Support a Child’s Education
We started working almost three years back. In the beginning, we didn’t have a clear idea as to how and where to start from. Our mentors asked us to think about some activities which can be initiated in the college. After some days, we met a few people; one of them was Dakxin Bajrange (co-founder of Budhan Theatre group). He told us about a basti in Maninagar, Ahmedabad and asked us to visit it some day. It was a place where people from the Denotified Tribes (DNT) live. We planned our visit and went there. When we reached there we saw a number of people sitting under a bridge like a one big family. That was our first interaction with our workplace – Maninagar basti.
After visiting the place we thought about various activities that can be started there and considering the need for education in the basti, we decided to start with an informal education program. The main aim of this program was to introduce education in the basti, bring the children living there to the level of mainstream children and finally transferring them to the regular schools. With these ideas and objectives in mind we started visiting the basti on weekends. We prepared a schedule and curriculum for the classes and implemented it.
Initially, we got a very good response from the people living there. A good number of children, 20 to 25, started attending our classes regularly. But then, slowly, they started losing interest and the numbers started to decline. There were times when we used to get just 3 to 4 students! We thought that this was the end of our education program, but we decided to continue our classes hoping some day the people would understand the importance of education and schooling.
After a dedicated effort of 1 year we were finally able to win the confidence of the people and were accepted in the basti. The change in performance and habits of their children forced them to rethink about their education. That was the time when they started sending their children to our classes enthusiastically. This elevated our hopes and we continued with our activities.
After completion of 2 years of our program, we thought it was time to transfer some of the students to the schools. We visited several schools in the vicinity and finalised two schools for our students. We admitted around 18 students in these schools. For a long time their parents, despite their minimal incomes, regularly paid the school fee. But after some time their education was becoming a burden for them and due to this some of them pulled out their children from the schools. This was a setback for us as many of our talented students were pulled out just because of non-availability of funds. But without giving up we talked with the parents and requested them to re-admit their children to the schools. We took the financial responsibility of these students.
Many parents are still paying their school fee regularly but there are still a lot of students who need financial help in order to complete their schooling. We are financing five students but our funds are limited and cannot cover all the students. It is impossible for their parents to fund their education as education is like a luxury which they cannot afford with their negligible income.
Through this article we want to request you to support us and these children in continuing their education. Your generous contributions would help our students to complete their education and move towards a better life.
We have created profiles (click) of our students with the details of their fee and background and attached some of them below for your reference. You may visit our website for the complete profiles of our students. For making any contribution or to know more about our activities you may contact our members. [Home]
Universal Declaration of Human Rights-Article II: Right to Equality – Ashwin Durga
In the June, 2008 issue, we introduced you to the Universal declaration of Human Rights and also took up a few issues related to Article-1 of this declaration. In the forthcoming issues, we will try and understand all the articles by means of case- studies and examples. This will help us empathise and connect better. In this issue, we will talk about the second Article.
Article 2: All people are entitled to rights without distinction based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, opinion, origin, property, birth or residency.
All human beings are born free but they grow up, inevitably, with a feeling of segregation. The divisions that exist are all man made, and are violently defended in the name of preserving religious identity or cultural diversity. Of course, cultural diversity is important. But in the guise of preserving it discrimination on various levels, individual as well as societal, is rampant, and the cause of unnecessary problems. Most conflicts today are because of segregation created by self and the society.
Apartheid in South Africa (past), communalism in India, the Israel – Palestine conflict for “property”, the ill- treatment of the aborigines of Australia and the Roma gypsy community of Europe are all examples of violation of this article. These are just a few of the many hundreds of cases. These are a few which completely violate the principles of equality and non-discrimination.
The article (2) is extremely broad, encompassing various aspects of people’s interaction with others. Let us rewind back to the “World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance” which took place in South Africa, 2001. This marked the coming together of more than 150 countries who are members of the United Nations, UN organizations and government organizations on this common agenda. This was supposed to be a significant chapter in the efforts of the UN, which has been trying hard to fight racial discrimination. But, unfortunately it slid into the background due to the 9/11 attacks which took place just days after this conference concluded.
