Swa Jagriti Starts its operations

It was long since i blogged . But today i have a reason that i can't not stop myself. This Weekend ie on 24th and 25th October Swa jagriti started its operations. Now we can proudly say that Swa jagriti is not only in papers , but it is quite there in the working zone, Up and kicking.

We were ready to start work around 1 month back. I was in talks at few locations regarding our program ( for our work details have a look at Swa Jagriti ) . My first priority was an NGO khushii with which i had worked as a volunteer few months back. Though the Center Head was positive as i had worked with her in the past, The project head was a little doubtful. It took a little time to convince her and She told us to take a demo class first and decide the future plans later .

So on Saturday (24th Oct ) we went there to take our first class for Computer awareness. The students were a mixture of class 8th and 9th but they all were enthusiast. We started our first class around 10am and it kept on till 12:30 pm, as we ( I and My teammate Praveen) were exhausted by then. And as a pleasant surprise, the students were still ready to continue with the class . But unfortunately, I had no energy left to continue so we left it for the next day.

Meanwhile, Project head was there and after looking the response of the students, she too was all agog . Now she told us that they have around 1200 students enrolled in their different programs and she want us to execute classes for all of them. She told us that she could even help us executing our classes for the community .So i hope we have got enough work to do at least for next 5-6 months.

So finally Swa Jagriti has started to do for what it was born and probably in future it will be spreading its wing in many other directions and with more strength. Village schools and Government schools are also in our radar , and very soon we will start our programs for them in some nearby areas and for that I request for your support and blessings :) .

Driving Lessons to remember...

Accidents kill per year more than cancer kills . It was a headline in TOI yesterday. We ponder, we know it is wrong , do some blame game and continue... without paying attention to rules. Two things i have noticed while driving are very common. One is quite advertised but unheeded ..." Don't talk on mobile while driving" , second is simple and safe but ignored "Use indicator before taking turn".

You are going on road. the car in front of you is running very slow though road in front is clear. You frustrate and try to cross but can not as roads are not that wide. Finally you succeed and find that the person driving the car was actually talking on mobile . It feels like to kill him. Hundreds of warning that its not safe but of no use. we don't even care of our life, leave apart the life of others. But i hope it will be wise if we stop, park the car at some free space, talk and then continue with driving. It will be safe for everyone.

Second issue is related to very basics. What are indicators for in a vehicle ? if you want to turn, use them which 90% of time we don't. If we want to turn, we simply turn. But what about the vehicles following you. They need a indication . It will help them to get slow and take proper side if notified. But we don't use indicator which causes unnecessary traffic, honking and accidents.

Small precautions make big differences. So lets keep in mind these points and avoid accidents.

Entrance exam (CCS University) or mockery

I had this amazing experience when i tried to take admission in LLB course of CCS university. They advertised that for Self financed colleges there will be entrance exam . So i applied , even bought a book to prepare and finally appeared in the entrance exam. I got around 80th rank in my subject. By now everything was fine.

So i was happy with my score and went to many colleges to enquire about the admission. And surprisingly no private college asked for my score ( and they did not even bother that i appeared in entrance or not), they were ready to give me admission if i was ready to pay the fees. Simple mathematics ... :) and i was a fool. I told them that i appeared in CET and they told me that it will only save your 300 rs. i thought .... really because i applied with a draft of 500 rs . So even monetary wise i was in a loss of 200 rs . So i applied , bought a book , prepared, appeared in the exam , waited for the result and then went for admission. While i could directly go for admission as fees is the only consideration ... which i still have to submit.

One more point, the fees recommened by University for private colleges is approximately 13000 rs while most of the colleges are charging between 20000-27000 in the name of infrastructure. Let me complete my LLB and i will sue these colleges first :) .... tan tanaaaaaaaan .....

Should we compromise ?

I get to face one issue recently . As you know we were able to register Swa Jagriti and are now in preparatory mode for starting operations. Few friends told me that they have contacts and can get us funding. Now i was excited as funding is the critical part of any NGO and it will lessen one part of my burden. But there was a glitch. Almost all of them underlined one condition for this :- we will have to pay part of donation to the person in power... as bribe. Here comes the question mark.

There are two facets in my view... of this situation. One facet says that we boast of honesty in our operations. There are few baselines we never want to cross. We decided that we will work with honesty, transparency and certain ethics. If we pay bribe then probably we will be following the path of most NGOs and relevancy of our existence will cease. In this way(by not paying bribe and declining the amount) the progress might be slow but it will be solid.

