Thursday, November 20, 2014

Book Review-Fall Like a Rose Petal (A Father's Lessons on How to be Happy and Content While Living without Money)


Title- Fall Like a Rose Petal

 (A Father's Lessons on How to be Happy and Content While Living without Money)
Author- AVS Vishwanathan
Publisher-Westland
Genre- Non Fiction

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Clean India, Safe India- Click for a change

With the Swach Bharath Abhiyan kicked off with great zeal by our honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, its time for us to contribute for the cause.

Hygiene is important both on a personal and social basis. It's an irony that in the land where cleanliness was once treated as godliness we can see every nooks and corners of our city to be full of garbage, waste, clogged drains etc. People have become so self-centered that it's not even a botheration to them if the barren land just next to their house has become a garbage ground. Their only concern is within their house everything should be dust free.
If this is the condition in cities think about those villages which are still deprived of the minimum of the basic necessity food and water. There are many places in India which don't have a proper sewage system. Seeing people behind bushes early morning if you happen to travel by train is a common sight.

If you ask those illiterate people about, why don't have a proper toilet, probably they will laugh at you. It's not their mistake; those poor people have never understood the importance of hygiene, the importance of having a proper sanitation not because they don't want to but because there is no money, they have more important needs and demands to be fulfilled rather than thinking of a thing which happens once in a day that too is being managed by them sitting behind a bush or in a field. And why they will understand when we the educated lot is peeing around on the walls of a big house or a gated empty plot. Sometimes I feel Indian men feel proud in excreting so promptly and openly.

What can happen?

In improper sanitary conditions water borne diseases like diarrhoea, respiratory problems, hepatitis, jaundice spread like an epidemic. It will not only lead to more of financial loss to the otherwise poor family but also sometimes loss of a precious life.

For females it is even more dangerous. If there are no proper toilets there is no privacy for them. It can sometimes lead to dangerous crimes if a female is seen all alone in an isolated area.

Talking about the health issues for women improper sanitation may lead to certain kind of life threatening infections. Imagine a situation when a women is having her monthly cycles and there is no proper supply of water, there is no toilet available for the daily routine and there is no proper place to dispose the sanitary waste.

Children in India suffer from malnutrition. The main reason behind this is diarrhoea which can even lead to severe disorders like pneumonia.

If these reasons are not enough for us to understand the importance of having proper toilets and sanitation facilities everywhere, here are some facts which I hope will open our eyes.

Some Facts-

1. Over 50 million people in urban India defecate in the open every day (Hindu-28th July 2012)

2. Eighty per cent of India’s surface water pollution is on account of sewage alone. (Hindu-28th July 2012)

3. According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) from a survey conducted in 2012, only 32% of rural households have their own toilets and that less than half of Indian households have a toilet at home.
This has again highlighted the sorry state of sanitation in India where there are more mobile phone users than toilets.

Please do your every bit in improving the condition of hygiene in India.One such great initiative is being done by Domex-You Click Domex Contributes.

 You can bring about the change in the lives of millions of kids, thereby showing your support for the Domex Initiative. All you need to do is “click” on the “Contribute Tab” on www.domex.in and Domex will contribute Rs.5 on your behalf to eradicate open defecation, thereby helping kids like Babli live a dignified life.

Please do this least bit to make a Clean India, a Better India.

Request all my blogger friends and readers to spread the word and make this campaign reach the maximum success.A click can change someone's life.

This post is written for Indiblogger and Domex

Wednesday, November 12, 2014