Did U Know???

Facts Of India

* Indian families living in one-room-houses: 40 %

* number of places of worship (temple, mosque, church etc): 2.4 million (more than schools, colleges and hospitals combined)

* Illegal immigrants from Bangladesh: over 15 million

* Year in which Himalayan glacier Gangotri will disappear: 2050, if glacier

melt continues at same rate.

* People living on less than 1 Euro per day (50-55 Rs) 2004: about 30 % of population

* Number of people in India living on less than 50 pence per day: about 300 million

* Bottles of beer sold in financial year 2002-2003: 27.5 million

* Haryana cost of girl (human trafficking): 4000 Rupees

Every hour, 4 women in India enter prostitution.

There are estimated to be over 9,00,000 sex workers in India. 30% are believed to be children. Recent reports estimate that the number of children involved in prostitution is increasing at 8 to10% per annum.
About 15% of the prostitutes in Mumbai, Delhi, Madras, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Bangalore are children. It is estimated that 30%of the prostitutes in these six cities are under 20 years of age. Nearly half of them became commercial sex workers when they were minors. Conservative estimates state that around 3,00,000 children in India are suffering commercial sexual abuse, which includes working in pornography.Of 1,000 red light districts all over India, cage prostitutes are mostly minors. The red light district in Bombay generates at least $400 million a year in revenue, with 100,000 prostitutes servicing men 365 days a year, averaging 6 customers a day, at $2 each. Recently a report nominated India as "Asia’s largest sex industry center"
Let me share a story with u, which I read few days back, "Mira, a13-year-old of Nepal was offered a job as a domestic worker in Mumbai. Instead she arrived at a brothel on Mumbai's Falkland Road, where tens of thousands of young women are displayed in row after row of zoo-like animal cages. Her father had been duped into giving her to a trafficker. When she refused to have sex, she was dragged into a torture chamber in a dark alley used for 'breaking-in' new girls. She was locked in a narrow, windowless room without food or water. On the fourth day, one of the madam's goondas wrestled her to the floor and banged her head against the concrete until she passed out. When she awoke, she was naked; a "rattan" cane smeared with pureed red chilli peppers shoved into her vagina. Later she was raped by the goonda. Afterward, she complied with their demands. The madam told Mira that she had been sold to the brothel for 50,000 rupees (about US$ 1,700), that she had to work until she paid off her debt. Mira was sold to a client who became her pimp.'
ROOTS: The problem of child prostitution in India is more complicated than in other Third World countries where it is directly related to sex tourism. In India, sexual exploitation of children has its roots in traditional practices, beliefs and gender discrimination. According to some research, child prostitution is socially acceptable in some sections of Indian society through the practice of Devdasi. Young girls are given to the 'gods' and they become a religious prostitute. There are believed to be around 3,300 devdasis in Belguam area alone. Devdasi is banned by the Prohibition of Dedication Act of 1982. Parents or guardians dedicating their girls are liable to five years in jail and a Rs 5,000 fine.
AGE: According to a madam in Kamatipura, the average age of girls supplied to the brothels in the last two years has decreased from 14 and 16 years to 10 and 14 years. A girl between 10 and 12 years fetches the highest price.
AIDS: The fear of HIV/AIDS has increased the demand for virgins and children. Clients mistakenly believe that children have fewer chances of contracting the disease. Similarly there is the myth that a man can rid himself of sexually transmitted diseases if he sleeps with a virgin. Recent Indian Government statistics put the number of people infected with HIV at 3.5million, indicating approximately three out of every 100 Indians are now infected with the virus which leads to AIDS. Almost 9 out of 10 of those people are below 45 years old.

“Where religion ends, God starts”

Some time before I saw a quote written “Where religion ends, God starts”………and it seemed very much true. If you go back to history it is seem that the greatest atrocities in this planet has been in the name of God. There have been more than a million wars over the last 100,000 years and practically all of them were directly or indirectly the result of religion.
Strangely, religion and war are not strange bedfellows and if you count up the people who have died in religious conflicts you would have a very big number and the counter would still be spinning. So what is going on? Both religion and war seek to change minds, and when preaching fails war may be seen as a legitimate alternative. This seems a rather bizarre approach in the false belief that coercion will lead to ideological conversion (you will believe this or I will hit you!). In practice, the conflict is far more human.

Religion can never reform mankind because religion is a kind of slavery. It support blind submission to authority , it reduces human responsibility to the fact that God controls everything and in turn awful crime can be justified in the name of divine pursuit and most importantly it empower those who knows the truth but use the myth to manipulate and control the society. Religious myth is the most powerful device ever created and serves as the psychological soil upon which other myth flourish. Crusades, Jihad are all such example where thousands of people died or still dying but because of only a religious identity.

Is it always necessary to have a religious identity, aren’t our identity is not enough when we say we are human and our religion is humanity. Religions today no longer serve the purpose for which they came into existence. The very basic theme of each religion was to teach, how to love each other and bring us closer to ourselves and to God. Today the opposite is happening. Religions are not uniting but dividing us. Forget the differences from religion to religion; each now has so many divisions. The biggest problem Religions are bringing in is Fundamentalism and in-tolerance, giving birth to Fanatics, who are ready to destroy our freedom, just in the name of religion.

It is about time, to rectify our vision, rectify our way of life, and mould them to what the various religions originally desired. Humanity is the religion which all religions preach, so why not follow it as such. I wonder why people are clashing and sacrificing their much worth lives in the name of god's (ie, to prove the superiority of their religion, race or whatever).According to me religion is the other name of humanity. Religions were created to spread humanity. If there would have been only one religion in the name humanity a lot fighting and bloodshed would have been prevented from this world. Going back in time and changing the way religions have originated is impossible, but showing respect towards other religions and following humanity is still possible.

“Follow Humanity and make the world a better place to live.”

Slumdogs Vs Millionaires

Slumdog Millionaire is one more example of India’s undeniable brilliance and extraordinary talent that the world is increasingly saying 'Jai Ho'.
One can rightly appreciate the wonderfully inspiring story of a poor boy who overcomes all odds to make a million.
But the supreme irony is that ‘slumdogs’ and ‘millionaires’ still continue to coexist in the world’s largest democracy— in uncomfortably large numbers - even 62 years after independence.
It’s a pity that even today we are struggling to ensure basic rights to the children.
Their right to education, nutrition, health, shelter and protection — stands threatened and undermined.

India is a country of contrast! The country has 53 Billionaires, fourth highest in the world. But the same country has 3 million children living on the streets. Among the world’s 10 richest persons, four are Indians. On the other side, 17 million Indian children work as labourers. India’s economy is galloping around 7 % GDP growth. But also, 2 million children die before their first birthday due to lack of immunization and medical facilities! The statement "Children are the future of the nation" stops making sense, then! In fact, it sounds like an ominous prophecy.

Once I found stack on a debate,where I just need to stand and listen them. A person who had worked as a Jari worker in his childhood spoke. He talked about how he was forced to take up a job after his father fell ill. He had to work continuously for 14 hours every day. His two fingers are still deformed due to this. He talked about how they were beaten when they made even small mistakes. The other person asked him, “If it is a choice between starvation and work, isn’t it better to opt for the latter”. He said, “All I can say is that childhood happens only once in a person’s life. If that is spent in these conditions how would his adulthood be? Please give me a chance to live. This can’t be called a life.”. Then my friend asked him, “The government schools are bad and they don’t equip people for livelihood. Is it fair to force them to go school when they cannot support themselves at the end of it”. He said, “Don’t keep blaming the government. Aren’t you all the people who elect them? It is your responsibility too”. Then he again asked him, “What if your circumstances are so bad that you cannot survive without sending your children to work”. He said, “if my circumstances were that bad, I will choose not have children”
This was the turning point of the debate. After this, no one of us could give any palatable excuse for child labor. Even I am in no doubt now. “We do not have enough moral indignation to bring it to a stop. There was a village, I don't know where, there the entire village decided that even a single child of the village would not work. It is because everyone realized that it was inexcusable.”

If we the common people desired changes in the lives of such children will come only when more and more privileged people with a desire to bring changes start participating proactively in finding solutions for these children.

You are born creative or non-creative?

Many of us firmly convinced that people are born creative or non-creative, but only a few of us can create the in different way. Leonardo da Vince, William Shakespeare, Rabindranath Tagore, etc. all of them used their creative gifts wisely, for the people, for the society. They had the power to use their imagination properly and productively.
Infact, all of us are creative. We have a creative mechanism working for us that steers us towards success. Everyday performance was registered in the mental tape recorder for future use. This, in a mild sense, is a creative effort.We all can also create like them because we all have imagination. We use it daily without realizing it.
Lets take a simple example, when we are worry, we use imagination in a negative way to create something that doesn't exist because we fear that we will lose it. On the other hand, when we are happy we use our imagination constructively and try to achieve pleasure from it.
We are all made up of failure and successes, and to think creatively we must rise above mistakes of the past and use the self-confidence from past success in our present undertaking.

Lets celebrate a Eco-Friendly DEEPAWALI............

Diwali is the one festival in India which is celebrated by all irrespective of caste, creed and religion. Diwali is celebrated to acknowledge the victory of good over evil. And the lighting of earthen lamps or diyas on a moonless night signifies a new beginning of enlightenment and the end of darkness of ignorance.
Earlier Diwali celebration meant house cleaning and decoration, performing traditional Lakshmi pooja, lightening of diyas in the evening and family get-together. But with the changing time the style of celebrating Diwali has also changed drastically. Now Diwali celebrations mean electric illumination and bursting noisy fire crackers. This change in the celebration style has imposed many negative effects on the environment; some of the effects are listed below:

* Excessive air pollution
* Excessive noise pollution
* Soil pollution
* Excessive power consumption
* Consumerism (excess consumption means excess use of raw material)

Besides these environmental effects the modern style of celebrating Diwali also leads to various health hazards. Some of the major health hazards are:

* Hearing loss
* High blood pressure
* Sleeping disturbances
* Asthma
* Headache
* Irritability
* Skin allergies
* Fatigue
* Eye related problems
* Respiratory problems

Listing the various environmental and health hazards caused due to present form of Diwali celebration doesn’t means to stop celebrating the festival. But definitely the way of celebrating this auspicious festival can be changed.

* Instead of individual celebration prefer community celebration. With the increasing trend of gated community all the families of the community can celebrate Diwali in the common space. This will ensure reduced cost of celebration; paper pollution in a limited space and as compared to individual celebration, community celebration will cause less air and noise pollution.

* Before selecting the place for common community celebration make sure that it is far away from hospitals. Instead of selecting crowded areas it is better to opt a open ground.

* Instead of selecting traditional chemical cracker this Diwali go for eco-friendly crackers. Eco-friendly crackers are made up of recycled paper and the sound produced by these crackers is under the decibel limit defined by the Pollution Board. These crackers produce paper fluffers and different color lights instead of sound on bursting.

* Instead of electric illumination go for traditional lightening of earthen lamps or diyas. This will not only enhance the beauty of your house but will also cut down the enormous electric consumption. Though earthen lamps need oil but the quantity is less and it gives light for at least 3-4 hours.

* Instead of buying “one-time use” items go for recyclable things. Secondly while cleaning your home for Deepawali instead of disposing things it is better to give it to under-privilege people.

* Celebrate Diwali with a different meaning. You can celebrate this Diwali with poor and under-privilege children. Share your Diwali crackers, sweets and happiness with poor children.

These were some of the environment friendly tips for celebrating Diwali 2008. In case you have some more ideas and tips of celebrating eco-friendly Diwali then please use our comment section to share it with us.

By 2020, India will become a water-stressed nation.

