The Indian Idol 2008 and the subsequent win of ‘Prashant Tamang’, not only catapulted Indian Nepali / ‘Gorkhali’ community to the mainstream; it also brought it closer to my life. I was brought up in a multi-cultural set-up and environment of Guwahati city, Assam, India. During my childhood, I was influenced by the language and culture of my friends who belonged to Assamese, and other tribal communities of Assam. My interaction with my own community was limited since there were only a few of us in my neighborhood (most of them were my cousins) and school. I saw no difference between my friends and me, except for the fact that they didn’t understand the language I spoke at home or the specific customs we followed and celebrated. It didn’t strike me at that point that it was so because I belonged to a minority and scattered population. It was during my growing years that this reality grew more real and certain questions started bothering me about the identity of my community.

As a teenager, I remember being ridiculed and called by names such as ‘kanchee’ and the song ‘kancha re, kanchee re’. I would fight back saying that I am not a kanchee. Such was my anger and frustration that one day after being subjected to countless such teasing and derogatory remarks; I hurt two rowdy neighborhood boys (of my age) by throwing stones at them. It’s a separate story that their wailing mothers created quite a scene at my house.

I was so antagonized with numerous such incidents, that I sub-consciously started distancing myself from my community. In public places, I would try to speak in Assamese , rather than my own language , with my parents and relatives. It all seems so ridiculous now.

Except for the language and the festivals (dassain and Bhanu Jayanti particularly) we celebrated, I kept myself away from further association and exposure to it. However, the fact of the matter is, one cannot run away from his or her identity / roots, culture and family. Ironically, during the year 1999, I was adjudged Miss Personality of Cotton College for presenting my community — dressed in chaubandi cholo- a traditional Gorkhali wear. The occasion even made me popular than before and was instrumental in my historic win as the  ‘Debating and Symposium Secretary’.

I have to admit, that it was only recently that I started developing a desire to know about my community, its history, personalities and its angst. Off course I shouldn’t forget my brother Kamal, who with his passionate zeal  influences me over and again. I started reading, interacting, understanding and even attempted at penning down my interpretation of it. Soon, the desire changed into a thirst to know more and more. This took me to the meeting held on December 21 2008 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi organized by Bharatiya Gorkha Parishangh. A huge melee of people: young and old alike, women and men from different states and background, had assembled to discuss issues pertaining to Gorkhaland. I felt a surge of emotion, as I heard passionate speeches and met with people who had only one dream ‘Unity and oneness of Gorkahilis’.

I understood the importance that Darjeeling has in our lives. Its status as a Gorkhaland will not only give us our due rights but most importantly bind us as one. It doesn’t matter that we were not born in that pristine hill, what really matters is that it will give us our long deserving status.

I came away from that meeting with a promise to myself. I promised to be with my brethren in this movement. I promised to make my voice loudest while demanding our rights. I promised to take pride in the fact that I am part of a community which is known for its fearless valor and integrity.

If you have a function/party at your home and if there is excess food available at the end, don’t hesitate to call 1098 (only in India ) – Child helpline. They will come and collect the food. And give it those thousands of hungry and starving children.

Please circulate this message which can help feed many children.

To mark the International Year of Sanitation (IYS) and as a run up to SACOSAN III, the Water and Sanitation Program South Asia (WSP-SA) is pleased to announce the Media Partnership Program for regional media professionals (in print, electronic, audio and audiovisual media) who have been writing/producing/documenting water, sanitation, hygiene and health related stories in their countries.

GUIDELINES

Applications are invited from media professionals (in print, electronic, audio and audiovisual media) that have been covering water, sanitation, hygiene and health as mainstream issues. Approximately thirty media professionals shall be selected to participate in SACOSAN III which will be held in New Delhi. The winners shall participate in the six-day SACOSAN event , from 16 to 21 November 2008, being organized by the Government of India (Department of Rural Development) at New Delhi. The selected professionals will also be invited to visit field-based innovative initiatives that have resulted in adequate provision of water and sanitation services, improved hygiene behavior and have had a positive impact on the health of the target populations.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

Eligibility: Professionals with at least three years experience in print,electronic, audio and audiovisual media with general circulation are eligible to apply for the program.The program is open to media professionals from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and is likely to be extended to Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives,contingent to availability of funding. Preference shall be given to entries received from women media rofessionals.

