Association for India’s Development February

Delhi Chapter Newsletter 2008

Table of Contents From the Editor’s Desk

From the editors desk 1 This month February is the shortest of all and
things have been progressing in the same pace and the
Project Updates highlight of the AID Delhi this month is clearly nothing
Aashayen 2 other than the Children’s Event at the Aashayen. It was
AID Gurgaon 2 not the event which displayed the skills of the children
AID Prayas 3 at Aashayen but also an event which brought in the
Parichay 4 talent and coordination capabilities within the
Youth Task Force 4 volunteers of the project. The way the children were
Khoj 4 prepared in a short notice and the amount of effort the
Tara 5 volunteers brought in to pull out a stunning show on
Nai Disha 5 the stage is simply speechless and I have no words to
express. This event also brought in the enthusiastic and
Volunteer Speak – Roshan Jha 5 energy up in the volunteers of other projects to think
Volunteer Speak – Siddharh Goayl 6 about conducting such an event in other projects as well
as AID Delhi wide. I hope there will be another jaw-
Extraas 6 dropping show soon on the cards.
We also had the budget this month and lot of
Articles announcements like Rs. 60000 crore loan waived off for
Coexisting with Nature - Haripriya 7 the farmers and Income Tax limit has been increased
Environment around Us – Dolly 8 from Rs.1 lack to 1.5 lack and when people are thinking
Economic Boom – Difference on the life of on the budget as one of the best one, just we can try to
a common man – Vikas Happa 8 look at the other side of the coin. I’m not an economist
India – Shilpa Singla 10 to analyze the budget and I’m no where near to an
The Pretender – Tamseel Hussain 11 economist to see it in that point of view but just some
shared thoughts with intellects and experts. Rs.60000
Toon of the Month 12 crore loan waive off can be simply stated as big
hogwash. In simple terms these 60000 crore is just a
Children’s Corner 13 virtual money which could be waived off. Its just an
election plank which is used at the time before elections
Photo of the Month - Rupali 14 to get back the seat. If the issue has to be seen critically,
most of the Indian farmers commit suicide in the
Behind the Scene Vidarbha region. If we closely read the budget, it says
Publications Team 15 that the loans will be waived off for the farmers who
hold a land of less than 2 hectare of land and most of
Information Corner – Selva 15 the farmers in the region of the worst affected in the
districts of Amravati, Washim, Wardha, Akola,
Contact us 15 Buldhana and Yavatmal will not be benefited as they
hold a land of more than 2 hectares and more over the
loans are waived off only for the farmers who had taken
loan from the bank and in many case it has been the
private money lenders who will be benefited.

