Back after a long time

FROM Ayyangar's Blog

Traffic Management

It has become a fashion to talk about making a city Singapore by our politician and city mayors.Let the talks of Magic Boxes , flyovers, elevated roads, Metro, mono/tube rails be kept aside for a moment and concentrate on the following points which are not of long term nature and can be implemented with a minimum outlay of funds RIGHT NOW FROM TOMORROW ITSELF if the authorities concerned local body & Traffic Police are serious about bringing about a change.

1. Remove or shift all the bus stops and auto stands which are situated immediately after a turning or circle. These are main hindrance in free flow of traffic. Penalise those bus drivers and auto drivers who stop the buses/autos at these turnings and bus stops.

2. Distance between two bus stops should not be less than half a kilometer. At present, there are many bus stops which are less than 100 meters apart and buses are not able to pick up speed.

3. Make footpaths free of hawkers. Stone slab footpaths are uneven. They should be properly plastered to have an even surface.

4. Public or for that matter any body including government agencies like water board, Telecom,Electricity board, cable operators who dig the road or footpath must be made accountable to restore them back to original failing which heavy penalty should be imposed.

5. Slow moving vehicles like bullock cart, hand driven carts, three wheeler rickshaws, Tonga, etc should not be allowed within the city limits during peak hours.

6. Any body driving two wheelers on the footpath to go ahead in a traffic jam situation must be penalised or his/her vehicles should be impounded.

7. At railway crossings, there is a common tendency by two as well as four wheelers to block the right side of the road in order to go ahead as soon as the train passes. This practice results in blockage of traffic on both sides of the crossing. Public who are also well educated should understand this.

8. Potholes on any road should be immediately filled up as soon as information is received. Road inspectors should be made accountable for not attending to any pothole.

9. Superior quality paint should be used for zebra crossing and other road humps as the paints used at present become faint or invisible after a weeks time.

10. Glow signs should be put up at the starting of all road dividers.

11. Traffic police should stop ignoring those who are driving talking over cell phones while driving.

Child Labour in the silk industry

Hundreds and thousands of children are toiling as bonded labor in India’s silk industry and the government is not able to do anything to protect their rights. Those children who are working in India’s silk industry are virtually slaves.

Human rights organizations are calling on India to free these children from bonded labor and rehabilitate them. The children are bound to work for their employers in exchange of the loan taken by their parents or families, and are unable to leave because of the debt. They are also paid very paltry sum for their labour. Most of these children are Dalits. Dalits are called untouchables and belong to the lowest level in the hierarchy of the Indian caste system.
Contrary to the Indian governments claim bonded children are very conspicuous In India everywhere. Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu form the core of India’s silk and sari industry. Bonded children as young as five work for more them twelve hours a day in the silk industry, at different levels of production. They toil for nearly seven days a week, breathing smoky fumes from the silk making machinery. These children squat near cramped looms to help and assist workers in dim and damp rooms. They are required to dip their little hands in boiling hot water that causes blisters and handle dead worms which breed infections. Twisting thread which injure their fingers is also a part of the silk making process. Their attempts to attend school are met with protest and physical violence by their employers. Their adulthood is impoverished, illiterate and damaged by the weight of their childhood.

The southern state of Karnataka is a major silk producing state in India. It is the major producer of Indian silk thread. The production depends completely on the labor of bonded children under the age of fourteen. Most of the bonded children are either Muslims or Dalits. Children as young as nine years are tied and beaten with belts if they don’t do they work properly by the supervisors and owners in these industries.

Bonded children are less common in the carpet Industry in Uttar Pradesh compared to the silk industry. Child labor laws have been better imposed in the carpet industry due to strong pressure from domestic and international activists

FRANSICCA'S BLOG

http://sachlicheromanze.blogspot.com/2009/09/kindergarten-2.html

causes of child labour

Some common causes of child labor are poverty, parental illiteracy, social apathy, ignorance, lack of education and exposure, exploitation of cheap and unorganized labor. The family practice to inculcate traditional skills in children also pulls little ones inexorably in the trap of child labor, as they never get the opportunity to learn anything else.
Absence of compulsory education at the primary level, parental ignorance regarding the bad effects of child labor, the ineffictivity of child labor laws in terms of implementation, non availability and non accessibility of schools, boring and unpractical school curriculum and cheap child labor are some other factors which encourages the phenomenon of child labor. It is also very difficult for immature minds and undeveloped bodies to understand and organize them selves against exploitation in the absence of adult guidance.

Child labor in India is a human right issue for the whole world. It is a serious and extensive problem, with many children under the age of fourteen working in carpet making factories, glass blowing units and making fireworks with bare little hands. According to the statistics given by Indian government there are 20 million child laborers in the country, while other agencies claim that it is 50 million.
The situation of child laborers in India is desperate. Children work for eight hours at a stretch with only a small break for meals. The meals are also frugal and the children are ill nourished. Most of the migrant children who cannot go home, sleep at their work place, which is very bad for their health and development. Seventy five percent of Indian population still resides in rural areas and are very poor. Children in rural families who are ailing with poverty perceive their children as an income generating resource to supplement the family income. Parents sacrifice their children’s education to the growing needs of their younger siblings in such families and view them as wage earners for the entire clan.

DIWALI 2009

The day started with celebrations with firecrackers at dawn after puja.
Diwali is one of the seven most important festivals that we celebrate at the school . Diwali festival is very popular among the children for the joy of bursting fire crakers and the sweets they get to eat.Srinath visited the school with his family and distributed sweets.Our main celebrations began by 4.30p.m. Nithesh and Vandhana Rohra visited us with baby Parnika with lots of home made chocolates and crackers.The evening of Diwali was a colourful sight to watch the evening sky.

With the generous contributions made by our friends Dharma Dhenu Prabhu,Sanjay Bajaj,Shri R.N.Sasuvehalli,and Baby Lakshmi S.Ayyer ,Ms.Vedavathi S.Rao,the festival of lights ended happily.

lets do something

Our children are our only hope for the future, but we are their only hope for their present and their future. Zig Ziglar
Public should be made aware of the dire consequences of employing children aged below 14 years for work.Education is an essential part in the life of a child, he said adding that illiteracy among children will increase the unemployment problem. “Parents who snatch the right of education from their kids and forcibly push them into the deadlock of child labour should be treated as enemies of children.A total of 8.7 per cent of the child labourers in the nation belong to Karnataka, i.e.9.76 lakh child labourers in the State in 1991.