Aid Delhi Newsletter April 2008

Editorial Hello friends, Another month of hectic activity is behind us... This newsletter brings to you a glimpse of what all happened in different parts of AID NCR in the past 30 days. We had our trimester Operations Review in this month... All the projects shared their achievements, progress and learning’s with each other. Many ideas were given and directions were set for future course of action. Lively discussion on Genetically Modified Crops was taken up and we had engineers from IIT Delhi's Biotechnology department who volunteered to find some more research material on the topic to scientifically prove or disprove the claims made by various vested interests. The month of May will see much more activity on the agriculture front. While most of our projects are non-formal education related, we continuously strive to mainstream the children who show interest and want to study in regular schools. This month, Gurgaon volunteers got many children admitted to various schools. Many Parichay students also gained admission to neighboring formal schools. NOIDA projects are taking a lead in using Eureka kits with regular classes in the evenings. Aashaayen had a health camp. Soaring inflation - driven mostly by rising Cement, Steel and Oil prices and a global shortage of food has thrown the life of the poor out of gear. It’s pertinent to ask if biofuels - for which a lot of food-producing agricultural land has recently been diverted (leading to food scarcities), and whose environmental impacts are observed to be worse than conventional fuels - the right option at all. While politicians did lots of drum-beating on the effects of high inflation, the voice of the survivors from Bhopal - who again walked all the way to Delhi - is going almost unheard... With scant media coverage and no political attention, things are moving slow. We show solidarity with them and support their demands for clean water, clean site and action against the culprits. While on one side the Gurgaon Public Transport Campaign is gaining scale, media is having a ball trashing the major lead of Delhi government in the arena of public transport. The BRT corridor is making life easier for the users of public transport, but it’s only the plight of car-owners that is capturing media's attention. A letter to the journalist in the fore-front of BRT bashing highlights some of the benefits of BRT and requests more time before signing it off as a failure... In the noise of the day, a little unborn girl's cries go unnoticed. Female feoticide is rampant across various parts of North India. Delhi government recently launched a "Ladli" scheme to support the families with a girl child. Punjab and Haryana

governments have launched interesting schemes to arrest the problem of declining sex ratio. Read the poem on the topic to feel the pain of the child. Indian society has to maintain its secular fabric to progress in the domain of human development index... Events like communal riots are blots in our modern history. Read "Mazhab nahin sikhaata" to know what Gandhiji would have said in communal roits as happened in Godhra, Gujarat... The article "Ummeed" brings to the fore-front the stark reality of inequalities in our society. The disturbing fact is that inequality is increasing day by day and government is either lacks the political will or is out of wits (and can't find an answer) to change the situation for the better... It is very important that we - as responsible citizens - think of ways to reduce inequality and give new shape to our society.. Hope is eternal - just as in the song "hum honge kaamyaab"... I hope that you like reading this issue of AID Delhi's newsletter. In solidarity,

Anuj PS:: Just a reminder, if you haven't yet given your meal a month, please contribute now.

Project Updates: TARA • • •

The month of April was not good for TARA because of our volunteer crunch. We have lost all volunteers due to the ongoing exams, so the classes have not been happening at the center. Admission of 4 children into the MCD School was the major achievement this April.

KHOJ • • • •

Classes at all centers going well. ICE AGE film screening for Ber Sarai children Research work put on hold as exams of volunteers are going on. Different workshops carried out for children at Prabhat Tara every Saturday.

PRAYAS (Weekend classes) As we all know that there are many changes in Aid-Prays Noida mainly categorizing children according to their requirements and expectations. We have separate classes for children who are studying in Nayi-Disha and children who are of younger age and have just started studying. Then we have weekend classes mainly for children who are in age range of 10-14 ( with 1-2 exception ). These children have basic and rudimentary knowledge of Hindi, Mathematics and English. But we really don't have concrete plan or roadmap for them. For example :- we are confused when we ask ourselves what we want to teach them and why? or for that matter what we expect them from 1 year or 2 years down the lane. We had few weekend discussion sessions in which we exchanged ideas and opinions on road map for weekend classes. Few points that we agree on :- 1> these children should have enough knowledge of mathematics so that they can perform calculation required in daily life. 2> they should have basic knowledge of english. And 3> they should be aware of their surrounding and should have idea whats happening around them. Therefore, we

decide to develop a curriculum catering to their needs. Amit, Sugandha and Kavita have taken the responsibility to do document the curriculum with help of others volunteers and members. Other than that, Kanan suggested that, with education, we can also provide children some vocational skills such as sewing, handicraft or any skills that could help them economically. At the beginning of the month only 3-4 children were coming although we had name of 15 children in register. Upon investigation we found that around 4 students had gone to their village . We personally talked to the rest of the children and motivated them to attend weekend classes. Currently 8-9 students are attending weekend classes. We are expecting this number to go high as our action will be more streamlined over the time. We were also joined by three new volunteers: Amit, Kavita and Sugandha who are dedicated and showing concern for our cause. Please welcome them in our "AID" family.

PRAYAS (Evening classes) On our meeting after putting up the children of Prayas into Nai Disha, we came up with an initiation of starting evening classes for the rest of the children who are beginners. We also decided to start with Eureka Methodology of teaching for the children. Me and Nikunj took the responsibility of teaching children with Eureka kit from 7-8.30 on alternate days. Nikunj has taken the lead of spearheading the entire class in my absence too. There are currently 15 children whom we’ve profiled and we’ve decided to stick to those 15 children. Preliminary classes with the kit have started and the vowels stage have been successfully taught with focus on phonetics. There are more fun activities carried out with the children while learning. We’ve decided to make the learning more joyful by telling stories, playing games and making groups among themselves and in a month time we’ve been able to observe a few changes in the children. Hoping to see more.

PARICHAY • • • • •

Sales of Spices at ST was Rs.9180/Rishikesh trip for the NF III children was on the first weekend of April. We went to Rishikesh and Lachiwala and it was a great exposure visit for the children and lots of fun for the volunteers. All the sponsored children who were attending regular have passed with good grades in their respective classes There is a book collection drive in progress at ST and on 9th of may we’ll be getting the books We have a stall lined up on 4th may at Skylark Apartment

• • •

More stalls on 14th May at Excel, Gurgaon and on 9th May at ST 3 new sponsored children have been attending school and new sponsors for them. An Intern Prerna has joined us and she is currently working on Documentation of teaching methodology and technique..

AID GURGAON The month of April brought a new challenge for us. Apart from the regular activities viz. Saturday visits to school and Sunday basti visits, we had aimed to get most of the children admitted to regular schools. In all, we had identified 12 such children for the admission process based on their performance and regularity in the last one year. Last year, we successfully admitted about 6 children to Govt. schools. This time though, out of the 12 children identified, four belonged to families who have been staying in Gurgaon for a long time. Unlike the majority of our children, these four did not belong to families of migrant labourers. So we thought it would be a good idea if we can provide them a chance to undergo quality education which would shape up their future. Tara, Vinod, Sheetal and Pankaj were the four kids in question. We zeroed in on Vivek High School (Sector 39), Gurgaon - a private school with English as medium of instruction. This was a bit of a challenge as the medium of instruction in Unnati is Hindi. But Tara, Vinod and Pankaj passed the admission test for Class 1 and Sheetal passed the test for LKG. The next task was to fund the academic expenses and there was an overwhelming response to sponsor their education from within our volunteer base. All four of them have now started going to the school but the next challenge is to keep a track of their progress on a regular basis. Who knows, in another 15 years these kids grow up to fulfill their dreams and realize their true potentials! Apart from them, we also got admitted five other bright kids to a Govt. school in Jharsa village. A similar approach would be needed for them as well to keep a track of their progress regularly. The next "big" thing on our agenda is to organize a picnic for Unnati and Prayas kids. The plan is to take the kids to Delhi zoo and/or amphitheater. This should be coming somewhere in early May.

AASHAAYEN The updates of the activities that took place at Aashayein for the month of April are : •

• •

•

Kids have been divided in to two groups.One part of group of children was taught English by Neeru(Volunteer) and the other half was taught Hindi by Tuhina (volunteer). There are a minimum of 3 volunteers who come on every weekend. The focus right now is to bring the kids at the basic level of understanding,writing and reading hindi and english with ease. Side by side if the kids have any other doubts regarding their academics or any other issue then that is also taken care of. A health camp was organised on April 20 where the kids were asked to come with their guardians. There was a doctor arranged for the complete Medical-Check Up of the children. According to their weight and height children who were underweight were given vitamin capsules and syrups, according to their ages. Also De-Worming syrups were distributed to almost all the children under the proper guidance of the doctor present. Apart from academics, children were also given some dancing tips at the end of the class for some refreshment.

