INDIA BLEEDING

Please check news ; You'll be surprised as to how India handles problematic situation.
One side is Bihar; where 2 million people are affected because of flood etc, there hardly any trained professionals and methodologies to get rescue mission in place. But there is enough media coverage on the issue.

Another side there is communal war raged in Orissa which secular India is all hush about. Christians are killed in day light as though they are some sheep, they are forced to flee to forests. Why because some Hindus who don't believe in conversion to Christianity wanted a chance to traumatise the minority of Christianity in Kandhamal district. There is GENOCIDE!! There is no media coverage! Police cant do much as political power of Hindus is too strong! Christians hardly do anything about protest as Bible teaches them to pray and hope for good, Hindus dont do anything as they dont want unnecessary responsibility, and of course our secular government is blind & protects Indian outlook!


Seriously where is humanity in our country which is so 'culturally rich'? where is respect to another mankind that Hinduism preaches? People are proud of what in INDIA? handful few successful stories?

Check
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13079

Why are people not bothered about thy neighbour? If same thing had happened in USA or Europe. you could see people immediately questioning authorities on the measures! why because people are paying authorities!!
Its our right to question.. but we dont why?

Can we really call ourselves INDIANS?

En-route to Mumbai!

It was a very hot day; II class train coach was overly crowded. People around us said this is how it works in India. People buy passenger coach tickets, do not feel comfortable there, so they just hop in to II class coaches and sit in any empty seat. If you are thin girls and are only three on the birth then people just take over half your seats and you just can't do anything about it! I had been travelling since 7 PM previous day and it was late in afternoon now. Bangalore is so cool comparatively. It was getting too hot and sticky in the train. Once we crossed Poona I had lost it, I couldn't take the heat, people chattering anymore and wanted to escape. But where will you go? It's a moving train with overly crowded coaches. I could not bear anymore and decided to just walk in the bogies or atleast find a door where I could sit and rest my legs on footsteps. Train was filled with people; I walked from door to door, covered almost three bogies but could not find any door unoccupied. Disheartened I was walking back to my seat when I found at one door, there was a woman sitting with two little kids. She looked like any beggar on Bangalore roads, dark, dirty chewing beetle leaf. But I was just too tired to care for any of that at that point of time. I just did not want to sit in my seat anymore; it had been nearly 18 hours I was stuck in one place. I just wanted to feel the breeze at the door of fast moving train, enjoy the view, and stare at the miniature people and animals. Stare at those clouds. What the hell, I just asked the kind lady to make space for me at the door so that I could enjoy all of it. The route from Poona to Mumbai is amazing, train breaks through the air, through the earth, through the sky accelerating to its destiny. The route is through the mountain regions (sahyadris I guess) where bridges have been constructed between hills and so many tunnels have been dug which are at such length, that you almost feel like you'll never get out of the tunnels, that the rocky mountains are gulping you and just when you can't believe the length anymore and doubt that if nothing else you are now deprived of air to breathe the hill just opens up and throws you into the air. The open doors of the hill will make you wonder if the train is still touching the ground or if the train has started to fly. I just lost myself in the stretch of the mountains and beauty everywhere, in the speed, breeze and softening Sun.Once I got used to hymn of the trip from prized place, I looked at the kind lady who gave the opportunity to free me from my misery. She looked above 25years of age with an infant in her lap which still did not know how to walk and another kid by her side who looked tired and bored. She had moderate built and looked strong. She smiled with those reddened teeth and asked me in Hindi if I were going to Mumbai, I smiled back and said I was. Her infant was active and was playing, I just said he was cute to just make her feel accepted, to break the barriers. Little did I know that I will learn a beautiful lesson that I'll never forget.She said she was from Solarpur and is going to Mumbai to work. I obviously measured her looks and added my experience to it and assumed her work would be either to beg or sex. I was bold enough even to ask if she begged and wondered if she made her poor child to beg too. She then told me her entire reason to be on train and her life story.She was only child of her parents who were laborers and hardly had any money for anything. They are very strong family and all her cousins and uncles and aunts were always at their rescue whenever there was a problem. She got married to a man in same village when she was 30 and now she is 32. Previous day morning her husband did not get up early enough to get job for the day and earn his wages, so she fought with him. He hit her and she kicked him out of the house. He has not yet returned. She is going to Mumbai to meet her Chacha (uncle) to see if he knows where her husband is. 