Aid Delhi Newsletter August 2005

Association for India’s Development Delhi Chapter

Newsletter, August 2005 Edition # 2

“Learning humility, purity and simple-living from those who don't take too much from the earth ... Targeting the problems of hunger, disease and oppression that sadden their lives ... Inspiring in each other trust, Confidence and support for one another ...” Our Mission

Table of Contents

From The Editor’s Desk ILR Kyoto Protocol (Revisited) Anti-Coke Campaign Projects Parichay Prayas Nai Disha Faith Foundation IT Support Cells Water Cell Fund-raising Cell Citizens of a Proud Country? Scintilla of Hope For the Blind Delhi : Crime against Women Tale of small cities Future Roadmap Volunteer Co-ordination Volunteers Speak… Volunteering in Jet Age Simple Ways To Volunteer Open Volunteer Positions AID T-shirt Design Publishing Team Contacts

From The Editor’s Desk (Riputapan)

It’s an immense pleasure to bring out the second edition of AID Delhi newsletter. The past quarter has been quite an eventful one for AID Delhi and the same is reflected in this newsletter. We've diversified in terms of projects with the starting of "Prayas" in Jahangirpuri in which our volunteers visit regularly from Monday to Friday to teach juvenile children. We've also started providing IT-Support to the not-so-techno-savvy NGOs to enable them to manage things effectively. In Parichay, nutrition program has been started since July. Paras (AID US) volunteered for 2 weeks at Parichay. Supplementary classes have begun on Sundays at Nai Disha.

The cells have evolved too with lots of activity in water cell & women's cell. We've made the representation on Inter-Linking of Rivers (in collaboration with Rivers for Life group) to the standing committee of the parliament. Women's cell is focusing on sensitive issues like eve-teasing and has come out with a survey. Previr & Alok have worked on the Kyoto Protocol studies which could take a tangible shape under the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility. Divya presents an insight into the life of visually impaired. The wonderful documents prepared by our volunteer Garima are an important tool for our Digital-Unify program, in which we try to bridge the gap between those who are computer-literate and those who are not. Fund raising team has been working hard developing pragmatic proposals for raising funds. We have also revamped our website, adding lots of new stuff. New AID T-shirts have been printed with AID philosophy "Sangharsh, Nirmaan, Sewa". But the biggest change that we've witnessed is the inflow of new, enthusiastic volunteers. Our volunteer base has strengthened significantly in the past quarter. And thanks to the new volunteers, project teams are now stabilized in terms of regular volunteer availability. In commensuration with all that has been happening in AID Delhi, our newsletter has also evolved a lot. We are not only bringing out what AID Delhi's doing but also focusing on important issues like ILR, Kyoto Protocol studies, etc. Kyoto Protocol has incidentally been revisited with more details. This version of newsletter has articles ranging from wide variety of topics with some of them coming directly from volunteer experiences. The theme of this newsletter is of cours e the Independence Day. Plus there are some really motivating articles for the volunteers who are new on the scene. Our editorial team has also grown and we hope that you enjoy as you read along...

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” - Mahatma Gandhi

Inter-Linking of Rivers (Anuj) Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILR) is a project formulated by the Government of India for linking the different rivers of India to each other. The intent for the formulation is to find a permanent solution for the recurring floods and droughts in the country and resolving the paradox of having both the calamities at the same time in different parts of country. The intent is good but the approach, as it has turned out, is equally bad. ILR is presented to the public as a panacea for all water problems but the facts and logic tell an entirely different story. This article discusses the proclaimed benefits from the ILR project and their associated flip sides which have been gravely ignored. The Benefits Proclaimed ILR project, as Government has envisaged, will achieve the targets of • Drought-Proofing • Flood Prevention • Irrigation • Electricity Generation • Inland Navigation • National Integration • and Others. Delving a little into these claims, one can see an altogether different picture of the project. Following sections provide some significant insight into each of them. • Drought-Proofing: In summers, when the drought occurs either in Rajasthan/Gujarat or peninsular India, it is highly unlikely that the states in Indogangetic plains have any water to spare from their own agricultural needs. This is substantiated by the fact that there are issues already raised with Bangladesh over the less amount of water India releases in Ganga during the lean months. • Flood Prevention: In the months of monsoon, the flow in Brahmaputra River is about 30,000 cubic metres/sec (cusecs). The capacity of canals being suggested in the ILR is of the order of 1,500 cusecs. Even this capacity bears a huge economic, environmental and social cost; increasing capacity will be still more detrimental. • Increasing Irrigated Land (additional 34 million hectares irrigable land): ICAR statistics confirms that even after spending crores of rupees on large water

projects for the past 57 years, 60% of our agricultural land is still supported by traditional structures like wells, tanks etc. Statistics also warn that India already has 23 million hectares of land that is rendered unproductive due to waterlogging and salinity associated with canal-based irrigation. • Generating Electricity (additional 34000 MW): According to the Newton's law of gravitation, water flows from high altitude to lower altitude. River basins are formed such because there is a highland separating one basin from another. So when one wants to transfer water from one basin to another (as ILR proposes), one either needs to build tunnels through the highlands, or pump-lift the water. The former solution is very costly and can be rejected. In the latter one, energy is actually expended in lifting water from one basin and then transferring it to another. It seems unlikely that the energy generated in the other basin will be higher than that expended in lifting the water. Even if it happens to be higher the net gain will only be a few thousand MW. • Inland Navigation: This benefit has always been highlighted for every canalbased project. Records prove the hollowness of such claims. Though India has the largest canal irrigation network in the world, barring one or two canals none has ever been used for this purpose in India yet. • National Integration: While the project does fuel a romantic dream of a united India and national integration, facts from our previous experiences on water projects (Kaveri basin, or recently SatlujYamuna Link canal) have proven otherwise. Water receiving state will always ask for more water and the donor state will prefer to keep all to itself. Water sharing projects have usually led to more conflicts than a feeling of increased camaraderie and integration. The Hidden Concerns After a plethora of benefits proclaimed by the proponents of ILR project, following are some crucial concerns, not so conspicuous but deep hidden under the beatific imagery of ILR.

