Association for India’s Development October 2007

Delhi Chapter Newsletter

Table of Contents From the Editor’s Desk

From the editors desk 1 Yet another “hi” to all the readers. This time
while drafting the editorial I’ve been thinking to share a
Project Updates few thoughts with you people and would like to put it in
Aashayen 2 a crispier manner. This month got a sign of relief for me
AID Gurgaon 2 after sharing a lot of responsibility with the people
AID Prayas 3 around me and the interesting part is they have come
Parichay 3 forward to share the load. I’d say that the candles which
Nai Disha 3 we lit on 2nd of October to show our solidarity towards
Khoj 4 Indian farmers have brought the signs of light among
Youth Task Force 4 lot of our people. That day is still in front of my eyes
TARA 4 where the entire family of AID Delhi gathered together
to say a word to our farmers. It was an event which
took place across the globe. We might have not had the
Articles greatest event with only 200 odd people turning out but
How to make a difference to the society the fire the candles have lit in a few people’s heart is still
Ankit Khanna 5 glowing. The candles which we lit in the heart of
India Agriculture hundreds of people while we collected signature might
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow be still glowing. That’s the change we could make. A
- Vikas Happa and Venu Kapoor 5 few people still ask me “What’s up with Agrarian Crisis
Volunteering – Selva 6 after your vigil? Please keep me updated”. That is the
difference we’ve made. They now feel for it. If they read
Treasury 7 an article related to it, now they will pay attention to it.
Well before loosing the track of what I was trying to
Organizational Shuffle 7 conclude, let me come back to it. The candles we lit
brought the potential of lot of other people among us.
Photo of the Month – TARA 8 It has brought our prospective leaders and visionary in
the limelight. 2nd October from this year has been
Photo of the Month – Prayas 9 announced as Global Non-Violence day.
There are also a few more issues I’d like to share
Contact us 9 with you people. We at AID Delhi level have lots of
meeting. I have observed that apart from a very few the
rest always come late or prefer to come late. We at this
level as professionals should strict to timings. We all
know the value of ‘x’ minutes of ours and we also
should respect the ‘x’ minutes of our counterpart. I
agree that there might have been traffic and some
important work on the way etc., but I question “Do we
do the same thing if we are going to catch a train or a
flight?” We never do it. Infact we reach at least 20
minutes earlier to catch a train before its scheduled
departure although we know that it never departs on its
time. I take this as an opportunity to request people to
be on time from here on. It will be really useful for
everyone at any point of your life.

1

Education, the focus area of AID Delhi this
year is going fantastic among all the projects despite
Ashayen where there is a huge volunteer crunch. I’m
still not able to sort out the problems over there but I
feel that a workshop for volunteers would do the
magic. Let’s hope that things become better at
Ashayen soon. AID Prayas have just started to
implement Eureka kit and it might bring some change
in the structure. We will soon start to implement it on
our other projects once we replicate them
Delhi is getting chiller and we are experiencing
pleasant weather these days. I’ve also been planning
for a winter cloths distribution drive later this
November. I’d request volunteers to collect cloths and
blankets for the same.
There is a bit of organizational shuffle too
within AID Delhi.
I also wish all our well wishers a very special
Diwali. Will reach you people again after a month
break. Till then.
Happy Reading!
-Selva,
Editor, AID Delhi e-newsletter,
aid.selva@gmail.com
+91-9891358457
Project Updates: Aashayen
AID Aasheyen is in a biggest trouble these
days. We are undergoing severe volunteer crunch and
the coordination between the volunteers class timings
is getting worse than ever. Despite all these facts
regular classes were held. Kalindi's vocational training
class has been a huge hit among the children where
everyone finds things interesting. Dussara festival did
damaged the class during that weekend. Kalindi's
absence is also a big loss. Dolly and Nitin have been
sticking to their timings and taking classes regularly.
Atul started with profiling the families. We are still
suffering with the space problem and we need to find
an alternate as soon as possible.
2
Aashayen desperately needs a coordinator as of now
and more volunteers. Approaching students of DU
might be handy. Tanya, Akshta and Rahul have joined
our team.
Selva
aid.selva@gmail.com
+91-9891358457
Project Updates: AID Gurgaon
As always, the month of October was also
filled with lots of activities for AID Gurgaon. During
this month, we achieved a milestone of 50 children in
our project Unnati. Earlier, Unnati School had only
one batch of 30-35 children however, this month we
started a second batch at the school. Currently, project
Unnati has two batches, Batch A and Batch B with a
total of 50 children.
In October, we also started the Right to
Information (RTI) Cell in AID Gurgaon. We
conducted an RTI awareness session for volunteers.
Moreover, we have filed an RTI application related to
the public transport system in Gurgaon city. Also, we
are in the process of filing an RTI application
regarding the condition of government schools in
Jharsa.
On the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
front we are doing well. As a CSR activity, we had
organized an exhibition of handicraft articles made by
Literacy India in Hero Honda on October 24th. Also,
we are organizing the same exhibition in Evalueserve
in the first week of November.
In the coming months, we will work towards
replicating Unnati Project in other bastis in Gurgaon.
Further, we will organize RTI awareness campaigns
and will file RTI applications related to various other
issues faced by the common man in Gurgaon.
- Pallavi Tyagi
pallavi.tyagi@evalueserve.com
 Project Updates: AID Prayas Project Updates: Parichay

Now I can say that Prayas is on right track! Last

3-4 months were very challenging for us, we hired full Project Highlights
time teachers, we approached Govt. School to provide
room for our classes, we talked to Moonlight School 1. Production: The kids worked real hard this time to
owner, but nothing has worked out for us. innovate and have come up with new products for
Finally we had to take decision to go back in the Deepawali stalls. We hope our supporters would like the
community, at mufti sahib’s room for our evening new products on offer.
classes too (Night classes are already going on there 2. Spices stall at STM crossed Rs. 10,000.
from the beginning of Prayas).Now we have started 3. A team from BITS Pilani visited Parichay this month
maintaining attendance, we bought one trunk for and purchased
stationary storage, we have announced that we will give products worth Rs. 6,000.
prizes to those kids who will be the most regular and
good performer in class. Apart from this we have Volunteers:
noticed one thing, even Vijay Bhaiyya has also Active Volunteers: Akanksha, Shelly, Naval, and
mentioned this earlier that first of all anybody needs a Puneeta
language to express, language is the first step towards Inactive Volunteers: Shashank, Pow, and Navneet
education .It is applicable for our kids also .So we have
decided to give more emphasis on Hindi .Teaching kids Parichay team wishes everyone a happy and glittery
to read and write Hindi is the topmost priority for us Deepawali."
now. We are trying to implement Eureka Kits for
improving Hindi. We focus to teach माऽाय and
- Puneeta
बारअखडी for elder kids. All these efforts are working - Coordinator, Parichay
out good for us till today. - puneetac@gmail.com
One more and important thing I want to - 9818361122
mention is that in Prayas we have a good team of
committed volunteers that includes Ruchi, Raj, Nikhil ,
Kanan, Neha, Rajat, Anand, Anuradha, Arun, Atul & Project Update : Nai Disha
Darshan (Me ) and now we have our vision for Prayas .
Because of this team, now the dependency on any single
volunteer is very less which is a good thing.
Watching our kids in school uniform and 1. Curriculum planned 4th and 5th class.
watching their enthusiasm is motivating for us. I can say 2. Picnic planning going on (mostly on 3rd november)
on the basis of my personal experience that our 3. Computers problem still there, 4 out of 6 computers
volunteers have become the change in the life of Prayas are not working.
Kids though very small but the change is there. Kudos 4. Volunteers crunch.
for our team of volunteers!!!!!

