Marudyan Society A CHARITABLE SOCIETY (Registered Society - 80G I.T.O. Exemption - F.C.R.A.) Email: challenge@live.in Phone: +91-958 2222 33 2.

“If you can read this, you are blessed………… More than two billion people in the world cannot read.”

PROJECT PROPOSAL

“MARUDYAN GIRLS SCHOOL” in Jaisalmer District - Rajasthan

Included:

1. Annexure 1:Photopage of our 3 trips to Jaisalmer District

2. Annexure 2: Text „Headlines Today‟ programme by Preeti Choudhry

broadcasted on June 20th, 2011 about female infanticide in Jaisalmer

district.

3. Annexure 3: Condensed report of our 3 trips to the Jaisalmer district

along with the population‟s conclusion and solution.

4. Annexure 4: Drawings of plans of “Marudyan Girls School” in

Jaisalmer district.

o a. Capital expenses

o b. Operational expenses

Should you require further information please do not hesitate to contact us

any time.

With sincerest appreciation and wishing you strength and wisdom

Mr. John Beentjes Director Marudyan Society

+91- 958 2222 33 2

Email: challenge@live.in

Annexure 2

Preeti Choudhry | Jaisalmer, June 20, 2011 | Updated 21:38 IST (EDITED VERSION)

This is land where girls are killed every day, with the worst statistics of female infanticide in India. This is the land of honour and tradition. It is also the land of shame and horror. In Rajasthan's

Jaisalmer, where men prefer to keep their women behind veils, while their daughters are buried deep inside graves, silent slaughter has continued. According to unofficial estimates, nearly 2500 cases of female foeticide or female infanticide take place in the state of Rajasthan everyday and it does seem that an apathetic government is standing by and watching the story of this silent genocide. According to the central scheme, the Janani Suraksha Yojana, a sum of Rs 1400 is given for every baby delivered in a government hospital. Introduced four years ago, this scheme has gone horribly wrong in this district, where women deliver daughters in hospitals, take their entitlements and go home. Within days the newborns disappear. Midwives say girls are being disposed off ruthlessly. The matter had been brought to the governments notice one year back. "Where I was posted earlier, they used to kill girls there, I protested, but I was posted to another place. I don't know if it happens here," says a midwife……………………. Rajasthan Health Minister Aimuddin Khan assured to look into cases, "if they are brought to notice". Registered under the Janani Suraksha Yojana, 14 cases of possible female infanticide in three months in a single village were investigated, recommendations were made and the report was sent to the state government. But a year later, probe in all the 14 cases have gone cold and the state government never reverted even as fresh infanticide cases come up every month…………………… this mass murder on a scale unseen in any other district in the country continues. Sarpanch of chaiyan village Hanuman Singh said, "They kill girls overnight by poisoning them with opium, crushing them with stones and starving them." Headlines Today travelled through the heart of this belt, where in village after village, a handful of girls amid thousands of boys mirror the morbid disdain of a gender-skewed society…………………….. Eighty km off Jaisalmer falls Devda village - the hotbed of female infanticide. At eight years, girls' dowries are ready. Another five years, and they would be married. Once married, their life will be restricted to four walls like their mothers and every time, they step out, they would have to confine themselves to the harshest of parda traditions followed by their community. Fully veiled, they would also carry a sheet covering themselves from even a shadow of another man. "It's a tradition we carry on. It's suffocating but money, food and women are meant to be protected," said Umed Singh Kanwar. Twenty km away in village Moda Ganesh, Headlines Today came across another aberration: 14-year-old Manoj Kanwar was clawed off from the hands of death. She knows she was lucky. In 14 years, she has seen enough to know the reason why. "I have seen girls getting killed every day here. It's the dowry that makes them kill," said Manoj Kanwar. Her mother Pappu Kanwar fought against family pressure to let Manoj live, but even she admits that in their community, there is no place for girls. "No woman wants to kill, but she does here it's with a heavy heart that she quitely suffocates her daughter or poisons her," says a teary-eyed Pappu Kanwar……………………. If a female camel is born in this district, then jaggery is distributed to the entire village. Ironically, if a girl child is born, an earthen pot is broken to signify doom befallen over the family. It's an irony which mirrors an India that exists alongside the fastest growing economy in the world and till the gap between these two Indias is bridged, this is no country for young girls. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/in-jaisalmer-daughters-are-born-to-die/1/142163.html (Link to text)

Annexure 1 Our 3 TRIPS TO JAISALMER - RAJASTHAN (photo-page)

Jaisalmer Fort: one of the largest forts in the world, built in the 12th century by the Bhati Rajput ruler Rawal jaisal Some of the most beautiful people in the world “the Bhati

Rajputs” need our help to break a centuries old tradition We distributed thousands of pamphlets & hundreds of posters with a valuable message of

love for life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . but that is not enough! Pls READ ON Amazingly beautiful Rajasthan Boys and one of the few girls are excited with message

We put up hundreds of Posters and distributed thousands of Pamphlets explaining the value of life.

