This New Year Wish You All Very Happy and Prosperous Life.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Again the same old story of Indian communalism
This Christmas while we all were enjoying with our friends and family then some maniacs were vandalizing Churches and houses to fulfill their anger over Christians at Orissa. The tension began on Monday when some groups of Christians and Hindus fought over some issues. The rest story is I guess well known to us. Some places like Kandhamala district are under curfew. Many important roads and railway tracks are blocked by the mob and which incurred a loss of resources. I am not writing over the reason of this riot or not I am not really concerned with whom are involved in this creepy issues. I am worried about the humanity and the future generation of this nation. As I am a 20 something guy who loves to watch movie or cricket never minds to categorizing people by their cast. I can still remember the day when Robin Utthappa hit down the Pakistanis in T20 tournament all over the India were excited make his worship…did those fanatics who killed Muslims in Gujrat ever asked Zaheer Khan about his cast while he hauled Hayden and Ponting in MCG test today. The answer is very simple guys…its very easy to be a Hindu, Muslim or Christian but its not that easy to be an Human Being. This poisonous tree of communalism has been rooted in our mind and soul for years and this will be inherited in our next generation…if we don’t uproot it then peril of Indian civilization is not so far.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Justice...that She Deserves
Guys as when I started this blog I put focus on some social issues which are like curse to us like poverty, child labor, sexual harassment, racism etc. Although I am working for people who are in USA but still don't feel regret to say that in America racism is very acute and sometimes it hurts people like hell.
Today while surfing the net I came across a news on Yahoo news which tells that an Indian engineer got compensation of 5.5 million dollar from her Silicon Valley firm. The whole story is like this...
Kiran Pandey is an Indian Engineer working in Silicon Valley USA. She lodged a complaint against her previous employer of racism. The jury found Kiran Pande's former employer Chevron liable for wrongful termination and retaliation and ruled that she be given roughly USD three million for past and future economic losses, and USD 2.5 million in punitive damages.
Pande, who is India-born and holds a Ph.D. In petroleum engineering from Stanford University, was fired by Chevron in late 2003 after 15 years with the company.
After a three-week trial stemming from incidents that occurred between September 2000 and December 2003, the jury found that Chevron retaliated against Pande after she complained about discrimination and fired her for reasons that violated a public policy.
Chevron first hired Pande as a research engineer in 1988. But in 2001 Pande began to suffer racist remarks and discrimination at the hand of his senior Rex Mitchell, who is now the company's chief compliance officer, according to her complaint, filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
By March 2002, Pande complained to Mitchell's supervisor, James Johnson, about Mitchell's conduct.
Johnson did not investigate, Pande said and alleged that she was given the choice of leaving the company or leaving the group or staying for up to 18 months and getting along with Mitchell.
Later she filed a formal complaint against Mitchell with a company ombudsman.
See guys I love this when I find people get justice...aren't you!
Today while surfing the net I came across a news on Yahoo news which tells that an Indian engineer got compensation of 5.5 million dollar from her Silicon Valley firm. The whole story is like this...
Kiran Pandey is an Indian Engineer working in Silicon Valley USA. She lodged a complaint against her previous employer of racism. The jury found Kiran Pande's former employer Chevron liable for wrongful termination and retaliation and ruled that she be given roughly USD three million for past and future economic losses, and USD 2.5 million in punitive damages.
Pande, who is India-born and holds a Ph.D. In petroleum engineering from Stanford University, was fired by Chevron in late 2003 after 15 years with the company.
After a three-week trial stemming from incidents that occurred between September 2000 and December 2003, the jury found that Chevron retaliated against Pande after she complained about discrimination and fired her for reasons that violated a public policy.
Chevron first hired Pande as a research engineer in 1988. But in 2001 Pande began to suffer racist remarks and discrimination at the hand of his senior Rex Mitchell, who is now the company's chief compliance officer, according to her complaint, filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
By March 2002, Pande complained to Mitchell's supervisor, James Johnson, about Mitchell's conduct.
Johnson did not investigate, Pande said and alleged that she was given the choice of leaving the company or leaving the group or staying for up to 18 months and getting along with Mitchell.
