Cong wants close watch on Bundelkhand package:HT

The Congress has stepped up efforts to ensure that the implementation of Rs 7,266 crore package for Bundelkhand is monitored, a move that can bring the party into deeper conflict with the BJP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The package was due to the initiative of party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi. Bundelkhand straddles both BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Uttar Pradesh(UP), and is a stronghold of UP Chief Minister Mayawati's BSP.



A group of Madhya Pradesh legislators of the Congress met Gandhi on Tuesday to demand a monitoring of the package to obviate misuse of central funds. This had its impact on UP also.



"The Mayawati government wants to spend the development funds on routine schemes such as maintaining canals and digging ponds and wells. We will meet Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh soon to ensure proper implementation of the package," said Congress MLA Vivek Singh.



Rahul Gandhi had led a delegation of party leaders to Manmohan Singh to demand the package and the setting up of the Bundelkhand Development Council.



"Uttar Pradesh did not get the power project that National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) had proposed to set up in Bargarh. The corporation has shifted the project to Chhatarpur in MP now," said Singh.



The Congress is planning to hold a rally in Banda (219 km from Lucknow) to target the UP government. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi are likely to address the rally to focus on the package.



"We have decided to hold the rally at Banda because of its strategic location. Four ministers in the Mayawati government – Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Babu Singh Kushwaha, Daddu Prasad and Badshah Singh – are from Banda. About 23 BSP leaders from the region have been given minister of state rank," Singh said.


This will be the first major programme of the Congress in the BSP's bastion after the one in Ambedkar Nagar, where Rahul had launched his party's 10 yatras on April 14.


"This time we will focus on the region's backwardness and the corruption in the Mayawati government," said Singh.

NREGA to statehood, musically :HT

A rural boy band is making waves in Bundelkhand region. The boys entertain in regional dialect though none of their songs are romantic. The group is christened 'Sur Lehariya' and says its music is of 'awareness' genre.

Sur Lehariya sings songs on drought, farmer suicides, water problems, falling underground water level, education, health-hygiene, trees, animals, birds and mid-day meals or NREGA (a rural employment scheme). Their music also stresses on Bundelkhand statehood demand.

Ashok Bundelkar, 25, the group leader says, "Our entertainment is inspirational and motivational without being religious or spiritual. We musically educate rural people in the language they understand best."

So they have a song to nudge village students not to drop out and finish education till at least graduation level. The song goes like this, 'Gaon ki koilee raani masterni hoi gai re (a village girl has turned teacher)'

Ashok Bundelkar is the lead singer, lyricist and composer. Swami Deen, 28, plays 'harmonium'. Sunny, 14, plays 'ghada' (terracotta urn), Rajkumar, 24 plays 'dholak' (percussion) and Ashish Kumar, who is in class tenth plays 'tabla' (percussion).

A degree holder homeopath, SK Ranjan, who is not a musician, assembled Sur Lehariya. "Sur Lehariya was assembled as a cultural branch of our Bundelkhand Gana Parishad," said Dr Ranjan who is the chairperson of the parishad that works on drought and associated social issues.

Ranjan said that there were not any contemporary regional folk songs. "All the regional folk songs and lyrics that we hear are historical and do not talk about current issues. So I assembled this group to entertain and educate illiterate people who learn quickly through songs and dance," he said.

The group was assembled in March and has done 24 performances in Banda, Mahoba, Chitrakoot and Hamirpur. And has been getting invitation (to perform) from all the twelve Bundelkhand region districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

One of the songs that appeal all audience in the region is, 'Ghar-ghar mein anaaj hoi, Bundelkhand raaj jab hoi (every household will have food when Bundelkhand turns separate state)'.

All the group members have rural background-Rajkumar is a farmer, Swami Deen earns his living by teaching music to children, Ashok Bundelkar is a stenographer at a Sales Tax office in Banda and the other two are school students.
Sorce:http://www.hindustantimes.com/NREGA-to-statehood-musically/Article1-563975.aspx
Pankaj Jaiswal, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Banda, June 27, 2010
First Published: 18:42 IST(27/6/2010)
Last Updated: 18:44 IST(27/6/2010)

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Rahul had to take Bill Gates to Bundhelkhand: BJP

BJP state president Surya Pratap Shahi took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for taking Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to his Parliamantary constituency of Amethi and said he had to rather take the IT Czar to under-developed Bundhelkhand region.

"One of the richest men of the world, Bill Gates, recently visited Amethi. If the Congress leaders were so concerned about the development of the state, Rahul should have taken him to Bundelkhand region, which is backward and host of problems exist there," Shahi said.


He alleged that the agenda of Congress president Sonia Gandhis and Rahul Gandhi was limited to their parliamentary constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi.


"They cannot see poverty anywhere else in the state," he said adding the Congress, which ruled the state for 40 years, was responsible for its backwardness.


Bill Gates had visited Amethi on May 11.

(with PTI inputs)

Reply by Kavi Hardayal Kushwaha on May 13, 2010 at 11:48am
Delete India needs manufacturing Jobs, not much hyped Computer Jobs. Royal Gandhi-Nehru family is the REASON why present mess in India continued. No Chinese leader would engage in poverty tour of their country as Rahul doing.

