Baby dipped into boiling water as part of ritual

One more act of superstition in rural India.

A three-month-old infant was dunked into a vessel full of boiling water and lifted out, in a mysterious religious ritual by a couple at Jumalapur village in Bijapur district, Karnataka.

The horrifying act drew shocked gasps from the public and media persons gathered, but not as much as a whimper from the baby. She appeared fine.

The parents looked unafraid, and in fact, were happy that they were carrying out the ritual, held during the festival of Balabhim near Talikot town on Friday.

The story goes like this: Prabhavati and Sanganagouda of Navadagi village near Talikot town married a few years ago, but had no children. Fed up, the disappointed couple prayed that their wish be fulfilled.

Hanumantray Hugar, priest of Balabhim (Anjaneya) temple of Jumalapur village had uttered to them, presumably speaking on behalf of the Almighty: "I will give two issues to you, out of which one will be taken by self. Another should be dipped in boiling water as a religious ritual".

In due course, the first baby was born, but died early. The second one was born within a year, and the ritual was performed. Whether this is blind belief or a challenge to science is not known. But the baby is safe and healthy, even after its appalling experience.

Source: Times Of India, 28th December, 2008

TED India Talks: Anupam Mishra - The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting

With wisdom and wit, Anupam Mishra talks about the amazing feats of engineering built centuries ago by the people of India's Golden Desert to harvest water. These structures are still used today -- and are often superior to modern water mega projects.

About Anupam Mishra:

To promote smart water management, Anupam Mishra works to preserve rural India’s traditional rainwater harvesting techniques.

Anupam Mishra travels across water-challenged India studying rainwater harvesting methods and learning from the people behind them. He presents his findings to NGOs, development agencies and environmental groups, pulling from centuries of indigenous wisdom that has found water for drinking and irrigation even in extremely arid landscapes through wells, filter ponds and other catchment systems.

A founding member of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Mishra is working to bridge the gap between modern water management technology and india's heritage of water harvesting, so that every community is self-sustainable and efficiently safekeeping an increasingly scarce and precious resource.

Listen to his entire speech, initially you will feel that what this man is talking is full of crap but at the end u feel its worth watching this entire talk.

Here is th Video:

Indian farmers selling their wives

Poverty in rural India is increasing day by day. The farmers one and only source of income is growing crops. And in case of heavy rains or drought all the crops get damaged, making farmers more poor. This is leading to farmers committing suicide. And in few cases like these, some reckless farmers selling their wife for money.

Read On..

North Indian farmers are selling their wives to survive.

Left without money due to failing crops, debt-ridden farmers in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh, have reportedly been selling their wives to money lenders for 4,000-12,000 rupees.

The more beautiful the woman, the higher the price that she fetches, it was claimed.

The deals are allegedly being settled on a legal stamp paper under the heading “Vivaha Anubandh” meaning Marriage Contract. Once the new “husband” is tired of the woman, she is allegedly sold to another man.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) is now sending a team to investigate the reports.Girija Vyas, chief of the NCW, said: “It is awful and unbelievable that it still happens in the country, and that too in Uttar Pradesh where the chief minister is a woman.“We are sending a team to find out the details and have asked for the report within 24 hours.”

She added that the commission had also written a letter to the state's chief minister. One of the victims said: “My husband sold me to another man for Rs 8,000 only.“My buyer took me to the court to make our wedding look legal. During the trip I got the chance to escape.”In most cases, the women are illiterate and cannot read what is written in the “contract”.

A farmer who helped expose the situation to the Indian media said he is now being harassed.“I was summoned to the police station and questioned,” the man who is known only as Kalicharan said.“I told them I had spoken to the media because no one was listening to us. But they threatened me and said I was lying. My wife was also called to the police station.”

With reports suggesting that thousands of farmers in the region are involved, the situation has spiralled into a major political crisis.

Opposition parties are blaming the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government led by chief minister Mayawati for the problem.

The state Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said: “It is a painful situation.
“I am sending a team of Congress workers to help these women.” A spokesman for leading opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, said: “Both the BSP-led state government and the Congress at the centre are responsible for this.“The centre has been talking of creating a separate authority for Bundelkhand while some factions want a state. Nobody is helping these farmers.”

Erratic rainfall in the region this year is one of the main causes of failing crops.

Source: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk, 8th Sep 09

Bhopal gas disaster's legacy lives on 25 years later

Today is December 3rd 2009. Exactly 25 years ago on this day, one of the worst industrial disaster in Indian history happened in Bhopal. Thousands of people died, lakhs of people are still affected by this disaster. At least now the government should take some immediate measures and provide some proper medical attention to all the people affected in that area.

Read On..

The Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical) disaster in Bhopal, Bhopal disaster or Bhopal gas tragedy was an industrial disaster that took place at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the Indian city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. At midnight on 3 December 1984, the plant accidentally released methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, exposing more than 500,000 people to MIC and other chemicals. The first official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.Others estimate 8,000-10,000 died within 72 hours and 25,000 have since died from gas-related diseases.

Some 25 years after the gas leak, 390 tonnes of toxic chemicals abandoned at the Union Carbide plant continue to pollute the ground water in the region and affects thousands residents of Bhopal who depend on it. There are currently civil and criminal cases related to the disaster ongoing in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India against Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemical Company, with arrest warrants pending against Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the disaster.

Summary of background and causes:

During the night of December 2–3, 1984, large amounts of water entered tank 610, containing 42 tonnes of methyl isocyanate. The resulting reaction increased the temperature inside the tank to reach over 200 °C (392 °F), raising the pressure to a level the tank was not designed to withstand. This forced the emergency venting of pressure from the MIC holding tank, releasing a large volume of toxic gases. The reaction sped up because of the presence of iron in corroding non-stainless steel pipelines. A mixture of poisonous gases flooded the city of Bhopal, causing great panic as people woke up with a burning sensation in their lungs. Thousands died immediately from the effects of the gas and many were trampled in the panic.

Hundreds of children are still being born with birth defects as a result of the world's worst industrial disaster 25 years ago. They are demanding that the Indian government provide immediate medical care and research the "hidden" health impacts.

The true legacy of the disaster is only now coming to light. The Indian government stopped all research on the medical effects of the gas cloud 14 years ago, without explanation. Despite the country's supreme court ordering that the children of victims receive insurance, more than 100,000 remain without cover.

Satinath Sarangi of the Sambhavna Trust, which helps to rehabilitate victims, said that the Bhopal victims' penury and low social status meant few are prepared to help. No one, he says, has taken responsibility for cleaning up the site and paying the high cost of medical bills."Because these people are poor or from a minority or lower caste no one seems to care. Their lives and their children are being sacrificed for the cause of industrial progress," Sarangi said.

One of the mothers, Kesar Bhai, held her 12-year-old son Suraj in her arms. She had inhaled the noxious fumes in 1984 and was hospitalised but recovered. Her son, Suraj, was born brain damaged and cannot sit or talk. "My husband is a labourer. We have no money to spend on our son. He cannot even eat on his own. I get free medical care for my breathing difficulties because I am a gas victim. My child does not get any help but he has been affected," she said.

Other children's growth had been stunted, said campaigners, because there has been still no clean-up of the Bhopal plant despite a promise from the prime minister in 2006. So far, less than 20% of the funds set aside to dismantle and make safe the plant have been spent. The disused Union Carbide factory contains about 8,000 tonnes of carcinogenic chemicals which continue to leach out and contaminate water supplies used by 30,000 local people. The clean-up has been stalled by a mixture of bureaucratic indifference, legal actions and rows over corporate responsibility.

Source: Wikipedia.org, www.guardian.co.uk

Woman walks 110 km in 15 days for medical help in Chhattisgarh

As the population of India is keep on increasing, the medical facilities in rural areas are becoming bad to worse. The governments negligence towards rural people's health is also to be blamed. If this keep on increasing, the life expectancy and death ratio will increase exponentially.

Read On..

Such is the state of medical care in Chhattisgarh that a woman had to walk 110 km for 15 days to reach a government-run hospital to get her burnt hands treated.

In September, Phoolwati, 25, and her husband Roop Singh were burnt when the kerosene stove burst in their hut in Bakalo village within the jurisdiction of the Kapu police station in Raigarh district. Sans any medical treatment, Roop Singh battled his burn injuries for a week and then died.

Phoolwati then found insects crawling inside her burnt hands and realised she had no option but to go to the district headquarters here and seek medical treatment. There was no government-run health facility nearby that could tackle her problem.

‘I did not have a single paisa to get treatment from any private doctor or to get into a bus so that I could come here. So I had no option but to walk the 110 km to get admitted to Raigarh hospital. I had found several insects in my burn wounds and the problem was getting worse every day,’ Phoolwati told IANS at the hospital.
Raigarh is 240 km northeast of state capital Raipur.

‘During the entire 15-day journey I begged for food from local people alongside the road. Here a worker in a medicine shop brought me to the district government hospital. The doctor here removed all the insects. Now I feel my injuries have healed a little,’ the childless widow said in between sobs.

A. Tirki, the doctor who operated upon Phoolwati, said: ‘Her wound was filled with dozens of insects when she came to me last week. I have cleaned up her wounds and hopefully within a fortnight she will recover. But she would surely have lost both her hands if she had reached the hospital even a week later.’

