Indian elephants to move from zoos

Elephants in India. Image Source: Theodora.com

A spokesman for the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) in India confirmed reports that the authority had issued an order to shift elephants from the zoos.

The directive sent by by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) says zoos and circuses are “not the best places for the large animals” which “require a large area to move about freely”.

The decision follows reports from animal rights activists about elephants being chained and kept in captivity for long hours.

It is important to note that this move does not affect hundreds of elephants that are kept in temples across India – neither does it affect those used for working purposes such as transporting timber from forests. Read more here.

“Why I wanted to be a jungle vet…”

I found this story on Times Online. Dr. Prasanta Boro, and his wife Phulmoni Gogoi, are veterinarians who run the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation, by the Panbari Forest Reserve and a few miles from Kaziranga National Park in Assam. This couple live in the jungle and take care of the sick and injured wild animals. This is author Siman Barnes’ second visit to the place and he shares his thoughts.

There is an enviable simplicity about it. It is impossible to spend time there without wishing that you, too, were a jungle vet, making animals better, sharing your life with a lovely fellow vet and every now and then seeing one of your charges return to the wild: the ultimate piece of job satisfaction.

It is, perhaps, relevant to ask why wild animals need a vet. There is a simple answer: wild animals also get sick. There is also a more complex answer: many, if not most, of the sick, injured and orphaned animals find their trouble from conflict with human beings. Sometimes this is inadvertent, as with car-strikes on the highway; at other times it is deliberate. Boro showed me some slides of spear-wounded elephants. When humans create trouble, it is relevant for humans to try to mend matters.

A great read!

Child labourers suffer as India ignores the law

India’s abysmal record of confronting its illegal ‘child labour industry’ has afflicted the lives of millions of children.

India has an infamous distinction of being home to the largest population of child workers in the world, with an estimated 60 million to 115 million minors forgoing education to earn money.  A recent article by The Times provides some numbers and indicates how the country has been scornful of the ‘Child Labour Prevention Act’. The numbers are from official records obtained by The Times under India’s Right to Information (RTI) laws.

The Labour Ministry figures show that in Delhi, where hundreds of under-age workers are rescued every year — while thousands more go undetected — there was no record of any official investigation into child labour being carried out by the authorities. There were no records of any prosecutions. Similarly, in the state of Goa, with its range of beach resorts that are favoured by British holidaymakers, there was not a single investigation into child labour.

In Maharashtra, just two official inspections for child labour were carried out in 19 months, despite Mumbai, the state’s largest city, being known to be a hotbed of sweatshops that rely on under-age labour.

This is the case despite the ‘Child Labour Law’ passed in 1986 that bans employment of children under the age of 14 in industries. The law carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a Rs.20000 fine.

Only five of India’s twenty-eight states and seven union territories have set up state-level commissions to protect child rights, despite them all being called upon to do so.

Agencies such as the ‘National Commission for Child Rights’ responsible for protecting India’s 420 million children is understaffed and under funded.

Bhuwan Ribhu, of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, the child labour activist group said: “This indicates a serious lack of political will and lack of preparedness on the part of government to implement the law.”

When I read this article, it occurred to me that to some extent all of us are responsible.  I totally agree that laws are not enforced. What is even more dreadful is the public indifference toward the child labour issue. As an example, many ‘educated’ and ‘ignorant’ people still employ young girls as maids. That is inexcusable. Read the entire article here.

Hippo Water Rollers – Africa

Many of us who have access to clean water tend to take it for granted. Be it for drinking, cooking, or bathing. All we have to do is turn the faucet and we have water. Unfortunately, for a large number of people in the developing and under-developed world, access to clean water is a painful chore.

