Orphan Adoption in India.

Each year, November is recognized as adoption awareness month. There is not much awareness about child adoption laws and organizations that help in adoption. Even till date majority of adoptions go unrecorded and happens without government involvement. Below are few facts and figures about child adoption and issues around it in India.

·         It is estimated there are around 140 million (14 crores) orphans worldwide. As per SOSChildrensvillage, there are around 20 million (2 Crores) orphan children in India and which is predicted to increase by 2021.

https://www.soschildrensvillages.ca/india-now-home-20-million-orphans-study-finds

·         41% of the population in India are under the age of 18 - the largest child population in the world.

·         The In-country adoptions have reduced significantly from 2010 to 2016 in India. It is estimated it dropped almost by 47%. Check here.

http://cara.nic.in/resource/adoption_Stattistics.html

·         Adoption in India comes under the provisions of three acts and is carried out centrally by CARA:

·         The Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956

·         The Guardian and Wards Act 1890

·         The Juvenile Justice Act 2000

·         Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Women and Child Development. It functions as the nodal body for the adoption of Indian children and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions. Users can find detailed information on adoption procedure, parents, agencies, resources and network etc

·         http://cara.nic.in/ -- is the website of CARA. It has all the information on how one can adopt a child in India. Registration and tracking can be done online as well.

·         1800-11-1311 – is the toll-free helpline number of CARA. 1098 – Is the child helpline number in India.

·         The minimum age difference between the child and either of the prospective adoptive parents should not be less than twenty-five years.

·         There are black markets in every state of India and one main problem by adopting a child from these are brokers involved in these for money, there is no guarantee that the child ready for adoption is not trafficked, also the background information of the child may not be accurate. There are many cases as mentioned in below articles.

http://www.firstpost.com/india/child-trafficking-manufactured-orphans-the-dark-underbelly-of-inter-country-adoption-in-india-4000837.html

https://www.newsdeeply.com/womenandgirls/articles/2017/06/15/black-market-baby-trade-flourishes-in-india-after-adoption-law-reform

I am in no way promoting or marketing any of the links provided above or not tied up with any of the organizations above. The only purpose of this article is to share the information of child adoption along with facts.

If any parents find this information helpful for them, my purpose in writing this article is accomplished.

Feel free to share any important information about child adoption in India in the comments section below.

Thanks VV!!

List of basic survival and emergency information every kid should be taught.

Last week while talking with my friend’s kid and to keep her busy I was asking simple questions like how many planets are there? Which is the bigger planet? Who is PM and so on. She was answering almost all the questions and I asked whom to contact in case of an emergency at home/outside? She was silent and then I asked the same question in a different way “what is the number to contact police station?” she was silent again and answered innocently “I don’t know”. Now one thing you should understand here, she remembered her both parent’s mobile number and other details so why she couldn’t answer what is the emergency number to contact police. Obviously, she was never taught and when I said you just need to dial “112” or “100”, she was like “that’s it? Only 112 ?” I said “Yes.”. She was happy it’s very easy to remember and also that she learned something new.

This gave me push to write this article about the importance of teaching kids the very basic and important survival information. Kids are innocent and prone to believe everyone. If we don’t prepare them for the emergency situations and also one thing we should understand is parents will not be around the kids always. So, they should have basic information like whom to contact during an emergency, what to do if lost, basic first aid techniques and so on. This will prepare them not only to face the situations and also they may help someone.

Every parent should teach basic emergency\survival tips to kids and depending on the age of the kid what basic information they need to be aware of and what information they can grasp/remember should be decided by the parents.

The very basic and important details kids should be taught:

·         Names of both the parents. If they can remember big numbers then contact numbers of both parents.

·         Address of the place they live in. At least the society/local area name or landmark near to their home.

·         If they are going to school, location\Address of the school they study in.

·         Working location of the parents like the company name.

·         Any trustable local guardian name/information. This should be taught to kids only if you think the local guardian is 100% trustable.

