Moin Paid With His Life for Being Slow At Work

Investigating the shocking death of 10-year-old Moin Khan, the latest victim of child labour in the country.

When 10-year-old Moin Khan's parents sent their child to New Delhi with his maternal uncle, the couple from Madhubani in Bihar would have never known the fate that lay before him.

They didn't know that Moin's uncle Kalimullah Khan was taking him away to work 14-hour shifts at his makeshift factory in a single-room rented apartment in northwest Delhi. The tortured 10-year-old paid with his life for being slow on April 16.

His maternal uncle beat him to death. The crime would not have come to light had a cremation caretaker, who noticed Kalimullah's brother trying to cremate the little boy's body the following morning, not informed the police.

After being beaten up several times 'with a blunt object', the little boy's feet and hands were tied up and thrown across the room. Moin fell to the ground, head-first, to his death.

Kalimullah had brought the children to Delhi by paying their guardians Rs 500 as advance and a promise of a monthly income. The children were forced to wake up early in the mornings and had to roll bidis through the day, till midnight.

They were paid nothing and given just two breaks -- lunch and dinner.

A 7-year-old boy, who was rescued from the factory after Moin's death, told rediff.com, "Kalim was a really bad man. He beat up all of us if we made the smallest of mistakes. His punishments were severe."

"He would put hot iron rods into our pants or he would hang us upside down from the fan or even throw us hard on the floor. We were not allowed to go out or talk to anyone. In all, we were five children working in the factory and one adult always supervised us."

The 7-year-old (whose identity is being withheld) bore injury marks across his body and looks weak and fragile.

When asked how Moin was, the little boy had a faraway look.

"He was slow at things and Kalim would often get angry at him. He was given the most extreme punishments. One of the other boys told me that all they were punished too. Moin was picked high in the air and thrown across the room, after which he stopped moving. Kalimuddin got a little scared and tried to wake him up, but he would not," the boy said.

Police have sent the little boy to NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan's Mukte Asram in Burari, where he is undergoing counseling and treatment.

From what the police has ascertained so far, Kalimullah first consulted his brother after the child died. He then fled the area after leaving instructions with his brother to cremate little Moin.

Police recovered the boy's body draped in white as per rituals, just as he was about to be cremated after the caretaker informed police of a group of 'suspicious' people were trying to cremate a child.

When the police visited the factory, they could only rescue one other child working there. The other three, police suspect, have been taken away by Kalimullah or hidden somewhere. One of the three missing children is deaf and mute.

"We have registered a case under sections 302/201/34 (murder, causing disappearance of evidence of offence). Relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice Act also have been added to the FIR. Further investigations are on," Deputy Commissioner of police (northwest), Meenu Choudhury said.

Moin's body is still in the mortuary, as his parents have not reached Delhi yet.

The JJ colony lane in Bharat Nagar

The single lane in Bharat Nagar houses several other small factories similar to the one run by Kalimullah, child rights activists say.

At least 70 children are working in rented accommodations in this DDA colony, which used to be a slum earlier.

"What is interesting here is that on January 12 last year, we had rescued nine children from this very lane. At that time, Kalimullah's factory also had been identified, but he had somehow managed to hide the children. Of the estimated 70 working in that lane, we managed to rescue only 9; the rest had been hidden," Rajesh Sanger from Bachpan Bachao Andolan told rediff.com.

"The police also at the time did not register the non-bailable sections of the Juvenile Justice Act, which led to the arrested owners coming out on bail and continuing with their factories. Law enforcement itself is a problem here."

Source:http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-shocking-tale-of-child-labour-in-national-capital/20110420.htm

Diamond biz among highest black money generators: I-T Dept

Mumbai: A top Income Tax official has said that the diamond trade has one of the highest prevalence of black money, with investigations revealing that books in the sector are "completely manufactured".

"(In) certain areas like real estate or diamond trade there is a lot of circulation of black money...But in the case of diamond merchants, the books are completely manufactured," Director General of Income Tax (Investigations) BP Gaur told reporters here late last evening.

In the case of the diamond trade, there may be a "complete mismatch" between what "is the real transaction and what is being shown in the books," which makes the job of the department very difficult, he said.

"It requires very deep investigations to find out the truth," Gaur said.

The DG was speaking in presence of the Central Board of Direct Taxes member, Prakash Chandra, after the unveiling of a reference book for I-T officials which explains the 'dos and don’ts' while carrying out an assessment or investigation with sector-wise real-life cases as examples

Source:http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Diamond-biz-among-highest-yahoofinancein-388333048.html

A big concern for India's Gen Next

Indian youth not too keen on college education

Indians have often fancied themselves as proficient speakers of the English language. People, who do not speak the language well, are often subjects of humor. It is considered to be elitist if one has a good command over the language. So much so, that most schools in the urban cities have English as the first language. Even for the rural schools, English is important to learn.

In fact, our Anglophonic needs (need to speak in English) stem from the fact that English is the global language. It is a language spoken by the 'rich' western nations. It is also prominent amongst those nations that are major exporters.

Time and again, it has been stated that one of the reasons for India doing well in the services sector is its Anglophonic ability. This has been cited as a prominent reason for China not doing so well in the same sector. So it would come as a big surprise to all that as per the study conducted by a leading magazine, India ranks quite close to China in terms of its English speaking abilities. In a study of 44 nations, China ranks at 29 while India comes in at 30.

