Collaborate with NGOs as a Covid Volunteer

 was interviewed by the journalist.It is published now.

https://medium.com/@mktpulse.sonia/a-million-hearts-beat-for-a-billion-strangers-dc8971e94392

The interview was published by Ms.Sonia Kapoor .A successful professional web journalist

My story is about experiencing a very different face of India in the pandemic. With a stressed and overwhelmed health infrastructure, I saw how people had their backs to the wall and rebounded with incredible courage and resilience to manage an unprecedented humanitarian crisis . I saw millions of small and big acts of kindness from strangers ready to help a billion of their countrymen.

Which moved me to write this piece.

This New India

For the last twenty-five years, I have been a dual resident of India and other countries. Visits back home were always fun. But this time was very different. On April 7, I flew to Delhi in response to my sister’s call for help as both parents contracted Covid. The next four weeks were a terrifying blur of events as we struggled to cope with a crisis that had become personal.

Staying back to look after my family, I was pulled into an immersive experience both stirring and unique, and in its wake showing me a new face of India I would have missed otherwise. I was surrounded by the energy of ordinary citizens, communities, Corporates and NGO’s performing extraordinary acts of service as the pandemic started it journey of destruction:

· ‘Oxygen langars’ by the Sikh community

· Non-stop social media posts on sources for oxygen, hospital beds, medicines and blood plasma

· Doctors creating helpline videos and performing last rites for patients on behalf of families

· Emotional helplines by counsellors

· #CovidWomenHelp to find jobs for Covid widows

· Students creating lead management portals for genuine sources of medicines and hospital beds

The list of small and big movements continues even today.

Something special was happening here.

While helping others is embedded in our culture, this unprecedented show of collective activism was something new and exciting for me. As a non-resident citizen and as a market researcher, I wanted to know more and asked my friend K (a shy social activist in her own right) for introductions to citizens who had done exceptional work in the pandemic.

I spoke to four Covid heroes: Jayshree, founder of Mitr-Friends In Need; Pooja, co-founder of Feeding From Far; Priya, recipient of a state sponsored Covid Warrior Award; Savita, an active Rotarian and dedicated social worker

I asked them three questions:

· What was your motivation to volunteer during Covid? What made you act?

· How did you feel serving people and communities you did not even know?

· What were the enablers in your contribution journey?

A Call For Action That Just Had To Be Answered

For all four, the crisis was a strident call for service to humanity. The virus was indiscriminate and brutal. Everyone knew someone who had been impacted.

“The sheer scale of the humanitarian crisis spurred me into action” said Jayshree. Her Facebook platform (Mitr- Friends in Need) of 1800+ members and volunteers have responded to all kinds of pleas for help. They arranged relief for displaced migrant workers; found a home for an autistic adult who lost his caregiver to Covid; set up blood and plasma donation camps and even helped a stranded student in Kenya.

Priya talked about the gap citizens had to fill. “You saw how much need there was. If you didn’t do it, no one else was there to do it. The system was overwhelmed”, she said. Priya described a “domino effect” as one person’s voluntary effort spurred others to action. In particular, she was amazed to see the level of involvement of young people at the frontline of volunteering efforts. For her own contributions Priya received a state sponsored Covid Warrior Award. She was the ‘go to’ person for a panicked public looking for hospital beds, PPE masks, medicines, oxygen, and even ambulances.

Young Pooja said she and her friends felt the “Guilt of the Privileged.” They were fortunate to have shelter, food and family as their city went in lockdown- but there were so many who did not. “ Finding a purpose is important for our generation”, she said. There was a restlessness to “do something” and they chatted about it on social media. Feeding From Far came from one such conversation, when her college friend suggested setting up community kitchens in one of Mumbai’s largest slums, distributing food to daily wagers who had lost their jobs in the pandemic.

Savita confirmed “ a sense of duty towards society “ motivated her to act. She gave up a full time formal job with a multinational to become an independent IT professional. She is also an active Rotarian. Savita rolled up her sleeves and was ready to contribute when the second wave hit Mumbai. She worked together with multiple NGO’s and welfare organisations. She did block bookings at hospitals to ensure her community got vaccinated. She tracked Twitter announcements for medicines, beds, oxygen supplies and verified these leads to ensure genuine information was passed on to those who needed them. She also collected and shared valuable plasma donor information with existing NGO’s and volunteer networks.

Feelings of Connectedness and Empowerment

How did they feel about serving communities in the pandemic?

Jayshree felt a strong sense of connectedness with humanity. Family became not just the immediate one-it was the entire world. “For me, the whole world looks like a single unit. It is an expansion of our connectedness. And I feel safe in this world”.

Pooja was emotionally stirred by the scale of suffering she saw. At the peak of the migrant exodus, Feeding From Far supplied food packs at railway stations to workers jostling to get into trains to return home. “This campaign was not something where friends get involved out of a sense of obligation. We wanted volunteers who had the capacity and strength to continue work despite the suffering they were seeing”, she said.

