by Anuradha Bakshi | Nov 3, 2007 | Uncategorized
Our women centre is soon going to have solar energy to meet part of its requirements. Like everything else at pwhy is just happened. And again like everything else at pwhy it happened for a reason. Global warming is something we have been concerned about for a long time. But sadly till date the concern seemed more academic than real. Things are getting out of hand and it is time to act now.
One of the first step in this direction would be to try and teach children. But this is easily said than done and kids have no real role models. And most of the good habits we should be adopting seem so infra-dig. How can I walk when so many cars stand in my driveway or when I have just bought a gleaming new bike? Consumerism does not beget moderation. Even slums have more than one TV sets today!
And yet if nothing is done, our planet is sure to become unlivable.
Even a week before Diwali, Delhi skies are hazy and laden with pollutants. Shudder to think at what they will look like on that day. In spite of our best efforts to try and tell children and adults not to burst crackers on that day we know we will not be heard. Shops are full of new fireworks and shoppers a plenty. Everyone, even the most educated will partake in the festivities. For that spell of time, all resolutions will be forgotten.
is there a way out? One wonders. Maybe a diktat like the one issued by the Sikh clergy on ostentatious marriages? But who will bell the cat?
We continue to use and abuse our planet with hubristic abandon. One day Nature will retaliate as it often has and we will be left wondering what happened.
But it will be too late. We need to begin now.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Nov 1, 2007 | Uncategorized
Twenty one is an important number in a person’s life as it is the age when one becomes an adult. Twenty one has another important signification that many may not know. It is the number – 21A – of a new article that was to be inserted in the constitution of India. it reads: The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine and is subsequent to the 86th amendment voted in 2002 giving every India child the right to education.
5 long years have passed but the central government has not yet notified the Act or enacted the legislation. Activist have been battling the issue
A recent email from an activist group working with municipal schools brought to light many issues that we have been facing in the past 8 years. One of them was the report card issue. Primary school kids from municipal schools never got progress reports and our staff had to fight with school authorities to get results of terminal examinations. Now, thanks to a petition fled in court, issuance of progress reports has become mandatory!
This is a sad reflection of the reality that we live in. Laws exist but are never implemented be it education, child labour or other social issues. I takes a sting operation or a Public Interest Litigation filed by some activist group or NGO to get the judiciary to react and issue appropriate orders.
It seems that one of the biggest stumbling block in the way of progress and development is the non-implementation of various laws, schemes and projects aimed at benefiting the less privileged. And perhaps, it would be in everyone’s interest to ensure that existing schemes are properly enacted.
