While the nation continues to reel under the horrors of the Kathua and Unnao rapes and certain groups continue to politicise these crimes, a small village in Assam has come forth to be a beacon of justice.
After the horrific gangrape and murder of an 11-year-old minor shook the village of Lalung Gaon in the Nagaon district, these villagers joined hands to catch the accused and handed them over to the police.
On March 23, when the minor was alone at home, three boys barged into her home and raped her, reported NDTV. If that wasn’t all, the trio set the girl ablaze after committing the heinous crime.
The girl’s parents who were busy toiling in the fields were summoned by the villagers to rush home. “We were working in the field when villagers started calling us. We came home and saw our daughter was almost burnt,” the girl’s mother told NDTV.
The 11-year-old who was a Class 5 student was admitted to the hospital and succumbed to 90 percent burn injuries later that night. But before she breathed her last, she named her rapists who included 21-year-old Zakir Hussain and two minors, who she said, set her alight in an attempt to disfigure her completely.
Grieving the death of his daughter, the father of the victim broke into tears saying, “My daughter did not even know this man properly. I cannot understand why this happened to us.”
Lalung Gaon is a predominantly Muslim village where most villagers are underprivileged labourers. One of the accused in the case, 21-year-old Zahir, comes from an influential land-owning family in this village of poverty-stricken agricultural workers.
After the case came to light, the villagers came forward and alleged that this certainly wasn’t the first time someone from the family had attempted sexual assault and got away with it.
One of the women accused Zakir’s father of attempted sexual assault saying, “Once when my husband was away, Zakir’s father broke into our house and tried to molest me. I managed to free myself and approached the police, but they did not help me.”
The death of the minor was grieved by the entire village. But they did not stop at terming it an unfortunate event. They got together and handed over the two minors to the police.
They collectively barged into Zakir’s home later and ransacked it in an attempt to find him, only to realise he had fled.
But their search did not stop. Within 24-hours, the villagers traced his location, some 40 kilometres away in another village and informed the police. Less than 72 hours after the victim passed, Zakir was taken into police custody, thanks to the villagers.
The undying spirit of the villagers to grant justice to their daughter reflects on how none of them tried to politicise it. “A criminal has no religion and, he has to be punished,” Musabbir Alam, a villager told NDTV.
Nagaon Superintendent of Police (SP), Shankar Rai Medhi expressed how the police had formed a special probe team after capturing the accused and will soon file the charge sheet for the case.
This Assam village proves that if citizens unite to fight for justice, they can overcome every hurdle. We hope this story inspires people across India to not remain mere spectators to societal injustice but fight in the face of it.
Good deeds, like art and music, transcend human barriers like language. I truly understood the meaning of this when I spoke with Priya Sumesh. I clearly could see the good in her as she described her life in her mother-tongue Malayalam – a language that I understand in parts, but not enough to appreciate.
Priya raises funds for underprivileged children undergoing cancer treatment. She has helped ten children so far and hopes to continue doing so. She started raising funds by singing on the streets and now gets called to perform at various shows.
Priya, aged 30, was diagnosed with pituitary adenoma, a non-cancerous tumour in the pituitary gland. Two tumours of 3.4 mm and 4.3 mm are lodged at the back of her head. Upon examination, while the doctors did mention that they could surgically remove them, they also warned Priya that she might lose her eyesight or voice in the process. Not wanting to take that chance, Priya has been living with immense physical and emotional pain.
In a conversation with The Better India, Priya shares with us why she chose the medium of music to help others in need.
Priya Sumesh
“I lost my elder sister to intestinal cancer. While medical sciences have made great advancements, due to our financial condition at that time, we were not able to afford the medicines and treatment. Despite selling everything we owned, we were unable to save her,” she says.
Seeing death at such close quarters made Priya vow to herself to work for others. Subsequently, she was diagnosed with pituitary adenoma.
“I remember sitting at the doctor’s clinic waiting to be called in when I saw a young child who was with her mother. I struck up a conversation and found that she was suffering from cancer, and her parents were unable to continue the treatment due to a lack of funds. That’s when I decided to use my voice to pay for her treatment.”
Priya has a very soothing and mellifluous voice and has always been praised for it. “I have no formal training but, in terms of talent, my voice is one thing I knew I could always count on,” she says.
Singing away
Since there was no platform that Priya could use, she decided to sing on the streets and collect money. By doing this, she collected close to Rs 2.5 lakhs for the first child she helped.
“The first song I sang (Adiva Katte) became viral, and that helped me immensely. The song was also featured on a popular Malayalam channel called Flowers TV. Post that, there were various shows I started performing at,” she recalls.
After that, there has been no looking back for Priya. Now she gets invited to various functions to perform and has also been presented various awards.
With some of the doyens of the Malayalam film industry
She spoke about one such award function, which will always remain special to her. She elaborates, “I was invited to Muscat for an award function as their Guest of Honour.”
“There, I received an award and cash amount of Rs 1.5 lakhs from none other than Laletan (Mohanlal), which was very special for me.”
Sharing the stage with Laletan
“When I started singing on the streets I used to visit the Ernakulum police station to get permission. My husband, Sumesh, and I would set out and find a spot where we would set up the sound system, and I would begin singing. We carried a flexi-board which had all the details of the child I was supporting, and I managed to get donations of up to Rs 50,000 in this manner,” she says.
Priya has been lucky and to find donors who have always helped her out. “The sound system and the car were donated by people who believed in what I was doing,” she says.
Speaking about her husband, she says, “I have received so much support and encouragement from my husband and mother-in-law.”
“Initially, my husband would drive me, but since we also have to run our household, he decided to take up a steady job.”
With her husband and mother-in-law
There is immense physical pain that Priya goes through. Often, even before she sets out to sing, she has to go to the hospital to get an injection to reduce the pain. Yet, she is one of the chirpiest people I have spoken to in a long while.
“The only way I can help these children is by singing, and I will continue to do that till I can. There has to be a bigger purpose to life than just living. My purpose is to help these children,” she states.
We hope that Priya finds the strength to continue her work and support many more children.
Child marriages are still rampant in some regions of India. A 2015 study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences stated 278 complaints of child marriage, from October 2014-December 2015. Another research by Young Lives, in coordination with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPR), revealed that Rajasthan has the highest reported incidences of child marriages.
Well, the efficient Alwar Police, managed to foil a child marriage. Kailash, a driver, from Bakhtal Ki Chawki of Alwar district, was about to marry off his minor son Mukesh (name changed) when the cops intervened and stopped the proceedings.
The Alwar cops were vigilant, and stopped the child marriage just in time. Representative image only. Image Courtesy:Wikimedia Commons
The cops had been informed that Kailash’s son was only 12-years-old. They the house while the wedding procession (baraat) was on. The attending relatives and guests were made to leave.
Kailash’s family tried to wriggle out of the predicament, by claiming that it was not Mukesh, but his uncle who was getting married. The cops, not to be fooled, took the uncle to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), where he confessed he wasn’t the groom.
The CWC then took things forward, directing the cops to accompany Mukesh so he could be admitted to a child care home. It was the CWC that had received information about a family trying to marry off a minor boy. According to CWC chairperson Shravan Singhal in The Times of India, that is when they informed Udhyog Nagar Police Station.
Kailash’s family had made full preparations including setting a date for the wedding, and printing cards. The CWC issued the minor’s parents a warning, not to get him wedded before he attains the legal age for marriage.
As is always the case, the child in question is left utterly confused, and bewildered. Mukesh spoke to the CWC and claimed that his mother was opposed to the wedding. He was scheduled to marry a girl whose father wanted both his daughters to get married on the same day. Mukesh claimed to have never seen the bride.
Child marriage has many causes, and one of them is the adherence to age-old customs, due to economic conditions. People indulging in the practice are often from the lesser-privileged sections of society. Kailash has five children, of whom two boys are teenaged and unmarried. Mukesh is a mere Class V student.
Thanks to the timely efforts of the CWC, two young lives were set on the right path again. Hopefully, Mukesh and his erstwhile prospective child bride will be better off thanks to the intervention from the CWC and the cop.
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Earlier this year, UNICEF had released a report stating that the number of girls getting married in India had halved. Despite this drop, nearly 1.5 million girls in India get married before they turn 18. Child marriage remains a social evil that India has seemingly had a hard time eradicating.
