PARENTS PROBABLY WAIT FOR A BADA DHAMAKA

Over half of the children who were surveyed had faced some form of sexual abuse, says a study conducted by WCD Ministry in 2007. However, this abuse was mostly committed by either the neighbour, family member or the doctor. Child sexual abuse, not being a very modern practice used to take place but was not a much talked about topic previously. However, with time, people have understood the importance of both, talking about it and taking actions against it. Every day, 8 cases of sexual crime against children get registered and about 6,816 cases were registered from November, 2012 to March,2015. The child crime is on the rise. But what has led to such rise in child abuse....did they not take place in the past or were they kept hidden????

Shilpa ( not  the real name), 20 , who now is an engineering student breaks the silence. “ Uncle on the ground floor  always asked me to keep the change whenever I used to bring Mishri for him and on the days of Aunty’s absence at home, he used to call me at home and put the chocolate in my frock”, says Shilpa. “Asking me to search for the chocolate, he would remove my frock....”, she adds. Shilpa was just 8 then...

Arnav, 19, recalls his aunty beating him up with belt if he ate more than two chapatis and making him stand for hours at the age of 5. Arnav’s parents used to send him at his aunty’s place in Pune during vacations, so that he learns to be disciplined.

Priya 22, talks about how she used to go classes using long route because a boy in her colony used to stalk her...and sometimes loiter around on bike throughout her way. However, she was just 13 then.

Viraaj, 18, talks about a Dada in her building who used to force kids to drink alcohol and watch homosexual porn by taking them all at his home,during vacations.

In all these four cases the victim either never spoke to his/her parents or was not heard by them. Usually, in cases of child abuse, the parents of victim ask him/her to be quiet because lodging a complaint would spoil their names. May be such parents wait for a bada dhamaka to happen.

One of the biggest mistake that Indian parents do commit is that they do not talk frankly with their kids...though they pretend to be frank with their kids....they get offended if a child confesses his/her affair...how come these kids will confess such abuses??? And more than anything when are the parents going to be stringent about such crimes whose victims are no one...but their kids??

Posted by- Pandey Kavita

MACJ, PART-I

 

MY CHILD GOES TO SCHOOL...NO MATTER WHAT HE LEARNS

In recent times, seeking an admission of your child is only quite a less headache than buying a new home. Along with convent schools, the others too ask for the eligibility of your child . You take your child for interview, pay the donation, buy the text books and notebooks from the school itself and then start paying monthly or bi yearly fees. But in Mumbai suburbs like Dombivali, Diva, Mumbra, Kalwa, etc a normal middle class man cannot afford to send his child to a convent school...and thus admits his child in a school where he has to pay less fees...without any idea about what sort of guidance will his child get over there.

“Out of around 15 schools in Dombivali, only 2-3 are worth admitting your child”, says Mrs Bhadra who takes private tuitions. “The problem with other schools is that they charge a bit less fees but teaching is worst”, she adds. This is mainly because of in experienced teachers are getting appointed and the school authorities are not willing to pay more to their teachers. All these teachers are either graduated or just HSC passed and they join the job not because they are passionate about it but because they can make some money without travelling in crowded trains.

“I was shocked when I went to the school on the open day as the English teacher herself was speaking in a pathetic English,” says Manju whose children study in Dnyaneshwari Vidyalaya, Dombivali(w).  She complains that her children are daily flooded with projects but the teachers cannot calculate the exact marks allotted to each project. Children keep doing projects before 10 days of exam when the portion is not completed but they do get revision which is very close to the exam question paper..So students only study what is being given in the revision, says Manju. The school authority asks the parents to be well dressed when they come in to receive their children but they do not formulate any rules on the bad dressing sense of their teachers. “The teachers in the school resemble a typical Hindi serial character”, says Mrs Bhadra. Social Science teachers in the school just read out the lines of the chapter and that’s how do they say that they teach. Talking about teachers is of no use if the Head of the Management is hardly a graduate.

But Dnyaneshwari alone is not an exception; there is a bunch of such schools in the suburban areas.

It is observed that parents admit their child in such schools because they cost less than the convents and also fall near to their residence. Apart from this, many parents who admit their child in such school are either less or not at all literate. But what about the quality of education that they get in such schools.It is said that a strong base is important for the intellectual growth of the child...but what if they do not get the base at all????

Posted by- Pandey Kavita

MACJ, PART-I

 

 

 

                                                            

                                             

MUMBAI LOCAL FEEDS THEM

 Trains in Mumbai are an eminent part of Public transportation. Cancellation of 3-4 trains in the peak hours or any problem associated with the railway tracks or derailment of train compartments can easily cause huge chaos among the office goers. Every day, Mumbai local carries around 30 million passengers, says a survey held in 2013. Apart from being the cheapest way of commuting, Mumbai Railways is the base of earning for some...specifically vendors. And if you board these train after 12 in the noon, you will find a portable mini shopping mall in the trains. Barring few exceptions, you get everything, right from fashion stuffs to the household material. However, working women find this very helpful as they do not get time throughout the week and hence get stuffs in train itself. But these professional women at the same time do not bother about taking a step forward for the child vendors that account for around 30% of these vendors coming in the train.