AAGAZ The month of April turned out to be a quite a challenging month for Aagaz. After an extensive scouting, we finally managed to get a new room in the community for conducting the classes. We expected things to go smoothly after getting the new room, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. Since the classes had been discontinued for 3 weeks, many kids had started loosing the interest in coming for the classes. By the time we started the classes, 7-8 kids which were regular in the class had relocated with their parents to some other places. The number of children coming for the classes came down to 15-17 from the previous month’s number of 40+ children. We also had to face severe shortage of volunteers, as most of the volunteers at Aagaz were busy with their exams or with their office commitments. Hopefully, things will improve once the exams get over and summer vacations start in the colleges.

AARUSHI After several rounds of discussion, we finally managed to convince the parents of 9 children at Aagaz for allowing their children to get admission in Ryan International School, Sector 39 Noida. Since the school is at some distance away from the community, we decided to hire a couple of rickshaws to drop and pick up the children from the school. We told the parents that they would have to contribute Rs 50 per child towards the rickshaw charges and the rest would be paid by Aagaz. The day after the children got admission, both the rickshaw wallas, which had been finalized for taking the children to school, went to their respective villages for 15 -20 days without informing the children. Consequently, children had to discontinue going to the school. These rickshaw wallas had agreed for only Rs 500 per month, whereas others were demanding Rs 300 per child. In order to cut down the expenses, we have decided that we will wait for these rickshaw wallas to come back and in the meantime, we have also informed the school and have sought their permission to allow the children to join the school after sometime.

ARTICLES: UMMEED Brahmar Kumar 31 िदसम्बर 2005,एक बार िफर धुंध से भरी हई ु सदर् रात,कोहरे ने धरती तो कुछ इस तरह अपने आगोश में िलया िक लगा ूकृ ित की सफेद रजाई ने पूरे आसमान को ढक िलया हो और उस रजाई के बाहर की यह धरती........िबना बोले सामना कर रही है कडाके की सदीर् का । हिड्डयों को गला दे ने वाली ठं डी हवाओं को भी अपना वीभत्स रूप आज ही िदखाना था । ूकृ ित ने अपनी करवट से ूािणयों को ठहर जाने के िलए कह िदया..! लेिकन धन्य हो मनुंय.....िजसने समय बनाया और इस समय को आदे श िदया िक कभी िकसी को ठहरने मत दो।समय के उसी धुरी पर क्षण ,िदन ,महीने और साल बीते ।और आज िफर आया एक नये साल के आने का जश्न ........। तो क्या हआ ु िक

ूकृ ित जश्न मनाने से रोक रही है । मौसम से 2-2 हाथ करने को हम शहरवासी िबल्कुल तैयार हैं ...हमारे पास तेज सुर में बजता संगीत है ,रं ग-िबरं गी गमर् पोशाकें है ,खुशी जािहर करने के िलए पटाखे हैं ,रोशनी की जगमगाहट है ;माहौल को मदहोश करने के िलये

िवअःकी के जाम और िथरकते हए ु ु कुछ खूबसूरत इं सान । शायद अंदर से आित्मक दख

हैं िफर भी मन तो खुश है ..हमें हं साने के िलये तरह तरह के specialist लाये गये हैं । हम दो

िमलकर

बाहर

का

----क्या

बात

िकसी एक है

इं सान भाई

तीसरे

पर

अचानक

से

बेतुका

बडे

खुश

साहब

!

जोर-2

से सा

नजर

हं सते ूश्न आ

हैं ।

कर रहे

बैठा हो

?

अचानक 30 तारीख तक चेहरे के साथ चलने वाला तनाव ,31 की रात आते ही न जाने कहाँ ,कब गायब हआ । यह गायब हआ है या िदखाई नही दे रहा ? या िफर हम नजर ु ु उठा

कर

उस

तरफ

दे खना

नहीं

चाअते

?