Savita talked about her satisfaction saving lives through information and “connecting the dots.” She recalled helping a poor Covid infected patient. His sister was in touch by phone and started texting Savita when oxygen levels were going down. Savita alerted the already pressurised and overworked hospital staff to take quick action, which they did. Savita felt a sense of empowerment she could contribute in her capacity- “ while the young were at the frontline, we could also contribute within the four walls of our houses. This gave me confidence a lot can be achieved even by older people.”

Priya said the recognition she received through awards and grateful messages filled her with a deep sense of gratification. She believed citizens had a major role to play in closing the gap created by an overwhelmed system.

Digital Was The Hero

The power of digital and social media was universally acknowledged.

Jayshree’s idea for Mitr-Friends In Need came from a personal crisis solved by Google Maps. In the lockdown, her husband’s parents, living separately, could not buy their groceries. Not knowing what to do, Jayshree searched for an address close to their house on Google Maps, found a phone number, and just dialed. A stranger picked up the phone and was more than willing to help buy groceries for them. This incident seeded Jayshree’s Facebook platform. If strangers could become angels, then let’s build a network of such angels on social media.

Pooja also uses Instagram as her platform to share information about Feeding From Far’s mission and activities, for crowd-funding and for creative messaging. What’s App, Twitter, Telegram have been invaluable for Priya and Savita to ‘connect the dots’ between vendors, suppliers and beneficiaries, ensuring real-time help to desperate citizens.

Eye-Openers

As I sat down to reflect on what I heard from these four stories, and what I had seen myself, five things stood out for me:

An inspiring purpose can move mountains — As humans we all look for meaning in our lives. The pandemic gave people a purpose- to stand up and take charge since the system was buckling under pressure. Saving lives became their call to action and they were ready to contribute in any way they could.

Service is the highest form of happiness- volunteering in the service of others is the highest source of satisfaction and happiness. Service turns strangers to friends and renders caste, class, geography and religion as meaningless dividers of humanity.

Everyone is a change-maker — whether young or old, everyone was doing something: organising medicines, feeding migrant workers, setting up vaccination camps, organising meals for Covid patients. Realising their own potential to be influence change and add value was a moment of truth for citizens.

India’s “Demographic Dividend” is real- students and young adults had been at the forefront of the crisis. Millennials and ‘Generation Z’ were often catalysts of local movements and campaigns- not afraid to be frontline volunteers, despite the health risks to themselves.

Crisis seeds Innovation — The ‘oxygen langars’, Feeding From Far, Mitr-Friends In Need — are all examples of identifying a gap and finding a creative solution in real-time. When there is a real need, grass-root solutions will come and quickly.

In my next article, I put on my lens as a consumer marketer and talk about what brands and businesses can do to win the hearts and minds of the emerging new PURPOSIVE CONSUMER.

Some uggestions and thought process to counter current situation in Mumbai India

These are critical times and MH Govt and BMC need to act on war footage.

NY too things are improving when lock down there started much later than Mumbai.Lock down will work only if it is followed with 100% commitment by all.

Else population which is following rigorously (and compromising sitting at homes) too suffers almost as much those who break the lockdown.

Lock down being broken in numerable pockets across Mumbai is affecting State economy and the sincere segment of public of Mumbai too.

Why can't we get drones with cameras ,flying all round Mumbai, immediately reporting assembly of people in road,streets, society compounds ,so that cops can go within minutes and disperse.

When crowd that assembles has knives and daggers and ready to use against cops..Does state expect Mumbai police to fight them to disperse using their sticks ?

Can we not get CRPF ASAP.or equip trained local cops appropriately?

We see news that somewhere facility for 10000.beds is set up, we are happy to see the photos with beds etc.after 10 days we again we same news item with caption facility almost ready.

This is heart wrenching. Why is it taking so long to set up one temperory facillity where no construction is involved.when we know.people are dying due to unavailability of information about location wise available bed count.As they are shunted from one hospital to other.after waiting 4-5 hours for ambulance.

Can we not have central data repository being updated dynamically to push latest data to website?

People are calling and holding the hotlines for hours .

2Shree Bhave and Rahul Sharma

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'Me Too' : what it is meant for?

Women who are really strong and are in good position and don't feel professionally threatened, do react ,slap or even shout at the guys and create ruccus, immediately, when the incident it self happens. And they don't need to hashtag after 10 years. Those who keep quiet at that time usually do it as they feel their job or means for earning is at stake. They feel safer to bring it up after 10 years when the risks are much less or sometime it may even help them in some way. Again just hashtagging may not result in anything unless they take legal action if they really want the guy punished. To punish the guy legal action will help much more than hashtagging .Many are only hashtagging and saying that it is not to punish the guy as such but to 'release the internal pressures the have been carrying for years'. Even in Cavanaugh case it did not affect him as there was no legal action and in the basic inquiry there was no proof or witness. Only filing legal case will result in detailed inquiry investigation and proofs etc.

