Rotary news april 2016

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Vol.66, Issue 10 Annual Subscription Rs.420

April 2016

Nobel Embraces Rotary

Reaching out to Nepal RI President K R Ravindran is never happier than with children for company. While visiting a reconstruction project by Rotarians in Nepal, he was enchanted by two little Nepalese girls Sonu and Dolma, who have been abandoned by their mother.

Perhaps Sonu is sharing her dream of becoming a teacher with the visiting dignitary.

Text and picture: Rasheeda Bhagat

18 Why didn’t you come earlier?

When Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi was asked this question, he realised its import, and was in tears…

Contents 45 An Israeli team to train Maharashtra farmers A VTT from Israel trains farmers of the Marathwada region to enhance their productivity through use of modern technology.

46 Returning their childhood

28 Young Rotarians make Nepal proud As Nepal limps back to normalcy after the devastating 2015 earthquake, young, passionate women Rotarians display “compassion with development” in the reconstruction challenge.

Pulling children out of a factory or any other workplace is not easy, but these Rotarians from RC Guntur Aadarsh have done that, and more.

56 Villagers get happy homes The Rotarians of RC Chennai Thiruvanmiyur, D 3230, and their Korean counterpart, RC Jinju Chokseok, D 3590, handed over low-cost shelters to rural families at Thirupper village under the ‘Happy village’ project.

58 Unilever of rural India He was branded a “pervert” for his obsession with sanitary napkins.

But Arunachalam Muruganantham has revolutionised rural women’s hygiene by inventing a low-cost sanitary napkin machine.

60 A mother-son jugalbandhi ... over Embroidery

36 We’ll see an RI woman

It’s not usual for mother-son duos to bond over needlecraft, but when that happens, unused bits of cloth at home get colour and sparkle.

President in five years Jennifer Jones has managed to break through the glass ceiling in Rotary, and is one of only 10 women to reach the level of RI Director.

On the cover: PRIP Rajendra K Saboo congratulates Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi as RI President K R Ravindran looks on.

Picture by Rasheeda Bhagat.

50 The last great

wilderness — Antarctica

LETTERS No loose balls in Rotary News!

A

s cricket fans, we always pardon our favourite bowler for bowling one or two loose balls in between his tight bowling. Same with our favourite author, a book here and there that we find not to our expectations, out of his many. But let me confess, since you have taken over as the Editor of Rotary News, there hasn’t been even a single ‘loose ball’; each month’s issue gives me (and I am sure all readers) such a satisfying experience! The February issue is yet another classic example.

You steering your editorial from hope and humanity of the TRF to brutality and violence of the ISIS, is simply superb. Compliments to RI President Ravindran

A versatile editor

T

he editor of Rotary News is a unique and a versatile editor of the magazine which I’ve been reading since 1988. There are 23 articles published in the February issue, and 8 of them are written by her, besides an excellent and extraordinary editorial covering humanity and brutality. I have also read thoroughly the other 8 articles written on different topics.

The knowledge is abundant and the spirit of Rotary is exceptional, enthralling, emphatically 4 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

for such a lovely article with a very novel and personal way of inviting Rotarians to the RI Convention!

Good to read about Rotary Peace Scholar Sachin Rane. I hope we Rotarians come up with Peace Fellows for our own country who would actively participate in Media management and make a difference in the chaos that erupts over so many petty things all around us every day. Union Minister and our own Rtn Piyush Goyal’s speech is so encouraging. I am sure we will respond to his call. Thank you for the coverage. It’s not just great reading but great visual treat through some of the fabulous photographs that makes the entire experience of Rotary News enriching. Right from the front page (front and back inner) to photographs of the Rann of Kutch and the women’s initiative in Ankleshwar, the content was interesting. Thank you Team Rotary News!

Rtn Atul Bhide RC Thane Hills-D 3140 encouraging the readers’ inspiration and goes beyond my imagination. I wish her all the best to contribute more to the Rotary world.

Rtn Dr MA Waheed RC Hyderabad-D 3150

a wonderful human being, so much dedication towards the schools and college, God bless her. Our Inner Wheel district has also taken up the project of mentally challenged in a big way. Of course, being a Sindhi, I really enjoyed the article on Sindhi food.

Sushu Kamlani Spouse of Rtn Ajit Kamlani RC Bombay Midtown-D 3140

I

eagerly wait for the arrival of Rotary News every month. The articles are full of positive energy.

I run a playschool in a small town in Punjab. We feel proud to belong to Rotary when volunteers come there and offer polio drops to the little kids. I am thankful to RI for the eradication of polio, providing meals to starving children, organising blood donation camps for Thalassaemia patients and for providing relief for earthquake victims. I feel happy to narrate to my students about the various Rotary projects.

Sunita Moudgil Spouse of Rtn Baljinder Moudgil RC Samana-D 3090

T

hank you for the article on D 3000’s silver jubilee in which RI President Ravindran participated, covered by Jaishree. DG Theenachandran has fulfilled his promises. Your editorial is very impressive.

Rtn Nan Narayenen RC Madurai West-D 3000 Hats off Sheeja

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would like to compliment you on the wonderful job you are doing with Rotary News. It is such a pleasure to go through all the articles.

The March issue is excellent ... wonderful photographs of the step wells of Gujarat, etc. The article I loved most is about Sandra Shroff; what

I

am a regular reader of Rotary News. The February issue was very interesting, particularly the article Women on Wheels, which will help unemployed women. Sheeja is a model for our educated unemployed women and proves that women are not weak but as strong as men.

LETTERS Two exemplary women

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t was very appropriate that when International Women’s Day was celebrated in March, Rotary News carried two interesting articles on two eminent female champions — Rajashree Birla of Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development and Sandra Shroff of UPL on their CSR activities.

It is good to note that both women have teamed up with Rotary clubs to bring changes in the lives of people.

Rajashree Birla’s involvement in the eradication of Polio in India and Sandra Shroff’s initiatives for promoting education and health in Vapi and its surrounding areas are great. Thank you for projecting the image of such great women in our country through your very impressive writing

T

he Sandra Shroff article was great. Rotary has given a lot to India. We have even suggested a road in Vapi be named after her.

Rtn PHF Sethu Kanagasabai RC Coimbatore Town-D 3201

skills. As usual, the issue contains other excellent articles such as A life changing engagement (Setu Gandhi), No to noodles (Kiran Zehra), 25 years and going strong (Jaishree).

There is no wonder that the editorial team gets overall appreciation for their high standards.

In a nutshell, thought-provoking and well-thought out writing page after page every month. Readers are a lucky lot. Congratulations, keep it up!

Rtn R Srinivasan RC Madurai Midtown-D 3000

Rann of Kutch

T

he articles about Sandra Shroff and Rajashree Birla were truly inspiring. What a wonderful way to commemorate Women’s Day! The whole issue of ethics, trust and altruism should evoke a huge positive response from many Rotarians and non-Rotarians who read our magazine. Both have shown to the world that the corporate sector promotes ‘creative capitalism’ as a new form of trusteeship as envisaged by Gandhiji for adopting CSR. I thoroughly enjoyed the issue.

Rtn Gaurish Padukone RC Bhatkal-D 3170 I appreciate her courage, hard work and self confidence.

Rtn Babu Poojary K RC Belthangady-D 3180 Heartfelt appreciation

O

I

t was great to read Colours of Kutch in your February issue.

And Mandvi Magic made me happier, as I belong to Kutch and Mandvi. The coverage was superb. Welcome to Kutch,

Rotarians friends. “Agar Kutch nahi dekha to kuchh nahi dekha.”

PDG Dr Harshad Udeshi RC Mandvi Kutch-D 3051

ur project of a ‘Smart village’ in Bibipur, Haryana was eloquently articulated in the March issue. It has been a long time since a project of our club was profiled in this prestigious publication, and this encourages our club and partnering foreign clubs. I appreciate your support, as I can imagine how many requests you must receive. I was present at the village again today, for a dental camp, showed the article to the Panch and other villagers, who felt deeply honoured.

Rtn Bharat Joshi RC Delhi Midtown-D 3011 APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 5

Board of Permanent Trustees

Governors’ Council RI Dist 2981

DG

Dr Gunasekaran Chinnathambi

RI Dist 2982

DG

R Vasu

RI Dist 3000

DG

R Theenachandran

RI Dist 3011

DG

Sudhir Mangla

RI Dist 3012

DG

Jitender Kumar Gaur

RI Dist 3020

DG

M Jagadeeswara Rao

RI Dist 3030

DG

Dr Nikhil Arvind Kibe

RI Dist 3040

DG

Sanjeev Gupta

RI Dist 3051

DG

C A Lalit Sharma

RI Dist 3052

DG

Pradhuman Kumar Patni

RI Dist 3053

DG

Anil Beniwal

RI Dist 3060

DG

Parag Sheth

RI Dist 3070

DG

Kuldip Kumar Dhir

RI Dist 3080

DG

David Joseph Hilton

RI Dist 3090

DG

Dharam Vir Garg

RI Dist 3100

DG

Deepak Babu (Acting DG)

RI Dist 3110

DG

Sharat Chandra

RI Dist 3120

DG

Ved Prakash

RI Dist 3131

DG

Subodh Mukund Joshi

RI Dist 3132

DG

Dr Deepak Prabhakar Pophale

RI Dist 3140

DG

Subhash Kulkarni

RI Dist 3150

DG

Gopinath Reddy Vedire

RI Dist 3160

DG

Dr Gautam R Jahagirdar

RI Dist 3170

DG

Shrinivas Ramkrishna Malu

RI Dist 3180

DG

Dr A Bharathesh

RI Dist 3190

DG

K P Nagesh

RI Dist 3201

DG

Kamlesh V Raheja

RI Dist 3202

DG

George Sundararaj

RI Dist 3211

DG

C Luke

RI Dist 3212

DG

J Navamani

RI Dist 3230

DG

C R Raju

RI Dist 3240

DG

Chandu Kumar Agarwal

RI Dist 3250

DG

Dr Bindu Singh

RI Dist 3261

DG

Rakesh Dave

RI Dist 3262

DG

Sibabrata Dash

RI Dist 3291

DG

Jhulan Basu

PRIP PRIP PRID PRID PRID PRID PRID PRID PRID RID

Rajendra K Saboo Kalyan Banerjee Sudarshan Agarwal Panduranga Setty Sushil Gupta Ashok Mahajan Yash Pal Das Shekhar Mehta P T Prabhakhar Dr Manoj D Desai

RI Dist 3080 RI Dist 3060 RI Dist 3011 RI Dist 3190 RI Dist 3011 RI Dist 3140 RI Dist 3080 RI Dist 3291 RI Dist 3230 RI Dist 3060

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (In addition to Board of Permanent Trustees)

DG Chandu Kumar Agarwal

RI Dist 3240

Chair - Governors Council

DG C R Raju

RI Dist 3230

Secretary - Governors Council

DG Subodh Mukund Joshi

RI Dist 3131

Secretary - Executive Committee

DG Dr Gautam R Jahagirdar

RI Dist 3160

Treasurer - Executive Committee

DG Sudhir Mangla

RI Dist 3011

Member - Advisory Committee

ROTARY NEWS ROTARY SAMACHAR Editor Rasheeda Bhagat Senior Assistant Editor Jaishree Padmanabhan Send all correspondence and subscriptions to ROTARY NEWS TRUST 3rd Floor, Dugar Towers, 34 Marshalls Road Egmore, Chennai 600 008, India.

Phone : 044 42145666 e-mail : rotarynews@rosaonline.org Website : www.rotarynewsonline.org

From th e E d i t or ’s Desk

And then there was the …

Word T

he Rotary International Presidential Conference on Literacy and Wash in Schools kicked off at the Kolkata Netaji Indoor Stadium last month, with its opening session striking a poignant note pregnant with Bengali connections. The haunting melody of Manna Dey’s immortal song Ae merey pyaare watan tujh pe dil kurbaan, from the classic Hindi film Kabuliwala, written by Rabindranath Tagore, directed by Tapan Sinha and picturised on Balraj Sahni, filled the auditorium. We were in Tagore’s Calcutta, the City of Joy, grey matter, erudition. So what better fit for the Rotary International Presidential Conference on Literacy and WinS? Actually the scope of the RILM was expanded to make it one of K R Ravindran’s Presidential conferences. So powerful and compelling were the projects and programmes of RILM — Asha Kiran and the pledge to the HRD Ministry to send 100,000 children back to school in one year, give thousands of children digital literacy, etc — that a highly impressed Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi turned up, after initially telling the Conference Chair and PRID Shekhar Mehta that he had “only 19,000 invitations pending.” But when the work done on literacy by the Rotarians was explanied to him, he was amazed that “you businessmen and professionals have the time and the passion to go into such great details.” That he used a window to make it proves the impact of the work you do in India.

It was a rare treat to hear the Nobel Laureate’s passionate hour-long-speech, which knocked on the conscience of each of the 2,500-strong audience, taking us along his incredible journey of rescuing over 83,000 children out of child labour. He thundered: “Every child matters, every childhood matters.” As he sought an answer from the audience on whether the Syrian girls … barely 5,6,7, used as sex slaves by the Islamic State; the Pakistani children shot down by the Taliban in the Army school; and the little children who serve us tea at thousands of roadside and other joints, “are not your children and mine?”, there were

few dry eyes in the audience. He urged the delegates never to employ child labour, or accept food being served by children, as all these children belong in school, just like yours and mine!

To me the takeaway was what the power of an impassioned speech, when it comes from one who has broken new ground and waged a lifelong battle, can do. After all, he left his career as an electrical engineer to take on the confounding and dangerous nexus between powerful mafia, politicians and other vested interests who enslave children and take away their childhood, in the process getting beaten and bruised several times. If he could do so much, can we not, as he urged all Rotarians at the conference, take a few hours off on a Sunday to visit, along with our children, a neighbourhood slum and spend some time with those children? As politely as he could, Satyarthi told the gathering that RILM’s goal — to send back to school 100,000 children in one year and 300,000 children in three years — was too modest.

“You can rid India of illiteracy,” he said, chanting several times “you can do it … you have the power, the passion, the commitment. If you could rid India of polio, why not illiteracy?”

Well, eventually Rotarians might just do it. But as Mehta reminded them in his opening comments, it is not easy to send children back to school; the struggle would be long drawn ... as experienced by the bird.

Yuhi nahi milti manzil, Poocha chidiya se kaisey bana aashiya, Boli chidiya bharni padti hei udaan baar baar, Tinka tinka uthana padta hei.

(When the bird was asked how it made its nest, it said each time I have to fly out and bring back the straw, one by one.)

Rasheeda Bhagat

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 7

President

Speaks

Dear Fellow Rotarians, Many years ago, in Kolkata, India, I had the chance to meet Mother Teresa.

She was an incredible woman with an incredible force of personality. When she walked down the street, the crowd parted in front of her like the Red Sea. Yet when you talked to her, if you mentioned the tremendous things she had done, she almost did not engage in this topic at all. By many reports, if you asked her what her greatest achievement was, she would answer, “I am an expert in cleaning toilets.”

The answer was both humorous and absolutely serious. Her business was caring for others. Toilets had to be cleaned, so she cleaned them. There was no question of a job being beneath her. Helping people who needed help was her work, and there was nothing higher, nothing in the world more important than that.

So one day, when an elegantly dressed man came to Kolkata looking for Mother Teresa, the nuns who answered the door informed him that she was at the back of the house, cleaning the toilets. They pointed the way, and indeed he found Mother Teresa scrubbing the toilets. She said hello, assumed he was there to volunteer, and began explaining to him how to hold the toilet brush correctly and how not to waste water. Then she put the brush in his hand and left him standing there, in his expensive suit, alone in the lavatory.

Later, the man came out, found Mother Teresa again, and said, “I have finished; may I speak with you now? ” “Yes, certainly,” she said. He took an envelope out of his pocket and said, “Mother Teresa, I am the director of the airline, and here are your tickets. I just wanted to bring them to you personally.”

That airline director told that story again and again for the rest of his life. He said those 20 minutes spent cleaning toilets had filled him with the greatest joy he had ever known — because by putting his hands to Mother Teresa’s work, he became part of that work. For those 20 minutes, he cared for the sick just as she did: with his own hands, his own sweat.

That is exactly the opportunity that Rotary gives us. We might not do what Mother Teresa did — give up our lives, our homes, our families. But for 20 minutes, 20 hours, 20 days of the year, we can be like her.

We can do the work that others will not with our hands, and our hearts, and our sweat, and our devotion — knowing that what we do is the most important work in the world.

K R Ravindran President, Rotary International

Change — the only constant phones? Aren’t we comfortable with this change? Then why fear change?

Here are some facts about electronic voting recommended by President Ravindran and the Board of Directors.

• •

Centralised control.

Historically stored — each district and each election.

• No manipulation in ballots can occur.

• Scheduling multiple elections online, even at the same time.

• A person can vote only once with the given secret link and password.

• Cost effective.

• Truly transparent and hack-proof system • Cyber police can track the culprit in case of problems.

• Sequential real time data — votes can show hours, minutes and even seconds.

• Each voter IP address recorded.

This eliminates the need for balloting, validation and the election committee, thereby reducing complaints of various interpretation biases.

Friends, it is a definite step forward by Rotary in the 21st century. This can save lot of time for many constructive activities such as TEACH and WinS. I do believe that you all are thrilled with the Electronic Voting results on burning issues at the Jaipur Rotary Institute. You voted for Direct Elections and the Board accepted your demands. The Board preferred use of Electronic Voting. Hope you now know the The first felicitation of RIDN C Basker was organised by RID Manoj reasons too.

Desai at D 3212, Tirunelveli.

I appreciate the spirit of both the candidates for the post of Director. Can you believe PDG am happy to welcome Rtn C Basker as my successor Sunil Zachariah, despite losing the election, for 2017-19. He is the first RIDN elected by Electronic accepted the verdict and highlighted the winner RIDN C Voting in Zone 5A. Basker in his “e-Flash-Rotary” first thing in the morning!

