Women to spread reservation bill message via pan-India train rides


NEW DELHI: India's grown up on thrilling stories of a 23-year-old queen who made 19th century India sit up in awe of her courage in Madhya Pradesh's Jhansi. Two hundred years on, the young sporty Rani Lakshmi Bai may no longer be on our mind, but Jhansi will once again be the centre of sheer grit, woman-style.

In one of the biggest campaigns ever, Campaign Reservation Express, thousands of women will take off on May 20th on a momentous pan-India journey — three in fact — of creating awareness and mobilization on making the women's reservation bill happen. The three expeditions, spanning 56 cities and towns, will simultaneously commence at Jhansi, and spread out to all parts of India over the next fortnight.

Conceived and initiated by NGO Anhad, leading women's organizations such as AIDWA and a multitude of others, the idea is to create awareness of the need for women's reservation, counter myths, threats and canards spread at local levels among public over the Bill and mobilize India's women at the grassroots level to come forward and be heard.

One set will move towards east India, one will span central and south and the third will cover parts of central, the west and northern states, all culminating in Delhi on June 7. It doesn't get hotter than this.

With more than 50% of participants Muslims and Dalit women, the initiative is clear that women won't allow community-identity politics to tinker with the country's secular credentials. "Under the umbrella of the Women's Reservation Bill, we will talk of every struggle that we live through every day," says Sudha Sundararaman of Aidwa. The platform is secular, and attempts to divide women on false notions of identity-loyalties also need to be countered.

Activists to villagers will be travelling and conducting a series of public meetings, press conferences while local organizations have been roped in for cultural programmes.

God of small things smiles on lesser humans

PANAJI: The Constitutionally-guaranteed but often only theoretical freedom of speech and expression is set to reach the country's invisible millions as India's first community news service, the India Unheard project, launches on May 3, World Press Freedom Day.

VARANASI: Here comes a floating school for the children of the boatmen. In a novel gesture, a local social organisation and some enterprising people have launched two 'schools on boats' for providing informal education to the children of the economically backward community who could not enroll in schools. In the first step, 62 boys and girls are being provided informal education on two boats at the Rajghat.

These children row the boats amid chants, but their chants have a unique connotation. Their every movement is filled with a purpose. For them, it is a way to education. "Humko angrezi ka A B C D yaad ho gaya hai (I have learnt alphabets)," says Gunja, a 12-year-old girl from the boatmen community. Govind (17), who has never been to school, is also busy learning English so that he can interact with foreign tourists.

"In Varanasi, Ganga is a way of life, especially for the thousands of boatmen and their families who depend on the river for sustenance. Through this initiative, we are trying to develop an interest in learning in these children as well as their parents, who consider sending their wards to school a waste of time," a volunteer of the Vishal Bharat Sansthan (VBS), the social organisation spearheading the campaign, told TOI.

The 'classes' are held on two medium-sized boats. The children assemble at the ghat at 4.30pm, even before the arrival of their teachers. They then take their seats on the two boats and the class begins with a prayer. Govind and his brother Abhishek (eldest of the lot) take the charge of rowing the boats. The class continues till 6.30pm. Schooling on floating boats is also a fun activity for these children, who are skilled in swimming.

It is only the eldest boys among them who row the boats during the two-hour floating classes in the afternoon. A boatman, Gurucharan Sahani, has voluntarily provided two boats for the purpose. The teachers come from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), government offices and from VBS who provide their services free of cost.
A report came on India Times Newspaper

'Toxic World' unveiled in Kolkata

India Blooms News Service

Kolkata, Apr 23 (IBNS) On the occasion of the 40th International Earth Day, popular Bengali actor and wildlife photographer Sabyasachi Chakraborty unveiled a graphic novel, ''Our Toxic World: A Guide to Hazardous Substances in our Everyday Life' at the city's Oxford Bookstore on Thursday.

