Association for India’s Development April 2007

Delhi Chapter Newsletter

Table of Contents Campaigns: AID Delhi RTI Cell

Editorial 1 Objective
Campaigns
RTI Cell 1 The objective of the group is to:
Action 2007 2
1. Create awareness among people about the usage
Oraganisational Shuffle 3 of RTI.
Project Updates 2. Use RTI to find the information about working
AID Prayas 3 of the government departments to make them
Nai Disha 3 more accountable.
Khoj 4 3. Strive to reduce corruption from government
Parichay 4 departments.
Aasheyan 4 4. Take up critical issues from the community
where we work and make them aware of this act
by enabling them to file RTIs.

Editorial
First of all I sincerely thank all volunteers who have
significantly contributed for taking AID Delhi to the
next level. AID Delhi is also proud of AID Gurgaon
Folks who have formed their own chapter. Highlights
of AID Delhi’s April activities are.
1. 7th Annual Day Celebrations at Parichay where
the children of Parichay on 4th April.
2. The RTI Cell which is shaking the PWD
department with its series of RTI Applications.
3. Action 2007, in which lot of AID Delhi
volunteers chipped in and attended the Dharna
at Jantar Mantar, supported them by making
logistics arrangements, documentation and also
by interviewing activists from various parts of
India.
4. Signature Campaign for showing condemnation
against Nandigram Killing
5. A Candle vigil for the people who were brutally
killed by Police at Nandigram as well as urging
to remove the SEZ act on 21st April.
6. Fun trip of Prayas Children on 29th April.
7. Trip of Aashayen Children on 29th April..
Contributed By : Selva.
Strategy
We started AID Delhi RTI cell in February. We have
formed a team called Youth Task Force. This will bring
in members from AID, Josh, and other colleges, and
organizations, who are working on various RTI issues.
The primary focus of our group is to inspect the work
and/or to seek information for the documents of Public
Works Department (PWD) of Delhi Government and
Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools in
Delhi. However, if a volunteer feels that there are other
relevant areas where a significant impact can be made,
we will take up those issues as well. We also plan to
approach the people of the community where we work
to discuss with them and create awareness among them
by performing street plays, playing RTI songs, and
helping them file RTI applications on critical issues.
We are currently talking with the students of IIT (NSS),
DU, LSR, and various other colleges of Delhi for
cooperating with us. We are also trying to take help of
civil engineers from IIT for the inspection of roads in
Delhi. We have also arranged a workshop by Arvind
Khejriwal for the volunteers of IIT Delhi (NSS). This
will be a very important workshop because it will not
only tell us about the importance of RTI, but will also
teach us on how to file RTIs on different issues.
The 46 applications filed so far cover works on all
roads including Outer Ring Road, Ring Road, NH-10,
NH-24, and other PWD roads in the capital. We have
filed 46 such applications seeking information and
inspection regarding road works worth Rs 420 crore.
We took a retired MCD civil engineer with us to check
the strengthening work. Under pressure of 46 RTI
applications, PWD for the first time told us that they
would be allowed to pick up samples simultaneously
with the inspecting authority. The endeavors of IIT-
Delhi were covered by Times of India on the front
page on April 22, 2007.
We request people to be a part of our team. You can
also make a valuable contribution by sharing your
suggestions with us.
Contributed by: Sanjeev Kumar Sharma
RTI cell coordinator
Aid Delhi
Campaign : Action 2007
An AIDer's experience at Action 2007
Have you seen activists, people fighting for their issues
from different corners of the country voicing slogans,
demonstrating against the injustice, coming together at
the same platform? Well that's Action 2007. People
from different regions, with different languages, dresses,
cultures sat together under the vibrant colored canopy,
listened to each other, listened to the activists who are
asking them to be united, sang with each other, even
shared foods with each other at Jantar Mantar, the
"Protest Bhoomi".
"Action 2007 is not an event but an idea and a long
drawn process through sustained struggle towards
collective national level people's movement to challenge
the imperialist design of the State.....
..........It is within this context, that, all those struggling
for justice and equality and against such process of
human rights violation have decided to come together
and launch an indefinite struggle in Delhi from March
19 2007"
And it has been immensely successful in accomplishing
that. There have been Jan Sansad, Human Chain,
Candle Vigil. There also have been mass arrests and
mistreatment by the govt. Over 60 activists gathering
were arrested on 22nd March by the police. Their fault?
They had sought an appointment with the Planning
Commission and didn't get it ... and they were peacefully
demonstrating in front of the planning commission
building. That's when the police arrested them, and in
the process manhandling several, even about 50 women.
The arrested were transferred to Tihar Jail. The charges
under which they were booked included rioting and
violation of act 144. For some people like Medhadidi,
old charges were brought up again. It was good that
many people all over the city reacted promptly at this
outrageous incident, and most of the people were freed
after 2days.
On the last day of the Jan Sansad there were some very
informative and to-the-point presentations made by
people from Orissa, and also by the people from
Manipur. The theme was state militarisation and
repression. An audience comprising of ordinary people
struggling for years against adversity (brought on by the
administration) listened with rapt attention to the
description of how the Armed Forces Special Powers
Act had been making life unbearable in Manipur (
manipurfreedom.org is a good site on this struggle).
And that's the beauty. There were people from
Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar
Pradesh, Maharastra. And they all listened to each
others' problems. After the Jan Sansad was over, Anand
bhai announced the good news that the arrested people
were being released on bail and that they would be
welcomed by all present with red handkerchiefs.
147 oganisations joined Sangharsh. Everyday thousands
of people gathered at Jantar Mantar. They stayed there
for nearly a month. Learned each others problems. Now
they are back at their states. And they will continue the
struggle from there. They all learned that they are not
alone. The problems are different but the sufferings are
same. So is their struggle.
Narmada se le ke Nandigram tak ki ladayee ek hai ek hai
Awaaz do hum ek hai........
Contributed by: Satabdi Das
AID Delhi, AID Kolkatta

