TIMES OF INDIA - 19TH NOVEMBER, 2015 : EMPOWERING PEOPLE....RESURGENT RAJASTHAN

Vedanta Khushi - Raju Banega Gentleman

Raju, a small child of about 7 years old, living in a place in district Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, was always on lookout of some mischief.  His father has a small tea-stall on the road-side.  His mother also helps in tea-stall during rush hours. Raju has a sister about 4 years younger to him.

Both brother and sister go to school.  Raju goes for formal school and the younger sister in the play school, rather a nearby house where the land lady has organized some toys, few playful activities and refreshment to attract children.  Accordingly, she charges a nominal amount and that has become a source of livelihood for her.

Raju does not like coming to his father tea-stall and he wants to become a teacher like his maths teacher who comes in a motor-bike and wears good clothes and has a concrete house. Raju lives in a small hut shaped house that gives passage to water when it rains.

Raju father’s does not want him to study further as he feels that he should handle the tea-stall as early as possible. Thus every day he forcibly makes Raju sit in small shop and calculate the daily sales. His father also sometimes asks him to serve tea to customers which Raju just hates.

Many times Raju has told his parents that he does not want to do this work and wants to concentrate in studies and become a teacher.  But his parents would not listen.  One day his father slapped him and scolded him and threatened him that he would not send him to school from tomorrow if he refuses to sit on the tea-stall.

Next day Raju decided to inform his school Principal about all what happened. He even cried and told his Principal that he would run away from house if his father kept insisting this. That night he did not go home and stayed at the house of his Principal. Principal sent a message to Raju’s father that his son would stay with him tonight and he should meet him next morning. Next morning Raju’s father went to meet the Principal. Principal scolded his father and told him that he is on the side of Raju and that he should not ask Raju to sit in his tea-stall. He also informed him that if he continues to do so he would be destroying the future of Raju. The father understood that the matter was serious and is not mere a child’s ego.

He promised the Principal that from now he would only encourage his children to study and not involve them into tea-stall work. He also promised that Raju can study as much he wants and one day “Raju Banega Gentleman”.

Become a member of "Khushi" : www.facebook.com/groups/vedantakhushi

Vedanta “Khushi”, that says all about Child Care

Vedanta “Khushi” is a mission driven by the vision of Mr. Anil Agarwal, Chairman – Vedanta Group’s that “no child in India should remain malnourished and be deprived of education and primary health. Let India be a child malnourished free nation.”

Scribbling  some  figures  on  the  net  and  in  certain reports of Indian Economic  Survey,  UNICEF, UNDP, etc. a not so much usual fact came forward and  that was the child population in India, the growing number of deprived or  underprivileged  children  in  India,  the number of street children in India,  the number of child deaths in India, and the number of children who dropout from schools every year in India.

India,  a  country  with  largest  child  population, largest malnourished children, largest child deaths, and largest street children in the world, put our  minds  and  thoughts  in  a  thinking-hat  mode.  For once, we felt apprehensive about building India for a bright and progressive future. It was sure, government, NGOs, corporates alone cannot bring this problem to a solution and common masses need to align and join on such national missions.

This is where we decided to launch an awareness campaign “Khushi”, which was aimed to spread the message of care for the underprivileged children and building a life of dignity for them.  The message was clear that about 50% of India’s child population needs attention – attention towards their nutrition, education and good health. The message was also clear that without the involvement of similar minds, India would never be able to make it to a developed nation.

With this thought, on 10th April 2012, Vedanta Group designed “Khushi”, an in-house campaign on social media - on blog and on the Facebook.  We also decided to make “Khushi” a 100% non-funding campaign that would strongly engage with people and spread awareness to encourage them to take individual steps and initiatives. Where the blog, www.khushi-creatinghappiness.blogspot.in, became a platform for encouraging   people  by  uploading  success  stories,  articles  and  statistics;  the  Facebook became  a  platform for on-line discussions and debates and spreading  awareness. By now, on “Khushi” group, about 60 debates have been carried out on a number of issues like girls’ education, infrastructure in schools, problem of street children, beggary, quality of education, rehabilitation, disparities in urban and rural education, sending underprivileged children back to school,  malnutrition, corporal punishments to children, child labour making crackers,  effects of TV advertising on children, portray of Indian Children in Cinema,  mobile phone and their effects on Children,  Safety of Children etc.