Thus only hashtagging seems to be serving some internal purpose and general public when fails to understand, it may give rise to whole lot of jokes floating on net on various Social networking sites. There may be jokes even if legal case is filed. Many posts floating around asking everyone not to forward jokes related to this topic. In general forwards must be controlled and in fact fowards blocking and choking bandwidths and device memories is posing great problems for users. HOwever when people are not against forwarding jokes on some other topic but they feel that those who forward jokes about Me too movement are being insensitive. Most of the jokes do redicule some segment of the society, it may be religion, Regional, Gender based, Community based,Geography based, language based. Jokes are most of the times at the expense of a person or group of people. If not people it may ridicule various practices, so called best practices, religious , regional practices etc. Jokes most of the times end up offending someone or the other. 

Should mankind stop joking as it may always offend someone? One of the post stated that  Continuously ridiculing may lead to depression and eventual suicide.

When a whole community or huge group of people are being ridiculed by forwarding jokes about them, also telling in person on various forums,,Have the suicide rate for that community gone up?

In fact We see many times members of that community  joking about themselves and enjoying. How a jokes lead to depression?If at all it makes everyone laugh and enjoy and helps take out some other or daily pressures.

Some one who could live with the (Me TOO kind of ) problem for more than 10 years,Had quite close to normal life for more than 10 years post incident, most of them doing exceptionally well,(even if some of them may have  lost some opportunities do to incident) Now hashtagged someone.. Will they be driven to depression because of jokes floating around regarding 'Me too ' so called movement? Appears highly unilkely.

Off course if it happens when you are minor etc..It is a different ball game.in that case one should bring it up as soon as they are in a position to go for legal action..Or take support and or feel comfortable to take support of the guardians. Such incidents must not be tabboos, only then they will be openly discussed by victims as and when they happen . That will discourage such offenders also to go ahead with such offenses against women. When it is a tabboo it gains unduly negative importance , resulting in gossiping, over sensationalisation across nets etc.

Public memories are short lived and media creates havoc till it finds something else that will give better TRP. Women should learn to react and take legal action immediately. And to be able to be able to do that(in case required) they should always thrive to get to such positions. Unfortunately over the years our society (Most of the times) deliberately did not allow women to rise at faster pace (Mainly to become financially independent) by many times depriving them of higher education, some times denying them of opprtunities due to arrying off by certain age, dumping all family responsibilities when actually it is time to complete education,(Instead of sharing those by all family members).Wome find it difficult to counter such offenses then and there itself as they see many risks in near future.

Indirectly Our Society is responsible for this big mess.

Trying to Gather Positive Spirit in spite of Upsurge in Rape Cases

As usual, while cursing my maid who have been making sounds in the kitchen, I got up Saturday morning may be 15-20 minutes later than usual schedule. Thus enjoying the moments of over sleeping. At the same time happy that one more day maid has come , and that too,  not too late.

I freshened up , while appreciating lovely Mumbai early morning monsoon weather  as well as hot tea, started reading the news paper..

And slowly my mood started changing. What a way to start a weekend..

If you see the four news items which caught my attention, appeared in todays TOI Mumbai.
Each reflects  a certain  aspect about our society..

- 1.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Six-year-old-rape-victim-ordered-to-wed-rapists-8-year-old-son/articleshow/22330723.cms
6 year old rape victims has been asked to marry 8 year old son of a rapist (Apperantly this adult rapist raped her twice in 15 days-this Panchayat is so ignorant , that it does not think of the possibility of father in law getting free access for all future rapes. Has the rapist been punished ? Who is being punished? Rapist or victim? Who has gained in the process and who has lost? Sorry for the sick sarcasm.. But who is being rewarded?
- 2. 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/6-get-life-term-for-National-Law-School-gang-rape/articleshow/22384704.cms

6 Rapists are given life term who rapes foreign student(I am happy about the  harsh well deserved punishment . Some how sense here that victim got a better justice but was it because she was foreigner?-Hope this becomes precedence and all victims get a similar justice . Is this justice enough? Can victims be compensated further? In what way? What will be sufficient and what will be necessary?

- 3. 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Biker-gang-chases-girls-for-19km-on-Bengal-highway-molests-them/articleshow/22384059.cms

A group of 2 girls and 2-3 guys who were returning from their work assignment as DJs in the club , were very well protected had car and driver, and it was not too late either. Were first abused in the restaurant where they went for dinner and hence they left in a hurry only to be chased by 6 bikers who finally made them get out and bashed up everybody (while calls to various police stations were not responded to favorably-usual answers like we will inform right police station etc.) luckily bridge maintenance staff came over and assailants fled.- Here I am not happy that these girls who were doing their job and taking care of all the risks, were still molested, abused and hurt . I feel bad for their colleagues too who actually tried to help them. Very sad that multiple police stations did not respond and did not think of  acting in time. But happy that some govt staff came for their rescue(This was not too late at night and still many passer bys in cars ignored and did not come to help is a concern . The chase went on for 19 minutes. Post which they were beaten up as well as molested.

- 4. 
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1378554909621

Last one to my horror. A rape victim and her family took the law in their hand and burnt the criminal rapist. There is a lesson here that this is how the victim will react if society takes these things lightly.

