one would want to do away with someone imparting education. But oh darling this is India, a land where the powerful can only retain their power riding on the shoulders of illiterate masses, and anyone daring to disturb this equation is enemy number one!
So we have reached an impasse, a state of perfect and unproductive immobility and we need to chart out the future. This was conveyed to team projectwhy and each section was told that they had to raise 50% of what was needed, and I would meet the other half.
I love my team, like you would a child, and I feel amused at how much they shy of asking, even if it is a rupee. Come on, old biddy, you are the one who changed their status, made them teachers, and now these mams and sirs take life seriously and begging – whatever the form is infra dig. What they need to comprehend is that seeking funds to empower and teach is the first step to acquiring freedom.
If they seek money for the work they do they actually create new jobs, new markets and opportunities for the area they work in over and above ensure that kids do not drop out. Now that is far more than they politician/bureaucrat duo do.
The challenge I face today is to make them understand that, to shake them out of their torpor and give them a set of new eyes to see the world in a different way, when they are the centre and the kingpin.
Not easy, but eminently doable as I myself was one of those who never asked for money, even the one that was owed to me. Today I have perfected the art of high tech begging.
So I set out on my travels again…
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by Anuradha Bakshi | Sep 5, 2006 | Uncategorized
Kiran and Komal are sisters. One is 6 and the other 16 days! Kiran was born on the day pwhy took off on its maiden flight. It was a time of dreams and visions, of hope and determination. It was also a time when we believed that good will prevail, that people will understand and take their lives in their own hands..
We kept on dreaming though at times the dreams seemed sated, but we held on to them trying one option after the other, battling enemies we could not have conjured, even in our wildest fantasy. There were some dreams that came true: children stopped dropping out of school, we repaired a few broken hearts, and above all we found well wishers all over the world. But somehow the bad outdid the good and we realised that our main dream – that of sustaining the project from within the community – turned into a nightmare. Surreptiously we found ourselves dragged into the usual you give, I take; you provide, I receive, moving into a state of immobility.
Just as Kiran had heralded hope, Komal seemed to have a different role. Her little dark face and protruding tongue reminded one of Kali, the goddess who destroys evil and protects those who seek her. Was there a message that one had to take stock, redefine our dreams and start once again..
Who knows?
Welcome to planetwhy Komal.