Later she filed a formal complaint against Mitchell with a company ombudsman.
See guys I love this when I find people get justice...aren't you!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Is India Shining Really?
Tourists hoping for a glimpse of real India should ditch the well-trodden Red Fort-Taj Mahal circuit and make a pilgrimage to a little-known Moghul-era tomb hidden in the shabby residential district of Kotla, smack in the center of Delhi.
The tomb itself is in bad shape, despite the sign outside which proclaims it a nationally protected monument, but visitors are welcome to walk inside and climb up the unlit stone staircase to the roof.
This is where the excursion becomes interesting, and it is perhaps Delhi police officers, rather than tourists, who should be taking stock of the view from here.
Ugly apartment blocks have been built around the monument over the last few decades, in places barely a meter from its walls. In many of the windows opposite, young children are clearly visible, hunched over low tables, diligently embroidering sequins onto brightly-colored silk and gauze.
Welcome to India's zari industry - where children labor for a pittance to stitch elaborate brocaded designs onto high-fashion evening wear for India's new rich.
Around half a dozen of these sweatshops are open to casual inspection from the tomb's roof. In the labyrinthine lanes nearby, too narrow for cars to pass through, there are dozens more.
Inside, boys as young as young as 9 cautiously describe their bleak working conditions. They squat on the floor for the duration of their 16-hour shifts, from 9 a.m. until 1 a.m. the following morning, for which they earn about 100 rupees, or $2.50. Food (watery vegetable curry and rice) is served in plastic buckets.
The children, all migrants from impoverished rural areas, sleep and work in the same squalid, bare rooms, their few belongings stored in plastic bags in the corner. In some places, as many as 16 live cramped together, with only a CD player to break the monotony.
This area of Delhi is well-known as a ghetto of cheap child laborers, available to do contract work for the textile industry. In the gutters outside, the raw sewage that runs down open drains sparkles with sequins. Tiny flashes of pink, yellow and green turn out, on closer inspection, to be glinting plastic jewels, decorating the mounds of cow and goat dung.
Despite repeated requests from Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an energetic nongovernment organization dedicated to eradicating child labor, and despite the presence of a police station less than one kilometer away, nothing has been done to shut down these workshops, even though the employment of children under 14 in the zari business has been illegal for more than 20 years.
The scene broadly sums up the effectiveness of India's ban on child labor.
On Wednesday, India marked the first anniversary of the strengthening of its child labor laws. A year ago this week, amid much media excitement and government fanfare, an amendment to the Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act, which prohibits the employment of children under 14 in "hazardous" jobs, was announced, extending the definition of what constitutes hazardous to include children working in homes as maids, and in hotels, restaurants and roadside cafés as low-paid waiters.
At the time, activists working in the field voiced some caution about what they felt were inadequate preparations for the rescue and rehabilitation of illegally employed children, and warned that vigorous enforcement was essential if the modified law were to be any more potent than the existing statutes.
A year on, there is frustration at the slow pace of change.
On the plus side, campaigners say there has been considerable raising of awareness across the country, so that most people now realize that employing a young child as a cleaner in your home is illegal. On the less positive side, since there has been very little police action to prosecute those who continue to employ children, there is a belief that it is possible to continue as before with impunity.
The tomb itself is in bad shape, despite the sign outside which proclaims it a nationally protected monument, but visitors are welcome to walk inside and climb up the unlit stone staircase to the roof.
This is where the excursion becomes interesting, and it is perhaps Delhi police officers, rather than tourists, who should be taking stock of the view from here.
Ugly apartment blocks have been built around the monument over the last few decades, in places barely a meter from its walls. In many of the windows opposite, young children are clearly visible, hunched over low tables, diligently embroidering sequins onto brightly-colored silk and gauze.
Welcome to India's zari industry - where children labor for a pittance to stitch elaborate brocaded designs onto high-fashion evening wear for India's new rich.
Around half a dozen of these sweatshops are open to casual inspection from the tomb's roof. In the labyrinthine lanes nearby, too narrow for cars to pass through, there are dozens more.