-Darshan Mehra, AID Prayas

-Rajat Maheshwari,
- darshanmehra@gmail.com Coordinator, Nai Disha..
- rajat.maheshwari@st.com
- 9810994596

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 Project Update : Khoj
1) Classes at all centers are going well despite of
volunteer crunch
2) Hats off to Pawan, Zubair, Aproop, Mrs.
Sangeeta & Annie for their immense efforts
3) After a long waiting KHOJ managed to published
its first eNewsletter, Credit goes to Shikha Chunkee
4) An initiative of Mrs. Sangeeta named Saksham
started at Prabhat Tara, every Saturday for Kids
workshops
5) “Corporate Executive Board” organized a health
camp for KHOJ kids on 06th Oct 07
6) On 16th Oct 07 Mrs. Sangeeta organized a trip for
KHOJ kids to American School
7) Mrs. Sangeeta organized vaccination of hepatitis B
for KHOJ Kids at PRABHAT TARA on 27th Oct 07
8) Zubair has taken initiative and started “Zubi Kids
Bank”, Kids from Bikaji and Jor Bagh centers are
saving there money on daily basis. Till now around 5000
have been deposited from all of them
Ritesh Kumar
ritesh.kumar@newgen.co.in
Project Update : Youth Task Force
4. YTF has revived with new energy, vigor and
josh. Now we have better
technical knowledge to deal with corruption in
PWD roads. Many new and
active volunteers are joining the RTI movement
with YTF.
5. We have identified 5 new PWD road projects
and re framed our road
RTI. Fresh application will be filed this week
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1. Aheli is working with MCD schools near
Pandav Nagar. We plan to
replicate entire process in MCD schools in
South Delhi.
2. Siddarth, the newest member of our Group, has
taken up MCD roads and
Garbage dumps in Qutub institutional Area near
his hostel campus.
3. We will be organizing RTI workshop by Arvind
Kejriwal in IIT very soon.
- Abhinav Kumar Gupta
kumarabhinavgupta@gmail.com
Project Update : Tara
October is the birth month of TARA. In the
month of October TARA celebrated two much
anticipated festivals EID and DUSSEHRA.On the 14th
of the month Kulsum didi got laddoos for the entire
team and celebrated Eid with the children. Then came
the festival of Ravan, much hated and loved, the man
was not burnt in the community because the members
didn’t want the children to learn the meaning of
violence at any cost. A lot of guests had come to enjoy
this day and the day began with Ram Lila performed by
Ravi and Roocheca (friends).
The team had called a sev puri wala who made
amazing sev puri for the children as well as the
members who relished every bite of it. We had juice
and samosas too. Well no occasion at TARA is
summoned without laddoos so we had loads of it too.
After spending hours on eating, laughing, learning and
singing we called the day off but before the children
left they were gifted a ‘gada’ each. Towards the end of
the month the children received a sum of 200 rupees
from their school for winter uniform and the parents
bought them the very next day.On the last day of the
month the children were taken to attend a fair organized
by Jamia Millia Islamia. At the fair, children bought little
trinkets and had their favorite chowmein and juice. Well
the month ended with a hope for a better future for the
children and the members.
-Kulsum Rasheed.
 Article: How to make a difference in the
society - Ankit Khanna
Society is a system where each one of us as an
individual, interact with other individuals, and different
constituents of the system to ensure social, physical and
mental well being of everyone involved. Whenever
something goes wrong with any interaction within the
system, it disturbs the overall equilibrium. This
disturbance impacts each one of us directly or indirectly,
either in short-term or in long-term. Thus every
individual is responsible to maintain the balance. A
better society is one where every participant works for
the overall development and well being of all
participants. But it’s unfortunate, that we don’t realize
this, till the time something goes wrong or someone
makes us realize.
It is sad, when someone thinks of serving the
society; he looks for pastures such as joining a NGO,
helping poor with food, clothes etc., donations and
related social activities. These are definitely the avenues,
but they aren’t sustainable. They only rectify the damage
work. This is the least one can do and one should do
with genuine heart and holistic approach. The most
genuine way of serving the society is by fulfilling your
responsibilities towards your family, friends, colleagues
and society as a system. Some of them could be:
1. Perform acts as a responsible citizen: obey civil
rules and encourage other to follow same
2. Accept social and cultural values as a part of
your demeanor
3. Take good care of your family and elders
4. Take steps to bring equality in society: Upper
class can’t grow beyond a limit unless lower
class progresses with them
5. Vote as a responsible citizen
6. Encourage peace, harmony, unity and
discourage violence and hatred
7. Generate avenues of livelihood which are
sustainable.
I know it’s easier said than done. But at least we can
aspire and try harder. Nothing comes easy. It’s not
someone else; it is required for us, our families and our
future generations.
- Ankit Khanna
Ankit.khanna@yahoo.co.in
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Article: India Agriculture – yesterday,
today and tomorrow – Vikas Happa and
Venu Kapoor
Agriculture in India is one of the most
prominent sectors in the economy. Agriculture and
allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounted
for 18.6% of the GDP in 2005 and employed 60% of
the country's population. It accounts for 8.56 % of
India’s exports. About 43 % of India's geographical area
is used for agricultural activity. Despite a steady decline
