Aid Delhi Newsletter September 2006

September 06

INDEX Editorial Page1

Satyagraha and its relevance Page 2

Khoj Picnic Page 5

Interactive Workshop Page 6

OR Report Page 3 Projects Update Page 7

Some Tips by Souparna Lahiri Page 4 Bhoomi Page8

Volunteer Profile Page 8

EDITORIAL By Riputapan Singh This month was special as it marked the 100th anniversary of the Satyagraha. And for a change, people have been thinking about and discussing Gandhian philosophy much before 2nd October. "Gandhigiri" may sound like an awkward way to make people connect to the past but it strikes a harmonious chord with the perverted minds. For those who have always believed in Gandhian principles, it was a time to celebrate and make more people aware of the same. For AID Delhi, this was quite an eventful month. Not just because of the events that we had but also because of the overwhelming response at each of the events. The volunteer turnout at the Non-formal Education workshop and at the Operations Review was very good. We believe that the learnings from these events will benefit our projects immensely. Starting this month, we've entered into collaboration with iTasveer - an online service for digital photo sharing and ordering prints to be delivered in India. More details about this collaboration and other events inside! Ritika and Yashpriya are the newest members of our publications team. Their enthusiasm will surely add new vigor to our newsletters.

AID Delhi is pleased to announce that AID Delhi's collaboration with itasveer.com has commenced from 2nd Sept.,2006. itasveer.com is an online service for sharing digital photographs and ordering photo prints for delivery in India. As part of this initiative, itasveer hopes to create awareness among its users about AID and will encourage them to volunteer for AID. It will also contribute every fiftieth rupee spent by a user on itasveer to AID Delhi. For example, if you place an order at www.itasveer.com equal to or above Rs. 50, Re. 1 goes to AID and so on. This effort will continue for a period of 3 months from September to November and the amount collected at the end of the offer will be used by AID Delhi across various projects. Please visit itasveer (http://www.itasveer.com) for more details. A link on the Partners page of our website http://delhi.aidindia.org has been added to inform our web visitors about this collaboration. Please feel free to spread the word about this collaboration among your friends and relatives.

