Initiatives to improve community welfare- Naba Kishor Pujari

"It is good that the younger generations are coming forward to make the world a better place. It would develop their attitude towards life," said Naba Kishore Pujari, a social activist working for child rights.

Bhubaneswar, June 16: Youths across the state are gradually taking up the responsibility of community welfare through various social and cultural initiatives.

They are starting many projects to improve the social, environmental and cultural scenario of their native areas.

Tennis player Chinmay Pradhan has started Chocolate Group, an organisation, at Mendhasal on the city outskirts, where he holds practice sessions for young students.

Pradhan facilitates students' participation at various state-level competitions and keeps them updated about various cultural festivals taking place across the state. "A number of local youths take a lot of interest in art, dance and music, but they do not have the right resources to take part in them. So, I took the initiative to help them get proper exposure," said Pradhan.

Some local students took part in a number of cultural festivals, including the Anjali Children's Festival. Some of them have also bagged prizes in many art competitions.

"There are so many cultural events that take place in the city on a regular basis. We try to provide them with the necessary information, so they can come forward and take part. I also try to connect them to non-profit organisations that take them on trips through their various projects," said Pradhan.

He also acts as a mentor to a number of young kids, who are interested in playing tennis at the academy. "They have an eagerness to learn and get involved in sports. So, I try to train them with the limited knowledge that I have, during my free time," Pradhan said.

A few of his students have already taken part in many tennis tournaments. Pradhan also aims to involve people from the sports fraternity to start such initiatives in their respective areas.

Another group of youths from Sundargarh are trying to increase the popularity of their district by promoting its tourism prospects. Their group - Pixels, Sundargarh - consists of 13 persons, including students, entrepreneurs and professionals from various walks of life.

With all the members being passionate about photography, the group has created a Facebook page, where they post pictures taken at various locations of the district.

"We want to promote the tourism prospects of our district. It will be possible only when more people will be made aware of the cultural vibrancy of the district," said Anurag Mohanty, a student of NIT, Rourkela, and also a member of the group.

The group has been organising a photography exhibition since the past two years on the Independence Day at the district civic centre, inviting young photographers to showcase their skills. At present, they are working on a documentary that would capture the beauty of Sundargarh.

Two youths from the city - Akshaya Kumar Rautray and Satabdi Mishra - run a project called Walking Bookfairs that promotes reading among children and adults. They hold small book fairs in the rural areas of the state.

"We targeted the people at the grassroots level as it is important that good books reach even the remotest village of the state. We are engaging them in fun activities and explaining the importance of reading for pleasure among teachers and parents," said Akshaya. They had recently been on a 15-day tour across the state on a van that had been customised into a mini-library.

A social worker said such initiatives would go a long way in helping the society. "It is good that the younger generations are coming forward to make the world a better place. It would develop their attitude towards life," said Naba Kishore Pujari, a social activist working for child rights.

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Interview of Naba Kishor Pujari ( Author, social Activist)

It is always a nice feeling to see yourself published in the mewspapers for the work you have done. The Orissapost published a feature on my literary as well as development work journey.

Article on current situation of teachers in Odisha

It was a discouraging decisions made by the School and Mass Education Department, Govt. of Odisha to make a scheme called "Teachers on Call" where Government decided to engage retired teachers to take class in schools as and when need basis. This was criticised widely among educationists, political parties and teachers federations and reaction was that when trained teachers are not yet given fresh appointment against vacancy of teaching posts at around 60000 in elementary schools in Odisha, how can the government even think of substituting the need of teaching by retired teachers to whom govt. in principle thinks that they are no more physically as well as mentally spirited to take classes. In this response, my take on the so called 'Teachers on Call' has been published in the Odia Sambad Newspaper. See the published post below:

Saptaka Sahitya Samman 2016 to Naba Kishor Pujari

Bhubaneswar: Youth litterateur, columnist and social activist Naba Kishor Pujari has been felicitated with Saptaka Sahitya Samman 2016 herein Bhubaneswar from a prominent city based Literary outfit Saptaka Sishu Sahitya Sansad that felicitates one young writer in the name of Eminent litterateur Debaraj Samantaray. Among other awardees, Naba Kishor Pujari was chosen in the youth litterateur category for his two acclaimed Odia Poetry books “Ja Nauri Ja” and “Pritiriti” along with numerous columns and features published in English and Odia dailies.

Earlier, he has also been awarded with Duradarshi Samman, JP Overton fellowship and Winner title in Education Fair Inter-university debate competitions. Mr. Pujari being a social work professional has worked in several International and National Nonprofit in the field of Education and Child Rights issues. - See more at: http://orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=69263#sthash.XArSXNlR.dpuf

Multifaceted Approach needed to tackle Gender Inequality

By Naba Kishor Pujari

We often cheer our breathe at the anecdotes of matrilineal societies that exists in Kerala, Karnataka and Meghalaya in our country where women reportedly enjoy high status and respect in our society, but this itself cannot take away the issues that our daughters face every minute. In India, our rigid patriarchal norms and obsessed preference of Son over daughters have led to an impact that relegates women to secondary status within the household and workplace.