The conference saw various issues discussed including the sources, the victims, the measures for prevention and the strategies required to overcome challenges in attaining the right to equality. At the end of the conference, a total of 160 states converged upon the final declaration. This declaration urges all governments, “who have not contributed to restoring the dignity of the victims to find appropriate ways to do so”. However, it does not call for the United Kingdom, and other former colonial powers, to pay reparations. Almost all countries recognized that racism was still prevalent and related intolerance still existed to a large extent and that they would have to work untiringly towards eliminating these obstacles. They came out with various strategies including involving other NGO’s, organizations working in the areas to be made part of the decision making process in major policies and providing access to education and health facilities without discrimination. This conference saw a huge participation from all countries and it was aimed to bring together a positive impact. We want to take this forward and make everyone aware of this.
Here, at Sambhav, the people who we work with, have also been discriminated due to their descent. Prior to 1952, there were communities who were classified as “criminal tribes”, and anyone belonging to these communities automatically became criminals! Though now the name has been modified to “de-notified tribes (DNT)”, the stigma still remains even after more than 50 years. But unfortunately along with the Criminal tribes Act of 1952, the government concurrently enacted a series of Habitual Offenders Acts. These Acts asked police authorities to investigate a suspect’s criminal tendencies and whether his occupation is “conducive to settled way of life”. Although the Habitual Offenders Acts has been banned, police forces around the country still persecute the De-notified and Nomadic Tribes in the same way on many cases. These tribes are regularly subjected to public humiliation, beatings and custodial deaths.
It will take time for the people to change their mind; but again, it is all of us who have to initiate this change. We need participation from all individuals in making our society free from any “man-made” barriers. We have to ensure justice for all and see that every individual is guaranteed his or her human rights. We believe that all people constitute one human family, however different their cultures may be.
Sources:
[1] Human Rights Watch – http://www.hrw.org
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk
[3] http://www.wikipedia.org
[4] http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/03/02/india-dalits.html
[5] http://www.google.com [Home]
Armed Trouble – Ajeet Singh Shekhawat
India has never been in peace with its border states especially Jammu and Kashmir and Eastern and North Eastern states. We are frequently made to think about the prevailing anarchy in these states and quandary surrounding the basic rights provided to the natives of these parts owing to their separatist mentality.
These Border States have been in virtual control of army since independence because the governments seem to be unable to cope with twin pressure from both outside in the form of border tension with adjacent nations and from inside with the residents who with each passing day come up with new petition or Bandh to make it even more troublesome for government to deal with the problems of basic development of these states and thus we see the living standards of people going down and brewing discontent among the larger masses.
These states have to take the help of army frequently to keep the protests down and this very way doesn’t solves the problem much but for the fact that we don’t have any other way to handle all this anger. This is evident from the fact that the separatist movement in Jammu & Kashmir that grew strong past week that it sent questions and debates reverberating all round the country.
The way the army handles these situations is never the good but thanks to the “independent” media handles this coverage makes us think that army is all good but a closer unbiased microscopic look into the regions only suggests the opposite, with army emerging as a hideous villain that seem to have lost all the consideration for the common man.
State of affairs in North Eastern States is only going to worsen if Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is allowed to continue. AFSPA is the law which is prevailing in North Eastern states in one form or the other since 1956 to curb down naxal movement since 1958. Under this Act a non-commissioned army officer of the lowest rank has the power to shoot to kill anybody, to enter and destroy any building and to arrest anyone without a warrant. The officer needs no permission from a superior, is not answerable to anyone, and does not have to justify his action to anyone. Under this Act the affected people have no right to approach the court for redress. In effect, the Act has made the people subject to its extraordinary power second-class citizens of the country, who do not even on paper, enjoy the constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms supposed to be the due of every citizen.
