Newsletter-Feb 2016 1

NEWSLETTER Volume 2, Issue 2 FEB 2016

INS IDE TH IS IS SUE

1 Visited Chhattisgarh-Assam-Jharkhand ……

1 Children rescued by Prayas from Jahangirpuri..

2 Visited Dr. Vikrant & Team…………….

3 Food Safety and Standards Authority of India………

3-4 Visited Patna, Bihar from 02-04 Feb 2016…………

4 News

MR . A M O D K AN TH ’ S V I S I T E D

C H H A T TI S G AR H - A S S AM -

J H AR KH A N D F R O M 1 1 - 13

F EB R U AR Y 2 0 16

Past two weeks have been roller coaster ride-Raipur in

Chhattisgarh to Teok in Jorhat district in remote Assam, from

Hazaribagh to other places in Jharkhand to Chandigarh, till

yesterday. During my part journey and intense interactions

with the youngsters all over in four states, the stories of

Rohith Vemula, the young science-research scholar of the

University of Hyderabad (UoH), remained uppermost in

Children Rescued by

Prayas from Jahangirpuri Amod Kanth

GS – Prayas JAC

February 09, 2016

Today on 9th

February, 2016 Prayas Childline & Rescue

Team, Pankaj Srivastava, Mukesh Kumar, Ankit Rana,

Vishwajeet Ghoshal, Indu Rani Singh &, Kisalaya Shukla

successfully rescued 45 ch ild ren with the help of Delh i

Police, Labor Department, SDM office Model Town &

District Task Force for child labor from Embro idery,

Bangle factory & Garment Shops at Jahangirpuri &

outskirts of north Delhi. Prayas did two successful rescue

operations, in the last month, on 19th January 14 children

& on 29 January 11 ch ildren were successfully rescued.

As per the observation of Prayas team there are 500

children estimated working in the same area. During the

child labor survey on 11th January, 2016, Prayas

Childline got to know, about 100–200 children, who are

working in Embroidery & bangle factory near

Jahangirpuri. Prayas Child line immediately organized a

pre-rescue meeting at Prayas office EE block Jahagirpuri.

On the tip of the information, Prayas Child line & Rescue

team swung into action and rushed to the every point of

contact to collect all possible informat ion about the

children working in different factories to trace the

location. In the backdrop of the incidence of trafficking

earlier Prayas did outreach in the area of Jahangirpuri and

unearthed several informat ion, i.e . address phone number

of Bangle factory, Embroidery & Garment Shop owner as

well as other significant information. Among all the

children 90 % belong to Bihar between the age group

from 06-16 years. Traffickers brought the children in

Delh i for the purpose of work in Embroidery, Bangle

Factory, Garment Shops etc. We have already informed

to the Child welfare committee regarding the rescued of

45 children from the clutches of these factories. All

rescued children are in Prayas right now for shelter &

food. After production of all children before the Child

Welfare Committee all children will sent to children’s

homes for care and protection.

continued on page 2

continued on page 3

Newsletter-Feb 2016 2

mind. I kept wondering what made this brilliant and brave

26-year old 'dalit warrior' from remote Guntur, who "

wanted to be a writer of science like Carl Sagan ...loved

science, stars and nature", read and followed Ambedkar and

Marx, hung himself. Perhaps, his own thoug ht preceded his

life and death through his quote of Christopher Hitchens,

“Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out

argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will

supply plenty of time for silence....". Addressing the youth

including the political workers who accompanied the un

focussed local MP , son of the CM Raman Singh, at the

National Youth Festival on 'developing skill and harmony' I

kept thinking whether my words will sink in their minds.

Whatever the local government might have thought while

planning this 10000 strong gathering at the isolated New

Raipur with no public contact, the youngsters from the hard

core naxalite belt with stars in their eyes - full of life and

creativity, didn't appear to be different from the youth I met

during subsequent days at Prayas projects in Assam and

Jharkhand. It was indeed excit ing to get into the aspirational

minds of the Assamese and Jharkhandi deprived and

marginalized youngsters who appeared keen to make a new

life through skills. At Chhattisgarh Secretariat which I found

so different to others high level Govt. offices, the discussion

with the Labour Commissioner Dr Jitendra Kumar and

planning out a fresh program of dignity for the young

women in domestic work and the youth for skilling gave me

lot of hope. Feel like admiring the Chandigarh Judicial

Academy of Punjab and Haryana, the 4 down-to-earth High

Court Judges and 300 magistrates, Police & Probation

officers with social workers who assembled to discuss and

to hear me too on the man-made legal disaster caused

through some retrograde changes in the juvenile/Children's

Justice law of India. Punjab, once the front runner amongst

states is facing huge crisis of confidence of youth in the

midst unemployment, drugs and violence. Can we find a

thread of remarkab le similarity running across Hyderabad to

Guwahati, Raipur- Hazaribagh to Chandigarh, the common

capital of Punjab & Haryana?