The following products are eligible: Newspaper entries (op-eds., features, news),Magazine entries, Television programs (news, talk shows, and documentaries),Radio programs (news, talk shows, and documentaries)and News portal entries (news, documentaries).Visit these links to access entry form and more information on the programhttp://www.wsp.org/index.cfm?page=page_disp&pid=18066/ http://www.wsp.org/index.cfm?page=page_disp&pid=18047

Candidates may submit several entries that have been published/broadcast between 1 August 2007 and 31st July 2008. The deadline for submission is 30th August,2008, 1700 hrs, IST. The entries should be submitted by email at wspsa@worldbank.org. The entries must state in the subject line “Media Partnership Program Entry” along with the name of the country (e.g. India). In case there is a problem in sending entries by email, please contact us for alternative arrangements.

Please see country specific addresses in the web links provided above.For print entry, include one original or electronic copy of the article (s)(i.e., masthead with tear-sheets or original clips).For electronic entry, a print-out/ print-screen version of article(s) must be included. For audio and audiovisual entry, include an electronic version (word or pdf) of the script/ transliterated version, and a CD containing the entry OR an electronic file below 5 MB for e-mail delivery.

Themes: The subject of entries should be on:

Best practices in water, sanitation, hygiene and health — Sanitation for Dignity and Health; Health impacts of water and sanitation ; Sharing experiences of local initiatives in water, sanitation and hygiene practices

Language: Entries will be judged in English. Please provide translated version of print entries or script/ translated English version for audio/ audiovisual entries

THIS INFORMATION WAS SHARED TO THE AUTHOR THROUGH A GROUP EMAIL.PLEASE SEND ALL YOUR QUERIES TO THE EMAIL MENTIONED IN THE POST

Anyone who has lost their child can post a message on this website and a search will be set in motion simultaneously in 40 cities in the country.  Launched by Don Bosco National Forum for Youth at Risk in association with UNICEF, www.missingchildsearch.net will be closely watched and monitored by child welfare organisations in all major cities in the country and a search will be generated immediately. The Don Bosco National Forum for Youth at Risk is a major partner of Childline India Foundation and extends service to hundreds of children who are victims of war, conflict, natural calamities, sexual exploitation, trafficking and HIV/AIDS. They also take care of street and working children.

The five-days long fast concludes upon government assurance.The fast by dalit residents of Chamartola, Village Panchayat Jajupur, Tehsil Sandila, District Hardoi, was called off today (Friday, 1 August 2008), at 11 am, upon insistence by the retired IPS officer Shri SR Darapuri, who is also the Vice President of Dr Ambedkar Mahasabha. Shri Darapuri said that since the government has given assurance and has begun the process of land measurement as per records in order to give land possession to the 107 families.

These 107 families of Chamartola were given the land ‘patta’ 32 years ago, but couldn’t take the possession of the land which rightfully belonged to them. 17 members of these families began an indefinite fast on 28 July 2008 in front of Vidhan Sabha in the state capital Lucknow to demand possession of land which was allotted to them by the Village Panchayat 32 years ago. This fast concluded today on 1 August.

Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee (2002) and convener of National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), said that a powerful landlord family, to which the present Gram Pradhan Advocate Nageshwar Singh also belongs, has been forcibly occupying the land allotted to 107 landless dalit families in this panchayat. After speaking to the district authorities, land plots of five families were re-measured on 31 July 2008, and handed over to them. The villagers fear that like before, after they have cultivated a crop, they will not be allowed to harvest it by the powerful people. The district authorities are assuring that it will not happen this time. On this assurance it has been decided to withdraw the fast.

The individuals who were fasting since 28 July, include: Babu, Kishan, Nekpal, Nanhakke, Moolchand, Bhole, Horilal, Bhagga, Dori, Santu, Ramlal, Prabhu, Chantu, Rajeswari, Sushila, Savitri and Chotakke.

Savitri, who lives alone, has been allotted Above the Poverty Line (APL) ration card after the recent Below the Poverty Line (BPL) surveys have been finalized. Nekpal has a National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) job card since past two years which does not show a single day of work allocated to him. These are just examples of how the situation of ordinary poor dalits has not improved a bit even under the most powerful of dalit sympathetic governments in modern India.