Satyagraha and Its Relevance Munna Bhai and his potent weapon of Gandhigiri has forced moviegoers, particularly the youth of the nation to sit up and take a note of the "Gandhian Philosophy". It has triggered discussions on the efficacy and potency of Gandhian Philosophy, to which an entire generation had earlier lost out on. It was in this very month 100 years back i.e. on 11th September , 1906 , that , faced with racial discrimination in South Africa, Gandhi ji launched "Satyagraha" against the British colonial rule and gave the sermon of 'truth and non-violence" . One of the most famous instance in which Gandhi ji used Satyagraha to achieve his righteous cause, was his march to Dandi . With this march he along with his followers managed, not only to lodge his protest against the unjust Salt Tax Levied By British Raj but also managed to mobilize the common man to rise up against the unjust practices of the empire. At that time Gandhi Ji must have thought ,that once the Britishers would be sent packing their bags and a governmentwhich was of the people , by the people and for the people had been established , along with the installation of necessary infrastructure required to run a democratic polity , then the Satyagraha will become increasingly irrelevant and redundant-as then-- the government would be obviously expected to be “people oriented” and sensitized towards the welfare of the teeming millions of the people who would have voted it to power . Sadly , Gandhi Ji was wrong , little he would have realized at that time that even after 60 years of independence, the citizens of this country would have to resort to his old weapon of Satyagraha even for getting done most mundane of the tasks by the government machinery . He would have never even dreamt that the citizens would have to fight hard, even for most fundamental of their rights. It would have been very anguishing for him, when he would have seen from up there that injustice, inequality and corruption have become a norm rather than an exception in this country. His soul must have felt hurt when it would have seen the student goons in Ujjain openly threatening their professors in broad daylight and eventually beating one of them to death, right in front of top police officials of the state. Worst still, that it took more than 5 hours and only after a lot of media hue and cry and public protest, that the police lodged an FIR for this broad daylight Murder. It would have hurt him – Not because people had to use Satyagraha, but instead, on seeing that the people of this country have to fight tooth and nail to get justice -- Justice - from the Government whom they have themselves voted to power, to work for them. This is just a tip of an iceberg, every day we hear stories of people protesting against the investigating agencies and the justice dispensing system for their lackadaisical and callous attitude, because of which the criminals are at large and conviction rate is abysmally low. The Priyadarshini Mattu, Nitish Katara and Jessica Lal murder cases are the case in point; here the investigating authorities had done everything to ensure that the culprits (the big shots) are able to come out scot-free. It was only after peaceful protests and the pressure built up by the people that the authorities were forced to act tough later on. It is only after Satyagraha that the government wakes up to the miseries of the people who have been displaced (without offering them a meaningful compensation package) from their lands (in the name of infrastructure development). It is only after Satyagraha by the people that an honest Engineer of the Maharashtra State electricity board is reinstated after he was unlawfully suspended. His crime being that he disconnected the Electricity connection of the house of Chief Minister of Maharashtra for non payment of pending electricity bills running into lacs of rupees. These are just some of the few issues that have hit the headlines in the recent months, nobody knows how many similar cases go unnoticed, in this vast country. However, an obvious positive, out of all these issues, is that - after all the bad beginnings the government was eventually forced to perform its duties. And this was all achieved by the methods of "peaceful protest" taught to us by Gandhi Ji. Amidst all this, some very difficult questions are begging answers -- for how long will people need to Light Candles at India Gate?? Or, how many more online petitions will one need to sign?? Or how many "Get well Soon" cards would the people will need to send, in order to get accomplish even the most trivial of the things, the things which are obviously expected from the government of the people. These questions are difficult to answer, but one thing is very clear, and that is, that, the onus is now on the youth , to strike back – to not be mere spectators to all this - to take a vow that they'd stand up against any injustice being done by the cartelization of Politicians, Bureaucrats and Contractors. It might take time to achieve their objectives but surely a time will come when through this tried and tested weapon of Satyagraha the people will get a government which is accountable and answerable to them - and thus will be able to fight back their Second Freedom - The freedom from Corruption, inactivity, and inefficiency of the Empire. By: Chandan Ahuja

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AID Delhi quarterly Operations Review meet The AID Delhi quarterly Operations Review meet for the period from May ’06 to Sept ’06 was held on the 17th of September at IIT Delhi. The guest of honour for the event was AID Saathi – Souparna Lahiri. The meeting kicked off with a welcome note from the President, Riputapan Singh. He recapped some of the major events that AID Delhi had organised and participated in during the last quarter; such as the RTI campaign, the non formal teaching workshop by Vijay Bajpai and Pawan. He also talked of some of the newer projects such as Samarth and mobile crèches at Dwarka. One volunteer from each of the projects then updated the audience on their respective projects. Aparna Bhatia from ‘Aashayen’ in Timarpur spoke on the progress of the weekend classes that they held in the community. An important development was the profiling of the students that had been done in late August which enabled them to divide the children up into a non formal section (students who were not attending any formal school) and a school support section (to support students with work that they did in schools). They plan to profile the class every four months. They also expressed the need to create awareness on other issues such as nutrition, hygiene and preventive health measures. They have been facing a volunteer crunch at this project and since the community is very close to Delhi University, they will try and attract volunteers from the campus for this project. Rinkoo, a volunteer with Nai Disha – a government recognised primary school in Noida, talked of AID Delhi’s contribution to the school. The volunteers have been taking regular computer classes at the school and have also been providing assistance to the students in other subjects. They have also recently started general knowledge sessions with the students. In the future, they plan to increase the number of hours of computer classes. They also want to increase the amount of sponsorship available for the students, (currently the amount is Rs 40,000 from AID well wishers). However they realize that this is not an easy task. They also plan to have recreational activities such as picnics and field trips to museums etc. This is one of the rare projects that has seen a stream of volunteers willing to contribute. The mobile crèches at Gurgaon were facing a huge volunteer crunch and inconsistent volunteer turnout. Deepak Syal talked of how he went from being a part of a 10 volunteer team to a single man army and back again to an 8-10 member team in just 2 months. The latest addition to the AID Delhi umbrella, Samarth – an initiative to teach children in the Hasanpur slum cluster near IP extension, was introduced by Yashpriya and Saurabh. They talked of the realization that prompted them to start Samarth. They have only recently managed to arrange for a sheltered area to teach the children but it’s not permanent. Besides that, there were presentations by Somendra from Parichay and Rajat/Ankita from Prayas. AID saathi souparna Lahiri spoke to us on the the need to include the community at every stage in decision making. He also made us realize that we gain a lot more from people as compared to what they gain from us. All in all there were some very valuable inputs and food for thought from his end which follow this report on the next page.