The reason for this could be that India has just become more complacent in terms of its teaching. Unfortunately, the government has been concentrating more on getting more people within the net of the 'educated'. The quality of education is getting completely ignored in the process. And like it or not, English is important for all. It is the way to remain competitive on the global stage. And we have seen this point being proved in the country's service sector. While we may have outpaced China for now, but the latter has been giving a major push towards the language. And if this continues, then India's 'competitive advantage' especially in the service sector may be lost for good.

Continuing our discussion on the Indian education, we came across another interesting piece of statistics that we thought we should share with our readers. This time it is on the percentage of college age population who are actually enrolling in college. (College age population has been defined as the population in the age group of 15 to 24 years). And the picture here is not so good. As reported by a leading daily, India ranks the lowest in this percentage amongst its BRIC peers. One of the reasons for this could be that the country has concentrated primarily on the primary education. All the government's thrust and focus has been towards primary education. As a result, the number of colleges and universities are still quite low when compared to the number of people who wish to enroll in them.

Source: www.equitymaster.com

India: A global power in the making

India's shining all over again and it's not just the cricket team that's making waves across the globe. The G-20 has predicted that India will be one of the 10 largest members in the IMF and its rank in the IMF will improve to eighth position from the current 11th in terms of quota.

Leaders from across the globe are all set to meet in the US later this year for the prestigious Wharton India Economic Forum meeting to discuss how India continues to position itself to compete and succeed in the rapidly changing global environment. The theme for this year's conference is ''India: Gaining Momentum''. With an economy that's growing over 8%, that's hardly surprising.

The country is an emerging global power. R Seetharaman, the Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank in Qatar, says "India will become one of the most sustainable economies in the future and by 2030, Asia's economy -- mainly encompassing India and China -- will be larger than that of the US and European Union combined." Seetharaman said the world has seen India and China emerging as the main contributors to the recovery of the global economy from a crisis situation.

Another point to note here is that the Sensex crossed the much awaited 20000 mark. The Indian indices defied all global markets and held its fort through the disaster in Japan and the Libya crisis. Exports too have been advancing greatly.

So what is contributing to India's stupendous growth story?

• Youth population
• An Educated society
• High domestic Consumption
• Investments
• Grass roots entrepreneurship

India's Gen Y is its best asset and will be the biggest contributor to India's growth. In the next two decades, it will add over 200 million people to its working age - between 18 to 60 years - population. Much more than any other country in the world.

For India, more working people means more income. More income means a more prosperous nation. For a country that will become a middle income nation - per capita annual wages of $1,200, translating into Rs 4,500 a month - by the end of 2010/11 after more than a century of penury, its young population presents a never-before opportunity for transition.

Now if only we elect the right leaders, there's no stopping India from being the next super power.

Source: http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/India-A-global-power-making-yahoofinancein-945208064.html

High GDP growth? Save water

For villages in Sambalpur, revisiting old ponds has meant a return to prosperity.

The legacy of progress in time has been faster transportation, better communication, taller buildings and lots of energy. And, all this is paralleled by dirtier and scantier water around.

The river Yamuna flows clean and sparkling even now in the memory of people who saw it four decades ago and are still alive.

In other states, ponds were still a part of life. Women and men, with children in tow, walked to the ponds for their daily bath and to wash clothes -- that was three to four decades ago.

Then, suddenly, things changed. The ponds were neglected; some filled up, some forgotten and lost.

Take the case of the Gond kings in the Gondwana area that comprises parts of Orissa, Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

They were active promoters of surface water harvesting bodies. They gave rewards to villages with the best ponds, as the kings' prosperity was dependent on agriculture.

Water added to their GDP. But, today, it is energy that adds to GDP, not water or even agriculture. Hence, everything is done at the expense of farm land and rivers.

Some students and the youth in Sambalpur started a drive 10 years ago. Today, it's being spread all over Orissa in a bid to revive some of the water harvesting methods of their ancestors.

Some students in Orissa's Sambalpur formed an organization called MASS and began an effort to revisit some of the traditional ponds dug by their ancestors.

Ranjan Panda, an activist who started this effort, says they looked for pain gharas, or structures built at the foothills below slopes, and found 100 such in 22 villages.

These were restored using traditional engineering skills, with funds collected through donations.

One of the people who guided the youth to the pain gharas was Mahadeo Bhui, a farmer in Padia Badmal village in the Juju Mura block in Sambalpur.

The trigger for his concern was poor rains in the area, which had been known for rich agricultural yields and rains in the past.

People have been migrating for decades since Independence, abandoning their fields to look for work at brick kilns.

Mahadeo talked about structures built earlier, which were dilapidated and silted. That was a decade ago. Panda and his team got cracking as only young people rather than bored government officers would.

They collected money and drew on popular knowledge and skills to draw a design for these structures. They were soon rebuilding old ones and making new ones at a very low cost.

Money is the last priority in this, says Panda, recalling the 22 structures they created with village engineers and planners.

Then came the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and the activists helped people in a village called Kusumdihi in the same area build 28 farm ponds.

Farming was revived in 80 acres which were earlier as good as a desert. Panda has now formed a network of water harvesters to replicate the effort with other like minded NGOs.

In Kharamal village on the foothills of the Gandamardhan in Bargad district, people were migrating three years ago. The villagers were motivated to revive the pain ghara there.

Now, some of those who would have migrated are prosperous enough to have built their own houses and married off their children with income from their revived farms.

What stares at these activists now is a chain of 58,000-Mw thermal plants coming up. A 400-Mw plant is causing enough water shortage in Jharsuguda and local temperatures are shooting up, says Panda.

"We have to double our efforts to face the impact of these plants, which will take up water and create a shortage for the fields," he says.

Unless water and food are accounted for in GDP, double-digit figures would still mean deprivation.