The debates became a platform for knowledge sharing and a guiding factor for proposed actions. Taking forward the outcomes, 150 schools have bee adopted in Rajasthan for completely changing their infrastructure, study material and other facilities.

Vedanta “Khushi” also spent days with the street children to understand their issues and problems. Accordingly, workshops were conducted to inculcate the importance of education, health and hygiene, nutrition and behaviour change.

To further strengthen the objective of “Khushi”, 75 child care centres have been adopted in Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh. These centres have about 2500 deprived and underprivileged children.  These children are provided daily nutritious breakfast, lunch, books and primary health check-ups.

Recently, Vedanta’s “Khushi” came together with NDTV for the girl child campaign – Our Girls Our Pride.  The campaign ambassador was the gorgeous Bollywood film actress Ms.  Priyanka Chopra.   Ms.  Krishna Poonia, the Padamshree, and the ace international athlete also became joined “Khushi” campaign.

Today,  when we are about to complete 2 years in this mission (10th April 2014), we are quite pleased that we are able to communicate our message clearly to a number of opinion makers which include journalists, professors, engineers, social  workers,  bureaucrats,  students,  doctors,  management graduates, entrepreneurs, etc. 

Vedanta “Khushi” has become a global mission and there has been increasing interest from Indians living in different parts of the world. People are engaged and spreading message of child care through direct engagement with people and also through their social media presence.

One thing we could successfully bring forward through "Khushi" has been change in the behaviour of people towards deprived children.

Vedanta “Khushi” is growing every day and so changing the society.

Vedanta as a group has worked so far with 14,000 child care centres in India – in the state of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, and Odisha, reaching out to more than 500,000 deprived and underprivileged children, since 2008.

Taking cognizance of the issue, Government of India has sanctioned Rs. 129,000 crore in the current plan to be spent under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) within 3 years.

Join : www.facebook.com/groups/vedantakhushi

Vedanta Khushi : “The Missing Milk”

This is a real life incident forwarded by Anu Sharma from Bhilwara, Rajasthan, 

By Anu Sharma

It was the time of winters when I with my children was waiting at the platform for a train to Jaipur which got delayed for an hour or two due to adverse weather conditions. While we were sitting on the bench, a beggar holding her son 1-2 years of age in her arms came to me for the money.

Her son was crying at the loudest pitch and without paying much heed to him, the beggar was busy in collecting sympathy money from us. I got very upset seeing the whole scenario and asked her “he is hungry, why are you not feeding him?”

She said the child has not eaten anything since morning, give me the money, I will buy something for him and then he will be quiet.”

Her reluctant attitude frustrated me. I ignored her, went to the tea stall on the platform, and bought some milk. I gave it to the beggar and asked her to feed him with the milk. She took the milk, kept it in her rugged bag and moved away from my bench while ignoring what I said. Attitude of her infuriated me and before she could go and beg to other people, I stopped her and asked her firmly to give the milk to little child.

With no option left, she handed over the milk to her son. I could see the small child drank it at one go without leaving a single drop. I was happy and satisfied; at least I could fill the empty stomach of one innocent child who does not know what fate has in store for him. Will he do the same work that his mother is doing or would go to school, study and do a respectable job?

I know it’s a small beginning and I would have done some more. May be I would have convinced the beggar to work or would have probably asked her to send her child to government Anganwadis. But for now I know I am moving in the right direction, money would have spoiled her even more and perhaps giving the milk would have inspired other passengers to do the same.

Being part of Vedanta’s Khushi campaign, I feel I am contributing to the society at large. My contribution may be small in this mammoth problem, but I could make a small difference…

Be Part of Vedanta Khushi : www.facebook.com/groups/vedantakhushi

VEDANTA KHUSHI – AGLE JANAM MOHE BITIYA NA KIJO

Sarojini Naidu, Kalpana Chawla, Indra Noyi, Chanda Kochar, PT Usha, Bachendri Pal, Sania Mirza are some names that have made country proud in their respective fields. One can see females excelling in the corporate world, engineering and medical professions through women empowerment. Even in Board exams or any other competitive exams, girls mostly surpass boys. Gone are the days when the females were considered as a weaker sex, dependent on the opposite sex at every stage of their life; as a child on father, as an adolescent on brother, as an adult on husband and when old, on son. Instead, they are strongest pillar of the family with every member dependent on them.

But there are people who still exist considering girl as a burden, either because of dowry, posterity or social status. This mindset has given rise to Female Foeticide which is a critical concern especially in India.

