Hum 2 hamare 23 - and we talk of betterlife to kids !!

As per a news item in TOI, A 40-year-old woman in Mewat district of Haryana gave birth to her 23rd child on Sunday. The baby was born to Bismillah (40) and Mohammad Ishaq (50) at the nearby Al-Afia Government Hospital in the district. The couple were married in 1976 and since then, Bismillah has given birth to 23 children, the latest addition being a female child who was born on Sunday and named Shabira.t The man, the machine and the family that does not believe in family planning.

God’s gifts

Speaking to MiD DAY, a happy and delighted father, Mohammad Ishaq said, “Yeh though sab Allah ki den hai, agar hamara chaubiswa baccha agle sal hua though woh bhi hum Allah ki den samjhenge. (All this is Allah’s gift. If we get a 24th child next year, we will welcome it too)”

Too many to recall

However, when MiD DAY asked him the names of his children, Ishaq had to take help from his son and neighbors.

“I find it very difficult to remember their names as they all look the same,” he said.

Ishaq, builds thatched roofs in nearby villages and ferries goods for shops in the vicinity for a living.

Hoping for support

Bismillah the mother of 23 children, hopes that her children will take care of her. “I feed my children chicken, mutton and chivda, with my daughters helping me in the cooking,” she says.

It is good for Indian society that there are not many such couples. They should be asked to how they are going to raise these 23 kids and those who are likely to come in future, and ensure that their children do not become laibility on the society.

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Does anybody worry about kids?

Do people really worry about kids except their own? You ask me or anybody else, the answer will be a big NO. You ask politicians about kids’ safety, their empowerment; every politicians will give a big lecture and will project him/herself as a godfather of all kids. You ask school management, all of them will claim that they give topmost priority to kids’ safety. Yet buses carrying children to school meet with accidents.

A speeding minibus carrying schoolchildren overturned in east Delhi’s Preet Vihar on Monday morning, killing a parent and seriously injuring several of the students and a teacher. Some children suffered serious injuries on their faces and the condition of two girls was critical, doctors treating them at various city hospitals said. The police said the private minibus was carrying 25 children — apart from the teacher and parent — which was more than its capacity.

The Supreme Court (SC) had prescribed elaborate guidelines to minimize the risk that school children ran while travelling in private buses hired by schools to ferry them. The guidelines were meant for school buses all over the country. In the Capital, the Delhi Traffic Police started enforcing the guidelines from 2004.

But the exhaustive guidelines are observed more in the breach as the police lack the wherewithal to enforce them, keeping in view the 5,000-odd school buses that ply to pick up children from all parts of Delhi. Bus drivers are always in a hurry as they, after dropping the kids to school, have to pick up office-goers and take them to their destinations well before the strict in-time enforced by offices through swipe cards.

As for the drivers, the apex court had said that only those having five years' heavy vehicle driving experience would be eligible to ferry school children. A school bus driver would automatically be pulled out of the duty chart if he was booked twice for traffic related offences. It had fixed 40 kmph as the speed limit for school buses.

Apart from that, the SC had directed a series of preventive measures: first-aid box in the bus, doors to be fitted with proper locks, fire extinguisher, horizontal parallel grills on windows, school bag tray under the seat and provision for water. In addition, the court had made it mandatory for a supervisor, to be deputed by the school, to accompany the children — both while picking them for school and while dropping them back at home.

The guidelines, though welcomed by schools, are being observed in breach. While hiring chartered buses for ferrying students, school management should exercise control over the staff of the private buses through the contract. But they don’t do it. Rather schools look at it yet another way of making money.

Are Delhi CM and her Education Minister worried? Are PM and his HRD Minister worried? Is Delhi LG worried? Are Delhi Police worried? Are people of Delhi worried? It does not seem so. Accidents keep happening but they do not take any action. What betterlife they will give to the kids when buses are taking away their lives and they are simply looking like Bhishma and Dronacharya?

To know about SC guidelines click on

SC Guidelines

Exercise Your Right To Information

Triveni is a poor woman. She lives in a slum in East Delhi. She holds an Antyodaya card issued by the government to the poorest of the poor. However, it isn't easy to get ration from a ration shop. She didn't receive any grains for the last six months. Whenever she would go to the shop, the shop would either be closed or the shopkeeper would say that there was no stock. In February 2003, Triveni filed an application under the Right to Information Act asking for the quantity of ration issued to her as per records and also copies of cash memos purported to have been issued to her. Before she could take any action, the shopkeeper came to her house and pleaded with her not to take any action and that he would mend his ways in future. Since then, Triveni is getting right amount of ration at the right price. - www.parivartan.com

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SUCCESS OF RAILWAY MINISTER AT WHOSE COST?

This is the title of a blog post by vnraja on his blog - "Can we really build a disciplined Society?" on ibibo.blogs.com. Raja has logically analyzed the claim about so called success of the Railway Minister in transforming the Railways into a profitable organization and has concluded that it has happened at the cost of common men. Read the post:

"Much was talked about the so called success of the Railway Minister in transforming the Railways into a profitable organisation. He was also appreciated for doing this overnight. But none of the persons who appreciate the Minister seems to analyse how this can be done without affecting the common man.

As a common man and with the constraint of limited availability of information I wish to challenge everyone who advocates the theory that the present Railway Minister has made the Railways into a profitable organisation overnight without affecting the common man.

All those who talk about the Railways running in
profit all of a sudden should know that this is only at the cost of common man. The Railway Minister has burdened the common man on many accounts. Take for example the charging of Rs.10/- extra if you book a ticket for a travel not originating from the booking place.

This is in addition to the normal Reservation charges. This itself can generate so much of revenue as for long distance travel you ought to book a ticket for another train not crossing your ticket booking place. Don't think that the previous Railway Ministers were not capable of doing this. They wanted to extend the benefit of computerisation to the common man free of cost. During the time of introduction of Computerisation and subsequent linking of entire Indian Railways into a single system huge amount was spent by the railways. Even at these times the railways preferred to borne the entire cost itself. They avoided charging the common man which the Present Railway Minister is happily doing. While the entire infrastructure for this was established during previous regimes the present Railway Minister is harvesting the benefit!

Take another example to know how the present Railway Minister is not caring for the common man. This is my personal experience. I wanted to book two berths from Hosur to Mayiladuthurai in the Mysore - Mayiladuthurai Express. Hosur is an in between station in the Mysore -Mayiladuthurai route. Tickets were not available from Hosur to Mayiladuthurai and the waiting list was somewhere around 100 in the sleeper class general quota. But around 250 berths were freely available from Mysore to Mayiladuthurai in the same train for the same date in the same class in the general quota. So I asked for two tickets from Mysore to Mayiladuthurai with a request for boarding at Hosur as I was ready to pay the ticket fare from Mysore even though I am going to board the train at Hosur only. But the Reservation clerk said tickets like this can not be given. I was astonished by his reply. I wondered why such tickets can not be given. Boarding a train at an in between station is a facility enjoyed by us for many years - if the boarding point is mentioned at the time of booking the ticket.

By doing this what the railway minister says. You can not board the train at Hosur even though it stops at that station. You catch a bus, train or any mode, go all the way to Mysore, board the train there and travel to Mayiladuthurai crossing the HOSUR station. Otherwise book a TATKAL ticket with a boarding request at Hosur and board the train at Hosur.

Are you now able to realise why the Railways is earning huge profits? It is a cruel way of selling TATKAL tickets to generate revenue for the railways. Kindly study this case carefully. There are around 250 berths vacant in the train. These vacant berths were only in General Quota and not in TATKAL quota. You are given only a waitlisted ticket from the in between station. You are not given a ticket from the originating station with a request to board the train in an in between station. But you can buy a TATKAL ticket from the originating station with a request to board the train in an in between station by paying additional TATKAL charges. By this you are forced to buy TATKAL ticket from the originating station even though general quota tickets are freely available. What a shame that a Government owned Organisation is cheating people like this.

This is only a tip of the iceberg. I came to know of this only due to my personal experience. These things are silently done. The passengers may not be aware that they are denied tickets while a large number of berths are vacant in the train. There may be numerous other silent instructions from the Railways to maximise revenue.

There was another attempt to generate revenue which was withdrawn subsequently. The telescopic rate benefit was withdrawn for a brief period. If you want to travel for a long distance, reservation will be done only up to the place to which the particular train goes. If you have to board another train in your travel plan you have to buy a fresh ticket and a through ticket will not be given to you from your origin of travel. This will deny the passenger the benefit of telescopic rate which was enjoyed for many years. Likewise the increase in platform ticket price was also withdrawn immediately. Were these withdrawals due to public pressure or due to fear of negative image is not known.

Do you still think that the Railway has increased profit without affecting you common man!"

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What CRY says -

"In India, millions of children do not go to school due to the lack of a secure livelihood for their families or simply, a lack of teachers, classrooms or toilets.

It is because of this reality that CRY - Child Rights and You exists today - to amplify the voice of children. We believe that children are citizens in their own right, entitled to the full spectrum of human rights.

At CRY, we do not believe in charity. Nor do we run schools, orphanages or dispensaries. Instead we partner grassroots-level NGOs working with children, their parents and communities. 28 years of working with and for children have taught us that resources have little to do with it. In over 2500 villages and slums across 18 States, we have witnessed transformational change happening. All it takes is communities becoming aware of their rights and coming together to ensure them. Not just by enrolling children in schools but by addressing the root causes that keep them hungry, illiterate, exploited and abused. Causes like gender, caste, livelihoods and displacement."

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