1

Kishore Tiwari an activist and leader of
Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti quoted that
“beneficiaries from the Vidarbha region were 4.62
lakh, with a total loan of Rs 1,116 crore, while there
were less than 3 lakh farmers in western Maharashtra,
with a total loan of Rs 6,416 crore. If farmers holding
land upto five hectares were given the benefit, then
68% of the farmers in Vidarbha will be covered”.
Prasanna Saligram a Jeevan Saathi of AID told that the
budget is simply mopping the floor instead of looking
into the issue and closing the tap. Unless the tap is not
closed the water will keep flowing and the government
will keep mopping. Also he compared the loan
waiving with the forward trading which just happens
virtually and nothing is done at the ground. May be
the election at the year end will have a final say on the
entire budget. I also hope someone will write a
detailed analysis of the budget in our next newsletter.
With lots of thinking, I wish my readers a
Happy Reading!
-Selva
- Publications Coordinator,
- AID Delhi,
- aid.selva@gmail.com
- +91-9891358457 / +91-9818248459
Project Updates: AID Aashayen
This month has been a milestone for Aashayein.
We celebrated our first event on 17th February after a
month of preparations.
We started our preparations with segregation of
our volunteers into various sub teams for activities like
Dance, Fancy dress & skit. All teams visualized their
goals keeping in mind the interest & caliber of the
children, & then followed them with equal efforts &
commitment.
Event started with an opening word by Vijay
bhaiya, he shared his manifold experiences with kids.
He emphasized the need of understanding children's
mentality by their parents & not to bring them to do
something with no will.
2
Thereafter our skit team showcased a finely
designed & directed play whose inspiration had been
derived from a special child in community itself. Title of
the play was "Ek Saadharan Sikke ki Asaadharan
Kahaani (an extraordinary story of an ordinary coin)".
Just as the title itself demystify, it was a story of a so
called "disabled" girl who proved herself to be ablest of
all at the end of the story. Main aim of the play was to
create awareness among people & stress the need to be
sensitive towards a person who possesses a distinct
character & needs.
Then came some beautiful young girls with a
laudable performance on "Dil hai chota sa, choti si
aasha". Everybody cheered them up with applaud &
appreciation.
Innocence of these lovely young girls was
followed by a sheer different image of a woman & then
stepped onto the stage with thunder in her voice- Jhasi
ki rani Laxmi Bai, epitome of courage & strength. Later
one by one all children from fancy dress team came,
dressed as great Indian men & women like Subhash
Chandra bose, Indira Gandhi, Sania mirza etc, they
emanated immense confidence & hope.
To add a pinch of pure entertainment came our
dance team with a spell bound performance on "Mauza
hi Mauza & Das bahaane". This team won the hearts of
everyone with their impeccable moves & confidence.
The best part was the surprise entry made by kavita, the
inspiration of our skit team. From the initial stage of
this event we wanted her to be a part of this event but
we couldn't. But nobody would have ever thought the
way she came onto stage amidst the dance team's
performance & surprised everyone. It was an
inexplicable movement for all of us who have seen her
expressing herself in her very own ways.
To conclude, without labeling individual efforts
I would only say that behind a successful event there is
a determine team. I hope we would continue to keep
the spark on.
As we all keep the best for last, so we chose to
end this event by expressing our gratitude towards some
people who has always been very supportive &
concerned for us.
& we ended this event till another beginning… (In
choir) Jan gan man….. Jai hind!
Thanks & Regards
Dolly Sharma
dollysharma99@gmail.com
 Project Updates: AID Gurgaon
The month of February, 2008 although the
shortest of the year was never short of activities in AID
Gurgaon. The Gurgaon Public Transport Campaign
took a few positive steps as we held a couple of
meaningful meetings with our volunteers, AID Delhi
and Literacy India. This helped us to strategize about
the future course of action. So we have decided to work
in three phases for the campaign where the first phase
would involve gathering public support, the second
would involve media and the third would be
approaching the government again.
The first phase of the campaign has already started and
as a first step, we went to the MG Road and tried to
interact with the general public and got their signatures
as well on the petition. We also went to a few training
institutes in Sector 14, Gurgaon and did the same. We
are also working hard to spread the word about the
campaign online. March is a crucial month for the
campaign as our planned deadline for Phase I is on
March15. With a few new enthusiastic volunteers
joining AID Gurgaon in the last month, we are
confident that we’ll see some results in March.
Unnati and Prayas have been going well, especially after
the success of Republic Day celebrations. The
attendance has gone up considerably and we are doing
our best to ensure it stays on the higher-side. We have
also started to create the profiles of each student in
Unnati. This would help us to keep a track of their
progress. More importantly, it would help us to identify
which students will be marked for admission to regular
schools in the coming academic season.
All in all, it has been an absorbing but interesting
month. And we are looking forward to keep the
momentum going into March.
Sanchit Sharma,
AID Gurgaon
Sharma.Sanchit@siemens.com
3
Project Updates: AID Noida
AID Aagaz
