Ever wondered what books would be great to read to your children? Especially the younger ones? While there are some wonderful books in the western publishing world, where are the Indian children’s books that could give your child the much desired multi-cultural flavor, especially if you are residing abroad? Enter Saffron Tree – an initiative that discovers and reviews gems in Indian children’s literature. Saffron Tree does the work of figuring out what books you should be reading to your child. All you need to do is read their site!

The Better India was privileged to have an e-mail exchange with Praba Ram, the founder of Saffron Tree. Here is what Praba Ram has to say about Saffron Tree and the thoughts behind it:

To check out the delightful world of children’s books, visit Saffron Tree’s website: www.saffrontree.org

And before we sign-off, here is letting you know that Praba is also an author of a recently published children’s book. It is titled “Dinaben and the Lions of Gir”. The book talks about the Asiatic lions of India and the community of cattle people called the Maldharis that live in the jungle with the lions. They have been co-existing peacefully for centuries. The book celebrates their lives and that of the lions of Gir. Sounds wonderful? It is! You can read more about it here and here.

We have all read comics when we were young. Many of us continue to read them due to their fascinating nature of conveying stories very easily.

But comics need not necessarily confine to the comedy genre. Can they be used to communicate an issue, a cause or a fact? World Comics India, led by Sharad Sharma, is doing exactly that – using the power of comics to bring about a social change!

World Comics India is a collective of cartoonists, media persons and grassroots activists. This organization makes use of comics to serve as a communication tool and as a mode of self-expression in remote areas of not only India, but many countries in South Asia.

Sharad Sharma, who leads World Comics India, is a cartoonist from Jaipur and has initiated numerous workshops where cartoons and comics are used to spread awareness. A novel idea indeed, considering that comics can easily cut across language barriers!

One of their campaigns was the Girl Child Right Campaign which aimed to address the issue of female infanticide in the region of Western Rajasthan. Here, they trained children and adults in comics making. These trained people in turn created over 300 comics focused on the girl child’s rights. World Comics India then conducted a road-based tour with all this material which was distributed to various villagers and local leaders. You can view all the comics created as part of this campaign here: Girl Child Right Campaign Comics

Similarly, they had also initiated a campaign against corporal punishment in Uttar Pradesh. Students of a school in Maharajganj used comics to spread awareness amongst teachers that punishment by beating is not really the right way to discipline children. Details of this campaign available here: Corporate Punishment campaign.

Their website is comprehensive with a lot of material available for people and organizations to make use of. For instance, the entire manual on how to go about creating these comics is available in both English and Hindi (both files are about 2 MB each).

If interested, you can download a series of videos available on their website which showcases how the various campaigns were initiated and also on how World Comics India trains people in the art of comics making! Click here to view and download all resources related to World Comics India, including a book written by Sharad Sharma and Leif Packalen titled “Grassroots Comics – A Development Communication Tool”.

For contact details, please visit their website www.WorldComicsIndia.com

Pointer to WCI provided by Sunandini Basu of Inktales

We read, we learn, we understand. Sites like the one you are currently reading, along with countless other blogs, books, newspapers make up our reading spectrum. Make us aware, make us improve.

But what if we were to be visually impaired? How would we fare with a total lack of reading material? Did you know that most of the material available so easily to us is just not accessible for the visually impaired? In fact, only 0.5% of books are made accessible to the visually impaired in India. So, how do we ensure that those with visual impairment are able to read all those wonderful things that we come across regularly everyday?

This is where BookBole steps in. An initiative of Inclusive Planet, BookBole is a website that is designed for easy access for the visually impaired. Most visually impaired use text-to-speech converting software. Now, while there are standard guidelines for websites to ensure that text-to-speech software can easily ‘read’ them out, most websites do not adhere to these guidelines. The result is a lot of clutter and subsequent loss of information for the visually impaired. Bookbole solves this by making varied content available in easily accessible form.

The Problem

With the digitization of content as a result of the internet, as well as specific governmental and non-governmental initiatives to increase the volume of accessible content, there is now much more accessible content though the volume of content remains a major issue. However the problem is not just one of quantity but of relevancy i.e. of not just responding to general needs but specific user requirements. Large-scale global initiatives to make content accessible are just a drop in the ocean, albeit a very useful one. They can only cater to some needs of some people in some parts of world. With so much information captured in partially or fully inaccessible formats (print or digital non-readable formats) how does one respond to culture, language, industry and domain specific needs?

The Solution

The answer to this decentralized and hydra-headed problem is a decentralized community-driven solution. If similarly placed print and visually impaired across the world can connect with each other and share their efforts to fulfill their specific needs then there is a durable and dynamic solution at hand.

From books to class notes, journals to cooking tips, product reviews to personal stories. BookBole is all about the small stuff, but on a really large scale. A vibrant universe where people reach out, connect and fulfil each other’s needs. A universe created by aggregating the pools of accessible content that the visually impaired community has created for itself. A place where the value to the community of an individual effort is truly unlocked. Sharing that goes to the heart of the problem.

Bookbole.com is the consequence of this thought process. Designed exclusively for the 300 million-strong global print impaired community, it enables them to connect with each other and share accessible content, including books, notes, articles, blogs, audio recordings and so on, and furthermore, to build conversations around this content. It is a social network, with a difference. In the fashion of all things simple and useful, Bookbole will no doubt come to mean different things to different people across the world – a learning tool for some, an entertainment platform for others, and for all, a place to make friends and have conversations.

BookBole’s vision is that of a large, vibrant, pulsating community that shares useful content and conversations in a more-that-just-accessible environment, and where publishers and content-creators across the world, see the value of making available their content in mutual beneficial arrangements. Going forward, the largest community of visually and print impaired people in the world could see Bookbole become a social network, a content platform, a marketplace and a policy platform rolled into one. The makings of a true social venture.

Update: The ToI today carries an article stating that this entire piece of news does not seem to be validated. Most likely the device is just capable of simple computing operations and not as full-fledged as a laptop. End of update

Laptops and the internet are more or less ubiquitous for most urban high school students. However, the cost barrier is still high and hence only a limited section of the student population can afford it. This is poised to change in the near future with the advent of a new Rs. 500 laptop (currently in prototype phase)
This Rs. 500 laptop prototype will be on display on February 3rd at Tirupati. This prototype is a joint effort by the students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras and involvement of Public Sector Units like Semiconductor Complex.

Akshaya Mukul writes in this article at the Times of India:

The $10 laptop project, first reported in TOI three years ago, has come as an answer to the $100 laptop of MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte that he was trying to hardsell to India. 

“At this stage, the price is working out to be $20 but with mass production it is bound to come down,” R P Agarwal, secretary, higher education said.

Another very interesting launches on this day will be those of an e-classroom, a virtual laboratory and an improved version of the existing ‘Sakshat’ portal.
The following is an interesting turn of events:

Sources also said that the ministry has entered into an agreement with four publishers — Macmillan, Tata McGraw Hill, Prentice-Hall and Vikas Publishing — to upload their textbooks on ‘Sakshat’. Five per cent of these books can be accessed free. 

Of course, all these initiatives also require that the current infrastructure be improved significantly. The article mentions that:

In this context, government would give Rs 2.5 lakh per institution for 10 Kbps connection and subsidise 25% of costs for private and state government colleges. 

The mission would seek to extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 18,000 colleges in the country, including each department of nearly 400 universities and institutions of national importance.

It is wonderful to see that the government and other institutions are coming together to herald in a new age of education and making use of technology to drive positive change.

Read the complete article here.
Image courtesy: incasoftware.co.uk

Indian television afficionados may have come across an advertisement of a mobile service provider depicting how a mobile phone could be used to spread education in remote areas. It got us interested and we wanted to see whether such an idea (no reference to the company!) was actually being implemented. After some not-so-intensive news searching, we came across an article by BBC India’s Amarnath Tewary which describes how the radio is being used in Bihar to teach English to school children.

