Children have no "altitude " problem in community service

New Delhi, Apr 6 : Breaking all conventional barriers, Indian school children have surpassed their elders in community service from cleaning a dirty village pond to climbing 17,000 ft to collect 32 kg of garbage!

Ninth class student Sarojini Sarada turned a disused pond in her village in Orissa to a fish breeding ground providing an excellent business opportunity for the local people. She conducted a "Pond restoration mission" to clean the pond and motivated her friends and neighbours towards the cause.

Such is a story of not one small girl but hundreds of other students nationwide who put extraordinary efforts to serve the community.

Arun Vajpai, a XII class student from Haryana, trekked at an altitude of 17,000 ft over a period of two and a half months and collected 32 kg of garbage. It was his effort to free the people living on mountains from various ecological problems they face.

"We generally think that it is more than enough for school children to complete their homework. However, these children are not only doing well in their studies but have excelled in helping others," said Ms Sujata Dutta, founder member of Pramerica Spirit of Community Awards, organised for the first time to felicitate such students in the country on Monday.

Altogether 42 students, belonging to classes VI to XII, were shortlisted from around 600 such young volunteers and awarded medals and certificates. Two students received gold medals, a cash prize and a return trip to the US while 18 got silver medals and 20 bronze medals. Two students were also presented with Jury Appreciation Awards.

Mother to a seven-year-old boy, Ms Dutta, however, stressed that community service in India is not easy, especially for girls "When we talked to these children, we realised that there are problems like community acceptance, insecurity, and lack of encouragement, except in some cases where teachers and parents were the morale builders," she said.

Citing an example, she informed UNI about a VII class boy, S R Poobesh Gowtham, in Hosur, Karnataka, who felt strongly for the girl students of his school who had to go to toilets with no roofs.

"For construction of the covered toilets he had to raise money. When he talked about it to his friends, they used to laugh at him. But he did not feel demoralised and collected Rs 10,000 for the construction activity," she said.

Gowtham even educated children about the importance of toilet hygiene through skits, presentations and life-skills classes in his own school premises. He received a silver medal and a certificate for the same.

Emphasising that encouragement from teachers and parents can lead these students achieve greater heights, Ms Dutta shared the story of VII class student Nikkita Chhiber of St Mary's school in New Delhi who initiated a greenery club at colony level.

"She started the club and was later joined by friends who all work regularly towards making the locality parks better. She was inspired by her grandmother who was a nature lover and was helped by her school teachers," she said.

The girl received a silver medal and a certificate.

The recipient of the awards, an extension of the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards in the United States, were selected by an eminent jury comprising retired d IPS officer Kiran Bedi, President of Pratham NGO Madhav Chavan, Founder of Shri Ram Schools Manju Bharatram, chief of Biocon Foundation Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Founding Dean of Indian School of Business Pramath Raj Sinha.

Numerous schools all over the country were approached personally by the host company from July 2010 to December 2010 to reach out to the students. Once applications were received, the students' contributions were judged on the basis of timeline of the service, how motivated the students were, the impact that the service created and the degree of challenges faced in accomplishing the goals.

Among the first 22 awardees, 11 were from Delhi and NCR while the rest were from states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab.

Noted film actress and theatre personality Shabana Azmi gave away these awards in the national capital.

Delhi Task Force to curb illegal water bottling plants soon

New Delhi, Jun 14 (UNI) The Delhi government will soon intensify its special drive to seal such illegal water bottling plants in the capital which are running without legal authority and proper licence.

To ensure for providing safe, pure and clean drinking water to the people, the government will form a state level task force to check on clean water in Delhi and will seal the illegal drinking water bottling plants.

''A nine-member state level task force, headed by Director, Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA), will have members nominated from Delhi Police, Divisional Commissioner, MCD Commissioner, NDMC, Dy Secretary (Home), Drug Controller, two SDMs (One from North and One from South),'' Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia said today.

She said the task force will have full rights to check the quality of water being packed in bottles at the water bottling plants and on violation they will have the right to seal the plants and get registered a case against the defaulters.