of its share in the GDP, agriculture is still the largest
economic sector and plays a significant role in the
overall socio-economic development of India.
The monsoons play a critical role in the Indian
sub-continent's agriculture in determining whether the
harvest will be bountiful, average, or poor in any given
year. The entire rainfall in the sub-continent is
concentrated in the few monsoon months. This is
evident from the fact that Irrigation facilities are
inadequate, as revealed by the fact that only 53.6% of
the land was irrigated in 2000–01, which result in
farmers still being dependent on rainfall, specifically the
Monsoon season. A good monsoon results in a robust
growth for the economy as a whole, while a poor
monsoon leads to a sluggish growth. Farm credit is
regulated by NABARD, which is the statutory apex
agent for rural development in the subcontinent.
Adoption of modern agricultural practices and use of
technology is inadequate, hampered by ignorance of
such practices, high costs and impracticality in the case
of small land holdings.
AGRICULTURAL is an age old source of
livelihood for a large portion of population in INDIA.
It started with the use of primary tools and self
sufficiency motives where market for agricultural
produce was not there and people cultivated for self-
consumption. But with the coming up of unorganized
markets initially, slowly and steadily agriculture became
a source of income and is still serving around 65 to 70%
of Indian population.
 Due to opening up of the economy, agreements
and treaties have allowed international organization
Boon in agriculture came with the introduction
interference; as a result of policies of the World Bank
of policy reforms like GREEN REVOLUTION AND
the cost of production for Indian agriculture has
WHITE REVOLUTION OPERATION FLOOD
increased tremendously which has without doubt
1and 2 etc. After independence, considering India's
hampered the production and the farmers.
growing population, the government took steps to
India today is said be the fastest the most
increase the food production. Yields per unit area of all
potential economy in the world; the formula is just to
crops have grown since 1950. The 1970s saw a huge
follow the foot prints of the developed countries; to
increase in India's wheat production. This is known as
paraphrase, use the development model of the
the Green Revolution. Reasons for the growth are the
developed countries when they were in the state where
special emphasis placed on agriculture and steady
India is today.
improvements in irrigation, technology, application of
The govt. says NO TO FARMERS. They claim
modern agricultural practices and provision of
farmers as additional burden on the country because
agricultural credit and subsidies. Green revolution
now they want high tech. and high breed variety of food
started with rich states like Punjab and Haryana. there is
grains which is only possible by private sector
no doubt that these policies did help in bringing up the
interference. This is also a development model of
agricultural status in India and as a result today India is
developed countries where the private sector is into
the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts,
agriculture and has done no good anywhere. In USA,
coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper. It also
the farmers used to get 20% income but with the advent
has the world's largest cattle population (193 million).
of chain like WAL-MART this percentage has gone
India ranks second worldwide in farm output. It is the
down to 4%. So one can imagine what would happen in
second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, groundnut
India.
and inland fish. It is the third largest producer of
To recapitulate, Indian agriculture was the
tobacco. India accounts for 10 per cent of the world
BACKBONE of the economy, which has become the
fruit production with first rank in the production of
BLACKBONE and which will be seen in well
banana and sapota. There are several other examples
manicured hands in the future.
also. Agriculture is a collective word used to describe
various other related activities like horticulture,
Vikas kaul happa
sericulture, harvesting, forestry, animal husbandry etc.
Venu kapoor
But what is suffering today is the food grain production.
The investment in this sector has gone down - venu_i_kapoor@yahoo.co.in
remarkably; to serve 75% of population there is only 5%
investment (how unfair). The ramification is nothing Article: Volunteering - Selva
but 10lac suicides by Indian farmers. This rampant
practice is found not only in paucity driven places like
“Any activity which involves spending time, unpaid,
vidarbha but also in rich states like Punjab where the
doing something which aims to benefit someone
green revolution had said to have gained momentum
from. These suicides are as a result of corruption at (individuals or groups) other than or in addition to
state and at every level which has left these poor close relatives, or to benefit the environment.” This is
farmers under heavy debt. The govt. has waived these how most people define volunteering. I would first like
issues completely and claims other reason for these to appreciate my fellows to take over this responsibility
practices. of volunteering. While thinking one should ask a
We know, India started globalizing with 1991 question - why should that responsibility come to an
reforms. This trend and MNC’ coming in, has changed individual? The answer to it is simple -responsibility
the shape of Indian agriculture. comes with ownership. When one owns a thing, they
begin to attach some responsibility towards it. All of us
have taken this responsibility because we
took ownership of it.