In the age group 0-6 years, female child sex ratio consistently shows a sharp declination, from 962 in 1981 to an alarmingly ratio, as low as 914 in 2011. The drop has largely been attributed to sex-selective abortions in some parts of the country and majorly in the cities. In India, 682,000 female foetus were destroyed between 2001 and 2005, horribly accounting as 1800 to 1900 every day.

“There is no point in spending money on the education and nutrition of the girls as they are not going to pay back for it in future because they will be gone to someone else house after marriage. And also, when they will be married, it requires huge expenditure. Boy brings name, fame and money in the family, he will take our family name and generation forward” – mentality of some of the Indian Families irrespective of caste and status.

Literacy and economic status do not necessarily guarantee a positive child sex ratio. Shockingly, sex-selective abortion is higher among the well off, educated and predominantly urban class for social status and posterity.

Foetus are found lying in farms, floating on rivers, wrapped in jute bags and thrown in the dustbins are some of the common pathetic sights. It seems the struggle for a girl starts from the day, her existence is known in her mother’s womb.

Despite these horrific numbers, foetal sex determination and sex selective abortion by unethical medical professionals has today grown into a Rs. 1,000 crore industry (US$ 244 million). Social discrimination against women has already been serious issue in Indian society which has been further spurred by technological developments. Today, mobile sex selection clinics drive into almost any village or neighbourhood that goes unchecked and unsanctioned.

Do we still need to wait to change our mind-set towards female population in India? Zero tolerance is what is needed.

 PCPNDT Act 2003 :

The Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, PCPNDT Act 2003, prohibits sex selection and regulates prenatal diagnostic techniques and the prevention of their ‘misuse for sex determination leading to sex-selective abortion’. However, it is very difficult to enforce and prevent the deliberate misuse of medical technology for the elimination of girls on such a large scale. PCPNDT Act has been into force for all these years and the sex-ratio in India is still falling.

Source: http://www.unicef.org/india/The_Situation_of_Children_in_India_-__A_profile_20110630_.pdf

Vedanta Khushi : Main Azad Hoon

Vedanta Khushi received this story from a village in Uttar Pradesh which is known for making mud-bricks. The bricks are made from mud and than heated in the 'bhatti' and several people from the nearby villages come and work in extreme conditions.

It was raining heavily and Yogi and Dharmu who work in a brick making small unit in Uttar Pradesh in Gajraula was coming back home from his daily work. Yogesh and Dharmu were quite drenched in the rains. As their house was still quite far, they decided to put-stay below a nearby tree. They saw a big tree, where many people were already hiding from the rains.

Amongst many people standing was a small boy of 8-9 years with a turban on his head which was bleeding with the colour of mud and his hands were also full of mud. His knees were swollen and his elbows also bleeding.

Yogesh asked this small boy about his condition and whether he has taken some medicine or is he going to the doctor. The child sounded a little stubborn , "I am alright and these are small wounds and i will be alright". Dharmu was not convinced and he felt the child is in pain and is sounding brave. He started checking the wounds of the child and realized that the child must be working in a brick making factory and while lifting bricks he has got himself injured.

"How come a 8-9 year old child work like this. And how come the owner of the brick making factory employ these child labours", Dharmu asked Yogesh, who had no certain answers. Dharmu asked the child where he was working and the child in innocence disclosed the name of the factory. It was not far away from the place Dharmu and Yogesh were working.

The rain stopped and both of them went ahead for their homes. Dharmu happened to know a social worker in his village who used to work for the welfare of children. He approached him in the night and next day, the government officials went and conducted a surprise check at the premises of this factory. Not one, the owner had engaged at least 10-12 children in work. To same a small petty amount, the owner had taken the law for a ride. The owner arrested and the children were set free. The factory was sealed.

Dharmu was quite happy and so was his friend Yogesh. While going back, Dharmu recognized the child, he was smiling and jumping. Dharmu asked his name and he said "Main Azad Hoon". "My father now cannot force me to work. Ill go to school from next week", he was shouting with his friends. The child name was 'Azad', but he rightly said, "Main Azad Hoon".

NOTE : When Vedanta Khushi campaign was launched, very little we knew how much impact it would bring in community. KHUSHI believes, sensitivity in people towards critical issues is increasing and people of all walks of society are taking steps forward for the prevention and also towards the cure.