Brought out by Toxics Link and Sage Publications, author Aniruddha Sen Gupta said, the book speaks about "the little things that we can do in our everyday lives to make the world greener and better."

According publishers, the book is 'India's first graphic novel on the environment'; Sen Gupta said, "The goal of this book is to make the information accessible to the people, by resorting to pictures it transforms the theory to the practical."

"Primarily targeted towards urban families, concerned about issues but lacking sources of easily digestible information, this book provides a look at the alternatives that they can adopt to make sweeping changes in their lives" said the author.

Speaking at the event Sabyasachi Chakraborty, said, "People tend to get bored when we throw lots of jargon at them; this book breaks away from that and points out simple things that we should and shouldn't do."

"The book highlights the significance of the small everyday initiatives we can take and the impact it can have if we do it collectively; I think it is a very important book for parents and children," he added.

Fashion designer Agnimitra Paul, who was also present at the occasion, said "As a mother of a 8-year-old child I feel this book provides a great way of communicating the complicated information."

"I am an asthma patient, a disease I didn't have till I moved to Calcutta; today I need to take my asthma pumps 5 times a day; the pollution is so bad that I am pretty sure soon my son will need asthma pumps too," she said.

Ravi Agarwal, Director, Toxics Link, an NGO that has been working since 1996 as an information outreach and environmental advocacy organisation, said the content of the book is based on 15 years of research by the organisation.

At a time when environment preservation is the talk of the town, speaking about seriousness the work Aggarwal said, "The day you become an environmentalist yourself is the day you realise that this thing called Nature is bigger than you."

Sen Gupta said, "Sceptics will always be there. But the change is visible, any level-headed person will see the changes we are bringing to our environment and join the movement instead of being cynical.'

The interactive programme for teachers, parents and students, supported by the Washington D.C. based NGO, Earth Day Network, also featured a quiz at the end of the book release.

Both Karuna Singh, Country Director of Earth Day Network and Sabyasachi spoke about the important role that children can play by 'teaching adults a lesson'.

All exited about the evening, 14-year-old Soham Banerjee, said, "It was great fun to be here and that quiz was really very informative. Am definitely going to take care of how we do things at home from now on."

Seema Sodhani, mother of two, said, "This issue is taken too lightly; We ourselves need to do more in order to take care of our environment, it is very important to do so; we can't afford to turn a blind eye to the situation."

                 Global Earth Hour by Photos
                   India Gate Delhi

                   Bangalore city centre Brigade Road 

                  Petronas Twin Towers Malaysia

Beijing's National Grand Theater

                     Sydney Opera House Australia 

                           

Sydney skyline 

picture taken by NASA on 27/3 @ 8.30 pm

                                
                           

water purifier @ 17 paise per litre by a NGO

A virtuous trickle ; A water purifier manufacturer forms an NGO to supply clean drinking water at in 55 Andhra Pradesh villages. This is just the beginning.

Business ideas for the bottom of the pyramid come in unlikely situations. Four years after running a purified, bottled water business, Kammili Satyanarayana Raju, an alum of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, decided it was logical to make machinery that purifies water. After all, it was just a series of filters to keep out particles with an ultraviolet light source to kill bacteria or a reverse osmosis unit thrown in.

So, in 2004, a few months after setting up manufacturing, Hyderabadbased Raju approached Byrraju Foundation, a philanthropy vehicle set up by the business family of accounting-scandal-hit Satyam Computer Services. One of the activities that the foundation wanted to get into was safe drinking water and Raju, 54 today, had the expertise. He offered "a cost-effective integrated solution that made us opt for him," recalls Verghese K. Jacob, Chief Integrator, Byrraju Foundation. (Raju and Satyam's tainted founder Ramalinga Raju are not related.)

Poorvi Enterprises and Center for Water and Sanitation (CWS)

FOUNDER: K.S. Raju

The IIM-A alum, after some 20 years in agrochemicals (the last thirteen as an entrepreneur), started making water purification plants in 2004. Set up CWS in 2007 and will start Academy of Water and Sanitation in March 2010.