With a population of 225 million, Girls account for 48 per cent of India’s children. However, they face discrimination from the womb. Despite a significant need of structural changes in our policy and implementation modalities, we miss the bus to give our girls an equitable space in the society.

“The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in India”, a McKinsey Global Institute report shows poor level of gender parity in Indian society. India’s Gender Parity Score (GPS) is 0.48 where the ideal score should be 1. India ranks 130 of 155 countries on Gender Inequality Index (GII) and have fared only well from Afghanistan among South Asian countries as per the Human Development Report 2015 released by United Nations Development Programme. It can be noted that GII measures the human development costs of gender inequality. A higher GII value 0.563 in the case of India indicates a greater disparity between men and women.

The statistical data has an inevitable connection with ‘Where do our girls miss’. We all witness a broadening gender inequality that starts right from our home. Our socio-cultural norms and economic dependence pattern is in the myth that a son can only take care of their parents in old age but a daughter cant as she certainly will move to her in laws. Similarly, the income of a son would be spent in his own family whereas the income of a daughter; after marriage, would be spent for her in-laws family. This has led the chances of survival of a girl child very less.

Especially, the wealthy and educated ones who have access to ultrasound scans and can afford the price go for sex-selective abortion even though gender-based abortions have been illegal since 1994 in our India with the Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act.  In another shocking report of ‘Lancet’,  a British Medical Journal states that 12 million Indian Girls were aborted in India since 1981. As a fall out, this must have contributed to the Child Sex Ratio to 918 for India in 2011 from 930 in 1981, according to the census data.

The World Bank also in its report reveals that half a million girls go missing at birth each year in India. Even our Women and Child Development Minister Ms. Maneka Gandhi has also confessed that 2000 girls in our country die every day in the womb. Some are born and have pillow on their faces choking them, a statement from the minister itself leaves us to gauge te future threat to our nation even we have the much elated flagship schemes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao in our country.  It is still not enough.
The National Crime Records Bureau has stated that over the past nine years, 64,000 girls have reportedly been kidnapped. Only from 2005 to 2012, the number of girl’s kidnappings soared 23.2% each year. Minor girls account for almost 85% of all kidnappings in the country.

Undoubtedly, to combat this issue, we have a National level Child Tracking system and Operation Smile Programme that step up the effort to identify, prepare database and rescue the missing children but it needs a thorough rolled out. In terms of legal framework, India still lack a specific law that should focus on missing children and the issue is being dealt with under the category of crime committed against children laid out in IPC and the special and local laws like Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act 1956, Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 . The Nithari Case in 2007 was a prototype of how the law enforcement agencies treat the missing persons as regular cases and even fail to recognize a set pattern emerging out of the cases.


In this response, Hon’ble Supreme Court while hearing a Writ Petition (Civil) no. 75 of 2012, on 10th May 2013, Bachpan Bachao Andolan vs Union of India has directed to lodge FIR of all the missing children and maintain a Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to deal with the cases of missing children in our country.  Migration and girl child missing has engrossed the state heavily. According to media reports, Odisha records a high of nearly 40 per cent rise in missing cases of girl child in 2015 and more than three girls went missing every day last year. If we take the last year’s data of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), it reveals that that 8,246 girls, all below the age of 18, had been missing from the state during that five-year period. Among the 11,552 missing children in the state, 8,246 were girls, which constituted nearly 71 per cent of the total missing children. The number of boys who had gone missing was 3,306. The CAG further points that the missing number of girls has outnumbered boys every year. The CAG findings are more worrying, because the number of missing girls are increasing manifold every passing year. In 2009, 910 girls had gone missing, but it went up to 2,006 in 2013. The CAG also stated that mortality rates for the girl children less than five years of age stood at 74, which exceeded the male child rate of 70 per 1,000 live births. Odisha has a Standard Operating Procedures  for Child Welfare Committees unlike many other states to deal with the cases of missing children.  The Odisha police has also launched “Operation Smile” in January 2015 in line with the national level initiative to trace all the missing children.
The report of Odisha Police Crime Branch that runs the programme says that altogether 515 missing children were rescued and have been handed over either to their parents or rehabilitated in child care institutions during Operation Smile-II.  A child tracking system has also been developed to track, identify and rescue children where a daily basis update on missing and rescued children cases are reported. However, A a comprehensive plan for rehabilitation of rescued children who need rehabilitation, training and capacity building to line department officials as well as awareness generation programme will be crucial to curb the issue. Widening inequality has momentous inferences for macroeconomic stability. Therefore Solutions will have to be as multifaceted and invasive as the causes.

Gender based inequalities are not in-born but are created by us so can we end it. After all, equality is never a threat but an opportunity.

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