On this background I remembered  comments we usually hear, from our friends , relatives and so called celebrities and hosts in chat shows, as soon as any rape happens

-         Girls should not take risks - What do they mean? Girls should not work They should not go to the college? Should they not have equal freedom so that they too can obtain their own lively hood? Do they not deserve some relaxation post long day at work? Should they not have equal access to education and whatever follows after that? Late evening coaching classes has become routine in most of the A+,A, B and C class cities.

-         Girls should Dress up properly : Has any one asked what 5 year old was wearing? What do women wear in Rajasthan ,UP and Bihar? Western clothing is probably last 30 years trend in Metros and definitely not in interior rural area where these rapes happen.

-         Why doesn’t any body talk about the rapist himself? Is he not the prime , main and only cause? In his absence rape will be totally prevented. I still have not seen any talk show that discussed as to how the

o   Possible future rapist can be identified? What traits do they have?

o   Can there be possible counseling sessions to such target focus group?

o   What kind of infrastructure will prevent the rapes with in time action from authorities (eg. Cameras in lonely areas with surveillance during certain hours)

o   Can women be taught judo ,karate etc. as a compulsory course . This is little tricky as the rapes are happening at the age of 6 months to 60 years. but at least certain age group can be the beneficiaries . In this regard have seen some postings etc. on FB and Emails.

o   Can regulations become tighter and can judiciary system move fast enough to have some pressure on the possible criminal? We hear criticism on judiciary system but rarely any suggestions on immediate actions.

At the same time  I try to gather my positive spirit. In spite of upsurge in no of rape cases, I do not somehow believe that they are on the rise. The reporting is on rise. And this may work towards betterment as more and more details are being reported. They are being discussed in various forums. Many suggestion for prevention are being discussed. Many organization trying to work out on the post rape trauma of the victims. This may ultimately result into if not great at least some improvement in the situation.

However prevention needs to be expedited on war footage.

Food Security Bill - Will it help?

In what way will this  Bill provide the Food Security to poors? 

Do we have shortage of grains and Agri produce? Or the problem is somewhere else?

As per the reports and pictures published last year,

millions of tons of grains are wasted due t0
- unavailability of storage facilities (As it gets wet due to rains etc, or gets damaged and /or eaten by rats etc..)
- Unavailability of distribution facilities

Age old PDS totally became defunc due to 
- lack of availability of grains etc. in the ration shops
- Ration shop owners selling the same stuff in open market for higher prices and nt providing it to card holders at lower prices

Looks like they have brought down the prices to ridiculously lower level..(Almost 1/4th or 1/5th of the market prices- As I understand old PDS had ration shops selling grains at 30% discount or so. Hence at 2/3rd of the market prices)

This adds to further more incentive for the shop owners to sell it in open market and not providing it to the deserving ones(Yellow card holders I guess)
By making it a ‘right to access to food’ .. I can't understand how it will help..
Probably a case can be filed against Ration shop owner by a poor (Yellow BPL card holder expecting him to hire a lawyer etc.) .. If these ration shop owners are stopped from selling the grains in open market at higher price(By making is a right to access to he quota for BPL card holder  these ration shop owners may simply opt out of the system). 

One other option that can be tried is to give the yellow card holders a smart card which can be topped up periodically (Say quarterly) where a person can buy  ONLY GRAINS at market price in any shop. (May be govt. can try this with lower quota(Say 10 Kgs per month instead of 25) and see .
As this may work better than giving the 25 Kgs as 1/3 rd of the price.
The jump in demand (And in business in turn) may result in automatic improvement in distribution and storage facilities..

The yellow card holder may try to work and earn for food on alternate days..
As anything that is free (or almost free too loses it's value in the eyes of a receiver)

Reaction to 5 Things women need to Change Proposed by Chetan Bhagat :

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1362906843171

Very Happy with this Chetan Bhagat Article. Nice to know the 5 things about women that men want to change. I am very happy that following things neither figure nor deserve any mention.. 1. Women Raping Men 2. Women murdering men post rape 3. Groom burning 4. Dowry harassment of men by women 5. Men jumping from multistoried along with toddlers due to mental torture and agony from in laws. 

When these things or similar become rampant we can propose for Men's day. At the same time I am happy that Men in India are very very bothered and concerned about Women bitching about other women. I can understand why men feel bad when women give up rights of matrimonial property very easily. Specially when their wives do it. Not very sure whether they are happy or unhappy when their sisters give up their rights. Can also understand that women should not get trapped in relationship drama. They should learn to sacrifice only when they know that it will make them feel nice. They must not sacrifice only because (1. society expects,2. Relatives expect 3. serials and stupid old literature and moves depict so.) I agree that in the article Chetan Bhagat mentions that women should dream big. Why only women All Indians should dream big.He also mentions that women should stop faking laughter at men's joke. He needs to understand that they are not laughing at Men's jokes but laughing at their ability of joking and sense of humor. I really did not understand the point about women dropping into clueless eye flutters etc.. Don't know what kind of women company he keeps..

