Real Heros

http://realheroes.com/

very interesting persons. Real salute to them !!!

Good News - Just In A Day !

Supreme Court of India has once again passed a judgement which making women and people interested in gender issues happier. It was a case of insurance compensation to a housewife. SC has ruled that compensation can not be lowered simply because she was a house wife and not earning. This great relief to hundreds of thousands of women who sacrifice, compromise or even totally let go of their professional careers and ability to earn for the sake of their children and families. Though they are doing greater valued work, they mostly end being weighed lower because they don't earn and so dont own money. Things often get worse as women get older and market value of their abilities start diminishing.

Though I dont know details of this judgement, it looks a great step forward !

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Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (a political psty shrtformed MaNaSe) is known for its agenda for the local marathi folks in Mumbai and Maharashtra. MaNaSe is also known for its rowdy methods. So when I read the news "MaNaSe stops shooting of a BigB film', my first reactions was, "Oh No! one more case of sic political vandalism". But as I read the news I was in for pleasant surprise. They had searched and found that many workers in the shooting were foreign national not on working visa. So they went to police, filed a complaint and the police then went and legally stopped the work. Kudos to legitimate activism !

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Indian rivers are routinely polluted very much. Around the cities pollutants are mostly of individual human nature. When a person dies and cremeted, it is tradition to immerse his ash into a river. This is one cause of polluting of river. Maratha Mahasangh of Kolhpaur and adjoining towns came together and pledged to immerse only handful of ash into river and spread the rest in fields. Though I dislike cast based organization, this act must be complimented! It may also not have any significant impact on reducing pollution in that river, but its definitely a step into making people own up for pollution and involve them into improving actions.

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'Rahul Gandhi uses RTI to get information on some actions of Mayawati government' This is a BIG complement to RTI (Right To Information Act) that a political bigwig is using RTI. I also notice a spurt in corruption cases against politicians and beurocrats. Such cases can built up only on the basis of internal information and data, which would have been almost impossible to get before RTI times. Now ALL govermnet, semi-government, public data, information, records, sanctioning is easily avialble to anybody and everybody with simple RTI Application.

Thannk you Anna Hazare, Shailesh gandhi, Arvind kejriwal and many others who have worked very hard to get a powerful RTI Act in place and have contiued the work to get people educated and empoweed with RTI !

Indian Election Commission being Pro-active

Poll candidates will now be monitored with a separate "shadow" expenditure register and will have to open an exclusive election bank account under the new guidelines framed by the Election Commission to check flow of illegal money at the hustings.


The Commission has set up for the first time an Election Expenditure Monitoring (EEM) cell headed by a senior Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) officer and support staff.

The new guidelines for expenditure in elections will come into force with the Bihar Assembly polls scheduled in late October and the cell in the Commission headquarters will operate 24x7 with its control rooms working in each district of the state where elections are being held.

The EC will also field surveillance teams and flying squads in each police station area of the constituencies which will have the power to search and seize illegal and suspicious cash.

"If unexplained cash is found in possession of any person, it will be immediately seized. The flying squads will also watch distribution of cash, liquor or any other bribes to the voters," sources said.

The sleuths in the teams, drawn from tax and revenue departments, will keep vigil over expenditures made by a candidate beginning from the filing of nomination till the declaration of the result.

The candidates will also have to open an exclusive bank account and the monitoring teams will maintain a "shadow" expenditure register in the same format as maintained by the candidate, they said.

The new guidelines also envisage arrangements for a 'video surveillance and viewing team' for each candidate, comprising an officer and a clerk, to watch, tabulate and prepare report of expenditure after gleaning through the video footage every day.

The video surveillance team will consist of a cameraperson who will record the number of vehicles, tents, furniture, dais, rostrums, barricades, posters, hoardings put up by the candidate.

In order to check illegal spending through paid news, a team headed by Deputy District Education Officer (DEO) and district Public Relations Officer (PRO) and their staff will monitor both print and electronic media and the local cable channels and will submit daily reports to the accounting team which will have officials from the Income Tax department, Central Excise and Customs and Audit and Accounts.

The Commission, in a maiden initiative, will also activate a call centre and complaint monitoring system at the district level where callers can register any information about illegal expenses by a candidate or a political party and all such calls will be recorded.

Every candidate will be exclusively covered by an Expenditure Micro Observer and he or she will liaise with the DEO regarding monetary expenditure and other movements of the candidate.