Change is the only constant thing in life. There were so Friends, appreciate healthy trends and embrace this change many opposing this change. Change always creates fear as wholeheartedly. not many are ready to accept change.

Is it not true that India has more than 1 billion mobile phones? About 79 per cent Indians possess mobile phones and many Rotarians own more than one mobile phone. HavManoj Desai Director, Rotary International en’t we ‘changed’ from landline phones to handy mobile

I

No longer Children of a lesser God Rasheeda Bhagat

T

he next time, when a child knocks on your car window, try sending that child back to school.

Just one child and you’ll understand what it takes to send just one child back to school,” said Shekhar Mehta, Chair of both RILM and the RI Presidential Conference on Literacy and WinS held in Kolkata.

Similarly, “little fingers rummaging through waste bins for food,” children who have to work to supplement family income, girls dropping out of school at puberty because they do not have separate toilets with adequate water and sanitation, should make us pause and think: “Are these children of a lesser god?”

But thanks to Indian Rotarians’ commitment through Asha Kiran and other programmes to send children back to school, empower them with digital literacy and make adults literate … all towards the ambitious goal of making India totally literate, “Rima Devi is no more using a thumb impression to draw money from the bank. She now proudly asks for a pen to sign a cheque.

That is our reward,” he said.

But, Mehta warned the mammoth gathering of nearly 2,500 delegates at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, the task before them was massive and it would require tremendous hard work to achieve Rotary’s ultimate goal for a literate India.

While working towards this objective, Rotary was picking up many partners … the Indian Government, several NGOs, and “now more and more corporates are coming forward to partner with us.”

He recalled how when four years ago he had contacted the Bharati Foundation for a partnership, its CEO had told

him, ‘Do not expect too much from us, as we have a Foundation of our own.’

“But last week, on a con-call, he said: Is there a way that Bharati Foundation and Rotary can work together on Happy Schools? So partnerships are happening and during this conference we will be signing several MoUs.”

M

ehta said Kolkata gave the first Rotary Club in Asia as also the first RI President from India (Nitish

Last week the CEO of Bharati Foundation asked us: Is there a way that Bharati Foundation and Rotary can work together on Happy Schools?

PRID Shekhar Mehta

10 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

Conference Chair PRID Shekhar Mehta with RI President K R Ravindran, RID Manoj Desai, Sharmishtha Desai and HOC Chair PDG Kamal Sanghvi (extreme right).

Laharry) and the other two RI Presidents had some connection with the city. “Each one of them is a hero … and today we are going to recognise six Literacy heroes. Rotarians and Inner Wheel members who have made 733 Happy Schools possible are heroes; as also Rotaractor Roshan who cycled for 6 months to spread the word of literacy. And Ritu Kedia, daughter of PDG Kishore Kedia, who swam 16 km from Bangladesh to St Martin Island for the cause of literacy.”

Mehta added that Rotary was “trying to change the world for the better with the power of knowledge. Our promise to the HRD Minister was to send 100,000 children back to school and tomorrow we will touch the 30,000 mark.” Under the Happy Schools, the target was 1,000 schools, once again a tough call. Each school costs Rs 5 lakh, but Rotarians and Inner Wheel members have really worked hard and already converted 733 schools into Happy Schools.

RI President K R Ravindran honours Dororthy Fernandez with Literacy Hero Award in the presence of PRID Ashok Mahajan, PDGs Ramesh Chander and Anil Agarwal.

“The impact of our work is such that through just one programme of e-learning we’ve reached out to 1.9 million children. And we are forging outstanding partnerships with the government; we’ve promised to work on e-pathshalas for 1 million adults over the next 5 years.”

But all this work — on both literacy and WinS, as well as other great Rotary projects, “would not have been possible without the leadership provided by the District Governors. Every plan and project gets implemented at the club level.”

R

I Director Manoj Desai said normally Presidential conferences have 1,200 delegates or a little more, “but this one has 2,500 delegates.”

Listing his work, he said during his eight months in office he had visited 27 of the 36 Districts and was highly impressed by the work done on various projects, including those on literacy and

I am now being called a literacy inspector and toilet director … most of my pictures these days are in front of a toilet.

RID Manoj Desai

WinS. “I am now being called a literacy inspector and toilet director … most of my pictures these days are in front of a toilet. But the (RI) Board salutes me because it realises that this is a phenomenal job that is required in this country.”

He said finally his “dream” of Rotary becoming a preferred partner to various entities was being realised; whether it was ministers, NGOs or celebrities such as Amitabh Bachchan, Saina Nehwal, Juhi Chawla or Mary Kom, they were all partnering with Rotary for various initiatives. “And Shekhar and his team are doing wonders on literacy; the online voting for APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 11

Literacy Heroes Arman Ali, Executive Director of the Sishu Sarothi, a centre in Guwahati, which looks after the rehabilitation, training and legal rights of children with special needs, has played a pivotal role in ensuring better education for special needs children through the Centre for Special Education. Accepting the award — a citation and cheque for Rs 1 lakh — he said he was both “humbled and honoured by this award, which will help people with multiple disabilities, less than one per cent of whom get meaningful employment.”

Armene Modi, a teacher from Japan who founded the Ashta No Kai (For a better tomorrow, in Japanese) Foundation in Maharashtra, was another Literacy hero. She gave up her teaching career in Japan to return home after stumbling upon India’s 1991 Census that 61 per cent of Indian women were illiterate. This initiative started when she saw in Maharastra villages “many young girls with mangalasutras around their necks, and wondered what is happening.” By bestowing this award on a “small initiative working in 10 villages in rural Maharashtra” Rotary had recognised the empowerment of rural women and girls through literacy and education.

“Issues of illiteracy, poverty and gender discrimination are not the problems of the poor and the marginalised alone; they concern all of us,” Armene said, quoting Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the importance of awakening a woman. Once she is on the move, the family moves, the nation moves.

Dorothy Fernandez, a teacher by profession, working for 19 years for the empowerment of the girl child from underprivileged families in Goa, was another recipient. She works with children of rickshaw pullers, street vendors, domestic help and construction workers and has set up six learning centres for their education in association with

West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi honouring 'Literacy Hero' Armene Modi as PRIP Rajendra K Saboo looks on.

UNICEF. She also works on the education of the children of unorganised sector workers and homeless communities across 25 villages of Bihar. “When I saw young people loitering around not knowing to read and write, I felt very sad. Today many of these children are empowered and contribute to the income of their families after education.”

The Friends of Tribals Society found that running full-fledged schools in a tribal area was almost impossible. So its founder designed a new concept, Ekal Vidyalaya or one-teacher schools. This kicked off in 60 areas in Jharkhand as a pilot project; today this Rotary Literacy Hero operates over 53,000 schools, educating 9 lakh children across the country. They have taken education to remote and rural corners of India, and managed to attract passionate and dedicated teachers who give their best to the children despite modest salaries.

Wizdoms Global Library, which has developed 900 libraries and donated

2.5 lakh books benefitting 12 lakh students in rural areas, was another literacy hero. Conceptualised in 2007 by Lt Cdr Vikram B Naik (Retd), it works on the concept of libraries going to people instead of people going to libraries. After setting up these libraries in States such as Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, they now want to create digital course material for underprivileged.

While these heroes were selected out of 82 applications, Larzy Verghese, a teacher from Mumbai, who did not hesitate to sell her house and land to start a school in a slum area, was the winner in the people’s choice award, which was decided through online votes. “In 2004, when I saw the slum which had no roads, no facilities, and no food, with lots of children wandering here and there, I wanted to do something for the kids. I thought what is the use of my education if I can’t do anything for them, and set up this school.” She got 36,000 votes.

West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi presents Literacy Hero Award to Arman Ali in the presence of (from left) PRID Shekhar Mehta, RI President Ravindran, RID Manoj Desai, TRF Trustee Chair Ray Klinginsmith, PDGs Ramesh Chander and Anil Agarwal.

Literacy heroes attracted over 7.26 lakh votes. Many corporates are now coming to us for CSR partnerships and things will only improve. I find tremendous enthusiasm among Rotarians who are reaching out to slums and rural corners that you can’t even imagine, making a big difference even in the less developed States such as Orissa and Bihar."

W

est Bengal Governor K N Tripathi lauded Rotary for its fantastic work; equipping over 4,000 government-aided schools with digital literacy equipment to help the “poorest of poor children,” training 5,081 teachers, setting up over 5,000 e-learning centres, sending back to school 10,000 children through its Asha Kiran programme and its pledge to send back to school 3 lakh children in 3 years, were great initiatives that were the critical need of the hour.

“And Rotary’s Wash in Schools programme is providing the much-needed hygiene and sanitation in our schools.”

The impact of our work is such that through just one programme of e-learning we’ve reached out to 1.9 million children.

In a video message, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar endorsed the WinS project and underlined the importance of washing hands. All kids hate to wash hands, and he did so too as a kid.

“But my mother didn’t allow me to have my food without washing hands.”

Kamal Sanghvi, Committee Chair, thanked all the “unique angels of giving” to enable Rotary to achieve major milestones in both literacy and WinS. His involvement in the planning and execution of this conference had been a “life-changing” experience for him.

Ramesh Chander, Chairman, and Anil Agarwal, Co-chair of the Literacy Heroes Awards Committee, traced the journey of the nominations and final selection.

On Jan 26, a Facebook page was created and the Committee formed and the cause promoted on social media platforms such as a website, Facebook, Whatsapp, etc. Advertisements in print and electronic media invited prospective ‘heroes’ to apply. There were some anxious moments as the momentum took a little time to build up. The last day was Feb 21, but till Feb 18 only 13 applications had been received. But by Feb 21, the number swelled to 82, bringing smiles all around.

On Feb 22, the Jury, led by Justice M N Venkatachaliah, Retired Supreme Court Chief Justice, and including PRID Sudarshan Agarwal, Former Governor of Uttarakhand and Sikkim, K N Memani, Former CEO, Ernst and Young, Dr Kavita Sharma, VC, SAARC University, Prof Shantha Sinha, Magsaysay award winner and Radhey Shyam Agarwal, noted industrialist, met in Delhi and selected five literacy heroes.

Pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat Designed by N Krishnamurthy APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 13

Kolkata Memories

A warm greeting: RI President K R Ravindran, Vanathy Ravindran, RID Manoj Desai and Sharmishtha Desai.

Bonhomie time: PRIP Rajendra K Saboo and RI President K R Ravindran.

A cultural show.

Shadow Art by eminent artist Prahlad Acharya.

PRID Ashok Mahajan, PRID Y P Das and PDG Kishore Kumar (D 3020).

WinS Chair PRID Sushil Gupta with Rtn T I M Nurul Kabir of D 3281, Bangladesh.

TRF Trustee Chair Ray Klinginsmith shares a lighter moment with PDG Kamal Sanghvi and spouse Sonal.

All set: Conference Chair and PRID Shekhar Mehta and Rashi Mehta.

From left: Rashi Mehta, RIDN C Basker with spouse Malathi and PRID P T Prabhakar.

Literacy Hero Award being presented by West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi to Friends of Tribals Society.

L to R: Bhishma Jariwala, Sharmishtha Desai, DGE (D 3060) Hitesh Jariwala and Rashi Mehta.

Usha Saboo with Vanathy Ravindran.

Pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat Designed by S Krishnapratheesh

Why didn’t you

come earlier?

Rasheeda Bhagat

When Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi was asked this question, he realised its import, and was in tears…

E

very single child, every single childhood matters. Once Netaji (Subhash Chandra Bose) said “Tum mujhe khoon do, mein tumhe azaadi doonga.” (Give me blood, I’ll give you freedom.) Today, when you Rotarians pledge to send back 1 lakh children to school in your bid to eradicate illiteracy in India, millions of children left out of education are telling us: “Tum mujhe education do, and I will give you peace, prosperity and a great, proud India.”

With these magic words, Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi held spellbound the delegates of the Rotary Presidential Conference on Literacy and WASH in Schools in Kolkata.

In his hour-long speech, he thundered, he cajoled, he encouraged, and motivated Rotarians to look far beyond the “modest” goal they had set for themselves — 1 lakh children in one year.

“This hall is a powerhouse, and I can feel that power. The world knows that polio was a curse and Rotarians fought against it and have successfully eradicated it (from India). I was so eager to 18 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

see what kind of people are these who can take such a big challenge and succeed in it,” he said.

And now Rotarians had geared up for another massive challenge — “to eradicate another kind of polio. Polio is a physical ailment, but illiteracy is a polio which is a social, mental and economic disease … the biggest impediment in economic growth and social

Millions of children left out of education are telling us: ‘Tum mujhe education do, and I will give you peace, prosperity and a great, proud India.’

justice. When you pledge to fight it, you are warriors and heroes.”

H

anding out generous praise to Rotarians, Satyarthi said he felt that in the Netaji Indoor Stadium, the venue, a yagya (a Hindu ritual), was taking place, which was “beyond the Hindu religious yagya. This is an assembly for the betterment and enlightenment of society.” Quoting the Vasudeva Kudumbam mantra from the Rig Veda, which says the whole world is one large family, he said: “This mantra is a call for the betterment of humanity and enlightenment. I can see from your faces and hearts that you are ready to light the fire of knowledge which could be converted into prosperity” for the nation, and the

Every child has freed me Addressing hundreds of moist eyes in an enthralled audience, Kailash Satyarthi said: “When I rescued all those children, I felt that I am freeing myself. I did not free any child, every child freed me from inside, and I am thankful to them all. Each time I see a child and witness the first smile of freedom on that child’s face, each time a mother who had lost all hope of getting her child back hugs the child, and tears roll down her cheek, I get a glimpse of god.”

He said he felt absolutely fortunate; “I don’t know who has seen god, but I have seen god at least 80,000 times in my life. (He has rescued over 83,000 children from child labour.) You can do it.

Most of you are religious people.

All religions teach compassion, let us begin practising compassion.

If you make a child smile — an unknown child who you don’t know — that would be the beginning of witnessing the god inside you.”

“In all your neighbourhoods there are slums, poor areas. On Saturdays or Sundays, take some time off and take your children or grandchildren … go and eat with them, play with them, laugh with them. That will be the beginning of empowerment for them and beginning of the realisation of god inside you.”

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 19

world. Thousands of years ago, Indian rishis, “the masters of knowledge and wisdom, had linked the power of knowledge to economic growth, and now the World Bank and IMF research reports establish this ancient wisdom.”

Satyarthi said Rotary’s larger goal — to send back to school 3 lakh children in three years — “is too small.

It is not such an astronomical thing for you. You can do it. Seeing your power, passion, experience and approach, I can tell you that this target is too small, you can make India illiteracy-free.” But for this to happen, freedom from slavery and labour was necessary, he reiterated.

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ecalling his incredible journey which has so far rescued over 83,000 children out of slavery, Satyarthi said that on his first day of schooling in Madhya Pradesh, when he saw a 5-year-old shoe shiner asking for work from students like him, “I asked my teacher: Sir why is he not sitting in the classroom with the rest of us?”

The teacher’s explanation that poor children had to work to earn a livelihood and this was very common in society, cut no ice with him. “I saw him everyday, his empty eyes desperate for a job from us, but we all wore new shoes so we had no job for him.” So he

When I asked the little shoe-shiner boy’s father: “Babuji, why don’t you send your son to school, he was shocked and said, ‘No no, you are Babuji, not I.’ ”

20 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

asked the child’s father, “Babuji, why don’t you send your son to school? He was shocked and said, no no, you are Babuji, not I. He said I’ve never thought about it; my father, grandfather and I’ve done this work since childhood, and so does my son. Nothing is new.”

But it was the second part of his answer that remained as question for Satyarthi for his entire life. “He said, ‘Babuji, you don’t know, we people are born to work.’ He thought so because he was born in a particular caste and I had no understanding of the caste system at the age of 5. But I refused to accept that day, as now, that some children are born to work at the cost of their childhood, freedom, education, health … or even dreams.”

For years he fought with himself on how to find an answer to this

question. For long years the rights of children were not acknowledged globally. “They were non-issues, until 1989 when the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted.

“Till then there was no notion of child rights.” So when he gave up his career as an electrical engineer in 1980–81, and started his quest to return children their childhood, there were no takers and people suggested he do some charity work or start an orphanage or school for poor children. “But I could see something beyond poverty and that was the denial of human dignity and liberty, which are non-negotiable rights.

I strongly felt then, as now, that every human being is born free because that is the most precious gift of God. As is learning … not only a Constitutional or legal right, it is divine right given

You can do it “See what the moral voice of a tiny girl can do. There is sense of commitment, idealism, a Devali inside each one of you, that’s why you are here. Do you think you can send only 100,000 children to schools? Why not all of them?

Don’t be shy, you can do it. It’s a moral obligation for all of us. When a child enters a school gate … the moment the door of a classroom opens for a child, millions of doors of opportunities open for her. The power of the pen is a million times more than the power of a gun. When the wall of a school is constructed, millions of walls and boundaries — social, economic and political come down. Education is power, an enabler, equaliser, change maker, transformer. And it is not a charity that you’re doing; education is a to us by God.” So he has spent his life fighting obstacles placed in the way of that divine right.

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elating a heart-searing story of one of his earlier rescue missions, Satyarthi said some years ago he rescued a group of 36 persons, some of whom were sexually abused, from an illegally run Haryana stone quarry belonging to a powerful politician. “So we couldn’t rely on the police. I put the children in my car and the rest in a truck. It was 4 a m and I was driving fast and soon realised that the children were traumatised and couldn’t comprehend what was happening. They had never seen roads, cars or trucks.”

From L to R: RI Director Manoj Desai, RI President K R Ravindran, TRF Trustee Chair Ray Klinginsmith, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Conference Chair and PRID Shekhar Mehta and PRIP Rajendra K Saboo.

Every human being is born free because that is the most precious gift of God.

right which you bring into the lives of these children.”

