The Killing Meals: Food Insecurity And Corruption!

A close relative who is a teacher in a high school told me recently that he gave up the responsibility of looking after the free midday meal scheme implemented in his school due to rampant corruption. He lamented that the quality provisions supplied to the school found their way to the homes and kitchens of various members of the staff almost regularly and the leftovers were left for providing meals to the students—many of whom are poor and needy. This has been the universal picture in the largest ‘dysfunctional democracy called India. Here the corrupt human hyenas are not satisfied with the leftovers, but devour away the main chunks. We have seen in this country how the fodder for animals gets siphoned off for the quick buck. The corrupt ‘human’ hyenas do not even spare the ‘human’ kids who have done them no harm at all. Right, in this great country there has never been any dearth of good and suitably targeted schemes, but at the implementation level always the hyenas muck it up in a stinking mess of corruption.

At a time when the Government of India promulgated an ordinance to implement its most ambitious Food Security Bill providing staple grains to the poorest of the poor at nominal rates of 1-2-3 rupees per kilo the free lunches provided to the school children throughout India under the Midday Meal Scheme killed 23 primary school kids in Bihar—the same northern state that got famous for the fodder scam. Thanks to the corrupt human hyenas it was the abysmal quality of the meals and the presence of pesticides in the soybean curry that started killing the kids in the most ruthless manner—some on the spot, some on the way to hospital and some in hospital. More than fifty kids took days of horrible sufferings to escape death. And, the great common-man-obsessed political leaders of this great country hardly cared.

The blame game started in right earnest as the common people of Bihar and the rest of the country looked aghast and distressed. The ruling JD-U government of Bihar indicated a conspiracy of deliberate poisoning while its coalition partner just a month ago—the BJP—announced that it knew about sorry implementation of the midday meal scheme for years. National coalition politics prevented several other parties including the Congress from shouting too much anguish into it. This gives a horrific similarity to the politics in Buddhist Shrine Terror recently. This is very understandable since all the political parties are really busy gearing up for the General Elections-2014 or even earlier in their unique ways of uplifting the common man only. That common man has kids too does not seem to matter for our leaders, obviously because the school kids are not voters.

The Midday Meal Scheme that was adopted by most Indian states after 2001 contributed largely for the spread of education too apart from nutritious meals. Poor families do want to send their kids to primary and high schools as this would take at least one major meal out of their tiny daily budget. But the corrupt human hyenas that rot the system from top to bottom eat up the kids’ food and frighteningly eat up the kids themselves.

Why not make this largest democracy of the world still larger? Why not give voting right to all babies from the day of birth, to all kids at all levels and to all school children? Let us see then if our noble national leaders take up their cause too.

Degenerative Politics: The Divisive Greed!

A society divided on caste lines…further segmented by the reservation policy. The society’s divided mindset of looking at some people as ‘untouchables’ has been maintained with utmost care throughout the history of ‘independent’ India. The elected representatives thrive on such divisions and go on creating divided vote banks to rule ‘one’ country. Corruption based on divisive greed for money first and then power encompasses the ‘one’ and divided country fully. The vicious circle sets in leading to erosion of values, cheapness of lives and culture, increase in mindless violence and…degeneration. A few ominous indicators are crying out to be linked to this process of degeneration.

• The monsoon session of the Indian Parliament ends tomorrow without any work done or executed or completed. It is stalled for the 12^th day in succession today. No doubt, serious issues are involved, but no party wants the solutions and no debates allowed. Obviously the divisive greed cannot have any solution. To cap it all two ‘respectable’ members of the upper house had a fist fight for the first time in Parliamentary history and in full view of the nation. Fighting for one more division within all the divisions. And fighting for one more elected opportunity to reap in the windfall.

•  The political party that commits itself to fight corruption tooth and nail sends its elected representatives in a state it rules on picnics abroad in the name of official ‘study tour’. While the poor farmers there are dying due to drought conditions. Media exposes one such waste of public money and one more gets discovered in the same state. The vested interests in power admit their helplessness to change the pattern.