People coming together to get food grain due to them

http://www.indiatogether.org/2010/sep/rbs-pds.htm

Read the content of the link above. People in a village in Karanataka came together to demand amount of food grain due to them and followed it up to ensure that they actually get that

Organs of a baby donated after death

Kishore Kumar, a government officer in Andhra Pradesh, with his wife (Hymavathi) and family, has made a history in humane world. The couple had suffer pain of very unfortunate death of their baby girl just in four days after her birth. A NGO, Mohan Foundation, was contacted. And eventually heart valves and eyes were donated. These would be very useful in cases where children are born with birth defects.

My compassionate salute (namaskar) to these parents. May baby's soul be more blessed with this divine act of her parents.

Wish for greater work from this girl in her career.

Sandeep Kaur, the daughter of a peon from Morinda in Punjab, has made it to the IAS.

Sandeep is the eldest of her three siblings and attributes her success to her father employed in Morinda sub-tehsil.

Citing her father as her immense source of inspiration behind her success, Sandeep, a civil engineer from Panjab Engineering College, had the sole goal of making it to the IAS.

"I dedicated myself to preparing for the civil services and failure at earlier attempts made me stronger to prepare for the examinations," she says.

Her dream is to work against female foeticide which is a big problem in Punjab.

'Mountain Echoes' - a literary festival in Bhutan

The hills of Bhutan will soon be alive with literature as renowned authors and poets gather in the tiny kingdom to participate in a literary festival focussing on the magic and mystique of writings off and from the Himalayan regions.


Indian writers like Gulzar, Chetan Bhagat, Bulbul Sharma and Omair Ahmad will be joined by international names like British author Patrick French as well as local writers and poets from Bhutan for the three-day festival "Mountain Echoes" in Thimphu from 17th May.
The fabled kingdom of dragons known recently for its policy of promoting Gross National Happiness (GNH) over the economic Gross Domestic Product (GDP), provides the perfect setting for writers from different tracts of trans- Himalayan belt to sharing their ideas and literary traditions, say organisers.

"This is the first time that Bhutan is hosting a literary festival. It is a collaborative venture between the governments of India and Bhutan and will focus on the wealth of mountain writing from these countries as well as other international writers," Mita Kapur, who heads Siyahi, one of the organisers told a news agency.

The shortlist of speakers at the festival "Mountain Echoes" includes among others author and Indian ambassador to Bhutan Pavan K Varma, poet Temsula Ao, Namita Gokhale, Omair Ahmed, Bulbul Sharma, Urvashi Butalia and Leila Seth.

Conceptualised by current Indian ambassador to Bhutan, Pavan K Varma "Mountain Echoes," is held under the India Bhutan Foundation.

The foundation was established in August 2003, with the objective to enhance exchange and interaction among the peoples of both countries, through activities in the areas of educational, cultural, scientific and technical fields.

Sessions at the festival include Bhutan through the Ages, Grandmother's Tales, History and Biographies, Language and Identity, Poetry and Archery, Shared Dreams and Shared Metaphors, Writing about Mountains, Architecture and Heritage, Music, Love, Poetry, These Hills called Home, Beyond the Frame, Of Women, By Women, Travellers and Magicians, Winds of Change, and Languages of Belonging which shares the stories, tales and folk narratives

Taxi Drvier Pledges His Taxi to Help Passanger

Mr. Taras was taking a passenger in his taxi from Pune to Mumbai. On the way the passenger started feeling very uncomfortable. Mr Taras sensed that something might be seriously of concern. By the time the passanger handed over his mobile phone to Mr Taras. Passenger's sister was talking and she requested Mr Taras for help. So he took the passenger to a doctor who felt that it was a heart attack and passenger needed to be admitted to a hospital immediately. Hospital would not admit without receiveing a heft advance payment. Neither Mr Taras nor the passeneger had much money on them. Assurances were of no use. So finally Mr Taras offered to give his car keys as pledging his own taxi.

This is a rare and noble gesture of a taxi driver and a human being. This needs to be applauded when we have been reading so many news about passenger being looted or raped. Thank you Mr Taras

Show of love, where hate was expected

India does it again. Indian diversity evident in full brightness! Godhra in Gujarat, the very place of cause of one of the worst Hindu-Muslim riots in the history, post-partition. This very place recently wonderful mixing of the two religions so commonly seen all over India. The same two religions which fight each other as arch enemies also love each other as siblings.
This year the Muslim festival of Eid-E-Milad and Hindu festival of Holi were one after the other. Hindus and Muslims in Godhra greeted each other on those occassions. At Dakor near Godhra, Muslim organizations had open centres to distribute water and drinks to devotees in the Shri Krushna procession.

