India Abusing Children - Shodars forced into labour for Common-Wealth Games

Source: Pakistan Cyber Force Page
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I am extremely sad while writing this article. Indian Common Wealth games have been illuminated by the Indian Media and GEO TV all over the world but the ugly reality behind the preparation of these games has been purposefully concealed. For the sake of saving funds and earning more from the Delhi Common-Wealth Games, India has disgustingly forced many Pre-Teen Tots (Shodar) children as labourers and is using them for the rough and tough tasks that are usually done with the help of heavy machinery. One disgusting event took place yesterday when a two year old child was run over by a truck in the construction field; bringing the total number of deaths to 45. If the Athletes still go to Delhi and if the Games are not called off, the blood of these children will be on the hands of the those who don’t pull the plug on the games. The Common-Wealth Games in Delhi were “on a knife edge” yesterday as it emerged that the crumbling stadiums have been built by children.

Trot (Shodar) children working hard for $3

Tots (Shodars) as young as three were drafted in to work on dangerous building sites to prepare for the event in Delhi. Yesterday the roof of the weightlifting arena caved in, sending rubble cascading down to the judges’ seats. As the catalogue of disasters mounted yesterday, it appeared increasingly likely the event, which is due to start in 10 days, would have to be called off. On Tuesday, 28 workers were seriously hurt at the main stadium site when a concrete bridge collapsed.

And competing nations have lined up to slam the athletes’ village as “unfit for human habitation”.
The Common-Wealth Games Federation has continuously expressed concerns over the slow progress of the stadium and village which is to host around 7,000 athletes and officials, with work on the Nehru Stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies and the athletics program will be held.

An innocent child forced on labour

In order to complete these projects, workers have been paid way below the minimum wage while being forced to live and work in substandard conditions, under tarpaulin on the construction site. Human rights have labeled the living conditions as “sub human”.
While the majority of children are in school or playing, India’s shodar children are working hard for as little as $3 a day on the construction site for the Common-Wealth Games Stadium.

Children of age 3 and 4 are collecting stones

Promises of extra bonuses such as money, bread and milk and an extra meal are made to parents who bring in their children to work on the site and for this, they work twelve-hour shifts. The children struggle to move baskets filled with rubble while their parents work nearby, while other youngsters struggle to pick up shovels that are as tall if not taller than as their slightly built bodies, helping with the building of the drainage system in front of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

In August, a two-year-old girl died when she was crushed under the wheels of a truck leaving the stadium after offloading materials, bringing the Common-Wealth death toll to 45 (Majority are children). The child had been playing nearby with other children while her parents worked.

Last February, response from the Government was sought by the High Court of Delhi over alleged failure to provide all the benefits of labour laws to workers involved in construction work of the upcoming Games. The Construction of the stadium has brought nothing but displacement and suffering for thousands of poor people in Delhi with allegations of corruption already in place. A quote of $8 million for the welfare and housing of labourers during the construction of the stadium and village was made by the government but an Indian newspaper report recently stated that only $5,000 of that budget has been spent.

An exhausted child at the construction site in Delhi

 
Enticing Fury

Pakistan Cyber Force

SHINNIG INDIA Seven-year-old Indian girls 'marry' frogs

By Dean Nelson in Delhi Vigneswari and Masiakanni wore traditional Indian bridal saris and gold jewellery in a lavish double wedding in their remote village home in Tamil Nadu.

The marriages were conducted as part of a centuries-old "Pongal" harvest tradition to "prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village".

