HRITIK: HEALTH TO PURSUE HIS DREAMS

Dear Asha-Kiran Family,

We have great news to share today: after months of chemotherapy and two more taking a rest from the treatment, our dear Hritik underwent a PET Scan and the results were excellent. An excerpt from the medical report reads as follows:

“PET shows complete regression of previously seen (…) lymphadenopathy, suggesting good response to treatment. Currently asymptomatic.”

Thank you for walking the way with Hritik during these difficult months. With the treatment, your support and his desire to live, he is now closer to seeing his dreams come true.

NEW DAY CARE CENTER FOR MIGRANT CHILDREN

Marvel Izara residential complex, as many more construction sites in Pune, employs migrant workers from across the country. While both parents are at work, their children are left unattended in a hazardous environment. Although the families stay in shacks provided by the constructors, parents cannot provide their children with an education, proper health care, a balanced diet or a minimum standard of living.

When we asked the parents of this site what they thought of having a Day Centre, they all responded with positivity. Not only were they happy that their children can now spend the day in a safe space away from the buildings, but that they will receive educational and recreational inputs as well as health care.

We are pleased to welcome 25 more children to our project for Migrant Children, which already caters to families in 15 construction sites.

WORKING AMIDST HUMAN FECES

Anokhi cannot forget the first time she cleaned human feces. ‘The first thing I did was throw up.’ Then came diarrhea, lack of appetite and headaches. She spent 17 years cleaning latrines, twenty of them a day for 400 rupees a month (€5.60). ‘My sister in law made me start and my family threatened me, so I couldn’t quit’, she recalls.

A law passed in 1993 and another one in 2013 banned this degrading work in India. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said this practice was ‘one of the greatest blemishes in the country’s development’ and promised to eradicate it. In 2014, the Supreme Court acknowledged that manual cleaning of feces was still common and that it was a violation of human rights.

However, the laws have not prevented hundreds of thousands of people, mostly women, from continuing to clean latrines. The International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN) estimates that 1.3 million people do it. With a basket, a brush, a spatula and their bare hands, they remove feces from homes, train stations, drains, septic tanks, sewers or railways.

The collectors were born Dalits, ‘untouchables’, in the lowest rung of the Hindu social pyramid. If they didn’t ‘inherit’ the job from their parents, they started when they got married. This was Priyanka’s case, who began following her mother-in-law’s orders. ‘The worst part was the monsoon. With the rain, the load ran down the basket and trickled on my head and clothes. The smell never went away. It was always with me’. Her mother in law says ‘I had no other option, I had to do it. I did it for 36 years’.

Due to this “family legacy”, manual scavengers are ostracized. The social humiliation they are subjected to is almost worse than the job they do, beginning in the houses they clean. ‘I always had to keep a distance (from my employers), not even our shadows could touch, and they threw food at me from above’, says Savatri. Despite the shame, the workers do not leave the upper-caste families that feed them and give them old clothes.

Civil organizations like Sulabh International are supporting these workers to join mainstream society. ‘The first challenge is to free them from that task; then, we give them access to education and help them develop other skills’, says founder Bindeshwar Pathak, a sociologist who stresses the need for ‘higher castes to respect (Dalits’) rights and allow them to come into temples, bathe in sacred rivers or eat with others’.

Usha did manual scavenging with her mother for more than 30 years. One day, her path crossed with Pathak’s. ‘I was suspicious at first, but in 2003 I saw the Center he built for us and I knew he was different. At the Center, more than 100 ex-scavengers learn to read and write and receive vocational training. Usha, now president of Sulabh International, encourages other women to escape a life amidst human waste. She is no longer an outcast.

Why are all the women dressed in blue? Sulabh answers that ‘It’s the color of the sky, of freedom. Before, they were imprisoned by society, now they are free’.

Source: elmundo.es

'UNTOUCHABLE' CHILDREN

Golu knows that he must open his eyes before sunrise and go out in the streets to collect garbage. He grabs his bag and starts walking. He lives in Varanasi, India, the holy city of Hinduism. He is surrounded by temples, the first religious songs, plastic bags, cows, insects and some goats. He prefers to do his work when the streets are full of objects that can be recycled and sold. While wandering in search of waste nobody looks at him, he is considered “impure” because of his cast and because he is in contact with filth.

For Hindus, caste is not a social or economic fact, but the result of a reincarnation from behavior of one’s previous existence. So, along with one’s family, caste is the main reference for people and places them in a niche that generally determines the rest of their life. Unicef estimates that 15 million dalit children work in conditions of semi-slavery for paltry wages.

Despite the struggle of the Dalits in the twenties which led to the abolition of the class system in 1950, castes were never abolished in practice and some 200 million people are still considered untouchable. They are repudiated, insulted and expelled from public places. According to Human Rights Watch, there are more than 100,000 cases of rape, murder and other atrocities against Dalits in India every year, many of them committed by the police themselves and supported by landowners.

At midmorning, Golu heads back home with a full bag and an empty stomach. He will eat if he’s lucky; otherwise he will have to wait for lunch to eat the only meal of the day. He does not mind eating the same thing. He loves rice and enjoys tasting every last grain.

As most Dalit children, Golu does not have a birth record, so he runs the risk of being kidnapped or sold for cash. Human trafficking, prostitution, the sale of organs or child soldiers are some of the consequences suffered by some, often hidden under the guise of child domestic labor. Any child that has not been registered in the Civil Registry is considered a stateless person. There is no evidence or their age, their origin, or even their existence.

Before going to pick up his younger brother from school, Golu runs around the labyrinthine streets of the city. He goes to the Ganges River, dives in and takes a long bath. As he is thirsty, he takes a sip. The remains of human cremations that take place on the shore, the skeletons of animals, sewage and factory waste have contributed to an alarming contamination of the river. After bathing, Golu gets dressed and runs to the headquarters of the Galician NGO Semilla para el Cambio (Seed for Change), where his brother awaits him.

The school has given a chance to slum children. It can be quite a challenge to find schools that will accept them. Most directors shamelessly close their doors when they know the new students are Dalits. Half of ‘untouchable’ boys and 64% of the girls cannot finish their primary education partly because they are humiliated by their teachers.

Sitting on the ghats, the steps of the Ganges River, Golu goes over the alphabet written in his brother’s book. He knows it by heart, he can recite it faster than he can read it. Feeling self-satisfied, he borrows a kite from a boy and starts jumping and laughing to his heart’s content. Right then, amidst letters and games, is the only time Golu feels like the child he really is.

It is getting dark and Goku must return home. Fearful, he wastes no time so he can hand over to his father the 10 rupees (€0.13) he made selling plastics. He then prepares a large wicker basket with candles and flowers he will sell in the ghats at night. He hurries so that his father won’t get angry. He manages to sell three candles which earn him 30 rupees (€0.40) and thus avoids a beating. He borrows one of the candles, lights it, and lets the breeze and the river carry it away.

They say that once the candle is placed in the Ganges, the water carries what one has asked for. A big moon shines on the ancient waters of the sacred river, with a tiny light that carries away Golu’s wish: ‘to become a doctor and help people’.

Source: elpais.com

THE JOY OF GIVING

The Joy of Giving Week took place at the Fiat Research and Development office in Pune.

Donations were given through the Wish Tree procedure, where wishes are put up on a cardboard tree and people pick a wish, write their name on the back of the wish card, and then drop it in the donation box along with the donation amount mentioned on the card.

To express and display the wishes they fulfilled, a corresponding wish note was put up on the tree in place of card which they put in the donation box. This wish note also had the person’s name to display their contribution to the social cause they chose, and to encourage other people to do the same.

The contribution amount collected from the Wish Tree was Rs. 26800 / €374, and the collection from the Fiat Sodexo box and coupons amounted to Rs. 2310 / €32. We also received donations of various items such as biscuits, puffed rice, rice flakes, rice, wheat flour, sweets, children’s clothes, toys, and educational materials like stationary, books, etc.

We thank Fiat for their valuable support to our social projects. 

CHANGING DEEP-SEATED MINDSETS

The village of Bibipur, or ‘Women’s World’, is an inspiration for thousands of other villages in India. It is located in the state of Haryana, known for its skewed sex ratio in favor of boys, ‘honor’ killings, and the general low status of women. Bibipur, however, has emerged as an example of hope.

The face of Bibipur changed when Sunil Jaglan was appointed head of the village in 2010. From fighting for the rights of women to bringing technology into the lives of the villagers, this admirable leader has left no stone unturned to change the way Haryana villages are perceived.

‘We focused on solving this problem by spreading awareness about women’s issues and bringing women into the limelight. The first step was to organize a general assembly of clan leaders where thousands of village women gathered and talked about the sensitive issue of female feticide. In the general assembly, the women have a chance to speak their minds, which they couldn’t do earlier’, says Jaglan. They even demanded an amendment in the Indian Penal Code to book the culprits of female feticide with charges of murder.

In order to bring more attention to female feticide, Jaglan organized several awareness campaigns and events. He launched an initiative to bring granddaughters and grandmothers together on the same platform to give all generations equal importance. The idea was to bring women of all age groups out to talk about their issues and share their stories.

Also, ‘In villages where people had not even seen a computer, we used technology to spread awareness. We showed them videos on female feticide and organized debates and seminars. Our village has a big stage where we organize regular events. Women actively step up to the podium and talk about their issues’, says Jaglan. But the people of Bibipur do not just believe in talking; forty women-oriented village houses have been created with the purpose of bringing women out of their houses to look for solutions to their concerns together.

Once the city council’s work started giving positive results, the village received recognition and various awards from the government. All the money from prizes was spent on the development of the village, which now has its own website where the latest updates and developments in the village are posted on a regular basis. According to Jaglan, ‘We put the entire system in front of the villagers to maintain transparency and ensure that the council’s funds are being utilized in the right way’.

Bibipur residents have had their share of difficulties too. Jaglan has been under tremendous political pressure and even received a notice of suspension once, but the villagers rallied behind him and started a protest to bring him back into power. Bibipur and its good governance are famous today thanks to the intelligent efforts of its leader and the village residents.

Intelligent efforts are essential.

Source: thebetterindia.com

A-K's NEW OFFICE IN PUNE

In our effort to provide an ever-better response to the needs of our beneficiaries, Asha-Kiran’s office in Pune has moved to larger, more spacious facilities, while still being in a centralized location with respect to our projects.

Our team -Sujata, Kalpana, Nirmiti, Kavita and Subhash- participated fully in the move after painting and getting the space ready. At the end of an intense week of moving and arranging furniture, computers and documents, our office opened its doors once again to continue offering its services to vulnerable social groups in Pune.