Mr. Prasad was born into the Pasi community, once considered untouchable on the ancient Hindu caste order. Today, a chain-smoking, irrepressible didact, he is the rare outcaste columnist in the English language press and a professional provocateur. His latest crusade is to argue that India’s economic liberalization is about to do the unthinkable: destroy the caste system. The last 17 years of new capitalism have already allowed his people, or Dalits, as they call themselves, to “escape hunger and humiliation,” he says, if not residual prejudice.

At a time of tremendous upheaval in India, Mr. Prasad is a lightning rod for one of the country’s most wrenching debates: Has India’s embrace of economic reforms really uplifted those who were consigned for centuries to the bottom of the social ladder? Mr. Prasad, who guesses himself to be in his late 40s because his birthday was never recorded, is an anomaly, often the lone Dalit in Delhi gatherings of high-born intelligentsia.

He has the zeal of an ideological convert: he used to be a Maoist revolutionary who, by his own admission, dressed badly, carried a pistol and recruited his people to kill their upper-caste landlords. He claims to have failed in that mission.

Read the Full Story | NY-Times

You can see more photos in our Gallery | Link

Just a quick note to let you know that I am back from Sarnath. The weekend was too short, but everything went very well. Construction of the new classrooms will be complete in about 10 days from now, and the performance by the kids on Sunday was awesome! The kids were so thrilled to be dressed up and performing on stage, and once they were done, were just BEAMING with pride. I got completely choked up watching them. Daisy gave her first performance of Bharat Natyam and I have included some pictures so you can get a sense.

School was scheduled to start on the 15th, but will be pushed back 10 days so the construction will be finished. The older children start their new schools on the 15th (boys) and 16th (girls). Rajan will be going with them to school on the first day.

Dana

You can see more photos in our Gallery | Link

The children who are in age group of 6-14 years must not roam on roads and streets but they must be seen in the school premises. A school going child should not work as porter on railway stations, as domestic servants in houses, as servants in hotels and shops, the girl child should not remain in houses to look after the siblings, helping parents in house chores and lending help in agriculture fields. In fact, a school going age child should remain in the school with cheerful mind and should study and play.

The children of disadvantaged groups and disabled children must be given special care in sending them to schools. Various studies have revealed that poverty can be reduced by sending the children to schools instead of sending them to work on wages. If a child is in the school then certainly, adults of his/her family will get work from where the child used to work. Thus adults will get employment and comparatively more wages than the children. It is also found that when the child of family goes for work then, adults of that family generally sit idle and the wages earned by the children are ill spent by their family. The employers prefer to engage children on work rather than adults so that they have to pay less wages to children. In this way, the children are exploited by the employers.

So, it becomes the duty of parents, teachers, educational administrators and society at large that school going age child should not remain at work site or out of school for any other reason but in neat and clean atmosphere of the schools. The Child herself/himself cannot ensure this environment. It needs to be watched by parents, teachers, community and educational administrators that child should not leave the school in between due to any reason. The child once admitted in school should remain, there till he/she completes the schooling. Thereafter, quality education becomes right of the child. To ensure this, every stakeholder should participate in the mission as detailed below :

Teacher should ensure enrollment and retention of the child in the school through quality education and enriched environment.

Community /Parents should cooperate at each stage in learning processes of the child.

Educational Administrators should develop, design and ensure implementation of the strategies specifically: teacher availability, teacher competence and teacher motivation shall be ensured so that they impart quality education to children.

Local leaders have sought an inquiry into the incident as the police appear to be siding with the upper caste girl’s family and the teacher.

MeriNews | Read the Full Story

Two-year-old Sahabuddin died of starvation on May 31, 2008, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The state is India’s second most backward, with corruption undermining its pledge to eradicate poverty and provide healthcare for its people. (Photo/PVCHR-India)

The government of Uttar Pradesh in India has a clear mandate and vision to protect its children. With more than 100 projects commissioned by the State’s child development agency and a few million dollars spent each year, one would expect the State’s children do be as healthy as well cared-for children elsewhere in the world. At least they must not die from acute malnutrition.

Yet, in reality, children do die from malnutrition in Uttar Pradesh. The latest was two-year-old Sahabuddin, who died May 31, 2008. He lived with his parents in Dhannipur village in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh. His parents were too poor to feed Sahabuddin – he weighed only six kilograms when he died. This is Grade III malnutrition, a condition that the world hears of in places like Somalia.

In the Somali Democratic Republic, however, there is no functioning government, there is a high rate of inflation and the country has faced a series of civil wars followed by a war with neighboring Ethiopia that has destroyed whatever little infrastructure that country had. In these conditions – coupled with the harsh African weather that bakes the land as strong as concrete making it unfit for cultivation – starvation, malnutrition and death from starvation are inevitable.