The legal age of marriage in India is 18 for women and 21 for men. Last year the Supreme Court ruled that sex with an underage wife constituted rape.
Despite all the recent conversation about protecting our young girls following the horrific gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua, certain influential politicians and lawmakers in Madhya Pradesh continue to condone and support such the pernicious practice of child marriage.
According to a recent report by the Dainik Bhaskar Post, hundreds of young girls were married off across mass wedding ceremonies in the Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh, on the occasion of Akshay Tritiya, an annual springtime festival celebrated by Hindus and Jains.
At one mass wedding ceremony in the Biaora Kalan village, approximately 69 couples, largely within the age bracket of 12-16, got married.
What was even more shocking was the presence of leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties at these mass wedding ceremonies. These leaders reportedly even blessed the couples. The district administration estimates that nearly 1000 minor couples were married off on Wednesday.
For representational purposes only.
Making matter worse, no calls to report and prevent child marriages were made to the helpline number issued by the State women and child development department in the district. Local police and administrators assert that even if they stop a marriage, the parents often take the children away to another place and marry them off. The practice reportedly has the patronage of influential politicians in the district.
The idea of lawmakers or potential legislators supporting such a brazen violation of the law and go against a child’s interests is shocking.
Going by the National Family Health Survey-4 statistics, nearly half the women between 20-24 years of age get married before the age of 18 (age of consent) in Rajgarh district. More than 60% of the men between 25 and 29 years of age get married before the age of 21, while nearly 7% of women between 15-19 become mothers or get pregnant.
Even with these statistics in the public domain, the administration seems helpless in dealing with the situation on the ground.
Good news, however, came from Bhopal where the local police prevented three child marriages thanks to the helpline set up by the State government. However faint, this is still a silver lining.
“When a girl is forced to marry as a child, she faces immediate and lifelong consequences. Her odds of finishing school decrease while her odds of being abused by her husband and suffering complications during pregnancy increase. There are also huge societal consequences and a higher risk of intergenerational cycles of poverty,” said Anju Malhotra, UNICEF’s Principal Gender Advisor, in a statement released by the agency last month. Child marriages have also been a major driver in increasing the frequency of HIV/AIDS, delicate pregnancies, and other such health implications.
Under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, the marriage between a man above 18 years of age with a woman below 18 years of age, is punishable with imprisonment of two years, a fine of up to Rs 1,00,000, or both. Read more about PCMA here.
For representational purposes only. (Source: Flickr)
If the male is an adult and the bride is a minor; the former can be prosecuted. Parents or guardians encouraging, organising, abetting, forcing, conducting and even attending these wedding ceremonies are liable for prosecution and punishment under both PCMA and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act. However, it is important to note that if the State government goes by the letter of the law, it must prosecute those politicians who attended these mass wedding ceremonies.
Although child marriage is a non-bailable offence, the act recognised it as “voidable”, but valid. Despite the enactment of the PCMA, this practice is not automatically void under India’s civil laws. Under the current provisions of PCMA, the onus is on the child bride to declare her marriage null and void within two years of attaining majority (20 years of age). If she does not approach the courts and issue her declaration by then, the marriage stands. Considering the social structure within which these minors exist, it is impractical to expect them to go against their parents.
Karnataka, however, addressed this lacuna by inserting a provision in the Act for the state, which declared that every child marriage, whether solemnised before or after the commencement of this new provision of the law, will be treated invalid from the very outset. The apex court lauded the Karnataka government for taking such a step and asked other states to follow suit.
Access to better education for young girls, greater impetus on spreading awareness against the debilitating effects of child marriage by government agencies, and extensive work on the ground by local non-profits have worked wonders.
For representational purposes only. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
However, a lot more work is required, particularly when it comes to the question of annulment of these marriages. Although states like Karnataka have addressed the problem legally, what they haven’t quite manage to achieve is ensure the safety of the girl child in such situations.
Having said that, the example of a “collaborative policing” strategy initiated by Rema Rajeshwari, the former Superintendent of the Police of Mahabubnagar District in Telangana, under the Balyaniki Raksha initiative (started in June 2016) offers a potential model for tackling child marriage.
“Collaborative policing is nothing but taking the help of all the concerned departments. Most of the time, the first distress call is received by the local sub-inspector. Because we receive such information, we have made it a point to train our SHOs to be more sensitive to this issue. However, police alone cannot stop the child marriages. So, what we did is integrate the services,” Rema told The News Minute.
For representational purposes only. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
In addition to holding a series of meetings and awareness sessions about not just child marriage, but any sort of abuse they suffer, with the various state departments working on the ground, the local police also conducted community outreach programs attended by over 2400 priests, pastors, and maulanas. At these sessions, these local religious figures were told that they would go to jail and suffer other legal consequences for conducting these wedding ceremonies.
Such awareness programs resulted in a significant number of calls coming into the local police stations about potential child marriage ceremonies, and reduced the number of child marriages by nearly 65% over a span of two years, reports The News Minute.
There is hope, but our lawmakers need to take greater responsibility.
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India’s train stations are transit points for human traffickers, who tempt kids and others into cities, promising them good jobs, but sell them into slavery. These victims then land up as domestic, factory or farm workers, with some even being pushed into sexual slavery.
Help-desks at railway stations can curb the trafficking menace. The East Coast Railway set up a Woman-and-Child Desk at the railway station in Bhubaneshwar in March 2018. According to a Railway Protection Force (RPF) officer quoted in The Telegraph, 359 children, including 49 girls were saved from the station in 2016 and 198 children were saved in 2017.
In fact, back in 2016, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, in association with the Railway Ministry and Childline India Foundation, was to establish Railway Child Help Desks, in three stations in Andhra Pradesh.
In 2016, India had around 8,132 cases of which 434 were reported from Tamil Nadu. Well, this new help-desk at Tamil Nadu should be able to help the state diminish its record for registered human trafficking cases. In fact, in the last one and a half years, Childline Chennai’s volunteers have rescued around 847 kids from Chennai Central, and around 422 from Egmore railway station.
For victims of human trafficking, a dedicated help-desk at railway stations is much-needed. Representative image only. Image Courtesy: Pixabay
A recently-conducted workshop on the prevalence of trafficking was attended by 82 inspectors and sub-inspectors from across Tamil Nadu. The event saw C Sylendra Babu, Additional Director General of Police of the Railways, take a firm stand on trafficking. According to The Times of India, he said every collective effort would be taken to protect vulnerable kids and women.
The victims of human trafficking end up in abysmal conditions, far away from home, to be abused and ill-treated. As many as one million toddlers and children reportedly fall prey to human trafficking, yearly. Read here, about how you could save a child from human trafficking.
Jhuma, her husband Baban, and their three-year-old son moved to Gurugram two years ago, from West Bengal for a better life. They lived in one of the many settlements near the high rises.
While the couple would work as domestic help, their son would stay at home or play with neighbouring kids until Jhuma returned in the afternoon. This practice lasted more than a year.
However, one day, when Jhuma returned home in the afternoon, the boy was nowhere to be found. Despite several attempts, the parents have been unsuccessful in finding their boy.
This is not a one-off case because every month a child from these settlements goes missing. The parents run from pillar to post and receive little or no help from local police authorities. Finally, due to lack of financial resources, they are forced to return to their villages without their children.
According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, 2,42,938 children disappeared between 2012 and 2017.
In a conversation with The Better India, Bhuwan Ribhu, from Bachpan Bachao Andolan, explained why it is imperative for government agencies to start using the Facial Recognition Software (FRS) to help track missing children.
The government of India has a website called www.trackthemissingchild.gov.in which has information on all reported missing children and those who are lodged in various child care institutions across the country.
Website screenshot
“India currently has almost 2 lakh missing children and about 90,000 lodged in various child care institutions. It is almost impossible for anyone manually go through photographs to match the children. Therefore the FRS, which aids in making the match, is being promoted by Bachpan Bachao Andolan,” he said.
The organisation has been working towards this software for almost two years. On April 5, 2018, an intervention by the Delhi High Court helped the Delhi Police run a pilot programme, with their version of the software.