'The uncle always knows where he is' she said. I was surprised that she actually was going in search of her husband because the women I have met in villages during work were even scared to leave their village, and our lady here was going to Mumbai. She said of course she had been to Mumbai many a times! I asked her if she could just go there and her uncle would accommodate her. She laughed and said her uncle leaves in footpaths so she has to go find him, and she obviously will stay at foot paths of 'Gate' as she always stays there when she goes to Mumbai. My next question was why she would go to Mumbai often to stay in footpath when she has house back in her village. She said to work.She then gave details of her work profile and her employer. 5 years ago she had come to Mumbai with her parents to see some relative who introduced her to a foreigner named Richard. Richard, she says, loves India and sends all his friends to visit India often. Then she proudly said that she was guide in Mumbai for all of them. Richard asked her if she knew Mumbai, and she readily had said yes, and that she could take him everywhere. He then offered her the job of guide and was impressed with her services. He then made an agreement that whenever he or his friends comes to Mumbai he'll send her a message and she has to be the guide. Once she got married even her husband was in the department. Richard does not come every year but lots of his friends do atleast once a year. She takes them to best hotels, and gets to eat the best of meals of-course in some corner of hotel's backyard. She shows them all the interesting places and they always pay good sum of money. She said she makes around $20 per person. Yes she knows Dollars and their values.My astonished head had thousands questions for her. I asked what had she studied, she said nothing; I asked how does Richard communicate of his friends arrival. She said he writes to them, he has their address at Solarpur and someone educated in her village reads it for them. They make it a point that they are at airport to receive their guests. She was now going to Mumbai too for same reason and that she was sure that her husband will be there for dollar bills. She showed a photo of Richard, her and her uncle and another photo of the people who are coming to Mumbai the next day. Photos would communicate to either of the parties and introduce each other and then she knows what her next job is. She gets a bit of money from the hotel people, rickshaw walas, vendors etc. I could not resist asking her more questions. I asked her if these people ever treated her bad, expected sexual acts as such, she said 'they treat us better than anybody in whole of Mumbai'. They have given us life. She even quoted an example where she had problem when she was pregnant with her first child and needed money for her medicines, she had a letter written to Richard Saab and he immediately sent her $50. I asked if she stayed at hotels atleast during the work time. She said that's one option she does not have. She would stay in the footpath with her children even tonight. She said that it was dangerous, drunken men always come to lay her during nights; she hardly slept and just made sure her children were safe. I asked what she did when men came to lay her, she said she always keeps stones and thick wooden sticks handy, that's all she has for rescue but works for her as she is strong enough. I asked if she was ever raped, she said she was not, only once there were three men who attacked her and she had to run too fast and luckily escaped. I did not want to push it, but she assured me that she can take care of herself. And I want to believe her.I had spent too much time now and knew my friend I was travelling with, was stuck in the coach with strangers and had no escape as she had to guard our bags, I was about to say bye, when a man came stood next to her, stared at me for a second, he was dark looked like a villager, he smiled at the lady with his reddened teeth rubbed her cheek with his hand and touched her breast with the empty water bottle he had in his hand. I stared at him with a rage and looked at her to know if she knew him. He walked away immediately. She smiled and said 'this how people treat us here, and those Saab log (foreigners) respect and appreciate us'. I had nothing to offer her, her courage surprised me, her wisdom shocked me. I said my good bye, she asked me to visit her village and ask for Santhi (shanthi). I said I'll try and left. I know I won't ever judge anybody by their looks again.

Right To Information Act 2005 (RTI)

Tell me have you ever thought of going to government and asking what, how, where, why. Question them about anything? Did not know how to do it and just left the matter?

Come on its not possible that there is anyone among us who haven’t had that feeling. We live in a democratic nation where every facility around us is arranged for by the government (that we chose!). And all of us have come across this situation at one point of time or the other. Be it about Street lights, water, sanitation or hospitals, schools, Transport, roads etc. Haven’t there been situations where someone did not pick garbage for days together around your neighborhood? Days where roads en-route to your office was dug and not repaired for days together… haven’t been there days when you wanted to ask the local authorities what is happening. And thought that it won’t fetch you anything and left the thought there itself?