KYC or DWTKYC-ORHH

http://www.firstpost.com/investing/fyi-how-to-check-your-kyc-status-online-525392.html
Please check out the above link.
 I think this KYC is big fraud. Companies under the pretext of KYC keep collection personal information about prospects/customers again and again. and keep selling the data to other companies. As a result you are hounded continuously by various companies all the times. For eg. Saving dept of the Bank asks and takes KYC filled up from you, DMAT dept of the same bank..too again asks for the similar form.
After all that service is very poor anyway..
I feel like changing it to DWTKYC-ORHH . Dont Want To Know Your Customer..Only Rip Him/Her Apart..

Green Diwali, Eco Diwali

Green Diwali ,Green  Holi , Eco Ganapathy .. Green Festivals.. :

Saw a big board of Green Diwali Celebration at the Pandol entrance.. Upon the entrance huge crowd.. and then ..Wow what a lovely Rangoli.. I went closer and it looked like it was not made out of usual rangoli powder, but out of something that was granular . Further observation and comments from people around revealed that it was made out of colored rice grains.

Just out side the pandols there were urchins .. tugging at your expensive dupattas and kurtas.. begging for food, money..malnutritioned extended arms and deep matte finish eyes..

Does it make sense..

Ganapti made from peanuts and dry fruits..

Rangoli made from pulses..

Ganapati made from colored sabudanas..

Garlands made from sugar candies(Battase)

Ganapti made from til laddoos

List of endless..

What happens to those colored grains? Always we find vegetables decorated on the top of ice slabs ,at salad counters at expensive buffets , as decoration.. What happens to those?

Worst of all.. Tomato festival..that boasts about thousands of tons of tomatoes thrown in across the streets ..

Should we be wasting food items at all..

Is it possible to quantify world wide wastage of foods due to so called rituals..

India will be on forefront with so much ghee and milk being emptied on the top of idols being worshiped ,and also edible ghee and oil being burnt in lamps..

LOOKING FOR A SCAPEGOAT

I blame Mr. Chetan Bhagat for spoiling my day not just the day but weekend. His article 'Looking for scapegot'  on page 18(printed TOI Mumbai version) made me start my weekend on a very serious note. When I was actually looking for amusement (As the author is well known for) The synopsis of the article in bold says 'We Indians are not known for logic. Be it our movies or political pitches - emotions matter more than reason., or even truth'. Let me assure Mr Bhagat, that this is a very true statement. Hence it applies to Marathis as well as he himself. Based on this statement we can safely conclude that Marathis are to be blamed jointly or in addituion to  other Indian for any issue which is local(Indian).The issues articulated in the article,  are local , but, marathis,non marathis , both are involved ,. Hence Marathis as well as Non Marathis are responsible, both being equally  illogical and emotional.

 He states later that 'Marathis are as entitled to go to any other state for jobs, join colleges IITs etc.'. Let me inform Mr Chetan Bhagat that Lau Prasad, then Railway Minister did not advertise Railway jobs in citites and towns in Maharshtra thus depriving them of the opportunities in other states.  So as he states in his article let me inform him that Marathis are not entitled for the jobs in other states the way people from other states are entitled for jobs in Maharsahtra.

Why is it that Water bodies in Mumbai and other towns in Maharashtra  only are dirtied during a festival celebrated by north Indians  but not in some other state like Tamilnadu or Karnataka? Is it because Marathis are tolerant and readily compromise on their own freedom and resources which are becoming scarce?

There are  few marathis who got to IITs in Chennai, Kanpur Kharagpur etc. There are some Marathis who get transferred as part of Govt jobs and  do migrate and settle in other states. What is important is that so far I have not heard from any party in other state, migrant Marathis  hogging down the infrastructure up to the level of choking up the systems. Never any other State has complained about Marathis forming the major portion of the criminal records in that state. Also not dirtying the area around the water bodies , during Ganesha festival up to the extent that it starts affecting ecological balance of the surrounding. The answer is straight forward. The numbers are too low to have any noticeable  impact. Why will a Marathi leave Maharashtra (Which is offering opportunities to Indians from all the states and people from all those state are coming to Mumbai and Maharashtra- Does not make sense for the locals  to leave state of opportunistic where you are borne to go to the state that is being deserted by their own people-due to lack of opportunities) and go to some other state? If they go , they go due to job opportunity and not to settle under the bridges, on the foot path etc. They go there to live in their proper habitat, legally rented or given by the companies and start contributing to the state from the day one, paying local taxes too. The numbers are of minuscule percentages anyway and does not create vote banks in these states to finally get appeased by local parties , giving them opportunities to use regional issues or swinging the  polls for the benefits during elections at all levels.

Also the issues faced by Mumbai differ by 180 degrees by issues faced by other cities. Issues faced by Maharashtra due to local politicians are universal for India. Are Marathis responsible for woes on Tamilnadu? Or local political parties led by Tamilians?Patnaiks are very much local to Odisha.  Does Buddhababa and /Or Mamata have their roots in some other non bengali state in India? Tell me which state is not corrupt today?