The very day also marked the eighth anniversary of the ghastly Godhra rail-carnage. Muslims had organised a social marriage ceremony. Many Hindus not only attended the function but also participated as parents of girls known to them. They did this for nearly 34 girls. Gifts worth nearly hundred thousand rupees were also distributed by Hindu brothern.

Thank you folks, you have blessed the country by your act !

Personal Day-care for son

Shubha Mudgal was ecently speaking at a funtion in Pune. She recalled her memories when she used to go to Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki for singing tutions. Her son was quite young then and at times it would be painful to leave a crying son home and learn music. Mrs. Vidya Abhisheki sensed her state and asked her to get her son along. Till music tution was going on Vidya Abhisheki would play with Subha's son. Its only because of this understanding and love by Mrs Vidya Abhisheki that Shubha Mudgal could take her music lessons.

In today's era of formalitities and 'whats in it for me?' etc , it might be a hearty and worthy act to emulate

Girl drop-out rates drops in Bihar, India

Fortunately, not the entire ASER report is gloom and doom. One of the brighter moments in it is the fact that in Bihar, the state considered a basket case on most counts, the dropout rate for girls in the 11-14 age group has reduced from 17.6 per cent in 2006 to 6 per cent in 2009. So Bihar must be doing something right. In fact, one of the striking sights in Bihar today is of girls on bicycles, given by the government if they clear Standard VIII, going to the nearest high school.

The desire to ensure that children get a good education runs deep in most Indian families. Parents will sacrifice and save to invest in their children's future. Even poor families, including the homeless with no secure shelter, find a way of sending their children to school. The increase in the enrolment rate in India - 96 per cent of children between the ages of 6-14 are enrolled in school, government and private - is proof of that.

What urgently needs to be tackled is the quality of education, basic facilities like toilets and running water, and transport, particularly for girls. Even this will not suffice unless there is a notable change in the status accorded teachers who ultimately decide whether and what children learn. Instead of the inordinate amount of attention that continues to be paid to institutes of higher learning, or private institutions that promise to prepare rich children for studies abroad, something much more simple and basic can and needs to be done to educate India and Indians

Where Three Dreams Cross

London's Whitechapel Gallery is currently featuring 'Where Three Dreams Cross,' an exhibition of photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The show says a lot not only about the three countries, but also about Britain today.

The ambition in 'Where Three Dreams Cross' is both to be admired and treated with caution. Dealing with a land mass larger than Western Europe and a population of over 1.5 billion people is a challenge, especially with the complicated family history of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. It seems bound to disappoint by missing some particular event, region or body. So the fact that it does not is testament to the skill of the photographers and curators involved. It is not curated by border or nation.

Anita Khemka’s photographs of Jabalpur Station in India show the exuberance and anarchy of the railway station as market, bazaar and human playground, which anyone who has been to South Asia will recognise.
It is a history of our shared, not separate, cultures. This is an exhibition not just about Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, but the history of Britain.

For complete news please go to:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/culture/03-where-three-dreams-cross-a+stunning-success-ss-02

blind man becomes manager is bank

A man, blind by birth, persistently followed up with his own study to become a law graduate. He was taken in by Bank of Maharashtra, one of the leading nationalised banks in India. Now he has been promoted to the grade of Assistant Manager.

This is a real big feat in a country like India, where people with special physical and mental needs may not be given due consideration.

Women's Bills in Pakistan

Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Bill and the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, and Domestic Violence Bill are the three bills which are under process to enactment in Pakistan. They were almost scuttled under influence of religious parties. But intense lobbying by women had pushed the bills a step further towards enactment.

In the wider picture, these bills, when they become law, may appear to be the harbingers of major change. But their significance is at the moment symbolic and only in the legal context. In practical terms, they will spell greater protection for women in their workplace only when the prescribed mechanism is made available to them to complain of sexual harassment and obtain redress if needed.

More importantly, these bills explicitly recognise the right of a woman to go out of her home to earn a living, to acquire an education, to obtain healthcare and to involve herself in the day-to-day business of caring for her family and herself. The statement of objectives of the bill passed in the National Assembly last week states, “This bill builds on the principles of equal opportunity for women and their right to earn a livelihood without fear of discrimination.”

