Looking back…

Normally I don’t. Being one of those adamant creatures who believe that your past is what makes you being the person you are now, I saw every experience in life add to making me what I am today. But as I look back it makes much more sense now that I have a bird’s eye view of my past which showed me the road I took. It all makes perfect sense now. 

Back in school, we used to joke around that our parents sent us to a technical school to prepare us for a literary career. Thanks to my teachers, who emphasized on being expressive, though it was not a part of our curriculum. Each one of us were given an assignment Physics class to write short research papers, on a topic of our choice and present it in the class. I picked ‘Ultrasonics’ and ended up writing more on German U-boats and World War than the actual topic. My presentation was dull and I barely managed to keep my audience from falling asleep as they were all tuned to listening about science than some teenager’s views on World War or German U-boats. But that experience came in handy as that seminar did prepare me to participate and win the college elocution competition a couple of years later, where the topic was “Terrorism” which took me only a few minutes to prepare and rant effortlessly in front of my audience. I somehow knew I was a square peg in a round hole trying learn technology when I was interested in something else. 

Last week I was fortunate to attend a workshop for bloggers conducted by International Centre for Journalists. Met some remarkable people who are passionate about writing for social causes. I felt alive being one among them. There was also a silent acknowledgement from my classmates, reinforcing the belief that I did write something useful.  I needed that. It is an incredible feeling. The workshop participants were a good mix of working journalists and a few aspiring ones, bloggers and writers who all enjoyed writing.

My attention was focused on the journalists who walked that extra mile to make writing their livelihood, unlike me. Just like I heard from my mentor P.Sainath, every journalist has a bit of anger and the conviction to change the world, I noticed the same spirit in them. The discussions we had during the workshop reflected their innermost thoughts. For once I found myself amidst a set of people who didn't flinch being vocal about their thoughts in a manner that is not offensive, even if I didn’t agree with some of their views. That is the beauty I see in writers. They have this remarkable way of telling stories. Though we all used our laptops more now, than a pen and paper to write on, the symbolism of holding a pen made a lot of sense in building up the morale of being a writer. Now I take pride in writing and decided to write in a more focused manner.

Our Gurus Alexandar Howard and Louise Roug at the workshop taught us some great things about blogging and keeping it meaningful, without overwhelming us with technology. I personally could see how my thoughts were more aligned towards writing for the cause that I believe in. The whole workshop is to reiterate that I was on the right path and should keep going further. The help was abundant. Both our Gurus were extremely helpful in giving us the right direction. The pleasant surprise came in the form of Sri Mohan Guruswamy, one of the celebrated speakers, who urged us to look beyond seeing. His presentation on India’s Role in Global Economy blew the few doubts I had about the much talked about ‘developmental model of governance’ which we Indians were so proud of adapting from the developed nations. The last slide of his presentation lecture hit us hard as it showed the Buland Darwaza of Fatehpur Sikri which summed up the whole topic succinctly. (For those who don’t know Fatehpur Sikri, it is palace complex and a city in Northern India, built by Emperor Akbar which was abandoned later for the lack of water. This is one of the 26 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India).  Once again I felt home.

It was only a few years back I was I was inducted into MV Foundation for Child Rights as a volunteer. Until then I didn’t really know what Child Rights were and why they are so important. Now when I look back tracing my path, I see some rather remarkable incidents that led me into writing about children’s rights. I found myself happy writing reports and penning my thoughts. I took up assignments as a translator as my Telugu was much better. I found myself finally doing something useful and more fulfilling personally.  Now after the workshop, I could relate more to the larger issues linked with Child Rights.

I understood that if I write something more meaningful rather than a self-involved banter, I might make myself more useful. That was a big cue to start my new blog on “Child Rights in India-a volunteer’s perspective”.  To start with, I posted my last year’s report on Child Rights in the blog and will be adding more related content.  It is a serious blog with bare facts, statistics and voices from real people, real issues than idle musings. Do read and share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you.

Child Rights in India, a volunteer's perspective

Neeti Chandrika

I remember mom telling me stories from Neeti Chandrika when I was little and shared her own experience, by applying the line from the very same book for an essay writing contest at her school. The line goes like this… ఎవ్వాడు జీవింప ననేకులు జీవింతురో, వాని మనుగడయే మనుగడ.... It means ‘one’s life is not significant, unless he is useful to humanity’. A very profound statement which explains the gist of living. Needless to say she won the first prize as started her essay on Mahatma Gandhi with this line. When I asked her how she related the line from a small story in Neeti Chandrika to Mahatma Gandhi, she said her father gave her the clue. I was amazed at the connection how wisdom is passed across generations and eventually to us, through simple stories that we Indians often take for granted.