In so doing, the Delhi police managed to reunite 2930 missing children with their families within five days.
However, Bhuwan says, “It is immaterial whether other police departments use the software or not. Even if one department has this software, then running it through all their databases, under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, will throw up the requisite results, which can be shared with the other departments.”
One of the other things that Bachpan Bachao Andolan has been pushing for is the setting up of a National Children’s Tribunal on the lines of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
We hope that with the aid of such technology we can reunite many more missing children with their families.
Summer vacations for schools in India span a little over 50 days and come along with tons of holiday homework for students, which rarely deviates from the standard academic curriculum, ensuring that the takeaway for children is mostly limited to their syllabus.
Come to think of it, do you even remember any of the activities that you were asked complete or any homework that made an impact in your life on a holistic level?
Except for a few odd instances, we are sure that this has been the case since the establishment of the formal education system in India.
However, a higher secondary school in Chennai has ventured to the road less taken and has come up with an amazing holiday homework idea—but not for students!
A circular released by Lydia Devasagayam, the principal of Annai Violet Matriculation and Higher Secondary School, lists holiday assignments for parents and entails them to actively involve themselves in a string of developmental activities for the benefit of their wards, in order to make them more aware and sensitive towards the society and different professions. It also lists relationship-building measures.
“Have at least two meals together with your children. Teach them the importance and hard work of the farmers and ask them not to waste their food. Let them wash their own plates after the meal. Children learn the dignity of labour from such activities.”
These are the first two tasks in the heartwarming list, which also sheds light on various important values and life lessons that families are sadly losing out as we inch towards a more technologically advanced lifestyle.
“It’s just that I felt that the world has become techno-savvy, we are losing our kids in the rat race. We are focusing on marks and making money, because of which the society at large has become selfish and is losing values. I sent this circular as a refreshing break from the mundane. Until and unless parents invest time and create lovely memories for our kids out there, we are going to lose our precious kids,” a concerned Lydia explained to Edex Live.
Besides asking parents to enlighten their kids about the sweat and blood that goes in each profession, the circular also directs parents to incorporate the same about their own professions by taking children to their workplaces.
This way, the children will be able to better understand their parents’ hard work in supporting the family.
From sharing stories from one’s own childhood to getting the children spend more time with grandparents, the school administration aims to directly involve parents in the emotional and psychological growth of their children as better human beings who are socially conscious towards their family, society and the planet.
To raise environmental consciousness amidst the younger generation, the list highlights interesting activities like raising a kitchen garden, adopting a pet animal, and most importantly, “let them play outdoors, get hurt and get dirty because an indoor comfortable life on the sofa will make them lazy.”
Amidst all the fun activities, the school hasn’t forgotten its basic tenets and has made sure to involve some learning too. “Learn five new words in English and list them on a notebook. Get some storybooks with colourful pictures for your children,” lists the circular.
The best yet most important part of the list directs the parents to visually document the completion of each of these activities through photographs that the children are required to bring back once the school reopens.
Lastly, the exceptional circular concludes on a poignant note for the parents, which asks them to celebrate their children and be grateful for their existence.
“Look into their eyes of your little one and thank God for giving you one wonderful gift. In a few years from now, they will be soaring to greater heights.”
Anjali Roy was an 11-year-old when her life turned upside down after she was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a cancerous tumour in a bone, in 2013. However, the little girl refused to buckle down and decided to fight.
Anjali was diagnosed with the deadly cancer in her left knee, and after some deliberation, her doctors concluded that amputating Anjali’s leg, was the only way forward. They counselled the girl before the surgery, trying to convince her that all wasn’t lost, and also made her watch the movie ‘Naache Mayuri’, while she was convalescing in the hospital.
Anjali lost her leg to cancer, but never let it be a barrier to her dreams. Image Courtesy: Cancer Centre Calcutta
Naache Mayuri is a biographical film based on Bharatanatyam dancer and actor, Sudha Chandran, who lost her leg in an accident. The story depicts how she received an artificial Jaipur Foot and eventually learned to dance again.
An inspired Anjali decided to pick up her ghungroos a year after her cancer surgery. Her parents, Amit, a garment factory worker, and Rita, ensured the little girl studied in school and danced, despite the family’s poverty. In fact, special arrangements were made to ensure a dance teacher came home to teach Anjali, as she couldn’t travel to her dance school.
The labour came to fruition this Poila Baishak when the South Point Ex Student’s Association (SPESA) felicitated Anjali, who is now a 16-year-old. The girl gave a fantastic dance performance, to Tagore’s classic ‘Mor Beena Uthe Kon Shure Baji,’ and was accompanied by Dr Arnab Sengupta (vocals), who is the director of SGCRI, and a South Point alumni.
Sandip Roychoudhry, the VP of SPESA, echoed everyone’s thoughts when he said that the girl’s indomitable spirit had left everyone in awe. He also informed the Times of India, that the SPESA will help her pursue a career in dance.
Anjali’s performance also caused many organisations to come forward to provide her with a prosthetic leg, to help her dance comfortably.
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Have any victims been heard? If the punishment for both murder and rape is same, it is a huge consequence. Can you imagine now, how many offenders would allow their victims to survive now that rape and murder have the same punishment.
These are the words of the Delhi High Court, which has raised some pertinent questions days after the Centre passed the Central Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, which allows courts to sentence those convicted of raping children below the age of 12 to a minimum of 20 years to life term or death.
It asked the government whether it had conducted any due diligence or “scientific assessment” before passing the ordinance and whether the death sentence is a “deterrent to rape”.
“Have you been to the root cause of the crime, or it is the effect of the public outcry,” the bench further asked. Raising the point that most of the perpetrators behind the commission of these crimes are known to the victims (family members, neighbours or acquaintances) the court asked whether “family members will come out and depose against their relatives’ family.”
Ever since the public outrage against the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua and allegations of rape against an Uttar Pradesh legislator, the government has come under increasing pressure to placate constituents. The hurriedly passed ordinance is a response to that public outcry. However, the Delhi High Court’s observations must give us reason for pause.
What does the data about the commission of child rapes tell us?
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), of the 64,138 child rape cases that came up for trial under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act read with Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 376 (punishment for rape) in 2016, a mere 1,869 – less than 3% – resulted in convictions.
For representational purposes only. (Source: Facebook)
Another glaring statistic is that in 94% of the cases of rape against women and children in 2016, the perpetrator was known to the victim. As per NCRB records, the perpetrator was either a family member, neighbour or a known acquaintance of the victim.
“Far from reporting the crime, the death penalty is going to deter the victim from reporting sexual assault when the offender is from the family or is known to them. This will lead to the crime being suppressed and the victim being left completely helpless.
Without strengthening the investigation process or the prosecution, creating an enabling environment both in the court and outside, and improving the conviction rate, the sentence is irrelevant,” said Supreme Court advocate Vrinda Grover to The Indian Express.
At a convention of parents of victims, child rights activists and legal luminaries in the national capital against the Centre’s ordinance, a mother to a victim spoke out. Her daughter had been raped by the husband, the child’s biological father, according to the Press Trust of India.
“I want him (her husband) to be alive, I want him to compensate us monetarily for the rest of his life so that I can bring up my children. Why should he hang and be free of his responsibilities? I fear if the death penalty is introduced, children like mine would be raped and then killed so that there remains no evidence,” she told the audience.
At the same convention, Anuja Gupta of the RAHI Foundation, which works with survivors of child sexual abuse and incest, also spoke out against the ordinance. “The move to bring in the ordinance was based on brutality and not on any understanding of the dynamics of incest and child abuse, which is of epidemic proportions in India and is taking place in our homes as a matter of daily routine,” she said, according to PTI.
In her 20 years of experience working with rape survivors, what she found was that they do not want to carry the burden of punishing their abuser, particularly if that person happens to be a family member. Since in 94% of the cases of rape against women and children, the perpetrator was known to the survivor, the introduction of the death penalty could further lessen the chances of reporting such cases to the police or testifying before the court, she added.
In fact, the Justice Verma Committee, which was set up by the Centre following the horrific 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, argued that there is “considerable evidence that the deterrent effect of the death penalty on serious crimes is a myth”.
“According to the Working Group on Human Rights, the murder rate has declined consistently in India over the last 20 years despite the slowdown in the execution of death sentences since 1980. Hence, we do take note of the argument that introduction of the death penalty for rape may not have a deterrent effect,” the Committee recommended.
The late Justice JS Verma (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Despite the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee, the UPA government passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) 2013, which allowed courts to award death sentences to those convicted of rape not amounting to homicide under IPC Sections 376E (repeat offenders) and 376A (commission of rape that leaves the victim in a persistent vegetative state).
As a result of these amendments, the perpetrators of the heinous gangrape at the Shakti Mills compound in Mumbai were sentenced to death in 2014. A lawyer with the Majlis Legal Centre, which provided legal support to the victims, has also spoken out against the death penalty.
“Death penalty shifts the burden on to the victim as, since the offenders are known to them in most cases, they are likely to turn hostile or not report the crime,” said advocate Persis Sidhva.
What we need is better policing and more efficient legal system
Besides awarding death sentences for the rape of a child below 12 years, the ordinance also proposed amendments to CRPC Section 173 and 309, as a result of which the investigation of all rape cases have to be mandatorily completed within two months.
The same time limit extends to the trial of all rape cases, and appeals have to be disposed of in 6 months. If the investigation is not completed within 60 days, the accused are entitled to bail.
Even the trials for the 2012 Delhi gangrape case and the 2014 Shakti Mills case took more than two months. Considering these cases were in the media spotlight, one can imagine the fate of those cases that are not highlighted.
Under the previous Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, the “trial shall, as far as possible, be completed within a period of two months” and that “investigation in relation to rape of a child may be completed within three months”.
The operative phrases here are “as far as possible” and “maybe”. Why? The framers of these laws understood the limitations before the police and judiciary in handling these cases.
This isn’t to suggest that the investigation and the trial process should be slow, but that the reasons for why they are slow haven’t been addressed.
According to a study detailing the POSCO Act by the National Law School, Bengaluru, survivors turn hostile in “67.5% cases, and testified against the accused in only 26.7% cases”. As a result, most cases filed under POSCO Act fall apart since the prosecution is unable to prove its case.
Lawyers and public policy experts working on the ground cite time-consuming trial proceedings as a reason for this. The long timelines leave space for the accused to put pressure on victims and families into backtracking. Making matters worse is if the accused in this case is a family member/relative.
For representational purposes only.
Why do these trial proceedings take so long? This is because our courts are overburdened with cases. “Proposing fast-track courts do not help when the number of judges remains the same or if the prosecutors are not capable of handling such cases,” Sidhva told The Indian Express.
Even though there are separate courts for POSCO-related cases, states like Maharashtra have 17,300 cases pending trial, while Uttar Pradesh has 15,900 and Madhya Pradesh at 10,950. Other states, meanwhile, have 3500-5000 POSCO cases pending, according to this Times of India report.
Read more here to understand the contours of the problem and potential solutions.
Another concern with regards to the lack of conviction also emerges in the investigation stage. The Unnao case, for example, points to the inability of the local police to take action against the local legislator accused of rape.
The police in India are governed by the colonial-era Police Act of 1861 which envisaged their abject loyalty to the rulers. Various government-appointed commissions were set up to bring about reforms in policing. However, these reports continue to gather dust.
According to a 2016 report released by the Bureau of Police Research and Development, on an average, only 1% of the total police expenditure is allotted to police training at these academies. The glaring omissions of the police at the local level, as highlighted in the famous Aarushi Talwar case, does point to a lack of basic training and knowledge of evidence collection and storage.
Not enough police personnel on the ground. (Source: Facebook)
There is also a severe shortage of workforce as well. Last July, the Centre told the Lok Sabha that there is a shortage of over 5 lakh police personnel in the country as compared to their overall sanctioned strength. The police to population ratio in India is 180 personnel per 1,00,000 population, which is significantly lower than what the UN recommends (222 per 100,000 population).
Read more about some of the institutional challenges that beset the police.
To facilitate long-term change and deter child rapes from happening in this country, the government must undertake the long-term process of reforming the police and judiciary to ensure the speedy investigation and trial into such cases.
Real and long-lasting change is often a slow grind and unglamorous. It’s time we directed our outrage towards the real problems.
(Edited By Vinayak Hegde)
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Advait Kolarkar might be all of 4, but this young man, armed with his brushes, paints and fascination of galaxies, dinosaurs and dragons, is ruling the art world in Canada.
The preschooler hails from Pune and moved to New Brunswick, Canada, in 2016 with his family. He became the youngest artist in the history of Canada’s Saint John Arts Centre to have a solo exhibition in January.
The 4-year-old artist’s paintings are selling for thousands of dollars today. His exhibition titled ‘Colour Blizzard’ had paintings selling for almost $2,000 (over Rs 1.3 lakhs).
He gained tremendous industry and media attention after his artworks were recently exhibited at the ArtExpo in New York which is synonymous with the world’s largest fine art trade show. Many artists spend a lifetime, to experience the honour of being featured at this show. But the 4-year-old munchkin has done it, and how!
Speaking to the Vancouver Sun, Advait’s mother, Shruti Kolarkar, who is also a commercial artist, revealed how the young boy picked up the brush when he was merely a year old.
She goes on to explain how even his artworks were not merely a play with colours but creations with a sense of composition and colour. She adds how each of his canvases with titles like “Supernova” and “Jellyfish” are a wash of well-composed colour, thickly layered by hand and brush.
“Every stroke, every layer is his feelings, his expression,” she told CTV Atlantic.
Here are a few of his artworks:
Jellyfish: A fascination with oceans and aquatic life has gotten Advait to create its vivacious force through colors. Source: Facebook/Advait Kolarkar
Supernova: An exploding star which becomes brightest before the final catastrophe, where it ejects most of the mass, gets an imitative form. This raw manipulation of the event is another demonstration of Advait’s penchant for the universe and its possibilities.Source: Facebook/Advait Kolarkar
Shruti expresses how Advait’s work is spontaneous, and he doesn’t need anybody to instruct or influence him, while he paints.
She had approached Bernard Cormier, the city’s Cultural Officer soon after moving to Canada about showcasing Advait’s work at a local library. Cormier who was impressed by the boy’s talents realised his paintings deserved a more significant exhibition. It was he who believed that Advait could be the youngest Canadian to exhibit his paintings.
Speaking to CTV, he said, “I’ve never seen someone that age dabble in the paint in the way that he does. I’ve been exposed to artwork all my life, and I see something special in this young boy, so why not encourage him?”
Shruti is overjoyed at how her son’s work is getting the recognition it deserves and says, “His happiness is very important to us. We want him to enjoy art the way he is enjoying it now throughout his life.”
Thousands of young Indians are abducted away from their families and forced into slavery every year, and little is known about their fate. Strict laws against the practice of child trafficking exist, but do little to prevent these cases.
Most of these victims are girls under the age of 18 and from low-income families in states like West Bengal, Bihar and Assam. These girls are then sold into sex trade and endure years of gross exploitation with little hope of breaking free.
However, one homemaker living in Indirapuram in Ghaziabad, has found a unique solution to prevent her children from falling into the hands of strangers with nefarious motives, reports the Times of India.
The unique solution is a “code word.”
Many instances of abduction, sexual assault or trafficking, revolve around criminal elements luring a child with the promise of sweets, other goodies or news that something unfortunate has befallen their parents.
Wary of such cases and other crimes affecting their children, the couple has developed a system, according to which, any stranger approaching them is asked for a code word.
If these strangers are unable to communicate the right code word, the child will know not to trust them. The couple decides on a new code word every month and communicates the same to their children.
For representational purposes only. (Source: The Better India)
Let’s see how this worked.
Their 12-year-old daughter was at a nearby store, and purchasing a packet of chips, when a stranger approached her and informed her that her father had suffered an accident.
When he asked her to accompany him, the girl asked the stranger for the “code word” that her father would have communicated if he wanted her to come.
Unable to answer the question and other similar queries, the stranger grew impatient and ran away from the scene, before she could raise an alarm.
“The password could be anything, like the name of a God or a small phrase. We have been told to use them with relatives and neighbours when our parents are not with us,” the girl told the Times of India.