Source: trak.in, 20 Nov 2009

You are Dead Sir, hence you cannot vote in this election

False voting are on a rise these days after election voting cards have become a mandatory for voting in any elections. Not only this, I have observed name and other detials are not properly mentioned/spelled in the Election ID Cards because of the carelessness and negligence of the government officials.
For example, one of my friends name is akash bhatia and his fathers name is Captain Bhatia. But in the Election ID Card akash's father name is displayed as Captix Jhatia. How can anybody's name be Captix Jhatia? This is how negligent our government officials are.

Read On..

Writer and theatre personality Deepak Ranjan Chatterjee was shocked when officials at a polling booth in Jharkhand told him that he could not vote because he was dead -- in their records!

A day after the first round of assembly elections in the state Wednesday, Chatterjee related what he underwent in Jamshedpur city.

'My wife and my sons' names were there, but the officials at the booth told me that Deepak Ranjan Chatterjee was dead. I wanted to know how this was possible since I was listed as their father and I am active socially. They insisted the boys' father had died long ago,' Chatterjee told IANS.

Several others also complained that their names were missing from the voters' list. Balloting took place in 26 of the 81 assembly constituencies Wednesday amid a boycott call by Maoists.

Lakshmi Devi, 70, a Yadav voter in Hatia town, was not sure if her name was on the voters' list till the last moment.

'I migrated from Bihar to Jharkhand nine years ago. I was told a week ago that my name was not on the voters' list and I would not be able to vote. Today I found it. There was no coordination,' she said.

Also in Jamshedpur, lawyer Arun Sanyal was in for a surprise when he walked into his polling booth.

'I was born in this city and have voted for the last 40 years. But my name was missing from the rolls this time although my entire family was listed,' Sanyal said.

Tilak Mahto, a 55-year-old in Jugsalai assembly segment, said none of his family members was on the voter list along with 40 other Mahto voters. 'I suspect a conspiracy,' Mahto said.

Source: www.khabarexpress.com, 26 Nov 2009

This is where the tax money goes in India

We pay hefty tax and our tax money is being robbed by government officers cheating the Indian government by creating fake employees and robbing the tax money on their behalf. Reports say that this has been happening for years. If all our money goes into the government officials account in one or the other way, where will the development happen ?

Read On..

In a startling disclosure, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Wednesday said it has found 22,853 'ghost employees' on its payrolls, an administration lapse that has been costing the civic body a whopping Rs 17 crore (Rs 170 million) every month.

An inquiry by Municipal Commissioner K S Mehra, the report of which was submitted to Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain, has revealed the extent of irregularity that both ruling BJP and opposition Congress in MCD said has been going on 'for years'.

"The probe has found that MCD has 22,853 employees who are missing -- in other words, they can be called as fake employees," Sain said.

"This necessitate further investigation to ascertain the fate of 22,853 employees supposed to be drawing salary from MCD treasury which is estimated to the tune of Rs 17 crore per month," he said.

Sain said the MCD will 'go into the full depth of the matter' by conducting a vigilance inquiry and 'take strict disciplinary action against defaulting officials'.

The probe was ordered after the biometric system of attendance, introduced by the civic body in August 2008 and later extended to all MCD zones, brought out a gap in the data given by drawing and disbursing officers and the number of employees enrolled for biometric attendance.

The report said while the total employees are 127,094, only 1,04,241 have been accounted for, which indicates that there is a gap of 22,853 employees.

The report said as per the information provided by the DDOs and HODs of various Departments, the total number of sanctioned posts of various categories in MCD is 119,706.

Against these, total number of employees and officers working is 98,013. As such, 21,695 vacant posts in the regular category exist in the MCD.

In addition, 29,081 employees of miscellaneous categories which include daily wagers, safai karamcharies, and part time domestic breeding checkers are working in the MCD in various departments. As such, the total number of employees of both the above categories working in the MCD comes to 127,094.

The Mayor said biometric system of attendance has been a grand success in the MCD and could be termed as a key reformist measure in good governance.

Leader of House Subhash Arya said the ruling BJP has to be credited for bringing in the biometric system. "This has helped in bringing out the irregularities. This has been going on for years and was also there during the Congress tenure but they did not do anything."

"We will find out the names of all these employees, who appointed them at whose recommendation and any official found guilty will face criminal cases," he said.

Leader of Opposition J K Sharma demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter, claiming that the corporation suffered a loss of Rs 2,000 to 2,500 crore (Rs 20-25 billion) due to the 'scam'.

"We congratulate the commissioner for bringing out the facts and we want a CBI probe. Those found guilty should be dismissed. This has been going on for 20 to 25 years. We will also raise the issue politically," he said.

Source: Rediff.com, November 25, 2009