Marathis were never so industrious and capable of having long terms visions of settlements. and visions of corruption and power (of the handfuls of those controlling politics in the state) are also restricted to exploiting their own state .

Poor Marathi farmer resorted to suicide instead of migrating into UP or Bihar which is full of abundant natural resources and extremely conducive for farming. Poor Marathi farmer was not even able to foresee that prices of that pulses, Dals are rising for last 15 years , and it may be lucrative to move to some other crop instead of cotton . Which many Andradite and Karnataka farmers did over last 10-15 years. Stupid emotional attachment to the type of crop and land. Also not being able to even migrate to Mumbai to drive a taxi. Which UP ite and Bihari farmers have been doing. While enjoying the benefits of fertile lands there , enjoying the fruits of those, and earning in this city to send money back. (Spent in the other state to help  economies elsewhere). I truly appreciate the spirit. Also those who come here and become fruit ,vegetable and fish vendors etc. While no one is stopping Marathi farmer to move to other state or start driving taxi in Mumbai or become price competitive vendor in Mumbai , the fact is that they are not doing it. And and are suffering.

If  Lalu had advertised Railway jobs in local newspapers in Maharashtra, Maharshtrians would have probably migrated to other states for railway govt jobs. And over all number of Marathi Manus migrating would have been slightly higher.  Currently Marathis are mostly migrating to other states for jobs in private companies, MNCs and higher govt. jobs(through UPS exams etc. ). Maharastrians are being deprived of the equal right for applying to Class 3 Class 4 level central govt. jobs . Marathi politicians in central ministry are not playing the similar illegal  tricks to promote Indian wide jobs for Marathi population.

As far as effects of the irrigation scams are concerned I agree that migrants too have to stand in the queue for the bucket of water in Mumbai as long as local Marathi manus is standing in the same queue along with. But migrant has an option of going back to his own home town and not standing the queue for water. He as an option of demanding jobs from local govt which he/she and his/her folks have been selecting in the home state? He can chose to become local fish.fruit.vegetable vendor or taxi driver in his/her own state . He/she is not exercising that right but making local Marathi Manus stand in the queue longer alongside. (which he.she may not have to if migrant population vacates the queues.). In case migrant population feels that they are suffering due to their living conditions in Mumbai I will urge them to leave immediately to and for better conditions in their home states. Chetan Bhagat at the same time appreciates Marathis as hard working. Else they will demand separate reserved queues soon. As far as scams in Maharshtra are concerned I have a feeling that UP and Bihari politicians are looking for Maharshtra as another grazing ground for scams as they have exploited many opportunities already in their own states(up to the level of dried grass)

Any state will appreciate migrants who are  not impacting local ecosystems adversely . And will not even voice anything against them.

The discussion about ministers resigning and rest too threatening of the resignation, is party politics. Similar things, totally politically motivated, to settle power equations happen in all states. And most of the times it involves ministers who are locally borne/bred , belonging to local majority community . Their actions usually lead to sufferings of locals belonging to same community.  This is an India wide phenomena . In other states too masses are not able to do anything about it. And have become silent sufferers in most of the cases. There are local efforts in spurts which too is prevalent in Maharashtra.This state is no different in that sense. Why blame Marathi masses for the same. This is typical Indian nature . demonstrated also by the immigrants who leave their oen states instead of fighting local exploiting govt. and politicians to the grazing grounds of Mumbai and Maharashtra. Off course they find that grazing is not easy and as difficult for them as local Marathis.And then this hue and cry.

I myself worked for some time in the state of Jharkhand. Not even once I came across any group Marathi activity that was spoiling local cultural, environmental or political ecosystem. In fact everyone around me looked at Marathis as very talented people. Cricket, Singing , disciplined , hardworking etc. Why?  In fact they  fully accepted that  Will they have same opinion if Marathis start  spoiling the area around their plush green water bodies for Ganapati immersion? Will they have same opinion if Marathis start committing unspeakable crimes exploiting local population?  Even today there is mass Marathi population in Gujarath and and MP. Mainly Baroda, Gwalior, Indore etc. What is the impression? Are they contributing to the local crimes? Are they creating imbalance in local various ecosystems. Are they threatening to conduct local rallies to enter into politics to form local government.(BTW..I wish they had guts to do this  ..)

Chetan also adds that Marathis are very hardworking etc. and need better leaders. Who or which state does not need better leaders today?(Probably with the exception of Gujarat). Each state today in India is need of better leader. UP /Bihar too require better leaders so that their population does not have to migrate to other state. UPites and Biharis (at least those who migrate) as per my knowledge are very hard working. I too feel sorry for them as they are forced to leave their own state due to bad leadership and resort to expanding slums of Mumbai. (thus helping them expand at faster rate-adding to the woes of local Marathis from all pockets-slums and non slums).(I accept that there have been indications of improvements in Bihar and Nitish Kumar has been appreciated a a lot. However the effects of those have  still to be seen in Mumbai. When there is mass exodus of migrant returnees or local Marathis exodus to Bihar happens we will know the effectiveness).

