by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 17, 2007 | two indias
Tow separate incidents occurred last week and somehow stayed in my mind. To many they would have gone unnoticed and yet they say so much about the India we chose to ignore.
It was election day. We have a new live-in maid at home. A middle aged lady who hails from Eastern UP. She went about her chores but I could feel she had something to say but did not quite know how as she had yet to discover our ways. Her restlessness was palpable so I ultimately asked her what the matter ways. In a hesitant voice she asked whether she could have some time off. The reason was that she wanted to exercise her franchise and vote. She finished her work and changed into a smart outfit slung a handbag on her arm and went off to accomplish her civic duty. Nothing and no one could take that away from her.
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Last Sunday was terribly hot. It was around noon and having a few errands to run I had to brave the heat. The usually empty road was filled with people and vehicles as some entrance examination was being held in the nearby government school. As I passed the school I saw a young man laying it out books on the pavement – actually the dust road -. The books were all sots of guides and help manuals that he was taking out from his canvas bag. In a short time aspirants started crowding around and a few sales were clinched. What an enterprising young man. I passed by that spot twice in the next few hours. The first time business was brisk. The next the man had disappeared as I guess a policeman must have come by and applied the sometimes seemingly absurd law. I felt a pang of sadness as I had wanted to talk to the young man. I hope he did make some profit.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 16, 2007 | girl child
Remember Babli? Yes the one whose heart was fixed with success but life was not. The little girl who wanted to be a police? Seems she needs us again as she of all the 12 children who have had heart surgeries is the one who has not grown an inch or put on a pound.
Babli is as neglected as she was before and though she does now go to school, she often misses pwhy on a pretext or another. The spirited little girl of yesterday is slowly turning into a listless child. We have tried for months now to counsel her parents but to no avail. Her father seems too busy playing cards and her mother too busy clocking overtime at the factory she works in.
What cannot forget the bright eyes filled with huge dreams that use to meet ours when she was in hospital, almost as if she knew that the operation was her way to transforming her life. As time passed on and she got better, the dreams seemed to fly away. I wonder if she too slowly realised that she was now confined into the well scripted role of an elder sibling.
It was time to act again. After much deliberation we have decided to convince her parents to send her to karam marg where she can go to school, play in the open with other children and make up for lost time.
We hope that her parents will agree.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 15, 2007 | Uncategorized
Thursday afternoon is grooming and self-care time in the special section of project why. This is when the students are taught all about looking after themselves and even looking after each other.
Manu gets a vigorous pedicure courtesy Shalini Rinky tries her hand at making up Neha and Shaheeda gives Neetu a hand massage.
Each using her special ability in helping the other feel and look better. This week Ruchi, who suffers from a debilitating nervous condition often leads to uncontrollable tremors decided to style Champa’s unruly tresses.
To many this may seem trivial but to those who know the reality it was an extraordinary moment as for Ruchi to be able to wield a comb was nothing less than a momentous effort. And Champa’s patience was laudable.
These children never fail to move me. They come from different social ad economic backgrounds and would have never met, let alone interacted had they been what we call normal! The common denominator is that they are different in normal parlance. But when you are with them you can feel the bonding that transcends anything one could imagine.
From Manu who was a street beggar a few years ago to Rinky who comes from an educated middle class family, from Himashu barely 5 to Shalini now 31, they form a close knit group that spends a few hours each day laughing, fighting, learning, playing or in a word living!
What a beautiful example they are of how easy it is to forget differences and find a common ground. Maybe we should learn from them.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 15, 2007 | utpal
This is a sneak picture.. it was not a PTA day. Dharmendra had gone to Goyla to meet Utpal’s school principal and while he was waiting for him, he managed to get a glimpse of Popples surreptitiously.
This picture will set to rest the minds of all the die hard Mr P fans who may think he is unhappy in school. This snap was taken post lunch on the way to rest time and the huge smiles on our little gang of three say it all.
It speaks volumes for the school as it opened its doors and heart to a child that fitted no mould and enabled him to find his place. Today Utpal has been promoted to the next class. He has his set of pals and is on the way of carving out his future on his own.
Kudos to this little braveheart who has fought many odds in his tiny life.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 13, 2007 | reservations
It took a shocking story to get the Government to look into the matter of burial sites for little children in India’s capital city. Politicians ignore Nithari in the run up to the state elections in Uttar Pradesh, as the families of the dead children are simple migrants and hence do not have votes. The Ghaziabad Girls are lost in administrative and judicial quagmire. Children are beaten in schools. The drop out rates are mind boggling. Child labour is rampant. Orphanages are cramped and unsafe.
Something is terribly wrong…
We are talking about the millions of children in free India, the third or fourth generation after Independence. We are talking about children who see the day of light in a democracy that professes to give them a host of fundamental rights: from education to shelter, from freedom of speech to freedom of faith. And yet a cursory glance and the plight of many of them is enough to prove that each right has been denied, usurped or hijacked.
It is not that we have done things wrong. A passing glance at the multitude of child related programmes is sufficient to see that children have occupied a place of pride in our planning, and on paper many of the proposed projects are excellent.
Let us just talk of the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme) to substantiate our point. This programme was conceived and launched in 1975. Its objectives were as follows:
- to improve the nutritional and health status of pre-school children in the age-group of 0-6 years;
- to lay the foundation of proper psychological development of the child;
- to reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school drop-out;
- to achieve effective coordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and
- to enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.
What a great programme. Had it worked all other child related programmes should have worked too! But the reality is quite different. In 2007 – 32 years after the programme was launched – an ICDS creche in India’s capital city often runs from a space the rent of which cannot exceed Rs 500! In actual terms this means a tiny airless room devoid of what is deemed essential as per the programme: running water, toilet facilities, open space for children to play.
The state of municipal schools is another reflection of the place children have in free India. After sixty years many schools in our capital still do not have proper buildings, let alone other facilities! There are some exceptions, but these are often dependent on the commitment of a handful of honest individuals.
On the other hand, politicians are busy framing reservation policies to higher institutions of learning and the ensuing debates make us wonder who these places in he sun are for. Certainly not for the potential drop out. Somehow no one seems to be bothered about the state of primary education, though poor parents are slowly seeing the writing on the wall and are now often seen sending their children to private institutions that are now mushrooming in our city and are often of poor quality. Yes in India at sixty we have the private school for the poor with names like SK convent, Mother Sundari English Medium School etc, and they come at a heavy price!
My detractors will be quick to point that it is allright to criticise but what about possible solutions. Many do come to mind but what stands out is the necessity of bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, of striking a balance, of reaching out and doig our ‘bit’! What is needed is to raise awareness. What is needed is to stop for an instant and ask oneself a simple question: where are we going? What is needed is to understand that the plight of the other India will one day affect us in more ways than one.
How can a city not have proper habitat for the poor within it? One cannot just wish them away and hope they will remain invisible. How can a city have schools that do not run, privatising them is again not a solution, they have to be strengthened and improved. The judiciary or the media should not have to intervene each time things go wrong.
Ultimately it all comes down to striking a proper balance between our rights and our duties as citizens, something we seem to have conveniently forgotten.
How many more generations of children will have to be born and become adults before we realise this!