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SOME TIPS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF AID-DELHI FUNCTIONING/ IMPROVEMENTS IN AIDDELHI PRESENTATION (by Souparna Lahiri)

1. Volunteers of different projects should be exchanged. This will help in better learning for all volunteers. For example, Timarpur volunteers should go to Parichay and those from Parichay should come to Timarpur or Khoj or Nai Disha etc. This will help in two major ways: (a) individual growth of volunteers (b) cross-fertilization of ideas across projects. 2. We must realize that our projects, especially involving kids, teach us much more about life than what we can possibly teach these children. So we must include a section of “Volunteer Benefits” in the AID-Delhi Presentation so as to make people aware that being a volunteer can be a highly enriching experience for them too. 3. We must mention about the counseling related activities in the presentation, since these are vital to the success of projects involving children. When a volunteer is interacting with children, it is very important for him to counsel them whenever they are in trouble. The volunteers must work towards building a rapport with the children so that the kids feel comfortable discussing their problems with them. It is this counseling that can help change the direction of their life. The ABC or ka-kha-ga can only help marginally. The counseling - emotional, mental and at times moral - is what will help them much more. We don't need professional counselors, but we need to be always alert in identifying symptoms of lack-ofconfidence etc. in these children and continuously strive to correct that. This can be as simple as giving the child a good smile every time he/she does something right and helping him/her gain confidence. Also, the volunteers should be sensitive to the problems a child might be facing at home and work with him accordingly. Some behavioral changes include truancy, aggressiveness, fearfulness, excessive shyness etc. The volunteers must also look out for any signs of physical injury sustained by any child. 4. Also, we should keep in mind that the children that we are working with will get impacted by macro level changes that are being introduced. For example, when we are working with street kids who are earning their living by rag picking and scavenging, we should focus on alternate vocational training for them along with formal and informal education. 5. In terms of vocational trainings - there are specific artisan colonies in Delhi - we can get those people to offer trainings in our projects to bring in more professionalism. We can contact organizations like "Dastkaar", "Dastkaar Haat Samiti" to display and sell our merchandize and to organize trainings etc. 6. Macro level decisions like JNURM will also impact street hawkers and will take away their livelihoods. AID as an organization can get involved in such macro level discussions also. 7. Regarding CSR and particularly the initiative taken by volunteers from corporates in Gurgaon to run a mobile crèche, I would say that it is important to realize that these creches alone would not serve any purpose. It is the responsibility of the builders to provide a crèche for the children of their laborers. This is a requirement by the Factories Act. We - as part of the CSR initiatives - should not work at only the level of teaching at Mobile Creche, but also get involved a bit deeper - to ease out the burden on Mobile Creche - so that they can focus on other areas - and then send our volunteers to the company run creches if need be. That, according to me, is what CSR is all about.

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A joy ride with children (by Anwesha)

