Welfare measures by TN Government for children who have lost their parent(s) due to COVID-19

 Summary of G.O. No 24 of Social Welfare & Woman Empowerment Department Dt 11/06/2021 

For those children who have been Orphaned

- INR 5 lakh deposit to be paid with interest to such children when they turn 18. This is applicable when either the child has lost both parents due to COVID-19 OR one parent earlier and the second due to COVID

- Such children will be given preference in Govt homes, hostels, and all those expenses will be borne by the state government

For other children

- INR 3 lakhs will be given to single parents as immediate relief

- Children who have lost both parents but living with guardians and not admitted to Child Care Institutions (CCI) will receive INR 3,000 per month until they turn 18

- Such children and their single parents will be given priority in all state government schemes

You can read the full G.O. here

Firstly, this is a commendable measure by the TN Government. While there is huge scope to improve Government-run CCIs and how the government accredits and deals with CCIs run by NGOs all that is for another day.

What should we as citizens do?

- The Government is funding this through generous contributions to TN CM's public relief fund, consider making a donation. I have and you should consider making an 80G tax-exempt donation too.

- If you know of such children within your community help them access the government schemes, support them financially, emotionally

- If you know any child who has lost one or both parents due to COVID-19 refer them to Bhumi for a scholarship

What should we as citizens think about and do?

- Would you be okay with your child living in a Govt or NGO-run shelter home (CCI) or on INR 3,000 p.m.?

- What about children whose parents pass away at other times? There are several thousand children who need your support, refer children for a Bhumi Scholarship. Bhumi scholarships reach a few thousand children each year.

-Do you consider such positive actions and intent by politicians when you vote for them?

In December 2015, post the Chennai Floods visiting an affected shelter home (CCI) made me cringe at the appalling living conditions. I thought if I had children, would I want them to grow up like this? and hence I should do something about it. The very next month I quit my medical practice to join Bhumi full-time.

Start volunteering for children at a shelter home or planting a tree in your neighborhood. Build empathy in your children by taking them with you when you volunteer. That's how we can build a more equal, influential, socially conscious society.

Want to do something for a soldier, be an Indian who is worth fighting for

For the past few days I've been grappling with my emotions stemming from the brutal #PulwamaAttack that has irreversibly destroyed at least 44 families. Families that have brought up their children in a way that made those young adults chose to defend this country and not a seemingly safe job anywhere else.

I have always wanted to travel to Kashmir, now a holiday is planned with my friends, yet there is much trepidation over the politics of violence due to the impending elections. In the next few weeks, it will be a toss-up between the apparent risk of travelling there, against the apparent safety of travelling elsewhere. The safety, our security forces allow us to take us for granted. The safety for which these brave young men died.

When a calamity like this strikes us, how should I react? How should we the people of this country react? How should India react?

Should we strike back to cause equal hurt? Should we strike back to cause greater pain? What then about the pain caused by our actions? What then about the collateral damage? Won’t our reactions then perpetuate a never-ending cycle of violence? As Gandhi said, “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind”. Should we then decimate our enemies from the face of the earth so that there is no pain or hurt anymore?

Or should we choose to follow Gandhi’s footsteps and embrace our enemies with the message of ahimsa, peace and non-violence? Does that bring lasting peace? Is it still relevant in this day and age? Is peace possible without a dialogue?

In our current political scenario, India stops dialogue, sports, and even business with Pakistan whenever there is an attack. In any dialogue there will have to be some give and take. As a society, do we have the vision of what peace can do, or the maturity to accept any resolution that may seem like we have given up something? How then will the politicians resolve this issue? How then will there be lasting peace?

I am struggling with these questions in a constant state of Rage & Placidity #CalmVolcano but here’s a thought that came out of this befuddlement and pain.

When there is such a mind numbingly painful attack on our country and our people. there is an out pouring of offers to support. But, even in apparent lack of war, India loses soldiers every other day. I feel most families may get some sort of support, yet, there could be some families which may struggle to educate their children. Also, do the children of such brave men need our support only when they lose someone? I am looking for Bhumians, collaborators who would like to join a team
- do some ground research and understand reality, and the need for such a programme
- identify and shortlist children for scholarships
- conduct fundraising campaigns to raise money for these children
- mentor/support these children until they graduate

Want to do something for a soldier, be an #Indian who is worth fighting for #Volunteer

The silent horror of the war in Sri Lanka

The horror that is unfolding in Sri Lanka becomes possible because of the silence that surrounds it. There is almost no reporting in the mainstream Indian media — or indeed in the international press — about what is happening there. Why this should be so is a matter of serious concern.