Women carrying water on their head. Image Source: TheAge.com website

People walk around 5 miles or more daily to fetch water. It is not uncommon to walk twice the distance to collect water. Traditional method of carrying water means to carry a 5 gallon water bucket on the head. This can cause severe pain and damage to the spine. During summer, wells dry up, and water is collected from ditches and streams that are usually shared with animals. As a result, water-borne diseases such as dysentery and diarrhea are prevalent. Apart from being detrimental to the health of individuals, this activity undermines productivity too.

The solution is the ‘Hippo Water Roller’ manufactured by Hippo Water International.

Hippo Water Roller. Image Source: Crisdelrosario.wordpress.com

 

The Hippo Water Roller’s innovative design allows water to be placed inside its “wheel,” transforming 200 pounds (90 kg) of water to an effective weight of just 22 pounds (10 kg). This means that almost anyone can easily manage a full roller over most types of terrain. A sturdy steel clip on handle makes the Hippo Roller easy to maneuver and even children and the elderly are able to handle it. It’s a simple but effective invention and the barrel basically becomes the wheel with a handle attached to it.

‘Hippo Water Roller’ is resourceful.

It is manufactured from a durable plastic (polyethylene) and has a large screw cap, allowing users to thoroughly clean the inside. This is a large improvement on the toxic, re-purposed gasoline and paint containers that are typically used to collect water.

Hippo Water Rollers make it possible for families to collect sufficient water in one trip. A single Hippo Roller carries enough water to meet the basic needs of 5 people per day. Few trips means women and children can spend more time on productive educational and economic activities.

A Hippo Food Security System is also in place, designed to improve food production Hippo Water Rollers make it possible for owners to grow their own vegetables using a technique known as ‘drip irrigation.’ Hippo Water Roller owners receive training on water purification, good hygiene strategies and drip irrigation, in addition to information on growing food gardens.

Poor communities are worst affected by lack of access to water. Currently, ‘Hippo Water Rollers’ are donated free of charge to people in Africa who need them most. This is accomplished by the donations of various individuals and communities. Being able to transport more water with relatively less effort and in less time means growing crops is a viable source of food and income.

Back home in India, I used to wonder how people carried buckets of water on their head. It was a balancing act to say the least. But, other than the fleeting thought of ‘hopefully they will have access to clean water soon’ I did not explore the possibility of an easier way to transport water. I admit to shallow thinking on my part!

Jarawas – close to extinction

The Jarawa tribes are one of the four nomadic hunter-gatherer Negrito tribes inhabiting the Andaman islands. (The other three Negrito Tribes are ‘Great Andamanese’, ‘Onges’, and ‘Sentinelese’. ) Jarawas resisted contact with the outside world until mid 1990s. They mainly live off the forest by hunting animals with bows and arrows and also gathering honey. Their language cannot be easily deciphered. So little is known about them that the word ‘Jarawa’ is  what neighbouring tribes use for them. It means ‘the other people’.

Jarawa Tribes of Andaman. Image Source: www.rustylime.com

Their numbers are dwindling and various estimates put the number between 200 and 300. Main threat to their existence stems from encroachment of forest lands, especially construction of roads through the forest.

Ritu Sharma from Indo Asian News Service (IANS) narrates her thoughts on her recent visit to the Andamans. An excerpt:

As we drove from this capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands towards the Mayabandar forest reserve, four Jarawa children blocked the road with bamboo poles and demanded “paan” (betel leaf) and “biscut” (biscuits) in broken Hindi.

The blockade by the Jarawa children may be harmless by itself but is one of the many problems triggered by the contact of Jarawas with the outside world. They have become dependent on food handouts and have also picked up truck-drivers’ abuses in Hindi.

One of the drivers, requesting anonymity, told IANS: “Of course people like us and the security guards posted in the reserved forest area are responsible for their degeneration. Some of them have actually been taught to hurl abuses and other vices.”

As their population has dwindled, loggers, settlers and poachers have pillaged the forests, the environmentalists hold.

Lack of engagement by outsiders, and encroachment of forests are catalysts to the extinction of this tribe. You can read more here.

Handmade posters get a new lease of life

Fashion designer Nida Mahmood’s creations exhibited at the recent Fashion Week in New Delhi include jackets printed with memorable lines from classic Hindi films such as “Sholay” and “Don”, while the faces of superstars such as Amitabh Bachchan adorn bright wraps. Nida says her clothes are a throwback to the now outdated art of painting Bollywood movie posters by hand. Digital technology has robbed the jobs of Bollywood poster painters. Nida wanted to do her bit to rehabilitate the poster artists. But, it was no easy task.

The job of film posterwallahs died around 15-20 years ago. Most of them have taken up different professions and it was very difficult to locate them. After wandering in the streets of Delhi, I found some of them but they refused to work with me.

A handful of them agreed to work with her.

It is our first project where we are trying to rehabilitate poster artists who have been forced out of their art and livelihood by modern technology. They are working with us and designing old posters of the Bollywood masala movies in a new format.

Nida, along with her partner Raul Chandra launched ‘New India Bioscope Company’. The company designs clothes, lifestyle accessories, furniture, home furnishing and art works. The collection encapsulates the vibrancy of Indian imageries. The collection encapsulates the vibrancy of Indian movies, be it the people, or the conversations.  

Here’s wishing Nida and her team success in rehabilitating the poster artists.

Read more here.

Gram Nyayalayas Act becomes effective

The Gram Nyayalayas (Village Courts) Act 2008 has been enacted to establish village courts at the grassroot levels. It became effective on October 2, 2009.

It intends to provide access to justice to the citizens at their doorsteps and to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of social, economic or other disabilities and for matters connected therewith.

Some of the salient features of the Gram Nyayalayas Act are:

Gram Nyayalayas shall be established for every Panchayat at intermediate level or a group of contiguous Panchayats at intermediate level in a district or where there is no Panchayat at intermediate level in any State, for a group of contiguous Panchayats.

Nyaya Adhikaris (Presiding Officers) who will be presiding over these Nyayalayas are strictly judicial officers and will be drawing the same salary, deriving the same powers as First Class Magistrates working under High Courts.

Gram Nyayalayas will be mobile courts and exercise the power of both criminal and civil courts and the Nyaya Adhikari shall periodically visit the villages falling under his jurisdiction and conduct trial or proceedings.

Under the Act, more than 5000 Gram Nyayalayas are expected to be set up for which the Central Government would provide about Rs 1400 crores by way of assistance to the respective States/Union Territories. The government hopes that this Act will reduce the burden on subordinate courts by as much as 50% of their current load within 6 months of the Gram Nyayalayas going functional. According to various estimates about 2 crore cases are pending in the subordinate courts.

Only time will tell if this is enough help bring down India’s judicial backlog under control. But, hopefully, it will succeed in bringing  justice to the doorsteps of our citizens in rural areas. You can access the entire Act here.

A teaching icon – Babar Ali

Social change in India has been on the rise in recent years, and here is another ‘Change Maker’. This wonderful boy called ‘Babar Ali’ is doing his bit to help his friends and villagers become literate. He has accepted the corrupt environment and carrying on his inspiring work. This is a story of the capability and willingness of an individual to help others. It is people like him that the underprivileged people in India wake up every morning hoping a good day.

Babar Ali’s day starts early. He wakes, pitches in with the household chores, then jumps on an auto-rickshaw which takes him part of the 10km (six mile) ride to the Raj Govinda school. The last couple of kilometres he has to walk.The school is the best in this part of West Bengal. There are hundreds of students, boys and girls. The classrooms are neat, if bare. But there are desks, chairs, a blackboard, and the teachers are all dedicated and well-qualified. Babar Ali  takes his notes carefully. He is the model student. He is the first member of his family ever to get a proper education.

At four o’clock every afternoon after Babar Ali gets back to his family home a bell summons children to his house. They flood through the gate into the yard behind his house, where Babar Ali now acts as headmaster of his own, unofficial school. Lined up in his back yard the children sing the national anthem. Standing on a podium, Babar Ali lectures them about discipline, then study begins.