The state of Uttar Pradesh is not so. It has a democratically elected government. It has ministers and secretaries who travel around the state in the name of governance in expensive air-conditioned vehicles. The state government has a woman chief minister at its helm, who has vowed to eradicate discrimination and poverty in the state.

UPI AsiaOnline | Bijo Francis | Link

L’Arche de Dolanji told us this is a long term commitment for them which is very exciting as it give us the ability to focus on other aspects of the children’s growth and welfare.

These meals are are extremely important for the children’s ability to learn and remain healthy. This is a wonderful gift, and we thank you L’Arche de Dolanji, from the bottom of our hearts.

Concerts and Art Auction in New York City for India’s Neediest Children

In one of the poorest parts of India, there’s a school that provides an education, meals and perhaps the only encouragement 220 students have ever had. Along with coursework, the school provides medical care, clothing, and food—often the children’s only meal of the day. It’s a school that will make the difference between aspiring to be doctors, lawyers and statesmen, or starvation, prostitution and early death. It’s immensely important to the fragile welfare of local children, and is entirely dependent on charitable contributions to survive.

The first concert and silent art auction is on
Saturday June 7th
the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music
58 Seventh Avenue in Park Slope
at 7:00 p.m.

The second concert and silent art auction is on
Friday June 13th
the Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street
at 7:00 p.m.

Performers include a mix of world, jazz, rock, and contemporary classical musicians, including such New York luminaries as Margaret Leng Tan, Hui Cox, Beth Levin, Stephanie Griffin, Christine Perea, Ana Milosavlevic, Ben Robison, Katie Down, Judy Tint, Bob Lampell, Masha Lankovsky, Uli Geissendoerfer, Ben Yarmolinsky, Ivan Rubenstein-Gillis, Brian Thompson, Julieanne Klein, Emily Howard, and others.

Artists include Joe Ciardiello, Bruce Waldman, Betsy & Ted Lewin, Michael Sloan, Rebecca Allen, Sara Varon, Jacqui Morgan, Frances Jetter, Joan Chiverton, Al Pels, Paul Jervis, Laura McCallum, Elizabeth Jordan, Margaret Noel, Jim Spanfeller and many more.

Tickets are $20. To reserve tickets, or if you’d like to donate art or perform,
email buddhabenefit@yahoo.com.

If you can’t attend, but want to make a tax-deductible donation, click here and specify that your donation is for Buddha’s Smile School. Every penny donated through Amistad goes to Buddha’s Smile School (with the exception of fees Amistad must pay for credit card donations, so please donate by check if possible).

Amistad International website | Link

She wrote:

“I still plan to write a Your Story entry one of these days but in the meantime here is some info about me and my visit:

“I’m an elementary school teacher from New York City. I was in India from Sept 2006-May 2007, mostly in Kerala, where my husband had a Fulbright grant to study music. We traveled in April and May and that’s when we stopped by BSS, which we had heard of from another Fulbrighter, Forrest Fleischman.

“We visited BSS on the last day of the school year, so the kids were receiving their progress reports and enjoying their last day. As a teacher, I loved seeing how happy and relaxed the kids were at school. We really enjoyed our visit and were so impressed with the school, and will definitely keep on checking the website for news and ways we can help from afar.”

Thanks Miriam — thanks for the photos and thanks for caring. You can see all of Miriam’s great photos here.

There are four important Buddhist pilgrimage centres in India. Lumbini, where Siddhartha Gautama was born. Bodh Gaya (or Bodhgaya — don’t ask) where he attained enlightenment. Then Sarnath where he delivered his first sermon. And finally, the Buddhist pilgrimage centre of Kushinagar, where the Buddha died.

After attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the Buddha travelled to Sarnath and started teaching the middle way, the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

The Buddha’s first discourse was in the deer park in Sarnath where the Dharmekh Stupa now stands. During the colonial period a guy called Colonel Cunningham drilled a shaft down the centre of the stupa and discovered a tablet with the word Dhamekha, which is believed to be a corrupted form of Dharmacakra, meaning “the wheel of the law.” This coincides with the records of Buddha’s first sermon.

Sarnath is about 800 kilometres SE of Delhi and an easy rickshaw or bus ride, outside of Varanasi. Sarnath is quieter and cleaner than Varanasi and one can easily visit all the Varanasi sites from there. Sarnath has a Buddhist feel about it with several modern Buddhist temples: Burmese, Chinese, Korean and Thai temples, plus three Tibetan Buddhist temples and a Japanese Zen temple.

