22 Government Departments of Jharkhand sensitized on the issue of child labour

The Department of Labour, Employment and Training, Government of Jharkhand organized a sensitization workshop on the issue of child labour under the International Labour Organization supported initiative “Converging Against Child Labour: Support for India’s Model” at Hotel Capitol Hill, Ranchi. This training program aimed at familiarizing all concerned departments on the issue of child labour and to discuss with them the legal provisions, schemes as well as roles that different departments can play in tackling the issue. The ultimate objective was to create a pool of trainers in the issue who can further sensitize their respective departments on the issue and on the strategies that can be adopted to help move towards elimination of the issue. “Education of every child is very important and the Right to Education has to be actualized. Awareness on the issue has to be created at the grass root level, for instance, at the Panchayat level”, said Sri Vishnu Kumar, I.A.S., Principal Secretary, Department of Labour, Employment & Training, Jharkhand inaugurating the two days training programme.

“Child Labour is not only an issue of Labour Department and all our stakeholders have to converge to tackle the issue. The Convergence Model initiative supported by ILO has brought in a model which is being piloted in two districts viz. Ranchi and Sahebganj and is already showing positive results in abating the issue of child labour,” add Smt. Aradhana Patnaik, I.A.S., Labour Commissioner, Jharkhand. Secretary, Child Labour Commission cum Nodal Officer, Convergence Model Project Dr Shyam Sunder Pathak coordinated the event along with State Resource Cell, ILO Convergence Model Project staff.

The departments who attended the training were Department of Labour, Employment & Training, Department of Human Resource Development, District Administration, District Social Welfare Women and Child Development, Welfare Department, Information & Public Relations Department, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Department of Rural Development, Department of Urban Development, Panchayati Raj, Department of Finance, Environment & Forest; Law, Officers from Department of Personnel Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha, Food, Public Distribution & Consumer Affairs, Child Welfare Officers of Special Juvenile Police Units, Agriculture & Sugarcane Development, Industries, Animal Husbandry & Fisheries, Food, Public Distribution & Consumer Affairs among others.

The Resource Persons were from Department of Labour, Employment & Training, UNICEF and Department of Social Welfare, Women & Child Development. Besides this, I.G. C.I.D. Police, Sri Anurag Gupta sensitized the participants on the issues of human in Jharkhand and various penal provisions for the issue. The training programme was entirely participatory and well taken by all participants.

We Rock!!

Now I have to be prompt and write as frequently as I can :)

Today was hectic day, morning chores, getting my son ready and on time to school, going to the bank, reminding my mom n dad to pick ansh from school, visiting government departments to ensure participation to a training programme we are organising this week, attending a meeting for my media fellowship, going to the state secretariat to meet the labour commissioner, fetching ansh from nani-nanu's house, getting household stuff from the market, getting ansh to do his "exam preparations" and then finally blogging while feeding ansh his dinner!!!!!

all I can say yet again "Hats off to me and all the working women of today's era!!" We Rock ladies :)

and I am back!!!

I cant believe myself!!! Its about to be a year since I visited my blog page, leave alone posting one!

Thinking of the reasons; the only one that comes to my mind is my new job. I joined the Labour Department in July 2011 and wrote m

y last blog a month before. So I guess its no one but my new job that is to be blamed. However I should not be using the word "blame" as I am not complaining but liking the new assignment as much as I loved my last organization. Its just that the new place is demanding and six days a week. The only Sunday left to relax is "reserved" for my little one :)

He is 4 yrs, 4 months old now.

So much has happened ......

I quit my 6 years old job, got to work with the system, recieved a government media fellowship, my best friend is a mommy now :) my son completed 4 years, we applied for his school admissions and then decided on his continuing with the play school, Ansh had a bad year and had been constantly ill, Ranchi city kept growing only in terms of the brands (KFC, Fab India, Satya Paul, W, Subway, etc.) and no infrastruct

ure got developed accordingly,

my grand mother passed away and also some such stars who you thought will always keep entertaining you ( and they still are..) jagjit singh, devanand, shammi kapoor...