He offered them bananas kept on the back seat, but they had no idea what these were. When he urged them to eat, they first did so with the skin on, and didn’t like the fruit. Finally after peeling one, and tasting it, 6-year-old Devali seated next to him tugged at his sleeve and said angrily, “Kyo re, tu pehley kyo nahi aaya? (Why didn’t you come earlier?)”

This anger, added Satyarthi, was because the girl had seen how her mother was raped and her father beaten when he tried to save her. She’d seen her brother die for want of medication. She APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 21

Neither employ, nor tolerate child labour

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ou come from different cities, State capitals and so your outreach is vast. You are doctors, engineers, businessmen, educationists. I’m not asking you to give up your careers but you can do so much in your own way. Your friends or relatives might be using child domestic labour… some might be thinking they are poor and will starve if they don’t work for us. At least we give them food. Please, please, think that these children have all the potential and possibilities as your children.”

With these words Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi appealed to a mega gathering of Rotarians at the Rotary Presidential Conference not to ever employ or tolerate child labour. “If you are a good human being, employ their parents or elder siblings, but never engage children as domestic workers. It’s immoral, it’s illegal it’s unethical and it’s economically unviable for society. If you go to a shop where a child is serving you and you happily ignore that, please remember the child’s mother is waiting for him somewhere.”

He thundered: “Do you know that in India seven children go missing every hour? And their mothers are waiting eagerly for them. If you are happily enjoying the tea or snacks served by children on the streets, you are fuelling the crime, the sin and the tears in the eyes of those mothers. I call upon your conscience. Please don’t use the hospitality of those children.”

Since Rotarians were the “new champions” for sending children back to schools, “try to find out more about

had been let down by everybody, but “suddenly her trust in society began.

I could sense it and was in tears. I felt so lucky that thanks to me, she could finally feel some trust in society. Her question was not only to me but everybody who is a human being … of any religion, any constitution, any law.”

He then threw a challenge to the assembled Rotarians. “What will you people do to address the challenges in society raised by this question from Devali?” Later, after rehabilitation, the same child became “such an inspired and motivated girl that in her 22 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

that child. Make a record, take notes, and ensure that the child gets back into school.”

He then related stories of the children he had rescued from slavery and labour, often brutally assaulted and beaten up while doing so. Way back in 1981, when he rescued the first group of children from a brick kiln, acting on the complaint of a desperate father that his daughter, only 15, was going to be sold to a brothel, “we were beaten up. But I went to court; India did not have a law at that time but there was an old British law — I used the habeas corpus law and finally liberated her.”

hometown she sent back to school every single child in her neighbourhood … all 30 of them. Those who had never ever seen a school wall, were sent to school by a tiny girl who was born in slavery and who had never tasted a banana!”

M

any years later, when he was invited to address an important UN session on education, attended by a group of State heads and kings and

– RB

queens, he took with him to the dais Devali and a few other children. She told me “Bhaisaab ji, I’ve never seen so many white people. How did they become so white … and fat? How can I become so fat?”

She related her story on how she had sent to school so many children and “threw a moral challenge at them by asking: ‘When I could do it, why can’t you free the world of ignorance and illiteracy? You have power and money, you can do it.’ Many of them were in tears.” The Australian Prime Minister, the Queen of Qatar, etc,

Please do not employ children as domestic labour — it’s immoral, unethical, illegal.

hugged her and on the spot promises and pledges were made for $450 million to educate children.

Repeatedly raising his voice and chanting ‘You can do it’, he said he could feel the power inside the hall.

The founder of the Global Campaign for Education, which exists in 180 countries, and organiser of the Global March against Child Labour in 140 countries, he could authoritatively tell them that over 100 million children were victims of trafficking and sexual abuse, illiteracy, child marriage, etc.

But on the other hand, there were 100 million young people in the world full of energy, idealism and hunger to do something good. For them I am going to launch a campaign ‘100 million for 100 million.’

“For 10 crore bachho or yuva ke liye let us make 10 crore young champions,

change makers and heroes, so that the children who are left out, and the young people who want to do something good for society, can connect with them.

This way we are going to globalise compassion, build a global civil society with a sense of global citizenship.”

Each one could make his own contribution for this cause in different ways. “I am so happy that the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation and Rotary are joining hands.

Though I am not a formal Rotarian, being with so many Rotarians I feel I am also one,” he added.

Promising to help the Rotary India Literacy Mission to send back children to school, he said, “Together, we will extinguish the fire of illiteracy in this world. We will do it.”

Conference Chair and PRID Shekhar Mehta said when they went to invite Satyarthi and briefed him on what RILM was doing, he was amazed that businessmen and professionals of Rotary “had gone into such details on literacy. That was a big compliment and we requested him to come here.

He said I have only 19,000 invitations pending, but I promise you that if the smallest window opens, I will do it. We are grateful that he has come.”

An MoU of cooperation was signed between the Kailash Satyarthi Foundation for Children and the Rotary South Asia Society for Development and Co-operation to “launch a joint campaign to enrol 3 lakh outof-school children across India into schools in three years,” under the Asha Kiran project.

An agile and enterprising Mehta grabbed the opportunity to raise funds for the freshly minted agreement. He announced that an incoming Governor Abhay Gadgil, from RI District 3131, was celebrating his birthday that day by donating Rs 11 lakh for this cause.

He urged Satyarthi to wait for a few minutes and shake hands with Rotarians who donated Rs 5 lakh or more for the cause. Within minutes Rs 1.3 crore was raised; Rs 50 lakh coming from Rtn Vishram Patel from Seychelles (D 9220); Rs 15 lakh from Rtn Suresh Poddar, and generous contributions from Sanjib Choudhury, President of RC Calcutta Megacity, PDGs Vinay Kulkarni (D 3131), Rajendra Khandelval (D 3291), Ravi Vadlamani (D 3150), Dattareya Deshmukh (D 3030) and the Inner Wheel clubs.

Pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat Designed by S Krishnapratheesh APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 23

Rotary can give India the

eternal gift of literacy Rasheeda Bhagat Polio is history in India; now to eradicate illiteracy, India also needs sanitation, ingenuity, dedication and expertise … needs that Rotary can provide, says RI President K R Ravindran.

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he chances of a child getting educated in India are tremendously dependent on the accident of birth; “whether you are male or female, where you are born, what caste you are born into, what your family’s resources are like, and so on,” said RI President K R Ravindran, addressing the Rotary Presidential Conference on Literacy and WinS in Kolkata.

Among the factors that stopped children from going to school were … the

walk being too long, the child not having shoes, water which had to be fetched, the baby at home who needed to be looked after. “But the single most effective, efficient and powerful way to move an entire country forward is to educate and empower its women,” he said, quoting from the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorsed by the UN, and where the UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said that equality for women was not just one of the 17 goals: it was a prerequisite to all of them.

Child mortality was also closely linked to women’s education. “For every year of a girl’s education — and this is global, not just here in India — the chances of her future child dying before the age of five is reduced by 10 per cent.” Improvement in women’s education was responsible for half of the reduction in child deaths between 1990 and 2009.

RI President K R Ravindran in conversation with the Governor of West Bengal K N Tripathi.

If you want to improve the health and education of an entire generation, you need women who have, not only income, but control over household spending—because it is women who will prioritise food and education for their children above every other expense. Education was often called the “social vaccine,” because educated people knew how to protect themselves. The success of every development goal was linked to equality for women,” he said.

And Rotary India’s Wash in Schools programme was striving to do just that by giving girls equal opportunities as boys in getting education.

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auding RILM’s efforts in sending children back to school, Ravindran said only 74 per cent of India was literate, and 26 per cent of a population of 1.25 billion was a huge number — “much larger than the population of most large countries. We could have said that this is simply beyond us to even get started on. We could have said universal literacy? Forget it, this will never happen. But look at what you’ve done.

You thought otherwise. You have set out on a course to give full literacy to India.”

However daunting this challenge, Indian Rotarians could take heart from the fact that this had been done in even “more challenging circumstances.”

In China, as recently as the 1940s, the literacy rate was akin to India’s — somewhere between 15-25 per cent.

By 1990, this had gone up to 78 per cent and today it stood at over 95 per cent.

More impressive was the literacy rate among China’s 15–24 age group — 99.6 per cent! “That is the kind of rate we see in western developed countries, in Europe and the US.” China had a bigger challenge; it was larger in size than India, with a population that was even more remote and mobile than in India. “Their

Him Jyoti says: No, you will not be limited by poverty, by caste, by the fact that you are a girl.

If you have the brains and the motivation, you can succeed.

writing system is far more complex, based not on an alphabet but on thousands of unique characters. But they achieved this feat because it was made a national priority, not just at the top level but at every level, right down to local government.”

Making it a matter of “national pride,” China trained armies of teachers; set up rewards for local administrators to meet targets, and empowered regional governments to get the desired results.

Reverting to India he said there was no need to lose heart. India has made progress on literacy, which was only 12 per cent when the British left in 1947 and three per cent at the end of the 19th century.

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avindran said that in much of the developing world, including India, the work of literacy begins with water, sanitation and health, and clearance of obstacles that come in the way of the child being in school. In this context, he recalled his visit to the Him Jyoti School put up in Dehradun by PRID Sudarshan Agarwal, where 267 girls — the daughters of “dhobis, ayahs, farm labourers, book-binders and rickshaw-pullers” get excellent quality education.

“Here, the girls are taught in English, even though most of them come with no English at all.

So they must learn it. And they do learn it, along with Maths, Hindi, history, dance, drama — everything at the most demanding level.” During his visit, they enacted a skit from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and he was bowled over by its “beautiful presentation. These girls are equipped now, to go out into the world; Him Jyoti has graduates studying at Lady Shri Ram College, IP College and the Government College for Girls at Chandigarh. All of their graduates go on to higher education.”

The RI President said this could not be dismissed as a “handful of girls” APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 25

RI President K R Ravindran greets a Literacy Hero awardee, Larzy Verghese, in the presence of (from left) PDG Anil Agarwal, RID Manoj Desai, Sharmishtha Desai, PDG Ramesh Chander and PRID Y P Das.

getting such a benefit, because “these girls are moving beyond the expectations laid out for them by generations, by centuries of poverty.” Expectations that put the circumstances of one’s birth over her abilities. “Him Jyoti turns that on its head; says no, you will not be limited by poverty, by caste, by the fact that you are a girl. If you have the brains and the motivation, you can succeed.”

This was the exact goal that Rotary was striving for through WASH in

India has made progress on literacy, which was only 12 per cent when the British left in 1947 and three per cent at the end of the 19th century.

26 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

Schools, and the opportunities provided were “helping families break free of illiteracy, poverty and the cycle that traps so many for generations. Remember that every school that is being equipped with sanitation; every school that is being brought up to standard; every one that gains the infrastructure to support girls in their education, is setting a generation free.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan required commitment from individuals who know the local challenges and obstacles and how to overcome them.

What was required to eradicate illiteracy from India was the same “spirit which allowed us to conquer polio.”

Ravindran recalled that when he was a TRF Trustee, not many years ago, some of his fellow Trustees were skeptical about India conquering polio. “They talked about the terrain, the remote areas, the mobile populations and the poverty. They talked

about the birth rates, the number of children born each week in UP alone.

They shook their heads and wondered if perhaps India had taken something on that was simply beyond her.”

And finally, they said Rotary would get there eventually, but India would be the last country with polio. “India proved them wrong. You proved them wrong. With creativity, ingenuity, dedication and resilience — you proved that you knew your capabilities, and your country, better than anyone else.”

Now at this moment “India needs sanitation, literacy, ingenuity, resourcefulness, dedication and expertise … it needs, again, what Rotary can provide.” And when Rotary does meet these challenges for building a better, healthier and more prosperous India, “it will be one of your eternal gifts to India,” concluded Ravindran.

Pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat Designed by N Krishnamurthy

RILM & Partners P

artnerships with the following organisations were signed at the Presidential Conference to take the TEACH programme forward.

•

With the British Council to train 100 teachers from 50 schools in Tamil Nadu.

•

Macmillan Publishers India Private Limited to train teachers pan India.

•

The HRD Ministry to conduct examinations for adult learners RID Manoj Desai signs an MoU with Veena Kamath, representing through the national and State litMKCL, in the presence of (from left) RI President K R Ravindran eracy mission authorities (NLMA/ and TRF Trustee Chair Ray Klinginsmith.

SLMA) in collaboration with the National Institute of Open Schooling and evaluation • Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation to send 300,000 children back to school under Asha Kiran. of the Rotary South Asia Society (RSAS) primer, pan • Friends of Tribals Society to send 15,000 children back India. to school.

The Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited

•

(MKCL) to conduct online skill development courses for 50,000 adults across the country.

•

Naik Worldwide Library to establish 5,000 libraries pan India in the next five years.

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ROTARY NEWS 27

Young Rotarians make Nepal proud Rasheeda Bhagat As Nepal limps back to normalcy after the devastating 2015 earthquake, young, passionate women Rotarians display “compassion with development” in the reconstruction challenge.

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s I drive up the ragged and broken road, in the convoy of RI President K R Ravindran and spouse Vanathy (yes, it’s a convoy complete with a swanky car with a white Government plate and a jeep packed with State security men guarding him), whose

car is followed by one transporting RI Director Manoj Desai and spouse Sharmishtha, the desolate landscape, houses razed to the ground and rubble still dotting the landscape, revive the horrors of the April 2015 Nepal earthquake.

Just four minutes before noon on April 25, 2015, the tiny Himalayan nation, which lies in a vulnerable seismic zone and has suffered many earthquakes over the years, experienced yet another devastating one. Measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, it lasted for an

agonising 56 seconds battering several areas, including Kathmandu.

Powerful enough to turn solid buildings into rubble and dust, it was followed by a series of aftershocks, all measuring above the scale of 4, and petrifying the people of the entire nation. The quake and its aftershocks have affected 31 of Nepal’s 75 districts, of which 14 have been the worst affected, says DG Keshav Kunwar of District 3292 (Nepal and Bhutan).

As usual in natural disasters, and as happened after the Gujarat

earthquake of 2001, the tsunami, Uttarakashi flash floods, etc, Rotarians were among the first to swing into action. In February, Ravindran and Desai were visiting Nepal to take stock of the reconstruction work being done by Rotarians.

DG Kunwar said the District has put together an elaborate plan to build 1,000-plus houses and 140 primary schools with water and sanitation facilities; this would take 5 years to complete. The project will be implemented by the Earthquake Relief, Rehabilitation and

We don’t want passive beneficiaries; we want the villagers to feel the rhythm of development and they are totally involved in building the houses.

Young girls have their bath early mornings in the padheros or water bodies and are vulnerable. So we’ll provide covered washrooms for them.

Reconstruction Programme (ERRRP), chaired by PDG Tirtha Man Sakya. DG Kunwar, IPDG Rabindra Kumar Piya, DGE Jaya Shah and DGN Sanjay Giri are its ex-officio members.

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hat was heartening to see was the passionate involvement of young women Rotarians in the reconstruction task in Manegaon village, about 55 km from Kathmandu, that we visited. Here the Rotary Club of Jawalakhel Manjushree has swung 30 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

into action and got the paperwork done — Government sanctions and documentation are required to rebuild every house — for building 55 homes. This club has young members, 90 per cent female, and its male members worked shoulder to shoulder, and the club was encouraged by the District.

The village has 371 inhabitants, and the club has hooked up with the NGO Volunteer for Change (VFC) to implement the project being financed

by D 3292. VFC is an international volunteering platform based in Nepal and provides different kinds of internship and volunteering opportunities to

youngsters in developmental activities.

Since VFC works closely with local organisations, its fit with Rotary was perfect.

In this village, we met Bushita, a dynamic VFC representative, who has two little girls Sonu and Dolma hanging by her side … they are so fond of her they just follow her wherever she goes.

These girls are victims of a common problem in this part of Nepal … addiction to rice wine. Like many women in the village, their mother too made rice wine, consumed more than necessary and became addicted to it. One fine day she simply disappeared from the village, and the girls now stay with their grandmother and are in Class 3 and 1.

While Sonu wants to become a math teacher, Dolma wants to mother the neighbour’s child. “And when she gets her own daughter, she wants to name her after Nepal’s famous actress Rekha Thapa,” smiles Bushita.

Pramoda Shah, President of the Club, explains to Ravindran and Desai details of how they have envisioned Manegaon’s development as a model village. VFC’s Anand Missra, who has now joined the club, was instrumental in the design and other components.

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he idea is to make it a replicable model taking care of the entire needs of the community apart from housing, such as water and sanitation, agriculture, microfinance, and so on. With

RI President K R Ravindran is briefed

by Bushita of VFC, as spouse Vanathy and DG Keshav Kunwar look on.

earthquake-prone regions, the basic rule is always to go in for a sloping roof, so that the house owners cannot build additional floors as the need comes up and families grow. In Gujarat we did these sloping roofs in concrete, but here the cost doesn’t allow it so they have tin roofs, but the houses are structurally stable, which is important.”

On what kind of suffering they saw when they first visited the village, Pramoda says, “Oh God, all the houses in the village had been flattened, and the people were living under tarpaulin.”

B support from the District, 55 pucca homes, each about 400 sq ft, will be built. The total cost of the project is about NR 3.5 crore to be funded by D 3292, and the three houses that we saw have been built in just 20 days. “We’ve gone beyond our means and used better material than that prescribed by the government to give them quality homes,” Bushita adds. The houses look neat and

robust and stand out in their quality compared to many ramshackle structures around the village.

Inspecting the three ready houses, Desai, who had worked closely in the rebuilding by Rotarians of 11 villages and 142 schools after the Kutch earthquake in 2001, complimented the women Rotarians for a good job. Later, he told Rotary News, “In

ushita explains that for integrated development of the village, they plan to be here for at least three years.

“As we don’t want passive beneficiaries but want the villagers to feel the rhythm of development, they are totally involved in building the houses.”

The villagers don’t have a steady source of income and no irrigation systems so they rely on the monsoon for farming. “The idea is to have compassion with development, so we are planning a village livestock bank here, have started planting fruit orchards so that the women can make jams and pickles and we hope that this will replace the traditional rice wine making from which women get petty cash.” Apart from addiction. She adds that there are

In Majhigaon, where fishing folk live, Interactors and Rotaractors are working together with a Thai-Nepali association to build 47 houses.

Pramoda Shah (right), President of RC Jawalakhel Manjushree and former President Preeti Shah.

32 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

already pear and peach trees in the village, so the fruit orchards planted and harvested through modern agri methods will enhance the villagers’ income.

We saw a brick making machine which is deftly being used by the villagers to make hollow bricks for their homes using cement, sand and stone dust.

In Nepal’s villages, the toilets are never a part of the house, but built outside, so this project also would do that.

But more important, villages such as Manegaon have a common and traditional water source called padhero.

This is a public washing area and is open “so girls and young women get up very early in the morning to have their bath, and there are safety issues

involved. So we want to create covered and secure washrooms for them,” she adds. Also on the cards is provision of solar energy, a good water supply and sewerage system, etc. “Ultimately we want it to become a model Rotary village.”

When she talked about plans to provide soft loans to the villagers, President Ravi advised the group to charge some interest for the small enterprises to be set up through these loans, “otherwise your capital will erode in no time. Grameen Bank of Bangladesh is a model you need to study as it is successful and they do not give interest-free loans.”

On the Rotarians’ plans to make this a model village, he said, “This kind of

work has been done elsewhere too, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Please go and study such village projects which have been done elsewhere.

Because as you start working, practical problems will crop up and you should know how to deal with them.”

R

I Director Desai said that his own club (RC Baroda Metro) has done such a model in the village called Katarvad near Baroda, which had been covered by Rotary News (December 2015). He invited members of RC Jawalakhel Manjushree to visit this village and study the different socio

economic projects, particularly modern farming techniques, that have been initiated in this tribal village in Gujarat.

Ravindran appreciated the details of the project cost, the money collected and spent being put up on the VFC and the District website so there was complete transparency. He advised them to break up the costing of various components — housing, health and sanitation, agriculture, funding of small businesses, etc into different components, and then approach donors to finance it. “But do give them credit for it.”

Also, he added, they should find some funds to do up the village with decent roads, a park, etc. Once such a

complete model is created, it is easier to raise funds showing potential donors how the project would finally shape up.

DGE Jaya Shah said, “I’m happy these young Rotarians came out with a definite plan and went to the government to ensure that everything was legal.” Kunwar adds that they were encouraged and supported by the District, and in 20 days, had already built three houses!

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DG Sakya said that work had already been started in three villages

and “we are preparing the profile of nine other villages/clusters for which appropriate approval has to be taken from the Government. In each cluster, the policy of D 3292 is to put up 50-100 houses.”

Apart from the 55 houses in Manegaon, 47 have been built in Majhigaon of Sindhupalchowk district and 73 in Charuberi of Kavre district are under construction. “In each village we are seeking active participation of the community through labour and other available resources because the people should not feel they’re getting charity from Rotary, but a sense of ownership because they’re themselves building the houses,” says Sakya.

(From Left) DG Keshav Kunwar, RI President K R Ravindran, PDG Tirtha Man Sakya, RI Director Manoj Desai and PDG Ratna Man Sakya.

Transparency and proper accounting standards are a must, because Rotary’s image is at stake.

– RI President Ravindran

DG Kunwar said in all 1,000-plus houses need to be built and that is a colossal task, so the District has formulated ERRRP with a Steering Committee and seven sub-committees for various tasks. Help after the earthquake had come from all over the world, and “PRID Shekhar Mehta representing Rotary India was among the first to respond with emergency relief materials.”

Sakya said in Majhigaon, which is populated by fishermen who fish in the small river there, there was a big problem of alcohol addiction. “In that place, Interactors and Rotaractors are working together with a Thai-Nepali association from Thailand, which is raising half the funds to build 47 houses.” Kunwar adds that at first they approached Rotary for building temporary shelters but we said we want only permanent houses and signed a 50:50 MoU. These houses have been built with hollow bricks made of cement and stone dust, and the villagers were totally involved in the project. “They cleared the debris, we just gave them iron rods, steel and bricks and they built the houses themselves under the supervision of Interactor and Rotaractor engineers! The project is now complete, but we could not take President Ravindran there as it takes three hours to reach. But PRID Yash Pal Das, who is involved from RI for our reconstruction work, has visited the place.”

Similarly, in Charuberi village, where all the 73 houses were razed to the ground, RC Dhulikhel, RC KavreBanepa, etc have come together to rebuild the houses, again with support from D 3292. “There too we will give the material and the community will build the houses; we’ve trained them how to make the bricks and make their homes earthquake-proof.” With help from an Australian Rotary club, a training course has been held for carpenters and masons.

DG Kunwar said the 1,000 houses will cost $4.5–5 million. Along with 140 primary schools — furniture, computers, books, water and sanitation — the cost would go up to $8-9 million.

“For this we are working with our partners from all over the world. For the 140 schools we’ve signed an MoU with the Federation of the Nepal Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who will be responsible for the civil works.

Ravindran assured the DG and the Rotarians of D 3292 that “the money will come. Yes, a $9 million project is big but not impossible because we have done it in Sri Lanka after the tsunami.

We raised $12 million in 10 months, and you can do it too.” But transparency and proper accounting standards were a must, because the image of Rotary as an organisation was at stake.

Pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat Designed by S Krishnapratheesh APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 35

We’ll see an

RI woman President in five years Rasheeda Bhagat Jennifer Jones has managed to break through the glass ceiling in Rotary, and is one of only

10 women to

reach the level of RI Director.

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e get asked all the time when will Rotary International see a woman President. But had we put someone in that place just to check a box, it would’ve been terrible not only for Rotary but women as well,” says Jennifer Jones, one of the four women Directors on the RI Board.

She adds that at this point in Rotary’s history, and after it started inducting women in 1987, “I believe that we have enough qualified women at senior positions. So what does it take now? It takes women who have served in the Board to put their names forward. Hopefully some of the women who have served here will do that.”

I grab the opportunity to chat up Jennifer during my visit to the RI headquarters in Evanston, and women in Rotary naturally takes up a chunk of the interview. She says rather than a campaign to get more women into Rotary, “we need to find qualified people regardless of gender, and there are any number of qualified women out there! We do a disservice to ourselves if we go on a campaign and try to fill a certain population. We just have to

36 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

find the right people who are worthy of our organisation.”

On the issue of women leaders in Rotary she thinks “we’ve only been in Rotary long enough to achieve being at the Board table.” It has taken a while, but then women had to be there long enough to become club presidents first, then DGs after few years, prove their worth through hard work in committees, etc, to become RI Directors. “And now we can see women sitting at the (Board) table not because we are women, but because we’re qualified Rotarians.”

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o answer the question on the special contribution of women leaders to Rotary, she quotes RI President K R Ravindran, who “made a statement at our meeting (October 2015) that had we not brought women into Rotary, we would not be where we are today. And I agree with him, because we represent the global population.”

She adds that a special factor that women bring to Rotary is “our nurturing capacity,” hastily adding

When you think of what Rotary gives us, it is that opportunity for leadership, growth and development.

that there are many male nurturers too so “I don’t want to suggest that only women bring this.”

But doesn’t it come more naturally to women, I prod her.

Well, women do raise their families and are constantly taking care of all the needs, whether of parents or children, she says. “Many of our counterparts do the same but there’s something unique which also makes for an interesting life balance in terms of leadership here, because I run a business, act as a Director on the RI Board, but still have to go grocery shopping, clean my house, buy the birthday and Christmas presents and the thank you cards!”

J

ennifer joined Rotary in 1997 when she was only 27. She owned a television production company and the general manager of a cable company invited her to attend a Rotary meeting. “I had covered Rotary as a young reporter when it was still an ‘old men’s club.’ So I wasn’t really sure what to expect.” But anyway she went and “when I arrived I felt like I had arrived home!”

She knew almost half of the people there, and respected many others she met. “It was obvious from the very first minute this was something that I wanted to be a part of.”

She joined RC Windsor-Roseland in Canada in 1997, and within a year chaired one of their largest fundraisers … a lobster festival! It involved handling a whole ton of lobsters from the east of Canada. “We have this huge dinner; but

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 37

they trusted me and it became a very big leadership opportunity for me.”

So when “you think of what Rotary gives us, it is that opportunity for leadership, growth and development.” In 2001 she became the club president, and “loved it so much that I could have been club president for 20 years! The hardest part about it was stopping,” she says.

Her club then had 65 members and “probably 60 per cent were female,” with quite a few being either retired or aboutto-retire female school administrators.

“Ultimately they were the ones instrumental in making our club dynamic and so well run. They put in place systems.”

And both the men and women worked together “as good Rotarians.”

Jennifer says what she really cherishes is her involvement with Rotary’s communications department, which is

linked to her own vocation as a media professional. She first started working in the communications and Public Image area of Rotary in 2008 “when we were just beginning to understand we needed to have a more robust communication plan in sending out messages externally.” A couple of years later, when Rotary looked at rebranding, “I was one of the primary architects who worked with the staff. It was an incredible experience not only in what we delivered to Rotary but it also made me a stronger leader and a better professional in serving my clients.”

I

n 2007-08 she became Governor.

Asked how difficult the journey was and if she faced any gender discrimination,

Jennifer says, “Oh gosh, no,” adding that as the first female governor in the district, she was aware of breaking new ground. An interesting moment came when one of the district clubs which did not admit women into Rotary invited her to speak. There were many spouses in the audience and “in a very respectful manner I told them that I don’t want you to ask women to join your club. But I want you to find good Rotarians. It was a gentle way of saying they needed to expand their horizon.” Since then, that club has started taking women!

So is such a vital decision left to the individual clubs?

“Yes, every club is autonomous and can make its own decisions. However, if a club was to say we don’t want men, or women or some such thing, that would be very difficult for them to defend.”

She doesn’t know if any clubs in Canada refuse to take women members, “but I do know some Rotary clubs in the US which don’t have women; I don’t know if they don’t allow women or simply don’t have women members.”

A

highlight of her year as DG was that the then RI President Wilf Wilkinson, “the first one from Canada in 53 years,” held a Presidential peace summit in her district. “It was an incredible experience. We had Nobel laureates, RI Board members, TRF Trustees, and huge participation. Robert Kennedy Junior was one of our keynote speakers. We were really able to showcase Rotary to the world through the huge immense media coverage we got,” she says.

Another was keeping the “crazy commitment” she made to attend the installation of all new members in her district. “That year 289 people were inducted and I went for all installations.” Jennifer says this was tough but “I wanted clubs to understand that bringing a new member was important.

38 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

You should have respect. Some clubs, president. As for children, “I have a perhaps in other parts too, install a mem- dog, her name is Gracy, and I am in ber and say, well, here’s your pin Bob, touch with her on Facetime!”

On her priorities as an RI Director, great!” And the meeting continues. What should happen is to tell the new member Jennifer says she works very closely why Rotary is important and what differ- with her Governors, focuses on larger ence their contribution can make to the clubs, MDPETS, 100th anniversaries, society. “I wanted new members to feel media events, and getting young prothe importance of becoming Rotarians.” fessionals. “I want to raise Rotary’s profile in the two zones I represent so On being a role model for other I am constantly looking for opportuniwomen in Rotary, she says that the ties to showcase Rotary in the media.” year she became DG, over 50 per cent On community projects in the of her club presidents were women and “many of them came up to me and developed world, she says that visiting India 20 months ago was a “light bulb said I specifically wanted to become moment” for her. In the US and Canada president this year because I wanted they raise money for international proto serve with you. As a woman, you jects. But in India, when she saw Rotarimade me believe I could do it.” ans raising money The gender ratio and putting it into in Zones 28 and 29 community prothat she represents, I loved being club presijects, she thought (which include a dent so much that I could surely there must larger part of Northern be needs in her US, and only a few have continued for 20 Zones that need clubs in Canada as years! The hardest part to be addressed. she is in the southernwas stopping!

So last most part of Canada) Christmas she is 30 per cent, above and her husband the Rotary average of put together food around 20 per cent. baskets. “We live in an area which is considered affluent, but there are people even here who are just one pay he challenges of serving on the cheque away from losing their homes.

Of course certain areas need more help RI Board as a Director abound, particularly as the RI President Ravindran than others, but everywhere there is “wants boots on the ground and has need.” Another project her district is asked us to be in our districts to meet doing is a microcredit kind of model which is helping people set up their our Rotarians, which gives me a lot of joy but is a challenge as I have 28 own enterprises. districts under me.”

While on the business front she has a competent back up, on the family n her dream for the future, she front, she isn’t too sure if she is balancing well. “This is thanksgiving season says now she is focused on the job at and my entire family is there but I am hand. “But to be completely honest, I here in Evanston.” But, she adds, her need to have a better life-work balance: be a better friend, sister, daughter, and family is very supportive, her husband is a club president — they belong to that’s a challenge. The position I am in different clubs — her mother is a past right now gives the ability to change the

T

O

world. And to be part of something that big is really compelling and many of us are very driven and want to be part of something which is so much bigger than ourselves and effect change. I consider Rotary akin to a mini global government which can effect change in the world.

Whether she looks at herself as a woman or not, ultimately her performance will be judged along gender lines; so does this put more pressure on her? She says in the Board her gender doesn’t matter. “I am very blessed to serve on K R Ravindran and John Germ’s Board. They have both shown that our voices are equal and we get to voice our opinions without any kind of condescension.”

So how long before we see a woman RI President?

“I believe we’ll see a female RI President within the next five years, but because she is qualified and not because she is a woman. We now have a critical mass of women … 10 who have served or currently serving as Directors and one of them is going to be qualified for the post!”

Pictures by Rasheeda Bhagat Designed by N Krishnamurthy

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 39

ADVERTORIAL

The Weikfield Story n 13 th April 1956, Weikfield was established in Pune by three brothers, Mr S P Malhotra, Mr B R Malhotra and Mr H K Malhotra. Their motto was: “To produce food products of extreme purity, supreme quality and dashing economy and pledge to bring the food products industry of India to the forefront of the world food industry.”

Mr S P Malhotra led from the front, while Mr B R Malhotra and Mr S P Kapur worked hard to establish Weikfield’s sales and distribution network nationally and Mr H K Malhotra handled the manufacturing operations. With traditional products like Baking Powder, Custard Powder, Corn Flour and being the first company to produce Vegetarian Jelly, Weikfield etched its name and reputation in the international market under Mr Mukesh Malhotra’s initiative.

While in 1975, the first export order came from the Middle East, Weikfield spread to Russia, Nigeria, Ghana, UK, USA, Canada, etc thereafter.

Late Rtn S P Malhotra, Charter President of RC Pune Central, D 3131 (1983–84).

The company entered the agricultural arena by setting up a stateof-the-art mushroom growing facility under Mr Ashwini Malhotra’s initiative. New products such as organic green tea, mushrooms and oats under the “Eco Valley” brand and sauces, ketchups, cake mixes and pastas under the “Weikfield” brand soon followed.

From serving desserts to healthy foods, Weikfield has always strived to expand its horizons and widen its product range. The vision “To produce and market trusted food brands,

L to R: PRIP Gary Huang, Rtn PP B R Malhotra, Ann Janki Malhotra, Rtn PP Mukesh Malhotra and TRF Trustee Michael K McGovern at the AKS induction ceremony.

conforming to the highest international standards of quality and convenience for discerning customers in the Indian and global markets, with every Weikfield employee passionately dedicated to achieving the goals of the organisation” has been instilled across its three plants and several divisions.

The group’s vision is not only inward but outward as well, in giving back to the society. Under the Malhotra Weikfield Foundation established in 2007, scholarships are given every year to over 150 BSc and MSc students, school children and 15–20 scholarships for Nano Technology, Food Technology, Management, etc.

A Vocational Education Centre is being established with Swiss collaboration to educate rural youth in precision engineering and modern agricultural skills. This is a tribute to the beloved founder, Mr S P Malhotra, who always worked for the welfare of society.

The Malhotra Family has an illustrious association with Rotary since 1962. Rotarians Late Shri S P Malhotra, Bahri B R Malhotra, Mukesh Malhotra and Ashwini Malhotra have all served as Presidents of their respective Rotary Clubs with distinction. Not only are all the family members Paul Harris Fellows and Major Donors, they have also contributed US$ 500,000 (about Rs 3.5 crores) to The Rotary Foundation to attain two Arch Klumph Society memberships in 2015 and 2016. These contributions support the construction of toilets in schools in and around Pune under the Pradhan Mantri Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, and various vocational training and educational institutions run by reputed NGOs. Today, after six decades of spreading health and happiness, Weikfield renews its commitment, and rededicates itself to consistently delight the palates of people in India and abroad with a taste that’s great!

Bon Appétit.

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 41

RI Board at

Evanston

1

6 7 101112 15 17 18 9 14 16 19 4 5 8 13

20 21

¸ 1 President K R Ravindran, Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka | 2 Karen K Wentz, Rotary Club of ¸ Maryville-Alcoa, Tenn., USA | 3 Executive Committee Chair Safak Alpay, Rotary Club of Istanbul-Sisli, Turkey | 4 Manoj D Desai, Rotary Club of Baroda Metro, India | 5 Vice President Greg E Podd, Rotary Club of Evergreen, Colo., USA | 6 Hsiu-Ming “Frederick” Lin, Rotary Club of Taipei Tungteh, Taiwan | 7 Peter L Offer, Rotary Club of Coventry Jubilee, England | 8 Saowalak Rattanavich, Rotary Club of Bangrak, Thailand | 9 Giuseppe Viale, Rotary Club of Genova, Italy | 10 Bradford R Howard, Rotary Club of Oakland Sunrise, Calif., USA | 11 Eduardo San Martín Carreño, Rotary Club of Majadahonda, Spain | 12 José Ubiracy Silva, Rotary Club of Recife, Brazil | 13 President-elect John F Germ, Rotary Club of Chattanooga, Tenn., USA | 14 Jennifer E Jones, Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ont., Canada | 15 Takanori Sugitani, Rotary Club of Tamana, Japan | 16 Treasurer Per Høyen, Rotary Club of Aarup, Denmark | 17 President-Nominee Ian Riseley, Rotary Club of Sandringham, Victoria, Australia | 18 Guiller E Tumangan, Rotary Club of Makati West, Philippines | 19 Julia D Phelps, Rotary Club of Malden, Mass., USA | 20 General Secretary John Hewko, Rotary Club of Kyiv, Ukraine | 21 Robert L Hall, Rotary Club of Dunwoody, Ga., USA

Reproduced from The Rotarian

Picture by Alyce Henson

2 3

CONVENTION

MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDATION CHAIR

Cultural insights

Rotary is big — but still accessible to individual Rotarians

T

D

o you need some context for all you’re experiencing while you’re in Korea for the Rotary International Convention from 28 May to 1 June?

Check out one or more of these museums: 1. National Museum of Korea: If you have time for only one, this museum, the sixth largest in the world, has something for everyone: relics from prehistoric times, calligraphy, paintings, sculpture, and even a children’s museum, all housed in a six-storey building in the wooded Yongsan Family Park.

2. Korea Furniture Museum: To see how Koreans of the past lived, walk through the 10 restored hanok homes that make up this museum. See how its 500 pieces of furniture on display were used in daily life. Reservations required.

3. Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art: The three buildings housing this museum’s exhibits are themselves works of art, designed by renowned architects Mario Botta, Jean Nouvel and Rem Koolhaas.

4. War Memorial of Korea: Learn about the history of the Korean War, re-enact a night battle in the combat experience room, and climb inside restored tanks and aircraft.

5. Museum Kimchikan: If you’re shopping in Insa-dong, stop at this museum that pays homage to kimchee, the pickled cabbage that’s part of Korea’s national identity. The threestorey museum moved into new quarters in 2015.

Register today for the convention at www.riconvention.org.

44 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

he numbers are impressive: Rotary comprises more than 35,000 clubs with 1.2 million members in 200 countries and geographic regions. It’s big enough to be a major partner in the eradication of polio, the largest health initiative ever undertaken!

Despite its size and reach, Rotary is accessible to members through their individual clubs, which provide outstanding opportunities for friendship, fellowship and networking at the local level. As a result, most Rotarians think of their involvement as primarily local, with ideas for service projects limited to their communities. They should recognise that, with the assistance of The Rotary Foundation, the sky is the limit!

Every great idea in Rotary has started in the mind of an individual. Even the success of End Polio Now can be traced to a few notable Rotarians around the world: Clem Renouf of Australia, for example, proposed a large corporate project to increase Rotary’s visibility, while US Rotarian John Sever identified polio as a worthwhile target. Each had an idea that was accepted and supported by other Rotarians, and polio will soon be eliminated from the world as a result.

When Rotarians begin to think of service projects beyond the size and scope of their clubs, they have access to district and global grants from The Rotary Foundation. They also have access to a team of Rotary volunteers at the district level, starting with their district governors and district Rotary Foundation chairs, to help them along the way. They also have the support of regional leaders, including the regional Rotary Foundation coordinators, and the entire Rotary staff in Evanston, Ill., and in the international offices.

Who knows where the next great ideas for Rotary will come from? Since Rotary is a grassroots organisation, they are likely to come from individual Rotarians. It behooves all of us to encourage good ideas within the six areas of focus and direct local Rotarians with good ideas to The Rotary Foundation’s resources. After all, it is the mission of the Foundation “to enable Rotarians” to do good in the world!

Ray Klinginsmith Foundation Trustee Chair

An Israeli team to train Maharashtra farmers Team Rotary News Agricultural Revolution, a dream

The plight of Indian farmers especially in drought prone areas is well known, and the media doesn’t really give the whole picture. The reality in these areas is scary. Our survival is dependent on farmers and yet seldom do people think about their progress and enrichment. Government plans work at a different level but seldom the benefits reach the farmers.

Israel has experienced a revolution in horticulture. Even though it’s a small country, Israelis say they have the ability to provide food to the entire world. Size and volume of various agricultural products seems to confirm their tall claim.

So Rotary Club of Bombay Queen City, D 3140, worked for almost 18 months to bring a Vocational Training Team (VTT) from Israel comprising three agricultural experts namely — Eitan Pe’er, Yaacov and Ofra Bar-Am. They reached Mumbai on Feb 1.

Training Programme

A high power seminar was organised the same day at Indian Merchants Chamber which was attended by Rotarians, progressive farmers, water management experts and innovative seed manufacturers. The real action began in Jalna from February 2-5, and Aurangabad Feb 7-11 with orientation of farmers, rural youth and extension functionaries followed by: • Field visits to a number of farms • Training programmes in soil management and fertilisation • Crop management under controlled conditions • Planting methods and water management

Israeli VTT team with members of RC Bombay Queen City.

•

Pest and disease management of vegetables • Marketing and post harvest management and • Women’s empowerment through agriculture.

The objective of inviting the VTT was to enhance our farmers’productivity using the most modern technology from Israel, conserve water in the drought affected Marathwada region resulting in higher income in the hands of the farmers and ultimately prevent farmers’ suicides.

The team attended the Rotary District 3140 Conference, where they presented their work.

RC Queen City is giving this project a time frame of three to five years, confining it to the two districts of Jalna and Aurangabad. If the desired success is achieved, the project will be replicated in other districts.

Care and gratitude

The Club is grateful to Rtn Ravi Harlalka for mooting this idea, Rtn Ralphy Jhirad for visiting Israel several times for this purpose, forming sister club relationship with Rotary Club of Ramale, Israel, and handpicking the

three horticulture experts to visit India; and Rotarians Amla Ruia, Vinod Bhimrajka and Padmakar Nandekar for taking extremely good care of the VTT members in Mumbai.

President of the Club Murari said the Israeli VTT team’s visit was a significant cross country project which “could bring revolutionary results in the coming years in the agricultural sector. There were difficulties at every stage, but our Rotarians made this possible. The media coverage in the two Marathwada districts we got was heartwarming.”

Future plans

The project is now finding support from many, including leading seed manufacturer Rtn Rajendra Barwale of Mahyco Seeds who says, “introducing Israeli technique to Indian farmers is an excellent idea. I have also travelled to Israel a few times to learn their modern techniques. But to bring about change in agriculture takes time and we need to give the VTT project a time span of 3-5 years to see results.”

The next step is to send Krishi Vigyan Kendra scientists and farmers to Israel to gain first-hand experience of the horticulture revolution there.

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ROTARY NEWS 45

Returning their childhood Rasheeda Bhagat Pulling children out of a factory or any other workplace is not easy, but these Rotarians from RC Guntur Aadarsh have done that, and more.

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hen the young woman, a qualified engineer who works in Nagarjuna Electricals, was asked what was the one major difference in her life before she was educated — she hails from a local slum — and after education, her reply rings with me even today. She said “Previously they called me Lachhi … a name reserved for household maids, but now they call me Lakshmi!” This she said before the State’s Education Minister at a meeting. The connotation to the Hindu goddess of wealth cannot be missed.

Adds PDG Rajyalakshmi Vadlamani, D 3150 and a Trustee of the Change Makers Foundation which runs the Child And Police Project (CAP), that has set up a home-cum-bridge school for girls like Lakshmi, and was instrumental in this transformation: “I felt even more happy when she added, ‘And today, I can sit next to Ma’am,’ meaning me. Now these girls have the confidence to sit next to us. Earlier they 46 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

From L to R: B Rama Devi, M Sunita, Rajyalakshmi Vadlamani, Dr Kolli Sarada, Dr K Padmaja, M Madhavi.

used to sit down on the floor.” Lakshmi is married to an engineer and has two children.

Lakshmi was among the 5,000 children from Guntur’s slums who were pulled out of child labour after hectic parleys with parents to convince them that the children deserved a better future with decent education.

She says that in the year 2000 this programme was started by the Reddy Foundation with the help of the city police department, and the DPEP (District Primary Education Programme), with the intervention of the State coming in through the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. Helped by philanthropists of

Now these girls have the confidence to sit next to us.

Earlier they used to sit down on the floor.

Guntur, NGOs and well wishers, Rotary Club of Guntur Aadarsh, of which Rajyalakshmi is a member, embraced the project. Initially this facility was set up as a non-residential bridge school, with the primary objective of disengaging children from hazardous labour conditions. Eight camps, each lasting 6 months, were conducted and over 800 children were put into mainstream schools till March 2004. But since then, a residential school has been started. So far eight one year “camps” have been conducted and 560 children have been given back their childhood, by pulling them out of work and putting them into schools. Currently this facility has 40 children, including 15 tribals.

Rajyalakshmi gives credit for this project’s success to the hard work done by Kolli Sarada — Ex Mayor of Guntur Municipal Corporation, B Rama Devi, a teacher from the Art of Living and Rotarians Dr K Padmaja, Sunita Mattupalli and Maddi Madhavi. She says between 2000–2016, over 3,000 girls were disengaged from child labour thanks to this bridge school and admitted into mainstream education. “These girls are regularly monitored by us for two years, and those who are capable APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 47

Parents retort: ‘What do you mean they’re losing their childhood? They get an off day and Rs 20-30.’

Rama Devi with spouse Venu.

and interested in pursuing higher education are financially supported by us.”

Of these, about half have gone in for higher education and 1,500 girls are successfully employed after completing their education. Other success stories are of Venkataratnam, a mechanical engineer, who is now employed as a lecturer in an Engineering College at Hyderabad. Earlier he worked in the fields as a labourer. Naszeera, who was working in the mirchi yard is now an advocate practicing in a Guntur Sub Court and Rama Devi has qualified as a physiotherapist and now works as a Police Constable in the Crime Branch.

Earlier she was a housemaid.

A difficult journey But it wasn’t an easy journey, because as Magsaysay Award winner Shanta Sinha pointed out at the Rotary South Asia Literacy meet last year, there are several complications in taking children out of labour and putting them into schools.

For Rajyalakshmi and three other women Rotarians from RC Guntur, this journey began some 15 years ago when they went for a training course to train trainers. “But once we went there and did the training we thought why only 48 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

confine ourselves to training the trainers. Why not use this expertise directly and do something ourselves so that we give better education to at least some poor children.”

At their training session they were taught how to counsel both the parents

and children to free the latter from child labour; “first the parents have to be counselled that this is best for the child and then you have to convince the child and bring her to our campus,” she says.

Once they had succeeded in doing this, “we picked up the teacher from the same slum so she knew exactly what the child’s behaviour pattern is and trained her.”

Rajyalakshmi clarifies that at the initial stage academics are not of importance. “We are looking then only for

a friendly face and motherly affection in the woman and then we train her to give the child a feel of education. For one month they just get to know each other; only after that there is any talk of learning.”

The beginning To begin with, she and the other Rotarians went every evening for a whole month from slum to slum in Guntur, and talked to parents on the need to take their children out of companies or factories and send them to their facility for some learning. It is not that these children have not seen the inside of a school; most of them go to school till they are 8 or 9, thanks mainly to the midday meals provided by the Government in schools. But when the child is old enough to work, the parents weigh the economics of pulling them out of school and send them to work. “Usually a child studies up to Class 2 or 3, and then is sent to work. It is really shocking to listen to the parents’ stories, and their accounting systems … 6 children means so much money. But when they say this we tell them that you are losing the child,” says Rajyalakshmi.

Not that parents take kindly to such words! “Many retort: ‘What do you mean we are losing the child? The child gets everything, a weekly holiday with Rs 20 to 30 to go out and enjoy herself.’”

Shockingly, the work in ginning mills is structured like a game. The child has to take the cotton in both his/her hands and throw it at the machine.

Nagadurga, a past student, with her family.

The child gets a daily wage between Rs 60-100, depending on the work. For instance, those working in a cotton mill get Rs 60–80 a day. “But if they go to the mirchi (chillies) yard for plucking chillies, they’ll get Rs 100. And those working in ginning mills get even more.”

It is horrifying to listen to her describing how the much younger children go to work at ginning mills.

Shockingly, the work here “is structured like a game. All that the child has to do is to take the cotton in both his/ her hands and throw it at the machine; in this process the seeds in the cotton get scattered.”

But what the scattered seeds do to the child’s respiratory system, or eyes, is nothing short of horrifying.

Once the parents are convinced, “we take the police with us to the companies to get the children released.”

Slowly the child is weaned away and put into mainstream education, with which they are fortunately familiar having attended school till class 2 or 3, mainly for the midday meal. But once the child is capable of working and getting a daily wage, the noon meal doesn’t matter any longer in the family’s economics.

In the residential school, the children are tutored, their academics improved to the level of a regular school and then they are shifted. Those who do well and are willing to go to college are helped.

“We use our clout, influence and contacts to get them admissions, and help them financially. Some of them are so bright … over 30 of our students have becomes doctors, engineers, teachers, nurses etc and are placed in well-paying jobs in Guntur,” she says.

CAP has till date removed 5,000 people from labour, and has come a long way from the day when Rajyalakshmi had this encounter with a mother. All her 5 daughters were working and “I asked her to give me at least three of her daughters to be sent to school.

She said, what do you mean by give me three girls? They all work in turns. If the eldest one goes to work, the second one cooks, the other two clean the house etc.

Each girl works by turn and is treated like a queen, and they get holiday and Rs 20–30 to go out and spend as they want. What more do they need?”

But now watching the progress some of the girls have made, the jobs they hold, the parents’ attitude to education is changing slowly.

Designed by S Krishnapratheesh APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 49

The last great wilderness

Antarctica Rituraj Phukan

I

n 2013, I got the opportunity to travel to Antarctica as a member of the International Antarctic Expedition team led by Robert Swan, the first person to walk to both the poles. Although I have been a passionate green activist with over

50 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

a decade of experience implementing grassroots-based conservation initiatives with Green Guard Nature Organisation, I consider myself fortunate to be selected for the expedition, being based in the nondescript mofussil township of Nagaon, Assam.

I was among an international team of

corporate, academic and environmental leaders from 28 countries chosen to gain firsthand experience of climate change impacts on the fragile Antarctic ecosystems.

So there I was, at the southernmost city in the world. Famous as ‘Fin Del Mundo,’ or ‘End of the

It has no native human population, no permanent residents, no official language, no capital and no currency.

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ROTARY NEWS 51

world,’ Ushuaia is a fascinating city on the banks of the Beagle Channel that is the gateway to the Antarctic.

The acclimatisation period of two days included a gruelling hike to the top of the Martial Glacier that tested the physical and mental preparedness of the team. I was grateful that years of being physically active paid off.

Into the Last Great Wilderness We sailed down the Beagle Channel on the majestic Sea Spirit, passing Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and then onto the turbulent Drake Passage. Seasickness made it impossible to think or act cohesively as wave after high wave crashed into the hull. For two days, we did not encounter another ship as we sailed across arguably the roughest seas on the globe.

It was a great relief to sail into the placid waters of the Southern Ocean and very soon all our woes were behind us, as we spotted the first iceberg. I did not mind the plummeting temperatures, worsened by the wind chill factor, as we made our way through a sea of icebergs towards the frozen continent. It

was magical and beyond anything I had ever imagined … I was enthralled.

The Frozen Continent Our first shore landing on Antarctica was at Trinity Island, a little paradise by the picturesque Mikkelsen Harbour. Gentoo Penguins ran in to welcome us while Antarctic Fur Seals and Weddell Seals frolicked five metres away, oblivious to our presence. That reflects how pristine the Antarctic environment is, totally in the natural order of things and undisturbed by humanity.

Antarctica is a magical place and to experience its sights, sounds and smells is beyond imagination. One has to be there to comprehend its magic. It is the coldest, windiest, driest, highest and most remote place on earth and holds 90 per cent of the world’s ice and 70 per cent of its fresh water. It has no native human population, no permanent residents, no official language, no capital and no currency. In spite of the extreme weather conditions, the coastal areas and surrounding seas of Antarctica are rich in spectacular wildlife, which

Mermaids of Antarctica — Crabeater Seals 5522 ROT RO ROTARY O ARY AR RY N NE NEWS EWSS APRIL APR A PR P IILL 2016 20 6 20 201

is why it is known as the last great wilderness.

Every day brought a new experience and these memories will live forever, and I believe I am speaking for all my fellow Antarctic travellers.

I loved camping under the open skies at Ronge, where we spent a sleepless night in dugouts fortified with plastered snow to keep out the wind, watching the Southern Lights. At Portal Point, we drifted in brash ice with engines switched off, while Humpback whales cavorted at a short distance. Another memorable day was spent hiking over a glacier covered with huge crevasses at a place called Brown Bluff.

I will never forget the shockingly cold water during the polar plunge, when some of us opted to jump into the icy Antarctic waters in the middle of a mild snow storm. Easily, the craziest thing I have ever done. Another abiding memory is of the breathtakingly beautiful Lemaire Channel, one of the most photographed landscapes on earth. Then there was Neko Harbour, where we witnessed the

calving of a glacier and the birth of an iceberg before our eyes.

It was a great privilege to visit the Russian Bellingshausen base on King George Island, also the site of the inspirational 2041 run ‘E-Base,’ the first education station and the only base in Antarctica run entirely on renewable energy. In 2008, Robert Swan had become the only private person in the world to have a base at Antarctica.

Rotarian Robert Swan During the Flag ceremony, Robert Swan revealed to me that he was also a Rotarian. “Rotarians are good

The greatest threat to the planet is the belief that someone else will save it.

people,” he said, while we were holding up the flag of the Rotary Club of Nagaon for the official photo sessions. “I have been a member of the Rotary Club of Sydney,” he added.

We were summoned to the top deck of the Sea Spirit at 7 a m for the Iceberg Ceremony. We saw the large tabular icebergs that had floated north from the collapsed Larsen B ice shelf 11 years earlier.

Said Swan, “Back in 2002, most people did not believe in climate change. When it started to collapse,” he said, pointing across to the iceberg, “scientists said it will take a long time to collapse, but after the cracks were first noticed, it went very fast and collapsed in less than four weeks. So throughout the day you will see these icebergs where they should not be. Now that you have seen the impact of

climate change already happening here, you must help spread the word and ensure that world leaders take decisive action before it is too late.”

The Antarctic ice sheets represent a volume of 32 million cubic km and if these melt, they would cause sea levels to rise by over 200 feet!

Even partial melting of these great ancient ice sheets could inundate large parts of low lying countries.

In the Arctic, the Greenland ice sheet is in danger of being impacted even faster by global warming. According to climate projections, just one metre rise is sea water levels will submerge 17,000 sq km of land in Bangladesh, affecting 15 million people. In such a scenario, no army or boundary wall could effectively stop the influx of climate refugees into neighbouring areas in India, leading to disastrous consequences.

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ROTARY NEWS 53

The author presenting his club's flag to Rtn Robert Swan.

Climate change has already affected the people of this region; seasons have changed, rivers have changed course and people have lost their land and livelihoods. Assam has seen a long drawn agitation against infiltration from neighbouring countries; these illegal immigrants are perhaps some of the earliest climate refugees in the world. We have to take charge of our destiny and prevent this region from disappearing into the pages of history or future generations will never forgive us for having failed to protect our homeland. As Robert Swan says, ‘The greatest threat to the planet is the belief that someone else will save it.’ (The author is a member of Rotary Club of Nagaon, D 3240.)

Pictures by Rituraj Phukan Designed by N Krishnamurthy

5544 ROT ROTARY ROTA RO ARY NE ARY NEWS EWS W APRIL APR A RILL 2016 20 201 06

Join the Traditional South Asian Reception

At RI Convention Seoul, South Korea Dear Members of the Rotary Family We invite you to participate in the traditional South Asia Reception on Saturday, May 28, at CONRAD SEOUL. It is a great opportunity to meet our world leaders RI President KR Ravindran, President Elect John Germ, Board of Directors, Trustees of The Rotary Foundation and our own leaders PRIP Raja Saboo, PRIP Kalyan Banerjee and others.

We are having some excellent and delicious Indian food for dinner. You can meet our fellow Rotarians from South Asia and network with them. It is a great occasion to invite your International Partners. Looking forward to meet all of you.

Regards Dr. Manoj Desai Dr. Sharmishtha Desai

VENUE CONRAD SEOUL 10 Gukjegeumyung-ro (Yeouido), Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul 07326, Korea Tel : +82 (0)2 6137 7522 Fax: +82 (0)2 6137 7545 Mobile: +82 (0)10 8912 6567

Registration Fees : INR 5,500 per person Payment Details : Ravi Vadlamani, Axis Bank, Naaz Centre, Guntur SB A/c. No. 070010100153096. IFSC Code : UTIB0000070 PDG Dr Ravi Vadlamani Chairman South Asia Reception dg3150@gmail.com

PDG A S Venkatesh Co-Chairman South Asia Reception venkatesh@grouppopular.com

PDG T V R Murti Secretary South Asia Reception murtitvr@hotmail.com

Doing good with TRF help

At the entrance of their new home.

Villagers get

happy homes Varsha Makhija The Rotarians of RC Chennai Thiruvanmiyur, D 3230, and their Korean counterpart, RC Jinju Chokseok, D 3590, handed over low-cost shelters to rural families at Thirupper village under the ‘Happy village’ project.

T

hirupper is located in the deep interiors of Thiruvallur District near the Poondi reservoir in Tamil Nadu. A group of Rotarians travelling to the venue for the event almost got lost on their way, before finding the village.

56 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

Past RI President Kalyan Banerjee gave the ‘happy villagers’ the precious gift of the key to their own spanking new homes and appreciated the efforts taken by the District Rotarians for reaching out to the poor in remote places. “In these far-away, neglected areas, there is an urgent need for community service

which is fulfilled by Rotary through such projects,” he said.

Stressing on providing basic necessities and building low-cost shelters, he said, “The rural populations live without a roof over their head and providing them shelter through new homes is the need of the hour.”

Under a matching grant, RC Chennai Thiruvanmiyur (RCCT) obtained approximately $25,000 for building homes for the villagers.

Under the first phase of the ‘Happy village’ project, 13 low-cost shelters (LCS) were constructed and handed over to the beneficiaries. Each LCS comprises one bedroom with a kitchen platform, shelves and a toilet outside.

A light and fan were also provided.

“Even though the Poondi reservoir is located 3 km from here, the village folk did not have access to clean drinking water,” said President of the club K Venkatraman. Water and literacy being Rotary’s key focus areas, the Rotarians constructed a water tank, a bore well and also provided a water pump for the village.

The club plans to build 15 more houses in the next phase. The future plans include construction of a library, community centre with toilets and an organic kitchen garden.

Services rendered at the ‘Happy village’ The Rotary Club of Chennai Thiruvanmiyur adopted Thirupper village in the year 2010. About 40 tribal families live here and did not have basic shelter, education and sanitation facilities and were living in abject poverty.

PRIP Kalyan Banerjee, PDG Raja Seenivasan and other Rotarians at the ‘happy village.’

In these far-away, neglected areas, there is an urgent need for community service which is fulfilled by Rotary through such projects.

Villagers at the water tank.

Initially, an adult literacy programme was conducted and the participants were offered three kg rice as an incentive to attend the class. At the end of the programme the students were able to sign their names and read bus and train routes.

They were also taught how to open bank accounts and helped to obtain ration cards, voter ID, etc. Toilets were built, schools renovated and the children were given school uniforms, bags and notebooks.

A vocational training programme was implemented for the tribal women of this village. Tailoring classes were conducted and seven sewing machines were made available with the help of a senior club member, Rtn Viswanathan, who has been donating sewing machines every year. The women make paper bags and boxes that add to their weekly income.

Medical camps were conducted at the village including a general health check-up camp, gynaecology consultation camp, dental camps and eye camps where 50 cataract operations were done and spectacles donated.

Pictures by Varsha Makhija APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 57

a i d n I l a r u r f o r

Unileve

hra

Kiran Ze

for his “pervert” a d e d n s. ra ry napkin He was b a it n a s h n wit tham obsessio uruganan M m la a ach omen’s But Arun d rural w e is n o ti lu ost has revo g a low-c n ti n e v in by ine. hygiene kin mach p a n ry a sanit

Addressing innovation with Bill Gates at the Grand Challenges Annual meeting 2014 at Seattle, USA.

H

ave you tried explaining to a woman from rural Bihar that she could use a decent sanitary napkin instead of rags or newspaper?

“Try, as a man, to broach the subject in the presence of her husband, and he will give you strange looks and might even bash you up. But I did it,” laughs Arunachalam Muruganantham, the man who ushered in a sanitary napkin revolution in the country.

His invention of the machine to make low-cost sanitary napkins not only takes care of the personal hygiene of women, but also gives them a source of income. It also got him the Presidential award for innovation.

Today, his Jayaashree Industries sells these machines to rural women in various States, delivering a package of livelihood, hygiene and dignity to them.

His journey to Bihar chronicles back to his house in a village near Coimbatore where he first saw his 58 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

wife, Shanthi, hide the rags that she used while menstruating. She couldn’t afford sanitary napkins. “It was not just my wife; it was the case with all the women in the village,” he recalls.

That’s when he decided to help his wife and the first thing he wanted to know was the components of the pad.

“It looked like cotton wrapped in a thin cloth, so I made one for my wife.

She hated it and preferred the rags.

I wondered what went wrong,” says the Padmashree recipient. The next two years he purchased sanitary napkins to understand them better. There was something he was missing out on so he began his research which included “collecting used sanitary napkins from girl students studying in local colleges.”

As he continued, the villagers began to think he was possessed by some evil spirit. “My friends would change directions when they saw me coming. No villager would reply to my

Vanakkam and my wife would be the centre of all kinds of jokes at the village well were all the women gathered to do their daily laundry,” he says. Unable to tolerate the hurtful remarks and rude comments his mother and wife left him.

So was he upset by their decision?

“It was not their fault. I don’t blame them,” was his quick reply. But the hate tweets and facebook comments on his wife have made him very unhappy.

“She hails from a village and is very innocent, any woman in her place would give up on a man who spent all the money buying sanitary napkins for experiment instead of buying supplies for his home.” Shanthi now helps him in his work and takes care of things when he is out of town.

The machine On being called India’s Menstrual Man, Muruganantham says, “it took me seven and a half years to come this

I wore the sanitary napkin for hours together while doing my daily chores. That’s when I found out that being a woman is not easy.

Micro-enterprise: Muruganantham giving out instructions to a few rural women about the machine.

far and I am happy that I am recognised this way.” After his research he developed a machine that can work on single phase electricity for 1HP drive (motor speed), can fit in a space of 3.5 metres x 3.5 metres and produces 2 napkins a minute. The technology used is non-chemical, converting high quality pine wood pulp into napkins.

This time he tested his product on himself and “wore the sanitary napkin for hours together while doing my daily chores. That’s when I found out that being a woman is not easy. Meanwhile everyone in the village had decided that I was a pervert,” he laughs.

A+ for marketing He is sceptical about advertisements for his product. “Do you run around in white pants when you have your periods just because you use a branded sanitary napkin? Those ads are selling white pants and not personal hygiene.

Most big brands have beautiful faces endorsing their sanitary napkins, yet only 10 per cent of the women in the country have access to decent pads.”

When he planned to sell the machine in rural villages he decided not to patent it. He explains that “this gives his buyers a chance to take ownership of the final product and they can use

their local language to promote sales.”

Today there are 986 such sanitary napkin brands in India alone that are made from Muruganantham’s machine earning him the title, ‘Unilever of rural India,’ for cracking the rural market.

“That’s what they call me in the UK,” he smiles.

Brands make me poor Muruganantham lives in a 10 x 12 sq ft room. “I am happy I can see my wife cook for me, and I also help her whenever possible.” The simple man admits that even if I was from “BBC or CNN if you visit my home I will be wearing a dhoti and baniyan. You will have to sit down on the mat and drink a cup of coffee with me in a steel tumbler.”

He feels that the period of breakthrough inventions stopped in the 19th century and today “our kids are taught to invent apps,” which he terms “the silliest inventions in the history of the world. We have to teach our children to invent and innovate and not get glued to their 3.5 inch phones.” So far 32 people have replicated his machine, but this doesn’t trouble him. “If someone could simplify my machine that would be competition. Replication can’t count for competition. I am competing with Muruga (himself).”

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ROTARY NEWS 59

A mother-son jugalbandhi ...

over Embroidery Revathi Suresh

It’s not usual for mother-son duos to bond over needlecraft, but when that happens, unused bits of cloth at home get colour and sparkle.

E

very now and then my son, Rishabh, and I, go on long and rather frenzied binges that have nothing to do with either TV shows or particular foods, though what we do does involves needles and occasional painful jabs.

In the last few years I have discovered that I get high on embroidery.

This late-discovered passion for needle

and thread has certainly taken me by surprise. Like many girls of my generation, I too did my share of needlework in school under duress and with no great enjoyment. I could neither get the hang of practical sewing — the running stitch simply staggered away from me like a wayward drunk in large and small wavering lines, and my hemming became a tug of war with one lot of

stitches veering one way and one lot stubbornly slanting the other. I fixed buttons like I was fortifying them for a storm. Needless to say, I absolutely did not have the patience for, or interest in, embroidery. After producing the required number of ugly pieces for the year and scoring just enough to pass, I deemed my job done. Needlework, I declared, is not for girls.

I have no idea what the boys did during those endless hours of SUPW or Socially Useful Productive Work, because while we girls were routinely pushed into ladylike (and homemakerly) activities that also included cooking as we got older, the boys were probably herded into suitably manly activities that slotted them too into neat gender roles without choice.

My son Rishabh, on the other hand, has always liked to work with his hands. His interests are broad and range from wood-carving and clay-moulding to quilling and crocheting. Basically anything requiring nimble and patient fingers. As parents, it never struck me and my husband as odd that he took so easily to certain activities conventionally considered ‘feminine.’ When we saw how good he was at what he did, all we could do was look on in awe and encourage him. And since we didn’t make a big deal of him taking an interest in the crafts, he has never seen his involvement in them as breaking some sort of a gender barrier either. It’s just something he enjoys doing.

When Rishabh was fairly young — he’s almost 16 now — he discovered embroidery through friends and teachers in school. As I watched him execute pieces that went from relatively simple to moderately challenging, I got curious myself, and gave in to a seemingly latent desire to prove myself capable of creating something pretty. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to work on a project independently without someone to prod me to keep it moving, so I told Rishabh I’d like to work with him. What’s more, I suggested rather rashly that we begin with cushion covers, because, you know, so simple, right? But Rishabh is the guy you want on your side when vaulting ambition and recklessness get the better of you. He agreed instantly.

I suppose I could say he was only twelve at the time, and therefore swayed by my persuasive powers, but the truth is he transforms into something of a demon once you put an idea into his head.

The watchman’s wife had a sewing machine and agreed to stitch our covers for us. We didn’t know that the embroidery comes first and the finishing of the ‘structure’ later. Turns out the lady’s tailoring skills were as untried as our embroidering skills and she stitched us jagged shapes in various sizes, some of which looked like jholas minus handles and others like tea-cosies and random

The quality of my work hasn’t dramatically improved from my girlhood days — the stitches still run away from me like they want to be over and done with the torture of it all.

deep pouches. We refused to give in to depression, however, and spent the summer embroidering our stubby little fingers away (speak for yourself, Rishabh says, insisting that his are long and elegant, and he may be right).

Our partnership is not about spending huge sums of money. For example, the fabric we select for our adventuresome hit and miss endeavours are usually some long discarded or ignored pieces of cloth that are in good shape, not faded or worn out, but merely out of job because they have lost their appeal or relevance in their current form. The selection of design or motif I leave completely to Rishabh. In the throes of planning and executing, he often spends hours just working out the details. This includes research on YouTube for APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 61

designs, patterns and kinds of stitches.

He sits with a sampler and tries out various stitches and makes sure there is a mix of easy two-step ones for me — at my request — as well as intricate ones for him to try out. We simply love

shopping for thread and have discovered two stores on Commercial Street in Bengaluru that treat Rishabh like a VIP because they love the idea of a boy who’s dedicated to the craft. “What are you making this time?” the gentlemen who run the shops are always curious to know.

So what’s in it for me?

Fun and enjoyment. It’s not like the quality of my work has dramatically improved from my girlhood days — the stitches still run away from me like they want to get to the end of a line and be over and done with the torture of it all. But I’ve learned to take it lightly and not beat myself up over every single mistake.

Also, the best thing about stitching and sewing is that it can all be undone and you can actually make a fresh start.

Not to mention it’s therapeutic and can make even a difficult day bearable. But most of all, I value the time spent with Rishabh. With my daughter I was able

to bond over reading and writing and with my son it’s been the needle and thread. As a guide — because let’s not have any illusions here, he’s clearly the one that shows the way and the one I look to for help — he is caring and considerate. He is infinitely patient and forgiving of my mess-ups, and until he found me this wonderful metal and wire thingamajig we call the ‘threader,’ he used to thread the needle for me every single time.

What do you get out of it? I asked Rishabh. I like spending time with you, he shrugged. I like the companionship and the silly jokes we share.

I also suspect he likes having the tables turned. After all, how often does a child get to gently chastise his parent and watch her squirm in sheepish apology?

And by the way, we did manage to, slide, squish and pummel our cushions into their odd-shaped covers. Some are loose, some tight, and some just right.

Rtn Basker C, RI Director Nominee 2017–19, Zone 5A Team Rotary News

R

otary News congratulates Basker Chockalingam, for his appointment as RI Director 2017–19. A Rotarian since 1988, he is a member of RC Karur, D 3000. He served as Governor in 2000–2001 and in recognition of his contribution for advancing the cause of Rotary, he was awarded ‘Citation for Meritorious Service’ by The Rotary Foundation.

He holds degrees in Commerce and Law from the University of Madras, where he was bestowed the ‘Rt. Hon’ble Madhavan Nair Award’ for the best overall performance in law. His VNC group of companies manufactures and distributes welding electrodes. Basker has received several awards from various social organisations. He was also given the 'Best Small Scale Entrepreneur Award' by the Tamil Nadu Government in 1986.

An avid Bridge player and a lover of wildlife, Basker has keen interest in conservation. He is married to Malathi and they have two sons, Gokul and Goutham.

He is President of the Karur Industrial Estate Entrepreneurs Association, District Cricket Association, the Basketball Club 62 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

and the Volleyball Association and was the Secretary of the Karur District Chamber of Commerce. He is member of commerce bodies such as the Regional Advisory Committee to the Collector of Central Excise, Tiruchirapalli and the Public Grievance Committee set up by the Commissioner of Central Excise and Customs, Tiruchirapalli.

Basker was the Chairman for the Rotary Institute 2013 held at Singapore and member of the RI’s Membership Development and Retention Committee for 2014–15. He serves as Rotary Coordinator for Zone V for 2013–16. He is second Benefactor of the District, his father being the first, and a Level II Major Donor.

THE GOOD YOU DO COMES BACK TO YOU SHARE YOUR #ROTARYSTORY “Through Rotary Global Rewards, we purchased a card that gave us free entry to over 25 Chicago attractions, and were able to skip the lines at most of them.”

- PATRICK EAKES Assistant Rotary Coordinator, Zone 33

SEE MORE AT ROTARY.ORG/GLOBALREWARDS

Rotary culture as reflected in the Judiciary Dr Balram K Gupta

J

udges are not engines of power, they are engines of Service, and render the best kind of service and justice in different and difficult situations. They are social engineers and social architects. Judges render service by removing the sense of ‘injustice,’ bearing which is the worst kind of agony and torture. Judges liberate you from this and much more. It is their duty, culture, way of life. So is true of Rotarians. The basic structure of Rotary is founded on service to community … humanity.

Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary, was a lawyer. RI President, Ron D Burton (2013-14) practiced at the US Supreme Court. Many international Rotary leaders have belonged to the legal and judicial coparcenary. Seven presidents of RC Chandigarh Midtown have been lawyers. Rotary and judiciary have a common culture; for both you need to be good human beings.

MC Chagla was Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court from 1947–1958.

Even after retirement he rendered different kinds of service. After his death in 1981, when his statue was unveiled outside the Chief Justice’s Court, the inscription read: A great judge/A great citizen/Above all, a great human being.

Justice HR Khanna occupies a unique position on the judicial map of India. He lived till he was 96, rendering service. Known for taking a contrarian view quite often, Justice Khanna provided durability and longevity to the Indian Constitution and made it a living and working document. He was an embodiment of justice and practised Rotary values in spirit.

64 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

Nani Palkhivala was a courtroom genius who was unique in every respect and imbibed many Rotary values without being a Rotarian. Often he would do many cases free for good public causes. He has recorded that his father nurtured in him compassion and kindness for the less privileged. He believed that he was entitled to keep only what was reasonably needed for his requirements. The rest he held as a trustee of the needy and created many charitable trusts and donated to charitable institutions. He also donated the profits from one of the editions of his hugely popular book ‘The Law and Practice of Income Tax’

Let us look beyond membership numbers and ensure that we spread Rotary values in our surroundings.

to Jayaprakash Institute of Human Freedom. A prominent eye hospital in Chennai needed financial help and Palkhivala invited its Director to dinner, after which while seeing him off, the eminent jurist handed over to his guest a closed envelope containing a cheque for Rs 25 million with the words, “If you need more, do not hesitate to ask.”

In 1997, Justice Kuldip Singh of the Supreme Court of India presented Palkhivala a citation on behalf of various Rotary clubs of Bombay. The citation read: “One feels that he is not a man of this world but someone from outside. I have many times tried to explain him as a man. But it is very difficult. One can only feel his essence and enjoy it as one enjoys the fragrance of a flower or the smile of a child. He is like a cool breeze on a warm sunny day. This is Nani, the gentleman.”

Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar was a legal ‘Colossus.’ Born in poverty and brought up on charity, he rose to be one of the principal architects of the Indian Constitution. He had a large

practice, and charged princely fees as well. But he was also available to poor litigants without any fee. The cause mattered the most to him. Many a time, happy clients whose cases Alladi won, would offer him a larger fee than stipulated. But he would refuse this as he considered it unethical, suggesting the client donate the extra amount to the Ramakrishna Mission Students Home. The clients willingly did that.

The life story of Alladi was weaved in Rotary spirit. He was very kindhearted towards those who worked for him and generous with his money for good causes.

There are many life stories which inspire you. From Gandhi to Mother Teresa to Kailash Satyarthi. Judges need to be sensitised in the role they are required to play in furthering service, social issues such as child slavery and labour.

The true success of Rotary lies in kindling the Rotary spirit and culture in all walks of human activity, without limiting it to Rotarians. It is wrong to assume that Rotary has stagnated for the last 10 years. Let us look beyond membership numbers and ensure that we spread Rotary values in our surroundings.

Let this union of Rotary and judiciary work in unison for the good of humanity. Some of the best poetry was written by Milton when he was blind. Some of the best music was composed by Beethoven when he was deaf. One of the greatest Presidents was Franklin D Roosevelt, who served from a wheel chair.

Both Rotary and judiciary require good human beings.

(The author, a Past President of RC Chandigarh Midtown, D 3080, was a former Director of the National Judicial Academy.)

D 3140 promotes hygiene in rural schools Team Rotary News

U

nder Rotary’s WinS (WASH in Schools) initiative, D 3140, has implemented the Sukhada WinS in underprivileged schools across the District. The cost of Rs 55 million for construction of 500 toilets with group hand wash stations and other accessories was contributed by clubs in the District and a few donors.

Sukhada WinS aims to promote healthy hygiene habits for girl students. “Right now over 350 toilets are under construction and we hope to complete at least 500 toilets within the current Rotary year. This would benefit around 125 needy schools in tribal regions where the number of the girls is high. With this, we hope to usher in behaviour change among the young,” says DG Subhash Kulkarni.

Each toilet block comprises sanitary napkin dispensers and incinerators for their disposal, besides a septic tank, overhead tank

Vanathy Ravindran inaugurating a WinS project in a school at Girgaum in the presence of DG Subhash Kulkarni and other Rotarians.

with proper water connections and changing rooms. “Delivering quality that lasts will enhance the positive image of Rotary,” says Kulkarni.

The entire endeavour has earned appreciation from Rotary leaders such as RIPE John Germ, PRIP Wilfrid

Wilkinson, TRF Trustee Chair Ray Klinginsmith who have visited the District this year. Recently Vanathy Ravindran, spouse of RI President K R Ravindran, inaugurated one such Sukhada block at Girgaum in Mumbai.

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 65

Giving them a Roof N Karthikeyan RC Golden Ramnad, D 3212, along with the Abdul Kalam Vision India Movement and the alumni of Syed Ammal Engineering College built houses for flood-affected victims at Cuddalore.

New homes constructed for flood victims.

C

uddalore district in Tamil Nadu was among those most severely affected by the NovemberDecember floods that caused major havoc across the Coromandel Coast of South India. Several people lost their homes, several lost their lives.

Rotarians of RC Golden Ramnad, D 3212, along with other voluntary organisations and individuals rolled up their sleeves to provide relief to the flood victims in the town and its surrounding villages.

During one such mission, Vadivel, a villager, requested the team to build houses for the families residing at his 66 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

village, Poosarikuppam. The villagers had lost everything in the floods and were living a life of absolute despair.

Moved by his request, fundraising began to build houses and help the villagers.

With help from the alumni of Syed Ammal Engineering College, one of whose students donated Rs 1 lakh, the Abdul Kalam Vision India Movement, and support from other Rotary clubs of the District, funds were garnered and construction of homes began from December 25, 2015. At a cost of Rs 15 lakh, 21 houses were built in the village and the beneficiaries received the keys

to their new homes on the festive Pongal day.

Ponraj Vellaichamy, former Scientific Advisor to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, appreciated the project and named the avenue, Abdul Kalam Nagar. He requested the Rotarians to educate the village children and undertake projects such as renovation of their schools, providing school books, uniforms, etc.

DGN Chinna Durai Abdullah, D 3212, was also present at the inaugural event.

The club has plans to construct eight more houses in the village.

(The author is the Charter President of RC Golden Ramnad-D 3212)

Endurothon Gateway

Challenge for Polio Awareness Team Rotary News

L to R: Rtn Sandip Agarwalla, Narahari, Wg Cdr Param Vir Singh, Rajashree Birla, PRID Ashok Mahajan and Club President Sonya Mehta.

W

g Cdr Param Vir Singh and his colleague G Narahari of the Indian Air Force, stationed at the DSSC, Wellington in the Niligiris, successfully set the mark for the toughest Triathlon, the Endurothon Gateway Challenge, at Mumbai. Supporting the event, Rotary Clubs of Bombay, D 3140, and Nilgiris, D 3202, used the opportunity to create awareness among the public about Rotary’s role in the eradication of polio and importance of continuing the polio immunisation exercise for children aged under-5 to prevent any resurgence of the virus, although India has been declared Polio-free. BookaSmile, a BookMyShow vertical that supports social causes, provided logistical and financial support.

The event was flagged off by Rajashree Birla at the Gateway of India in Mumbai on February 25. She is the second largest individual benefactor of Rotary’s Polio programme, having given, till date, over $ 9 million to Rotary for the Polio mission. PRID Ashok

Mahajan addressed the gathering, giving an account of the extent of Rotary’s involvement in the Polio programme, risk due to presence of the virus in the neighbouring countries and the funding gap to be met to complete the eradication work world over.

The Endurothon consisted of three athletic disciplines, swimming, cycling and running. Wg Cdr Singh plunged into the sea at the Gateway of India after the flag-off. The 70 km swim from the Gateway to Aksa Beach was completed by the two in a relay sequence, in about 10 hours. They then cycled via Nasik, passing through the Kasara Ghats and Igatpuri to reach Pune, covering a distance of 400 km in 27 hours. The last leg of the Endurothon comprised running approximately 170 km back to the Gateway of India, climbing the Lonavala and Khandala ghats and down to Khopoli and Panvel. This was the toughest part of the event as by now they had gone without sleep and rest for about 37 hours.

Oblivious of the record-breaking feat they had just achieved, the duo strolled into the Gateway monument at 4.15 p m on February 28. Some members of the TiE Mumbai, one of the sponsors of the event, joined the run for the last 3 km to cheer them on. Rotarians and Rotaractors clad in the trademark End Polio yellow vests and blue and yellow caps lined up along with the 4,000-plus audience to welcome the heroes. Dr Sonya Mehta, President of RC Bombay, honoured them.

Rtn Vijay Kumar Dar, President of RC Nilgiris said that last October his club had supported Wg Cdr Singh and promoted the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative when he had undertaken a 43-day marathon swimming the entire length of the river Ganga starting from Devprayag in Uttarakhand and ending at Gangasagar in West Bengal, where the river flows into the Bay of Bengal (a total distance of 2,800 km).

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 67

Union Budget:

Down Memory Lane TCA Srinivasa Raghavan Our Budget journeys began with big plans and tiny money, and every FM has been trying to squeeze water from stone since then.

A

run Jaitley used to be a carefree man till May 2014, never losing his sleep over anything.

Then in May 2014 he became finance minister and his troubles started. At his third foray in budgetting last month the worst nightmare of any finance minister came to pass: he had to roll back a Budget proposal. He tried to introduce some economic sense into the taxation of savings via the tax on exit from the provident fund. But he reckoned without the middle class’s preference for irrationality. Ten days after proposing, he had to admit defeat and take it back.

68 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

This episode, around the 70th Doordarshan’s Budget serial, shows how few jobs are more exacting than that of a finance minister. The man — there has been no female finance minister even after 69 years — has to ensure the continuing good health of public finances. That’s easier said than done because there are the pulls and pressures of a genuine pluralist democracy to contend with as well. Reconciling the two is a Sisyphean task. Just when a finance minister thinks he’s got there, the rock rolls right down again.

Rising expenditure and falling revenues are staple diet for all finance ministers, not just in India but the

world over. As Aurangzeb once said when he got disgusted by the constant demands for jagirs from his loyalists, ek anaar, sau bimaar meaning there is one pomegrenate and a hundred sick people asking for a share. Imagine if even he felt that way, how much worse a democratically elected government seeking re-election must feel.

In India, governments have been trying to squeeze water from stone since 1957. That was the year when Pandit Nehru launched the country on the road to ‘planned development.’

That was fine except that while the plans were big, the money was tiny.

To meet the needs of the Second Plan,

therefore, the Budget of 1957 imposed huge new taxes. The stock market, mean and selfish as ever, crashed and the people were unhappy. But the foundations of heavy taxation had been laid.

The decade of the 1960s was like a horror serial. First we got walloped

by China in 1962. Then Pandit Nehru died in 1964. Then Pakistan attacked, twice, in 1965. In January 1966, the new Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri died. To make it all even worse, 1965 was a drought year; so was 1966.

The two back-to-back droughts almost broke India’s economic back. So great was the stress, that in 1969, Indira Gandhi did the unthinkable: she split the Congress into two. The last time it had split was in 1907.

In 1970, for the first time since Independence, the Budget became an instrument of politics. Bolstered by Communist support for her minority government, Indira Gandhi decided to squeeze the rich. The marginal rate of

taxation was raised to 97 per cent and the basic rates were at 60 per cent.

In February 1979, Charan Singh, a Jat farmer from Western UP, presented a Budget that sought to placate the farmers. The method was an old one: increase the taxes on everything that urban dwellers use. A miffed urban India derided his Budget as a ‘Kulak Budget!’ As if to indicate their displeasure, the gods made sure that the rains didn’t come that summer. The monsoon failed. Prices started to shoot up. By 1981, inflation had shot up to 22 per cent.

That, as it happens, was the last year when the government overplayed its socialist, pro-poor hand. For the next 25 years, the proportion of income that was being taken over by the government kept coming down. The man who took over from Manmohan Singh after the Congress was defeated in 1996 was Palaniappan Chidambaram.

A committed reformer, he had to work with 12 other parties, including, as his

luck would have it, the Communists.

As such, he had very little elbow room.

But he understood what the economy needed and bravely brought down the maximum rate of income tax to 30 per cent, cut the corporation tax to 40 per cent and reduced the average level of tariffs to just a shade over 25 per cent.

Still, all good things must come to an end and in 2004 came the new avatar of Indira Gandhi and Charan Singh called the United Progressive Alliance. Since then, there has been a steady increase in the proportion of income taken over by the government. The irony is that the man who started the reversal was none other than P Chidambaram. He defends his policies of higher taxation now as stoutly as he defended his policies of lower taxation in 1997.

The result: today, your average honest taxpayer hands over around half of his income to the government in the form of income tax, VAT, service tax and the latest horror, the cess.

Incredible India, indeed.

Encouraging family involvement Team Rotary News

T

he Rotarians of D 3211 celebrated the grand finale of the year-long event, Family Involved Rotary Entertainment (FIRE) at Alleppey in Kerala. The spark for the FIRE was set by DG C Luke to evoke family ties among Rotarians and thereby encourage wholesome involvement with Rotary.

With the advent of digital technology and social media, more and more people are communicating behind digital screens and the joy of human touch and feel — the very essence of every relationship — is slowly becoming nonexistent, says DG Luke, explaining about this concept-event that has brought the Rotarians closer to their families and with each other.

The talent hunt for the events began at club level from the beginning of the Rotary year, shortlisting 18 teams to compete at the finals.

The winners were honoured with cash prizes. The District Chairman Babumon fanned the FIRE with such dedication that it engulfed the 1,500-plus Rotarians in its warmth

and enthusiasm. Malayalam playback singer MG Sreekumar and actress Manju Warrier were the chief guests.

The month-long practice sessions improved the camaraderie among the Anns and Annets rekindling relationships and the feeling of togetherness.

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 69

An exotic travelling

companion Olwen Anderson Travelling overseas soon to a special part of the world that isn’t developed?

Olwen Anderson suggests you take this practical companion so you don’t develop a disagreeable tummy or return with a souvenir bowel problem.

L

et’s face it, some people are ideal travelling companions; Calm, organised and respectful of other cultures. And some fellow travellers are best left at home. They’re the ones who embarrass you in foreign cultures, talk too much and listen too little. But there’s one exotic-sounding travelling companion you should consider taking along on your next overseas journey that will ease your travels and help ensure you don’t come home with an unwanted intestinal souvenir.

“Bali Belly” or “Delhi Belly,” as they’re commonly termed, are digestive upsets that frequently happen to those who are brave enough to venture into areas of the world with less robust water and sanitation management. Our

70 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

Westernised intestinal microflora often aren’t equipped to handle the harmful microbes and parasites in non-Westernised countries. The resulting diarrhoea from a bacterial or parasite infestation can ruin the rest of your holiday and stick with you for quite a while afterwards.

Meet your lifetime digestive companions Although you can’t see them, there are many thriving colonies of bacteria living on you and within you. Most of these resident bacteria are symbiotic, or friendly, in that they help us digest food and manage our intestinal environment, and get to live happily on us in return.

Bacteria like to live on the mucus lining that coats the sensitive cells

of your bowel wall. There they can grab passing particles of food, ferment them, create energy and other substances that are fed to the bowel cells; in return, your bowel cells create mucus and an environment that the bacteria like to live in. It’s a win-win situation when your bowel is healthy.

But what also arrive in your gut from time to time are unwanted (pathogenic) bacteria. You probably don’t drink tap water overseas, but you might eat some vegetables washed or grown in the very water that a village has been defecating in. Those intestinal bugs and parasites would love to meet you.

They want to establish a home in your intestines, but don’t want to give back anything in return. Instead, they’ll create toxins that can spark inflammatory processes, make life harder for your liver, produce substances that make thinking difficult, and take up valuable bowel real estate that would normally be utilised by good bacteria.

This can result in not just diarrhoea, but abdominal pain of varying degrees, multiple urgent bowel motions, headaches, nausea, no appetite and malnourishment. Fatigue, too. There’s an extensive laundry list of parasites and bacteria that can be resistant to orthodox medical drugs and don’t necessarily appear on standard medical pathology tests, requiring a functional pathology stool test to be identified.

Then they can be tackled with herbs, plants with natural anti-bacterial and anti-parasite properties.

When bad bacteria take hold they change the structure of your intestinal mucus lining. It can become a thick, slimy, sticky substance with the consistency and adherent abilities of chewing gum. So thick that your immune cells can’t penetrate to knock out the unwanted invaders. When the conditions are right for them the pathogenic bacteria relentlessly extend their colonies, which can be difficult to eradicate.

When parasites take hold they can burrow down into the bowel wall, grip on tight and not only take up space and resources, but release toxins and induce inflammation, too.

A chronic inflammatory battlefield can ensue as your immune system battles the invaders. This can lead to the condition known as leaky gut, where, because your bowel wall cells are inflamed, undigested proteins and by-products of the battle make their way into your bloodstream. That can

“Bali Belly” or “Delhi Belly,” as they’re commonly termed, are digestive upsets that frequently happen to those who are brave enough to venture into areas of the world with less robust water and sanitation management.

bring on lingering discomfort (they irritate nerve endings, too) and make you feel really unwell.

Take this friendly bug with you on your travels Meet Saccharomyces boulardii (pronounced sack-a-row-my-sees boo-lardee), a yeast with an exotic-sounding name that can help prevent intestinal problems from developing on overseas

Appeal from RI District 3132 Severe drought conditions in District 3132.

Farmers commit suicide. Urgent funds needed.

F

riends, my District is facing severe water scarcity. For the last four years we haven’t received the average rainfall and this year the situation is the worst. Our district has recorded a 40 per cent decrease in rainfall and this is a major cause for concern and worry. At present, almost 80 per cent

of the population is not getting water for domestic use.

The areas of Latur, Osmanabad, Beed, Jalna, Parbhani, Solapur, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Nanded, half of Satara, are facing severe water scarcity. The survival of livestock is also in danger. Farmers are committing

A water conservation project of RC Osmanabad in progress.

jaunts. This friendly yeast will work hard in your intestines to stop bad bacteria and parasites from adhering to your intestinal wall, and if you actually do contract an infection that brings on diarrhoea, Saccharomyces boulardii will help ease inflammation and boost production of digestive enzymes, too.

Saccharomyces boulardii capsules are easily obtained (Available under brands Econorm, Biogit etc). Often they’ll be combined with other room temperature-stable probiotic bacteria. As with all other natural supplements, check you’re buying capsules with the right dose and quality; your natural health practitioner will likely stock the higher quality brands. Because Saccharomyces boulardii doesn’t need refrigeration, you can just toss the tub into your suitcase and escape into the magic of venturing away from home. Happy travels!

Reproduced from Rotary Down Under

suicide, and in the last four years, nearly 22,000 farmers committed suicide due to water scarcity. Our water storage is now less than 5 per cent.

The Government of Maharashtra has initiated the Jalyukt Shiwar project to trap and harvest rainwater by widening, deepening and putting small bandharas on small rivers and nalas.

I have revised all the plans and goals for the year to concentrate on only one issue — Water Conservation and Water Literacy. Many clubs in our District 3132 are executing projects on water conservation and irrigation.

This is a huge task requiring enormous human capital, generous funding and a long-term commitment.

We need all possible resources from fellow Rotarians and I request all my friends to help my District during our time of need.

For sending your contributions contact: DG Deepak Pophale Mobile: +919422070748 9881476748 E mail: rtndeepak@rediffmail.com APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 71

District Wise TRF Contributions as on February 29, 2016 (in US Dollars)

District Number

APF

2981 2982 3000 3011 3012 3020 3030 3040 3051 3052 3053 3060 3070 3080 3090 3100 3110 3120 3131 3132 3140 3150 3160 3170 3180 3190 3201 3202 3211 3212 3230 3240 3250 3261 3262 3291 India Total

44,298 43,159 34,427 31,472 1,68,798 1,01,680 21,795 6,363 250 900 2,646 1,60,638 17,678 59,538 38,543 42,388 85,057 67,605 1,28,353 42,797 5,33,209 10,581 21,054 12,575 1,52,807 5,79,025 1,39,076 58,142 65,083 58,029 2,48,426 61,113 55,919 9,011 1,06,611 9,849 32,18,896

3220

1,04,881

3271 3272

16,245 8,940

3281 3282

41,354 51,513

3292 South Asia Total World Total

2,12,283 36,54,112 7,07,34,699

PolioPlus*

Other Restricted

Total Endowment Contributions Fund

India 10,268 0 11,939 0 525 0 4,823 9,930 9,163 104,582 51,539 105 122 48,654 341 29,638 227 0 0 70,783 0 0 2,188 19,383 397 406 22,906 25,179 0 0 0 14,166 11,565 13,230 156 0 5,397 47,776 2,144 0 49,116 58,663 4,000 27,001 0 0 1,290 25,534 1,667 3,123 9,379 1,49,607 12,025 100 2,407 0 1,000 0 1,509 0 25,188 2,47,286 206 100 1,300 16,576 0 0 125 12,028 0 93,722 2,42,911 10,17,572 Sri Lanka 20,565 49,358 Pakistan 22,820 989 5,136 (200) Bangladesh 50 43,162 0 0 Nepal 4,319 2,89,161 2,95,801 14,00,042 1,50,57,218 86,19,775

* Excludes Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

* Does not include contribution of Mrs Rajashree Birla ($1,000,000)

197 0 0 3,030 0 1,63,606 0 0 0 0 0 22,000 0 9,258 0 2,000 0 0 5,345 37,500 1,64,640 40,010 0 0 0 0 0 0 1,000 (308) 17,219 0 5,000 0 39,000 0 5,09,498

54,762 55,098 34,952 49,256 2,82,543 3,16,930 70,570 36,342 477 71,683 2,646 2,04,208 18,481 1,16,881 38,543 58,553 1,09,853 67,761 1,86,871 82,441 8,05,629 81,592 21,054 39,399 1,57,597 7,38,011 1,51,201 60,549 67,083 59,231 5,38,118 61,419 78,795 9,011 1,57,764 1,03,571 49,88,877

7,583

1,82,387

0 0

40,054 13,876

7,900 2,000

92,466 53,513

0 5,26,981 1,12,73,081

5,05,763 58,76,936 10,56,84,773

Source: RI South Asia Office

ROTARY CLUB CENTRAL PLAN TOGETHER TRACK PROGRESS ACHIEVE GOALS

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It showcases the important work that Rotary clubs do worldwide.

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Go to www.rotary.org/clubcentral

Doing good with TRF help

Swachh Shimoga Team Rotary News

L

ast December, Mohan was thoroughly embarrassed when a few foreigners, who wanted to buy the terracotta pots and lamps he was

selling, walked away in disgust from his shop because of the foul smell of urine. “There was no toilet in the area, so everyone would run behind

their shops to answer nature’s call and the entire market would smell bad,” he says.

RC Shimoga, D 3180, along with RC West Springfield, D 7890, USA and TRF under a Matching Grant constructed two pay and use public toilet blocks at a cost of $33,870 in two localities. Now not just the atmosphere of the market has improved but “the number of footfalls to my shop has also improved,” adds Mohan.

PDG Dr P Narayana says the purpose of building these toilets was not just to curb the unhygienic practice but to help women working as sales girls in many of the shops in these places to defecate indoors in privacy.

Relief for Chennai flood victims Team Rotary News

T

he Rotary Eclub of Chennai, D 3230, distributed rehabilitation kits to 1,000 families with the support of many generous donors living in India and abroad. They had their members, friends as well as many corporate organisations pitching in with large contributions for their rehabilitation efforts.

The team along with Club President Jayanthi Raja Seenivasan, Project Chair Bharath from the US and Rtn Jothi Priya identified two badly affected slums, Naduvangarai and Anakaputhur, near Chennai and gave them Rehab kits comprising a trunk box, cooker, utensils, mixer-grinder and a sauce pan.

PDG SvRm Abirami Ramanathan distributed the kits in the presence of DGE Venu Rao, District 7870, USA and PDG Brian Beesley from Australia. Rao surprised the team

5HKDELOLWDWLRQ NLWV EHLQJ JLYHQ WR ÀRRG DႇHFWHG IDPLOLHV

with his impromptu contribution of $5,000 for the cause. The Club had earlier reached out to flood-affected families by distributing truck loads of milk, food, sanitary napkins,

dresses, blankets and medicines every day.

The club is the first Eclub in District 3230 with 36 members from different countries.

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 73

RC Pondicherry Central

RC Karur

RC Sonkutch

RI District 2981 A mobile therapy van was donated to Satya Special School that functions in the rural regions of Pondicherry.

RI District 3000 Rotarians gifted bags, clothes, watches and gold earrings to underprivileged children at Shanti Nilayam.

RI District 3040 A partnership with RC Cleveland, D 6630, USA, RC Milano, D 2040, Italy and TRF helped the club install RO water plants in five villages in the region.

RC Villupuram

RC Jalgaon East

RC Solitaire Bhilwara

RI District 2982 The club adopted the Panchayat Union Primary School at Nannadu Village and renovated the campus.

RI District 3030 A cancer awareness programme sensitised the ASHA and Anganwadi workers from rural regions in Jalgaon.

RI District 3052 Over 2,000 students from three colleges participated in a rally to sensitise the public on ‘’Save girls - Educate Girls’ and ‘Green India - Clean India.’

74 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

RC Gwalior Veerangana

RC Amritsar North

RC Moga City

RI District 3053 A dental check up at the Government High Girls School sensitised the students on dental care and oral hygiene.

RI District 3070 Rotarians distributed 20 sewing machines to economically weak women to help them earn a decent living.

RI District 3090 The club’s Rotaractors distributed food and blankets to the underprivileged.

RC Navsari RI District 3060 Over 1,600 students from 16 schools participated in the Satrangi Subah painting and drawing programme.

RC Rishikesh RI District 3080 Rotarians conducted weddings of five girls hailing from poor families.

RC Jhansi RI District 3110 At an eye camp conducted by the club 200 patients were tested for various eye related problems and 90 were operated for cataract.

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 75

RC Lucknow RI District 3120 A vocational training programme for girls imparted training in soft skills, team building and communication skills at Naubasta village.

RC Akurdi RI District 3131 Over 10,000 girls were examined at a haemoglobin check up and treatment camp.

RC Bangalore Lakeside RI District 3190

RC Kalamb City RI District 3132 The club installed a water heater at Sojar Matimand School home to 50 mentally challenged children.

RC Hubli South

RC Kundah

RI District 3170 Around 650 school students were imparted awareness lecture on various adolesent health issues.

RI District 3202 Volunteers from the club were felicitated for their flood relief work in Chennai.

RC Bajpe

RC Chathannoor

RI District 3180 The club distributed sewing machines and certificates to its vocational programme trainees.

RI District 3211 The club gave 3 cents of land to a few underprivileged people to help them start a decent living.

RI District 3150 An adolescent health education camp was conducted at Nirmala Hrudaya Girls High School, Nizamabad.

RC Bangalore Lakeside

RC Greater Tezpur

RI District 3190 A van was donated by the club to transport food for students of rural government schools.

RI District 3240 Over 900 people benefitted from the club’s annual cataract eye screening camp in the remote villages of Tezpur, Assam.

RC Navanandi

RC Aakruthi

RI District 3160 The club distributed first aid kits to different schools in the region.

RI District 3201 A career guidance programme was conducted for rural students.

RC Dombivli East RI District 3140 The club along with Sys Computers and 7 Interact Clubs collected 650 kg of e-waste for recycling.

RC Nizamabad

RC Dhamtari RI District 3261 The club distributed sweaters and fruits to the inmates of Usmaniya Yatime Khana and a gas stove at Hindu Ananthalaya.

RC Kasba

RC Kasba RI District 3291 76 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

RI District 3291 Over 200 tribal girls were trained in basic computer programming under the club’s ongoing literacy project.

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by Mukesh Arneja on behalf of Rotary News Trust from Dugar Towers, 3rd Flr, 34, Marshalls Road, Egmore, Chennai 600 008.

Editor: Rasheeda Bhagat.

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 77

6JG ſXG OKPWVG miracle Bharat and Shalan Savur

W

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78 ROTARY NEWS APRIL 2016

Be upwardly mobile 6Q KPSWKTG VQ RTQDG KPKVKCVGU C OGPVCN OQXGOGPV WRYCTFU KPUVGCF QH FQYPYCTF KV MGGRU VJG OKPF CHNQCV MGGRU KV HTQO

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CPF OKPF IGVU JGCNVJKGT 6JG TJ[VJO QH GZGTEKUG NGPFU UVTGPIVJ VQ VJG JGCTV CPF RQGVT[ VQ VJG OKPF Live strong, my friend, live strong, Keep walking, there’s nothing right or wrong.

The road may be rough, the road may be smooth, Keep your step steady, your mind on the truth.

The sun may beam, the sun may hide, Be full of faith, high or low the tide.

The rain may hold, the rain may shower, Keep walking, my friend, for you have the power.

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ROTARY NEWS 79

Membership in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives As on March 1, 2016 RI RI Rotary No. of Women Rotaract Interact Zone District Clubs Rotarians Rotarians

Rotary at a glance Rotarians

: 12,21,630*

Clubs

: 35,115*

Districts

: 535*

Rotaractors

: 2,01,342

Clubs

: 8,754

Interactors

: 4,41,278

Clubs

: 19,186

RCC members : 1,99,732 RCC

: 8,684

*As of March 01, 2016 As of 31 December 2015

5 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6 6 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

2981 2982 3000 3011 3012 3020 3030 3040 3051 3052 3053 3060 3070 3080 3090 3100 3110 3120 3131 3132 3140 3150 3160 3170 3180 3190 3201 3202 3211 3212 3220 3230 3240 3250 3261 3262 3271 3272 3281 3282 3291 3292 Total

104 63 112 66 71 79 94 93 63 68 58 96 111 75 81 86 108 72 123 82 146 96 64 125 142 112 136 132 133 89 76 146 80 97 73 78 59 106 185 123 153 95 4,151

4,317 2,896 4,792 2,814 3,082 4,040 5,225 2,132 2,515 3,441 2,247 3,984 3,137 3,211 2,056 2,042 3,697 2,949 5,423 3,541 7,701 3,430 2,265 5,315 5,898 5,053 5,190 4,975 4,208 3,717 2,065 6,083 2,855 3,691 2,420 2,936 1,130 1,814 5,461 3,297 3,994 3,444 1,54,483

178 105 387 392 445 231 588 247 187 521 247 364 271 188 85 113 178 267 1,016 356 1,111 294 107 320 295 506 274 261 227 190 254 486 345 579 241 326 171 316 743 271 667 449 14,799

47 38 180 37 51 89 62 41 43 33 15 45 56 52 29 10 48 33 66 52 126 72 10 36 49 95 76 74 10 68 70 149 51 40 15 37 36 28 202 112 53 97 2,533

208 102 363 90 99 399 224 99 122 128 30 101 144 167 36 81 49 48 206 117 364 171 40 262 416 223 100 376 67 205 188 408 128 189 97 63 13 35 79 21 107 98 6,463

RCC

166 37 99 28 54 297 134 135 330 126 91 118 54 98 122 146 71 49 70 98 141 109 81 156 148 44 46 39 119 120 77 301 127 171 42 68 13 35 181 38 551 91 5,021

Source: RI South Asia Office

RI President K R Ravindran, PRIP Rajendra K Saboo, Vanathy Ravindran, Usha Saboo and Sir Emeka Offor of Nigeria (in white) met the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame (fourth from left), at Rwanda. They were participating in the Rotary Medicare Mission in Kigali.

The leaders discussed Rotary’s contribution to various welfare projects in Rwanda.

RC Bangalore South, D 3190, and Parimala Hospitals, Bengaluru, received the Guinness World Record Certificate from the Governor of Karnataka Vajubhai Vala for screening maximum number of people (1,251) for cervical cancer.

Rtn Ravindra Ostwal of RC Malegaon Midtown, D 3030, was conferred with the RI’s Service above Self award.

He received the award from PRIP Kalyan Banerjee in the presence of PRID Ashok Mahajan, DG Nikhil Kibe and other District leaders at Malegaon.

APRIL 2016

ROTARY NEWS 81

IN BRIEF

Sainthood for Mother Teresa Mother Teresa will be canonised as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on September 4. Pope Francis approved her elevation to sainthood, after the occurrence of the mandatory two miracles as required by Catholic norms. Her beatification, the first step to sainthood, was done in 2003 by the then Pope John Paul II.

The most expensive sedan

Film News Anandan

on Indian roads

is no more

Mercedes Benz has launched Maybach S 600 Guard in India. At Rs 10.5 crore (ex-showroom Delhi), it is the most expensive sedan in the country. Its exclusive features include a bulletproof body, noise insulation, handcrafted champagne flutes and an impressive anti-theft protection package. Its lounge-like interiors with a ‘magic sky control’ technology let you switch the windows to light or dark at the touch of a button. Its electronically limited top speed is 250 km/h.

Street children win at Rio

Three out of a team of five street children from Chennai won medals in the Street Child Games at Rio de Janeiro. Their trip was sponsored by an NGO Karunalaya. The children spent 10 days there and interacted with street children from other countries.

At the Street Child Games General Assembly, Usha struck a chord when she highlighted the violence they experience from policemen and suggested they should be invited to speak at police training sessions to sensitise policemen.

An encyclopedia in Tamil movies and a cinema historian, Film News Anandan (90), died in Chennai after a brief illness. An efficient PR man, he was involved with over 3,000 Tamil films including those of the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M G Ramachandran.

He was an authority on the evolution of technology and audience interest in Tamil cinema, and had recently published an extensive collection of data gathered from 16,000 feature films in different languages.

Pop-up urinal in Australia

Perth City Council has installed the country’s first pop-urinal.

The self-cleaning urinal, Urilift, will appear on Friday and Saturday evenings on the side-walks for the late-night crowd. During the day, it is tucked underground hydraulically with a remote by an operator. Such urinals are already being used in European cities.

Flier boards flight via conveyor belt In a bizarre incident at the Delhi airport a first time flier to Riyadh sat on the baggage belt along with his luggage to board the Air India flight. He was noticed and stopped by an employee after having moved about 200 metres on the belt and even passing through the X-ray machine used for baggage scanning. He had managed to get to the conveyor belt through an unattended check-in counter, presuming that he has to get scanned along with his luggage.

Compiled by Jaishree; Designed by K Vishwanathan 82 ROTARY NEWS APRIL NOVEMBER 2016 2015

Indomitable human spirit

F

inding these two Nepalese women engaged in light-hearted banter, even though they have lost all that they possessed in last year’s devastating earthquake that hit the tiny Himalayan country, killing nearly 9,000 people, I forgot a fundamental tenet of journalism ‌ to ask their names. And this because I walked on marvelling at the indomitable human spirit, which just cannot be crushed, by either manmade or natural disasters.

Picture by Rasheeda Bhagat

REGN. NO. TN/CCN/360/2015-2017 LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT NO.TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-431/2015-2017 REGISTERED WITH REGISTRAR OF NEWS PAPERS FOR INDIA 3880/57 ROTARY NEWS PUBLISHED ON 1ST OF EVERY MONTH