Local to Global- Social Good is Everyone’s Responsibility #2030NOW

Many years ago during my freshman year I visited an indigenous hamlet in Odhisa, India. It gave me an opportunity to learn more about indigenous life and their daily struggle. I noticed that I could probably count the ribs of the children playing in the hot summer afternoons with their bloated bellies. I was curious to know the reason behind this body structure, which I was seeing for the first time in my life. The word ‘malnutrition’ was just a word for me until I saw its meaning right in front of my eyes. That was the first time I saw the real hard life of people in my own country. My curious self tried to dig more into the reason and found out that these kids and their families collect a local grown wild fruit that could be preserved for a long time. Most of the time, which includes the lean working periods and during monsoon when the hamlet gets totally cut off from the rest of the world due to the overflow of water in the canal, the natives can’t go to the nearest town for job. So they need to rely on the food left with them. Therefore, no square meals for the families for days and they just spend their days eating those preserved wild fruits along with water from the canal, which being the only source of water also serves as the bathing place for the cattle. No wonder my beloved India is still the highest contributor to the child deaths under the age of five due to preventable diseases.

I met people, community led groups, who were fighting for the rights of the indigenous communities and the future of their children with very limited resources. I observed their voices go unheard, their hard work get unnoticed, and their efforts often get undermined in the larger forums when they are the real heroes and they are the ones making the difference in my country. In last few years mode of communication has undergone a significant change. We no longer wait for the national media to cover news or spread information. Now with the growing involvement of digital media in Social Good more people can participate and the tales of Heroes can reach to millions all over the world. As Jeff Terry, Head of Corporate and Social responsibility at Amway, during her panel discussion at Social Good summit nicely put “Social Media helps people to get off their couches and take an action for the cause they are passionate about”. Our job is to find out the right people who have strong voices in social media.

In September 2015 history was made. Country leaders, volunteers, professionals, entrepreneurs, activists and many others from the different walks of lives came together with a purpose of a greater good. The leaders of 193 countries joined in and not only just listened, but promised to deliver on the 17 #SDG or #GlobalGoals by 2030. This time those real ‘Heroes’ are no more alone in their journeys. They are joined by entrepreneurs, actors, authors, journalists, bureaucrats, leaders and many others. And, we will #TellEveryone. Together we will make sure no child goes to bed hungry or dies from a preventable disease before seeing the fifth birthday. As Kajol, the famous Bollywood actress and UN Ambassador for Hand Washing Program said, “Every child should reach age 5 without our help”.  My thoughts are with those children of Odhisa whom I met so many years back- future seems brighter for them this time.

From now on we need to do more Good in our Society. We all need to come together and contribute. We all need to choose our own goal and strive to achieve it in the coming days- no matter how small or how big the attempt is. What’s important is aiming towards the goal and work on it together. September 2015 ended with a BANG and lots of noises. In other words I can say it was just the beginning of a new era, new dreams, and new Goals that started with ‘Telling Everyone’!

https://sgs15.eventfarm.com/?page=7fff46cb-0000-4555-abb0-050fac4abc65

http://www.globalgoals.org/

Who betrayed them?

“There’s a famous saying in Bengali, ‘Mir-Jafari Korish na’ means don’t betray like Mir Jafar”…

​The East India Company that came with seemingly business interest grew political ambition and started colonizing India through Murshidabad. Murshidabad is 200kms (120miles) away from Kolkata formerly known as Calcutta, the present capital of West Bengal in India. However, Calcutta did not even exist in 1700s and Murshidabad was at the highest of its glory. Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah lost the battle of ​Plassey (‘Palashi’ that is how we call it in Bengali) in 1757 to the British due to the betrayal of one of his trusted commanders ​Mir Jafar. Mir Jafar was promised the throne of Murshidabad in lieu of him not fighting the battle along with his troop. ​The East India Company thus won the battle on the basis of a conspiracy that was hatched with Mir Jafar. He got the throne, however, little did he know​ how it​ would be like to sit on that ​under British rule. He was soon removed for the ease of the British lords. ​The Battle of Plassey was a decisive battle that started a 200-year colonial rule of India by the British. I never forgo​t this important piece of history,​ no matter how much I hated the subject as I have fond childhood memories of the place.