Prof Walia added that though Department of Prevention of Food Adulteration was engaged in conducting drives to check the purity of all types of eatables and food and drink, there was a need to launch a special drive to check the illegal water bottle plants.

''Such bottling plants not having BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards Certification) will be sealed out rightly by the task force authorities,'' she noted.

She said the department was facing a lot of difficulty in picking samples of packaged drinking water as the exercise required the services of other related departments too.

''Keeping this in mind, the government has decided to constitute the task force to check the purity of water and to ensure the sealing of illegal water bottling plants prevalent in Delhi,'' she said.

During a special drive launched in the last week of May, 56 samples of special packaged drinking water were lifted from various corners of Delhi. Prof Walia said violators could be punished with imprisonment from six months to three years under provisions of law apart from sealing the plant.

Reckoner for dwellers in Delhi during earthquake

New Delhi, Apr 25 (UNI) Delhi being vulnerable to earthquakes of high intensity, the city government has prepared a ready reckoner for its dwellers during quakes as a precautionary measure.

Flagging off a mini-marathon from her residence to India Gate to spread awareness regarding Disaster Management, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today informed this to mediapersons.

''This is a compilation of all precautionary measures, in case the measures are taken in true spirit worse would be avoided. A toll-free disaster helpline 1077 is also functional in the city,'' she said.

Ms Dikshit also inaugurated a Disaster Management awareness drive in the Capital.

She called upon people to take note of tips which will definitely prove to be useful during difficult times and will also help in saving precious lives and property.

Around 500 students participated in the inaugural ceremony today. This drive will go on for a week to involve people and make them aware about the consequences of disasters.

During the campaign, a number of street plays, puppet shows, essay writing competitions, quiz competitions will be organised and useful material will be distributed at different various public places.

Ms Dikshit noted that the entire region of Delhi was in seismic zone-IV which is vulnerable to earthquake of 5.5 to 6.7 on Richter scale.

''Delhi is posed with serious challenges in management of emergencies because of its large and densely populous base, large number of unsafe building, key administrative and historical installations, non-engineered structures and large span of
unplanned areas like urban slums, unauthorised colonies and industrial clusters,'' she said.

Ms Dikshit added that such areas were highly vulnerable to chemical and industrial fire, flood and even terrorist attacks.

''A disaster can cause unprecedented and colossal damage to Delhi,'' she said.

She informed the gathering that a number of hospitals and other buildings were being constructed as per quake resistant norms apart from retrofitting.

The city government has taken steps to include a topic of Disaster Management in school curriculum. Apart from this, mock drills are being organised and people are being trained to meet any unexpected challenges.

Delhi kids knowing about green buildings the Swiss way!

New Delhi, Apr 20 (UNI) Students of Delhi are all set to 'go green' this scorching summer and apply their minds in saving their planet from global warming.

In an effort to motivate students to save resources in times of energy crisis, Switzerland Embassy is holding workshops all around the city creating awareness about green buildings, along with other things.

Organised in 10 Kendriya Vidyalayas across Delhi, the project is a part of the two nations' endeavours to enhance their bilateral relations.

''Out of the many challenges and concerns facing the modern world, the three major concerns which require our immediate attention are Global Warming, Resource Depletion and Energy Crisis. Switzerland is one of those countries which have implemented the concept of green buildings and so it thought of sharing it with the
children here,'' Arthur Mattli, Minister and Deputy Head of Mission, said today.

The workshops include sessions on green buildings, health and nutrition. A session on general awareness about Switzerland would also be organised at the end of every workshop.

''Looking at the response of both teachers and students, we are thinking of taking it further to July as it is helping them in enriching their knowledge and doing good both for the society and themselves,'' Dr Sachikant, Deputy Commissioner, Training, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, told UNI.

He further said the European country should diversify this movement in India, especially in the field of education.

This project has been organised by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in support with Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). Greentech Knowledge Solutions Pvt Ltd and Nestle have been assisting the two in project application.