What if I told you that there is a facility provided by the government itself where in you can ask them questions, without going through any corruption, any MLA, any long procedure, any authority!

Yes Right To Information Act is the answer. Under this act any Indian citizen could ask government questions on their expenditures, plans, deadline to complete work, details of contractors etc and they will receive an answer! Surprised J well this act also provides that information has to be received by an applicant of RTI within 30 days!

Yes, Is there a road that was to be laid, has not happened yet around your house, through RTI you can actually ask the authorities every detail of the PLAN! Do you want to know what is the breakdown of costs and details of materials that was to go on that road, you can ask!

Was there any problem around year with sanitation, did you feel, I pay tax on everything I purchase and my own surroundings is like this, Where does my money go? Well you can ask government - How much do you spend on the sanitation around my house (in the area), how many workers are appointed by municipality, what is the schedule made for clearance, you can ask these questions!

People, whom I worked with, told me that, when they filed for RTI, information they received was shocking. Government records actually show crores together money spent on these and that there is regular clearing etc. You’ll be surprised to see that the documents claim to have established everything that is not around you but was suppose to be. The road in front of your house is 4 inches and the documents say its 7 inches!

It is very simple to file an RTI, just fill an application form (for information on form and filing see http://www.righttoinformation.org/faqs.asp ) and wait up for 30 days with in which you will receive the information. If you did not, you can make an appeal and the officer (Public Information Officer-PIOs) responsible gets penalized for delay! Yes there are cases where PIOs have got suspended for not sending information. This is serious business ladies and gentlemen. PIOs are usually the higher level officials like revenue officers, commissioners etc. And no one wants to risk ‘it’. They’ll answer your application. I have met them and trust me they take RTI applications seriously.

Are you wondering what next, what if I get information how is my problem getting solved, let’s take an example of the road in front of your house; which is in terrible condition, you filed for RTI asking what is the total expenditure on that particular road during previous financial year, what was the composition of the road (Tar etc), the total height of the road as per plan etc and you have now received the information pertaining to same.

Well you have in your hand the original document that acts as proof against the actual road. You can complain to vigilance agencies, CBI or even file an FIR. But it is seen that the Government does not take any action against the guilty even after repeated complaints. Though one can keep up the pressure on vigilance agencies by seeking to know the status of complaints under RTI, however, the wrongdoings can also be exposed through media. And media is thirsty for these issues.

Don’t worry, it is usually seen that the authorities get on guard and do their work properly as soon as they see an RTI filed. The officials get a clear message that the people of that area have become alert and any wrongdoings in future would not remain hidden as they were in the past.

Think about it, people can actually question and correct government. When we work at office we are monitored by superiors, by family at home… We function the way we should because there is a check on us and we are made responsible for our actions. Who should check on the government, we chose them shouldn’t we check them. The way taxes are being increased every year eating away our potential to increase standard of living, for what? For betterment of the facility made available to us. But is this true? Why do we see MLAs getting over 100% richer every year? Because no one is checking on them!

May be you and I have all comforts in life, but think of those who don’t. What might a provision like RTI do to their life? Come on it’s our hard earned money I’m talking about. We are feeding some corrupt freak when we can make sure the money goes where it is supposed to go.

Please spread the word. This is amazing provision that every citizen in this country should know of.

Girls Trafficked for forced prostitution!

Well, I had this wonderful chance to visit an organization named Rescue Foundation (RF), Mumbai. This is one and only NGO in India working for rescuing girls from forced prostitution in India. They do an amazing job. This is the scene in India:

There are many villages in our country where there is no importance given for education at all; girls are married at the age of 13yrs, 14yrs of age. Hardly giving them any chance to grow as a person! I came across many girls in the organization who had ran away from home, because they could not stand abuse from husband, because they couldn’t face the poverty and wanted to earn some money, ran away with boy friend’s at age of as little as 10yrs, came to Mumbai with husbands etc.. Whoever ran away and came to Mumbai had a trustworthy accomplice who had told them that Mumbai is the place where they’ll get solutions to all problems. They came to Mumbai trusting these friends, uncles, boyfriends, husbands only to get sold to some Brothel (prostitute house) keeper.

It was surprising to know that there are rates for which these girls are bought and sold. Price is fixed based on their origin, say, a girl from Bangladesh or Assam is sold for more money than Bangalore, based on virginity, virgin is worth more. Price ranges from Rs. 80,000-Rs. 200,000.

Once they are bought, Brothel keepers brainwash these girls about the world, police etc, they are abused verbally, physically, kept hungry, threatened until they budge. There is no hope once they enter the Brothel they are tortured so badly that they end up in prostitution which is initially forced and one day accepted by these girls as livelihood. During which girls are further tortured (a girl I met had marks of cigarettes lit off all over body), they are even given drugs and are made addicted to alcohol, hash, marijuana etc.

There is a long gap in between the time they are forced and the time they accept prostitution voluntarily. This is where RF intervenes. There is a bunch of Investigators who disguise as customers and visit these Brothels and counsel the girls for over a period of time and prepare them to get rescued. If its minor girls they are taken away whatever might be the girls decision is, but girls above 18years of age need to agree to get rescued voluntarily.

One of the investigators I spoke to said that whole process of getting them involves at least 15 visits, where in they go to same girls again and again, build some trust and then slowly release their purpose of visit and then find if there are more girls minor or major wanting to get rescued. Once this is done then investigator reports to police and sketches with them a rescue mission. And a raid is done in respective brothel and girls are rescued.

The girls are then rehabilitated and repatriated. I.e. they are sent back home after intervention is made at family level. Organization rescues around 700 girls until now since its inception in

It is not as simple as it sounds. It’s a tough job for investigator because many a times the girls discuss about investigators with wrong girls and end up getting shifted to different brothel. There is huge threat to investigators too. Even if they did whole process on preparing girls and reported this to police, a lot of time information leaks out to brothels before raid is done (its simply unbelievable, as per the investigator I spoke to, they take only 2hrs for preparing between the reporting and going on raid) and girls involved in rescue process are vanished in no time. Making the whole raid a pure failure, making whole process itself huge failure!

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?

· Very few men to take up the challenging task of rescue mission.

There are hardly few people who stick to this job for long time as it is too stressful, threatening to life (there are many instances where investigators were attacked). The field itself is scary, to walk into brothel, Looking at almost naked young girls, counseling needs a nerve.

· Information leaks out in no time

People at RF told us that mostly information is leaked out by police (not proven but assumed as obvious) and it’s not the higher level officials but the lower one’s who do it for money or for free sex!

· Only organization working in the field

There is no other organization working in the field of rescuing except for RF, even though many organizations are working on trafficking… they mainly concentrate on child labor etc. But still much is not done in catching the real culprits like traffickers or brothel keepers.

· Traffickers are safe, as they cannot be traced

It is too difficult to trace the traffickers through these girls because most of time, more than one person is involved in bringing them to Mumbai, they are passed on to many hands and girls are scared to look or identify these men. If it was husband or boyfriend, they would have run away with money long time before girls were rescued. There is no continuous surveillance to check trafficking of under aged.

· Less check on trafficking across border

Girls are trafficked from West Bengal, UP, Assam, Bangalore, Mumbai itself etc and also from across border. I.e. Nepal, Bangladesh. Governments of concerned nations, NGOs like IJM etc are working to find some solution to the problem, but it is very hard to keep check on cross border trafficking.

· Brothel keepers get bailed out in no time

Investigator also said that there 100s of pending cases on brothel keepers, who in the meanwhile are continuing their crimes! They always get bailed out with no problem at all.

· Girls are too young, have undergone too much of trauma

Girls who have been rescued are usually traumatized and fear that they will not be accepted back home. Many of them have STIs, AIDS. They are suicidal, depressed. They find it difficult to accept life as it is (tell me who can after all that?). There is relapse in some cases. i.e. some girls are found in brothels again as they return to prostitution!

· Illiteracy among girls

Illiteracy itself creates such a problem, because the girls whom I’ve met are those who wouldn’t have ever gone out of their village, learnt anything about the world outside, they are taught how to manage household and brought up to be married once they mature. They are just scared once they are out of the world, they don’t know whom to believe, what to believe. There was one girl I spoke to who said, “wo admi bola mein uske bahan jaisee hoon, tho mein bharosa kaise nahi karthi?” ( that man said I’m like his sister, how can I not trust him?); yet another girl told ‘mein ikkis saal ki hoon, ab zindagi mein bacha kya hain?’(I’m 21 now, what is left in my life now?) when asked what she would do from here after in life; another girl said – when I suggested her to learn reading and writing – ‘didi mein padhoongi tho kya hoga, hamare gaon mein iski koi upyog nahin hogi, ladki ko ghar aur bachche ko dekna hain, isse mujhe koi pharak nahi padega”( sister what will happen if I learnt to read or write, there is no use for education in my village, girls have to look after house and children, education won’t make any difference).

I don’t know why but I feel one huge solution in bringing the end to most of problems is education. I don’t say educated never make mistakes; but trust if these girls were educated, half of them would have enough guts to face the world, most of all these traffickers and brothel keepers themselves won’t dare to catch literates, literacy is amazing weapon!

Tell me what do you think is that we could do to help these girls, bring end to the traffickers dirty business?

If you want to tell me your opinion or know more about the organization or share your experience in this field, Feel free

Introduction

“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”- Edmond Burke

Hi

I’m Prithvi, There are lot of things that I know might interest you. I want to share all this information with you because I feel we can do something to change this world - together!

Let’s see if we can join together and be a combined voice for others, each-other and ourselves.

I and my friends call ourselves Humanity Calls team who are together trying to spread awareness on what is happening in our surroundings. We want to share with you the problems the world around is facing and solve them. Lot of them say it’s not possible, but we want to tell you it’s not true. Because we have seen it happening, and trust me, we can join hands and make it possible. It’s our world! I was exposed to lots of realities in life. And harsh realities are that it’s not easy, it takes lots of time more than anything it takes dedication. It is the world we are talking about!

There was small volunteering program I had taken part in where there was one man speaking for long hours to motivate all of us to be a part the development of our societies… He said people always tell you it’s not possible when you venture and try to do something that they have not done. He narrated this story to tell us why we shouldn’t listen to them. The story was –

‘Once a man was walking by a lake, he noticed that this lake was empty, dirty and hardly served any purpose, he went right ahead and bought the lake, the man who sold it was very happy that he could get rid of the filthy lake. When people around got to know that this old fool had bought the Good for nothing lake, they laughed at him and asked him ‘why on earth did he buy the lake’? He just told everyone that he is going to fill this lake with lotuses by end of the month. Make it most beautiful premises. He planted 1 lotus into the water next morning. People laughed and laughed at his foolishness. He came after 1 week, there were hardly few lotuses in the lake. People asked him where was his lake full of lotus? And laughed. When he came back a week before his month could get over there was hardly 2% of the lake filled with the lotus. He was very happy. People thought he was crazy. Do you think he is? Do you want to know why he was happy? Because the amazing quality of lotus is that it doubles in a day! If it was 2% on the day he visited… 6-7 days from then, he would have accomplished his goal!’

It is one story I would never forget.

Now let’s discuss why we are here? We are here to share those experiences that made us question ourselves why we are in the comfort of our homes when majority do not have the privilege.

Tell me one thing - have you ever felt that you owe something to this world? Your Life, very breathing, getting entertained, enjoying life… how does it happen? Is there someone responsible because of whom you get your vegetables? Is there someone responsible for clothes you wear? Is there something responsible for the rains and wind?

What do you give in return? Is paying money for your products enough? Is paying taxes enough? Does it then really becomes somebody else’s responsibility? Would you give your child pocket full of money and say you are done? Never check what he/she is doing? Do you help them when they fall?

We all do, why because they are our children, because they need care and protection. Then what about those who have no parents, who have no one to care, or protect? Be it children, aged, tribes, disabled, animals, environment?

Yes in these pages we talk about everything. Every set of groups of people who are facing problems, animals which are paying price for no sin at all, nature which is only providing for us, People who are already trying to protect all on the list & YOU!