From the little information that is filtering through it looks as though the Sri Lankan government is using the propaganda of the ‘war on terror’ as a fig leaf to dismantle any semblance of democracy in the country, and commit unspeakable crimes against the Tamil people. Working on the principle that every Tamil is a terrorist unless he or she can prove otherwise, civilian areas, hospitals and shelters are being bombed and turned into a war zone. Reliable estimates put the number of civilians trapped at over 200,000. The Sri Lankan Army is advancing, armed with tanks and aircraft.

Meanwhile, there are official reports that several ‘‘welfare villages’’ have been established to house displaced Tamils in Vavuniya and Mannar districts. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph (Feb 14, 2009), these villages ‘‘will be compulsory holding centres for all civilians fleeing the fighting’’. Is this a euphemism for concentration camps? The former foreign minister of Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraveera, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘‘A few months ago the government started registering all Tamils in Colombo on the grounds that they could be a security threat, but this could be exploited for other purposes like the Nazis in the 1930s. They’re basically going to label the whole civilian Tamil population as potential terrorists.’’

Given its stated objective of ‘‘wiping out’’ the LTTE, this malevolent collapse of civilians and ‘‘terrorists’’ does seem to signal that the government of Sri Lanka is on the verge of committing what could end up being genocide. According to a UN estimate several thousand people have already been killed. Thousands more are critically wounded. The few eyewitness reports that have come out are descriptions of a nightmare from hell. What we are witnessing, or should we say, what is happening in Sri Lanka and is being so effectively hidden from public scrutiny, is a brazen, openly racist war. The impunity with which the Sri Lankan government is being able to commit these crimes actually unveils the deeply ingrained racist prejudice, which is precisely what led to the marginalization and alienation of the Tamils of Sri Lanka in the first place. That racism has a long history, of social ostracisation, economic blockades, progroms and torture. The brutal nature of the decades-long civil war, which started as a peaceful, non-violent protest, has its roots in this.

Why the silence? In another interview Mangala Samaraveera says, ‘‘A free media is virtually non-existent in Sri Lanka today.’’ ‘This concern has not travelled to India’

Samaraveera goes on to talk about death squads and ‘white van abductions’, which have made society ‘‘freeze with fear’’. Voices of dissent, including those of several journalists, have been abducted and assassinated. The International Federation of Journalists accuses the government of Sri Lanka of using a combination of anti-terrorism laws, disappearances and assassinations to silence journalists.

There are disturbing but unconfirmed reports that the Indian government is lending material and logistical support to the Sri Lankan government in these crimes against humanity. If this is true, it is outrageous. What of the governments of other countries? Pakistan? China? What are they doing to help, or harm the situation?

In Tamil Nadu the war in Sri Lanka has fueled passions that have led to more than 10 people immolating themselves. The public anger and anguish, much of it genuine, some of it obviously cynical political manipulation, has become an election issue.

It is extraordinary that this concern has not travelled to the rest of India. Why is there silence here? There are no ‘white van abductions’ — at least not on this issue. Given the scale of what is happening in Sri Lanka, the silence is inexcusable. More so because of the Indian government’s long history of irresponsible dabbling in the conflict, first taking one side and then the other. Several of us including myself, who should have spoken out much earlier, have not done so, simply because of a lack of information about the war.

So while the killing continues, while tens of thousands of people are being barricaded into concentration camps, while more than 200,000 face starvation, and a genocide waits to happen, there is dead silence from this great country. It’s a colossal humanitarian tragedy. The world must step in. Now. Before it’s too late.


Arundhati Roy in an article for TOI

Free Tibet!

A casual train conversation that turned into a full fledged political discussions on Tibet... I promised to blog about it so here goes...

• Tibetans travel through the passes of Himalayas to reach India via Nepal illegally in search of a better future/education.
• They have a 'Government-in exile' in Dharmashala, Himachal Pradesh headed by the Dalai Lama
• The Government-in exile has various departments much like our own. For example the education department allots Tibetan students to study at various educational institutions across the country. Chennai has 120!
• Apart from Himachal Pradesh Tibetans live in a few large Refugee camps around the country in places like New Delhi, Karnataka etc
• Children make the treacherous trip via the mountains to reach India to study. They don't see their parents for years together. They have a school in Mussorie where they study and move on to colleges. They can return to the school even during their college holidays!
• Though all Graduates dream of returning to return to Tibet, many choose to work for the Government in Exile in India.
• When the Dalai Lama dies he'll leave a clue as to where his next incarnation would be and the Tibetans will have to go an identify the child.
• Next in hierarchy to the Dalai Lama is the Panchen Lama, the real Panchen Lama was a 5 year old kid when he and his family 'disappeared'!
• Now there's a Chinese government 'installed' Panchen Lama who is doing the rounds in Tibet. He gives 'religious sermons' which at least one person from every family has to attend.
• Considering the Dalai Lama is the only potent force for the Tibetans, wonder what the Chinese will do to the child who gets identified as the next Dalai Lama
• They're happy to have self rule within the Chinese framework
• They're happy with India's neutral stance. But an aggressive posturing from India is like their main hope!
• The Yummy part: There's just one Tibetan run Tibetan restaurant in Chennai, Mount Kailash, near Loyola. Recco: The mo-mo :D

I'm sure at least half of this is news to most people!

Subsidising Regression

Cost of the Chennai's MRTS: Rs.1,000 Crore (over 20 Years)

Cost of Delhi Metro: Rs 10,500 Crore (over 10 years)

Cost of National fuel subsidy: Rs: 200,000 Crore (in 2007-08 - 1 year)

Considering a Bus costs Rs.0.25 Crore approx and the subsidy on petrol is Rs 15/litre (A bus for every 1.6Lakh litres petrol subsidy!)

It's obvious that the government has frittered away a lot of money to prevent a possible loss at the next general elections. While the MRTS and the Metro have been dubbed as part failures because their patronage is not to their full capacity (where again the blame lies with the governments) imagine we could've had Metros across all our major cities and MRTSs across all other major towns and cities and thousands of buses for the whole country just with this year's fuel subsidy.

One of the UPA government's biggest mistakes was removing the Administered Price Mechanism of the NDA which made changes in cost of petrol a mathematical process rather than a political decision. The best news I've heard in this regard has been that the national petroleum companies have started rationing fuel and their impending bankruptcy and closure within a few months if the fuel price subsidy is not removed/rationalised. When that happens, it'll be doomsday for the UPA and a lesson for all selfish power-hungry politicians who come to power in the future.

If the government can afford so much on short-term subsidies they can definitely afford better public transport for all of us.

If people can't afford to pay for the true cost of fuel, they can't afford the true cost of damaging the environment either!

India in Isolation

The largest democracy in the World, surrounded by chaos. How long can we live in isolation as our neighbours continue to suffer?

Afghanistan, continues to reel under Talibanisation years after the Talibans were driven out of most of their land by the Americans. The Americans are fighting those they armed to drive out the Soviets.
Pakistan has spent more years under military rule than in Democracy, a heavy price to pay for maintaining a huge army to match India. Wouldn't peace between brothers have done a lot more good?
Nepal in Transition... Democracy without elections. Maoists in power. A king without a Kingdom.
Tibet where's that? Can China's importance and might make us forget the aspirations of this forgotten country and it's people?
Bhutan, peaceful, yet a blast from the past.
Burma under Military rule for Decades. How long will India take the side of the Military rulers? If peace loving monks can protest and die for democracy, can't India lift a finger to help?
Sri Lanka, the war wages on. Once bitten twice shy but can't we mediate peace?
Bangladesh, the only place where Military rule is probably doing some good... rooting out corrupt politicians. Why aren't we more friendly with these people? Why do they provide haven for terrorists who harm us?

Does a country of a Billion that ignores it's neighbours deserves a Permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council by right of it's size alone?
Is the American way of 'fighting' for Democracy wrong?
Is the Indian way of remaining a mute spectator right?