Present messy situation of india is thanks to Royal Dynasty of Gandhi-Nehru who not only misgoverned the country, followed disasterous foreign policy, minority policy and its going to be even worse under the new king.
it can safely be said- IF RAHUL HAS A FUTURE, INDIA HAS NONE.

MR. Rahul Jee Amethee se aage bhee aap kaa india aur meraa bharat hai kabhee hamaare bundelkhand me Bill Gates ko lekar aaye kam se kam hamaare bundelkhand ke kisee chaprasee se aap ko ye sunne ko nahee milegaa ki Bill Gates ko nahee jante muphat me desh kaa paisa amethee me naa vahaaye,jab tak bharat kaa ek bhee bachach bhukaa hai naa ye aap ke sapno kaa bharat hogaa naa hamare sapnokaa bharat hee

Impoverished Indian Communities Fight For Education :newsblaze

Impoverished Indian Communities Fight For Education

Orai, the nondescript headquarters of the Jalaun district in Uttar Pradesh (UP), has an amazing story to tell the world.

Lying in the neglected Bundelkhand region, Orai, which has a large Dalit ('downtrodden') population, experiences acute water scarcity, low literacy levels and high unemployment levels.

Yet, it is in this unlikely environment that the Dalit community is asserting its right to education. Children who have been denied schooling over generations are now waving Right To Education cards before the faces of the authorities. In a region where daughters have never been sent to school, there is a spirited campaign focusing on girls' education.

Spearheading this unique social inclusion movement is Kuldeep Kumar, 21, a Dalit student. The son of a mason, who is preparing for his Bachelor of Education degree, Kuldeep decided to do his bit. For two years now, he has been taking the message of universal education to the people through his organization, the Prayaas Jan Uthan Samiti.

Kuldeep was 18 when he participated in an international research project and observed the plight of the local people. The experience stayed with him. Today, sitting in a two-room rented apartment in Jalaun, which functions as an office-cum-hostel for the girls in the group, he observes, "The root cause of poverty is illiteracy and unemployment. The best way to empower the poorest is to give them access to education."

Popularising the idea of education was, however, a huge task, and Kuldeep realised it could not be done alone. That is when he set up Prayaas Jan Uthan Samiti with a core team of nine youngsters, including three girls. Most of the volunteers are less than 30 years old, come from very poor Dalit households and have experienced discrimination at first-hand.

Support for Prayaas first came in the form of Baldan Singh and his wife Alka, who work on issues of anti-Dalit violence in Orai. Soon other groups, such as the Aasha Mahila Adhikar Manch and Dr B.R. Ambedkar Yuva Samaj Sudhar Samiti, came forward. Together they formed the Bundelkhand Dalit Manch (BDM), an umbrella body of Dalit NGOs which had the twin agendas of education and employment. Presently, there are nearly 35 organizations that work as part of BDM.

Convinced that lasting social awareness can stem only from "informed" communities, this larger team began chalking out ways by which Dalit children could be brought into the educational mainstream. Supported by National Confederation of Dalit Organizations (NACDOR), they soon came up with the idea of Right to Education rallies. India, incidentally, has committed itself to ensuring that all children, boys and girls, get primary schooling by year 2015 under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). If this has to happen, it is definitely in places like Orai that children should be in schools.

Organizing these meets proved far tougher than anticipated. "The area of our work was the tribal belt, where ignorance, disparity and discrimination were huge," says Kuldeep. But the youngsters were optimistic. A team of 21, including five girls, representing three regions of Jhansi, Jalaun and Lalitpur in Bundelkhand, was trained for three days before they embarked on a month long journey to spread literacy awareness here. NACDOR volunteers from Delhi provided the training. The first rally was at Hiya village in Jhansi.

While Kuldeep personally visited 20 villages, his team ended up covering a whopping 103 villages! Instead of one, they visited three villages in a day with their message: Every child had a right to education. The team members found that many children had been denied school admission outright. Others were admitted but were not attending classes largely because of the caste discrimination they encountered, both from teachers and upper-caste students. Cattle grazed in the premises of many schools, and the dispensing of mid-day meals was irregular.

"First we had to tell people that education was their childrens right and that they cannot be denied it because of their caste or religion. We had to build up confidence in both parents and children," reveals Baldan Singh.

The children who were refused admission were handed Right to Education cards. They were told to show these cards to any school authority that denied them admission. Taking caste prejudices head on worked. Recalcitrant school officials found themselves cornered. In one instance, children demonstrated outside the home of an absentee teacher, holding placards that read, "Teacher, aao aur padho" ("Teacher, come and teach."). When storerooms for the mid-day meal provisions were found locked, Prayaas members had them opened and ensured that meal schedules were followed. They left behind their mobile numbers so that they could be contacted if there were such disruptions again.

In most places, the team also noticed that parents and teachers blamed each other. While the parents argued that teachers were absenting themselves, the teachers accused the parents of not sending their wards to school. To solve this problem, triangular Parent-Teacher-Student associations were formed, where everybody could together sort out their differences.