Being associated with Khoj, I got a wonderful opportunity to accompany some street children on an educational trip on 2nd sept.2006, organized by Steps For Change, a registered NGO and volunteers of AID - Delhi. There were about 23 children in the age group 4-13 from places like Delhi Haat, Ber Sarai and, Bhikaji Cama Place.I was joined by 9 other equally active volunteers. The trip began by picking the children from their respective residing places and the 1st stop was "the Railway Museum" at Chanakyapuri. The children were shown around the museum and their happiness knew no bounds. We also took them on a toy train ride and they were jubilant. They played around the place and saw many models of locomotives. It was quite new and educational for them. Then we made our way to the 2nd spot which was India gate. For this purpose we had booked a mini bus and the ride to India Gate was absolute fun...total masti for us as well as for the kids. We sang songs on the way and chatted a lot. Once at the park, the kids were really amused at the beauty of the park, the various play things and they sat on the swings and saws and also thoroughly explored the place. The weather was on our side and all in all it was lovely. We too played with the kids and had fun. The best part was the musical fountain which played their favourite hindi songs and we all danced together...or rather jumped and moved our bodies and I must say most of them are very good dancers .By then it was lunch time and we found a very nice open and shady place where lunch was arranged. The volunteers had organized the lunch. We made it a point to make the kids wash their hands before they could pounce on the food. The kids were quite obedient and sat around in a big circle and had their lunch .We too sat with them. The experience was so satisfying and humble. After lunch there was yet another dance session since it seemed to be their favorite recreation, and some of them also helped in clearing up the place. By then the sky was becoming grey and rains seemed imminent so without further delay we made our way to the bus. And once again we sang together, drank refreshing juice, laughed and talked. Finally it was raining cats and dogs and we dropped the kids at their respective places. Thus the day ended, though the kids were very reluctant to leave but as they say "all good things come to an end". Putting it in a nutshell, it was fun, it was joyous and yet educative for the kids. It must have been something quite different and rewarding from their humdrum existence. The nicest part was the way these kids treated us. They were extremely friendly and showered unconditional love on us. They were eager to learn and see new things .It was the experience of a lifetime and I hope to go on many more such trips. Thanks to everyone in Steps for Change & AID-Delhi and all the other volunteers for taking the initiative and of course the kids who were real darlings.

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Interactive Workshop on Imparting Non-Formal Education (by Sahil Sethi)

10th September saw a unique event in the history of AID- a Non-Formal Interactive Workshop on Educating Children. The workshop was held at IIT Delhi and was presided over by Pawan bhaiya(from Khoj) and Vijay bhaiya(from Parichay) - both being highly committed to their projects and who have taken Khoj and Parichay to a new level. The workshop was interactive in nature, with both Pawan bhaiya and Vijay bhaiya responding to queries from the volunteers. Around 35 volunteers, including those working with Nai Disha and Prayas in Noida, had turned up to get valuable tips on how to make learning a more joyful experience and how to 'educate' and not merely 'literate' the children who need our love more than anything else. Pawan bhaiya began by sharing his experiences of his initial days with Khoj with everybody as to how he gathered the cooperation of the local residents, the children and the parents. He explained as to how his target has been to make children learn the 3 basic Rs(Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) as well as to treat them with love, to make them aware of the world around them and improve their confidence levels. He also stressed on the need to make the children express themselves better and to build trust with them. He also elaborated on the medium of teaching they use i.e. story books, picture books, songs, poems. Vijay bhaiya entered the discussion by stressing on the fact that each parent wanted to send their children to the school, unlike what many government officials might tell us. He said that our job should not merely be restricted to being a mediator between the school and the parents, as sometimes the schools are only half as good as non-formal education. He stressed on making the students self-reliant and responsible enough to be able to remedy any faults they find in the school system. He spoke of how Parichay had certain 'admission experts' among the parents who, after having procured admission for their own children, knew the nitty-gritty of the entire process, and who were willing to help other children out. Vijay bhaiya laid stress on the following points: 1) Bigger students should be made more responsible and who should themselves learn to take care of the younger ones. This doesn't merely apply to the family, but to the entire community as a whole. 2) Bright children can teach not so bright ones. 3) The children should never be made feel inferior. 4) Parents themselves should take pain in monitoring the progress of the children. 5) Introduce vocational training as alternative source of livelihood. 6) Try and work towards building a covered teaching area, so that the children feel a connection with the base, and a sense of belongingness. Pawan bhaiya talked about how Khoj has conceived a new idea in which the volunteers will teach the parents marketing techniques, so that they do not need to send their children to sell objects at the red lights. The khoj volunteers subsequently decided to sell jute bags along with the parents at the red lights, so as to further strengthen the idea. Vijay bhaiya gave examples from Parichay where the elder students take pride in running the organization and make rules for themselves, even without consulting the volunteers. He further talked of the need of volunteers to have basic knowledge of child psychology. Pawan bhaiya spoke on the need to correctly channelise the energy of hyperactive children and how not to pamper the attention seekers. They also discussed ways and means to control abusive language and the treatment of dyslexic children with inputs from other volunteers as well. There was a general query as to how one can fully utilise the skills of a volunteer who can come only once a week. Vijay bhaiya replied by urging everyone to use teaching aids as in flip charts, games, music and poems, lectures on hygiene, sanitation etc. To this, Pawan bhaiya added that these volunteers could teach the children bathing, washing, brushing of teeth etc. The workshop concluded with a song by Pawan bhaiya through which he demonstrated how the students can learn things in a sequence. All in all, it was a great interaction, with everyone having learnt a lot about children’s non-formal education and going back home a lot more motivated to ‘be the change’ in these children’s life.

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Projects Update Gurgaon update - by Nishank Our visit to Mobile Crèches center at Sohna Road, Gurgaon is going on smoothly on a regular basis. There is a team of at least 5-6 members for each visit. The emphasis is on teaching basics of English, Hindi and Math to the children there. The kids are very eager to learn and show a good deal of enthusiasm. We are trying to use interactive methods of teaching the kids, especially using colorful charts and jigsaw puzzles. We also distribute notebooks and clutch pencils to each of the children. All of the children in response show that they can write their names on their own in the notebooks. Recently, profiling of the kids was done to gather information about the level of knowledge of the children. It was based on their knowledge of Hindi, English, Mathematics and their interests in co-curricular activities. This would help us track the progress of each child for a given time duration. AID Gurgaon has also benefited by the addition of new enthusiastic volunteers like Priyanka, Rajesh, Ashwani, and Himanshu in the group. Moreover, we have got another request from a volunteer who is a trained teacher and also a Master in Social Work. She has shown great enthusiasm in being a part of AID Gurgaon and we are also looking forward to learn lot of things from her. Ruchi attended the workshop taken by Vijay Bhaiya and we would try to incorporate all her learning’s in Mobile Crèches. The volunteers of AID Gurgaon who are working in Evalueserve are trying to spread the awareness about Mobile Crèches among their colleagues. They are taking an active part in promoting new Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in the office. They are also trying to collect funds by various means and in future we can expect a more regular influx of funds.

Parichay update - by Somendra 1. Parichay Masala stall at STMicroelectronics gets good response. The stall will be put up on regular basis. 2. Good sale at Parichay stall at IIT festival Rendezvous. 3. Nutrition Program and Health check up camps organized regularly. We have been conducting the nutrition program since one year. Good improvement is seen in the health of the children. The report is still in the process of being documented. 4. Masala making unit sales were around Rs.1000 - sharp decrease in the sales. 5. Handicraft: A stall was contemplated at JNU, it could not happen. Talks are on for the same. 6. Education: New bags were provided to the children, special thanks to Ben Baughman who visited India few months back. 7. Medicines worth Rs.1100 were purchased for the children. 8. In both the rooms wiring has been done. Activities for future:1. Planning for an extension by renting a room adjacent to the office. Number of children has increased. 2. NF-3 kids are taking classes of NF-1 and NF-2 at night. Volunteers:Somendra and Puneeta New Volunteer:Anindita (A new volunteer from PG women's) is taking the Sunday classes.

Samarth update – by Yashpriya Started off on 15th August 2006, Samarth is the most recent addition in AID Delhi’s project docket. We started with observing the trends that were followed in the MCD run school in Hasan Pur Village. Ossifying our speculations the school was poor on infrastructure and teaching aptitude which in turn has levied all the students with an unimagined level of ignorance vis-à-vis a host of issues including their curriculum. The next step was to interact with the community including the students and know the needs they identified and also those which they failed to identify but were imperative for their development. After a long struggle with the school authorities and the MLA, we finally got a temporary but well sheltered place for conducting classes. Thanks to Mr. Mahavir Nagar for allowing us to use his property also providing water to kids without failing and occasional internet access to us! Classes at Samarth are in full swing now and a total of 40 kids are attending the classes regularly. More than three dozens books, 10 charts and a couple of games have been bought enabling the kids to learn things on a faster rate. Classes are held everyday in two slots i.e. 5.30 to 6.45PM and 6.45 to 8.00PM. One activity session is conducted on Sundays. Future plans include buying a couple of blackboards and of-course talking to the councilor for a permanent space for the classes.