I also request Chetan Bhagat to look at the crime statistics of Mumbai. And the percentage of non Marathi suspects and convicts. I still remember the early morning of 15^th Aug(of 2005 or 2004). While we watched the marches and speeches of Lal Killah, and Raj Bhavan, The News paper cover story flashed a news item of mentally challenged 14 year old local girl raped in the train by Bihari who had migrated just 15 days before. What a way to start independent day celebration. We have a right to be emotional. But we have still not turned into criminals.

I can very well see where Mr Bhagat is coming from. He, himself being an Indian obviously ‘not known for Logic and Emotions Matter More than results’.

At the same time I want to iterate that Chetan Bhagat is one of my most appreciated Author. I specially liked his book ‘One Night at Call Canter’. It really brought out the sufferings of those belonging to that industry in a very positive manner, leading to hope. As against there were movies like ‘Life an Metro’ etc, which were trying tarnish the image of their community by painting them as those of lose characters. Two states is out of the world. As I could get almost 100% confirmations for most of the behavioral traits of North Indians and Tamilians as I got chance to work in both these states from time to time.

Chandamama Website

Happened to bump into a website having all the issues of Chandamama uploaded since fifties. Ooof , And brought back the memories of the days which were devoid of mobiles, TV, (Not even Door Darshan). So lot of play out side. And lot of reading during the afternoons on weekends and during vacations. I still remembers the mornings when me and my brother (5 years older) , me around 7-8 yrs and he around 13 or so. getting up early (for a change), waiting egerly for most imprtant person in our lives.. Paperwala, from 1st of the month till we got the precious issue of 'Chandoba' and 'Vetaal'(from Indrajaal Comics).I was more interested in Vetaal initially as it being a comic and me being younger.. also reading speed was little lesser and found bigger fonts easier.. Also Vetaal was pure entertainment and not much of preaching.. When became little older enjoyed Chandoba too as much as Vetaal.My borther Sunil being older many times used to play games to grab the issue from me.. Used to tell me that some one is below the building.. Or Mom is calling you so that if I leave the issue and go for a while he will grab it and go somewhere like terrace etc. in hiding and read peacefully..Post that read, re-read all through the month till we get next issues. Vetaal was set in mostly exotic Jungle backdrop . Where wild animals were tames by him and obeyed him He has a wolf with him going around as a pet etc.. It also had tribals who were pygmies (short) and their chief was extremely clever and knew the jungle inside out and helped Vetaal from time to time. The best was Vetal's hide out.. A cave behind water fall.. where he just disappeared from enemies and they ere left guessing whether Vetaal was human being or walking talking Ghost that can be at 10 places at a time. Occasionally it had Mandrake,Lothar stories which were full of miracles and magic and hypnosis. I still remember the story where villain makes the life of a singer miserable by creating electromagnetic waves which led to singer having toothache during shows.Mandrake discovers and get him punished. Can't miss the element of the science here as the explanation was that metal inside the silver filled teeth reacted and led to sever pain. Where as Chandoba stories mostly rated with either 1. Farmer who was poor,hardworking was earning just enough for teh family to have good meals and sleep well etc. Had to borrow money or sell cow or goat due to some situation like illness,drought etc. 2. Money lender (sahukar) who was exploiting everyone and was very rich but was un happy and could not sleep well either due to illness ,or beinng childless(niputrik) or not having son etc. 3. King and queen whoere unhappy as did not have heir for their kingdom . Chandoba always had a story of Vikram, and Vetaal. (I was happy that my son -next gen- enjoyed the shows on TV started by echoes -VIKARAM VIKRAM VIKRAM VIKRAM, VETAAL< VETAAL<VETAAL VETAAL. ).Now to think of it I feel the pictures of women  in the old issues always had big eyes and resembled south indian women. Guys reselbled north Indians . Everyone was good looking . Over all both the peridicals were big sucees I feel mainly because it contained the Rasas which are enjoyed by children and early teenagers like 'Adbhut','Veer','Bhaya','Krodha','Lobha','Moha','Matsara'. It rarely had any comedy ('Vinoda') or ' Kaam'. I remember my brother was so fascinated and wanted to preserve the old  issues that he got them hard bound and some of them he himself hard bound at home.Next Gen some how did not enjoy Chandoba much mu was more into comics like Tinkle etc..Which had a lot of comedy angle. 

Can't help reliving the joyous moments of world cup 2011 last Mar.
- Super Shot Cheer :   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtUmeHnsrI0
- Procession : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVgPBhwf5lo
- Last Shot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlBN01wWsjA

BBC News - The 87-year-old doctor still charging patients $5 a visit

Wondering whether Insurance companies will gang up against such doctors. This will definitely reduce the average transaction value and in general transaction volume too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19289230

Implementation of IT in Education Segment

IT for Implementation of  Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

1. OVERVIEW: SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN  

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is centralized focused step taken by Central Government to universalize education in general by community-ownership of the school system. It is a response to the global demand for superior quality of human resource, services and other products as basic deliverable that India can offer meaningfully while being able to face international competition. The SSA program is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode.

1.1  WHAT IS SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

• A program with a clear time frame for universal elementary education.
• Ability to measure the quality and success of the education being imparted  
• An opportunity for promoting Government’s social obligation to population deserving basic human justice in addition to basic education.
• An effort at effectively involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools.
• A partnership between the Central, State and the local government.
• An opportunity for States to develop their own vision of elementary education

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the 6 to 14 age group by 2010. It is also to Improve and -reduce the gaps within education system existing due to social, regional and gender divides.

§  Gathering the relevant data and analyzing the same, taking corrective measures to improve All children in school, Education Guarantee Centre, Alternate School, ' Back-to-School' camp by 2003; (Was planned)

§  All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007 (Partially achieved by some of the States)

§  All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010  

§  Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life

§  Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010 .(Statistics showing improvement)

§  Universal retention by 2010  

- Ensure Enrollment of 1. SC/ST possible student population 2. Female possible student Population 3. Female Adult illiterate possible Population 4. Rest of the possible student population 5. Also provide Attention to special children and their needs and 6. Reduce Drop out rate.

1.3  SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN AS A FRAMEWORK AND AS A PROGRAMME

As a part of this drive Government has allocated certain budget for all the states and Central Territories. The budgets depend upon the various parameters linked with necessity and requirements of each State.  State is supposed to allocate 30% and Central is supposed to allocate 70%.

In addition various other educational programs which have been functional in recent past are too targeting the sometimes same sometimes exclusive population. For eg.

• Mahila Samakhya : Education ,literacy program meant for adult women
• Kasturba Gandhi Bal Vikas : Education program targeted towards female population
• Special program targeted towards SC/ST population of the state
• National Program for Education for Girls (Special focus on Elementary Level)

1.4 IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES

The funding pattern becomes more complex as multiple programs target population partially covered by other programs and partially exclusive. Also funding organizations differ from program to program.Funding Organization can be mainly Central Govt, State Govt , UN Funded schemes/programs, NGOs. Each of the funding organization too has its own objectives and key result areas. While overall aim is same, their objective and key result areas may not exactly match with those of SSA.At the same time implementation bodies can be Panchayati Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum level Education Committees, Parents' Teachers' Associations, Mother Teacher Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures in the management of elementary schools. Keeping this in mind, for the success of SSA and individual programs under SSA umbrella, the Apex monitoring body at State level needs to track closely all the Key result areas and key performance indicators, to be able to review and revise the implementation plan continuously, while ensuring the optimal funds distribution. This is possible only with the help of Excellent, well tested, well proven IT Backbone and infrastructure.

1.5  IT BACKBONE

Hence SSA framework demands an excellent IT infrastructure to be in place to ensure. Funds are used optimally to cover entire Deserving population and each deserving individual is addressed and covered by appropriate program, funding body and implementation body.

Some of the key features of the IT solution being implemented are as follows

-       Trends in drop out pattern, category of female student and tracking  the reasons for the same

-       Patterns in SC/ST student population

-       Ability to detect never enrolled population ,to track reasons of dropping out,  re-enrollments

-       Co-relating parameters to detect patterns (eg. Funds allocated v/s drop outs, Funds spent v/s status of the project.)

-       Capability of providing snap shot of student registration at any point in time at various levels

(eg. Village, Panchayat, Block etc…)

-       Maintaining 7 level hierarchy through out the system.(eg. School, Village, Panchayat, Cluster, Block, District, State)

-       Funds usage, management per project in addition to project status tracking

-       Prevent intentional or unintentional misuse of funds.

 The same data and application can be used for tracking(As a part of second phase of automation). 1.Health of the students  2. Immunization records 3. Mid Day meal schemes

The objective of SSA is to track student population within the age group of 6 to 14, the system has been extended to account children enrolled in Balwatikas at the age of 3 . Also the students/children (Once registered in the system) will be tracked till the age of 18 years.

As one can see this is probably the first effort of creating comprehensive digitized data for the children population. This data can be repurposed for any other function in future.

The same data can be used very effectively by HRD and Welfare ministry to analyze and make the decisions regarding future schemes and programs and their Funds Allocation.

Once the data is stabilized over the first year of implementation Business Intelligence tools can drill down the data further to provide effective reporting that can help top government officials for speedy, effective and accurate decision making.

Refer to the diagram below, that represents the data maintenance and retrieval at various levels.

As one can see the data can be used fruitfully by many other government Departments for various purposes. The data can be repurposed and reformatted very effectively to get international grants in the areas which we have not been targeting so far.

The database can be extended in future to track the population beyond 18^th years to analyze their earning and employment patterns to plan their careers effectively. The data can help employment exchanges and in general many employment guarantee schemes which can be targeted much better. Also the data related to segment/sector/skills wise manpower availability can be used further to mobilize the human resource effectively for higher GDP/GNP growth.