Inside, boys as young as young as 9 cautiously describe their bleak working conditions. They squat on the floor for the duration of their 16-hour shifts, from 9 a.m. until 1 a.m. the following morning, for which they earn about 100 rupees, or $2.50. Food (watery vegetable curry and rice) is served in plastic buckets.
The children, all migrants from impoverished rural areas, sleep and work in the same squalid, bare rooms, their few belongings stored in plastic bags in the corner. In some places, as many as 16 live cramped together, with only a CD player to break the monotony.
This area of Delhi is well-known as a ghetto of cheap child laborers, available to do contract work for the textile industry. In the gutters outside, the raw sewage that runs down open drains sparkles with sequins. Tiny flashes of pink, yellow and green turn out, on closer inspection, to be glinting plastic jewels, decorating the mounds of cow and goat dung.
Despite repeated requests from Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an energetic nongovernment organization dedicated to eradicating child labor, and despite the presence of a police station less than one kilometer away, nothing has been done to shut down these workshops, even though the employment of children under 14 in the zari business has been illegal for more than 20 years.
The scene broadly sums up the effectiveness of India's ban on child labor.
On Wednesday, India marked the first anniversary of the strengthening of its child labor laws. A year ago this week, amid much media excitement and government fanfare, an amendment to the Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act, which prohibits the employment of children under 14 in "hazardous" jobs, was announced, extending the definition of what constitutes hazardous to include children working in homes as maids, and in hotels, restaurants and roadside cafés as low-paid waiters.
At the time, activists working in the field voiced some caution about what they felt were inadequate preparations for the rescue and rehabilitation of illegally employed children, and warned that vigorous enforcement was essential if the modified law were to be any more potent than the existing statutes.
A year on, there is frustration at the slow pace of change.
On the plus side, campaigners say there has been considerable raising of awareness across the country, so that most people now realize that employing a young child as a cleaner in your home is illegal. On the less positive side, since there has been very little police action to prosecute those who continue to employ children, there is a belief that it is possible to continue as before with impunity.
Back With A Bang
After a gap of 9-10 months I am back with blogging. Yes its true there was a time when blogging was my life but dew to shortage of time or pressure of life whatever you guys say...I could not blog. Trust me this hibernation period of blogging was like a hell but I could not manage time to cut this hell out. Anyways thanks to my friends who inspired me again and helped me to get back my urge. So guys I am back with my life...blogging.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Save this ground and save the childhood
This above leaflet is showing how some selfish people are destroying the greenery and equilibrium of Sinthee area.This above said ground is one of the famous ground of North Kolkata. This ground has some nostalgic value of many people.So lets join hands together to save this ground.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
A Letter changes the Vision of Indian Railway
Akhil Chandra Sen's letter to the Railway Department:
"I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with 'lotah' in one hand and 'dhoti' in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on plateform. I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station.
This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report! to papers."
Akhil Chandra Sen wrote this letter to the Sahibganj divisional railway
office in 1909. It is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi.
It was also reproduced under the caption "Travelers' Tales" in the Far Eastern Economic Review.
You must be wondering about the significance of such trivial letter...it is one of the motivating factors to introduce toilets in Indian Trains.
"I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with 'lotah' in one hand and 'dhoti' in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on plateform. I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station.
This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report! to papers."
Akhil Chandra Sen wrote this letter to the Sahibganj divisional railway
office in 1909. It is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi.
It was also reproduced under the caption "Travelers' Tales" in the Far Eastern Economic Review.
You must be wondering about the significance of such trivial letter...it is one of the motivating factors to introduce toilets in Indian Trains.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Sexual Harassment with Martyr's Wife: Reflecting Our Work Culture
Two war widows from Punjab petitioned the National Commission for Women for help against sexual harassment by their superior, Sainik Welfare Board (SWB) chief Brig (retd) JS Jaswal who, in Chandigarh, denied the charge.
Anti-Terrorist Front chairman MS Bitta accompanied 38-year-old Raj Kaur, widow of hawaldar Gurmail Singh, a sena medal winner who died in Operation Rhino in Assam, and Margaret Gill when they submitted a memorandum to NCW chairperson Girija Vyas alleging that Jaswal sexually harassed them continually at their offices in Chandigarh and Bhatinda, punishing them with adverse career reports and blocking their discretionary benefits for rebuffing him.
Vyas said that the NCW had received a copy of the complaint a week back and has asked for an action taken report. But there has been no reply from the SWB so far. "If necessary, we will send a team for an inquiry," she said.
She wondered whether the Supreme Court mandated cell to receive complaints against sexual harassment at workplace was inactive or had not been set up at the SWB. "We are looking into the whole matter," she said.
In their memorandum, Bitta, Gill and Raj Kaur alleged that the directorate and the Sainik rest houses have become "dens of moral turpitude" and demanded a CBI probe into the matter and punishment of the culprits, including Jaswal's personal assistant. Bitta also intends to take the two women to meet Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the wife of Army chief JJ Singh.
Speaking to reporters, Raj Kaur, a clerk with the Board, said she even thought of committing suicide alongwith her two children when her complaints to the local police and other officials came to naught.
"We have come to the NCW with a heavy heart and a lot of hope," said Raj Kaur and Gill, another fourth class employee who alleged she was harassed even after getting herself transferred to Bhatinda.
Gill's daughter Seema, on her part, urged other victims of harassment to step forward with their complaints to clean up the system.
After Gill went public with her charge at a press conference at Chandigarh on January 2, Jaswal dismissed the allegation with a counter charge that the women accusing him of misbehaviour were not above board. The retired Army officer, who is already facing an inquiry by the Chandigarh police, on Monday once again denied the charges.
Jaswal denied meeting Gill who was not even in the direct chain of command under him and was suspended. "She is implicated in a case of forgery and has been suspended by the department three or four times," he said. "An inquiry, conducted against Raj Kaur by the SC/ST Commission on allegations that she used racist abuses against my PA, had found her guilty. She was never directly working under me. I have never made any sexual advances towards her and these allegations have been levelled to scuttle departmental action after the commission's report," he said. And Bitta's move, he alleged, was prompted by electoral considerations.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Doctors, nurses face sexual harassment at work place
Women doctors and nurses are victims of sexual harassment at the workplace and not many of them are ready to come out openly against it.
This fact has been brought out by a recent study in which several doctors and nurses, including senior staff members, revealed that sexual harassment in hospitals is quite common.
The study was conducted in Kolkata, West Bengal, with 135 in-depth interviews of women employees in two government and two private hospitals over a period of 11 months.
'Power imbalances characterised many of the incidents of sexual harassment as the perpetrators were frequently persons in authority and victims were often those in a relatively subordinate position,' said Paramita Chaudhuri, who conducted the study on behalf of an international NGO called Population Council.
'The doctors and administrators in positions of authority harassed other doctors, nurses and other non-medical lower level staff. Even patients are seen to be in positions of authority because their complaint could lead to dismissal,' she added.
The study 'Sexual harassment in work place - experiences of women in the health sector' says victims were sexually harassed by not only their co-workers but also by patients and their relatives.
'Women will study and enter various professions and then men will behave in this manner. We have accepted this is how things will continue,' a 30-year-old government doctor said when interviewed for the study.
Sharing her personal experience, a 35-year-old nurse in a government hospital said: 'Saying bad things when they see a woman is natural. It doesn't matter if the man is a doctor or a non-medical staffer.'
The study also found that in a large number of cases the victims were reluctant to go public on this issue.
Of the 135 women interviewed, 77 admitted sexual harassment but 50 did not complain. Of the 45 doctors interviewed 24 had been harassed; of the 50 nurses, 31 were victims of sexual harassment.
'Many fear they will be blamed for provoking sexual harassment. Others fear loss of reputation after complaining. So the culture of silence and denial continues,' the study said.
Shockingly, the biggest perpetrators of abuse were patients and their families followed by doctors and non-medical staff.
'Nurses are the only group harassed by everyone - doctors, non-medical staff, patients and their relatives and outsiders,' a 29-year-old doctor in a private hospital admitted.
According to the study, just 20 of the 135 women interviewed were aware of the Supreme Court guidelines on sexual harassment and none had heard of a complaints committee for redressal of their grievances.
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