1. Joining of 3 bright volunteers from this wekend-
Richa, Sachin & (forgot name:) ) Arun pls make sure
they're added to the group.
2. Infomal admission of the 3 sisters Pinky, Rinky &
Sinky to the govt school (they will be admitted formally
from next session starting May, but will be attending
classes now onwards. (For future, Govt School
admissions activity we will now resume from May, now
exams are due)
3. Interaction with Govt school teachers regarding
children of Aagaaz community admitted there (not a
very good response, I'll be following up on that).
4. Darshan has brought a white board:)
5. I've put up requests for second hand books &
sparingly used copies in Shatabdi Vihar E-3 & E-5
apartments, let's see what response we get. If it works,
we could use it for resource mobilisation.
6. Willingness of Ryan and Cambridge schools for
education of underpriviliged children.
Shruti Tiwari
AID Aagaz
tewarishruti@gmail.com
AID Prayas
It could have not been one of the good months for
Prayas. But we all are committed, no matter what the
situation will be, weekend classes are taken on any cost.
Although we had crunch of volunteers this month
because of many reasons like - exams, vacations and
work and other commitments, all classes went as we
planned. Few points that I can say about month of Feb.
are:-
1> In weekend classes we stressed on maths. We
covered addition and subtraction. We encouraged them
to relate maths problems with their life experiences.
2> Darshan, Vikas and kanan are taking night classes
and covering English in those classes. Children
attending those classes have really shown improvement
in their understanding of English. Now they can
understand many words and sentences much better and
also why they are spoken.
3> we also inducted two new volunteers Garvita and
Udita this month. I hope they remain regular with
Prayas.
We made few plans for future too:-
1> Kanan suggested that many new volunteers loose
interest because they don't get chance to teach properly
and regularly. This problem arose because we have no
fix curriculum and therefore we preferred one
volunteers taking one subject and keeping track of
children in that. But now we are trying to finalize
curriculum for children and now matter who teaches
will teach according to that. We are still on working on
this.
2> Another thing that I observed that some volunteers
are more regular than others and taking this cause more
seriously. And spending much more time than others. I
fear that they would burn out and stop coming to
classes. Therefore I am suggesting that a volunteer can't
take more than 4 classes in a month. Yes I understand
to implement this we’ll need to have solid regular
volunteer base.
3> we also planned to take classes for average students
at different time. So that more attention could be pay to
their needs. But this plan has also gone in cold baggage
because of lack of REGULAR & Committed
volunteers.
Nikhil Jha
Nikhil.ninjha@gmail.com
We have developed few nice photos of all previous
events in Prayas and got a notice board too. Few kids
have made drawings and we will stick them too.
So the idea is to make that small class more like an
interesting place for kids.
About night classes, We were doing good and
focusing on English a lot but suddenly found that kids
have to work hard on Hindi as well, so now a days night
classes are more like confidence buildup class, we are
trying to develop a kid as a whole through story telling,
through moral education, through drawing, story
reading etc.This way classes are going good but the
target is still far away to be achieved, and kids are
working hard with the volunteers.
Darshan Mehra
darshanmehra@gmail.com
Project Updates: Khoj
4 - 9211467341
Khoj board meeting has decided to have weekly
targets and follow up of it. Regular classes at all centers
along with Tuesday visit to American School and
Saturday visit to Prabhat Tara have been conducted
regularly. Trip for the children to the Nehru
Planetarium and children’s park has been good. The
research team is heading well with a set of committed
volunteers in the selected 25 signals on the ring road of
South Delhi. A rescue operation is also being followed
up along with CWC. Tie up with CEB has helped in
making health report cards for the children and CEB is
also actively helping us in the research related project. A
fund of Rs,1.00000/- has been received from Monnet
Foundation. We also have a plan of getting a vehicle as
soon as possible which will be used for mobilizing the
resources of Khoj across all the selected research
centers. Once the research is over apart from
approaching government about the rehabilitation plan
we also have a plan of starting education for the
children. We had a Big Volunteer meet on February
10th to display the results Khoj have got in the past two
years with the contributions of all our volunteers. Khoj
volunteers were also a part of the Streetplay held at I.P
college by AID Delhi. We also will be soon starting our
classes back in our Delhi Haat Center. A few more
children have been put to schools along with their help
of parents. They are performing well at the schools.
-Selva
- Khoj, AID Delhi,
- aid.selva@gmail.com
- 9211467341
Project : Parichay
1. Parichay has a masala stall at ST and the sales
was more than Rs.9000/-
2. Selva has started his science class with the
children and so far two classes have been held
3. Deepti a new volunteer is teaching drawing
classes for the children
4. Deepti will also take charge of the website soon.
5. Children’s newsletter have been released
6. New Parichay’s Gyan Ganga project is rolling
slowly with the survey part on. A project
proposal has been sent to HCL for supporting.
7. Agra trip planned for the mid of march.
-Selva
- Khoj, AID Delhi,
- aid.selva@gmail.com