CONCLUSION and SOLUTION

SHORT TERM: “Fixed Deposit will stop the killing of baby girls immediately” LONG TERM: “Sir, can you help us by building a girls school, where the girls get a good education so they can get good jobs and add to the family income. This will increase our respect for women and lessen the dowry”

We organized meetings, discussions, get-togethers In Devda, Jaisalmer, Jhinjhinyali, Badora, Baiya, etc, throughout the district, with village heads, town councils, politicians, women, police officers, etc. We received many emotional reactions. One thing was clear: everyone that is honest knows that it is happening and wants this stain removed. Together we came to the following conclusions and found these solutions:

Contact no: +91-958 2222332 write challenge@live.in Key to respect: EDUCATION

Annexure 3 F.I.R. Female Infanticide Rajasthan

CONDENSED REPORT OF THE 3 TRIPS TO THE JAISALMER AREA

Visit 1:

29thJune – 3rd July 2011 (Objective; find out the truth concerning ‘Headlines Today’ and distribute literature) We wrote, printed and distributed appropriate thousands of pamphlets and put up hundreds of posters for the occasion, called ‘the Challenge’ explaining the value of life. We had many discussions. One such was a 3 hour meeting in conducted in Devda village with 17 elders and the headman.

Visit 2:

13th – 17th July 2011 (Objective: visit as many villages as possible and find out the boy girl ratio) The main villages that the team visited are: Pithla, Bhoogaon, Bhopa, Narsingho Kidhani, Chelak gaon, Devda Jhinjhinyali, Baiya, Khurkhi and Badoragaon. We came up with the ratio of 1 girl to 8.4 boys. This was too hard to believe and seeing our statistics were done by word of mouth, we would prefer to go by the Official published statistics

2001 According to Indian census, Jaisalmer district's population is 5,08,247. Male constitutes 2,79,101 females 2,29,146 Missing 50,000 females Sex ratio 2001: 829 females to 1000 males (17 out of 100 girls missing)

2011 Official statistics: Sex ratio of 849 females for every 1000 males, 151 females out of a 1000 are missing or 1 out of 7 females did not survive and this is not malnutrition.

Visit 3:

3rd – 7th August 2011 (Objective: combine the information and to see about a realistic plan of action)

THE PROBLEM: Around 100 to 120 girls are borne yearly in the Basyia belt of 120 villages near Jaisalmer. Approximately 40 of these girls are born to Bhati Rajputs. More or less 25 baby girls per annum are killed Around 20 of these 25 are Bhati Rajputs and the other 5 from other castes, that means that

a staggering 50% or 1 out of 2 of the baby girls born to Bhati Rajputs do not survive.

SHORT TERM IMMEDIATE SOLUTION: 1. After lengthy discussions with the Bhati Rajputs of all levels, the immediate solution for this problem is

an FD (Fixed Deposit) for each girl child that is born. The Madhya Pradesh Govt has been very effective with the FD’s. An agreeable amount would be @ Rs. 25,000.-in FD. (120 X 25,000 = 30,00,000/- = 30 lacs per annum) for the Basiya District near Jaisalmer Simultaneously with launching the FD we organize committees of educated and influential Bhati Rajputs to visit the villages and get promises from the local leadership to put an immediate stop to the practice. We have been assured that once a Bhati Rajput gives his word, he will not break his promise.

LONG TERM and LASTING SOLUTION: The long term solution is to set up a girl school with good quality education in a central location, as education is sorely lacking in the area. Bhopa village is centrally located, 30 km or ½ hr drive from Jaisalmer where we would need to get most of our qualified teaching staff. A percentage of school girls is reserved for Bhati Rjaputs.

The school must be a Government recognized day school with female staff.

Quality education must be given to the girls so when they grow up they can stand on their own.

The village headmen and people promised that “If you can give our girls a good education, we know that girls will be more respected and the killing will be a thing of the past” A past that everyone would like to forget. Contact no: +91-958 2222332 write challenge@live.in

Annexure 4

“Marudyan Girls School” (for 400 girls) Jaisalmer District, RAJASTHAN

Detailed drawings and Budget breakdown are available upon request. LOCATION: The ideal village to set up the project would be Bhopa, 30 KM outside Jaisalmer, as much of the other the land in the Basiya district comes under Inland Security. Bhopa is close to Jaisalmer from where we would draw our teaching staff

Land will be acquired in the name of our society.

A: PROJECTED CAPITAL EXPENSES (CAPEX) 1200 ft deep Tube-well as water is brackish, water-sumps, 2 story building, boundary wall and gates,

sports setup, science lab, library, generator, 4 Air-conditioners, desert coolers, apartment for teachers

and volunteers, school benches, plantation, inverter systems, sewing machines and computer classroom,

2 school-buses etc. etc.

TOTAL estimated CAPITAL EXPEDITURES Rs. 1,34,91,450/- (@ 325,000/- U$ or @ 235,000 Euros)*

B: PROJECTED OPERATION EXPENSES (OPEX)

MONTHLY OPERATIONAL EXPENDITURE: teacher & staff wages, educational materials, diesel

fuel for the buses, generator upkeep, yearly depreciation of materials and building upkeep, school

uniforms, security personnel, library, computers upkeep, etc. etc.

MONTHLY estimated BUDGET Rs. 5,14,323/- (@12000/- U$ or @ 8700/- Euros)*

Contact no: +91-958 2222332 write challenge@live.in * Exchange rates are according to August 2011