In past months people in Manipur are trying to get national consensus on the thought of going to Supreme Court to get this brutal and anarchic law revoked but the brutalities of army just seem never ending with latest shameless act murder of local pastor Zamkholet Khongsai on 8’th July and subsequent rape and murder of 32 year old Manorama on 11’th July. The fact that should worry us more that when people finally decided to raise their voice against this latest inhuman act they were yet again handled in “Army” way as the central government gave them(Manipur government) all rights to curb the movement in whatever way they want. The demand for the repeal of the Act is an old one, and the current protests have a long history. In fact, for the past 45 months a young Manipuri woman, Irom Sharmila, has become a symbol of this struggle. Sharmila is on a fast-unto-death, demanding the withdrawal of this Act. She has been forcibly fed in hospital, under judicial custody, all this while.
We call ourselves a democratic nation but we seem to overlook the rudimentary definition of democracy which promises equal rights for all regions and people but our own democracy has put these people under virtual Martial act for five decades. Nobody can discredit Indian Army for all the great things it has done in safeguarding the nation against almost all attacks the country has faced but this act that makes army more of a plague than cure for these people and really needs to be revoked as there should be no room for such unjustifiable law which makes its citizens like refugees in their own country. Revocation of this law depends on all forms of media and especially on the television media which has to break the shackles of monotony because when it comes to army it only does the patronizing thing.
Indian Army is a great institution that has helped a long way in safeguarding the national integrity and many times has provided cover for jittery decision taking governments and nobody can deny these facts but these back spots really need to be removed. People in North Eastern states are really tired of this law and want to live free just like residents of other states and just like all other people they have high ambitions to take their state to heights of development and this law prevents them from doing all the great things that these people might be capable of and so should be revoked in all forms. [Home]
Walking the Talk – I
It has been some time since we started this initiative ‘Samvedna’. Since then, we have received valuable feedback from our readers who want to know more about our work. One of their concerns was - are we only raising questions about society or are we doing something for its betterment? Another recurring question was – How can we participate? This series of articles is meant to make the readers familiar with how the Sambhav Team is working towards “walking the talk”. We will also share with you who are we associated with, and the nature of our collaborations.
Some of our friends also suggested publishing of case studies to understand the scenarios we are facing. We definitely wanted to do this, but we had certain limitations. Most of the people with whom we are working don’t want to revisit such cases, rather they want to start fresh. Popularizing such cases amounts to victimizing them again and we don’t want to do this only for the sake of the publicity. So we decided to put our efforts and future plans in place of case studies. We have listed the problems and requirements we face in continuing and expanding the activities. Readers will also find mention of tasks which (s) he can perform to contribute.
Before starting, we would like to throw some light on our methodology. We are not involved in full-time social service as most of us have professional responsibilities. The names which we are mentioning below are the people who have been executing the social reform in one or the other form since long. We got in touch with them through field visits, which we perform as and when we come to know about any social activities happening in and around any of our members’ location. Once we ensure that the work being done is really the need of the hour, and is directed towards leading the society in a positive direction, we start involving ourselves increasingly and interact with them. This enables us to get an insight on their work, their strengths and weaknesses. Interaction also reveals details about their specific problems and requirements. Thereafter, we extend our efforts to help them meet their immediate requirements. Apart from this, we constantly communicate with them to make their organization more effective, self-sustainable and scalable. This has been our modus operandi for the last five months in which we have been seeking, understanding and then helping social activists and/or organizations.
This article will cover two groups:
1. Prashant [Sahayog] (click for details…)
- Slum Education & Kid Library
- Rehabilitating Drug Users & HIV+
2. Anjali Bose [Mahila Kalyan Samiti] (click for details…)
- Bridge Education along with professional training
- Awareness among Women
In this article we have tried to make you familiar with our recent activities. There is much to mention but due to lack of reading space and time, we will be covering the remaining activities and groups in upcoming issues. We have directly or indirectly mentioned the requirements of each activity. If you feel you can contribute in any way then please feel free to contact the Sambhav Team. [Home]