Project Update : Tara
This month Tara performed well. Children are
going to school regularly.
We have arranged cycle rickshaw for all 15 children
because children had started traveling in buses, which is
not safe at all for these children.
Children who are not going to school are taught by
Volunteers.
Classes are regularly going in the center and children are
enjoying the games and study.
We also arranged a polio van on Polio day. Polio van
came to the community and
polio drops were given to all children who were below 5
years.
Now we are planning to admit some more children to
nearby MCD School.
- Sanjeev Sharma
- AID Delhi
- Love.sanjeev.sharma@gmail.com
Volunteer Speak : Shruti Panwar
When the world of writing opens to anything
and everything one can fathom, the creativity and the
pen stalls.( Or in today's world, the keyboard.). With an
open invitation, to write about anything I pleased, I was
stunned by the following fact:
There were just too many things to write about.
After much deliberation I have decided to write
about something positive. About that spark of hope,
however tiny, that glitters to signal the presence of some
sign of consideration in the human kind.
5
Day after day after day, I have crossed a million
read lights and a million jhugis, a million houses a
million commercial buildings. I have experienced the
brashness that has become the city of New Delhi:
Bustling and shoving, millions of delhities move in a
tandem every morning, afternoon and evening, towards
a singular goal: a glorious career. School, colleges,
universities and even the media, sells the idea of a
beautiful life, full of gigantic amounts of money and
how if one strives towards it all, somehow everyone will
attain nirvana! So every morning, about 99.9999% of
individuals wake up and do exactly the same. Far from
nirvana, this seemingly charming process, breeds
selfishness, dissatisfaction, intolerance and more
importantly disdain for all the "lesser" mortals who do
not and mostly cannot engage themselves in this
gloriously ugly process of factory like behaviour.
In enter the poor, the lesser privileged or how I
see it, those who were just bestowed by bad luck to be
born in such circumstances. Quick to judge, a majority
of us, walk by thinking: if they wanted, they could
change their fate, they could make a difference. After all
I did. (I promised a positive article didn't I??????)
YET there are others, who let open their hearts,
ready to feel, they understand, realize and more
importantly act. There is a fraction, probably a very
small fraction of Indians, who wake up every morning,
with a resolve to make a difference. A difference not
only in their lives; though positive action; but in the
lives of in numerous others, by spreading knowledge
and awareness. Volunteers.
With a full embodied life, filled with a family,
responsibilities, studies and also a career, these
extraordinary individuals inexplicably find time and
more importantly that drive to instill that tiny seed of
metamorphosis.
Seemingly easy as it might seem, with a variety
of alternatives to choose from on how to spend one's
idle time, it is not always easy for everyone to choose
this substitute. It requires great amount discipline to
forge on ahead, day after day to continue and to try and
make a difference.
All stories are not sweet and neither is this one. With a
heart willing, ready and charged with a strong resolve,
disappointments can be hard to take. Teaching a group
of students whose presence at the next class is uncertain
can make you wonder, what sort of difference one is
really making, a tiny inconspicuous scratch? Or a huge
dent??!!!
 Yet, they plough on, slowly and steadily hoping
to chip on those rusted fabrics of society. That dismal
portion; which is subjected to the harsh and
inconceivable realities of being a human being. Lost,
forgotten and ill treated, they are subjected to the richer
man's will and wrath. The rich man floats around in his
existence, with a heart full of disappointment, anger and
dissatisfaction, vending out his hateful feelings at the
drop of a hat, on the first weaker person he encounters.
Forever claiming himself to be more: knowledgeable.
Daisaku Ikeda (protagonist of Nichiren's Buddhism)
once said: "Modern society has lost sight of the human
being and become deadlocked on many fronts. There is
no denying that the inner spiritual realm has been
neglected and all too many people are obsessed with
seeking comfort, ease and pleasure in external things.
Without surmounting the fundamental human delusions
of greed, anger and foolishness, we will not be able to
solve the many problems that the world faces today."
Sometimes, it makes me wonder, should there be a
social movement for the middle and upper class of the
society more than anyone else? Is it not them who need
the help the most? An education which teaches the
worth of a man more than something created by the
man: fame and fortune. A way to channelize all that is
accomplished on an individual realm, towards the realm
of society, towards the realm of living beings?
But then, am content to know and see, those
indomitable individuals who wake up every day and
strengthen their day to make this a "BRAND NEW
DAY." A new beginning, a new change, a new life
Shruti Panwar
shruti.panwar@gmail.com
Article : When I look back - Kannan
Its been six months now and surprisingly it
had been satisfying. He was happy. A happiness
which had no past or a future ,may be, just the
present. A happiness which had no reason. But, he
was happy.
His college days were over, and it was time for him to
join one of those MNCs. And when he joined this
company, he was a bit scared..., a bit confused....
6
Not clear about his future, Not clear about his
goals. Till then his life had some purpose, he knew what
exactly had to be done...He had to get a job. He had to
get a job so that his family could be financially secure,
so that his family could stay happy and thus he would
be happy. For him, personally, he had never thought
anything beyond that, that was it, the end, the end of his
aspirations, his energy, his passion, his life.
and from then, started the life of the machine, which i
tried to capture in one of my previous posts. He was
getting into the exact life which i was always afraid of.
He had started to live the "The Life for a Resume."
The Life of doing innovations for the sake of it, trying
to compete with others, getting the work done before it
was scheduled, covering more and more work portfolio,
all this and more so that his resume looks good. He was
trying to squeeze his life into that A4 size resume not
knowing that he was strangling, suffocating himself, not
knowing that, later, when he will look back, this
resume will mean nothing more than a piece of paper
for him.
But it was going to change soon, and the change
surprisingly did not come from the more happening
malls, or the posh pubs of noida, rather, it came from a
slum community in Noida. It was one of the friends
from his college, who had introduced him to this NGO
working in Noida.
Well he dint have anything else to do on the weekends,
and so he decided to do the so called "Social service".
But before he started, he wanted to understand, why he
was doing this.
Was he doing this so that he could tell every one that he
is doing social work. so that whenever some one called
him, he could tell that,
"yeah.. hi ,.. you know what, I go and do some NGO work
nowadays. " ..
hmm... May be , may be not....
But what priority did it have in his life ? well , a movie
definitely had more priority.
Isnt it..????
Was he doing this for his own satisfaction ? that
whenever he gets some free time go spend some time
with the children and get that feel good factor "of doing
something good". Was it..???
Dont know... may be .. may be not...

Was he doing this coz he really cared for them
and wanted to bring in some change there. Was it...?
Dont know.... I really dont know...
He started going there. Started spending some time with
the kids there. It was good. He was happy. But then like
all those gals who had rejected him, the kids were also not
going to accept him initially. For the first few weeks no
kid went to him to learn. He just went there every weekend, sat
there amidst all those noise they made,... he was trying to find some
silence in that noise. He was happy.
One day one of their 'sir'jis asked them to do "chappan
adhik paintalis" and one gal dint know how to do it.
Trying to find the answer from somewhere she went to
him and asked
"Sirji, sirji. ye kaise karte hain..?"
Well he dint know what chappan or paintalis meant. For
that matter he dint know any number beyond pachis in
Hindi. But he dint want to tell her that. It was for the first
time some one was coming to him to learn something.
Instead, he said,
"acha... dheko beta, ye toh bahut hi aasan dediya woh sirji ne..
main aapko thoda jyaada tough deta hun. dus + pantrah. dhekte
hai kar paogi ki nahi..? "
"kar paoongi sirji, abhi karke laati hun".
with one of the cutest and naughtiest smile she left for
doing the problem.
He was happy. some one had gone to him for learning
something for the first time.
From the next day it was learning more than teaching for
him.
kids teaching him daye, baye, and he teaching them left, right
Though gradually more and more kids started going to
him for learning, there was one kid who always sticked to
him. Our "chappan adhik paintalis". He should be there,
then only she would start studying. More than a student,
she was a lil sister to him.
Now he knew, why he was doing this. It brought some
purpose into his life. It brought some passion, some passion to
achieve something for some one other than himself. He knew that
he could stay happy now only if his this new family is
happy. Kids were happy to see him, they were happy to be
with him, and he was too.
Thus went one of the most satisfying six months of his life.
7
But things cannot move so smoothly right. It
was on the day I came back from the vacation with my
smaller family, I learnt that there was govt order to
remove that slum from there. I learnt that although the
NGO had fought a lot to oppose it, they could not.
They had closed this center.
and again I was left all alone in that road.
I was again getting into the exact life which i was always
afraid of.
Once again I had started to live the "The Life for the
Resume."
The next weekend, in the evening..., I went for a long
walk, I walked a long distance through those 4 lane
roads in Noida thinking about the meaninglessness of
this life and about my meaningless future, and one of
the decision I took during those long walks was to move
to bangalore, to share the happiness of my smaller
family.
It was after a long gap of 6 years I went back to Noida
again. I went for that walk again, on those straight four
lane roads of noida, thinking about the past.
A traffic jam...
I saw her, my lil sister....
My chappan adhik paintalis.
She was begging for food...... ???????
A police man was walking towards her. He slapped her
on her face. caught her by her hair and pushed her to
the side of the road.
I ran towards her,
God, I did not have the courage to look at her face.,
She had...
she looked at me, recognizing me, she asked,
"Why Sirji, why, why did you leave us alone...?"
What should I say...
Oh God, I could not save my lil brothers and
sisters.
Kannan
AID Noida.
kannanbit@gmail.com
 Article : Few ways in which you can help –
Nishank Sha
Given below are few ways in which you can
help the underprivileged and to bring a change in
society !
Development of India to a great extent will depend on
how we citizens of India contribute towards it.
Everyone has the potential to play a major role when it
comes to bringing a sustainable development, which
caters not only to the rich but also takes care of the
poorest among the poor.
It doesn't remain a choice, but a moral responsibility for
us, especially the educated lot to do something for the
underprivileged. We need to look beyond our personal
lives and see in what ways we can bring the change we
want to see in our society.
Simply waiting for things to change or blaming the
government and the system won't help either. It is not a
question of just bringing the change, but how quickly
we can bring the change. There are still millions of
children in need of education, lakhs of families devoid
of a stable source of income for their livelihood,
thousands of villages which lack even basic facilities,
hundreds of cities which need much more development,
dozens of states struggling to move ahead and one
nation which still faces problems of varying magnitude
where everyone's contribution is required.
When it comes to managing a nation of 1100 million
citizens, we need at least a million citizens who are
willing to play an active role in the development of the
country by looking beyond their day-to-day lives to
extend their help in building an India, where everyone
gets a chance to move ahead in life, irrespective of
where or how s/he is born. Where the citizens come
ahead to play an active role in public governance,
tackling social issues, creating an economic system
where everyone gets a chance to earn a living and
helping the poorest among the poor so that no one is
left behind.
8
To start with, one needs to see how and in what
capacity one can contribute. It doesn't matter whether
you are within India or outside India. We can start
working from wherever we are, in whatever position we
are. All it takes a will to do it and finding out the time
for it.
There are many possible ways to make a start. You can
extend help in many ways such as:
--> You can join a volunteer group in the city you live.
Or you can volunteer for any of the NGOs in your city.
It can give you a good hands-on experience plus getting
a chance to connect with like-minded people. (
www.indianngos.com is a directory of all the listed
NGOs in India)
--> Teaching children who can't afford to go to school
or who need help with their studies but can't afford
tuition. You can start teach Computers and English to
the children too, who want to learn but have no access
to it.
--> You can help a child going school by sponsoring
his/her education and interacting with the parents to
ensure that the child gets proper education
--> You can visit any slum area in your city and can do a
survey like the condition of people living there, facilities
available to them like health, sanitation, water,
electricity, etc., the state of education of the children
living there, etc. Even you can start teaching a group of
children there.
--> You can raise funds to support a worthy initiative
going around your place. There are many education
projects which needs funds to buy stationeries and
uniform for the children, to pay the salary to a hired
teacher for the children, or any other similar project
which needs money. Even if people donate as little as
Rs 50 or Rs 100, it adds up to something. You just need
to ensure that the money is being spent in a proper
manner.
--> You can form groups focused on Community
Development to work in certain areas of your town,
where you can go to a small basti/slum area and can
interact with the people living there.
You can talk on various issues to them like women
rights, education of girl child, options of vocational
training for the people to make their livelihood better,
maintaining hygiene in their area, what Govt. should do
in that area, making them aware of their rights etc.
--> You can organize a health camp in a slum area
where there are no health facilities provided by the
Govt. Also, you can make aware the people living there
to avail facilities and free medicines offered at Govt.
Hospitals. If they say that they are facing any problem
with that, you can visit the hospitals with them to talk
with the doctors and staff there.
--> You can help in mobilization of resources especially
with items like old clothes, books, stationeries, toys,
educational material etc. There are still many people
who lack the proper clothing to wear and thousands of
children who crave for books and toys but cannot
afford to have it.
You can organize an old clothes drive in your colony,
company, among your friends etc. and can distribute it
where it is needed, especially for the winter time. You
can also ask people to donate old books and stationeries
so that the other needy children can have them
(www.goonj.info is an NGO which specializes in
mobilization and distribution of old clothes)
--> You can work on making Government more
accessible to common man. The tasks can include filing
RTI applications, especially on the behalf of those who
don't know how to go about it, checking the working of
Public Distribution System, checking with departments
like PWD, meeting government officials in your district
to bring some issue in forefront, etc.
--> You can organize a visit in a small group to a nearby
village over a weekend to see the real face of India. Still
around 70% of the Indian population lives in the
villages. You can do a "gram-survey" there and meet
with the villagers to collect the basic info like the level
of literacy, the facilities available in the village, what the
Govt. is doing for the villages etc. You can bring to the
notice of the district officials if you don't find
something in order there.
--> You can give presentations, talks; organize group
discussions etc. among your peer groups to spread more