Visited Dr. Vikrant Kishore & team from RMIT University Melbourne, Australia to Prayas

February 16, 2016 Prof Vikrant from MIRT 'Varsity Melbourne, an old Zee

TV professional and a Jamia Millia Mass Communication

alumni, has come all the way with his young team to make

a documentary on Prayas experiments in social work

across the country, particularly the homes for homeless

kids. We needed something like this and find it timely.

Recently travelled, my colleagues& myself in North East-

Wakro Prayas Pr Health Centre in Lohit d istt Arunachal,

Noonmati and Teok Integrated projects in Guwahati and

Jorhat distts in Assam, found it truly fascinating. Recall

2005-7, my police days in Arunachal when I got a second

chance ( Mizoram 1997-8) to work in NE for two years, I

could help to develop these programs which have survived

lot of crisis nearly a decade now. Assam Sewa Samiti

Chairperson Hemoprabha Saikia offered to revive the

Noonmati Sh ishu Complex, and about the same time the

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi noticed us and asked local

administration to facilitate Teok community project. One

feels really happy to find the Wakro Heath Centre

becoming lifeline for this remote and unserved population,

same as Alok Prayas becoming a gateway for skills and

economic empowerment for the youth of Noonmati and

Teok.

Some Pics

continued from page 1

Newsletter-Feb 2016 3

OT H ER NEWS

To be added….

Visited Patna, Motihari,

Muzaffarpur & Samastipur

- 02-04 February 2016 Amod Kanth wrote:

February 7 ·

Thanks to Nitish Mishra, fo rmer Bihar Min ister (and

Secretary LN Mishra Management Institute) with a v ision

for the state and Hazi Tauheed Khan Chairman JSS

Muzaffarpur, I undertook a whirlwind trip to Patna,

Motihari, Muzaffarpur & Samastipur on 2-4 February.

Delayed AI flight, reached Motihari to meet the

unassuming Dist. Magistrate Anupam Kumar wait ing for

me. We spent part of the evening with 100 Trainee boys

and girls from BPL background, at Prayas Residential

Skills Trg. Centre, 30 of them offered jobs by the DM on

our behalf gave a very different feeling- ignit ing lot of

hopes. Rural youth with glint in eyes and clicking selfies

together before they depart to their job destinations, was

something I later equated in the Conference at LMIM with

the Indian IT& Management trained youth going to

Chicago & Dubai from Bengaluru. At Muzaffarpur,

meet ing with 13 Bihar JSSs (275 nationally) anxious about

their future we had some reason to relax listening to good

words from Sheshu Kumar, the NLM Chief who also

appeared keen, like us, to align this 6+lakh starved -

skilling with ambit ious national programs. The 'Skilling

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (A Statutory Authority

established under the Food Safety & Standards Act, 2006) (Training Division) - 17th February, 2016

“Drawing up the strategy for implementation of Food Business Operators Training” – regd.

17 Feb 2016

FSSAI welcomed the participants and after brief round of

introduction, the CEO, FSSAI gave a PowerPoint

presentation on ‘Training & Certification for Food Safety -

towards a National Framework for Food Safety Certification

(NFFSC)’. All the participants were encouraged to provide

their inputs and willingness for participation as partners for

the implementation and preparation of national framework

of Food Business Operators Training so as to make this

initiat ive a success.

Newsletter-Feb 2016 4

Return Address

Street Number and Name

City, State 98765-4321

BUILD RA TE

US POSTA GE

PAID

for Skilled India' Conference gave us opportunity to see

what's happening in Bihar and how the glaring gaps are

disturbingly wide. Prayas Samastipur homes with 72

recently rescued child labour from Bihar and outside were a

real treat to my heart with each and every child, 45 basking

in the winter sun and 27 in their bunk beds, all glued to

books. How unfair are we -as a society, as parents, as family

and as governments, to these innocent kids with endless

possibilit ies, yet deprived and suffering for others'

misdeeds. DM Samastipur Pranav Kumar and the SP

Choudhary appeared somewhat convinced that they have a

significant role to play in p reventing, looking after and

empowering these trafficked children and the youth whom

we are Skilling.

Some Highlights (to be added)

.