En tur til India vart et sterkt møte med fattigdom og nød for meg, Geir Davidsen, Etne i Norge. Men oppe i alt det triste kom jeg i kontakt med Rajan og Sukhdev i Buddhas Smile School (BSS), Der fikk jeg se at hjelp når fram til de som trenger det mest. Der og da bestemte jeg meg for at jeg vil gjøre en innsats og prøve og hjelpe BSS etter jeg kommer hjem. Rajan lot seg intervjue på video, og den har jeg redigert, og laget en liten presentasjon av India og BSS. Jeg har vist den for 5., 6. og 7. kl og holdt et lite foredrag om mine inntrykk fra BSS og og planer jeg har for å hjelpe elevene der.

Jeg har to mål: Først vil jeg prøve og finne 100 givere som gir NOK 100.- hver måned. Da har vi nok til å gi de 200 elevene og lærere et varmt måltid mat hver dag. Fram til februar 2008 betaler Amistad for maten, men etter den tid håper jeg at Prosjekt Norge kan overta.

Det andre målet er å skaffe engangsgaver til et fond som vi kan sende renteavkastning ned til BSS en gang i året:

• Jeg vil sitte på kjøpesenter og andre plasser og samle inn engangsgaver og verve faste givere.
• Jeg vil ta kontakt med næringslivet om støtte.
• Jeg har planer om forskjellige aktiviteter utover høsten.

Jeg har fått veldig god hjelp i oppstartfasen. Markedsføring og trykksaker fra lokalavisa, betaling av diverse småutgifter fra Etne Sparebank. Så langt har jeg ingen utgifter.

Oppstart av innsamling 31. mai. Med et lite loppemarked, 7. klasse steikte vafler og solgte kaffe og saft. Ei gruppe toradermusikanter spilte en times tid. Vi samlet inn den dagen NOK 3.600.-

Til kunder og forbipaserende delte jeg ut bankgiro til bruk for engangsbeløp og skjema med givertjeneste kontrakter. Noen har allerede meldt seg på.

8. juni 2007 arrangerte skolen en idrettsdag for kl 4, 5, 6 og 7. BSS fikk startkontigenten og det ble Nok 1.350.-. Elevene betalte fra minimum Nok 20.- til Nok 100.-

Jeg synes dette er en god start og det gir inspirasjon til å jobbe videre med prosjektet.

You can see more of Geir’s photos here.

Varanasi is situated on the banks of the river Ganges in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and is considered to be the most sacred place of pilgrimage for Hindus, irrespective of denomination, with more than a million pilgrims visiting the city each year.

Along the water’s edge cremations are performed at the burning ghats and it is also here, beside the holy waters of the river Ganges, that thousands of residents and pilgrims bathe, offering prayers to the elements and to their dead ancestors.

Varanasi is considered to be one of the oldest living cities in the world and is referred to by quite a few different names including, Banaras or Benares and Kash, a name first used three thousand years ago to describe the kingdom and the city where Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha preached his first sermon.

lonelyplanet.com says:

The culture of Varanasi is deeply associated with the river Ganga and its religious importance. The city has been a cultural and religious center in northern India for thousands of years. Varanasi has its own style of classical Hindustani music, and has produced prominent musicians, philosophers, poets, and writers in Indian history, including Tulsidas, Kabir, Munshi Premchand, Jaishankar Prasad, Pandit Ravi Shankar, and Ustad Bismillah Khan. The city has its own dialect of Hindi. Varanasi is also the home of Banaras Hindu University. Link

The Ganges cleanses all sins and ensures a release from the Hindu cycle of rebirths: it’s an instant passport to heaven. Many elderly and ill people come to Varanasi to die, and old Sadhus (men who have given up their worldly possessions for a life of absolute religious devotion) congregate along the river banks.

The ancient city - it was ancient even when Buddha preached there in 530 BC - is home to over a million people. Mark Twain visited over a century ago and commented that Varanasi was ‘older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together’. Link

Dear John,

I’m writing to you as a friend of Rajan and Sukhdev. Rajan said you were helping them with the Buddha’s Smile School website and asked me to take some photos of the children and teachers and send them to you; she thought you’d like to use some of them on the site.

Kimberly

We sure would Kimberly and thanks for sending them through!

Click here, if you’d like to see some more of Kimberly’s great photos.

Download link

Dana Kornberg has just sent me some photos of Sangita from when she was at Buddha’s Smile School in 2005.

Here are some more pictures you might be able to use. They are from the days when all the teachers were teasing Sangita about getting married soon… my god…

I have always loved the one of her leaning over with the sun in the background…

Sangita means music, by the way…

If you don’t know her story you can read about Sangita here.