National Disability Network

According to the government estimates there are around 70 million disabled in India, of which only 2% are educated and 1% employed. A survey shows that, Indians spend Rs 72,000 crore per annum in caring for their disabled family members. The government bears only a fraction of this cost.

The idea of forming a national-level disability network came from the need to build a strong cross-disability rights movement in India.

The aim of the National Disability Network (N.D.N.) is that the cross disability rights movement is spread equitably across the entire country, and that there is an environment of empathy towards the rights and the needs of persons with disability. The goal of the N.D.N. is to have at least one disability organisation/disability group in all 593 districts of our country.

One of the most phenomenon succes has been The Delhi Metro - The facilities on the metro system are not only modern and aesthetic, but are also easily accessible for disabled commuters, including elderly people. It is probably the only agency involved with transportation in India that has incoporated accessible design in its facilities.


The new accessible New Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (D.M.R.C.) is ready for use by disabled people and seniors. It is probably the only agency involved with transportation in India that has thought of constructing an overhead ramp for the physically challenged.

The ill and the disabled persons who cannot use the foot over bridges or subway, can now take the ramp from St Stephen's side at Tis Hazari station, and directly reach the concourse or ticketing area, which is on the second level of the station.

SOURCES : national disability network site

Solution for a better tomorrow

In my last blog about slums, I wrote that to acknowledge that there is a problem is the beginning of its solution. Though this problem is wide spread and really affects a huge population of our country but we begin with it right here.

There are two ways to solve the problem of slums:

1. Provide better facilities to the people who have come to the cities. Which will need an investment by the Government but the result would be worth any amount spent.

2. To catch hold of the problem at its root cause, i.e., to make the atmosphere in villages as such that million of people from villages don't have to leave their homes.

Right now, I would be laying emphasis on improving Housing and Health Facilities for Urban Poor .

Currently, 40%-45% of India's urban poor live in slums or squatter settlements. The rest live under bridges and flyovers, pavements, or in overcrowded tenements.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India estimates that a meagre investment of Rs 7 billion is required to provide basic living and health facilities to poor urban-dwellers.

Over 40 million low-cost dwellings and 500 additional urban health and family welfare centres need to be built to provide basic housing and health facilities to India's approximately 190 million urban poor.

Delhi Government has already took an initiative to provide low-cost housing to nearly 4 lakh slum-dwellers in and around the national capital. This is a welcome step for the people of Delhi who are very much in need of a shelter.

The states such as Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, in particular, should come up with such schemes as they are the host to migrant workers from all over the country who gradually settle in places that offer them steady employment.

According to study by ASSOCHAM the population of urban-dwellers will exceed 225 million urban poor by 2015, from the current figure of 190 million. States in which the urban poor population will grow manifold include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as these states have been recording a 30% growth in urban poor populations in recent years.

A very important role can be played by real estate owners and pharma giants. The former can provide accomodation at affordable rates and the later can provide medicines and other essentials at concession if not directly to them atleast to the health centres.

There should be a law that makes it compulsary for all schools to teach a particular number of these poor children without any fees as the y already are earning huge amounts.

source : infochangeindia.org

an idea can change our life!

You and I together are just mere tiny creatures on this earth which itself tiny in this universe! But we tiny little dots can make a difference and do small small things which would help in improving our surroundings and saving our environment.


And the best part about this idea which was suggested to me by Abhay Sir ( OUR Development Comm teacher) is that this can be carried out from our homes itself.

We should encourage our parents and ourself try to start segregating waste if it is not done.
We should keep a box in which we can put waste like empty bottles, used pens, plastic wrappers from breads, milk, bakery, tea etc. Once this box is filled we can call a rag picker and give it to her/him.

This would not only make the help in keeping the environment clean but also would help the rag pickers to earn his bread. It would be like generating employment for them.

The biodegradable waste can be put in plants.

Simple Things can make a lot of difference.

A slum, is defined as a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. The main characteristics of slums are Urban Decay, High Rates of Poverty and Unemployment.

In the year 2001, for the first time in India's history Census Data was collected for Slums. The data was collected from cities and towns having a population of 50,000 and above. 640 towns/cities in 26 UTs/States have reported Slum population. Andhra Pradesh has the largest number of towns (77) reporting slums followed by Uttar Pradesh (69), Tamil Nadu (63) and Maharashtra (61).

According to this population of slums all over India is 42 million from the 607 cities/towns reporting slums. This comes to around 4% of total Indian population( India's population in 2001 was 1.2 Billion). It constitutes 15 percent of the total urban population of the country and 22.6 per cent of the urban population of the states/union territories reporting slums. 11.2 million of the total slum population of the country are in Maharashtra followed by Andhra Pradesh 5.2, Uttar Pradesh 4.4 and West Bengal 4.1 million.

The strange fact is that the first census of slums took place as late as in 2001, but to know that there is a problem is the beginning of solution of the problem. There is a particular pattern in growth of slums and they have some basic needs that need to be looked at. They are as much the citizens of our country as we are. The GDP increase will never help if these people are ignored.

THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION

TO REMOVE POVERTY AND NOT THE POOR.
sources: censusindia.gov.in

Interview with the Maid...

Sometimes we are so insensitive to our surroundings that it takes an assignment to know the people without whom we can not survive a day. In this assignment I have questioned my Maid on some of the things that concern their life a lot.

Babli has been working at peoples home since childhood. She herself doesn’t know the years she has been married for. I asked her the following questions:

Q: Common ailments she suffers from.And where does she go for treatment.

A: Headache, cold, fever. She goes to the chemist generally and asks him to give the suitable medicines. She doesn’t go to the doctor till something really bad has happened.

Q: Do children study?

A: Yes, all three children study . My daughter is in 10^th , another daughter in 6^th and son in 6^th .

Q: Which school?

A: All 3 study in Govt schools whose name she did not know.

Q: Do they get midday meals in school?

A: pehle dete the, abh nahi dete

Q: Why does she want children to be educated ?

A : It is very important to get them educated so that they don’t live a life of hardship and uncertainity like me and my husband

Q: How much education has she herself received?

A: Main kabhi school nahi gayi hoon par bacho ko padhake saari khushi mil jayegi.

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THE SORROW OF BIHAR

After breaking an embankment panel upstream in Nepal, the river KOSI ( Bihars tragedy) has chosen the path it abandoned 200-years ago. This sudden change has led to floods, affecting the life of a billion and their source of income.

The relief operations have started and even funds have begun to flow in, but the extent of damage is hard to imagine. There has been no full stop to the destruction by this monster.

Seen from a satellite, the area looks like a conical fan. Created by hundreds of years of shifting, it is the largest such cone in the world, covering an area of over 15,000 square km. The cone is made up of various courses of Kosi and the land in between, which gets submerged during floods.


The biggest challenge is that this is just the beginning of the problem, for one, the changed course of the river has swallowed millions of hectares of land and which are hardly going to resurface even after the water recedes.

These areas are technically in the river bed, thereby completely uprooting those living in these areas—not to talk about the loss of agriculture land, houses, livestock, ponds, wells and above all their lives and their dreams.

Three, the devastation of this magnitude is unheard in modern civilisation, with the entire Kosi civilisation on the verge of eclipse

SOURCES : ( TOI website, i government )