Now the very basic and important emergency contact details:

·         From March 2016 a single emergency number “112” has been introduced in India for all kinds of emergencies like police, fire and ambulance.

·         Dial “100” for police.

·         Dial “101” for the fire engine.

·         Dial “1098” for child abuse.

·         Dial “181” for women helpline.

Now the general survival tips you can teach your child to follow in emergencies:

·         Never go to someone if they say your mom/dad is calling you until they see you. Register deeply in their mind not to go to anyone if they say mom/dad are calling you.

·         Ask them and train them on route to reach home. Like initially keep asking your kid while taking to the regular shopping mall/ grocery store/ market the route to reach. After telling them important landmarks or signboards they should remember while reaching back to the home you can test them to give the directions to reach back while you are driving the vehicle. By doing this they will get familiar with the surroundings and locality.

·         When they are alone at home and if some unknown person knocks the door. Train them as per your familiarity with neighbors and kids awareness. Ideally, the best way is not to open the door when they are alone at home.

·         If lost first option would be to shout out parent name instead of shouting mom/dad. If no use of shouting names better they run to the nearby safe place like friends\ family friends living nearby, security guard/traffic police nearby, police station and so on based on your locality.

·         Basic self-defense techniques like when to run, when to shout and so on (another article on this).

Let me know if any other basic and important survival\emergency skills that should be taught to kids in the comment section below.

Thanks VV!!

7 Indian Mythological Characters That Should Be Taught To All The Kids.

Storytelling to kids is an important job of a parent, teacher and family members. Kids will get to know about the real world and situations through the stories we tell them. Storytelling immensely develops thinking capabilities of kids. By listening to stories their imagination ability will improve. If you plan to develop some strong habits in kids from childhood, storytelling is the best way to do that. 

Indian mythological stories have some extraordinary characters which will give kids a great insight of how to deal different situations in life, how to make decisions, what is correct and wrong and so on. I have mentioned about few of such amazing characters which I personally like to share their stories with kids.

Sri Krishna:

There are numerous things a kid can be taught from the life story of Sri Krishna, from his childhood till the end. He is the best example of how a leader should be. Few of stories about him like how he saved an entire village by lifting Govardhan Giri hill and stood for 7 straight days, how he helped his friend Sudhama, how he won against his uncle Kamsa who has been trying to kill him from childhood and so on and on. 

Karna:                

Through the story of Karna kids can be taught how talented and hardworking you might be but if you are on the wrong side you will fail for sure. Great qualities of Karna can be explained through several episodes from his life like when he gave his "kavacha kundalalu" to Indra who came in disguise as a priest, helping a small girl to get back her clarified butter, how he supported Duryodhana in war. He is the only warrior in Mahabharata who could defeat Arjuna and Krishna himself praised Karna's skills. His life is a true example that teaches how strong, capable, good you might but if you are with the wrong company it will destroy you ultimately.

Hanuman:

The story of Lord Hanuman sets a great example of bravery, strength, and devotion. In fact, every kid should be taught stories about Lord Hanuman, telling about his character and his deeds develops confidence, strong willpower, bravery, and loyalty in kids. Some of the episodes from his life, like crossing the ocean to reach Lanka, bringing Sanjeevani hill to save Lakshmana, winning against numerous ghosts\beasts that came across his path and so on.

Sri Rama:

The story of Rama instills in kids some amazing qualities like respecting elders, following the path of Dharma under all circumstances, braveness, and patience. Every incident from his life teaches everyone something, leaving his kingdom and moving to the forest at his father's request, it might be hunting down Ravana, standing on side of dharma under all circumstances and so on.

Satyabhama:             

She is one of the bravest women's from Indian mythology. Explaining about her instills confidence and bravery in kids. One of the incidents like how she took control of the war and killed Narakasura when Lord Krishna himself fainted during the war, as everyone knows now we celebrate the same day as Diwali yearly.

Harischandra:

The entire story of Harischandra teaches one thing and the most important quality that is doing your dharma until the end. Nothing should deviate you from doing your dharma might be your family, possessions, pride or even yourself. Rewards will follow if you do your dharma without mistake.

Arjuna:

True that there are many things to say about Arjuna one among them is when their teacher conducts a test of targeting the eye of bird Arjuna proves his concentration and wins accolade from his master itself and makes him the best archer in the world. Kids can be taught how important is concentration towards the work we are doing and why other missed the chance. He is ambidextrous in archery as well.

There are many more amazing characters like these in our mythological stories and I feel each 

of these characters are designed to teach us a number of life lessons.

Please share the stories you teach to your kid and how it is helping them.

List of books you should read at least once.

Thanks VV!!

List of basic First Aid techniques.

We often overlook the basic and important things in our day to day life and First Aid kit is one of those. It is easy to maintain and will be very useful when things go wrong. When my son has fallen on the computer table and had a cut to his hand or when one of my friends fainted during our vacation, the first aid kit helped me to provide immediate relief to them and reduced mental pressure on others around.

Imagine if something severe happens to an elder person in the home and there is no basic first aid kit available. Imagine while you are on a vacation and there is an injury for one of your friend or family member or yourself and you don’t have first aid kit with you. It’s better to be prepared than to react only after something worse happens.

Having a first aid kit always in reach and learning the basic first techniques might help you save yourselves or your loved ones during emergency situations.

1.       Have a first Aid kit with you always.

Be it your home or while going on vacation or in your vehicle always have a first Aid Kit with you.

9 basic items a first aid kit should have:

·         Bandages/ Band-Aids.

·         Cotton.

·         Small scissor / Knife.

·         Burn cream and Antibiotic cream.

·         Gauze dressing (Often called dressing cloth in India).

·         Thermometer.

·         Basic medicine like painkillers, fever, headache and cold\cough. For kids have all infant medicines.

·         Cleansing wipes.

·         First Aid instruction booklet and emergency contacts like (1092/102/108/181) and other location specific contacts.

The above list is just the basic items we should maintain and there are many other items that can be added based on situation/need. Make sure you place this kit in a fixed place where you or your family members can reach when needed. Once in a while keep checking expiry dates of the items in the kit.

2.       Below are basic First Aid techniques everyone should be aware of.

In case of emergency situations and while waiting for the emergency medical services to arrive the below tips if followed correctly you could save someone’s life or at least these will help in reducing the severity of the damage. There are many real life examples where due to lack this basic knowledge of first aid techniques or by not following the first aid techniques correctly people have lost their own self and often their loved ones. Now an important thing to remember is,  it is always recommended to consult the doctor after any kind of injuries as they are qualified and trained professionals to handle these and can assure us what may or may not go wrong.

·         Call for emergency services nearby. The first step always should be to contact emergency services as soon as possible. Where ever you live or where ever you travel to keep the emergency contact details of that particular area in your mobile with prefixes like ICE (In Case of Emergency) or EN (Emergency Numbers) or etc.

·         Next important step is if you are not sure how to do the first aid please avoid doing it.

·         Try to be as calm as possible and assure the patient respective emergency service has been contacted and on the way.

·         For all the below situations, you first need to decide whether you have time to take the patient to a nearby hospital or you need to call for an ambulance or you need to call for any other emergency services available nearby or you need to perform the first aid first.

In case of Bleeding:

·         Apply pressure on the wound and if bleeding is normal then try to wash the wound and cover it with a cloth.

·         If heavily bleeding, do not try to clean as this may cause much damage.

In case of Burns:

·         Use water only in case of a burn, to cool the burnt part. DO NOT use ice.

·         Hold the burnt area gently under water.

·         Do NOT try to put a plaster or any bandages on burnt area, this may stick to the burnt part and cause much trouble.

·         Cover the person with a wet cloth.

·         If eyes are burning due to any liquids like perfume and all, clean eyes with water first.

In case of Faint:

·         If someone is feeling faint, ask them to lie down on their back and raise their legs up.

          In case of a Heart attack:

·         During a heart attack, make the person sit and rest.

·         Loosen any tight clothing.

·         If already any medicine is being taken for chest pain give it.

All above first aid steps are very basic and many other detailed steps can be found online in many of the websites.

If any other basic first aid tips that are easy to follow and are helpful during emergency situations, please add in the comments section below.

Thanks VV!!

List of books that hugely impacted Mahatma Gandhi.

I often wonder what makes a normal human to turn out to be a Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Abdul Kalam and so on. Definitely, they have a major impact of the people/circumstances they have come across in their lives and along with this, the other major fuel I strongly believe are the books they read. All of these great humans have several sets of favorite books which they kept on re-reading whenever they felt low. In Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, there are several books which he mentioned have hugely impacted him. This article I am listing few of his favorite books.

·         The Gospels In Brief, What To Do?      
      – Tolstoy

·         Dharma Vichar     
     – Narmada Shanker

·         The Perfect Way     
      -- Anna Kingsford & Edward Maitland

·         The Kingdom Of God Is Within You.    
      – Tolstoy

·         Unto This Last    
      – Ruskin

·         Bhagavadgita 
     -- Gandhi had read almost all translations of it 
         and his personal favorite 
         is by Sir Edward Arnold.

·         The Light Of Asia    
     -- Sir Edward Arnold

·         Key To Theosophy    
     -- Madame Blavatsky

·         Ramayana   
     – Tulasidas

·         Harishchandra Nataka    
     -- This play he considers has captured his heart

·         Shravana Pitrubhakti Nataka    
     -- Another play that impacted him deeply.

Non-religious books:

·         Plea For Vegetarianism    
     -- Salt

·         The Ethics Of Diet    
     --Howard Williams

·         The Perfect Way In Diet     
     -- Dr.Anna Kingsford

 List of books you must read at least once.

Thanks VV!!

#Mahatma Gandhi, #Mahatma, #Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi

List of Indian athletes to look for in Rio Olympics 2016.

·         India has got 1 individual Gold medal so far in Olympics history that is for Abhinav Bindra in 10m Air Rifle. He is participating this time in 2016 and hopefully he will bring another medal to India.

·         Saina Nehwal the first Indian to win the Bronze medal in Olympics. She has been a consistent player throughout her career and been World No.1 ranking in Badminton. All the best Saina Nehwal.

·         Yogeshwar Dutt, he has won the Bronze medal in wrestling in 2012 London. Hope he will give his best again and bring a Gold itself to India this time.

·         Gagan Narang, he has won the Bronze medal in shooting Men’s 10 m Air Rifle. He was the first Indian to qualify for London Olympics. All the best Gagan Narang.

·         Leander Paes, he has won a Bronze medal in Tennis in 1996 Atlanta Men’s singles. He is one of the best athletes of India. All the best Leander Paes.

So far India has got 15 individual medals in Olympics history. Out of which only 1 Gold Medal, 5 silver medals, and 9 Bronze medals. Hopefully, we will bag more medals this time in Rio 2016.

The above players already have won medals in Olympics and there many new athletes participating in Rio Olympics 2016. We have a total of 121 athletes from India participating in 15 different sports this time. There are many more good athletes to look for like Dattu baban bhokanal, sajan Prakash, Jitu Rai, Kidambi Srikanth, PV Sindhu, Dipa Karmakar. 

·         Dipa Karmakar is the first female gymnast from India to qualify for Olympics.

·         Avtar Singh first Indian to qualify for judoka.

·         Dutee Chand, India’s second woman sprinter to qualify for 100m in Olympics after PT Usha.

All the best to all the Indian Athletes who are participating.

Please add names of athletes who you are looking forward to in Rio Olympics 2016 in the comments section below.

Thanks VV!!

#rio2016, #Olympics2016, #Olympics2016 stream

List of Indian travelers you should know about.