“My wife keeps a close watch on our children and regularly gives them lessons in self-defence and how to behave in difficult situations. Until now, I did not pay much heed to the code words and many times forgot the password she would give to me. But it proved to be a lifesaver,” the father, a software engineer, told the publication.
Her mother, meanwhile, was all praises for her daughter’s ability to implement this lesson in real time. “I am very proud of my daughter and will urge every parent to develop similar internal communication systems,” she said.
However, the family hasn’t filed any complaint with the local police stations thus far.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
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17-year-old Umara could have topped her school in her Class 12 UP boards. But as June neared, the student from Saraswati Girls Vidya Mandir Inter College, suddenly started facing a problem. She couldn’t even grip the pen, let alone write a sentence.
But to the surprise of all her naysayers, this UP student not only cleared her exams successfully but also scored a distinction with 86.6%.
It is important to make known that this road to success was anything but easy.
In the initial months, when Umara was distraught that she was unable to write a single word at school or home, her parents ran pillar to post to find a cure. They consulted over four different doctors in Bareilly, yet none of them could diagnose Umara’s disorder.
Speaking to The Times of India, the Class 12 girl who never missed a class despite the condition says, “Whenever I would try to hold the pen, my fingers failed to grip it. I had to exert pressure to write a single word. The doctors in Bareilly gave me medicines, but it did not help me, as the problem was not diagnosed. I would cry all the time because I could not make notes in the classroom. My teachers who were aware of my health problems provided me (with) photocopied notes from my classmates. I would memorise the chapters but faced immense problems in physics and chemistry which had numerical problems, as I could not solve them.”
The anxiety and stress were bogging her down. As the exams grew close, her hopes of attempting them were dwindling. She was even considering dropping out.
“I told my family that I did not want to appear for exams. Just 20 days before the class XII exams were due to start, my elder brother, Mohd Zubair Ali, took me to AIIMS in Delhi where doctors told me that I have been suffering from writer’s cramp,” added Umara.
Umara hadn’t written for almost a year. But the treatment helped her improve a great deal though it affected her speed and efficiency.
“My speed was affected because I did not hold a pen for almost a year. I could not complete my papers on time and left two to three questions in all the papers. However, when I saw my results, I could not believe that I had scored so well, despite writer’s cramp,” a delighted Umara told TOI.
Lauding the young girl’s indomitable spirit, her school principal said, “Umara is a brilliant child and had topped the school in class X and XI. She would have been our school topper again this year if her speed was not affected by her disorder.”
While we are certainly proud that Umara was able to battle her disorder and come out with flying colours, it is important to shed light on what writer’s cramp is all about.
Writer’s cramp refers to focal dystonia (a neurological disorder) of the fingers, hand, and/or forearm. To put it simply, this disorder causes your brain to send incorrect information to the muscles, causing excessive involuntary muscle contractions, and so your hands twist into odd postures. It causes grave difficulty in simple tasks that require fine motor movements like writing or playing a musical instrument.
People suffering from simple writer’s cramp have difficulty with only one specific task. For example, if writing activates the dystonia, as soon as you pick a pen or try writing a few words, the dystonic postures of your hand will start affecting the speed and accuracy of writing. Like in Umara’s case.
In dystonic writer’s cramp, people not only face difficulty doing one task (like writing) but will also be affected while performing other activities like shaving, eating, using utensils or applying makeup.
Anyone can get a task-specific dystonia like writer’s cramp.
Common symptoms include:
fingers gripping the pen or pencil very hard
wrists flexing
fingers extending during writing, making it difficult to hold the pen
wrists and elbows moving into unusual positions
hands or fingers failing to respond while faced with any task you wish to carry out.
While your hand won’t ache or cramp, there is a chance that you may feel mild discomfort in your fingers, wrist, or forearm.
Cause:
While the actual cause is unknown, simple writer’s cramp is usually attributed to overuse, poor writing posture, or improper holding of the writing implement. And while stress doesn’t cause writer’s cramp, it can play a role in worsening the symptoms. Say, for example, if you keep taking tests, or worry about the cramps, it can become worse.
Is treatment available?
As per Healthline, while there is no one particular approach or cure to writer’s cramp, the affected individual may need to undergo a variety of therapies, singularly or in combination. Some of these options include:
Physical and occupational therapy where you may learn how to hold your pen differently, using thicker pens or grips, using specially-made splints, and changing the position of your paper or arm.
Medical options include botox injections into select muscles which helps ease writer’s cramp, especially when the wrist or fingers move into unusual postures. Oral medication like anticholinergic drugs, such as trihexyphenidyl (Artane) and benztropine (Cogentin), is also considered to help some people improve.
Another viable option may include relaxation and distraction techniques like deep breathing and visualisation or attempting to write with both hands at the same time.
Many people also prefer undergoing sensory re-education. This is the process of identifying textures and temperatures with your fingers. A rehabilitation therapy that uses splints on your unaffected fingers to help retrain the affected fingers, it helps retrain brain patterns that cause writer’s cramp or sensory motor retuning.
So next time you hear someone complaining of writer’s cramp, don’t brush it aside. Look it up and reach out for the right treatment.
In 2017, 17-year-old Sana Jabeen, the daughter of Muhammad Jafar left her home to meet her friend. She told her mother she would return by evening. As the clock kept ticking and there was no sign of Sana or her friend, her parents slipped in a state of panic.
At 7:15, the phone rang. Sana who had gone swimming with her cousin had accidentally drowned in the Krishna River near lower Jurala dam, Jafar’s cousin informed him.
Sana is only one name among a rising number of children in the Jogulamba, Gadwal and Wanaparthy districts of Telangana, who lose their lives, drowning in major and minor water bodies in an attempt to beat the heat.
But one IPS officer’s resolve is helping curb the number of deaths in these districts.
(Left) VPOs in action/ (Right) IPS Rema Rajeshwari
Telangana Superintendent of Police, Rema Rajeshwari, has been going out of her way to put together a team of Village Police officers who are trained to visit water bodies particularly in rural areas to create awareness about the safety precautions to be taken to prevent drowning deaths among kids.
In an exclusive interview with the The Better India, IPS Rema Rajeshwari who heads Jogulamba Gadwal district and holds full additional charge of Wanaparthy district speaks about the initiative.
“I have been doing this quietly for about seven years now. It is only now that the initiative is getting noticed. There are two things we do every summer, creating awareness about drowning deaths and sensitising young adults and adolescent girls from running away as soon as the educational institutions are closed for vacation. In the departmental lingo its called as the ‘eloping’ season as many tend to run away, leading to a rising number of missing cases, underage pregnancy, POCSO Act cases etc.”
Until there is a major law and order issue, usually there isn’t much scope for the department personnel to visit each of these individual villages. In these cases, the concept of Village Police officers (VPOs) is very effective. They visit each village they are designated to and interact with the locals to understand the major safety issues they are facing.
The SP conducts a one-day training for the village police officers, who are essentially constables and head constables. As part of the campaign they visit every village to make a meticulous note of the number of water bodies. While Gadwal has over 200 major and minor water bodies, Wanaparthy has another 270.
The officers not only set up cautionary boards in the local language at these locations but also interact with the children who play there to check if they really know how to swim.
They also interact with elderly persons living in the vicinity of these water bodies, requesting them to lookout for these children.
“Many of these children don’t stay in the local villages. They study in residential educational institutions in cities (due to the lack of opportunities in villages) like Hyderabad, Kurnool, Vijayawada etc. and come to the village for summer vacations to spend time with their family or grandparents. Since they don’t have many avenues of entertainment, a swim in the nearest water body always seems like a great idea. At most times, the cause of the death is also the fact that many of them don’t know how to swim properly,” says Rema.
The VPOs also attend the gram sabha meetings, and interact with the village sarpanch and the village elders to speak to the children since they are considered figures of authority. Each village is also encouraged to keep one person, preferably an exceptional swimmer, in charge at the water bodies.
The mere reason being, by the time a drowning case is reported and a rescue team is sent from the department, there shouldn’t be a delay that could cost a life.
“A few weeks ago, I had a meeting where I was instructing my team about the awareness drive and the very next day we had a death. My sub-inspector alongside the rescue team was just about to reach the village but by the time the boy had drowned to death. He was a young boy from Hyderabad and had come to stay with his grandmother for his summer vacations. It was heartbreaking. The incident triggered us to cover every village in the two districts,” adds Rajeshwari.
Currently, over 224 constables are executing the awareness drive in 224 villages, and 170 constables are doing it in Gadwal’s 199 villages.
So, the idea is not only to do everything in their power to alert and rescue children, but also prepare the locals to join forces and avoid drowning deaths.
Rema also shares the shocking details that the department’s data on drowning deaths revealed.
“Despite the village facing the issue of children drowning to death for many years, the collated data in the last week reveals that many cases go unreported. One of the prime reasons being the post mortem that follows. Many of these bereaved families’ that do not favour the body being cut up for the post mortem process due to cultural beliefs. And so, the families don’t report these deaths to the police.”
This is also one of the most important reasons driving this preventive action.
Apart from curbing drowning deaths, the summers in rural Telangana are also infamous as the ‘eloping season.’
As educational institutions shut shop during summers, there are several cases of missing girls in the villages, but only a fraction of them are reported.
“Many of them fall in love with boys and men on social media through Facebook and WhatsApp and elope with them. Many of these men are either auto drivers, married men or small time labourers. While in usual cases, the parents join efforts to trace their daughters, many forget about them, since in maximum cases these couples are interfaith and intercaste. They leave their villages and hometowns to never return and struggle in big cities doing menial jobs.”
The VPOs speak to the parents to counsel their daughters, keep a lookout. In many cases, the parents are unaware that their ward has a secret mobile phone, which is gifted by the partner. And when they elope, it becomes extremely difficult to trace them. The time and resources required to follow up each of these cases are huge which is draining, since the department continues to grapple with staff shortage, adds Rajeshwari.
“We are striving to prepare the communities to deal with any such incidents, whether it is drowning deaths or missing girls, before they even take place. It makes the community stronger, aware and well-knit. Also at the same time, helps us manage law and order efficiently. It’s part of our collaborative policing to act as a force multiplier,” she says.
We salute IPS Rema Rajeshwari and her team for their commitment towards their community. We hope this inspires other officers to find innovative ways of policing.
Just a few months ago, when veteran actor Daisy Irani revealed the dark side of the world of child artistes in Bollywood, hundreds came out in support of her. It took the actor 60 years to gather the courage to narrate how she was raped at the age of six. It was a man who was termed her ‘guardian’ and was supposed to accompany her to the sets of a film the young Daisy was to shoot for.
I was conversing with one of my mentors in a car on our way home. It was at this time that one of my friends casually quipped how a section of the audience was criticising the veteran actress for having taken six decades to speak about the incident. And my mentor was quick to say, “It didn’t matter when she decided to speak up. Whenever a survivor decides to talk, it is the right time. Whether it was after six years or sixty.”
And so when the news of the Union Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry seeking a seven-year time limit for adults who were sexually abused as children to report such offences came out, it gave me a little hope for survivors where there was none.
This proposed move, which is yet to get approval from the centre, recommends that any person who was sexually assaulted as a child, be allowed to report the incident until they turn 25 years of age.
Representational Image only.
But unfortunately, the statute of limitations will expire once they cross that age (which in my personal opinion needs to change).
Speaking to The Hindustan Times, a ministry official revealed that the issue was discussed at a review meeting chaired by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi last week.
“It was decided that having a specific time limit will help ensure that evidence or samples in sexual offence cases such as rape and molestation are good enough to stand scrutiny,” the official said.
Another official added that the department is now considering a clause to have a seven-year time limit incorporated in the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offence) Act. POSCO is the special law that protects children from sexual abuse, apart from seeking the amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which specifies timelines and limitations for filing a complaint against an offence.
Under section 468 of CrPC, the stipulated time limit for reporting an offence that is punishable by a fine is six months. For offences that invite imprisonment up to one year, the reporting time limit is one year, while for offences punishable with imprisonment up to three years, the reporting time limit would be three years.
Therefore, the offences that invite punishment beyond three years in prison still don’t have a time limit specification.
And yet what seems to work against this is section 473 of the CrPC, which says a court may take consider an older case only if it is in the “interest of justice” or when the “delay” to seek redressal “has been properly explained”.
If you are now going to point towards the “interest of justice” clause in this section, you may as well be warned that WCD ministry officials have themselves revealed shocking cases.
They said despite section 473, there have been several instances in the past when law enforcement agencies failed to lodge complaints when child sexual abuse survivors tried to do it after becoming adults.
And so, the proposed move can come in handy to ensure that no survivor who gathers the courage to talk about assaults during their childhood is told to return without lodging a complaint until they turn 25.
The decision of the ministry to address this was also influenced by the complaint from a woman of Indian origin from Canada to the WCD Minister about the failure of law enforcement agencies in Chennai to lodge her complaint even though she travelled all the way to do so.
It is indeed unfortunate that even if the proposed move gets the Centre’s nod, it won’t help the woman as she has crossed the age limit of 25 years. Nonetheless, it seems like one step forward from the current lack of alternatives for survivors.
Legal gurus have spoken on the issue too. Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava who had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court in January demanding death penalty for child rapists said, “Putting a time limit that bars a survivor from lodging complaint after he/she is 25 years old will prove counterproductive. Sometimes, it takes ages for a victim who was abused as a child to come out of the trauma.”
We hope the WCD Ministry, as well as the Centre, weigh the pros and cons before making their decision on this proposal.
And while my opinion would be a lost needle in a haystack, I continue to believe: It doesn’t matter when a survivor decides to speak up. Whenever they do, is the right time–whether it is six years or sixty years–they deserve justice.
When you are going through a hard time in life, remember that sometimes inspiration comes from the most unlikely of places.
Something similar happened to Ishaanvi’s grandmother when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 T-Cell Lymphoma last year. Even as she was fighting the disease and powering through the treatment like a brave warrior, the social stigma almost brought her to her knees.
Four-year-old Ishaanvi saw the challenges that her grandmother was facing and realised that even though she was braving her treatment, she was ashamed about the fact that she was losing her hair and would have to hide behind a wig.
I remember watching the much-acclaimed film Slumdog Millionaire and thinking about whether something like that could really happen. The story of Mohammad Manan Ansari could very well be made into a film.
At the age of six, when kids are going to school, Manan was sent to work in a mica mine in the district of Koderma, which is one of the poorest in the state of Jharkhand. Because of the conditions that they lived in, most children from his village worked in the mines.
In 2007, an activist with the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Govinda Prasad Khanal, rescued him from these mines. That was the turning point for him.
Since being rescued, Manan has spoken at various conferences, reiterating the dangers for children to be working in these mines.
Mohammad Manan Ansari
Speaking at the Trust Women Conference in London in 2014, he says, “You have to go almost 400 feet below the surface to collect the mica. You never know whether you will come back up alive. Each moment you spend down there is dangerous. One mistake and you can lose your hand.”
He also went on to speak about his ordeal at the International Labour Conference in Geneva on the World Day Against Child Labour.
When he turned 10, he was sent to Bal Ashram in Viratnagar, a rehabilitation centre near Jaipur. He then started helping other kids come out of the mines to pursue a life outside.
With hard work and dedication, Manan completed his Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences from the Delhi University. In a report to The Times of India, he said, “My interest lies in forensic science. I have applied to some colleges in India and abroad.” And I am hoping to get admission offer letter from some prestigious institutes.”
Manan hopes to get admission in a prestigious institution. Here’s hoping that he continues his crusade against child labour and reaches greater heights.
For those who come from privileged backgrounds, the daily commute to school and back home is never much of a worry. From private vehicles to exclusive school buses, most of us have travelled in a level of comfort that continues to remain a dream for countless children across India.
Not every child in India has this privilege. There are thousands of kids who travel many kilometres every day to reach their schools while switching between different modes of transport. And then there are those who can’t afford even a cycle and instead walk for hours.
Understanding the predicament of countless children from underprivileged sections of society, one Bengaluru organisation launched a unique initiative in 2015, that now provides not only ease of access to school but also freedom of mobility to students.
Freedom Pedals is a first-of-its-kind initiative by Anvaya Foundation, a non-profit organisation where used cycles are sourced, repaired and then donated to kids from government schools and orphanages within the city limits.
Credits: Anvaya Foundation.