• Economically Disastrous: Budget of the project is estimated as 1,000,000 crores, just for infrastructure. This does not include environmental, rehabilitation and other costs involved. To bring things into perspective, this amount is more than 1/4th of India's annual GDP and twice India’s total irrigation budget since 1950. This will require heavy borrowing, sinking the country further into the abyss of international debt. • Promote Corruption: ILR is a mouthwatering proposition for politicians and contractors. Even a minimal 10% graft would leave India short of 100,000 crores. • Displacement and Social Costs: It is estimated that ILR will submerge more than 8000 sq km of land affecting numerous villages and towns. Worst hit would be the neediest people who will end up destitute. Since independence around 33 million people have been displaced due to large river valley projects and most have not yet been rehabilitated. • Environmental Costs: 50,000 hectares of forests will be submerged just by the peninsular links. Submergence due to links in Gangetic rivers hasn't yet been evaluated. This would not only impact wildlife, but also impact rich bio-diversity of India. The list of concerns is endless. This is more so because there is no transparency in the Government's decisions and none of the project assessment reports have been made public. Alternative Solutions Numerous alternatives have been proposed by the noted environmentalists and other experts of the field, some of which are briefly mentioned below. These alternatives will not only save the huge investments planned for ILR but also improve the efficiency of the existing system, already well in place in India.

structures are local in nature and therefore also cheap and more effective. • Canal irrigation efficiency in India is abysmally low at 20-35%. Just an improvement in efficiency by about 10% can irrigate 14 million additional hectares of land, without causing any further environmental or ecological damage. • Watershed techniques have resulted in revival of Aravari river basin in the desert state of Rajasthan. These do not result in any large-scale displacement of people and also generate livelihood for people in their villages thereby reducing the rural-t o-urban migration. • Focusing on reducing T&D losses on the electricity network, we will gain not only in terms of revenues generated (in place of costs which would be incurred in the ILR), but also have more energy at our disposal. • Water deficient states should follow their corresponding agricultural practices to prevent export of water (through crops). Planners need to take due care of virtual water economies. To conclude, seeing the hollowness of proposed benefits and the disastrous flipside of the ILR project, it rather looks quite an unwise decision to throw billions of dollars down the drain when we can achieve similar levels of gains just by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our present investments. Instead of spending a significant portion of our country’s GDP on ILR, if we spend a small part on alternative solutions, benefits will be far more outreaching.

The Kyoto Protocol (Alok/Previr) Significance

• Traditional water harvesting structures, such as ponds and lakes, give the benefit of flood prevention and also drought mitigation. These structures hold excess water when it rains and result in recharging the underground aquifers - which in turn prevents droughts. In Bihar, more than 60,000 ponds need to be revived. Such

The Kyoto Protocol is the first serious attempt on the part of the international community to curb global warming. Global warming is defined as the progressive gradual rise of the Earth’s surface temperature thought to be caused primarily by the greenhouse effect. The scientific opinion on climate change, as expressed by

the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and endorsed by the national science academies of the G8 nations, is that the average global temperatures have risen 0.6 ± 0.2°C over the last century. Most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities, most prominently the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). Based on climate models referenced by the IPCC, temperatures may increase by 1.4°C to 5.8°C between 1990 and 2100. If this happens the polar ice caps will start melting and the level of sea will rise. This can lead to one third of land mass in low lying countries such as Mauritius, Maldives, Bangladesh submerge and coral islands such as Lakshadweep to completely disappear. Such changes may trigger other detrimental events such as change in amount and patter of precipitation, floods, droughts, heat waves, reduction of agricultural yields or even cause biological extinctions. Some signs of global warming have already started appearing. In 1995 a huge crack extending over 65 Km was noticed on the northern tip of Antarctica. El Niño has been appearing more frequently since 1980. Kyoto Protocol intends to arrest global warming and reverse the damage already done to the global climatic changes.

Formulation and status as of date The Kyoto protocol is an amendment to the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty on global warming. The UNFCCC was produced during the United Nations Earth summit held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The treaty provides for industrialized countries voluntarily reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. The treaty as originally framed set no mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual nations and contained no enforcement provisions; and hence is considered legally non-binding. The Kyoto Protocol was concluded in third conference of Conference of Parties to FCC held at Kyoto, Japan in Dec 1997. This got opened for signature on March 16, 1998. The agreement came into force on February 16, 2005 following ratification by Russia on November 18, 2004. At its implementation,

the agreement had been ratified by 141 countries representing over 61% of global emissions. India signed and ratified the Protocol in August 2002. Of the most notable nations who have not ratified the protocol are US and Australia. USA, which is the largest emitter of the GHGs, has neither ratified nor withdrawn from the protocol. The protocol is non-binding over the United States unless ratified. The President, Bush, has indicated that he does not intend to submit the treaty for ratification, not because he does not support the general idea, but because of the strain he believes the treaty would put on the economy. Furthermore, he is not happy with the details of the treaty. For example, he does not support the split between Annex I countries and others. US in support of its refusal to ratify mentions that unless the larger developing countries – commonly mentioning China and India – also make commitments to lower their output of GHGs ,the US will not do so. Policy proposals The Kyoto Protocol is a legally binding agreement under which industrialized countries will reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% compared to the year 1990. The goal is to lower overall emissions from six greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, HFCs, and PFCs - calculated as an average over the five-year period of 2008-12. National targets range from 8% reductions for the European Union and some others to 7% for the US. The developing countries under Kyoto protocol don’t have commitment to curtail their emission but they are required to assist the industrialized nations to meet their targets. Kyoto Protocol provides for three mechanisms – Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Joint Implementation, Emission trading - to achieve emission reduction targets. Under CDM, Kyoto protocol allows developing countries to assist the industrialized countries in achieving compliance with their quantified emissions and reduction commitments. In addition to this Kyoto protocol provides for industrialized countries assisting themselves in achieving the targets for reductions by investing in carbon efficient projects. Some

current estimates indicate that even if successfully implemented, the Kyoto Protocol will be able to reduce the average global temperature by somewhere between 0.02C to 0.28C by the year 2050, compared to the increase of 1.4C to 5.8C by 2100. Because of this many critics and environmentalists question the value of the Kyoto Protocol and ask for providing greater teeth to this. Moreover the Kyoto protocol is criticized because it’s not based on socially just and ecologically effective strategy. 20 % of the world population living in about 10 industrialized countries is responsible for 80% of Green house gases. Under joint implementation mechanism of Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries can meet their carbon dioxide emissions reduction targets by investing in join implementation project in developing countries and need not change anything domestically. This means that there may not be a real reduction in carbon dioxide emission level in developed countries. Under emission trading option of Kyoto Protocol, sellers of emission may sell their emission at the cheapest possible cost by exporting outdated technologies to developing countries for establishing industries. Further the 1996 level of carbon dioxide emissions of industrial countries as a group is already below 1990 levels by about 4.5% because of the collapse of Republic of Soviet Union and east European countries. This means that industrialized countries have to just keep a check of their increasing emission levels in addition to reducing emission levels by 0.7%. This target they can easily achieve by helping developing/ under developed countries in establishing efficient power plants. Because of these reasons Kyoto protocol seems to be as a carbon trading agreement rather than as Environmental protection agreement. Kyoto Protocol provides for application of Economic sanction on developed countries if they fail to fulfill their obligations. But economic sanctions against industrialized countries are not an effective mechanism to implement the protocol. A common per capita emission concept will alone help to move faster towards non carbon energy

world and thus will address Global warming phenomenon on permanent and equitable basis. Recent attempts beyond Kyoto On 28 July 2005, on the sidelines of the Asia Regional Forum meeting, US, India, China, Japan, South Korea and Australia unveiled their pact to fight climate change towards environment friendly technology. It is envisaged that in this new partnership on clean development, collaboration will include, but not be limited to nanotechnologies, hydrogen, advanced biotechnologies and next generation nuclear fission and fusion energy.

Anti-Coke campaign (Riputapan) Plachimada (Kerala) is inhabited mostly by extremely poor people. There on one side of the street was the Coca-Cola plant, among the largest in Asia, and on the other a shack filled with locals eager to impart the news that they were now, as of April 2, in Day 1076 of their struggle against the plant. Coca-Cola came to India in 1993, looking for water and markets in a country where one third of all villages are without anything approaching adequate water and shortages are growing every day. Indeed India is facing a gigantic water crisis, even as Coca Cola and other companies haul free water to the cities from the countryside and water parks and golf courses metastasize around cities like Mumbai. Coca-Cola had sound reasons in zoning in on Plachimada. A rainshadow region in the heart of Kerala's water belt, it has large underground water deposits. The site Coca-Cola picked was set between two large reservoirs and ten meters south of an irrigation canal. The ground water reserves had apparently showed up on satellite surveys done by the company's prospectors. Within six months the villagers saw the level of their water drop sharply, even run dry. The water they did draw was awful. It gave some people diarrhea and bouts of dizziness. To wash in it was to get skin rashes, a burning feel on the skin. It left their

hair greasy and sticky. The women found that rice and dal did not get cooked but became hard. A thousand families have been directly affected, and well water affected up to a three or four kilometers from the plant. Today, in a region known as the rice bowl of Kerala, women in Plachimada have to walk a 4-kilometer round trip to get drinkable water, toting the big vessels on hip or their head. Even better-off folk face ruin. One man said he'd been farming eight acres of rice paddy, hiring 20 workers, but now, with no water for the paddy, he survives on the charity of his son-in-law. The old village wells had formerly gone down to 150 to 200 feet. The company's bore wells go down to 750 to 1000 feet. As the water table dropped, all manner of toxic matter began to rise too, leaching up to higher levels as the soil dried out. Recent Update: The state government of Kerala, in southern India, is taking the CocaCola Company to court over its abuse of groundwater. The state government has decided to move the Supreme Court of India challenging Coca-Cola's right to extract groundwater. The announcement, made on st July 21 by Local Self-Government Minister Kutty Ahmed Kutty, specifically challenges an earlier, April 7 Kerala High Court ruling that allowed the company to extract up to half million liters of water per day for its Plachimada bottling plant. The High Court had also instructed the local village council (panchayat) to renew Coca-Cola's license.

Project : Parichay (Sarfaraz)

Parichay stands testimony to the fact that if the members of an organization are committed, zealous and enthusiastic about their work, they can accomplish their goals come what may!! Parichay has run for so many years without any funds, against many odds. It got registered under the “Societies th Registration Act -1860” on 17 May 2005. This was done while Parichay was in the process of expanding its services to the community. The children, who have been sponsored by the Parichay sponsors, started

going to Private Schools and have shown a positive change towards education and towards life in general. In the process of sponsoring more children, Parichay got two more sponsorships in the month of June and July for its children, making a total of nine. Parichay believes in all round development of a child. The children in the community have never seen anything beyond their community. So in order to make them familiar with the surroundings and give some knowledge about different things, an Educational trip to zoo and national handicraft museum was arranged. The kids of non-formal education, the young children of Sunday classes, volunteers and teachers went on the trip. It was a memorable experience for the children to see all those things which they never even thought of, and for teachers and volunteers because the smiles on the faces of children gave them the sense of satisfaction which nothing else can give. Besides education, Parichay provides opportunities for skills development. During May and June, special emphasis was given on art and craft. These vocational skills give the children the means to earn, feel free and be independent. The self-sustainability of the community people has always been the priority of the Parichay. The Masala unit that had started for income generation has shown immense growth since then. It has provided employment to women in the community thus enabling them to contribute financially to their families. The surroundings in communities are so unhygienic that the health problems are very common amongst children. Dr. Amita Govil conducted medical check-up of all the kids and community people, which is essential, as people in a community are very negligent about their health. The problems have to be identified at the initial stages to be cured before they extend their roots. The health check brought to our notice that many of the children are suffering from various health problems and they need to undergo treatment. The root cause of the illness was malnutrition. So a Nutrition Program was started in month of July for children undergoing treatment. The nutritious value of food intake of children in the community is generally very low. In the process of increasing the extent of its

support Parichay have also initiated a Disability support. A step forward has taken to support and rehabilitate persons with physical and mental disability; Arti (mentally challenged girl aged 33 years) has joined Parichay as a volunteer. She comes once a week and teaches art and craft to the kids and helps the handicraft production unit. Parichay always welcomes people. A Volunteer from USA: Paras Doshi worked with the kids for 10 days and before leaving sponsored one child. That was a great experience for the children as well as Paras to be together and to have a long lasting relationship. Parichay has also developed a good rapport with Dhriiti, an NGO which has helped in stepping up marketing initiatives for masalas made by women at Parichay.

Project : Prayas (Vineet / Mayank Jain)

Prayas is a Delhi based organization working for the welfare of juvenile children and orphans. Prayas juvenile home ,situated in Jahangirpuri (north-west Delhi) is a part of this organization it caters to the needs of rehabilitation of children rescued from underage labor, those facing cases/ sentences under juvenile justice act and orphans (who have abandoned by their near and dear ones). We spent the last two months of summers this year at Prayas juvenile home, working with these children. We spent about 3 hours/day for five days a week at the organization, teaching children mathematics. It was not exactly, what we can call a traditional classroom. We both taught in the same classroom, to two separate groups of students, dividing the blackboard space equally among us! This was the first a bit strange to us- as I said it was not a traditional classroom. While one th of us taught students of class 8 , the other th one taught students of class 6 . On the first day of our assignment, we were in for a shock when we came to know that we were expected to teach the students through Hindi medium. We were so enthusiastic about the project that we had simply ignored

the writing on the wall-that the children studied in government schools and hence the medium of instruction was Hindi language. But when we started teaching and interacting with the students ,we were able to overcome this handicap and we were also able to brush up our vocabulary of our national language ( For instance, how many of us know that cube root is called “ghanmool” in our mother tongue?!). Well, having one hurdle crossed, we had our spirits high, when we faced our next hurdlehow to teach basic concepts like the fundamentals of addition and subtraction to the students. The subject of mathematics (being the students of engineering) had governed our whole sixteen years of education. These concepts were so obvious to us that we were stumped when we realized that many students of our class faced difficulty in such basic concepts .Moreover, students were not ready to admit their handicap, and this made our task tougher. However, thanks to the NCERT books, we were able to bring us at the level of students and help them understand these fundas. The period we spent there was period of revelation for us. Firstly, we noticed that there were many bright chaps in the class. They were eager to learn not only maths, but also English (quite many of them nudged us for teaching them the queen’s language). Secondly, we realized how eager these students were to learn (barring a few). Initially they were reluctant to learn (as they thought we would come for a couple of days and then simply disappear). However, when we became a regular fixture there, we found students becoming more receptive and interested. We also tried to promote this feeling by asking students (who understood a concept we taught) to help out his fellow student (who were not able to grasp the concept properly). This had twin benefitsfirst it was an act of appreciation for the students (who were able to grasp easily) .secondly, we were able to explain the concepts easily to the relatively weaker students with the help of their fellow students. Finally, the grand truth we realized first handedly –that the teachers in government run school are responsible largely for the plight of the students. If a th student of class 6 finds difficulty in addition, it is because a teacher in the lower classes

failed in his duty. It is not that these students have a lower IQ or so. It’s just that they have not been taught properly and thus been forced into being a less intelligent student than his contemporaries in private schools.

Project : Nai Disha (Anand) It was a sultry May morning, when I called Mayank, just to chat and to know what is he involved with, in general. During this chat, he talked about Nai Disha and its activities. Nai Disha Free Education Society, Noida is a school for under-privileged children started by Capt. Jaiswal, way back in year 1992. The hard work he has put into upbringing of this school is definitely worth emulating by th others. This school is up to Class 5 . The criterion for admission in this school is that parent’s income should be less that Rs. 1500/- a month. Since I landed in Noida three years back, I was always in the search of something like this - to teach underprivileged children. My search ended that day and I started going regularly to Nai Disha without break- at least till now. Here in Nai Disha, we are mostly involved with students of Class 4 and 5. Most of the children are from poor families. Some children’s parents are private guards, while others parents are either maid or rickshaw pullers etc. Till now, my experience with Nai Disha has really been exciting. Some children are very good in academics. I can compare them with any good students in public schools. They may not be smart enough but they have enough talent to be groomed as bright students. In Nai Disha our short term goal is to get them admitted th in good schools next year in Class 6 standard, once they complete their program here. As of now all the student who are enrolled in the regular classes of Nai Disha are not coming to the weekend class. Initially it started with 4-5 students in each class. But now that number has gone up to around 1215 in each class. The most important part is that these student are coming on there own without any enticements. As I keep stressing

that those who are not interested or not feeling like coming to the class, may not come, those who are not completing their home-work also may not come but in spite of all that the number of students coming to the weekend class has never gone down than the previous class. Students are also regular in completing their home-work. The other point which I have noticed over period of time is that the parents of these students also need to be motivated about importance of studies for their wards. At times it happens that a student does not come to the class and tells next time that he/she has some important work assigned to him by his parents. This important work is most of the time something domestic, which in my opinion could be postponed for the sake of studies. Here the issue is parents don’t give enough importance to academics of their children, because they have seen many educated unemployed in our society. Apart from the weekend classes, we also talk to them regarding any thing they feel like talking or sharing with others. The intent of all this is to make them feel they are not isolated and they are or they could be, as good as any body else in society. We are also planning some trip - educational as well as fun - for them in the coming months.

Project : Faith Foundation (Rohit)

I would like to share the experience of my first visit to Faith Foundation. I had filled up the volunteer form long back, but I was far from optimistic about the scenario initially. I'd been trying to volunteer with a good organization which does some "real work" for the past one year, but with no success. Almost all the organizations I visited had lots of meetings and stuff going on, but all the enthusiasm subsided when it came to actual community work. Anirban invited me to visit Priya on a Saturday to have a look at the Faith Foundation classes. The visit was a surprise and a breather of fresh air. It was amazing to see something good happening for the first time after being associated with the development sector for almost an year. As the time for classes drew

closer, all the kids started assembling at the location by themselves. Then a couple of kids cleaned the whole place up and made it look good to sit. It was great to see somewhere around 60 kids assemble for the class on their own without any sort of prodding. Most of them are ragpickers around the Priya complex, and they just came there because those classes are fun. The day of my first visit, we had English and Mathematics classes going on. Pen and paper were distributed among all the kids, whose ages ranged from 5-15, and they started working according to their abilities. There was one little girl who was about to start learning the alphabet, while another who was solving long multiplication problems. The children were of different age groups, abilities and geographical backgrounds but the one thing common to all of them in these classes was that they were happy. One could easily see the twinkle in their eyes, and the eagerness to learn. All they required was a push in the right direction, which Faith Foundation does with lots of care and love. It seriously enthuses the kids to be more informed citizens, and people like us to believe that we definitely can make a difference if we want to.

charge for web-services from clients (incase clients are not non-profit organisations) All the volunteers who do not have the bandwidth to visit the actual project sites or who wish to contribute technically can volunteer for this cause.

Project : IT Support (Riputapan)

1. Do we know that how we get access to all the water we use?

This is one of our newest projects. Its basic aim is to support the NGOs which need IThelp. The idea is to use the technical skills of our volunteers to enable our partner NGOs in their endeavour. Preeti Markan, who's into IT-solutions business, has helped us in developing a database & data-retrieval system for the NGO SAMA, which is organising International Women's Health Meet in September, 2005. Another NGO, Sahayog, based in Lucknow had urgent requirement to convert their systems to Linux-based client-server configuration. So, a workshop on Linux administration was conducted by me for them. This model, once it gains ground, can also be used for fund-raising wherein we shall

Water Cell (Vivek) The Water Cell is a focus group formed by volunteers at AID-Delhi, with the aim of generating awareness among people on all water related issues ranging from 'Water Pollution' to 'Rain Water Harvesting' to 'Water Conservation'. This local cell works in collaboration with central AID-wide water cell. Water is an essential resource for life, so much so that we are accustomed to take it for granted. Thus the water cell aims to develop a deeper understanding on how we use water... and more importantly can we sustain the ever increasing demand for water? We intend to undertake a detailed study on the way we utilize our water resources and answer the following questions:

2. Are our water sources replenish able? And can they sustain the ever increasing demand? 3. What do we know about conservation of water? How effectively can we implement conservation? We believe that answers to these questions should help us understand our water resources and we would be in a better position towards taking some kind of affirmative action towards solving water related problems. In the medium term we envisage to develop and implement technical improvements in different wateruse industries like - textiles, bottling plants, paper etc. - such that they not only use water more efficiently, but also do not cause pollution of surrounding water resources.

Any AID volunteer can be a part of water cell. To be a part of water cell at AID Delhi, please join [email protected] . To be a part of AID-wide water cell, please join [email protected]

Fund Raising Cell (Ankit) Fund Raising cell started with a vision to make AID Delhi financially independent by the end of 2006. Currently, AID Delhi has little cash in hand and has no long-term fund raising activity. Whenever there is any fund requirement, funds are collected within the network of AID Delhi and its members. This cell aims to pursue efficient fund-raising activities for better management of resources. Such activities would help to increase awareness among masses, organize ourselves and would provide us the required exposure to organize bigger events and campaigns for Fund Raising in future. There is need to put system in place that would ensure regular flow of funds. Since its inception, lot of ideas has been suggested and analyzed by the members of the cell. Projects undertaken: Printing and Sale of AID Delhi t -shirts is taken up as one of our activities. We expect to raise Rs. 15,000 by the sale of 200 Tshirts by the end of December 2005. This activity would make donors aware of AID Delhi’s activities and motivate them to contribute to the cause of India's development. Projects in planning stage: v We are in the process to regularize donation by AID Delhi members under ‘Donate Meal a Month’ program. This has been the basic source of funding for any chapter of AID. v We are planning to stall ‘Collection Boxes’ at various places in Delhi and NCR region to raise funds and spread awareness.

v We are planning to organize ‘Inter School Quiz Competition’ in Delhi and NCR Region to raise funds. Fund Raising cell has very few members dedicated to fund-raising activities only. This paucity of active & dedicated volunteers and related logistics issues inhibit the culmination of various innovative ideas. We require volunteers who are willing to work on these ideas and could provide AID Delhi a perennial source of funding.

Citizens of a proud Country? (Ankit) th

“Hey, 15 August is Monday, lets go for a vacation to some romantic place”, I happened to hear my colleague’s conversation with his wife over the phone. Each one of us waits anxiously for holidays like Independence Day, Republic Day, and Election Day to fall on Friday/Monday so that we could have an extended weekend. So what’s wrong with it? After 58 years of Independence, do we Indians realize the value of ‘Freedom’? Do we realize the value of sacrifices and selfless efforts of real life heroes of our freedom struggle? Patriotism is not just about cheering for Indian Cricket Team, th attending ceremonies on 15 August, criticizing public policies, blaming politicians and/or just feeling ‘bad’ about the current state of the country. ‘Love of and devotion to one's country’ is how any lexicon describes Patriotism. But Patriotism is not just about sentiments; it has to be reflected in your demeanor, day to day activities and your thought process. India is our motherland and we are an inseparable part of her. We share ownership of India’s resources and assets with other citizens of the country. But how many of us would hold themselves responsible for the misuse of these invaluable resources and assets? How many of us consider ourselves responsible citizens? Why do we blame government when more than 50% do not exercise their vote? An expected answer, all of them are corrupt. But they are also a part of our society, so there must be something wrong with our society and we are equally

responsible for this state. Blaming government and its policies won’t help anymore. How many of us follow traffic rules, pay taxes honestly, buy train tickets, pay for public facilities, use electricity & water efficiently and exercise our basic rights & duties? People litter in public places, parks and while driving without giving the second thought to it. Do you still want to label yourself as civilized human being? I doubt. Education could provide knowledge but not civic sense. Being the citizens of this country, we need to accept our share of responsibilities. India is nothing but its people. We need to treat this country as our home. Priceless ‘freedom’ has given us free air to breathe. Let’s realize its importance, let us not let it go. This country has given us so much and now it’s our turn to pay back. Patriotism is not just a feeling, but it is sense of commitment from the citizen of the country to contribute in full capacity to make the country most desired place in the world. A place where people feel accountable for the progress of the country, efforts would be collective and for the prosperity of the country. Currently we all are part of the vicious circle where everybody blames one another. We need to get out of it; otherwise we have to pay a bigger price. Would we still consider ourselves ‘Patriotic’? Let’s be honest to ourselves. The decision lies in our hands.

A Scintilla of Hope for the Blind (Divya) Having been brought up in a relatively protective environment, most of us fail to understand and appreciate those who have been born with a handicap and have still sustained and survived to lead a self respecting life. I here make a special mention to the children of the dark, the “visually impaired”. Imagine yourself to see only “black” around, you can hear voices, but cannot imagine or relate them to anything because you have never known what it is to see them. Working with the blind has educated me in a much more esoteric way than what I was able to grasp in my 15 years of formal education. They develop amazing strengths to cope

with life. They travel in public transport like us; many go to normal schools and aspire to lead a peaceful or even successful life. While they grow up they begin to realize that not only do they need to contend the world with their physical disability but also with the immense emotional and mental pressures they are exposed to. These are the times when they learn to accept that they cannot lead normal lives and their dreams shall always remain unattainable. Talking in the Indian context, vocational education for the blind has primarily limited itself to activities like candle making, sculpture, card making, sewing & stitching and other related tasks. What we need to focus on is to expand the employment opportunities for them. It is observed that, as children, the blind students are not subjected to normal conditions. Going to the special blind schools teaches them to become an independent blind but not an independent person. They are unaware of many realities of life and this limits their growth. Government of India- Still a Long Way to Go By 2020 the Government aims to make all schools in the country disabled-friendly and all educational institutions including hostels, libraries, laboratories and buildings will have barrier free access for the disabled. Special attention will be given to ensure the availability of study material for the visually impaired and talking text-books, reading machines and computers with speech software will be introduced progressively in addition to an adequate number of Braille books. The efforts made by the Government are still very less and much needs to be done. Briefly, its role can be summed into the following points-: v To ensure that no blind child is denied admission in the mainstream education. v To ensure that every child has the right to access an Aanganwadi and school and no child is turned back on the ground of this disability. v To ensure that the mainstream and specialist training institutions serving persons with disabilities, in the government or in the non-government sector, facilitate the growth of a cadre of

v v v v

teachers trained to work within the principles of inclusion. To facilitate access of visually impaired students (especially girls) from rural and remote areas to government hostels. To promote distance education for those who require individualized pace of learning. To hold medical campaigns exploring vision improvement possibilities. To emphasize job-training and joboriented vocational training.

and dedicate ourselves for this worthy cause. We don’t really have to be a Santa Claus for the visually impaired. We just have to understand and promote the paradigm shift, from that of charity to that of development, through a massive awareness, motivation and sensitization campaign.

Delhi : Crime Capital for Women (Sonam)

Responsibility as Citizens As responsible citizens we must come forward to help the blind in whatever little ways we can. There are numerous NGOs working for the uplift of visually blind. But they generally run short of funds and volunteers. The various ways you can volunteer in these organizations are as follows:v Teaching the blind students. v Volunteering for recording cassettes for the blind. v Volunteering for proof reading of Braille. v Typing soft copies of books that would be converted into Braille. v Teaching the blind students to operate computers (touch-screen or voicesystems). v Special interactions to share your vocational skills (art & craft, public speaking, music). v Reading books. v Funding options include either direct charity (money or utilities) or helping the organization to market the various items produced by the visually impaired. v Donating eyes- A very simple and noble task. Conclusion To the eyes of visually impaired, the world is closed. To enable them share its beauty and its ugliness we need to make them learn how to visualize things through their minds. The Government has taken up the responsibility to work for their special needs, but unfortunately things are moving at a slow pace. We need to gear it up. We, the citizens of our country, need to volunteer

An often debated yet unsolved question is whether or not the city is safe or unsafe for women or for that matter men too (well at least some). The reason I chose to write on this topic is because I’ve always wondered is the city really the crime capital because its not only the average Delhiite but the perpetrators of aggression in Delhi hail from every state in the country. Delhi is one city where you can 'get away with it', from the police and the public. Its sad that the city can’t protect its women The rapes rocking Delhi are the culmination of years of aggression that women in Delhi have faced almost as a 'legacy' of sorts, and ignored just as studiously as possible.. Aggression may start in harmless ways, but since the most basic form of eve-teasing hasn't been curbed yet, there's little hope that men won't feel emboldened to cross the line. Personal experiences as well as hear-say, are not only shocking but also an eye opener to the city’s ignorance of the real issues which stem the male aggression. So is a change in mind-sets and attitude in general what is required of the city to prevent a plethora of uncertain events in the future to come. But before we immerse ourselves deeply into, what is, and what should be let’s remind ourselves of the staggering facts and figures indicating the crimes inflicted by the city, on the city. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics, Delhi had 30.5 percent of rape cases, 35.0 percent of kidnapping and abduction cases, 18.8 percent of dowry deaths and 15.0 percent of molestation cases among the 35 big cities in India in 2003. At 1,862, Delhi accounted for 14.8 percent of total crimes against women in these cities. Among all the states and union territories, Delhi ranks third

after Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in the incidence of crimes against women. According to a Delhi Commission for Women report, major incidents of rape continue to occur in slum and other congested areas with a predominance of lower economic groups. The commission points out that there have been 350 rape cases in Delhi this year alone. Between March 2004 and April 2005, 318 cases of rape were reported. Their district-wise distribution is: south - 79, southwest - 63, west - 58, north - 16, northeast- 9, east - 57, central - 29 and New Delhi - 7. The abduction and gang-rape of a 23-year-old pregnant housewife early morning when she went out of her shanty to answer nature's call shows the state of affairs in the city. Media reports said nothing was done to identify and intercept the car in which the woman was raped even after a complaint was made to the Mayapuri police station. In another incident, a 22-year-old man raped a 70-year-old woman in another slum in northwest Delhi. According to the police, close relatives committed 46 rapes in Delhi last year. Eleven fathers, two grandfathers, 14 brothers-in-law, eight uncles, four cousins, three stepfathers, one father-in-law and three ex-husbands were the accused. Twenty women were raped by friends and lovers, while in 209 cases neighbors were the accused. The problem being the two kinds of male aggression being faced by women of this otherwise wonderful city, that is to say the casual (not serious) and the more serious “rape kinds”. It is being hard to distinguish between the two so different things considering the fine line dividing them. The women of Delhi need to be told that both are not to be tolerated. Women are being subjected to the two at all times, be it in the market place, buses or regular hangouts, from busy roads to lonely streets, from autowallahs to the big boss in the office. Women are victims of constant male aggression. That's the behavior women face in Delhi on a regular basis. And we ignore it. At times we do stop to teach a lesson. But how many can you teach a lesson? Is the struggle to maintain distance and dignity a challenge for men? But how does one put a stop to it? What does one do? Learning self-defense tactics is only one part of an essential program. Women need to re-look at how

they address this male aggression. Why do we accept the violation of our dignity as punishment? Why do we ignore the small acts of aggression, treating them as 'really nothing'? Rapists lurk in all classes of society: all they do is cross a line, break an unwritten human law. Rape violates every aspect of a woman's life. If women want to do justice to women violated, we need to flip the rule-book for good. Rape cannot punish us. Rape cannot finish us.

Tale of Small Cities (Digvijay) “Change is the law of Nature” but there’s a little change in small cities of India in the past decades even when world is developing at a faster pace. Schools have been built, but many still lack teachers and appropriate teaching methods. Some have teachers but they don’t know if their job is to teach students or talk about politics chewing tobacco. There are phone lines in many villages, but getting a dial tone is still a challenge. To get it working, bribing is the mode. Electricity supply is at best intermittent and some times away for weeks in some well known cities too. Health care is still limited in its availability and at people’s own risk as governments hospitals mostly lack good doctors, facilities etc. One has to look for private facilities where good amount of money is involved and obviously it’s not accessible to each segment of the society. Entertainment is limited to radio or television, if at all the electricity is there. Dramatically opportunities for young generation are similar what it had been years before. Most of the small cities are facing a complete infrastructure breakdown. Their only hope is a visit of some VVIP to their constituency. Agreeing upon all these issues, I would like to move towards the points which make things worst. These points are corruption, lack of awareness and no exposure to new world. People are so much involved with their own welfare that they never bother about their surroundings. They are not coming up against problems collectively. They have a kind of insecurity or something which doesn’t let them collaborate for

something, be it a motivation program for masses against corruption, health care status or electricity problems. Probably this is not the picture what people have in mind about small cities of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh but it is realty indeed. In fact, situation is deteriorating day by day and It has become a life where hope for a better future is as distant as the burning sun. The tragedy is that civic awareness is not at all being practiced since decades. So there is an obvious need to spread awareness about the situation. The corruption is killing the humans and humanity at different levels and not only leaders but the common people of India are also involved in it. There need to be a revolution in education system so that the coming generation is morally strong and much more open to the new world. The need of the hour is as mentioned by The President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam “Time has now come for us to make our country, righteous. Righteousness comes out of good character. The evolution of good character leads to harmony in home. Harmony in home brings the people of the state to become enlightened citizens. Enlightened citizens lead the planet earth to be a peaceful world”.

AID Delhi – Future Roadmap (Anuj) Lots of things need to be done at AID Delhi. We need to be a bit more organized. There is a strong need for updating the whole team about different activities on a more regular basis. Possibly the need of the hour is to have a "This Month in AID Delhi" type of publication. We need to formalize the process of reporting our work. Once this is in place, other things like more credibility about our work, more support from donors and more awareness about AID Delhi and its work will be the natural outcomes. Over the next few months we have to work hard for the upcoming AID-India conference in December, being hosted by AID Delhi. More importantly, we need to ensure that our projects do not get adversely impacted by

the efforts that we put towards the conference. There's need to reestablish contacts in different organizations and set up sales stalls like we did last year. We need to reach out to corporates, colleges as well as schools. We should act as a resource base for our partner NGOs in different parts of India. We need to develop a mechanism for providing logistical support to them in Delhi - whenever they need it. This will be one of the major contributions to India's development - supporting the "agents of change" in different parts of the country.

Volunteer Co-ordination (Anirban) Life had been moving on its own sweet pace until that one moment, an year back, which redefined my existence now and forever. I decided to volunteer for an organization called Association for India's Development. I didn't have any previous volunteering experience so it was natural to be apprehensive about the repercussions of my decision. I started attending Community Service Hour's (CSH) like other volunteers. The first CSH itself told me the status quo of this organization in Delhi. It was at a nascent stage and there were many challenges and obscure vision. One of the foremost challenges was to enthuse volunteerism among people of all age and develop a common vision. I needed to understand the mindsets of people and the myths of volunteering. In my endeavor to get insights of the lives of underprivileged and support the efforts of few who were trying to make a difference I started interacting with the children of Faith Foundation. Even though teaching was not one of my interests I decided to do it because I knew if I had to motivate people I have to feel the heart and minds of those children and understand their needs. During most part of my volunteering in Faith Foundation I had changing companions and it was really frustrating which more often than not led to more emails in our e-groups about the need for volunteers and a stronger resolve within. It was a long wait before volunteers started coming regularly at Faith Foundation. The wait was over with our new strategy of

orienting volunteers at the project sites rather than during CSH's. The strategy came into being only after knowing that large number of potential volunteers were turned off and frustrated by the numerous things they got to hear during CSHs. It didn’t take much time for me to realize that people wanted to help but we have to show them how to do it and spend time in guiding them and not just by lecturing or emailing. Slowly as the number of volunteers increased it came upon me to form teams for different projects knowing well enough that if we have committed to help another organization it was our duty to ensure a long term association and for that each volunteer should try to involve new volunteers. During the course of last one year the number of volunteers has increased many folds and the need for proper volunteer management system has become imperative. Recently we formed a team of local volunteer coordinators led by an overall volunteer coordinator to manage the volunteers spread over the entire NCR. As time progresses I hope to see more experienced volunteers in the coordination team so that it becomes more effective in volunteer management. In order to assist the volunteer coordination team a dynamic and searchable online database to maintain all the information related to volunteers and projects is underway. Coming to the battles we have fought one of the toughest job has been to make people realize the importance of extending their networks and using it to give something back to the society. A big hurdle has been our inability to involve our friends and family members to a satisfactory level. As I understand now, volunteer coordination is a package consisting of "Going through the grind and empowering ourselves and developing a clear vision", "Spending time with volunteers and knowing their strengths", "Ensuring load distribution and harmony among volunteers" and "Building and using our network optimally". Volunteer coordination not only requires a lot of hard work but also right moves at the right time. Few tips for the uninitiated:1. Begin volunteering by making it a part of your life.