In US, more wives outearning their husbands

A US study of people aged 35-44 years old show that increasing number of wives are more educated than their husbands and are earning more than their husbands.!

US government data indicates that men constitute 75% of the decline in employment in 2008.

Quick Response from Pune Police in the middle of night

This is an personal experience of a newspaper reader. Reader is a young girl of 19years age. She has started studying very very early morning, rather very very late into night, at about 2am. She sensed couple of people sneakily walking out of her door. When she looked through the eye-hole in the door, she did see two men locking her main door and climbing up the stairs, with some iron weapons in their hands. She woke up her father. They first rang up some phones in their building trying wake up people. Then they called police on 100. The speed of police response that she had described truly deserves hearty accolades, particularly in Indian reality. She called up 100 at 2:53 am. Exactly at 3 am she got a call from local police station saying not to worry as their police vehicle is at doorsteps. At 3:04 am police had reached their house and unlocked their door from outside. There were 9-100 policemen with AK-47 rifles and walky-talky etc.

Till then all her life she never had any interaction with police force. But she was really moved by the speed with which police had responded to her SOS at 3am. She has saluted the Pune police force for it.

I wish to join in her saluting

Good Samaritan - a politician

In these times to notice our politicians only in inaction or nasty action, this is one incidence which stands out very positively, irrespective of whether I agree or disagree with the cause. This is a story of a member of parliament (MP) from southern part of Maharashtra state. I dont know details but recently indian government was planning to reduce prices of sugarcane. This was particulalry going affect the sugarcane farmers in northern states. SO this MP, Mr, Raju Shetty, toured extensively into sugarcane farming areas of western Uttar Pradesh etc, interacted with sugarcane farmers and their organisations, formulated his own modified law. Gave it to parliament. Discussed it with other members cutting accross party lines. He got support from all opposition parties and he also got support from the ruling party. He followed it all the way till his proposal was accepted by the government and modified the price provisions accordingly.

UNESCO to put up list of genuine and accredited universities on its website

In a novel step to check mushrooming of fake educational institutions, UNESCO has decided to include in its website names of genuine and accredited institutes of all countries.

About 30 countries, mostly Europeans nations, have already provided the list of their accredited institutes to UNESCO which has displayed them in its website, a UNESCO official said.

India has decided to provide its list of accredited institutes to the UNESCO by next month. HRD Ministry has entrusted the work to Education Consultancy India Ltd (EdCIL) to coordinate with the UNESCO in this venture.

The students can verify from the UNESCO list whether an institute is genuine or not.

"Now, we have given the list of genuine institutes of 30 countries. In next few months, accredited institutes from 60 countries, including those from India, will find their names in the list," the UNESCO official said.

The UNESCO is also preparing a set of criteria that can help students identify fake institutions.

The official said there is no accurate data about the number of fake institutions operating across the globe, offering higher education.

"But majority of them claim to be offering education in distant mode. Once our criteria are put in the website, students will be able to differentiate between genuine and fake institutions," he said.

The trend is very rampant in the US. About two lakh students are issued fake degrees by these institutions every year in the US alone, he said.

The fake institutes are duping a huge number of students in India every year, government sources said.

UNESCO institute for promotion of peace and sustainable developement at New Delhi

I dont know why and what I feel, but I strongly feel something strange in this news:

The UNESCO on Wednesday gave its final approval to India's proposal to set up a world-class institute for promotion of peace and sustainable development in the region.

The general body of the UNESCO, which is meeting in Paris, gave the go ahead for setting up Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development in Delhi.

The UNESCO Category-I Institute will foster a culture of peace through education, promoting sustainable economic and social development and respect for human rights.

It will work in several areas, including global warming and non-proliferation.

It will do research on Gandhian thoughts on social justice, equity and peace.

The government will invest Rs 100 crore while UNESCO will put in USD five lakh (Rs 2.5 crore) for setting up the institute.

At present, there are 11 UNESCO Category-I institutes and most of them are located in developed countries

Employment to disabled under NREGA

In India the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act promises 100-day guaranteed unskilled manual work to every rural adult with the aim to alleviate poverty.

Under this act, this financial year West Bengal topped all states with giving employment to 29, 714 disabled people, Chhattisgarh stood second with 13,763 and Madhya Pradesh third with 9,787 jobs to disabled people.

Compared earlier fiscal year, there has been increased participation of disabled people in the programme.

During the last financial year of 2008-09 a total of 1,46,855 were offered jobs under NREGA, as per the records of the government.