Source: DailySouthAsian-owner@yahoogroups.co.uk

Prakash Amte, son of well-known social activist Baba Amte and his wife Mandakini Amte have been awarded the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership.

“In electing Prakash Amte and Mandakini Amte to receive the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the board of trustees recognises their enhancing the capacity of the Madia Gonds to adapt positively in today’s India, through healing and teaching and other compassionate interventions,” the board of trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation said while naming the couple for the award.

“Prakash Amte grew up in Anandwan, an ashram and rehabilitation center for lepers in Maharashtra founded by his father, the renowned Gandhian humanitarian Murlidhar Devidas Amte, or Baba Amte. Prakash was busy with post-graduate surgical studies in Nagpur when Baba Amte called him, in 1974, to take over a new project among the Madia Gonds. In a leap of faith, he and his wife Mandakini abandoned their urban practices and moved to remote Hemalkasa,” the citation reads.

Originally published on Rediff News, to read the original version click here  or go to: http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/31amte.htm

To read the original citation for Prakash and Mandakini Amte’s Magsaysay Award, click here

107 families of Gram Panchayat Jajpur, Tehsil Sandila, district Hardoi, were given ‘patta’ of the lands allotted to them 32 years before, but till-date they haven’t got the possession. Powerful landlords still occupy the land allotted to these families. 16 people of these families are fasting since 28 July 2008 in front of Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow demanding justice overdue since past 32 years.

Dr Sandeep Pandey, Ramon Magsaysay Awardee (2002) and national convener of National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) supported the fast.

Powerful landlords have been illegally occupying the land which rightfully belongs to 107 familes since past 32 years. These landlords have family members which include Shriram Singh Tomar and Advocate Nageshwar Singh, who is the gram pradhan too.

These landlords are politically connected and have been maneuvering their might to douse the people’s agitation for land rights. These landlords are also accused of forcibly taking away the crop harvest from the fields of these 107 families.

Lekhpal asks for Rs 2000 or more money, and some family members have even paid this amount to Lekhpal, despite of which they couldn’t get the land possession.

Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) met the agitators in Lucknow and assured them that police will accompany them tomorrow to give them their much-awaited right to the land. But the people have no trust on verbal assurances and have decided to continue the agitation and fast in front of vidhan sabha.

This fast is led by Rajesh, who can be contacted at 9793271930
( for further information, please get in touch with indopakpeacemarch@yahoo.co.uk.)

” My parents were told that I will have a better future,good food and they ( parents) will never have to go hungry.My siblings will be able to study and they too will have a good future…I was raped by the ‘uncle’-on my to Mumbai.. and later sold off to a brothel. There I was raped and humiliated. Today, even after 8 years, the pain refuses to leave me. My parents don’t know about this, they are happy with the money I send them. What was my fault?” narrates a victim of human trafficking.

MEET MRINAL from Kanpur. He is 16 years old and has already been to a rehabilitation centre. He started drinking and smoking since he was 13. Meet Manoj and Vijay from Delhi, aged 17. They are famous among their group for throwing big parties with unlimited flow of alcohol and marijuana.

These characters have not been pulled out from any Bollywood movies or fiction. Unfortunately, they are ‘real’ children who see no wrong in abusing substances and drugs. Rather, without any remorse, they feel that by doing so, they are confirming to the ‘cool’ image. And this phenomenon is no longer limited to cities or within a particular section of society. Worse, it is fast catching popularity among today’s children.

Exposure and addiction to alcohol, tobacco (gutka), sedatives sold over medical counters despite regulations, sniffing of inhalants such as glue, whitener are posing a serious problem. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) report titled ’The Tobacco Use and Control Efforts’, 9.7 per cent teenage girls in India use some form of tobacco. Similarly, 17.3 per cent teenage boys have taken to smoking. The study also revealed that tobacco use in India started at quite a young age and in many cases at schools. 14.1 per cent of youngsters consume tobacco products like cigarettes and bidis.

What prompts these teenagers to experiment with substance and drug abuse? Experts point out to various reasons: To kill boredom, to be accepted by peers, to escape from family problems or to relieve the tension of not performing well academically. Also, taking drugs or abusing substances is seen to be the easiest route to gain popularity and feel accepted. The matter is further compounded with parents getting to spend less time with their children and trying to compensate it by giving allowances and fulfilling their every demand.

