Slow down, save a life.

Finally Sanjeev Nanda got five year in prison. What a waste of life for a Wharton graduate. Most of us would probably think that he got what he deserved for killing 6 innocent people under his car which he was driving drunk. Well, that might be the case and while it is important that he got punishment for what he did what is more important is that how could the accident have been avoided and how can we stop these kind of accident from happening in future.

Rash and/or drunk driving rarely seems to be monopoly of the elite on Indian roads. I am sure if any of us look back at our own recent past we will be able to see a either ourselves or a friend or family member doing the same, driving rash or drunk.
Although nobody has intention to hurt anybody when this kind of accident happen but surely we are not patient enough to think or listen that our actions even if they well intended could end up badly hurting somebody else and also leave a deep scar on many aspects of our life.

I think this is good opportunity for us to take a pause and see what we can do to avoid this from happening to us. Please drive carefully and also encourage others to drive responsibly. Please never drive whenever you are drunk and never body let any of your friends or family members drive when they are drunk. Please don't drink if you know there is nobody who can drive you back home and you'll be the one who'll be driving. Driving rash and breaking traffic rules could be dangerous even if you are in your full senses so please slow down and save a life .....

Say no to child abuse

Say no to child labor

Having a child working for you looks like a really attractive proposition, Isn't it? It comes with a lot of advantages you can get a days work for pennies, these poor children don't argue as much, are generally mild mannered as compared to adults, with a little bit of training you can mold his working style into the way you want.

Also it looks like a win win situation as the kid is also able to get food and shelter which his parent might not have afforded. But is this the case. Do we ever consider child's circumstance in making a decision to hire a child. Well this may be true in a small number of cases but is certainly not in most of them.If we really have some regards for the well being of the child I think most of us who can afford to keep a maid or a servant for our household work can afford to sponsor a under privileged child's food and shelter.

Most of practices associated with child labor in Indian society are a form of child abuse as they interfere with a child's physical, social, education and moral development and are a great detriment to the child and the society.

Some of my friends looking for a job after their engineering always dreaded getting a job in manufacturing(especially in small firms) because of atmosphere which is they say was a hell in itself as compared plush comforts of an office job in a Software company where you have an uninterrupted supply of electricity and an air conditioned environment to save you from extreme climate of north India. You don't have to abuse(talk in abusive language) the worker on the shop floor to get him back to work. Imagine a child working in such a shop floor where in addition to missing his school he is subjected to harsh physical as well as social atmosphere. What do you think that when this child grows up will give back to the society?

Also related to employment of these children is the problem of the population growth of India. It gives boost to our traditional theory of more hands more money which encourages people to produce more children so that they have more members to support the family. Rampant poverty and bad habits among the lower strata of society leads to fathers forcing there kids to finding jobs at the early age to support there drinking and drug abuse habits. This vicious circle goes on as with many these kids not getting proper eductaion and taking up these substance abuse habits themselves from there surroundings as they grow up and later taking to crime when they are not able to get work because of there habits.

All of these problems are not limited to just the lower strata of the society but many related problems are also prominent in the middle strata as well especially in small cities. A son of a farmer is expected to take up farming and son of businessman is expected to get into business thus leading ignorance to development of other aspects of there personalities. In many business and farming families education is not considered important as it is expected that sons of a businessman will join family business and same with farming but with ever changing economy and technology where small businesses are crumbling due to growing competition from large corporations and among themseleves and on farming side reduced need of man power and produce prices not keeping pace with growing needs of modern households these kids feel the pinch of disguised unemployment when they are not able to grow the businesses and procution at the pace of the growth of the family. This leads to family disputes and reduced harmony among the family memebers. These people are left with limited options as neither they have developed skills required to get well paying jobs available in mordern workspace nor they have the skills, technical know how or capital required to compete with large eneterprises.


Work is not always bad for children. For example a child working for some part of his summer vactions or a kid teaching tution to his juniors to make some pocket money actually help the child to learn how to work, get some responsibility and also some pocket money for himself or to support his family. Such kind of work can be beneficial in promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest.

All said saying no to hire a child labor is just a small part of the solution as many of these children don't have any option but to work in order to support their and their family's basic needs and it will need take much more to improve the state of life for these children. There are other things which will form other parts of the solution some of them even more important then saying no to hiring a child. One of these important things is that when you say no to hire a child labor educate the parents who requested you to hire their child regarding what loss they are causing to future of their child and to the society. Also if and when we give work to a child we need to ensure that work is not hazardous, doesn't interfere with physical development or eductaion of the child and that the child is paid properly, almost the same things we that we would want for our children. There are a lot of organizations who help the underprivilidged children in their eductaion and their basic needs. Wherever this option is available you can help the kid or the parents to get the help from these organizations. You can help these organizations by giving donations and doing volunteer work for them. However if all this sounds too compilcated and we can't be part of the solution and the very least we can say "No to child abuse" and avoid becoming part of the problem.

Getting some company

Creating a website is just a means to bigger cause which I can't do alone. The best policy seems to be to help people who are already doing some work around the area. so took some first steps toward that. Orphanage in Ferozepur Cantt (Arya Anathalya) was setup by swami dayanand sarswati in 1877. I wanted to know what all activities they are doing and start helping them by making information available on internet about the activities they do. I called them to know about activities they do but wasn't able to successfully communicate the purpose of my call. so the lady on the other side was apprehensive about giving any information to me. To my surprise she knew my Family and suggested to I should help them thru my family. May be thats a good Idea to start with.

During my searches about the city I also came across a group called Graduate Welfare Asociation of Fazilka and have started interacting with them. I have added a link to there website on Ferozepur.org and I'll be writing more about my interaction with some time later.

Cheers

Gaurav
To make a difference to ferozepur. Visit www.Ferozepur.org

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It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice.
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Starting a new phase

Hi I am Gaurav. I am software engineer and I work with NIIT Technologies. I was born in Fazilka and brought up in Ferozepur. I moved out of the town when I was 17 and have been a nomad since. I have lived and moved around multiple cities(Jalandhar, New Delhi, Sydney , New york, Philadelhia) in multiple countries in multiple continents. However most of these years I have spent in Delhi. I have got used to the life style of Delhi and have actually started loving this city. However it was a nightmare to start with in fact I still like the small town ferozepur is than a crowded place like Delhi. Then why didn't I come back to live there because I don't have much oppurtunities in the field of work I chose to do in this town. We all have(those who have chose to leave and live/settle elsewhere) our reasons ranging from not getting enough oppurtunities to preference for fast paced independent living of big city.

We (Ferozepur) have had our share of disadvantages ranging from being a border town and not getting investments due to security risk from others which we share with rest of the country like being at the mercy of the corrupt administration. Things need to change and change comes quicker if more people put their efforts so I just thought I'll contribute my 2 cents for the same cause.

I am trying to put together Ferozepur.org which will be a starting point for my effort. Here is what I am trying to achieve thru it:

* Provide a forum to distribute information about ferozepur.
* Provide a platform to raise some issues which are important for us.Well I don't live in ferozepur so the issues I raise by myself might not be the ones which really matter or might not be actually issues to the people of ferozepur. so let me know wherever I am wrong and also provide the details of the issues you want to raise.
* Raise some money by advertisement revenue and donations which I can give to charities working in the area.
*Raise the awareness of the people about the electronic age and the opportunities unleashed by the same.

Cheers

Gaurav