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Now, one should look at the next step after taking the
ownership. For example, a person takes a responsibility AID Delhi Meal a Month Generation
to keep the road in front of his house clean because he
owns that house. This person would be a keen
onlooker. He would take care that no one throws any
waste over there or spits in front of the house etc.,
because he knows that if he fails to do so, he is the
ultimate loser as it would cost him the cleanliness of his
own home. Likewise, we come to volunteer with an
ownership towards our society, which draws in some
responsibility from us. After committing to fulfill our
responsibility, if we fail to give it our due efforts, we will
be the ultimate losers by losing on our ownership of the
society. Committing might be a relatively easier
decision; the real element is sticking to the commitment.
I mean, I may chose to call myself a Volunteer, but if I
fail to take up the ownership of the community/society
I live in, I fail in my commitment. If we must commit,
we must also try to accomplish our commitment at any
cost. I hope that all of remain committed for ourselves -Anuj Grover
and let us aim to do something to have a better society. anuj.grover@gmail.com
- Selva
- aid.selva@gmail.com
Organizational Shuffle
Treasury - Anuj The following are the organizational shuffle during the
last month of AID Delhi’s activities.
AID Delhi funds Usage
Overall Volunteer Coordinator – Arun Raj
Overall Project Coordinator – Darshan Mehra
Khoj Coordinator – Ritesh Kumar
TARA Coordinator – Sanjeev Kumar Sharma
YTF Coordinator – Abhinav Kumar Gupta
Aashayen will be coordinated by Nitin at the absence of
Kalindi. The AID Delhi volunteer coordinator’s mobile
(9213797167) will remain with Arun and Darshan will
be having the other AID Delhi’s number (9211467341).
Anuj have donated his mobile to AID and his old
number will be used by AID Delhi part-timer. (
9818248459).

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 Photo of the Month

Photographer – Ravi Rao

Project - Tara

Description - Anil, age 7 years, it was clicked during the dussehra celebrations..as you can
see in picture no. 1 all our kids have small gadas..we distributed them when Anil had gone to
attend nature's call so he missed out on his gada.. out of anger and without complaining he
just walked out of the vicinity. wen one of our guests Roocheca asked him wat had
happened he told her he didnt want to be a part of the celebration because he didnt get his
gada.. so Roocheca drew a smiling face on the floor to make him laugh and Ravi captured
this moment with his camera..

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 Photo of the Month

Photographer - Anand K Gupta

Project – Prayas

Description - Prayas, started as night class around two years back. No particular goal was
defined but yes we were and still are; clear that a sustained effort towards education in this
'out of development radar' community will definitely bring some perceivable change in
future. Though, we are unable to gauge the success of our effort in this community (Muslim
dominated population of around three thousand consisting of migrants from UP, Bihar and
WB) at this juncture but these pictures 'a glimpse' are enough to motivate 'can do' spirited
volunteers. Sabreen, Asmeena & Ishrat are the children in the picure

You can easily estimate their palpable enthusiasm by the fact they were all returning from
their School at 4:00PM in evening after putting up six hours and directly came to Prayas
class. Subsequently, they were coerced to go home to change dresses and take a break.

Feedback: aid.delhi@gmail.com Web: http://delhi.aidindia.org Phone: +91-9213797167

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Phone: +91-9891358457, +91-9211467341
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