• Thirty eight poor workers die in a blazing firecracker factory fire yesterday. Why? Because the owners violated the safety standards and rules. To be precise, the degenerative system based on divisive greed allowed them to violate.

• Anna Hazare tried to fight the degeneration, but his members could not resist the temptation of divisive greed. His team no longer exists and the erstwhile members are divided among themselves.

• Baba Ramdev too joins in to fight the system and finally partners the elected representatives only. The Baba naturally wants to justify his immense riches with political clout based on divisive greed.

• Brutal facts on crimes against women and babies, carnivorous eve teasing, perversions, sadism, horrific murders and so on are everyday incidents nowadays. Yesterday, in a reputed educational institution of the country a horrible ragging incident was reported with the videos going viral. Maybe a new generation is being nurtured and maintained to fit the elected representatives greed by greed, perversion by perversion to finally complete the process of degeneration in near future.

How to stop it? But who will think of stopping it? How many of us are not already taken in by the vicious circle? We must first allow selfless debates within us and between us and then only can think of a way out.

India Must Redefine SHAME!

Apart from rising levels of population, intolerance, violence, crimes against women and corruption the largest democracy of the world called India has been dictatorially making life most inhuman for its children—supposed to be its future. Had there been a choice many souls from the ether would have straightaway rejected the offer of getting born in India!

Endless herds of street urchins engaged or forced into begging, rag-picking, illegal trafficking and plain abuse. A whole vista of little innocent faces falling prey to the curse of child labor. NOT ENOUGH!

Lives nipped in the bud through widely practiced female foeticide and at a later stage through infanticide.  The male dominated dowry-based society bashing up and killing girl children brutally and at will. Newborn babies getting killed thanks to hospital negligence and callousness. NOT ENOUGH!

Those who are lucky to be able to get a little older despite the most hostile environment are falling into open holes that abound all around them-enticing them and trapping them in. Sufferings and deaths continuing in a vicious circle. NOT ENOUGH!

Those who are lucky to grow up in well-to-do city families are falling prey to kidnappings and physical abuse that lurk in unpredictable corners all the time. NOT ENOUGH!

A 5^th standard school girl of a cultured city of Kolkata and in a university that was founded by the Nobel prize winning poet-composer-writer Rabindra Nath Tagore. Her crime was she could not get out of her habit of bed-wetting. The hostel warden, incidentally a lady too like the Chief Minister of the state, was mercilessly decisive in punishment. The warden forced the girl student to drink her own urine to teach her a lesson for bed-wetting. NOT ENOUGH!

India must redefine SHAME and try FEELING it!

India: The Hole Truth!

India is a country that is literally littered with gaping unmanned holes—you may call these as bore well or tube well, manholes, pits, shafts or whatever. These are found anywhere—streets, playgrounds or even residential areas in both urban and rural regions. Playful small children are the most vulnerable. They fall into the holes and die or get miraculously rescued sometimes.

The regularity of such incidents being ominously certain it is not known how many of these go unreported. The Indian media showed its tremendous interest only in 2006 when Prince, a small boy of five years, fell into a 60 feet deep open bore well in the northern state of Haryana. For 48 hours the rescue operation aided by army men went live across the country. There was palpable agitation and tension in almost every house in India as people sat glued to the television sets praying for Prince. The boy was finally taken out alive and there were celebrations all around.  Prince became a national hero.

Unfortunately, even after becoming a hero the Prince case did not inspire anybody to try prevent such cases in future or try managing the unattended holes. No lessons learned from the death-defying trauma of a small boy for 48 hours deep inside the earth with only pitch darkness for company. In 2008 another small boy called Suraj died after falling into an unguarded bore well shaft in the north-western state of Rajasthan. Later in the same year a two-year-old boy named Sonu fell into a 150 feet deep bore well pit in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. He was brought out dead after four days of rescue operation. The tragedy moved even the then President of India, Pratibha Patil, who issued advisory to all ministries and departments to take preventive action. 