The second facet says that what is important is best utilisation of money, not how it comes. Suppose 100 rs are at stake, we pay back 20 as bribe and get 80 in our hand. Now our concern should be to best utilise 80 rs because if we deny, someone else will grab opportunity and even these 80 rs might go waste. So while in first case out of 100 , at lease 80 rs were available for genuine expenditure ( as misuse at our end will strictly be ZERO) in second case even these 80 rs are doubtful. Though this view is not honest enough it supports that we must implement honesty at our end and ensure best utilisation of over all money.

Both logic are sound and i am at present not able to decide which way to go though i am little biased towards the first option. But it id difficult to ignore the practicality of second option. Lets see which way we will go as these things are currently not on in the way and will come face to face at least 5-6 months later. Probably we will decide on case to case basis...

Working for Profit vs Non Profit

It was the difference i experienced when i was trying to get the formalities done for Swa Jagriti. In this field never go with the verbal enthusiasm shown by anybody. It has happened with me again and again that i believed people for their words. I had reason too, to believe as i had seen them working professionally and they were exceptional. But i don't know what happens to their social commitment when it comes to do something tangible. Its frustrating but its true. They will take responsiblity but will excuse on the last moment.

Also at the same time i would like to say that sometimes you get help from people you never thought of. You never believed but they come forward and deliver but unfortunately it is very rare. So the point to learn is that expand the things only to the scale which you feel that you can do even if no one comes to support you. Keep doing and expand only when people prove their worthiness for social commitment .

Naxalite Problem

I have been tracking this issue from a long time and found that we take it very lightly. If terrorist comes and kills few people or a bomb blast takes place we make a huge cry. Why .... ? Because we can blame a foreign hand and feel happy. It gives us immense pleasure when other countries console us and praise our kindness .

But these days, frequently we get a news somewhere in a corner that 20 policemen killed in a naxal attack. We have a look and turn the page. Are these lives of no value ? What will happen to the life of dependants over them? In these cases usually the death of one person kills the entire family . Or we neglect because the root of this problem lies in the ineffectiveness of our administrators. Don't know the exact reason but it pains me to find these news very frequently and with noone paying much attention.

And more shameful is that even in the cases of much attention the results are zero. After 26/11 we made huge cry. The mumbains even came out to show their anger after that. But our memory is short lived and when it was actually the time to give way to anger (ie election day) more than half of Mumbai rested at home. Finally we have forgotten what happened and will not awake till another incidence happens . The life will continue ... but remember for some people it will never be same again ...

Fight Corruption... File RTI

This blog is about the latest tool provided by the government to fight against red-tapism. As i mentioned in one of my previous blogs that i was trying to get my NGO registered in Society Registration office Merrut. It has been around 7 months, 15 rounds to Merrut and 25-30 calls to the concerned person ( P. K. Pradhan or popularly known as Pradhan jee) with no effect. One easiest option was to pay bribe and get it done. Second option was to get a recommendation from upper level ( Sifarish) and make it fast. But we have decided that we will use none and will go only in a manner a common citizen, having no any other official powers should go.

And then we went for RTI way. Under RTI one can put his queries to any government office and the department has to reply in a month. So i prepared an RTI myself , with no help from any lawyer just with the help of a website http://www.parivartan.com/ . Then i went to merrut and asked the PIO to receive it. PIO in turn advised me to meet Pradhan jee first and then submit it . So i again told Pradhan jee that it has been 7 months and no work. Pradhan jee asked me to write the details on a paper when i submitted what document (with almost no interest). And then i simply gave him my RTI to Pradhan jee as all the dates were mentioned on it . Pradhan jee went through all the dates and all the queries i have asked.

After that, Pradhan jee was not in a very good mood but the good thing was... he started working i.e. collected all my papers ( and i could see my papers were being opened first time) and started processing them and also helped me in completing the missing papers. Earlier he always talked polite but never worked, this time he was rude but working :) . And finally he told me that i could collect the certificate next Wednesday. So even i did not have to submit RTI and things worked. So it was a good lesson to learn and a way to fight corruption as a common man.

Few things learnt in this process are :-
1. Whatever you submit in any government office, always prepare 2 copies and don't forget to take the receiving on second copy . Also make sure date is mentioned clearly on the receiving so that u can show it later as a proof.

2. Keep your documents complete and fair.

3.The main query i asked was that - please tell me that in last 7 months with whom my application was lying and for what duration and what was the action taken by that person in that duration.

4. Rights are there to support us to fight against corruption, we just need to be aware and be patient .

Few things are still unanswered , in my case i had enough time , so i could bear the delay in process but if someone is in a hurry , probably he/she will submit to the pressure of time and will adopt the easier way of bribing . But things will change only when we will have a desire to do so.