Of all this the most enriching and memorable part was getting to interact with children who study at the National Child Labour Project special schools being run by the Labour Departmen

t. The smiling faces of these children always makes me wonder whether I really h

ave any issues in my life! The pain and suffering overcome with the smile and a feeling of being out of the rut (tem

porarily) is overwhelming. These little children though rescued from work know very well the huge responsibilities awaiting them and the struggles ahead in life. Some get their little siblings with them to school as there is noone at home to take care of them.

Work, daily chores, responsibilities, family, my little one .......and life goes on................

and this time i log off with a promise that blogging will go on. :)

We are the best!

Yet again I found the bucket in the backyard, the maid forgot to put it back in my bathroom after washing the clothes. While I could not help getting irritated I also realised there was no point in getting irked over the same everything everyday. You need to just live with it!

There are list of such things which irritate you or are to your dislike and yet you cannot do anything about it as they are bound to happen everyday. It is interesting to go through the daily list of such things :) In a regular day I live with-

1. Missing out on having a relaxed morning tea as some or the chore stands waiting

2. My hubby leaving the bathroom lights on

3. Dishes half laid on the table for lunch

4. The car not cleaned from inside

etc...etc...

Well the point is that there are so many nitty gritties in our everyday lives and its so amazing how women manage everything and that too so well! Men will surely be in for a disaster if women go on a strike! What will they do if they have bathed and find there towel is missing, they sit to have breakfast and see that its not served, they sit in their office and recall that the morning medicine was not taken...

We work, we care, we love, we give and yet we make all efforts to stay fit, dress up well and look good!

Yes we women are the winners all the way :)

Shalu's fantasies

Nidhi was playing with her 3 year old son and waiting impatiently for her maid. It was her husband’s birthday and a lot of cooking was yet to be done before guests arrived for dinner. The door bell rang and Shalu walked in. Nidhi noticed her dark lipstick, dangling earrings and new salwar kameez. “Anything special?”, enquired Nidhi. Shalu smiled and replied, “No you have guest coming , so I thought I should dress up for the occasion!” She laughed and went in to the kitchen.
At night Nidhi told her husband of how fashion consciousness and an urge to be at par with the world had penetrated even in lower middle class. Her husband was in agreement. As kids we never saw children of the house helps getting any education and today every person be it a daily wage labourer ensures that his child goes to school. It is a different matter what quality of education is received to these children or whether they work and earn for the family post school. Yet it is reflects the positive development of the community to seek education and hence seek a better life.
Nidhi started noticing that the maid tried to ape her in every possible way be it dresses, jewellary or make up, needless to mention the numerous phone calls she got. Shalu got increasingly difficult to cope with. She asserted that she could not cook any more as it hindered her evening “freaking out”. She kept demanding for increase in wage and Nidhi kept succumbing to her as she could not manage her little one and the household alone.
One fine day Shalu turned up and announced that she was leaving for “Dilli” with an acquaintance. She was extremely excited about her new life waiting for her- the big city, the lavish life, the salary etc. Nidhi let her go with a heavy heart but had no other option. With passage of time a new maid arrived. However Nidhi always thought of Shalu and wondered how she was doing.
The new maid one day brought news which almost choked Nidhi. Shalu was no more…………
The news was heavily reported in the media. She was yet another victim of trafficking from poor performing states like Jharkhand and Orissa. Abused, tortured and exploited on a regular basis the girl was made to work long hours. One day her owner beat her up on the pretext that “she had not worked enough for the day”. The beating was so severe that Shalu succumbed to her injuries. Today her parents can do nothing but lament her death.
The issue is not as simple as the want of a teenage girl to live a good life and experience all the joys that any well to do girl does. It is far more complicated which has led to a vicious cycle of such instances in the country. The poor states having very little to offer coupled with the big money and false promises are able to lure parents who send away their little children to far off cities from where they are never able to come back. Many work as bonded labours. The Government is struggling to handle the situation and yet finds itself ill equipped. The department of labour conducts raids and rescues these children but have no facilities of keeping these children in transit homes of their own. In many cases they have to let go of these children who ultimately return back to their employers and all the effort goes in vain.
It is time when we open our eyes and report any suspected cases of abuse and torture of house helps. In fact a recent survey has reported maximum cases of child labour in the form of domestic servants and we can make our contribution by reporting such cases.
Lets pray for justice to Moin, a 10 year old who was beaten up to death by his employer recently in New Delhi at a bidi factory…..

Girls this is for u!