awareness about the different social issues.
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--> You can get the needy children enrolled in the
nearby Govt. schools, who can't afford studying in
private schools. The education standard of many of the
Govt. schools have fallen to a great extent and it
becomes our duty to interact with the staff in the Govt.
schools to ensure that the children coming there are
getting a proper level of education. If needed we can
meet the district officials to escalate the issue if there is
no proper day to day running in a Govt. school.
--> You can visit any orphanage, old age homes,
NGOs, any place taking special care for the needy etc.
in your city and can devote your time there.
--> You can help with the publicity of a particular
initiative by writing about it, sharing photos related to it,
through blogging etc.
--> Many NGOs and social work groups need help with
their IT needs, especially in developing their website.
You can help with their website management.
* Even if you are not able to find a volunteer group, you
can collaborate with 3-4 people and start working in
small groups. It can be as simple as teaching 3-4
children over the weekends who are not able to go to
school. There would be many people to provide you
guidance as how to go about it. Education plays the
major role when it comes to building a better future.
The more number of children we can educate, the more
self reliant they would be in future. (http://h2o-
india.blogspot.com -- insights from a project I was
personally involved in)
* You can become an informed citizen. Government is
trying to create transparency at its own level. However,
it will need an active involvement of the citizens to keep
a check that everything is in order. Right to Information
Act, Accessing Government reports and publications,
filing PILs and petitions are few of the ways in which
we can bring an issue at the forefront and can draw
attention of Govt. towards it.
We need not leave everything at the mercy of policy
makers but should try to take an active part in it,
especially when it pertains to the lower class of
population, villages, agriculture etc. when the affected
people are not in a position to raise voice on their own
due to lack of information.
* For people working in corporate sector, joining the
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) teams in their
respective companies can be a good idea. Generally the
CSR teams sponsor various projects and have a team of
volunteers from the company who do a site visit. If
there is no CSR team in your company, then you can
initiate to form one by talking to upper management
and your peers. Most of the companies willing support
CSR initiatives as it adds good PR to the company.
Moreover, through the corporate sector you can reach
many people who have the potential to donate for
worthy causes and helping in create a healthy corporate
citizenship for your company.
* If you are currently outside India, then the
contributions become limited as the scope of field work
reduces a lot. However, there are several ways to extend
the help. You can raise funds to support a particular
initiative or NGO in India. You can read about various
social issues and work on spreading social awareness
among the fellow Indians living at your place. Also, you
can do case studies, prepare presentations, scrutinize
government documents, do website management, write
articles or blogs, propose new solutions for a problem,
finding out the best practices adopted by different
NGOs while working for various issues, etc. Though
the contributions can remain mostly intellectual but it
will definitely count in the long run.
(http://aidindia.org/ad/chapters/?seeChapters&USA -
There are around 35 chapters of AID India in US and
also chapters in Canada and Australia)
* Talk among your friends about different social issues.
Discussing these issues with the people whom you
know creates the best impact. The more the number of
people will know about a social issue in the right
perspective, the more they would be concerned doing
something about it. The more we spread the word
among other people, who in turn talk to other people
can end up in involving a lot more people in the
process.
At the end it will matter as how we come forward to
bring the change. We all can really MAKE A
DIFFERENCE if we start doing something, instead of
waiting for the right moment and right opportunity to
come. The time to act is NOW!
If you need any kind of help to start volunteering or
coming up with any initiative related to social work and
need any kind of help, then please feel free to contact
me. I would be really glad to help in whatever way I can.
You can mail me at "onlynishank@gmail.com"
~~Nishank
onlynishank@gmail.com