I wouldn’t take full credit of acquiring such wisdom as I seldom paid heed to Mom. Now I living far away from her and the only connection I have is the daily telephone conversation, she did not stop passing on the wisdom she inherited from her elders. Each time I hang up the phone, I am super charged with energy to do something. How far I am able to translate that into something useful is another thing, but the motivation is clearly felt.

Today is one such day that I started off after talking to Mom.  I found an email from Chitra, a very enterprising girl I know from Hyderabad who is always keen to learn and teach. Chitra and Anjali are friends from Hyderabad who tagged along with me to visit the girls housed at MV Foundation hostel. During my days in Hyderabad, Chitra and Anjali were quite helpful in teaching the kids, team building games, telling stories with morals and organising medical camps at the MV Foundation hostel for rescued child workers. Both girls believe in holistic education. So when they visit the girls, they ensure that the stories they tell these kids have a moral at the end of it. We all heard these stories from our grandparents and parents when we were little. But for the girls at MVF, our young ladies Chitra and Anjali fill the void.

Now they carry on the tradition without me and keep passing on the positive changes that they are able to make and bring me the stories from homeland which works as a magic potion for me across the miles to derive inspiration. Thank you Chitra.

The content of Chitr’s email was a video link to a success story of a girl, Malliswari, who realised her dream to be a camera woman. She worked in the agricultural fields as a child worker to support her family, discovered by MV Foundation volunteers who enrolled her in the girls’ hostel to pursue education. The video is a narration of her journey as a child labourer to being the first Camera Woman in Andhra Pradesh state. She now is a positive role model to the rest of the girls at the hostel who look up to her. Please find the link to the video here.

Chitra, Anjali, Malliswari all three girls in my life bring a lot of hope and encouragement by sharing their stories. I am glad they found me and vice versa. Mom tells me that every person in our lives have a reason for being there. Some we spend only a few moments, yet leaving their lasting impression. I am compelled to share these positive stories after a friend who follows my blogs, enquired what I am up to these days. He encouraged me to write in the first place and is my constructive critic. I realised I haven’t shared anything positive since I came to Calgary dwelling in self and complaining about how much I miss my friends and India. I am glad I am bestowed with such good friends who motivate me and many others. So, here is to you my friends, across the miles, for rescuing me… ఎవ్వాడు జీవింప ననేకులు జీవింతురో, వాని మనుగడయే మనుగడ.... ధన్యోస్మి.

Note: There are 11.9 million children in India in the age group of 5-13 years who are denied the right to education as per official statistics. The number is appallingly high if one looks at the unaccounted figures. MV Foundation is an organisation rehabilitating these children and puts them in school. On an average MV Foundation spends Rs. 2,500 (US$ 40) on each child per month to restore their childhood, ensure proper education and instil values of life. I request you to help the organisation in anyway you can and by spreading the word. Thank you. For more information please visit http://mvfindia.in/

Note 2: For those who can read Telugu- here is a link to Neeti Chandrika. http://www.andhrabharati.com/strI_bAla/index.html

Creating Strong Leadership for India

Why can't all the honest leaders contest as independents and win the election without affiliating with any political parties? If they do then no one had to worry about high/low command nonsense and pick the most deserving leader who did some real 'praja seva'/service. Pool in all such winning leaders and assign portfolios based on their vision for a better state. What is wrong with that? Why can't we do that? 

Here are my thoughts:

1. Party Vs Individual:  Let the work speak for the person. I am sure we have people who worked for the society without being affiliated to any political party or a group. Medha Patkar is known for her work. Not for her affiliation to any particular group. Now she is contesting as AAP ticket, but if I was living in the same constituency I would vote for her irrespective of her affiliation. Same goes with P. Palagummi Sainath, Vandana Shiva, Dr. Rao Chelikani and the like. I prefer to stay an optimist hoping that it might work now as people are more open to it. Parties are okay in certain case, but individual work and commitment should not be sidelined in the name of political party.
2. Commonality: I understand that national leaders need a commonality for policy making and implementation. Having said that, we all are different in our own way with our own strengths and weaknesses. I shared this post on my FB wall last week and had 10+ people responding to this post. Some are skeptical, some are optimistic, some are non-committal etc. But the *common thing” with all my friends who responded this post (I am glad that they did) is we all want to have a strong leadership in India armed with vision, honesty and integrity. I am happy to note that. Now, on the same lines, when I am asking for honest people to contest as independents and we elect them based on their merits and service that they already did for the community (even in their own little pockets) have that commonality you are talking about. They want to do something good for the society. They are already fixing things. Armed with a position in the government they do a better job than the selfish and corrupt politicians.
3. Unity in diversity: If the common ideal is to serve the nation, I am sure these individual leaders will develop a better camaraderie among the others who are elected on the same basis. I am sure leadership among them will not be driven by selfish motives. I have faith that initially there might be differences, but eventually all those will smoothen out as they have a common goal and pick a leader among themselves. I do not still think they all should belong to a common party. They should be driven by a common goal of serving the nation. Yes, in policy making they might differ in several ways at times encounter delays and discussions. But I am sure you will agree with me that a difference of opinion among rational thinking intellectuals towards building a better nation is far better than a bunch of elected representatives who are bound by party ideologies and agree upon a point in the name of leadership and selfish goals. I think the former is less evil. The latter - we are all witnessing it right now. 
4. The Need & Necessity: I also notice that the political clan we see today (not just in India) is totally disconnected with ground realities of the nation. I am exposed to such ground realities while working with MV Foundation. As I read the children's case studies and try to reason out why they were put to work at such young age and now when they are in school what these kids aspire to be when they grow into adults, I noticed some basic things. I might sound dramatic but I am sure you will agree with me - (It is not them or us - but this is common to all human beings) - Food, water, shelter, clothing, education and work. These I am sure all of us will agree are the most important things for survival - atleast the first 3 of them, irrespective of class and inequalities. Now the problem arises when  the leaders ignore these basic necessities of survival and focus on hollow developmental aspects where the main problems of food, water and shelter still exists. Once you have them ironed out, ensure that the nation is free of these problems, and parallelly develop on education which eventually leads to work we are already building a better nation. 
5. Leadership:  Leadership is not just about bringing everyone to agreement on the issue to benefit a few in the society or empowering a certain class of people. It is about empowering everyone to live with self-respect earning their daily bread. A true leader does not want followers all the time. Trust me that can be quite claustrophobic. Leadership according to me is bringing people to an agreement or close to agreeing to a common goal that will benefit the country on the whole, without any bias towards any segment of the society.

So choosing someone with these common ideologies and bring them together as a team will benefit our nation or any nation as they are driven by common ideology. They are already serving the nation, given them the authority, they will do a good job as elected representatives. I am quoting an example - Medha Patkar is an ideal example. I have inherent faith in her that she will not leave any stone unturned if natural resources in India are exploited. She needs to be given the right portfolio if elected and she will figure out a way to set things right in her area of expertise. And rest of the rational thinking leaders will understand, support and even respect her decision as it in the nation’s interest. Yes there will be difference of opinions and some delays, but don’t you think it is better to have a heated argument for a good cause than bulldozing opinionated arguments for selfish reasons?

Having said that, I am not against honest intellectual visionaries contesting elections by joining a political party. You might very well question my intention of talking about Medha Patkar who is contesting Loksabha elections on AAP ticket. Let me explain, as I said their work and commitment towards serving the nation and its people speak louder.  If these kind of leaders take charge of the country, I believe they are driven by a cause - something that is not self-centred (Thank God) So, Medha Patkar joining AAP or contesting as independent or through any other party doesn't make a difference as long as we voters know that she is the right choice and she knows what she needs to do with the responsibility bestowed on to her if she wins the election. That can never go wrong even if she belongs to a particular party. I am counting on that. That is HOPE.

Political parties can exist- but the ideologies of these parties revolved around selfish motives as we are seeing now. So essentially the voters should look at the candidates bio and the work they did in the past for the community and cast their precious vote. I admire the way AAP selects the candidates - So far I haven't seen any political party in India selecting the candidates based on the work they did outside the party's purview. I earlier was having doubts about Aam Aadmi Party Andhra Pradesh too, but my doubts were cleared after I saw the AP committee members. Each person in the committee has spent over 10-15 yrs in social work delivering results. Now that gives me immense faith and hope that these guys who already did what they had to do as leaders and now a part of a political party will definitely deliver. I am not against political party. Also, such honest intellectual visionaries won't join a shady political party which is tainted with scams. That's a relief. Leadership emerges... Don't you think so?