 The incidents continued though. In the central state of Madhya Pradesh two-year-old girl Lalli fell into a bore well and was luckily rescued after five hours. The most recent case getting hysteric national attention was that of Mahi, a four year old girl from Haryana again, who fell into a 70 feet deep bore well just outside her home when running around merrily in the evening of 21^stJune, 2012. Local authorities responded late and precious hours were lost. The army men started digging a parallel shaft to reach the trapped girl and the rescue operations continued for 86 painful hours. When they finally reached Mahi she was dead. In fact, she died within six hours of falling due to lack of oxygen.

After all the agonized appeals and promises one more tragedy struck Haryana one more time. A boy of five years fell into a manhole yesterday and died submerged in toxic sewer. The gapingly monstrous traps continue to lurk all around and the kids continue to live dangerously in wonderful India. If one tries to think about the experience of a little kid down there in the dark helpless and alone, one can hardly avoid horrifyingly unreal chills going down the spine.

Astounding how a country 'manned' by over a billion could get to have so many unmanned holes!

After Baby Falak Now It Is Baby Afreen: Shame on India!

What a country we have! A country that has been worshiping the Shakti cult in the forms of Goddesses torture, brutalize and go on killing the human forms of the same cult. A country where no female is safe on the streets, on the trains, on the buses and even within the four walls of  their homes. Time to replace ‘India’ for ‘SHAME’! A country called SHAME and where people seem to be SHAMEless forever!

What a society we have! A society controlled by hordes of cowardly males (like a malignant tumor) who lust for females in every field of activity and never loses an opportunity to exploit them in every field of activity, but also want lots and lots of money to marry them! They do the malignant favor of marrying a girl for a huge bargain, start torturing her for more money, burn her or kill her if insistent demands are not met and then, if a girl child happens to get born to them they brutalize, maim and even kill the babies. Why don’t the males do one more big favor—get their rate cards written large and labeled in their foreheads along with detailed guidelines of what to follow after the so-called marriage so that millions of girls get forewarned and avoid the traps. As for the parents one of them has to be a male and so nothing positive can be expected. Time has come for the female force to get armed to the teeth and fight and fight with all their might to get rid of the malignant tumor of our society. Once for all. For good.

We know the story of the two-year-old Baby Falak who died in her third cardiac arrest after a nearly two-month struggle for survival. Now, three-month old Baby Afreen died of a cardiac arrest in a Bangalore hospital today.

What was Afreen’s fault? She was born a girl child to a male parent. That cowardly male could not accept the fact, started battering his wife for the 'crime' and then brutalized and bruised his own baby with indescribable cruelty. Afreen was hospitalized, but the little baby could not take it any longer and bid her goodbye to a country called SHAME.

Afreen’s mother cried out in anguish cursing her husband for the ghastly act and said in public that he did not deserve to live after this. The demonic male was arrested, put in police custody and a murder charge is being initiated. But what will follow? The case will drag on for years in usual way of our overburdened courts with hardly anything happening finally. And what about the preventive laws or bodies? What can we expect in a country where politicians do their best to oppose any law in favor of women; show more interest in political games, in making fortunes, in enjoying porno in public and in demanding free tickets for IPL and all glamor shows? What right do they have to celebrate events like International Day of the Girl Child or Child Abuse Prevention Day? First let 'day' dawn in your goddamned country.

An absolute shame that our country is this case is likely to be forgotten in matter of days. But in the true tradition of Shakti the female force ought not to take it passively any longer. They must rise in revolution, must demand separate stringent laws for instant justice and punishment and must unite to destroy the Evil. Now is the time!

The Horrid Truth About A Baby Girl!

A two-year old baby girl was admitted in a Delhi hospital on January 18, 2012. She was bruised and battered. She had serious head injuries and whole of her tiny body bore marks of torture and abuse. She had been fighting for life since then and as per the latest reports there were a few signs of recovery. The poor child had already suffered two cardiac arrests. Her name is Falak.