Kukreja (name changed), a counsellor with a Delhi based rehabilitation centre revealed that children as young as 13 years are coming for treatment and counselling for alcohol and tobacco addiction. He further highlighted that besides friends, peers and celebrity ‘movie icons’, parents and family members were also evolving as factors responsible for initiating the child to experiment with drugs. The child gets confused to see his role models (parents) drinking and smoking and tries to imitate the same without realising that drug habit once initiated continues to stay. “I used to often see my parents drinking. Out of curiosity, I started sipping the leftover drink from my father’s glass,” shared a student.

An official from a reputed non governmental organisation (NGO) revealed that in order to establish bonds and create a feeling of parent-child-friendship, some parents were in fact encouraging children to join them in their social drinking sessions. This may come as a shocking piece of news, but sadly this is true.

Taneja (name changed), an event manager and mother of two children, sees no problem when her teenage son occasionally indulges with beer. “These days, all kids in their teenage years drink on social occasions. We have to change our mindset accordingly. I invite my children to drink with me and this has increased our bonding. They share everything with me right from their girlfriends, crushes, etc. It’s not as if they are becoming addicts,” she explains.

We all know that drug abuse of any kind is harmful and addiction is an unpredictable event. Since adolescence is a period of transition and growing up, children are bound to experiment.Let us admit it that teenagers are likely to experiment with sex, drugs, alcohol, even clothes and makeup on the fast track to adulthood.

The big question is what are we as parents, teachers or concerned citizen going to do about it? Banning drugs, brushing the subject or even keeping children away from them is definitely not a solution. What we need to do is discuss this subject openly, share facts and information on drugs with the child, clear myths and misconceptions associated with drug use, impart the child with refusal and negotiation skills so that when he is offered drugs, he can firmly and politely say, “No thank you, I have better things in life to do.”

Kumari and Jayanti start their day’s work at 4 am every morning. This is the only time these two women get to talk and discuss their problems, before the others arrive. Jayanti has been upset for the last few months. Her teenage daughter ran away with the boy in the next village. How could she have done that? Did she not think of the shame it would bring to the family ? Did she not think of what repercussions it would have for her sister who was yet to be married or the difficulty her father would have now to raise a loan for the tractor? But Kumari was wise, she was a true friend. She tried hard to explain to Jayanti that the only way was to accept and forget; after all, 3 years ago her daughter had run away with someone too but with time life had return to routine comfort for her and her family.

While this family rejoices the return of normalcy, there are others, elsewhere who have stopped waiting for normalcy to return. Instead they have gone ahead and created a different normalcy for themselves, very different from what you and I understand. Rashmi, a teenager on the brink of adulthood, likes music, jeans and Bolywood movies. She giggles while saying that, she is an ardent fan of Hrithik Roshan and doesn’t miss a single movie of his. But, Rashmi faces a daily cruel ordeal which she fervently prays no other human being or child faces. In any given day, she has to serve to 5-6 men-her clients. She is a commercial sex worker, operating from a house which has 7 other girls like her. Rashmi is seventeen years old; she was taken away from her village when she was only fourteen.

She has been going through this humiliation for the past 4 years, so much so, in a way, disheartening it may sound; she has started looking at it as a way of life. She has no shame, but only regret that she will never be able to go back home. She doesn’t have a home to go. She learnt that her parents stopped looking for after a few days thinking that she ran away on her own will. Rashmi, along with three other girls from her neighbourhood was kidnapped and then sold off to an aunty who runs couple of beauty and massage parlours in Delhi.

Every year, girls like Rashmi are reported missing, but in reality, they become victims of trafficking. After hearing her story, I was left wondering for days. How can human beings be sold off like commodities or cattle? Why the families never realised that their children might have been trafficked instead of leaving it at ‘missing’? What greed in a person compels him/her to sell or buy another human being? Have I been a perpetrator too?

What is truly shocking is that human trafficking is globally the most lucrative and profitable sector after drugs and trafficking in arms. According to ILO estimates (International Labour Organisation), this illicit industry generates as much as $32 billion in revenue each year.The trafficker needs no investment, all he heeds is to coax, coerce or dupe victims or the family into a promise full of lies.

Sometimes the vulnerabilities of an individual may also be the cause, apart from reasons such as poverty, gender biases, lack of employment, illiteracy, ethnic conflict and cultural acceptance of the practise by some community. I believe the problem is further compounded due to the growth in sex tourism, the entertainment industry, pornography in print, electronic and cyber media, changing public attitudes towards sex and morality.

I also got to know that a new trafficking trend has emerged in India, where girls specially minors are sold off as sexual brides. There is a huge demand for these trafficked brides in states like Punjab and Haryana, owing to rampant female foeticide and gross gender imbalance. Girls as young as 11years old are sold into to 45-year-old men for a pittance of few hundred rupees. They are raped and sexually abused for the purpose of bearing them sons.

What is human trafficking?

Trafficking of human beings, in any form, be it for sexual exploitation or forced labour, is the worst ever crime one can commit. To quote the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (one of three “Palermo Protocols”), defines trafficking in persons as: “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”

Mr. Rishikant from Shakti Vahini (NGO working on anti-human trafficking) informs that in Mewat district (Haryana), on an average one can easily find 5-6 ‘sexual brides’ or ‘paros’ from Assam. The girls are of between 13-22 years and on an average, depending on their looks and behaviour, they are sold for Rs. 3,000 to 60,000 rupees. In most of the cases the marriage doesn’t take place at all. The ordeal doesn’t simply end here. If not sexually satisfying, the women are re-sold and passed over to different ‘owners’. Girls are trafficked from Assam, Tripura, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and WestBengal have be, Kerala and Karnataka.

Be it for sexual exploitation, coerced labour or marriage-once trafficked, they are subjected to a life of humiliation and endless horror. Women trafficked for sexual exploitation end up in a vortex of sexual and physical abuse. What is even sad is that they don’t even have the ownership to their own income. The brothel ‘Medame’ and the pimps take more than 70 % of the share. They are not even in a position to meet with up with their daily sustenance .Access to basic health services and even the right to negotiate for condoms is like a distant dream for them. They also run the risk of being exposed to diseases such as tuberculosis, reproductive tract infections, sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

It is not as if the situation is altogether bleak. With the efforts of agencies such as United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime, NGOs, Government machinery and the law enforcing agencies, victims are being rescued, rehabilitated and repatriated, and architects of this crime are being booked under the law. But I wonder if this is enough? As long as demand lives, supply will re-surface.It is time that we as concerned citizens raise our collective voices and encourage action against the perpetrators-clients, madame, pimps, traffickers and all those people who encourage this crime.

Every individual needs to be informed .Every individual needs to spread awareness so that the motives of the traffickers can be thwarted. Parents need to be vigilant on the online sites the child visits and prevent online predators from communicating with them. Also, the society at large, instead of ostracising the survivors and victims, needs to encourage rehabilitation and re-integration of the survived and rescued victims. We need to restore their dignity, support them in overcoming their scars and give them the respect they deserve and which has been overdue for long.

In India

• 70,000 – 1 million women and children are in the sex trade in India. Of these 30 per cent are below the age of 20, nearly 15 per cent began sex work when they were below 15 and 25 per cent entered between 15 and 18 years. (NHRC Action Research)
• 2 million (approx) child commercial sex workers between the age of 5 and 15 years and about 3.3 million between 15 and 18 years. They form 40% of the total population of commercial sex workers in India. 80% of these are found in the 5 metros, 71% of them are illiterate and 500,000 children are forced into this trade every year. (www.cry.org)
• 200 girls and women enter prostitution in India on a daily basis and 80 per cent are coerced into it. (SOS 2001)
• 300,000 to 500,000 children are reportedly doing sex work in India. (NHRC)
• Rs. 15,000 – Rs 40,000 is what a girl fetches on an average when sold to brothels. (Human Rights Watch 1995)
• Rs 40,000 crore is what the commercial sex industry generates in India. Of this CSE of children amounts to Rs 11,000 crore. (NHRC Action Research)

* Some of the materials have been reproduced from the document ‘Media Kit by TAHA –UNDP.

* not their real names

[This Article was originally published in Assam Times]