Mukta  who is 10 year old, boards the train at Dombivali and gets down at Vitthalwadi or Shahad , sells hair band and hair clips though her tiny hands fail to hold the box in which carries the selling stuffs. She lives in Thakurli and comes along with Radha, her neighbour. Mukta’s mother works as a maid and hence Mukta has to cook for herself and her Dad before she comes to earn. “She earns around Rs. 40-50 from morning 11 to evening 5”, says Radha who accompanies her throughout because Mukta is new in the business and does not know the train routes.

 There is  Yadav who boards the train from Ambarnath with his father and earns by singing songs on the sarangi tune. Yadav’s sarangi which is made by joining different materials is created by himself and believe me the tune that come out of it is exceptional. He earns around 200 per day and sometimes gets some money out of singing in some function held in his basti. Yadav is also a part time mechanic. However, almost 80% of his income goes as an interest amount for the debt that his father took. Both these kids never went to school.

Azar, 12, who lives  Mumbra sells drawing books and pass cover in train. Though his uncle didn’t wanted him to go to school after his parents death because of financial crisis, he chose to work and pay his school fees by himself. He used to depend on his aunty for tiffins but now she doesn’t even make an effort to keep his part of meal when he returns home. He earns, washes his clothes himself, lives on 3 vada a day...but yes, he goes to school.

These kids are deprived of their Right to good food and education but we feel proud, giving reservation to SCs,STs and OBCs....

Posted by- Pandey Kavita

MACJ, PART-I

 

WELL...ITS A MATTER OF CUSTODY

One of our Professors Mr. Sanjay Ranade, recently had a discussion with us regarding the increase in the number of divorce cases in the city, wherein he mentioned that couples nowadays demand more space and privacy. They spend more time with their colleagues than their spouses. However, this lifestyle of theirs has a great impact on their married lives, but they do not communicate at all. Bandra Family Court admits around 100 divorce applications every month. However, the reason behind such application is mostly adultery, desertion, etc. Number of such divorce cases being filed in 2014 was 3,120.

Except for the couples who are not the parents, the very next thing that the other couples fight for is the custody of their child. The divorce cases that were filed for child custody in 2014 were 118.  Couples, even before getting divorced start deciding that whose custody will be the child in. Thus, taking away the Right of the child to be in association of both of his/her parents. This also has a psychological effect on the child.  There are some cases wherein the couples do not get divorced but they get separated and usually the wife takes away the child. The same is the case of Deepak, who lives in Vashi. Both he and his wife got separated last year when their daughter was 5 years old. It is very natural for a 5 year old child to stubborn to meet her father, but Deepak as father doesn’t want to meet her and his wife wishes the same. Now, this creates a major problem for the child wherein she is compelled to hate her father because her mother wants so.

Aarti and Rakesh who have 2 sons, got separated 1 year ago when Aarti’s husband and her in laws threw her out of the house. Now, the elder son lives with Rakesh and the younger one with Aarti, though both children seem to be unhappy and hate their parents. There are also many children who don’t wish to get married... when asked why... they give the reference of their parent’s unsuccessful marriage

Recently, an assistant professor of ICFAI committed a suicide and brutally killed his two children.  This shows that how severe can be the outcomes of failed marriages. In many of the cases where children stay away from their parents, these children are either very less attached or not at all attached to their parents. However, this does not happen  in a day or a two but it is just a form of psychological impact that gets developed within years as children grow up.

It is not only the violent games that are impacting your child’s brain but also the kind of environment that he/she is living in....our parents gave up whole of their lives working for us...why can’t we just give up our lifestyles for our children????

Posted by- Pandey Kavita

MACJ, PART-I

 

 

A CRUSHING STEP OVER CHILDHOOD

A girl child after her mother’s death is one of the most unfortunate one when it comes to rural India. This is because the man over there does not take a second thought before getting remarried to another woman. After that, the girl child is looked upon by her grandparents either maternal or paternal.

Pratima who is 10 year old, lives with her father and step mother in Surat. She makes chapati while her step brothers go to school in the morning, makes lunch, wipes the floor everyday and also does some embroidery work on saris in free hours of afternoon, for which her step mother gets paid. For every question relating to Pratima’s education, his father Ved Prakash has only one answer, “She must be good to handle household chores, I cannot afford educating her”. But Ved Prakash can afford putting his sons in drawing and art classes. She is beaten up by her step mother if she is found tasting the Complan powder cause they are bought for her brothers, gets only half a slice of fruit if brothers get two and the cheaper clothes sold on roads...leaving a big question that what if Pratima’s mother was  alive??...and what if she was a boy...??