It all began when Sampath Ramanujam, the founder of Anvaya Foundation, came across a young girl playing with an old cycle that didn’t have a bell, brake or even a seat, during a family trip to Kaiwara.
“Shaila probably had been six or seven at that time. Sitting on the carrier seat, she had been playing with the dilapidated cycle. That incident left a lasting impact which eventually led to this idea. Many of us have cycles that we have either outgrown or can’t use anymore owing to lack of space. Instead of rusting away to waste in the corner of one’s house, why not make these better for those who could actually have a use for them,” he says to The Better India.
To support the cause by donating a cycle you can either reach out to editorial@thebetterindia.com or call Sampath at 9663033699.
An avid cyclist, Sampath also works as a general secretary for housing apartments across Mahadevapura. Putting these positions together, he decided to circulate Shaila’s picture across his known circle of friends and acquaintances, calling for those who wished to contribute to the cause in some way or the other.
Not only did the idea find support, Sampath even managed to source out four cycles that were duly repaired and made fit for use. “The first cycle was obviously donated to the little girl, who paved the way for ‘Freedom Pedals’,” he adds.
Freedom Pedals slowly caught momentum with more people, in the form of convenors and donators, coming on board to support the initiative.
Credits: Anvaya Foundation.
From 38 cycles in the second year to a total of 220 cycles last year, Freedom Pedals has been giving children from underprivileged fractions of Bengaluru not just a mode of transport of their own but also a reason to smile.
To help this cause reach wider circles and help fulfil more dreams, The Better India is teaming up with Anvaya Foundation to source out 100 cycles that will reach needy children across Bengaluru. You can also join us and be part of this amazing initiative that will help these kids commute to their schools without any more travel worries.
To support the cause by donating a cycle you can either reach out to editorial@thebetterindia.com or call Sampath at 9663033699.
Managing one’s household, work, and family, simultaneously, is no small feat, but married women across the globe have been acing it since the time they left behind the confines of their home and forayed into the professions that were once considered the domain of men.
One among the countless employed women in India is Thane resident, Shraddha Dandwate, who despite having two young children has been able to manage her work and professional life with equal commitment.
She is a full-time teacher employed with Signal Shala, a school for underprivileged children that operates out of a shipping container under the Teen Haat Signal flyover in Thane. The school was formally established by non-profit organisation Samarth Bharat Vyaspith (SBV) in 2016 with 22 children, who along with their parents used to sell knick-knacks or beg at the traffic signal.
Shraddha has been working with Signal Shala for over a year now, and life hasn’t been any better or more gratifying for her.
Having always been interested in social welfare, it was with her husband’s support and encouragement that her decision to join the school found a stronger foundation.
“I was teaching at a regular primary school before we moved to Thane four years ago. Following the birth of my younger daughter, I had taken a break from teaching. When she was a little over two years, I’d come across Signal Shala’s call for teachers but had it not been my husband’s strong motivation, I might not have been teaching here,” says Shraddha to The Better India.
Shraddha’s husband is employed in the IT sector, and she mentions that his mindset is quite progressive as compared to countless married men in the country who prevent their wives from working after marriage and prefer to remain the sole bread earner of the family.
“He knew of my interest in social welfare initiatives, and when the opportunity came up, he was the push I needed to chase my aspirations. Sadly, most women in the country do not find this kind of support from their respective spouses,” she adds.
Their children, Arya and Tirtha, are nine and three years old respectively, and Shraddha leaves them at a day-care quite close to the school before heading to teach.
So how has Shraddha been efficiently managing time and dividing her attention between her children, household and professional life?
“Fortunately, our residence is well within the ambit of the school and day-care, and this allows me to keep a tab on all my responsibilities. The school management and even the NGO have been particularly helpful and supportive. In the case of an emergency, I have also been given the option of bringing my children to the school which makes it quite flexible for me,” Shraddha explains.
The past one year at Signal Shala has been quite enriching for Shraddha. There have been struggles along the way, but she takes these small obstacles as a challenge and works out different ways to resolve them.
“In the same way that different children have different grasping abilities, we face that too at Signal Shala. There are challenging situations, but it is essential that we as teachers remain patient, and try our best to come up with different methods and activities to help these kids overcome their limitations. For example, one activity was focused on kids with speech impairments like a stutter. With vernacular tongue twisters, I’ve noticed changes in the kids, who are now more confident while speaking,” she explains.
Shraddha adds that she often finds her students remembering and reciting lessons that she had taught them months ago and herself had forgotten.
“There have also been instances when the children have told me that after my lessons on bad habits, they actually either stopped themselves from stealing or have stopped someone else from doing so. This makes my role as an educator quite gratifying and motivational,” Shraddha proudly says.
More than a source of income to her household, what makes Shraddha pursue teaching at Signal Shala despite her many commitments, is the pure satisfaction of teaching underprivileged children and viewing their lives change first-hand.
We salute Shraddha Dandwate and the countless working women in India, whose strength and iron-willed commitment often goes unnoticed as they juggle between their professional and private lives on a day-to-day basis.
This Mother’s Day, join Seven Seas and TheBetterIndia, and be a part of spreading the gift of love to hundreds of children across India!
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Pushpa and her sister were orphans living on the streets of Mumbai in 2001. Their parents passed away due to tuberculosis. They had little hope, and a bleak future…at best. Instead, today Pushpa is working in Human Resources in Intel, Goregaon!
So how did this happen? In our busy lives, with homes, hobbies and families, who has time to help two abandoned orphans? Well, inspiringly, it was precisely such a person who came to their aid – a 39-year-old mother of two!
Like any of us, Sharada has her own set of hobbies – reading, music and painting and a life at home with her kids. Her son Jonah is 17 years old and has recently appeared for his 12th standard Board exams. Daughter, Jennifer, is 11 years old and a student of 7th standard.
But aside from all of this, Sharada has an extraordinary side as well – ‘Sharanam’.
A shelter for poor and destitute girls in Mumbai, Sharanam was set up in the year 2000, by Sharada along with her husband Nirmal, and since then they have rescued, supported, uplifted and utterly transformed hundreds of lives.
Speaking to The Better India about what inspired her, she says – “Right from my school days, I wanted to do something for the betterment of girls in our society. The inequality faced by us was very disturbing to me.”
She originally thought becoming a teacher would be enough to change how people think. But she soon realised that wouldn’t do. Teachers only had a small window of time in which they were relevant. As soon as the class bell would ring, another teacher would replace her, and students would forget all that she had strived to impress unto them.
So after she completed her teacher training course, she went to work at an NGO that dealt with slum people. The Community Outreach Program (CORP) is a 40-year-old organisation primarily involved in community development for women, children and senior citizens across Mumbai.
Here, Sharada was made aware of the real conditions that women on the streets survived every day, and it made her desire to help only stronger. She decided to open a home for younger girls, as she came to understand the utter despair they lived in.
Luckily, she found a financier in a junior volunteer of CORP, who shared the same mindset. And so it began.
There were challenges from all sides in the initial years. The shelter is housed in a residential building and residents were critical of the socio-economic-cultural background of the girls.
Her own relatives were averse to the idea of the shelter, Sharada confesses.
Time was taken to sensitise them and counsel them about the importance of education in these girls’ lives. Sharanam also struggled with a lack of funding and manpower.
Also, handling children during their ‘rebellious’ teenage years was an added headache. But they persevered.
Today, Sharanam helps girls realise their full potential. They are allowed to explore their areas of interest instead of being dictated certain career choices. Hence, it has its girls involved in a plethora of professions from nursing to beauticians to the hotel industry.
Sharada attributes Sharanam’s success to the success of the girls it houses. Some of them had joined them at age 3 or 5. They have now grown into self-sufficient, independent women capable of fending for their own!
Here is a typical story – Sonam and her sister Neelam came to them after their parents quarrelled amongst themselves. Their mother had four others kids and no place to stay. They were absorbed in Sharanam via a CORP community centre.
After completing her college, Sonam went onto do a professional nursing course and now works as a nurse at Guru Nanak Hospital. Neelam works in an office. They have rented their own apartment where they live together with their mother.
When asked how Sharada manages to look after her children and the NGO, she replies that though it is challenging, the girls in the shelter are like sisters and they all felt like a big family.