The Bihar Education Project, in collaboration with the Education Development Center (a US-based organization), launched this innovative teaching idea in order to improve literacy of the state. Bihar currently has a literacy percentage of only 47%.

Amarnath Tewary reports:

The students are looking inquisitively at a radio set perched on a plastic chair in the middle of the classroom in the capital, Patna.
They are all waiting for a new English lesson to begin – on the radio. 

So, for half an hour, four days a week, millions of primary students in Bihar today learn English through this radio lesson.

The year-long interactive radio lessons are being broadcast by the four regional state-run All India Radio stations. The lessons cover seven million students attending 65,000 primary schools in all the 38 districts of the state.

And what does a student have to say about this?:

“It is very easy to learn English on radio. Every day we wait for this class. Even if the teacher is not in the class we learn and enjoy the programme,” a student, Sakshi Kumari, said. 

The state government has granted a 1000 rupees to every school to enable them to buy a radio. And the benefits of such initiatives in Bihar are told in this para:

Interestingly, backward and dirt-poor Bihar appears to be a trend setter here – a recent federal government report found that school students in the state are now faring better in English and mathematics than anywhere else in the country. 

The article is very well written and also gives you the perspective of the teachers in these schools. It is truly inspiring to see such initiatives being taken in the field of education, which is perhaps one of the most important areas requiring development in our country.
Last, but not the least, we couldn’t help but add the punch line – What an Idea!

Image courtesy: Prashant Ravi from BBC News

 Do you decline to use your right to vote on the basis that you do not know the candidate well enough? Or do you vote for anyone on the basis that they are all equally corrupt and it makes no difference? Now, voters of Delhi can eliminate these gripes from their lives as they go in for assembly elections in a month’s time.

An NGO Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) has started this initiative using RTI, where they will make the elected representatives more accountable by assessing their past performance. So, now, as the candidates’ come knocking on the doors of Delhi-ites with a smile and a host of promises, they can be taken to severe task by the citizens of their constituencies and asked to explain their past performance. The MLA Report Card will demonstrate how concerned the MLA was about your concerns the last time you elected him and how much he has delivered. Times of India will publish these reports in a new series, and empower people to take informed decisions regarding their precious vote. Reports TOI:

Under the MLA Local Area Development Fund, each MLA can spend up to Rs 2 crore on development works in his constituency each year. Did your MLA align this work with your needs and priorities? Or was it to help his cronies? In short, was public money – Rs 10 crore in five years – well-utilised or wasted?

You can now judge if you really needed those parks when the roads in your colony were crumbling. Or if you got water when you really needed it. And what about the promised baraat ghar ? Give your MLA a pat if he has performed well. Or tell him to get off. That will tell our MLAs that they can’t take you for granted. It will clean the system and give you a role in governance.

With elections just around the corner, this is the need of the hour. Indians have always felt the limitation of not knowing enough about their elected representatives, and the work they were doing seemed to be shrouded in a veil of mystery, unless some scandal exploded in their face. This will go a great length in enabling people to make an informed choice, so that lack of information no longer remains an excuse for electing the wrong people to power.

Read the complete article here.

Image courtesy: www.india-briefing.com

How often have we found ourselves complaining that we’re not kept informed of all that is happening by the Government? We even go to the extent of blaming the Government for intentionally keeping us in the dark. While this may or may not be true, the residents of Maddur taluk (yes, the home of the scrumptious Maddur vada!) in Mandya district of Karnataka cannot have this grievance.

The Nagarekere Gram Panchayat has brought out a newspaper called the Grama Sarkara (Village Government) to keep the people informed about the various projects and schemes meant for them and help establish transparency. Writes U M Mahesh in Deccan Herald:

According to N L Krishna, editor of Grama Sarkara, it’s a monthly and can be found in all public places including schools and banks. The paper, which has received a very good response, helps to maintain transparency in the implementation of various schemes and projects. Grama Sarkara can, in fact, be a model to other Gram Panchayats in the State.