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Bhoomi

(by D.V.L Padma Priya) Aristotle the great philosopher and scientist believed that there was no difference between the individual and the State. He felt that if the State developed so did the individual and vice versa. In today’s world the individual works more towards his development irrespective of the society around him. Where governments make and break promises; where administers fails to implement plans; there the non-governmental organizations step in. Step in to do the patch work. Step in to make up for the inefficiency. One such NGO is BHUMI which is a sister organization of Bharat Uday Mission. Bhumi was set up in May 2006 with an aim to bring about holistic social transformation in the society. Bhumi is comprised of highly motivated youngsters. And theirs, is the perfect example of “Actions speak louder than words”. Having come into the public eye with the Osmania General Hospital Sanitation Drive in the month of June, Bhumi has come a long way. Bhumi has adopted Hyderabad’s biggest slum Rasoolpura with the aim of bringing it on par with the rest of the city. On Independence Day these youngsters proved it yet again that willpower and perseverance is the key to any kind of success. The Zilla Parishad School in this slum saw a major face lift thanks to these spirited youngsters. The school like many other schools across the country was in a pathetic condition. There are around 700 students studying in this school. BHUMI volunteers took it upon themselves to better the conditions of the school, under the name FREEDOM UNDER CONSTRUCTION thereby encouraging many more children out of the 20,000 odd students to be enrolled in the school and thus indirectly curbing child labor. The school yard was in a dismal condition. It was the dumping yard for the whole slum. Also lack of bathrooms/toilets in the school compounded the problem with children performing their ablutions right outside the school. First this dumping yard was cleared thanks to the cooperation of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board. Then came the main step of demolishing the dilapidated building and clearing the rubble. More than 200 volunteers along with the community people took part in this massive task. The atmosphere was energetic. All through the night these volunteers worked as hard as they could, reliving the spirit of independence. They cleared the rubble, whitewashed the school building and assisted the masons in the reconstruction. By the morning of 15th August, the school children woke up to a pleasant change. Thanks to BHUMI, these children will now study with a renewed interest and in hygienic condition. BHUMI aims at holistic development. According to Mujeeb the President of BHUMI, their next step is towards developing a resource center in the slum which ensures that the children have proper educational facilities. Also they are looking at the setting up of a basic healthcare facility and generating health livelihood for the unemployed. Says one volunteer Samvidha Sinha on her experience working for BHUMI “I have always wanted to do something constructive and involving children is something that I look forward to in anything I do, and BHUMI gave me just that; something that was more active than passive; something that gave me intense satisfaction.” If only there were many such organizations which could make up for the inefficiencies of the government, and if only many more people come forward to participate in a focused manner, it certainly won’t be too long when our country would be on par with the developed nations. Today’s youth is fighting not only for their rights but also for a second freedom; freedom from the social evils. Kudos to BHUMI!!

Volunteer Profile - Chirag Kapoor I take immense pleasure in introducing Chirag Kapoor to my friends and fellow volunteers. Chirag joined AID a couple of months back and right from day one, his run has been tremendous. He is one of the youngest volunteers. I admire him for his responsiveness and his sensitivity for the betterment of the projects he has been associated with. He has a great zest toward the empowerment of our society. I am also amazed at the commitment of this guy. Inspite of being a second year student of Computer Science and Engineering at CITM, Faridabad, he makes it a point to visit Khoj atleast 4-5 times in a week. He has now taken over the responsibility of Coordinating Khoj and has also started coordinating volunteers of South Delhi. He submitted a clear cut budget for Khoj, and ensures that the things are done in the best possible manner even with extremely tight resources. To me, he seems to be a marathon runner, and his mettle amazes one and all. He creates a contagious enthusiasm which is sure to inspire many more to join the journey. Selva

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Editors: Riputapan, Priyanka, Yashpriya Designer: Yashpriya Coordinator: Riputapan, Puneeta

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Individual views expressed in the newsletter, including those of the editor, may not necessarily coincide with those of AID Delhi