Another case is of Kajal, who was left by her father along with her siblings a year ago after the death of her mother. Her father got married to another woman leaving Kajal with no other option than working in fields.  Kajal who is 14, now works in the farms with her younger brother, whereas the other two sisters remain at home. Either going school or sending her siblings to school does not count as an option for Kajal because she is hardly earning her means. Though she gets some financial aid from her uncle, she tries to keep herself away from such aids because there could be chances that his intentions might not be good. At a very young age, when we think of refraining ourselves from school assignments, Kajal has had the rein in her hands. she stands strong alone with no one beside her but just the hopes and courage. Only if their father would not have left them, even these kids could have got their meals and meets.

Alike Kajal and Pratima, there are many children living in rural India for whom getting 2 time meal is a daily challenge...forget about nutritive food and education. Stringent laws need to be made so that village men like that of Ved Prakash and Kajal’s father think 10 times before getting remarried or leaving their kids on the mercy of relatives.

Posted by- Pandey Kavita

MACJ, PART-I

 

MOTHER THE ABANDONED ONE

Recently, an illiterate mother of three daughters fled away from the hospital in Romania because she cannot afford to look after them as she is already struggling to raise three children.  The hospital in Romania reports 25 other such cases this year.  However, in 18^th and 19^th century, mothers brought their newborn babies in a baby hatch and left them anonymously and this practice has been in use in many countries since 2000 notably in Germany, where there are around 100 hatches and 300 hatches in Pakistan.

Every nursing home, nowadays, witnesses some cases of child abandonment, wherein either the child is born out of wedlock or the mother is too poor to raise her child. Thus, taking away all rights of a child from him/her. Dr. Surekha Matkar who owns Amrit Nursing Home says that at least 4-5 such cases takes place every year in her hospital. “Many of these mothers are unmarried and are majorly in their twenties”. She adds. Sometimes they do not even do the rest of the payment says Surekha. Thus, leaving the responsibility of the child on the shoulders of Hospital Authority. There are many cases of a girl child being left in the hospital as well. Apart from this, there were also some cases where the child died within hours of his/her birth, though he/she was perfectly fine at the time of his/her birth. Such cases suspect the practice of maternal neonaticide, wherein many of the mothers are spinsters.

Mamata Shukla, a nurse in the Amrit Nursing Home, takes care of such abandoned children until and unless the child does not gets adopted. There has been 4 such cases wherein the child has been taken care by the nurses of hospital, out of which 3 have been adopted and 1 has been sent to orphanage. “All the three kids have been given in a well-off families where they are taken a proper care of and are living a joyful life with their parents.”, says Surekha. She says that they prefer giving children for adoption rather than sending them to the orphanage because they think that the child’s new parents could give him/her a better life.

Says Dr. Matkar a quote in reference to rights for abandoned children,” Don’t go for surrogacy, go for adoption...and don’t just give birth, be the mother of an abandoned one.”  

Posted by- Pandey Kavita

MACJ, PART-I

 

POLICIES IN VAIN ???

Over the past four years there has been an increase in the enrolment and attendance by 71% in the schools of rural India, according to the ASER Report, 2012.  Along with Right to Education Act, mid day meals has proved to be a device that has accelerated the number of children coming to schools in rural areas. But one of the most important question that arises is, whether these students are learning or not??

Amartya Sen points out 3 defects in the education system of rural India, the first is the physical environment, the curriculum and third is the teaching method. May be this is one of the reasons why 70% of 3^rd STD students cannot solve a basic 2 digit problem and 31% of them cannot write a Hindi word correctly.

Children of Khoiri village, walk around 3kms everyday to attend their school. Though the school timing is 7am-5pm, Prakash, 13, does not move from home before 11. This is because he has to take his 4 sisters along with him and at the same time he has to reach the school before lunch time. Prakash’s elder sister Surbhi who is done with her SSC now gets a certain amount deposited in her account every month, though she fails to write even two lines with correct grammar. Surabhi, recalls that she never went to school after 8^TH STD only apart from admission and exam days. When asked about how did she managed to write her exams, she says that a sheet with all the answers got provided to them, they just have to copy. And the most interesting thing is that these students just get passed with answer sheets in their hands. “ I want to pursue further studies so that I get a laptop and a bike like the other girl in our village, but my parents are looking forward to marry me” , says Surbhi. Her father Dinannath does not want her to go for further studies because firstly the college falls much far away in Barsathi and secondly he has the fear that she would get involved into relationship.

These village students go to school because they get lunch and suji over there. For them, passing out 10^th STD with first class means a scholarship of Rs.12,000 and a bicycle. However, it can be said that the Government schemes and intentions are misled. This is because major population over there suffers from poverty and the students are the first generation of kids in their family who are introduced to schools. Though many reports say that such practices are seen among backward caste people only but in many rural areas one would find that even children belonging to Brahmin family do not go to school  to get educated but to avail these scholarships.

However, there are loopholes on the part of education system as well, both in rural and urban areas but this is a matter of serious concern...when it comes to strengthening rural education...

 

Posted by- Pandey Kavita

MACJ, PART-I