With a tag line of “Ours is a corruption-free Gram Panchayat”, this newspaper has been benefiting its readers for over three years now. We hope this model will be replicated all over India so that no citizen needs to doubt that his Government is trying to keep information from him.

Read the complete article here.

Image Courtesy: Deccan Herald

Do you think that the consumer rights movement is non-existent in India? Do you think that nobody bothers to file a complaint and fight a case if they have been wronged by a faulty product or deceived by false claims? Then chances are you don’t know about these consumer rights activists who fight tooth and nail to try and get citizens their due in consumer courts. Meet Mala Banerjee and C.P.Rai – two of India’s many dedicated advocates of the consumer’s cause.

Banerjee has helped scores of people across Bengal find justice as she drafts away new complaints as and when any grieving party comes to seek her help, without charging a rupee. Now 50 years of age, she still remembers the promise she made to Mother Teresa to help people, and for free. She can be reached at 9831046377. Writes Charu Sudan Kasturi in The Telgraph:

She may lack the glamour of Erin Brockovich, the California consumer rights activist played by Julia Roberts in an award winning film eight years ago, but Banerjee has helped dozens across Bengal find justice.

As a fresh law graduate just exiting her teens, Banerjee had worked at Mother’s Missionaries of Charity as an unpaid ayah.

“When I was leaving, Mother made me promise that I would continue to work for the people, and for free.”

Banerjee chose to work on consumer rights; she thought her legal training would help.

C.P Rai at his typewriter

C.P.Rai is a 70-year old retired government employee and now spends a large part of his time addressing the petitions of dozens of ordinary government employees and doling out free advice to others. One of his main points of contention against the government is that there is an application charge for the filing of complaints in the consumer courts. This could start with Rs.100 for a claim of Rs.1 Lakh, and go up to Rs.500 for higher claims. Rai believes that this is a major deterrent for poor people to file their complaints, and should be done away with.

When Rai’s fingers clatter against the keys of his three-decade-old Godrej typewriter, it often portends potential trouble for government agencies or private companies that stand accused of hoodwinking or cheating customers.

Rai is occupied these days devising his latest strategy to challenge Delhi’s bus system that he says quietly cheats people. “I have been battling the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) for nine years now. Buses are the common man’s mode of transport and appear cheap. But quietly, they have been looting you and me,” he says, his eyes flashing but his voice calm as he explains.

There are others like professors Sri Ram Khanna and Bupinder Zutshi who have contributed to the movement by introducing consumer rights into the curriculum at Delhi University and JNU respectively. They have also floated organizations like Voluntary Organization in Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE) and Consumer Voice, an online magazine for consumer awareness.

These crusaders for consumer rights have ensured that the hapless customer has a voice against injustice and at least a chance in hell against the mammoth corporations and their might.

Read the complete article here.

Image Courtesy: The Telegraph

Sunita Lamba

Yes, India did win a second gold medal at the 2008 Olympics, besides the one bagged by Abhinav Bindra. Though not many are aware of it, Sunita Lamba was judged the ‘best artist’ in the Global Fine Arts Competition, where 10,000 artists participated from 80 countries. But unlike the media, industry and government hype surrounding the win of Bindra, Sunita’s feat has gone largely unnoticed.

 Partho Burman talks to her in an exclusive interview for Headlines India here. Excerpt from the article:

The International Olympics Committee Chairman, He Zhenliang inaugurated the exhibition on August 11. The Olympics Fine Art committee selected Sunita’s 24-inches high bronze sculpture titled ‘Unity’ because it matched the theme of the exhibition – ‘One World’. “I finally managed to give it a shape after many trials-and-errors,” Sunita said. The exhibition would continue till September 20 and the artwork will further be showcased in other cities of China in the coming two years.