Organizational Shuffle
There has been an Organizational Shuffle at AID
Delhi in the past couple of months and here are the
list of our New Coordinators..
Overall Volunteer Coordinator: Chirag
Noida Coordinator: Darshan Mehra, Anuradha
Prayas: Arun Raj, Anuradha, Dharmendra
Nai Disha: Rajat Agarwal
Khoj: Anwesha, Deepika Pant
RTI Cell: Sanjeev Sharma
Publications: Selva
As AID Gurgaon has become a separate Chapter, we
expect separate newsletter from their publications
team soon.
Project Updates: AID
Prayas
Activity Highlights
We focused on the following activities this month:
1. Rotation of leader every month: The decision
has been taken to allow maximum participation
by all volunteers. We also hope this would
reduce dependency on any one person.
This month saw Arun Raj leading us and we
have learnt some new strategies from him this
month.
2. Responsibilities of the leader:
™ Providing regular updates to AID
™ Coordinating volunteers for project
activities
™ Tracking children’s development with
respect to curriculum
™ Ensuring attendance of team members
in key AID events
™ Maintaining and developing team
interest and focusing on project
objectives
™ Maintaining and developing
relationships with children's families
3. Picnic to be planned for kids: We plan to
organize a visit to the zoo at Delhi. Selva has
suggested considering Meal Packets to be
provided by Parichay.
4. Curriculum for Prayas: Neha and Darshan
would soon visit Parichay to understand the
curriculum pattern followed there. Suggestions
and ideas are invited for Non-Formal
Education pattern form all.
We hope to close the curriculum planning by
Sunday, May 6.
Volunteers: Darshan, Arun Raj, Anuradha, Neha, Raj,
Pratyush, and Selva
New Noida Coordinator: Darshan Mehra
Project Updates: Nai Disha
Activity Highlights
1. The new academic session has started and the
kids are extremely enthusiastic about resuming
their studies.
2. In the current academic session, we would focus
on developing the linguistic skills of the kids. To
this end in view, we have already started
teaching English grammar and some basic
structures in English. To help them with the
basics of English grammar, we plan to combine
the fourth and the fifth standard students and
teach them collectively.
3. As most students have gained the basic
knowledge of computers, we intend to build on
the computer course for 5th standard.
Volunteers: Shammi, Pheroza, Rajat, Arun, Rinku,
Priyanka, Hemant, Preeti, Bul Bul Saha.
Note: AID India played a significant role in managing
the funds for the students during the last year. The same
level of support is expected out of us this time as well.
We request all our supporters to contribute generously
toward the cause. You may also contact your
friends/organizations, who might help us collect much-
needed funds. Please contact the following for any
queries/suggestions:
Rajat (Noida): 91-9810994596
Shammi (Noida): 91-9899443774 (Mobile)
Email: shammi.raj.balla@gmail.com
Pheroza (CT, US): 203-339-7076 (Business Phone)
Email: parashar.pheroza@gmail.com
 Project Updates: Khoj
Activity Highlights
1. Trip to Appu Ghar: Khoj organized a fun trip
on March 27 for the students enrolled in the
non-formal education program. The trip was
thoroughly enjoyed by the kids as it offered
them a respite from their usual 7-day work
routine.
2. Classes at Various Centers: Inspite of
volunteer crunch, classes are being held regularly
at all the centers. As the mercury is soaring very
rapidly, we have scheduled for two shifts of
classes – morning and evening. Classes at Jor