Suggested Exercise:

1. List out all candidates who are contesting polls in your constituency
2. Assess their qualifications in terms of social work, earlier responsibilities they have shouldered, positions held to gauge their leadership qualities, personal assets, professional qualifications, etc, - all merits and de-merits should be listed. I am counting that intellectual and socially responsible individuals to do this  without any personal bias.
3. Pick the top 5 most deserving candidates using your own judgement. Share this info in your blogs, local media and educate voters on the candidates’ background. You won’t be promoting these candidates or asking people to vote, but rather sharing results of your own assessment with outside world so they can choose the leader.
4. Adding credibility to your analysis: Invite these candidates for a debate to test them publicly in a community forum. – Facilitate them to interact with public through Google hangouts or  through main stream media or both to ensure that you picked the right guys. Remember you may be wrong at times, so, it will be a good exercise to know if we are on the right track.
5. My perception - The most deserving candidates will have  focus on the 70%* of their voters who live below the poverty line. How these candidates can help in uplifting the poor and provide the basic necessities like clean water, food, shelter, education, work etc. 

*Yes, 70% of Indian population is below poverty line – you can flush the Planning Commission report – I have numbers to prove this.

I understand this is process-oriented activity, so, probably you need to choose a team who is rational and willing to work without any personal benefits which I believe most of the patriots are willing to spend time & resources on this.  And please do share the outcome of your exercise with others so we all can improve. I am hoping this might work. 

Dilemma of ‘doing things right’ or ‘doing the right things’…

6-Feb 2014

I am faced with this question and almost collapsed under pressure when all the doors seemed to close, no ray of hope left. I may sound very dejected, but yes I am. It is not just me a couple of other ladies who got involved in this feel the same way when we tried to figure out a if we were doing the right thing or not.

A destitute widowed woman-Sarita with two lovely children, boy-Krishna aged about 9 and a little girl-Neha aged about 4 or 5 yrs old visit Ramakrishna math daily for lunch served as a part of the ‘anna daanam’ program. That is the only decent meal the family gets to eat. Their son Krishna is a drop-out from local government school and the little Neha is cute like a button, all live on the footpath near a temple near Tankbund road in Hyderabad. Sarita is an alcoholic, suffers with occasional seizures and comes to Vivekananda Health Clinic to get treatment. The doctors there tried counseling her about the alcohol abuse, but in vain.

The same doctors along with the hospital administrator visited MV Foundation hostel last week to examine the kids. Upon seeing the hostel facilities at MVF and looking at the way children are raised and educated, they again counseled this woman and this time managed to convince her to get the kids enrolled in residential schools so she can find some work for herself and take care of herself.

A senior volunteer from MV Foundation, Kausalya and I were assigned the task. As MVF did not have a boys hostel, we enrolled Krishna at Aman Vedika Residential School which is for boys and showed a shelter for women where Sarita can stay during nights safely and work during day time. As the women’s shelter too belonged to Aman Foundation and is close to the boys school, it was a bit of relief.

The problem arised, when we tried to find a girl’s hostel for little Neha who is barely five. As per Indian government’s Right to Education  (RTE) Act, only kids aged between 6-14 yrs can get complete residential facility and free education. Even to put Neha in a government residential school we have to wait for another year. Any kid below 8 yrs is not admitted in schools run by the NGOs as these kids need special care and the rules do not permit them to give admissions. We tried Aman Vedika and MVF hostel for girls, but if they risk of over-riding the rules the NGOs lose their license altogether by the state government committees.  Even if they choose to relax the rules as a special case, over 100 other kids stand losing their home at these NGO operated residential schools.  We requested the hostel authorities to keep Sarita and Neha for one night at MVF hostel in Chandrayanagutta  as we couldn’t leave them on the streets.

Next day after calling Child Line 1098, Shishu Vihar was suggested to our relief. But Shishu Vihar wouldn’t take Neha unless the mother relinquishes her total rights as a mother over the child and put her for adoption. This was a shocker for the mother and all of us.

Shishu Vihar gave us 2 options 1) Relinquish the rights and put the baby for adoption and never see the child again 2) Stay at the Mother-child state home in the same premises by working and staying with her child. Option 2 made sense, but we could not convince Sarita as she was sure that Shishu Vihar will get her child one day and took off from there without paying heed to anyone’s requests.