----भाई साब खुश क्यो नही होंगे...नया साल जो आ रहा है ।और इसी के साथ आ रही है एक आम आदमी की उम्मीद ..िक जैसे आज खुश हैं सारे साल रहें । युंही हं सते –खेलते ,नाचते

गुनगुनाते

वक्त

बीत

जाये।

और िफर अगर अगर इसी उम्मीद पर िजंदगी के कुछ पल हं सी से गुजार िदये जाये तो िफर

इसकी

िफब

िकसे

????

31 िदसम्बर 2006;एक बार िफर कोहरे की सदर् बूंदे कुछ ज्यादा ही सदर् हो चुकी हैं । अंधेरा इतना िक लगा ईश्वर के िदये के नीचे की कािलख यहीं िकसी सतह पर जम गयी हो । िनशब्द सन्नाटे के बीच कभी -2 कुत्तो के भौंखने की आवाज ,वक्त वही रात के 11 बजकर 30 िमनट का ; िकसानों का एक झुरमुट कम्बल के अभाव में आग तापता हआ ु

,और साथ ही कोसो दरू शहर की रोशनी की ओर टकटकी लगाकर दे खते हए ु ..

उनमें से कुछ युवा भाग्य की लकीरों को दोषी बता रहे हैं तो कुछ वृद्ध इसी को पूवर् जन्म

के पापों का फल और शहर वालों के पूवर् जन्म के पुण्य का पिरणाम। आंगन में जलती

हई ु एक िमट्टी के तेल की कुप्पी अपने पूरे सामथर् से हवा के साथ जंग लड रही है ....परं तु गांवो में हमेशा की तरह एक बार िफर पवन का ूहार रोशनी पर भारी पडा और

िदया

बुझ

गया

...।

दरू शहर में एक जोर के पटाखे ने गांव की एक अनपढ बुिढया को जगा िदया .. -------"लागत

है

बुिढया

संशय

चोर

आई

भरे

गए....गोली भाव

दागी में

राहे

"

बोली.

----चुप्पै सोई जाओ चाची ......नया साल शुरू हआ तािह तो पटाखा जलो है शहर में.। ु

ू हए बुिढया िफर कम्बल मे िलपटकर टटे ु खटोले पर सो गयी ....अचानक से िफर वही पुराना सन्नाटा ,िफर वही िनशब्द वातावरण ,न नये साल की कोई मुबारकबाद ,न ही

ु खुशी का कोई माहौल । नींद न आते हए ु भी मैने कम्बल के पीछे अपना पूरा चेहरा छपा िलया।

"ऐसा ही होता है जब उम्मीदें भी जल कर खाक हो चुकी होती हैं और लोग अगले बरस की बजाये अगले जन्म का इं तजार करते हैं "

BHOPAL CAMPAIGN Selva AID Delhi has always had a good relationship with the Bhopal Campaign people. Two years back when the bhopali’s marched from Bhopal to Delhi, we’ve been doing quite a few campaigns across Delhi. It also includes a candle light vigil at India gate and photo exhibitions across Delhi. We’ve been organizing a few events here and there before the bhopali’s reached Delhi. A signature run and a photo exhibition at IIT Delhi was also organized a couple of days before the bhopali’s reached. I went to meet the bhopali’s on the day when they reached Delhi and also participated in the discussions happened about the next days rally from Nizamuddin to Jantar Mantar. The very next day they sat at Jantar Mantar starting their Dharna after a walk of more than 800k.ms. Few more people who came from train also joined the people who’ve walked. I went there that day in the evening and interacted with a few of the padhyatri’s. They’ve been telling us their experience during the padhyatra. We also helped Shalini [Coordinator, Students for Bhopal] and her group to organize an event at IIT Delhi during the dharna period. At IIT Delhi, we helped them to organize a film screening along with a talk to the students of IIT and explain them about what is the exact status. This has provided the students a great insight on the issue and made them come forward to show their solidarity. We’ve always offered our hands whenever required and ready to jump in whenever there is a need for volunteer. Though we have not been able to physically be there all the time during the dharna [its being exam time…we hope to join the site soon], we’ve never failed to spread the word and forward mails and send fax to the Prime Minister. Recently I’ve also filed an RTI to the Prime Minister’s Office asking for the details of crime done and bribe given by DOW chemicals. The RTI I filed includes the following questions. Please provide list of steps taken by Government of India to take legal action against Union Carbide Corporation, Union Carbide Eastern and Warren Anderson in the criminal case pending against these three (among others) in the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court in Bhopal. Name of Accused

Actions taken (Please list)

Last date when action was taken

Please provide copies of all correspondence for the period April 2007 and March 2008 between PMO and Ministry of Chemicals and Petrochemicals on any matter related to the Bhopal disaster. In 1991, the Supreme Court directed the Union of India to extend insurance coverage to at least 100,000 children from gas-affected families. Kindly provide the following two information: a) Is the Government of India aware of this? b) Please provide a list of children insured as per these directions.

c) Please provide reasons or documents explaining reasons why there is a shortfall (if any) between the number insured, and the number required to be insured. Dow Chemical was fined $325,000 for having paid $200,000 in bribes to Indian agriculture ministry officials to register three pesticides (Dursban, Nurelle, Pride). In 2007, the CBI launched an enquiry into the bribery scandal. Please provide the following information regarding the above: a) Is the PMO aware of the facts of the above case? If yes, please provide the documents that form the basis of this knowledge. b) Is the PMO aware that the pesticides registered through bribery and subversion of due process are still being sold freely in India? c) What steps can the PMO take to ensure that the illegally registered pesticides are withdrawn from the market? d) What steps has the PMO taken to ensure this? Please provide copies of all correspondence between Abhishek Manu Singhvi and the PMO on any matter related to Bhopal disaster, Dow Chemical or Union Carbide. Has the PMO received any request from Bhopal survivors or their representatives for a meeting with the Prime Minister's Office? If yes, please state whether the request was granted or rejected and reasons for the same. Has the PMO received any copies of demands of Bhopal padayatris who arrived in New Delhi on 28 March? If yes, please provide any notes, comments, letters, opinions or advice on the same which may be in circulation in the PMO. Lets show our solidarity to the survivors and support them in their struggle for their right to live.

Aajanmi bacchi ki vytha GAURAV क्यों मां क्यों बाबा

क्यों तुमने मुझे िमटा िदया अपनी ममता अपने जीवन से क्यों तुमने मुझे जुदा िकया मै इक लडकी हंू

ये तो मेरा अपराध न था िजसने िदया मुझे ये रूप

क्यों उस ईश्वर को तुमने क्षमा िकया क्यों लडके की चाहत मे तुमने इस िनिरह के ूाण हरे क्यों ॅूण से मेरे अःपताल के कूडे दान भरे क्यों ना कांपे हाथ डाक्टर के िजसने मुझे बिलदान िकया क्यों चंद िसक्को की खाितर पेशा उसने अपना िनलाम िकया क्यों िकसी का ॑दय ना रोया दादा दादी का प्यार क्यों सोया उनकी इक चाहत की खाितर क्यों मैने अपना सब कुछ खोया मै इक लडकी ये मेरी गलती न थी गलती मेरे मां बाप की उस ईश्वर की िजसने मुझे यूं जन्म िदया मै पूछू ं संगी से अपने

क्यों िफ़र मेरा ही खून हआ ु क्यों ना ईश्वर का िसंहासन डोला ना धरती का सीना फ़टा क्यों गंगा भी मौन रही क्यों पवर्त िहमालय रहा खडा क्यों थी सबकी मौन ःवीबित ॆत्यु का चोला क्यों मुझ पर िदया चढा