No water or contaminated water is commonplace news in the national or regional dailies of India. Such incidents are termed by newspapers as mismanagement of the government, bureaucrats calls it unfortunate incidents and the governing authorities term it as accident. Whatever the term used its the shame to the whole mankind that even being in 21st century, with such high development of technology some of our fellow beings living in certain sections of the society has a threat to ill health and in some cases succumb their lives to shackles of death because of water which itself is the originator of life.

In the list of 122 countries rated on quality of portable water, India ranks a lowly 120. Although India has 4% of the world’s water, studies show average availability is shrinking steadily. It is estimated that by 2020, India will become a water-stressed nation.
Now, the questions to be asked are:-
Are these water problems beyond hope?
No.
Can we have ample and pure water?
Yes.
But the question arises?
How ?

Earth is 4,600 Million Years Old.........................

Let’s think it in a rather easy way.......If we condense this inconceivable time-span into an understandable concept, we can transform Earth to a person of 46 years of age.

So, nothing is known about the first 7 years of this person's life, and only scattered information exists about the middle span, we know that only at the age of 42 did the Earth begin to flower.

Dinosaurs and the great reptiles did not appear until one year ago, when the planet was 45. Mammals arrived only 8 months ago; in the middle of last week apes evolved into ape-like men, and at the weekend the last ice age enveloped the Earth.

Modern man has been around for 4 hours. During the last hour Man discovered agriculture. The industrial revolution began a minute ago.

“During those sixty seconds of biological time, Modern Man has made a rubbish tip of Paradise."

He has multiplied his numbers to plague proportions, caused the extinction of 500 species of animals, and ransacked the planet for fuels and now stands like a brutish infant, gloating over this meteoric rise to ascendancy, on the brink of war to end all wars and of effectively destroying this oasis of life in the solar system.

EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING.........

In 2004, many South African farmers reported that rising temperatures impeded trees from sufficient winter resting, while fruit was becoming sunburned during ripening season. The shifting areal of the tree aloe (or kokerboom) to the south supports the observation that the Karoo desert is pushing south into the Cape.

The westerly storm bringing winter rainfall in the Cape region is expected to move south, missing the continent and losing their water out to sea. Drought has impacted Cape's wheat production in the last years, and this trend has just begun. Future water scarcity - paradoxically - will increase water demand for human consumption, further cutting water amounts for an increasingly necessitated agriculture.

Higher temperatures and drought will cause more powerful wildfires in Africa, during the summer on Cape and during the winter on savanna zones. A new study made on the Kenyan Tsavo National Park showed that "large infrequent disturbances" like a severe drought on Maasai territory at the end of the 19th century (1883-1902) led to the most devastating effects. "Severe disturbance events and rapid environmental change tend to occur infrequently, but can have a lasting effect on both environment and society" says Dr Lindsey Gillson.

This period was characterized by epidemics of bovine pleuropneumonia, rinderpest and small pox and in 1897 and 1898 the rains failed completely. The Austrian explorer Dr Oscar Baumann noted in 1891: "There were women wasted to skeletons from whose eyes the madness of starvation glared ... warriors scarcely able to crawl on all fours, and apathetic, languishing elders. Swarms of vultures followed them from high, awaiting their certain victims."

"It is important to use long-term historical and palaeoecological data to try to understand the frequency and effects of extreme events, and the way societies and ecosystems respond to them" Lindsey Gillson explains.

Her work involved analyzing sediments from the famous Tsavo National Park. Gillson analyzed sediments from Tsavo for age, pollen and charcoal fragments to make a picture of environmental changes that confirmed the sad episode from Maasai history. Great Savings on Dr Jon Lovett, who has been researching the impacts of climate change on Africa, says that we must learn from history and be prepared. "Events like this are going to become more common in the future, and we need to be ready for them" said Dr Jon Lovett.

As the greenhouse effect acts within a lag system, the sun's energy stored today will take 20 to 30 years to redistribute throughout the system, thus what we see today is due to atmosphere contamination before we were born. At the current level of contamination, the global average temperatures will likely rise by as much as 5 C. This will affect by 5 to 20 % global living standards, thus developed nations will also be impacted, not only Africa's poor countries.