You call them explorers, travelers, nomads, wanderers or with any other name but, for many, these people are a true inspiration and they are perfect examples of determination, strong will power and dedication. It is truly impossible to put what these people have experienced, how they have seen the world and their experiences in a single article but my main aim is to prepare a list of great travelers of India whom we should know about. When we study about other country explorers in our history lessons we should definitely learn about these people too.

The list of people I have mentioned here is little and I am continuously trying to gather more such inspiring people and I request the readers to add names of any other great explorers/ travelers in the comments section below so that I can include them into this article.

Bimol Mukerji:

I am ashamed of not knowing about this legend till date. I was surprised and stunned by what he has achieved. In the year 1926, Bimol Mukerji along with his 3 other friends started on a journey to travel the world on bicycles. Yeah, you heard it right on a bicycle. During the course of their journey, his friends have given up and returned back to India but this man continued alone and completed his epic journey and return back to India after 11 years in the year 1937. It is a difficult feat to travel around the world even in present days even though we have google, mobiles, the internet, many travelogues and roadside assistances. Without any of these things, this man has travelled 30+ countries. He is the first Indian Globe-Trotter. Before going on this epic journey he had travelled entire India from 1921 – 1926. Another great thing he did was writing a book about his entire world tour named “Du Chakay Duniya” which means The World on Two Wheels.

Nain Singh Rawat:

This man’s life is nothing less than a movie. His first exploration trip was with Germans between 1855 – 1857, he travelled to Manasarovar, Rakas Tal and then to Gartok and Ladakh. In 1865-66, he travelled 1200 miles (1931 km's) from Kathmandu to Lhasa and to Lake Manasarovar and back to India. He along with other explorers has undergone training to record distances by using different methods one of them was by using a modified Buddhist rosary or mala. Every 100 steps the explorers take, they will slip one bead from mala, so the complete length of rosary represents 10,000 steps. He did many explorations undercover as a monk and used to code the notes of measurements in the form of written prayers. Mercury, used for creating an artificial horizon, was kept in cowrie shells and, for use, poured into the begging bowl carried by explorers. This is just a glimpse of the training he has undergone and the methods he used during his explorations. More detailed information about him can be found here.

Malli Mastan Babu:

Sadly he became famous only after his death. He is the first Indian and first South Asian to climb all seven summits, first Indian to climb Vinson Massi, Carstensz Pyramid. He holds a 2006 world record of climbing each continent’s highest peaks in 172 days. He was the only climber from Andhra Pradesh to summit Mt. Everest. He did a 75-day High altitude trek from Mt. Everest to Kanchenjunga, covering approximately 110kms and a 2000kms travel in 132 days of the trans-Himalayan expedition from Mt. Everest to Mt. Kailash. His entire travels are recorded here and here.

Check the list of people who became famous after death.

Dilip Donde:

He is the first Indian to circumnavigate (sagar parikrama) the world solo on a sailboat. He sailed for 276 days and documented his entire journey in his blog. He has sailed through strong winds of 55 knots (101 Km/Hr) and waves of height up to 9 meters (29 feet). On this epic journey, he has stopped at 4 places only. His journey completed in May 2010 after sailing for 9 months. This voyage was a part of Indian Navy’s project sagar parikrama.

Abhilash Tomy:

He is the first Indian, second Asian and 79^th person to complete a solo unassisted non-stop circumnavigation under sail. This voyage was also a part of Indian Navy’s project sagar parikrama, initiated by Vice-Admiral M.P.Awati. During this journey of 151 days he has sailed through winds of 70 knots (129 Km/Hr ) and waves of height up to 10 meters (32 feet). He has not sighted human for 130 days during this journey. His journey completed in April 2013. It’s mentioned in several papers and articles that he blogged his entire journey, but I couldn’t find it. Please share in comments sections below if you know it.

Bharadwaj Dayala:

He is first Indian to complete a solo tour around the world on an Indian-made Karizma motorcycle. He has travelled across 5 continents in 18 months covering 47,000kms and completed his journey in October 2007. His has blogged his travel details here.

If I have missed any other great explorers/travelers it's only due to my lack of knowledge.

Thanks, VV !!