BRT Corridor: Another Perspective Anuj Grover (Special thanks to Shobha John) I am a regular reader of one of the leading newspapers of India and the way media shapes public opinion is to be learnt from the various success stories led by the newspapers. However, this also puts a big burden of responsibility on the shoulders of journalists working with the esteemed newspaper. I found the coverage of the BRT a bit deficient in a few aspects. I might be completely wrong, but I still want to share my thoughts with you so that if you find any merit in them, you can help in shaping the public opinion to achieve a better society and a brighter tomorrow. 1. The coverage looses sight of the fact that every bus carries at least 40 passengers (in fact, the way public buses in Delhi are overcrowded; this number can touch 80-100 at times). In contrast, a private vehicle in Delhi usually carries about 1 passenger. On an average, it would carry less than 2 passengers. - Pollution per passenger in a bus is about 1-tenth of the pollution by the most fuelefficient (hence, less polluting) car on Delhi roads. - fuel consumed by the buses in Delhi is much cleaner (CNG) than the fuel of an average private car (petrol). These add to public health benefits and saves the burden on govt health facilities (that they are not in good shape is another matter altogether and a different point of discussion). - higher fuel consumption in private cars is actually a drain on India's forex reserves - According to Delhi govt statistics 70-80% of road users are pedestrians, cyclists and bus travelers. - According to Delhi traffic police statistics about 88% of fatalities in road accidents involve the vulnerable 70-80% of road users (mentioned above). - When buses have to compete for road space, it creates problems. In recent times, we have experienced hundreds of deaths by DTC buses and Blue Lines (remember the recent campaigns). - production of a private car wastes at least 10 times more raw material per passenger than a bus. This means more private vehicles are a "much bigger burden" on the planet. 2. Delhi government has in the past many years (except the few very recent ones) promoted private transport at the cost of severely neglecting public transport. - Flyovers have been built left-right-and-center in various parts of the city. They definitely speed up motor vehicles, but add to the plight of pedestrians and cyclists. In fact, most of the flyovers don't even have mechanisms to allow pedestrians cross the road. - While thousands of crores were spent on building such new infrastructure, DTC used to get limited budget to upgrade its fleet of buses. This has thankfully seen some change in the last year. - Even in this year's budget, the fly-over projects get more than 4-times the allocation to DTC for fleet up gradation. In earlier years, this ratio touched 8-10. 3. BRT is a project that upgrades the traffic sense of Delhi's commuters to safer levels.

It promotes lane driving - It offers higher priority to vehicles carrying larger number of passengers - It offers safe travel opportunity to the people who travel in an eco-friendly way - It prevents the kind of accidents that buses cause on other Delhi roads because they have to compete for road space. - It makes roads safer for the huge majority of more vulnerable sections of the society (many of whom can't even afford insurance in case of death or injury) 4. Every such up gradation project - a project that brings about a change - is bound to see resistance from public. Even abolition of Sati saw resistance. It is in such times that the newspapers should take the lead to ensure that such up gradations are accepted more gracefully. You can try interviewing a few bus commuters who benefited from the faster and less rash travel in Blue-lines on that route. 5. Such projects that involve change in the way public behave are bound to see glitches. I am an engineer. Even we have to tweak our designs after testing it. I believe that when you write a piece of article, you also review it and make changes. I am also a blogger. I remember that when I used to write earlier, I would usually pass my writings through a test audience and then make changes based on their reactions and then post on public forums. 6. In the case of BRT, the government started with a pilot project (did not spend exorbitantly on it when you compare it with numerous other flyover / construction projects). It must have definitely made some miscalculations in traffic volumes at the time of deciding the signaling duration etc. and hence landed itself into a mess. I believe that the government is doing its hardest bit to turn things around from the present mess. Such long jams are clearly not desirable even for private vehicles. Please give them some time-space to bring the required changes. 7. Top article on front-page of one of the newspapers (27-Apr-2008) harped about the Rs.4 cr additional cost in managing the Rs.60 crore project. This clearly is a 7.5% increase in expenditure. However, to put it in perspective, this cost is almost inconsequential when compared with the cost of other fly-over and road projects operated by the Delhi Govt. In fact, many of those projects - of which the government has so much of experience - also see similar and higher cost escalations. This was the first project of its kind, and if this cost escalation happens, it can be taken as a learning experience. While we should always bring financial impropriety to light and such financial imprudence shouldn't be spared, we should give the government enough leverage in the "first of its kind" initiatives, where they also don't have prior experience. Looking into the future, I also see DTC introducing A/C and also more comfortable buses on Delhi roads. At such times, such corridors will promote use of public transport and hence reduce pollution, vehicle density, transport time and also curb inflation due to reduced fuel demand. Public transport should definitely be promoted - even if at the cost of inconvenience to private transport. Look at the example of Singapore where public transport (through taxis, buses, MRTS etc.) is the preferred modes of travel. I hope Delhi becomes a world-class city like that. I hope that we give due weight to the additional safety and benefit that this corridor offers to

