In a bizzare and tragic incident on January 31, 2009 five babies were burnt to death while receiving photo-therapy for jaundice ( generally a benign condition in newborns) in a neonatal unit at Rajendra Hospital in Patiala. Rajendra Hospital is a medical college hospital, run by Punjab Government.

The five new born babies were burnt alive and two others were seriously injuried when the incubators they were kept in caught fire. A total of 10 children, undergoing treatment for jaundice were kept in phototherapy units. Reportedly, a short circuit in the wires of the machine resulted in the fire, charring five infants to death including three boys and two girls.

In the aftermath, After suspending four officials, including a staff nurse, junior doctor and principal of Rajendra medical College Hospital – Minister for Health Education,Punjab, Tikshan Sood has taken the moral responsibility for factors, both under and beyond control, that led to tragic demise of five children yesterday. Mr. Sood -a BJP MLA- has reportedly resigned. Good step at least!
Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has expressed sadness at the death of five infants . A sum of Rupees 1 lakh from the Prime Minsiter Relief Fund has been sanctioned for each of the families of the victims.

It took one Richard Attenborough to create a masterpiece on Mahatma Gandhi. Now we have another Britisher – Michael Wood- who has produced another marvellous creation on what we call India: “The Story of India” was recently aired on PBS as a 6 series documentary ( 6 hours) over 3 phases. Nothing could be more exhilarating and titillating! The story has been done after extensive historical research. The official website describes it as: “In this landmark six-part series for PBS and the BBC, Michael Wood will embark on a dazzling and exciting journey through today’s India, “seeking in the present for clues to her past, and in the past for clues to her future”. Its producer Wood is also a historian ( did post-graduate research in Anglo-Saxon history. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society).
Interestingly when some of the Indian historians have tried to create a kind of identity-crisis for India and Indians by un-necessarily inflating and in the process distorting some of the historical issues (Mogul rule for example), Wood has charmingly done a great service by taking a right perspective at its old civilisations and coursing though the various historical periods. A brilliant master-stroke, indeed!
Please click at the link to the official website. The DVD is available on amazon and other e- commercial sites.

In his Presidential Inaugural address, Obama called upon the Islamic leaders and clergy to address the issue of Islamic terrorism. He without mincing words, said: “People will remember you for what you buils, and not for what you destroy”. That I believe sums up the entire debate! The frustation, anger and feelings of marginalization may be there in the youth of other cultures and religion too, but that does not mean that you pick up bombs and kill people and destroy buildings!
Instead of alienating the troubled mind, engage them in dialogue! For sure! If that seems to be the approach of Mr. Obama, there may still be a hope!

The one difference which you clearly notice when you go out of India towards the West is that you do not see children working in restraurents, coffee- shops, shops and factories! In India, the site is so common that we become immune to the fact that kids are doing the work which they should not be doing! We employ kids as domestic help to help our kids, hire them at work places. This is nothing less than exploiting the kid and rob him/her of a meaningful future! The issue is complex and strict regulations nedd to be enforced to abolish the child labor practice. To quote the article reproduced below: “NGOs working for children, point out that such exploitation goes unabated because there is no shock or outrage in society that children are at work and not in school. The tolerance of child labour is so pervasive that it gets internalised by parents too.”
This article appeared in The Tribune.