2. Volunteer for what you can commit yourself to, because others are counting on you. 3. One myth is that a person must have much spare time in order to volunteer. In reality there are short-term volunteering opportunities. Volunteers can also help on an ad hoc basis. 4. If you have a hobby and want to share your skills and the joy of your hobby with others, you can - as a volunteer.

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it” - Mahatma Gandhi

Volunteers Speak… Volunteer Work in the Jet Age (Ayeesha) “I work 6 days a week, almost 12 hrs each day…although I would like to participate in volunteer-work…I really don’t have time to do it….”. However clichéd it may sound; it seems to be the reality for most of the young work force these days. We have felt the tentacles of work pressure squeeze us so hard that at the end of any day we can hardly think of our own selves…put aside the less fortunate people…. In fact sometimes I feel like most of us see ourselves as the less fortunate ones, the victims of a vicious circle, pushing ourselves to the edges to earn money and then not have enough time to spend it. Finding the reason and the energy within us to make a simple effort to help and empathize seems almost like the most impossible task to do…suddenly meeting that deadline seems to be easier to achieve! But then if you really spend five minutes to think about it; you would realize that to keep a grip of life’s realities it is extremely essential that we find time, energy and take efforts to spend whatever little time we have to help people; because the real deadlines

in life are not about making a PowerPoint presentation to the CEO of your organization but being able to help that one person get home in time with enough food and money to take care of his four little under-clad, under-nourished children. We as Indians are brought up with a value system that teaches us to respect elders and take care of them. However somewhere down the line helping people seems to have become a lost cause. We would rather contribute money than spend a precious half an hour with an old couple who’s lost their son fighting for our country on the border. Well it is understandable that not everybody can do everything in whatever little time that they have. I suggest that each one of us find one area of work, which arouses enough passion within him. It could be taking out a few hours to teach children, lobbying with the right people in the right networks to get monetary help or something as simple as driving down a bunch of volunteers to pick up books for the under-privileged. Each individual has his own competence and it is unto us to identify areas of work in sync with our capability and then make efforts to bring a smile on the faces of the four little children who did not have to spend another night waiting for daddy to return with food.

“The best way to cheer oneself is to cheer someone else up” - Mark Twain

Volunteers Speak… Simple Ways To Volunteer (Sudipti) My mother often tells me a story she had read somewhere... about a man who picked up star fish which were brought on to the shore by high tide. He threw them back into the sea one by one knowing he couldn't throw back all the fish that were brought on shore by the tide, but he also knew he made a difference to each one he threw back.

The concept is so simple that we tend to overlook it. We don't realize how valuable our small gestures can be to someone. The first practical example I ever saw was my grandfather. He used to distribute sweets among slum children and helped the people there in whatever way he could, sometimes by money or clothes or even old furniture. Its so heart warming to see the way those children greeted my grandfather and showed their love... we loved them for it. This is simple, isn’t it? You don't need to donate money to help; you need to give a bit of yourself. It’s a wonderful feeling, when you realize that you have the ability to make someone smile. I have seen people help the less fortunate. Some donate clothes to orphanages and home for the elderly. When they do so, the less privileged look forward to the monthly visits of their benefactors. It's an unforgettable experience each time. We admire such people, and sometimes envy them for the respect they get. Almost each one of us is deeply moved by the dreadful scenario of the slums, but unfortunately we never do anything about it. We are more apprehensive about our not being capable enough and it would be good enough if we could help ourselves. Well... when we call them less fortunate then obviously we have more than them and we are capable of helping them out in whatever little way we can. There are a million ways in which we can help, and donating things and money to non profit organizations like AID is just one of it. Remember the idea is to open your heart to someone else and make a place for ourselves in their heart. It might almost seem effortless once we all start doing our bit. And yes not to forget our pet problem time... I think that God will never give us a day when we have time for everything. We have to take out time for the things we want to do from the 24 hours in our hand, and in this case it’s for the things we must do. As children we never had to make an effort to help anyone. Do you realize why? It’s because we were innocent and had empathy for our fellow beings. We didn't look down on anyone; we never thought of it as giving but believed that we are sharing things. Those people don't need our sympathy. We just need to share a little bit of our fortune with them.

Volunteer Opportunities (Riputapan) (1) For upcoming AID India Conference in December, volunteers are required to do a cost-estimate, maintain visitors' database, making arrangements for stay, site-seeing etc. (2) Volunteers required for NGO SAMA which is organising International Women's Health Meet during 21st-25th Sept, 2005. Volunteers are required for escorting international participants, media-related work, and translation. (3) Volunteers required for IT-related services. Urgent requirement is for revamping AID Bhopal website. (4) Volunteers required for our Jahangirpuri project who can visit and teach students between Mon-Fri. (5) All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB), Rohini needs volunteers who can record cassettes for the blind students. They have their own recording studio for this purpose. One can also work from home and help in creating soft-copies of books. Another way to volunteer is reading out to blind students. (6) Volunteers needed to execute our fundraising ideas. (7) For stepping up marketing initiatives for masalas made at Parichay, we need volunteers too.

AID Delhi T-shirt Design

(Front Side)

(Back Side)

Publishing Team Editors :Samira, Gazal, Peeyush, Riputapan Designers :Peeyush, Riputapan Chief Editor, Content Manager & Final Design :Riputapan

Grab an AID T-shirt for just Rs. 150!!! The colors available are: White, Gray The sizes are: M, L, XL See images below:-

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