''Green building is a holistic approach to minimise the overall usage of resources and energy over the life span of the buildings. They are important for India because India is in amidst of construction boom which is projected to last for several decades,'' Dheeraj Lalchandani from Greentech said.

Mr Lalchandani and his colleague Kanagraj have been holding the sessions on such buildings with the students while Ishita kapoor was the resource person from Nestle for the session on nutrition.

At the end of the workshop, students are provided with an assigment so that they can apply the knowledge gained in the sessions into the practical world.

''They are required to complete the assignment during summer break and present their work in the form of a powerpoint presentation after the schools reopen,'' Mr Lalchandani said.

Animal Dissection: US group, PETA urge UGC to mordernise

New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) Taking the dissection debate a step further, a US-based organisation, in collaboration with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, has urged the University Grants Commission (UGC) to put an
end to animal dissection in varsity courses and adopt a mordernised approach.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) Director Hope Ferdowsian has written to UGC Chair Sukhadeo Thorat asking that the Commission should ban dissection in college zoology courses.

In the letter, Dr Ferdowsian has pointed out that a wide range of non-animal methods were available.

''Methods like computer simulations, interactive CD-ROMs, films, charts and lifelike models teach anatomy and complex biological processes as well or in better way than
animal-based lessons,'' he said.

Expressing concern that dissection sends a dangerous message to students, he said it could also put students' health at risk.

''The agent that is used to preserve animals who are killed for dissection, is a hazardous chemical that can cause nausea, headaches and breathing difficulties and
has been linked to cancer.''

PETA India campaigner Anuradha Srivastava said replacing cruel and archaic experiments on animals with computer models and other modern methods would improve students' understanding of biology while saving the lives of countless animal.

CW writers deny giving space to climate change in their fiction

New Delhi, Apr 11 (UNI) Award-winning writers in the Commonwealth region believe that writing about climate change and getting involved in the global warming discussion is not their forte.

Expressing their immense love for fiction, they feel discussing climate change in their books and making the world leaders and their people realise their duties to bring about a revolution is calling for friction.

''We love fiction, but not friction,'' they say.

Regional winners of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2010, to be held here tomorrow, are in the Capital to promote quality literature through a series of discussions and events among the people.

As a part of this run-up to the event, a panel discussion on ''Writing in a Changing Climate'', hosted by Crossword bookstore, was held last evening. It was attended by three of the finalists - Daniyal Mueenuddin, Shandy Mitchell and Michael Crummey who
interacted with young readers on the topic.

''You are trying to use a wrong instrument. Fiction is about describing things but not taking any positions'', Mueenuddin a writer from Pakistan, said. He has won critical acclaim with his first collection of stories- 'In Other Rooms and Other Wonders'.

Supporting his view, Mitchell, a Canadian writer, said, ''This is true. I cannot imagine myself taking a position to convince others. The non-fiction world is enough for that''. Her first book 'The Unbroken Sky', has been nominated under the Best First Book prize category.

She asserted that fiction writers write with naturalism and never with a set mind. '' The ideas keep generating while you write. However, if writing for climate change, then it will be for a purpose, a purpose that’s may be politically motivated,'' she said.

Crummey, another Canadian writer whose book ''Galore'' has been shortlisted in the Best Book category, added, ''If one starts writing with a political motive, 99 per cent it will come out as a bad fiction''.

He explained, ''What is important for a fiction novel is a good story because only that can travel, irrespective of what message it passes on''.

However, this thought process of the writers making them shy away from such an important issue left the audience disappointed, who also put their point in front of them.

''If one goes back to the history, he will find that writers have done wonders in bringing about a change in the mindset of people and society as a whole. I can feel that you are undermining your capabilities'', Ashok Sehgal, a banker, pointed.

Commonwealth Foundation’s director Mark Collins was also present on the occasion.

The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize organised and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation, is a leading award for fiction that was first awarded in 1987. The aim of the prize is to encourage new Commonwealth fiction, and to ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin.