by ASGHAR VASANWALA
Dear Friends,
In India there are many more illiterate and poor people who live on $2 or less a day today than they were in !947. Corruption is rampant. Government declares schemes and crores allotted for it. However, political parties, officers, and government employees skim off most of it. Police is much more corrupt. In one case in my town, Dahod a young person was arrested for theft of telephone wires. His family paid bribe. This news travelled to police stations of nearby towns. Each town police came to arrest him saying wires in their area also were stolen. The boy’s family paid two three more police stations. Finally, some volunteers intervened and stopped this frenzy of bribe.
Gujarat has schem of giving gift of Rs. 500 to motheor after she delivered a baby. However, the scheme remains secret. The money may be embezzled through forged paperwork. Gujarat calls itself Golden Gujarat; it is true for the capitalists only who make huge profit. Wealth hardly trickles down to the poor.
Courts are time consuming and lengthy. The judges go on vacation or on training abruptly. When Modi visits a town, all Government offices stop working. During the world cup, hardly any work was done in offices. There are so many religious festivals that for many days offices do not work for one or another reason.
On paper, Government has spent so much money for education and construction of schools. They have also raised teachers’ pay very high. Yet teachers in Government schools fool around and falsify student attendence. Under reservation system, many inefficient and incapable individuals get admittance in collages, get jobs, and get promoted. Most of them are interested in making money fast.
We run a charitable Trust named Roshan Safar Waqf in Dahod, Gujarat, to help the poor and the needy, and teach them ctrafts, proivide school fees, uniforms, books, help poor living in slum areas, etc. Our Trust office is named Fatambu Center. It is my ancestral home that I have given for trust use. www.roshan-safar.org
A person named Rafiq Shaikh, 36, welder by profession, last month when he woke up he found he had suffered a brain stroke and was paralized below neck and lost his speech. He has a wife and five children. We got him admitted into a Hospital and have arranged for his physical therapy.
Another person Mamsad Makrani has facial cancer. We helped him in his treatment. In 2007, his chest muscle was transplanted to face. This did not succeed. In the next surgery his thigh muscle will be transplanted to his face. He is really a charitable person. Since he visits cancer Hospital in Ahmedabad, a huge place, so frequently he has become expert and knows different departments very well. He helps other cancer patients reach right department and fill right forms; witheout such help patients would get lost.
Dahod Municipality kicked out Homeless from various part of Dahod and dumped on this ground called Radiyati Basti where both Hindus and Muslims live in makeshift type of Zhopadpatti. We have started summer classes in this slum. Here children live in pathetic condition without shoes, clothing, education, or food. We will provide shoes and clothing to these children. These children are registered students in schools but they are only ghost students. Teachers don’t care. We have started summer classes for them.
If you want to help, please click here. http://www.roshan-safar.org/contact.html
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