The team also wrote simple slogans on village walls: 'Ghar ghar vidya deep jalao' ('light the lamp of education in each home'); 'Bachcha bachee sabhi padhao' ('teach both son and daughter'); Padhee likhee ladki roshni ghar ki ('an educated girl is the light of a home') were just some of the inspiring messages.

Information on education is combined with entertainment. Skits, highlighting the importance of schooling, were enacted for local communities. Public discussions on school education were conducted, so that views could be freely expressed or countered. This was followed by a two-month-long Dalit Shiksha Jagrukh Abhiyyan (Dalit Education Awareness Campaign).

The female members of the team were entrusted with a special task of acting as motivators for girls' education. Explains Shilima Gautam, 23, a Prayaas member, who is preparing for her Bachelor of Education exam, "Take the Pattipura village in Jalaun. It has a 100 percent Dalit population and none of the girls went to school. So we spent a lot of time here stressing on the importance of educating daughters." Shilima, who has three sisters, works as a 'kisaan mita' (friend of farmer - a semi government post - who provides local farmers with information about good farming practices) and earns Rs 1,000 (US$1=Rs 44.6) per month. With this she supports herself and her college-going sister, Neelima, who dreams of becoming a police officer. The sisters - trained as motivators - live independently in Jalaun in a rented room about 55 kilometers away from their village, Gohan. They are fortunate to have an enlightened father. Says Shilima, "My father, a watch repairer, supports girls' education. He believes that no development - whether individual or national - is possible without education."

Interestingly, not only has Kuldeep helped to motivate teachers, parents and students, he has inspired many youngsters like him. Sometimes Kuldeep is a bit embarrassed by the attention. But he is clear that school education is the first step to addressing growing social disparities and poverty. "I ask everyone just one question: How many officers put their children into government schools? I tell them that in this question is hidden the answer to improving government schooling and ensuring the Right to Education of every child," he says. It is precisely such awareness raising that will help in the implementation of the newly passed Right to Education Act, in both letter and spirit.

Young Kuldeep is confident that Orai is slowly moving towards achieving Millennium Development Goal Two: Universal primary education. Because it is only when the poorest, most socially disempowered communities access schooling can there be a lasting change. By flashing their Right To Education cards and demanding that the lamp of education be lit in every home, Orai's children are signaling change in a forgotten region of the country.

विन्ध्यंचल की माटी को अनुसन्धान, आश्रम और आन्दोलन का केंद्र वनाये स्वमी रामदेव बाबा : कवि हरदयाल कुशवाहा

http://apnobundelkhand.blogspot.com/

विन्ध्यंचल की माटी को अनुसन्धान, आश्रम और आन्दोलन का केंद्र वनाये स्वमी रामदेव बाबा : कवि हरदयाल कुशवाहा

तिथी : ११ मार्च २०१०


आदरनिये स्वमी (रामदेव बाबा ) जी को वंदन


हम बुंदेलखंड वासी आप से अनुग्रह और आग्रह के साथ निवेदन करते है कि हम लोग भारत स्वभिमान परिषद् के सदस्यता लेना चाहते है हम तकरीवन १५०००० लोग बुंदेलखंड आन्दोलन से जुड़े हुये है और जैसा आप को मालूम हो कि बुंदेलखंड आकाल से ग्रसित है आप इस उपेक्षित अंचल कि और स्वयं और देश के राजनेताओं का ध्यान आकर्षित की कृपा करे. विन्ध्यंचल का वो अंचल जहा विपदाओ को निवारण करनेवाला माना जाता था और जब किसी भी काल मे और युग मे किसी पर विपदाओ का समय आया तब सभी ने विन्ध्यंचल मे शरण ली



अब विपदाओ ने हम विन्ध्यंचलवासियों को घेरा है हम कहा जाये आज देश हमें भूखा और भिखमंगा समझकार धुत्कर्ता है आप के स्वभिमान और भारत के स्वभिमान मे क्या हमें भी स्वभिमान से रहने का हक़ मिलेगा . आप को मालूम है यहाँ कि माटी मह्रिषी वेदव्यास,चाणक्य,भवभूति ,ऋषि भरद्वाज ,मार्कंडेय ,अत्री ,दत्तात्रेय महाकवि कालिदास,तुलसीदास जैसे मह्रिषी ऋषि और संतो की जन्म कर्म और धर्म भूमी रही है और आश्रम जो उस समय हिन्दुओ और अर्यो के अनुसन्धान केंद्र रहे है





हम बुंदेलखंड वासी आप से अनुग्रह और आग्रह के साथ निवेदन करते कि आप विन्ध्यंचल की माटी की शरण मे आये यहाँ अनुसन्धान केंद्र,आश्रम और भारत स्वभिमान परिषद् आन्दोलन का केंद्र वनाये प्रभु राम जी रावण के युद्ध से पहले १३ वर्षो तक विन्ध्यंचल की पवित्र भूमी मे संघठन के मजवूत किया यहाँ की वनजातियों जनजातियों सिद्ध नाग और अन्य जन समूह आप के साथ रहेगे और हम विन्ध्यंचलवासियों को शरण प्रदान करे
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