Babar Ali gives lessons just the way he has heard them from his teachers. Some children are seated in the mud, others on rickety benches under a rough, homemade shelter. The family chickens scratch around nearby. In every corner of the yard are groups of children studying hard.

“Our area is economically deprived,” he says. “Without this school many kids wouldn’t get an education, they’d never even be literate.”

Read this excellent article here.

Question Box Answers Calls

Starting from October, every month, I will be writing about Social Initiatives from India and around the world that aim to improve the lives of people. We start with a story about how a ‘Question-Box’ is changing the life of rural India, and Uganda.

Internet has become a source of knowledge to most of us. For a majority of rural India, internet access is not affordable. Internet is not prevalent in rural India. But the team of ‘Question Box’ devised a method of bringing that knowledge to rural India.

At the core of the System is an intercom box that features a green button. By pressing the green button, the user is connected to the operator sitting in front of a computer with internet connection. The user asks the question, operator finds the answers online, and provides the answer to the user. The user is not required to have any computer skills, can ask questions in their local language, and operators provide answers in the local language. The Question Box uses mobile phone and solar technologies.

Question Boxes bring information to people who cannot or do not access the Internet directly. Question Boxes leap over illiteracy, computer illiteracy, lack of networks, and language barriers. They provide immediate, relevant information to people using their preferred mode of communication: speaking and listening. As such, Question Boxes combine the ease of using mobile phones with the enormous information and communication power of the Internet. Question Box users can use their mobile phones to call the call centers, or they can use the physical Question Box Units to call for free.

Farmers can now find out the price of produce in markets before hand and  college students can find out their exam results with the touch of  a button(previously they would have to travel many miles to get them).  These are just a couple of examples of how it has been used in India. Here is a technology solution which is not eliminating the human interaction. This service is now available in Uganda too, but with a difference.

In Uganda, though, the Indian model proved unworkable because Internet connections are so slow. So the operators at Question Box search a locally stored database created by Appfrica Labs, a Ugandan company that hosts the call center. The database contains answers to past questions as well as a repository of documents, government statistics and research papers.

You can read more about Question Box on their official website.

Article of interest: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/technology/internet/28village.html?_r=1

A third of the world’s child brides live in India: UNICEF

One third of the World’s child brides live in India according to the latest UNICEF report. 

Personally, I am wary of all statistics, numbers, polls etc. I would rather talk about the presence of child marriages in India. So, irrespective of the numbers (ok, sometimes they are important!) why haven’t we as a country been successful at addressing this issue. Same with other issues such as child labour.

“A society cannot thrive if its youngest members are forced into early marriage, abused as sex workers or denied their basic rights,” UNICEF chief Ann Veneman said.  

The silent misery these children are subjected to, whether in child marriages or as child labourers  is a violation of human rights. I had written a post about Revolt of the Bride  where the girl had the courage and support to revolt against her marriage.  May her tribe increase!

Education is the key. When I say education, it is not limited to sending children to school. It is also about creating awareness among parents. Children should be stopped from being treated as ‘economic burdens’.  In most of the cases, poverty is the culprit. Poverty drives parents to marry children at a young age so that they would not have to bear the economic burden. It is important that we attempt not only to change attitudes in families, but also provide opportunities to ease their economic burden.    Read more here.

This edition of Progress for Children, the eighth in the series that monitors progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), is a compendium of data that serves as a report card on global and national efforts to protect the rights of children. 

The report also offers a strategy to improve child protection, identifying five areas of activity that are needed to improve protective environments for children: 1) Improving child protection systems; 2) Promoting social change; 3) Enhancing child protection in emergencies; 4) Strengthening partnerships for greater impact; 5) Collecting reliable data and using such data to achieve concrete results for children.

You can read the detailed report here.