Her supposed mother, a minor of 14 years, brought the baby to the hospital herself and was detained by the police for interrogation. Later, she was handed over to the welfare department. Her name is Mahi.

The teenager ‘mother’ had also a horrid tale to tell. She reportedly confessed to the authorities that she herself abused the baby out of sheer frustration, but the head injury was caused by an accidental fall either from her bed or in the bathroom. Why she was so frustrated that made her abuse her ‘own’ baby?

Mahi’s tale went on. She was living with her father who physically tortured her on almost a daily basis. Sick of her miserable life she fled from her home, lived with her aunt for some time and was on the run again. Finally a twenty-something man spotted her and took her to his home. Again a saga of physical abuse followed.

To make matters worse, the man one day brought Falak out of nowhere and asked Mahi to take care of her. The minor girl already under tremendous stress could not come to terms with the added responsibility and her frustration started taking toll on the baby.

Mahi’s story seems to be only a part of the larger and murkier episode. Doctors say about Falak’s head injury that either a heavy object has been used to or her head has been smashed against a wall. There are also multiple fractures and wounds all over her body. Such brutalization cannot be caused by minor who claimed to be the ‘mother’ first.

Police investigations got some leads revealing that the man belonged to Mumbai and had a family there. But he was missing so far. Charges of kidnapping have been registered by the police against him and some other unknown people whose involvement seem pretty clear considering the enormity of  the brutal act.

The story is in a confused state, but its sordid details are real. In a country that celebrates the international year of the girl child and celebrated the birth of the seven-billionth baby only recently abuse and exploitation of the girl child continue unabated. Feudalistic pockets of the society still hate the birth of a girl child trying to prevent it by any means and the male-female ratio goes on decreasing further and further. Poverty makes millions of other homeless urchins. It’s only the dangerous streets and alleys of the country that strive to take care of the totally uncared lot.

Every Indian baby girl just cannot afford to get born to a celebrity family. But Falak now commands the nation’s attention as twenty doctors and thirty nurses are looking after her continuously. Shamed and concerned the nation prays for her recovery.

The Baby Disaster!

Article first published as The Baby Disaster! on Technorati.

In the last week of October, 2011 more than forty infants died in different government hospitals of West Bengal, a state in eastern India. Despite the media outrage the deaths continued and the state government decided to look the other way.

While the world celebrated the birth of the 7 billionth baby in Manila, Philippines on October 31^st India too decided to join in by claiming a baby born in a northern state as the 7 billionth one. The terrible apathy was too strong to ignore.

Of the seven billion global inhabitants India account for nearly 18 per cent which hardly makes any excuse for celebrations. Add to it the fact that the northern state, Uttar Pradesh, is the most populous one of India and a feudalistic oppressor of women. The concerned NGO there who made the claims for the unique occasion was quick to point out that they wanted to pass on a message since the 7 billionth baby was a girl child. That particular state also boasts of the worst sex ratio at 899 girls per 1000 men. 

Indian villages, cities and the overall infrastructure are at a bursting point due to the tremendous and unabated population pressure. The facilities at government hospitals are abysmal and private hospitals are out of reach of poor people. Here the right cause for celebration would be when there is a drop in population growth rate.

The priorities must be set right. There has to be a concerted effort to better the conditions that human beings need for a minimum standard of living. But the explosive population growth has been slowing down progress at all levels.

No wonder that the West Bengal government found nothing abnormal in the infants deaths with the Chief Minister who recently dislodged the long ruling Marxist government ordering only an audit after a fortnight.

Or is it the other way round? Do they welcome more infant deaths to directly control population growth? So mean, yes! But what exactly are we supposed to understand?

PS:  Recently one doctor was found drunk on duty in another Kolkata hospital. The saga of baby deaths have also continued with the report of 6 more deaths yesterday in Malda hospital.