Today being the world cup finals and seeing the excitement all around I wished to invite all my friends over and enjoy the match over snacks and drinks. This made me think that how lucky I am to have so many good pals when the world today lives behind closed doors..... have been working with this NGO for the past 5 years. Have made several friends all these years but the “girl gang” that we have here today is the best part about working together under roof. I call it a “girl gang” though 70 percent of us are above 30 and married with kids! Our enthusiasm and flair for fun makes us as young as a 20 year old college girl :) When I had joined CINI, there was a group of young girls freshly passed out from TISS and XISS and I had come back home from Delhi after working with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). At CSE I had made friends for a life time and am still very much in touch with them and never lose an opportunity to meet them. Back in Ranchi I was not expecting the kind of crowd I actually across in my new office. Ranchi had also changed a lot (see my post- The changing face of Ranchi) and by the way Ranchi has come a step further from the time this post was written with a Five Star Hotel (Raddisson), a 4 star, International food fests, Dominos, the National Games complex, a new mall with 3 screen multiplex, 2 exclusive outlets of Satya Paul and many more… Well I love to see my town progressing! Coming back to the point…so I was having a nice time in my new office at Ranchi with the girls, shopping at Delhi and Bangalore and organising trainings at resorts in Puri. Then there was a lag phase, the girls left, I got married and then pregnant, and then my little one came like a spark in my life. As he grew up gradually changes kept happening on the office front with new people coming in and many leaving (we have a very high turn over rate). None of the new faces were exciting (specially the men!) and then like luck would have it suddenly the office was bubbling with girls! They were from Bangalore, Kolkata, Ranchi itself and from varied backgrounds with strong qualifications (Cornell & Columbia alumnus too :)). As we got to know each other better we found that we may not have much in common yet we all gelled along very well. Then came this idea to us that we should get together beyond office and have fun (of course getting out kids with us). Since then we periodically try and break the monotony in life with our outings and get togethers. Everyone in the gang has her own specialty from good cooks, to bakers, to homemakers, to singers, to number queens, to community workers and yes all of us are good dancers :) This girl gang too is destined to split some day, the process has already begun but I also know for sure that we will always be in touch and good friends. Isn’t it girls?

We human beings

Human mind is the most complicated of all. Had heard this but now as years are passing by and the mind is gaining �maturity that comes with experience� this fact has been vindicated by so many real life examples! I have also realised that females are much more complicated than men (sorry girls!!).
This is probably because of the social structure which permits men more space and freedom of speech as well as actions. A woman has to curb her thoughts and this suppression further leads to resentment, envy and negative thoughts. The best part is that its mostly a fellow woman who is responsible for curbing another woman�s thoughts!!
Getting to the point, there have been certain instances which makes one wonder why? I know of a female who is seemingly normal, pretty, has a good career and family life and yet there is something about her which makes me always think that she is not normal! I remember when I was going around with my current hubby and he had bought a bike. We used to go on his bike for long rides. Isn�t this something normal? Now what is abnormal is that this girl I mentioned started dating a guy and then came one day to specially mention that she went on a bike ride with her sweetheart and that the whole world was looking at them and marvelling at the perfectness of their togetherness and how happening they looked in the bike.
Another incident- while talking to a friend I happened to ask about A and B who were ex-colleagues and were about to marry. The friend said they never married. A had got arrested at the wedding venue as a girl landed up with the police and accused A of using her sexually in the pretext of marrying her. Today B lives a life of seclusion while A walks free. Today when I think of A I can never get myself to imagine he was capable of doing something so horrible. What kind of a living being would be that? Definitely not human!
Another one- this dear friend of mine sent across her pics from a wedding. She was looking just perfect, saree, jewellery everything and that too sans make up! Another girl C told her that she was looking okay and that her saree was outdated. Again one fine day C called my friend to ask where had she bought her jewellery from. My friend didn�t give any details and said that all her stuff is outdated, so don�t bother! And then here it comes.....a posting of pics that show similar saree and jewellery and an email of self praise to my fnd describing how C had stolen the show! Isn�t that weird? Would any normal person ever do something like that? Self praise and declarations of a happening life are only indicative of something more complicated and fake. Alas the world today is full of such people and their lives ROCK (though I am not sure how much is the reality)!