This success has not come easily to Sunita. She had to struggle to be able to compete and faced several hardships along the way. To top it, she did not receive any support from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and its president, Suresh Kalmadi, who refused to meet her before her departure.

Believe it or not, Sunita had to register herself for the participation and had to arrange her trip to Beijing all alone. No hands of support came from any organisation except the Olympic Committee which finally arranged her boarding in Beijing for just 10 days.

It is unfortunate that Sunita has not been accorded the recognition she deserves for her enormous achievement. No doubt Indian sports authorities have a long way to go before they can free themselves of bureaucracy and promote sports and sportspeople in the right spirit of the game. However, here at The Better India, we wish to pay our tribute to Sunita Lamba and tell her that as a nation, we are extremely proud of her.

The stage: A large hall in Takhel, a remote village about 15KM from Imphal, the capital of Manipur – a small state in North-Eastern India

The actors: A young woman of 27 years by the name of Arambam Romita and an educated farmer Keisham Biren, both news readers for an unassuming news channel

The props: A crude loudspeaker, a PA system, a long wooden bench by the window which serves as a news desk

The scene: The young lady is trying to fix the microphone to its stand, as it had been borrowed the previous day for a farmer’s meering.

This is the setup of the tiny Paothang Channel, the sole people’s broadcast initiative in Manipur. At present, it serves as the trusted news source for many of Takhel’s 5000 residents.

This informative article from Kangla Online, written by Thingnam Anjulika Samom, tells the interesting story of Paothang (meaning ‘news relay’ in the local dialect of Meiteilon) Channel and the people behind its creation.

“It is basically our own interest – not profit – that guides us, otherwise we’d have stopped long ago,” Biren adds. The dilapidated hall is the station’s third ‘studio’ – the first was in a hotel for about a year, then the second at his house for a brief while.

Here’s an example of the two newsreaders, Romita and Biren, presenting a daily news relay:

“Paothang Channel welcomes all its listeners. We are on air,” says Biren. “In this world full of differences of caste, colour, and creed, let’s not be divided by these artificial walls,” he adds.

And then he makes an announcement – the local Communist Party of India branch will be meeting the next day and all its members are asked to attend.

Romita takes over, speaking in a soft voice. There are many good stories today.
Twelve suspected militants were captured with arms in the official quarters of five MLAs. The signing of a memorandum by seven elected people’s representatives of Manipur – one to the Indian Parliament and six to the state legislative assembly – expressing their support for Naga integration. There are more than 20 insurgent groups operating in Manipur, waging an armed struggle against the government of India, mostly for the right to self-determination…

In an isolated village with hardly any disposable income as well as need/ intention to spend on newspapers or TVs and radios, this project created by the local member of the zila parishad Tensubam Ratan, allows the village folk to keep abreast of current affairs in the vast country that they are a part of, however far removed they might be.

It is also good to know that this is not a lone star. There are similar community media initiatives being undertaken in other parts of the country.

According to Sevanti Ninan, journalist, author, columnist and media critic, “such an initiative is actually the forerunner of local community radio, which has recently been permitted by the Indian government. It offers news that the local community needs for its day to day functioning, also news that connects it to the rest of the country and state.”

“The way Romita and Biren respond to a local need is similar to what communities are doing in other parts of the country. In Kurnool and Medak districts of Andhra Pradesh, in Daltnganj in Bihar, in Karnataka and in the Rann of Kutch. They all write their news using conventional news sources, and then find ways to transmit it to their community.

“In some places they record a bulletin and pay the state-run All India Radio’s (AIR) local station to transmit it. In other places they record a relevant local discussion on a tape recorder and move around villages playing it back.

This is indeed a laudable enterprise, and we hope that many will be influenced by the willingness and good intentions of the few who are taking on such responsibilities and bringing about change and progress in entire communities.

Link Credit: Vinay Sreenivasa via Ashwini Bharadwaj