Bag and Ber Serai are being held with utmost
regularity while the classes at Dilli Haat Center
are somewhat irregular because most children
are out of station these days.
3. New Volunteers: 4 new volunteers have joined
our team.
4. Weekend Team: A weekend team has been
formed with the aim of interacting with children
every weekend. They will visit a center every
weekend to help out the children with various
activities like storytelling, drawing, theater,
games, and review of the curriculum done in the
past week.
Present weekend team comprises of Adil,
Vishesh, Raghavan, and Sumeet. Adil will be the
coordinator for the current weekend team.
Plans for Upcoming Months
1. To develop an understanding of current events
and to improve on the reading habits of
students, we have set a task for ourselves for the
next quarter – we would guide the students to
read atleast one Hindi daily.
2. We are yet to reach a decision on some
important issues regarding curriculum and
teaching aids.
3. We also plan to follow up with IHE students.
4. Crunch of volunteers would vanish by May end.
Stars of the Month
1. Pawan, Zubair, and Santosh have shown great
commitment toward the responsibilities taken
up by them. They are volunteering full time
these days.
2. Ritu did a great job during her tenure with Khoj.
She almost rejuvenated Khoj.
Project Updates: Parichay
Activity Highlights
1. Volunteer Crunch: There are no regular
volunteers at Parichay these days. Except Naval,
all other volunteers have been irregular so far.
2. Nutrition Program: With AID’s support,
Nutrition program is running smoothly.
3. Annual Day Celebrations: Parichay celebrated
its annual day on April 4. Both the children and
the women of the community presented various
events. Everyone in the community had a gala
time as the day was celebrated in a festive spirit.
4. Stalls: Stalls at STMicrolectronics have been
regular so far. Sachin’s also helped us put up a
stall at HCL Noida.
5. Bulk Orders: We received two big orders from
Allison and AID Tempe for handicrafts and
other products.
6. Expansion of Product Range: We have added
some new masalas – Sambhar masala, masala for
stuffing, etc. Some pickles have also been added
to the list. In addition to this, we also have
various types of saunf suparis on offer.
Volunteers: Naval, Shashank, Navneet, Puneeta and
Swina
Project Updates: Aashayen (Timarpur)
Activity Highlights
1. A health check up camp was organized for
around 100 children on 11 March 2007. The
doctors have also helped us create a report for
each child, and we have documented the
ailments of the children and the cure for the
same.
2. 4-5 dedicated volunteers have joined our project
in the last quarter, and we are targeting to
receive an equal number of volunteers for this
quarter too.
3. Proposal to start our classes on Sunday will
soon be implemented.
4. We are using Pratham kits and the storybooks
regularly for the last one month. Needless to say
these aids have helped us with the teaching
process and the retention among the children
has also improved.
5. A trip to Rajghat/Science Museum for the
community children has been planned for 29th
April.
6. We are on a lookout for finding a good teacher
within the community.
Feedback: aid.delhi@gmail.com Web: http://delhi.aidindia.org Phone: +91-9213797167
DONATE TO AID Publications Team
Online: E-transfer to ICICI Bank a/c 602201200299 Editors: Selva and Puneeta
By Cheque: Mail cheques in favor of AID-India to :- Coordinator: Selva
AID Delhi,c/o R. Selva Ganapathy, Department of
Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,
Delhi - 110016