INNOVATION: Control right from manufacturing to setting up to training staff to running the purification plants.

MODEL: Partnership with NGOs, panchayats, corporate for part- funding, providing land, building and raw water connection.

SCALE: In 55 villages today; targeting 500 in five years.Today, Raju has dovetailed his business and mission. His company, Poorvi Enterprises, fabricates drinking water plants, while an NGO he founded in 2007-Center for Water & Sanitation or CWS-partners with other NGOs, rural local bodies such as panchayats and corporates to set up and run water plants in villages, setting prices within consumer reach as also offering sustainability for the business. A consumer pays Rs 60 monthly for a 12-litre can of water a day.

A typical water treatment plant needs to process about 200 cans of water a day to break even and depending on the demand, collections vary between Rs 6,000 and Rs 25,000 a month. After spending on running and maintenance costs, "the surplus is used to pay back for the initial investment on the plant over a three-to- five year period, says Raju.

Raju's initiative has the makings of a water empire serving India's poor millions, who bear the brunt of water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea. In the last two years, he has covered 55 villages across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with pilot projects on in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. "In five years, we will cover 500 villages," says Raju.

Even more ambitious efforts, apart from Raju's, are under way. Piramal Foundation and Piramal Water Private Ltd. operate what their CEO Anand Shah calls a "market-based franchise model" across 140 villages in Rajasthan and Gujarat, supplying water at a monthly charge of Rs 150 for 20 litres a day with plans to reach 5,000 villages in three years.

Raju's edge lies in having manufacturing technologies in-house and the ability to set the price of water sustainably. The other differentiator could be a training school he is starting from March that will start off with training a batch of 10, who could end up as water plant operators or owners of the plants. A one-week training programme may be expensive at Rs 12,000 but Raju's intention is to approach companies to sponsor them and offer funding to set up a water purification plant.

Such an approach, Raju believes, will create a network of "waterpreneurs (target: 500 in five years), whose work will benefit villages. Sure, he will benefit, too, with demand for his water purification plants climbing but the legup for public health and economic opportunity outweigh such gains.

(c) 2010 Business Today. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

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courtesy www.waterworld.com

“Magic” lamp to transform rural homes

A multi-purpose, light-weight solar-powered lamp will be launched soon to meet the rural energy requirements for lighting.

“Egg Lamp”, as it is called by its Bangalore-based maker Kotak Urja Pvt Ltd, also has new generation features - it can also be used for charging mobile phones and has a provision for FM radio with built-in antenna and speakers.

The product has already come in for praise before its formal launch, expected in first half of this month, winning the award for best electronics product in the energy (honourable mention) category at the India Semiconductor Association's annual conference last month.

The product, which is rechargeable by solar energy in six hours of sunshine besides by main AC, is being positioned as a replacement for kerosene lamp, and also emergency lamp in urban areas to compete with the likes of Panasonic and BPL.

Egg lamp, which can be wall-mounted, ceiling-mounted, hung on hook or carried by shoulder strap, is expected to be priced below Rs 1,500, Kotak Urja's CEO K Srinivas Kumar told PTI.

The product operates on LED or CFL mode, works for six to 16 hours depending on usage pattern and has “dimmer mode switch” for operating for reading light, “habitation” (family atmosphere light) and night light.

Mr. Kumar said it has a mobile charging socket suitable for top brands of mobile phones. Just like the mobile phones, this product also shows the health of batteries (indicates its usage status).

“It's portable and light-weight and has NiMH batteries for multiple recharge and weighs 2.2 kgs only,” he said. “For urban homes, it is positioned as emergency lamp. Brightness is as good as that of a 25 W bulb”. These rechargeable batteries last for 4-5 years.

The company is now looking out for a huge network of NGOs and entrepreneurs to take the IP-based product to the masses.