* Find a social issue which is very close to your heart,

something on which you really want to work upon. It
can be anything ranging from eliminating child labor,
working on rural development, women rights, education
for the poor, fighting corruption, environmental issues,
etc. Find something where your passion lies, doing
something which will give you the most satisfaction.
A good way to go about it can be gathering various
statistics about a particular social issue, knowing the
government policies towards tackling that issue, what
NGOs in that field have been doing so far, what are the
bottlenecks associated with it etc. Once gaining a fair
perspective and in-depth knowledge on the issue, you
can start discussing with other people and can get in
touch with people who have been already working
towards that issue. (www.indiatogether.org,
www.infochangeindia.org, www.aidindia.org are good
places to start with)

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Children’s corner : Newsletter by Parichay Children

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 Toon of the Month

News: AID Delhi celebrates Independence day at all of its projects along
with the children.

- Toon : Kalindi Sharma,

- Coordinator, AID Aashayen,
- sona4poochie@gmail.com

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 Photo of the Month: Arvinder Singh Rooprai

Event: AID Aashayen Children’s Event

Photographer: Arvinder Singh Rooprai
Description: After the splendid celebrations at Aashayen were over, all the children were running after the roses
and flowers ......
Darshan got hold of one of the bouquet, which was actually presented to Selva during the recognition ceremony
at the end of the event.
All the kids were running after Darshan for the roses and he held it high and denied to give away the roses .....
but who can stop the roaring tigers...
Children jumped over chairs and over one another ... and finally bouquet was go went and gone ... into pieces.....

Feedback: aid.delhi@gmail.com Web: http://delhi.aidindia.org Phone: +91-9213797167

Send your Cheques to Publications Team
Selva Ganapathy.R Coordinator: Selva
Department of Chemical Engineering, Editors: Selva, Puneeta, Gauri, Pallavi, Charu, Kunal
Indian Institute of Technology, Designers: Selva, Arvinder, Saurabh
Delhi - 110016 Web Designer: Anirban
Hauz Khas
Phone: +91-9891358457, +91-9211467341

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