Mothers play a critical role in our lives, she says. “It is because of our mothers that we are who we are today.”
“I give 100% to my children. That does not mean they are unfairly pampered”, she laughingly adds.
In closing she shares this message for mothers looking to invest time into social causes:
“You have to have love and patience in your heart. Then, you will find that you can do anything.”
This Mother’s Day, join Seven Seas and TheBetterIndia, and be a part of spreading the gift of love to hundreds of children across India!
#UnlockPotential
Health Heroes – This article is part of a series to celebrate some of India’s most amazing doctors and to understand the incredible work they are doing.
Meet Dr Neelam Kler, who has improved the chances of survival of premature babies weighing less than 1,000 grams. When those tiny tots come out of the mother’s womb and gush in their first breath, it is health professionals like Dr Neelam Kler, who come to the rescue. Padma Bhushan awardee 2014, Dr Kler, is a neonatologist, a specialist for newborns, who has not only established the Neonatology Department at Sri Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi but is also collaborating with the WHO and UNICEF to prevent birth-defects across South East Asia.
In a one-on-one with Priyamvada Chugh, this celebrated neonatologist talks about a range of issues from caesarean deliveries to the advent of superbugs to Delhi’s pollution woes.
Question: What drove you to become a Neonatologist?
Dr Neelam Kler
Dr Kler: Probably my love for children. My resolve to become a neonatologist is related to a story, which happened when I was in medical school in Kashmir. I was at the community hospital in Doda (a remote hilly area in Jammu & Kashmir) for my rural posting.
One day, I was asked by the Chief Medical Officer to accompany the head nurse to visit a woman in advanced labour. After reaching there, we found the young woman experiencing great pain. We assisted her in delivering a baby boy who underwent asphyxia, i.e., could not breathe at birth because of long, difficult labour. Despite all my efforts to revive the baby, he did not survive.
As a young medical student, that was my first experience to resuscitate an asphyxiated baby and I failed. This made me decide that I want to save babies and become a neonatologist.
Question: What are the leading causes of neonatal mortality in India? And how can these numbers be improved?
Dr Kler: Three leading causes of neonatal deaths in India are premature births, neonatal infections, and birth asphyxia. Although Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) in India has decreased from 52/1000 in 1990 to 25/1000 at present, the decline has been rather slow.
Neonatal mortality is hugely dependent on socioeconomic factors such as education, women empowerment, availability of health infrastructure, which is why we find disparities in neonatal deaths among rich and poor and urban and rural populations. It is improvements in these factors that have led to some Indian states, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, achieve a higher decline in NMR compared to Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
While there are no easy solutions, I firmly believe that strengthening the public health infrastructure for even the most marginalised population with available and accountable health personnel at all levels is the long-term sustainable solution. A trained nurse-headed model, delivering excellent community health services in rural Rajasthan is one such success story, which must be widely replicated.
Question: Diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity all lead to birth-related complications. From your experience, what should women be aware of?
Dr Kler: India is, unfortunately, facing double jeopardy. On the one side, we have a large population of undernourished women who are at risk of anaemia, premature labour and growth-restricted babies.
On the other hand, obesity is on the rise due to work stress, use of tobacco and alcohol among urban economically-able younger women. These are risk factors for diabetes, hypertension, prematurity, intrauterine growth restriction and other complications related to childbirth. There is an urgent need to strike a balance and to educate young girls about the importance of diet, exercise, stress management and reproductive health. It should be a necessary part of school education.
Question: Do you see any differences in the health of mothers and their newborns now than when you started practising medicine three decades ago?
Dr Kler: A lot has changed! There are increasing numbers of working women with economic independence who choose to marry later in life. This can result in increased complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Moreover, owing to the availability of better treatment options, women with complex and chronic medical diseases are choosing pregnancy, which can be challenging for them.
Thirty years back, I would not have imagined women post-renal transplant or malignancy opting for pregnancy.
With more hospitals and neonatal intensive care units in cities and smaller towns, tertiary hospitals these days tend to receive highly chronic and complicated cases with multi-drug resistant infections, thereby increasing hospital stay, cost of care, morbidity and mortality. Evidently, the cost of treatment has increased, and medical insurances are not sufficient.
The public health sector is inadequate to fill in the financial gap thereby creating more distrust among the common man and medical fraternity, raising more medico-legal problems.
Question: The world is also battling Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). What has been your experience with AMR in Indian hospitals? Also, how does AMR impact infections in the newborn?
Unregulated access to antibiotics is a cause for concern, feels Dr Kler. Photo Source: Priyamvada Chugh
Dr Kler: AMR is emerging to be a global health problem but in India, unregulated access to antibiotics, including over-the-counter sale without a prescription or an invalid prescription, has led to its alarming proportions.
Antibiotics are the last armamentarium in the hands of physicians in intensive care units. With a surge in bacterial infections, poor sanitary hygiene, and the lack of novel molecules in the research pipeline to tackle the resistant “superbugs”, the situation isn’t getting better.
The emergence of antibiotic resistance is of particular concern in neonates and children as 25% of deaths in India are attributed to infections. Moreover, newborn babies, especially preterm infants are naturally immune-compromised, and therefore, more vulnerable to infections. Due to the excessive misuse and overuse of antibiotics, more bugs are getting multi-drug resistant, and the time is not far when we will run out of antibiotics that work.
The striking effect of AMR on neonatal morbidity and mortality is already being witnessed with nearly 60,000 newborns dying from antibiotic resistance in India every year.
Question: Caesarean sections have been escalating in all corners of the country. What does this mean for the health of babies delivered?
Dr Kler: Caesarean births are skyrocketing in India, which is a cause for worry. In states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the numbers have escalated to more than 50%. Birth by caesarean poses several long and short-term challenges to the baby compared to a normal delivery.
With a planned caesarean scheduled before mothers go into labour, babies are more likely to be born preterm (between 34-36 weeks). Moreover, normal labour helps the baby prepare their lungs for breathing at birth, which preterm babies lack, and they are born with an increased risk of respiratory problems.
Babies delivered through caesarean are also less likely to receive skin care immediately after birth. Pain medication given to sedate the mother for caesarean operation can affect the baby’s breast latching ability, leading to their low breastfeeding rates.
Additionally, recent research has shown that babies born by caesarean may not have the same kind of healthy bacterial flora in their gut as those born by vaginal delivery. They are thus at risk of developing allergies, asthma, obesity and lifestyle diseases like diabetes and hypertension.
Question: How do you think the current air quality in Delhi will affect foetuses and newborns in the next ten years? Do you already see any warning signs in the hospital?
Dr Kler: There are a number of studies which have investigated the effect of air pollution during intrauterine life and possible repercussions of exposure at birth for childhood and adulthood. Pollutants such as Particulate Matter (PM), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and tobacco smoke primarily affect foetal growth and development, impacting birth weight and other foetal biometry.
There is evidence for the impact of PM and NO2 on wheezing and respiratory infections in infancy leading to asthma later on. Moreover, our research has established that toxic gases like carbon monoxide and NO2 not only affect foetal growth and immunity but also lead to premature birth.
Question: According to you, what neonatal health challenges will haunt the next generation?
Dr Kler: Foetal prematurity is on the rise due to several maternal factors such as an increasing number of IVF (In-Vitro Fertilisation) pregnancies, advanced maternal age, gestational diabetes, hypertension etc. With an increased survival of premature babies, the burden of chronic disorders such as chronic lung disease and neurological disabilities may increase.
There will possibly be an increase in allergic respiratory disorders in babies such as bronchial asthma owing to their alarming exposure to air pollutants in our country.
With an unregulated antibiotic use for treating newborn infections, AMR is also likely to increase.
Question: Finally, if you could impact Indian health policies, what changes would you like to see?
Dr Kler: Universal health coverage–health insurance for all, with access to both private and public sectors and nationwide integration of health data. A system like UK’s National Health Service, where every morbidity and mortality is accounted for.
With such grave challenges ahead for newborns, it is time to minimise their exposure to antibiotics, protect them from infections, alleviate pollutants in the air that their little lungs face and boost their immunity – towards preparing them for the battle that they are about to fight.
(Written by Priyamvada Chugh and edited by Shruti Singhal)