We finally managed to bring her back to Vivekananda Health centre doctors to make her see things clearly. But again faced a brick wall as none of the doctors or the hospital administrator could convince her to go to the Aman vedika shelter or Shishu Vihar’s mother-child shelter. Sarita chose to go back to streets and continue doing petty jobs and being an alcoholic. Earlier Krishna, her son of 9 yrs used to bring her to the health centre and take care of things as much as he could, but now Krishna staying in a residential school cum hostel, Sarita and Neha are left alone on the streets. We left all our numbers to contact in case if Sarita chooses to change her mind about rehabilitation and going to work but the chances of receiving a call from Sarita seemed bleak after 2 days.

It has been 2 days since we did not hear from Sarita. The dilemma we are facing is we think we did the right thing putting Krishna in a hostel  and is well-adjusted now. But at the same time left Sarita and little Neha back on streets because of some crazy rules we wouldn’t bend. Had there been a hostel for Neha (without the scare of adoption) Sarita is willing to leave her daughter and still have visiting rights while getting some work for herself. Sarita too realized that she needs to quit drinking and get sober to take care of herself. Added to that she even confessed to our horror that she was physically abused a couple of times while living on the streets.

We tried almost all the NGOs we knew, but no one would take both mother and child. No one is willing to employ the mother unless she quits drinking. Until then, we are unable to get them off the streets.  Sending the boy to school seemed like a right thing to do, but with the current scenario, it doesn’t sound right.

The main problem here is the will to get rehabilitated is not clear from Sarita’s side and she wouldn’t let the little girl go either. One of the doctors thought it was more practical to give up the child for adoption, but even that doesn’t sound entirely right to us. More important than getting clarity on our dilemma, we are concerned about how to get this woman and child off the streets now. According to Sarita, money is not a problem as makes about Rs.200 a day sitting by the show stand near the temple. On a Sunday she makes atleast Rs.500-600, but religiously spends Rs. 120 a day on buying liquor. The real problem is Sarita prefers to stay on streets even now. We don’t even know what is the right thing to do in this case.

Note: Names are changed to protect the identities of the family. 

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7-Feb 2014

It was a team effort. This morning I was given instructions not to interact with her for a few days by our Senior volunteer Kausalya garu. Kausalya garu will be counselling her next week. As of now I was asked to stay away from this case for a few days. I understand that it is in the best interest for now. I believe we will find a right solution soon. 

8-Feb 2014

The whole idea of implementing Right to Education is to keep children off the streets. There must be a way. I narrated the event to Mr. Venkat Reddy garu who is the National Convenor for MV Foundation.  'For every problem there are more than 2 solutions' he reiterated what I heard as a child. He promptly called back with details of an NGO specialised taking care of younger children without the fear of adoption.  Venkat Reddy garu was on an official trip to Warangal yet he did not delay in finding the right solution. I received a call from him at 7 PM and another call from Kousalya garu our Sr. volunteer who was handling the case which was very reassuring. The plan was to meet Kousalya garu at 7 AM and talk to Sarita and take Neha to the new residential school.

9-Feb 2014, 7.00 AM

Where there is a will, there is a way, but looks like it is more easy to say that than implement it. When we approached Sarita with the new school proposition, she refused to go. Today being a Sunday, Sarita did not want to leave her Rs.500-600 income and go with us to school. But she promised to go tomorrow. I hope things will fall in place tomorrow. 

10-Feb 2014 11.28 AM final update

Today Kausalya garu met Sarita and Neha at 9 AM and took both of them to Aasrita Rainbow Home for children where Neha secured admission as residential student. Mother is happy that both her children are now admitted in residential schools so she is keen in getting rehabilitated. Next task-Dr. Jyothi is working on her rehabilitation

I learnt a lesson from this experience, - Doing things right and yes the right way. I extend my heart felt thanks to all my friends Satyam Mandapati gau, Sesi Ponnala, Saratchandra Mandapati garu, Phanisri Kuchibhotla garu, Vishnuvardhan Nandam garu, Eranki Baladitya garu, Yerra Kanakaraju garu, Susmita Vavilala garu and my husband Shiva Kondapalli and all my friends who were silently wishing us to do the best and spiritually guiding us to do the right thing.  Thank you all.