the majority of commuters in Delhi. If successful, we can hope to see better road sense prevail in other parts of the city and many other Indian cities. I sincerely hope that we respect the people who respect the environment and public health, as much as they respect their commuting experience and travel time - either due to need or due to their condition. Again, I might be wrong, but I felt that there was a significant other side of the coin that was not being reported in newspapers. You can possibly also interview the experts from IIT Delhi who were involved in the project and get more technical data and analytical information about how the project helps the roadscape of Delhi. I think that responsible citizens can also give suggestions to improve the BRT corridor; we can possibly highlight such suggestions in our reports. This will help people to allow phasing-in of the safe road sense more gracefully. In the future, I sincerely look forward to campaigns from newspapers that bring to forefront the plight of a pedestrian on Delhi roads. The foot-paths are being sacrificed for motor vehicles sake everywhere. It is no surprise then that pedestrian casualties are on the rise in the city.

Don't Confuse Growth with Development Nishank Growth and development in an economy may not be able to capture the same scenarios in the holistic sense. We often see in media, flashing news about India's economic growth of GDP at 8-9% per annum and the changing face of urban India with sprawling offices, malls and multiplexes, roads getting flooded with cars, low-cost airlines connecting the country, cyber cafes and mobile phones in every nook and corner and other visible changes happening in the country. The intelligentsia is exuberant about India becoming an IT superpower and the emergence of knowledge economy. At the same time, this growth hasn't percolated down to the people living in the bottommost strata of the society. A large section of the society is still untouched with all the "development" happening in India. Millions of Indians are still struggling with acute poverty, not getting access to even basic necessities like electricity, water supply, health care, education etc. 77% of Indians, about 836 million people live on less than half a dollar or 20 Rs a day. As of 2005, India had a total employment of 457 million. Of this, 423 million people were employed in the unorganized sector (like agriculture) and the informal sector (laborers and other non-salaried workers employed in the organized sector) combined. This leads to the fact that only 34 million people belong to the "salaried-class", including India's bureaucracy, military and the people employed in the private sector (such as IT, heavy industry, textile, etc.). Most of the benefits of "economic growth" and "globalization" is being enjoyed by this elite class while the utopian "trickle-down" economy is not bringing the much needed benefits for the poor. A country where more than 70% of the population still lives in rural areas, the Government haven't been focused enough to ensure sustainable development of people living in villages. People from rural areas keep migrating to cities in search of work, but most of them have to resort to being daily wage earners, and in the process they get exploited in a struggle for basic survival. The so-called "knowledge economy" can absorb very few of them because of their rudimentary level of education. We need to realize that when we talk about "growth" and "development", both should go hand in hand. Economic growth catering mainly to the elite will push the goals of balanced development in the society to be a more elusive one. We need to scrutinize more closely, as how much this growth is leading towards the development of the poorest among the poor in the society. We still have a long way to go from being in an India which ranks 128 in Human Development Index among 177 countries. Along with the Government, it is also the responsibility of the educated lot to actively

participate to ensure a balanced development in the society. We need to work together to ensure that the Govt. policies devised for the poor are also implemented at the right time in the right manner and we need to make the Govt. machinery free of corruption through effective use of RTI Act. We need to make the poor aware of their basic rights along with ensuring proper education for them which can help in their sustainable development. For the poor, the development lies not in high rise buildings, malls, fancy cars and more places to hang out, but in getting the basic rights of food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, water, electricity and education. Development doesn't means higher sensex and more numbers of Indian billionaires getting added in the Forbes List, but if the poorest among the poor are getting a chance for their basic right of survival. We need to look beyond our professional and personal lives, as how can we be a part in this developmental process.

VOLUNTEER SPEAK: Mazhab Nahi Sikhata... Govind Singh A poem I composed a few years ago, after the Godhra/Post-Godhra carnage. Amidst the killings and the acts of shame. As the police and public lay so lame. I heard a soft moaning sound. While stuck in traffic, near the Raj Ghat ground. I went closer, and to my surprise. Saw Bapu, with tears in his eyes. And when I enquired for the reason that made him frown. He just said, "How many times will they shoot me down?"

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PICTURES FROM AID GURGAON BASTI VISIT

From Left: Tara, Vinod, Pankaj In Front: Sheetal with Sumanji