TRAINING FOR WOMEN: ADVANCED COURSE IN TAILORING AND DESIGN

The advanced course in tailoring for community women, which included fashion design, started in June. The first batch of 20 women who completed the beginners’ course last year enrolled in this first course of advanced fashion design, which will have a duration of three months.

In this second stage, they will learn to design new patterns of dresses, blouses, etc., and perfect their cutting and stitching. Upon completion of the course, they will be awarded a certificate from the Government of India, which will come in handy if they wish to start their own business, get a good tailoring job or secure a loan for small scale entrepreneurs.

Asha-Kiran's aim is to strengthen, train and prepare women and to equip them with commercial skills so that they can provide clothing for their families and develop their own economic streams.

CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES - DOUBLY CHALLENGED

According to Indian government estimates, one in 10 children is born with or acquires a physical, mental or sensory disability, so India could have 12 million children with some form of disability. It is estimated that three quarters of disabilities are preventable and that only 1% of children with disabilities have access to education.

It is unfortunate that society continues to view disabilities with apathy, or with pity on the one hand, and repulsion on the other. While recognizing the need to make a special effort for people with physical and mental challenges, efforts in this direction have been insufficient. And in spite of initiatives to frame disability within the area of "rights", there is still a long way to go.

Source: infochangeindia

WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOR

Since 1978, the government of India has attempted to tackle the issue of working children. But millions of children still work in humiliating and injurious occupations. State strategies have failed to meet constitutional commitments to children. Scheme-based, relief-oriented strategies have not only failed but also caused irreparable harm to them. The approach has been criminalizing rather than empowering, and marginalizing rather than inclusive.

Poverty is a condition that ails more than 42% of India’s population. The present rationale is that the poor have brought this condition upon themselves through resisting education, succumbing to superstition, and lacking initiative. It is also believed that compulsory education and microfinance are effective in solving the problem. However, the possibility that poverty could be the result of economic models and the slow progress towards political decentralization is rarely debated.

Global recession is also contributing to increased poverty and vulnerability of those who already lack social security, increasing the numbers of children who work. Plans to address child labor concentrate on the ‘pull factor’ (the demand for child workers) instead of the ‘push factor’ (the reasons why children enter the labor market). They attempt to prevent child employment by using punitive measures against the employer through raids and financing bridge schools for rescued children.

This bypasses the fact that bans only try to shut off the demand for child workers, paying little attention to the causes of poverty and the increasing supply of children to the labour market. On the other hand, blind faith in schooling to solve all problems and the conviction that all work is a curse upon childhood are simplistic generalizations.

It is worth noting that present schooling for children from marginalized communities does not promote independence, critical thinking and an enquiring engagement with the world. It is rather a form of ‘training’ designed to meet the needs of a rapidly changing market. It would be more practical to address the supply side of child labor since this would place the focus on the basic causes that push children into the labor market and would lead to more sustainable solutions.

It is likewise not acknowledged that working children are thinking and feeling human beings who are capable of participating constructively and actively in the formulation of solutions. They and their families need to be empowered to become agents of their own change. Such an approach, with the right support and resources, can achieve much more than treating them and their families as lawbreakers.

It would be advisable to break up the problem into manageable portions and decentralize the design, planning and implementation of initiatives to the panchayat and municipality level, as a previous step to make working children and their families part of the solution.

Decentralized social monitoring would enable local governments to have a better grip on the progress of action plans. Each panchayat or municipal ward could begin by conducting a detailed survey of child workers in the area. This data should serve as the baseline for monitoring progress. Social monitoring by children, their families, the community and local governments, would enlist the whole population in the mission.

India must uphold the Convention of the Rights of the Child and keep the ‘best interests of children’ as the central principle of all strategies and interventions. This can only be done by recognizing children as active participants in the process.

Source: infochange

THE DRAMA OF INDIAN FARMERS

The agricultural sector is progressively less prominent in India's booming economy. The crisis has led at least 216,500 farmers to suicide, especially in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra, Madhya and Chattisgarh. All these areas use monoculture widely with genetically modified seeds.

There are three main factors that greatly contribute to this problem.

By using genetically modified seeds instead of saving them from one year to the next, farmers must buy them every year since the reproductive capacity of transgenic seeds is restricted.

Monoculture dramatically increases insect pests, since bugs that eat a given crop grow uncontrollably and pesticides become indispensable. This adds an expenditure to the farmers, not to mention the environmental cost that this practice entails. Many farmers fall ill and helplessly watch their animals die when they graze in areas that have been sprayed with pesticides.

The overuse of farmland renders it barren and necessitates the use of fertilizers to nourish the crops: one more added expense.

Exhausted by the situation, farmers sell their organs or search for work in big cities, where they will lead a nomadic life full of hardships. When they migrate with their families, they and their children cannot avail of basic services such as health care and education.

Many give up and kill themselves, even though suicide is frowned upon by Hinduism. According to analysts, a deficient credit system makes farmers easy prey for private moneylenders who charge exorbitant interest rates and end up seizing the mortgaged land.

A series of demonstrations in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra have taken place to demand that suicide be considered murder, with the lender being the perpetrator. “The government is taking the issue seriously, but it is a grave matter. The rural population is living in depression. It is genocide”, said Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti, president of the Popular Movement Association, which fights for the rights of farmers.

India is paying the price of the “Green Revolution” that began in the mid-1960s and helped double food production in 20 years. Monoculture became commonplace through modified seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and more irrigated areas, but nowadays it implies high production costs, an increased risk of crop failure, depleted farmlands, and a rural population close to extinction.

Source: urbanicultor.

CHILD PARTICIPATION PROGRAM IN MUMBAI

Four children from the community that Asha-Kiran works with in Hadapsar went to Mumbai for a child participation program organised by Yuva, a Mumbai-based organisation. The objective of the on-going program is to make children from all over India aware about child rights and child abuse, and build their self-confidence so that they can address an audience.

Firstly, the children were introduced to the definition of a child, child rights, child abuse, and the future planning of the program. Separate groups of children were made To discuss all the issues. It was a three-day consultation which the children not only enjoyed but where they also learned various issues to apply at home, their school and their community in their own capacity.

The main thrust of the program was to help children stand up for their rights and make informed decisions concerning their own lives. They also made a lot of friends from different parts of India while learning and teaching each other the languages spoken in their home states.

A THOUSAND DAYS LEFT

In the year 2000, 150 countries around the world made a commitment to deliver the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Last April 5th 2013 marked 1,000 days left to make these objectives happen.

Save the Children’s report Ending Poverty in Our Generation outlines the steps to take in order to build a new MDG framework that will impel progress towards achieving the development targets. The recommendations include a transparent new framework that addresses inequalities and develops a global mechanism where citizens can hold their governments accountable. Save the Children asks that high burden countries include a focus on reaching the poorest children, incorporate indirect interventions from other actors, and include a strong monitoring framework and regular review processes with inputs from civil society.

The report also highlights the goal we have made the least progress on: “A Global Partnership for Development”. Working together across sectors should be the lynchpin of the Post-2015 framework, which will need to include a leading role for the private sector to develop alliances with local governments in order build on momentum and pursue the targets of the MDGs.

Although it is conceivable that we could end preventable child deaths, eradicate hunger and rid the world of absolute poverty, getting there will require a resolute focus not only on the targets we want to reach, but on how we can make these aims deliver for the poorest.

Whether or not we can reach these goals depends on how we use the next 1,000 days.

Source: savethechildren

GLOBAL HEALTH AT YASHODHARA

As we usually do at the beginning of every school year, a blood check-up camp was set up in Yashodhara Shelter Home to see if any children were suffering from anemia. When any cases are found, the doctor prescribes special nutrition and medication to counteract their iron deficiency. Towards the end of the year, the tests are repeated to see the impact of the nutrition provided and check whether the child has improved or not.

The camp was conducted by a lab technician from a government hospital. All of the 178 children at Yashodhara were tested for hemoglobin count and their blood group. Most of the children had their HB count up to 10, which is very good sign, while only one girl’s was below 9.

We believe it is essential to look after the physical health of children so that their mental, emotional and social development can also blossom.