Without a future Movement to end child labour
by Usha Rai
The Mumbai terror attack and the discussions on it in Parliament when it opened for the winter session drowned another kind of tyranny that is keeping a staggering 12.6 million children in our country, some of them as young as five and six years, shackled to child labour. India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of child workers in the world.
So some 1,500 people, including NGOs, MPs, MLAs, bureaucrats, sarpanches heading village education committees, corporates, trade union representatives, educationists as well as children who have been pulled out of the labour force, got together in the Capital to work out their agenda for getting every child into school. Spearheading the movement for “Abolition of child labour and right to education” were the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), UNICEF and the ILO.
It was one of the biggest national conventions of its kind and came at the end of eight state consultations on providing dignity and freedom to children by ensuring their education. In fact, the very strong statement that went out was that every child who is not in school is a child worker.
But the terror of the moment kept the media from giving due attention to the larger terror that millions of children face every day of their lives working not just in hazardous industries but even as domestic help in homes where even 60 years after our Independence they continue to be treated as slaves and are beaten.
The British have left India but the baba log culture prevails with the less privileged children carrying school bags of the more fortunate babas.
In fact, what is hazardous is to be out of the protective environment of school. An estimated 75 million children neither go to school nor to work. They are domestic child workers, street children, migrants and are called “no where children.”
The strong anti-child labour sentiments that echoed through two days of deliberations led to an assurance at the conference by Minister for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury that the distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous jobs would cease.
It was also an epoch-making convention because it was unanimously agreed that all those below 18 years should be categorised as children. So far different policies in the country have variously defined “children” as those below 14, 16 or 18.
The demand for equity and quality in education was voiced by children from across the country. The lack of high schools in villages, adequate number of teachers (in Orissa 40,000 posts of teacher need to be filled) and basic facilities like school furniture, drinking water and toilets was raised.
Voicing concern for their less fortunate brethren, representatives of 200 children at the conference pointed out, “What is our future without education? Who will employ us?” Ending child labour and getting every child into school should be “non-negotiable.” There should be no dithering on these two issues which are interlinked.
While Renuka Chowdhury went all out to endorse the demand and even announced that her ministry would come out with a logo that could be put on products that did not employ children, the Minister of State for Labour and the Minister for Rural Development, Oscar Fernandes and Raghuvansh Prasad, skirted the issue of ending child labour.
It is not really possible to end child labour without ending poverty was their excuse at the conference and there was a chorus of protests. It is, in fact, child labour which is shackling children to a life of poverty, retorted NGOs.
The eight national commissions too, including those representing the minorities, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes as well as the safai karamcharies issued a joint statement that they wanted total abolition of child labour whether rendered for an employer, middleman or one’s own family up to the age of 18.
There is an explosive demand for education among the poor today. Parents, even among the poorest, are not only capable of sending their children to formal day schools but are willing to do so.
This has been amply demonstrated in Andhra Pradesh, where thanks to the pioneering work of the MV Foundation, 1,500 villages have been declared free of child labour. Every child in these villages goes to school, the village panchayat monitors their attendance and the parents are proud of their children. In fact, the parents of these erstwhile child labourers are making enormous sacrifices to see that education of their children is not disrupted until they finish at least class 10.
They talk with pride about the transformation of their child from a child labourer to a student. As against the parental demand for education, there is the more powerful force of the market that prefers child labour because it is a source of cheap labour. Children can be forced to work for long hours in sub-human conditions of work.
Their exploitation goes unseen under the garb of ‘charity’ as if the employer was doing a favour to the child in employing and keeping him or her alive. NGOs working for children, point out that such exploitation goes unabated because there is no shock or outrage in society that children are at work and not in school. The tolerance of child labour is so pervasive that it gets internalised by parents too.

The Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has of course brought shame to the people of Illinois and USA. What is stunning is that he has blatantly indulged in corruption and fraud, arrogance running to the extent that he did not even pause to think that he is under the scanner of FBI. Day before the arrest, he told the media that he had sunlight over his head! Rod was doing all kinds of manipulations, but what is more embarrassing is the story that is he was planning to sell the Obama seat (senate seat vacated by Obama as he became President- elect of USA).
Indians make a good pesence in Chicago and obviously are an influential community. In the events that are unfolding now, a number of Indians have been quoted by Chicago Tribune- a leading newspaper of the area- who were colluding with US Representative Jesse Jackson to help him ‘buy’ the seat by doing fund raising for him. The Indian names quoted in the story are: Raghu Nayak, Harish Bhatt, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Jatinder Singh Bedi (editor of Indian Reporter).
A shame for we Indians. Note that these guys often find place in Indian circle because they are rich, they are inluential.
We Indians leave India to find greener pastures, but what we never leave is the crookedness, manipulative habits and of cours our immutable traits of caste-identification. We live in USA, but never refrain from identifying ourselves as Punjabis, Gujratis, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, etc. We are no more in India, consider ourselves as progressives, but will join socities based upon caste and region. We are region- philic first, Indians last!
Link to this story in Chicago Tribune.
PS: In an unprecedented move, Attorney General of Illinois , Lisa Madigan has moved the Supreme Court of Illinois to strip off Governor from his responsibility. That is remarkable. In India, politicians of all hue and color will join hands together to serve their interests first!

Noted Indian journalist and commentator, Mr. M J Akbar expressed his opinion after the recent Mumbai terrorism attack:

” I am very sad. I keep feeling that if they protect India as they protect their leaders — whether it is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Congress President Sonia Gandhi — I think I would be safe. Today, India’s leaders are safe and India is in panic.”

In last many weeks, India witnessed another impasse over reservation issue. The Gujjar community was at agitation over the demand for catse-based reservation in Rajasthan. The sordid tale of evnts ended only after the state BJP government bowed to their demands and granted them 5 % reservation.

When will this bogey of reservation end? Tomorrow another community will make an uprise and try to shoot the administration in the eyes! Whereas India needs a long term solution to get rid of this caste-based reservation, we are witnessing largesses being distributed! This speaks volumes of our lack of long term vision, pragmatism and an indirect admission of caste-based realities of Indian (Hindu) society! I am not against reservation for socially disadvantages people: they need to be assisted for the upliftment, but I am of the firm belief that this catse -based reservation must be phased out with a more coherent and pragmatic policy replacing it!

And one more point: The fact that BJP agreed to this arrangement is more disappointing! BJP calls herself a party with a difference and takes pride in nationalism and national integration! So much for that cause!