It hopes to sell 25,000 to 30,000 units in the first year, going up to a cumulative figure of ten lakh within two-and-half-years.

Mr. Kumar said the product also has export potential in countries with similar profile as that of India, in Africa and South East Asia, and in fact the company is scouting for partners. In Europe and the US, it can be positioned as a “camping” and “recreation” light, he said.

Mr. Kumar also talked about the product's health and social benefits. Egg lamp is safe and clean, unlike kerosene lamps whose toxic fumes cause respiratory infections.

In power-starved rural homes, this product enables family members to gather together, with the help of “surrounding” light (habitation) of Egg lamp, he said.

The product also helps small shop owners and vegetable vendors to extend their business hours, and improves “government finances” as kerosene is subsidised to an extent of Rs 20,000 crore annually.

courtesy The Hindu news paper

Bangalore says no to smoking with roses

after Gandhigiri, it's time for gulabgiri. Inspired by Munnabhai's exploits, engineering students in the nation's IT capital have hit upon a novel idea to boost their anti-smoking campaign.

Roses in hand, they are flooding Bangalore's upmarket areas and business districts. The campaigners hand each of the smokers a flower, pleading with them to kick the butt.

The students have termed the campaign gulabgiri, which they say is another form of Gandhigiri.

"The term Gandhigiri has become a fad. We have dubbed our effort gulabgiri as we are offering roses to smokers to quit the habit," Ashok Binna, who is leading the campaign, says.

On Monday, the first day of their outing in the upmarket MG Road and Koramangala areas, the students offered roses to as many as 500 smokers.

"All of them willingly accepted the flowers, but less half promised to quit smoking. But we will continue our campaign," Binna says.

The students plan to turn the effort into a weekly affair. Accordingly, they will hit the streets near malls and shopping complexes every Saturday.

"We are targeting youths and students because they will benefit immensely from quitting smoking at an early age. We also have plans to visit colleges," Darius Kej, another campaigner, says.

The students, who study in three engineering colleges, came up with the campaign after they agreed that smoking had become a menace in the colleges and hostels. "We are fed up with our friends and classmates who are not willing to quit smoking.

Therefore, we came up with this idea. Some of them have prom- ised to quit smoking," Kej says.

The campaigners plan to take their fight online by creating gulabgiri groups on Facebook, Orkut and Google. Every visitor will be persuaded to say no to smoking by offering e- roses to smokers they know.

Bangalore has become a hub for such initiatives in recent times. Just after the movie Munnabhai MBBS was released in the city, a woman made news when she launched a floral campaign to oust a tormenting tenant from her house.

When Sri Ram Sene activists bashed up women at a pub in Mangalore, another Bangalorebased woman launched the ' pink- chaddi' campaign against the self- styled protectors of society, eliciting nationwide response.

Now, gulabgiri campaigners, too, intend to attract students across the country through the online forum. With this aim, they are pooling in funds from their pocket money.

Munnabhai would surely have lauded the unique effort, saying: "Lage raho, mamu."

courtesy india today.in

Social work

Social work is a discipline involving the application of social theory and research methods to study and improve the lives of people, groups, and societies. It incorporates and uses other social sciences as a means to improve the human condition and positively change society's response to chronic problems. Social work is a profession committed to the pursuit of social justice, to the enhancement of the quality of life, and to the development of the full potential of each individual, group and community in the society. It seeks to simultaneously address and resolve social issues at every level of society and economic status, but especially among the poor and sick. Social workers are concerned with social problems, their causes, their solutions and their human impacts. They work with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities.
Social work as a defined pursuit and profession began in the 19th century. This was in response to societal problems that resulted from the Industrial Revolution and an increased interest in applying scientific theory to various aspects of study. Eventually an increasing number of educational institutions began to offer social work programs. The settlement movement's emphasis on advocacy and case work became part of social work practice. During the 20th century, the profession began to rely more on research and evidenced-based practice as it attempted to improve its professionalism. Today social workers are employed in a myriad of pursuits and settings. Professional social workers are generally considered those who hold a professional degree in social work and often also have a license or are professionally registered. Social workers have organized themselves into local, national, and international professional bodies to further the aims of the profession.

History of social work

Social work has its roots in the struggle of society to deal with poverty and the resultant problems. Therefore, social work is intricately linked with the idea of charity work; but must be understood in broader terms. The concept of charity goes back to ancient times, and the practice of providing for the poor has roots in all major world religions.^[1]

Western World

In the West, when Constantine I legalized the Christian Church, the newly legitimised church set up poorhouses, homes for the aged, hospitals, and orphanages.^{[2] [3] [4]} These were often funded, at least in part, from grants from the Empire.^[5]
By 590 the church had a system for circulating the consumables to the poor: associated with each parish was a diaconium or office of the deacon.
As there was no effective bureaucracy below city government that was capable of charitable activities, the clergy served this role in the west up through the 18th century.
During the Middle Ages, the Christian church had vast influence on European society and charity was considered to be a responsibility and a sign of one’s piety. This charity was in the form of direct relief (for example, giving money, food, or other material goods to alleviate a particular need), as opposed to trying to change the root causes of poverty.
The practice and profession of social work has a relatively modern (19th century) and scientific origin.^[6]
Social work, as a profession or pursuit, originated in the 19th century. The movement began primarily in the United States and England. After the end of feudalism, the poor were seen as a more direct threat to the social order,^{[citation needed]} and so the state formed an organized system to care for them. In England, the Poor Law served this purpose. This system of laws sorted the poor into different categories, such as the able bodied poor, the impotent poor, and the idle poor. This system developed different responses to these different groups.

The 19th century ushered in the Industrial Revolution. There was a great leap in technological and scientific achievement, but there was also a greatmigration to urban areas throughout the Western world. This led to many social problems, which in turn led to an increase in social activism.^[7] Also with the dawn of the 19th century came a great "missionary" push from many Protestant denominations. Some of these mission efforts (urban missions), attempted to resolve the problems inherent in large cities like poverty,prostitution, disease, and other afflictions. In the United States workers known as "friendly visitors", stipended by church and other charitable bodies, worked through direct relief, prayer, and evangelism to alleviate these problems.^[6] In Europe, chaplains or almoners were appointed to administrate the church's mission to the poor.

Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) was a founder of the U.S. Settlement House movement and is considered one of the early influences on professional social work in the United States.

During this time, rescue societies were initiated to find more appropriate means of self-support for women involved in prostitution.^{[citation needed]} Mental asylums grew to assist in taking care of the mentally ill. A new philosophy of "scientific charity" emerged, which stated charity should be "secular, rational and empirical as opposed to sectarian, sentimental, and dogmatic.^[8]" In the late 1880s, a new system to provide aid for social ills came in to being, which became known as the settlement movement.^[9] The settlement movement focused on the causes of poverty through the "three Rs" - Research, Reform, and Residence. They provided a variety of services including educational, legal, and health services. These programs also advocated changes in social policy. Workers in the settlement movement immersed themselves in the culture of those they were helping.
In America, the various approaches to social work led to a fundamental question – is social work a profession? This debate can be traced back to the early 20th century debate between Mary Richmond's Charity Organization Society (COS) and Jane Addams's Settlement House Movement. The essence of this debate was whether the problem should be approached from COS' traditional, scientific method focused on efficiency and prevention or the Settlement House Movement's immersion into the problem, blurring the lines of practitioner and client.^[10]
Even as many schools of social work opened and formalized processes for social work began to be developed, the question lingered. In 1915, at the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, Dr. Abraham Flexner spoke on the topic "Is Social Work a Profession?" He contended that it was not because it lacked specialized knowledge and specific application of theoretical and intellectual knowledge to solve human and social problems.^[11] This led to the professionalization of social work, concentrating on case work and the scientific method.
courtesy wikipedia .com