Let’s make India better!

Democracy is supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people. Is it really working in India? It does not need a debate. Every common person will agree to that it is not. The current debate who should be the president is a classic example. The politicians that we have elected have an opposite perspective to the common man. More than 2 lakh people have voted on NDTV in favor of Dr Kalam. Close to 50% are in favor of Narayan Murthy or Dr Amartya Sen. Where as all the politicians want the sovereign power to be a person who will not be an impediment to their dirty politics. Is it really democracy?

We often hear about public interest litigations raised by several individuals and groups. I always wondered if I can do it and if I am eligible to do it as well. While I was searching for this information, I found couple of good links. From virtualpune:

What is a PIL?
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) - litigation for public interest. PIL was started to protect the fundamental rights of people who are poor, ignorant or in socially/economically disadvantaged position. It is different from ordinary litigation, in that it is not filed by one private person against another for the enforcement of a personal right. The presence of ‘public interest’ is important to file a PIL.

A PIL can be filed when the following conditions are fulfilled:

• There must be a public injury and public wrong caused by the wrongful act or omission of the state or public authority.
• It is for the enforcement of basic human rights of weaker sections of the community who are downtrodden, ignorant and whose fundamental and constitutional rights have been infringed.
• It must not be frivolous litigation by persons having vested interests.

Who may file a PIL?
The Supreme Court (SC), through its successive judgements has relaxed the strict rule of ‘locus standi’ applicable to private litigation.

Any person can file a PIL provided:

• He is a member of the public acting bona fide and having sufficient interest in instituting an action for redressal of public wrong or public injury.
• He is not a mere busy body or a meddlesome interloper.
• His action is not motivated by personal gain or any other oblique consideration.

How to file a PIL:
A PIL may be filed like a write petition. However, in the past the SC has treated even letters addressed to the court as PIL. In People’s Democratic union v Union of India, a letter addressed by the petitioner organization seeking a direction against the respondents for ensuring observance of the provisions of famous labour laws in relation to workmen employed in the construction work of projects connected with the Asian games was entertained as a PIL.
The SC has encouraged the filing of PIL for tackling issues related to environment, human rights etc.

Some more information is available at corecentre.org

India has immense potential for tourism. With all the disagreements and debates on the actual number, number of tourists in 2006 were approximately 4 million. The earnings from tourism is quoted as 5 billion USD. I am not sure if government includes business travelers in this number as well. I hope not!

It is also estimated that 60% of the tourism comes from North India. Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, UP(Agra) and Himachal Pradesh being one of the top states from North and Goa being the prominent one among all the states. There is so much untapped tourism market out there. North East, Southern India (Kerala being one exception), Lakshwadeep, Andman Nicobar and many more. They need some serious marketing and uplifting to become attactive tourism places. Tourism can be a real good boost to the economy and can feeed so many families. Government did increase the advertising budget to 65 crore ruppes. Is it good enough? Not sure. But we have started to seeing its effect. Below is the advertisement created by Madhya Pradesh (MP) Tourism Government. It is very interesting and fun to look at for sure!

In order to boost tourism, just the marketing is not enough. More number of airports need to be developed, more hotels need to be built and a better services industry need to emerge. According to the report at India Tourism site, Tamilnadu has the highest number of travel operators and agencies! I am very sure the number needs to grow by manyfold to grow the tourism pie. If the government provides the right infrastructure, the market economy will automatically create these travel operators and agencies.

Shaheen Mistri runs Akansha; a non-profit organization working towards improving the poor children’s lives. There is a great article about her and her dream, her Akanksha. The article is at rediff.

Something about Akanksha from the home page:
“The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to impact the lives of less privileged children, enabling them to maximise their potential and change their lives. Akanksha works primarily in the field of education, addressing non formal education through the Akanksha centre and also formal education by initiating school reform.

Over the past 15 years, the organization has expanded from 15 children in one centre to over 2,600 children in 51 centres in Mumbai and Pune, with an additional 2100 children in 10 schools. A commitment is made to support each child by giving him or her a strong educational foundation, a good time, self esteem and values, and to help them plan how they can earn a steady livelihood as a step towards improving their standard of living.”

I had the opportunity to meet Shaheen in Pune. My wife is interested in being part of Akanksha and she got an appointment with Shaheen. The sheer exuberance, confidence and the passion to do something for the kids was so obvious. We were swept by her dedication to reach out to as many under privileged kids as she can. Shaheen is not just trying to educate these children, but she is taking more holistic and practical approach to actually spread the model. She is trying to bring changes in the educational system that can help these kids. She told us that she is working with Anu Aga (Thermax Foundation) to run a municipal school.

I am sure few will disagree that good education and inculcating good values in our children is the key to a developed India. Of course we need many more Shaheen Mistris all over India. But what we can do to make our education system better? Any thoughts?

Support Akanksha and be part of a good cause!

I have for a long time now, been upset with the kind of upbringing Indian children are getting. This refers to children born in the 90s and after. Things like the ones below simply disgust me, cause me pain and despair.
1) Children watching violent/ explicit movies that even adults feel horrified to see
2) Kids fighting with parents for the latest toy/ dresses/ gadgets.. what have you!
3) Teenagers sitting in Coffee Parlours….sipping a cappuccino worth 60 bucks
4) Teenagers surfing the net on the behest of ‘studying’
5) Students carrying mobiles (latest ones mind you), ipods, owning personal TVs
6) Children eating junk food and not good old Indian Cuisine of roti, dal and sabji.

This list is almost endless for me. I get this extremely discomforting feeling inside whenever I witness these things. And for those people who say that upbringing is better in the eastern cultures as compared to the west, I think it’s about time they realized it isn’t so, at least not now. I have observed so many families where at least two of these things are pretty much an everyday affair. And these are regular, normal, happy families.

Less than six months ago, I met this teenager who according to his parents surfs the net to get more information on his subjects. This kid now has his own profile on orkut. He goes to school, is about 16 years old and I wondered if he has ever read even his own books. I wonder why a kid his age would need to be on a social networking site. If you tell me, it helps keep in touch with friends, isn’t email good enough? So what is he doing unmonitored on the web? I shudder to think of the possibilities.

I have seen teenagers sit for hours on end in café’s. I don’t understand how these kids manage to get that much money. As a child I never got pocket money. And any money I did get for small kiddy parties used to be monitored. Now I am not saying that we should curb all freedom of youngsters, but I fail to understand how gossiping in coffee days’ and barista’s helps improve their lives. To add to this, some kids even smoke. Why if you ask them, answer just spats out you ‘Its Cool!’. Cool??? I will let you decide.

Even worse is young girls (I can’t even call them young, these are toddlers below the age of five) dancing to really invigorating Hindi movie numbers. And parents actually feeling proud! What has happened to the parents?? Have any of you seen the boogie woogie dance show, the kids version. Man, how I hated it. I could not stand it for a second. I don’t get why kids need to dance to numbers like ‘Dhak Dhak karne laga’ when many sweeter songs like ‘Imli ka boota’ exist. Isnt it time for children to dance to ‘Clap your hands’ kinda rhymes. I mean they have the rest of their lives to dance to other songs. I wonder what happens to moral policing when it comes to these shows. And historical movies like WATER get the axe….

I could go on and on about how every thing is dark and gloomy. Thankfully, I have come across two (yes, only two) families with amazing parent child bond. The relationship is open/ honest and I have never seen kids of these families needing to lie or hide stuff. I wish that one day we stop hiding things below the carpet, and have more open parent-child relationships. I think the clock is ticking away on this. I worry for the child of tomorrow. Save the children, Now.