Murshidabad, a name that reminds me of many good things but the first and foremost is that the mighty river Ganges flew​ right in front of our ancestral home, in which boatmen rowed in the dark of the night and singing melancholy tunes that made you long for your home even if you were in your home. The soft lights of lanterns in the boats at a distance used to mesmerize me the most in those dark and sweaty nights. Days in and days out we used to jump from the boundary walls, play with other girls and boys from the village and run around the mango orchard until elders​ gave us an ultimatum to return home for a ​bath or food.

Whenever we visited our ancestral land full of History it used to be a lot of ​fun with cousins and children of same age from the village. My young eyes noticed one thing in particular. Most of the children especially the little girls in dusty frocks I used to play and run with couldn’t tell which class they were studying in. I used to wonder whether they have failed in the classes and therefore hesitating. However, I never enquired much as I was no good in studies too. Therefore it was better to keep the​ school out of the topics of discussion during those vacation days.  Later when the visits became more infrequent and we were seriously discouraged to play outside in the mud, because they said, "tumi boro hoye gyachho" (you are not a kid any more) and I tried to inquire​ about them from the window of our house,​ I got to know most of them got married and already ​had their babies. I was still in my middle school. I of course did not realize how fortunate I was to be doing that. I was just sad I lost my friends. ​

Many years passed in between and Murshidabad is just a reminder of our holiday breaks during our childhood. Then in 2014, ​I got a ​chance to meet Soma, ​who works in the area and came to know about their struggle to fight the stigma around rescued trafficking victims.  Another important issue Soma’s team comes across is abandoned young married girls with children. Soma said, “The practice is wide spread in the region. Men marry young girls from poor families, get them pregnant and leave in search of job in the cities. Most of the time these men do not come back or send any money home. They marry again or have ​their own ‘live in’ ​families in the cities and do not care to see what happened to his young pregnant wife in the village.” Often these young mothers become the easy target of traffickers who lures them with good job, a better living for their children in cities. One of Soma’s team member said, “There’s no brothel in the country which doesn’t have a girl from our region”.

I wonder if the same happened to some of my childhood playmates from my village? I wonder who betrayed these young girls like Mir Jafar - parents, families, husbands, traffickers, politicians or we all? Is there anyone who can show that soft lights of hope to these girls like those boats in the dark? Can anyone be the boatman for these girls to ferry these young lives to safety or to help them to ​cross the river in​ dark singing​ songs of struggle and hope?

P.S. To confirm my fear, here's a blog post on a direct interaction with one such young mothers in Murshidabad 
html http://ladybugfieldnotes.blogspot.com/2012/11/of-love-and-other-demons.html

To Earn a Dollar.....

I don’t remember her name any more but couldn’t forget her weak aged lean wrinkled structure from my visit to her small tribal hamlet in Odisha ​almost 15years ago.  I heard she had ​lost her children to some unknown disease…. “It is a malaria prone zone. Tribes prefer to trust the local healers​ who claim a chicken or a goat with some money to perform rituals rather ​than going to the health center which is miles away where the poor hardly get any service”, said Amulya bhai.  To give you a background, Amulya and his wife Geeta worked​ tirelessly for the rights of tribal in the unknown forgotten areas of Odisha​ for years. 

The old lady used to live in a hut made of dry sticks and leaves that she could collect from the jungles she walked to and from everyday. Her every day chores included walking miles to reach the foothill to collect few chunks of granite. She used to carry those back on her head over a big oval shaped aluminum pot to her very own hut and had a designated naturally​ shaded place to sit. It used to take her the ​whole day to turn those chunks​ into small chips with a help of hammer in her hand. I would like to point that the summer temperature in that region officially reaches 48-49 degrees in Celsius. Government weather channel doesn’t go above that, as they need to declare emergency and take adequate measures to protect its citizens in case they declare the temperature anything above 50-degree Celsius or 122 degree Fahrenheit. Be it rain or shine, this old lady used to repeat this​ daily chore for at least 25days until she could make a pile of chips, which a middleman used to buy from her at​ Rs.50 or less than a dollar. No weighing, no negotiations. A heap of stone chips at Rs. 50.​

This​ personal experience made me realize the life of millions in my own country, to which I had turned a blind eye till then. I told myself that day, “Anddddddd…… I had inhibitions about ​how would I manage myself especially with ​my city washroom habits in this jungle when I started.” Can we all take some time to visit these people at least once in our life time before we even think of talking about various government schemes, plans and acts in the comfort of our home with a glass of wine in our hand? And be a bit more respectful to people who have done so for years?