Hundreds of villages in Pallipudpet, 250 kms from Madras, walked to the temple, carrying the two brides aloft on their shoulders, while the frogs were tied to long sticks garlanded with flowers. During the ceremony, a Hindu priest chanted prayers, tied the bride's hands with his on behalf of the grooms and pronounced them frogs and wives before a holy fire.
The ceremony has its roots in the story of the Hindu God Shiva who turned himself into a frog following a quarrel with his wife Parvati. She cried for days causing disease to spread throughout local villages. When the villages asked for help she sent them to find Shiva and plead with him to marry a young girl. She herself posed as the girl, and when Shiva agreed to marry her they returned to their original god forms and the outbreak was cured.
"The criteria to choose the brides is they should be yet to attain puberty. The parents of girls voluntarily provide their children for the ritual. Sometimes the girls are forced by parents, who get a sense of fulfilment to save the village from diseases. The main cause is illiteracy and lack of exposure," said Tamil commentator Dominic Bosco.
The tradition is a source of embarrassment and discomfort to the Indian government which has a real problem with illegal child marriages. It has ordered an inquiry into the practice and sent a team of psychologists, sociologists and religious leaders to persuade the villagers to abandon an "ignorant" tradition.
For the brides Vigneswari and Masiakanni, the marriages came to a swift and happy end: hours after tying the knot, their green grooms were thrown back into a muddy pond.
for more details: 

US sentences Aafia to 86 years

NEW YORK - Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist, who was convicted of allegedly trying to kill American soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan, was sentenced to 86 years in prison on Thursday in the Federal District Court in New York City.
Siddiqui, 38, in a white scarf, was calm when Judge Richard Berman pronounced the maximum sentence, but said that she was innocent. Outside the court building noisy demonstrations were staged by human rights activists and other supporters calling for her repatriation to Pakistan.
One of her lawyers, Dawn Cardi, said that the defence team, hired by the Pakistan Government, would appeal against the sentence but Siddiqui disowned them. “They don’t represent me.”
Her case had attracted the attention of human rights groups, some of which conducted campaigns in favour of her release or a lenient sentence. Her lawyers had requested a sentence of 12 years, while the government prosecutors had pressed for a life sentence. The prosecutors insisted that the court had the duty to protect the American people.
Siddiqui, who got biology and neuroscience degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, had punctuated her 14-day trial with numerous outbursts, resulting in her being ejected from the courtroom on several occasions.
Prior to her sentencing, Siddiqui disputed claims by her lawyers that she has a mental illness. She also urged her supporters not to lobby for her or turn violent. “I stand for peace and justice,” she said.
“I do not want a 9/11,” she added. “I do not want any bloodshed.”
A jury found Siddiqui guilty in February of seven charges, including two counts of attempted murder. The jury found there wasn’t premeditation in the attempted murder charges.
Siddiqui denied she was against Israel as projected in the press. But Israel has arrested Palestinian children and she was critical of the Jewish State’s policies. “I love all countries, including her homeland-Pakistan,” she said.
She said Islam had taught her to be patient and forgiving.
DETAILS:

“Shining” India is “Stinking” India

 Editor’s note: The expression “in deep shit” is usually used in slang english to describe the condition of being in deep trouble. In India however, the expression has found its literal meanings; read article below:

Andrew Buncombe | The Independent, UK
Over 600 million Indians defecate in the open everyday.
Of all the sad and predictable problems to have emerged over Delhi’s ill-fated preparations for this year’s Commonwealth Games, one detail that caught the eye of many yesterday was the revelation that a number of the apartments that are supposed to house the athletes had been soiled by human excrement. One grisly report suggested that officials from the international games committee even discovered that someone – presumably a labourer – had defecated in the kitchen sink of one of the apartments.

Terrible, terrible, awful. Yes, indeed. But while this nasty story was breaking yesterday I couldn’t help but save a thought for the poor old labourers too.  Surveys and reports carried out in the run-up to the games by NGOs and human rights groups have highlighted the sometimes slave-like conditions in which the labourers responsible for building the stadiums and related infrastructure that will house the tournament have often lived. Inadequate food and water, lack of safety equipment and wages often below the pathetic national minimum wage has been the reality for most workers, often migrants labourers from India’s poorer states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Another problem has been the lack of adequate sanitation. This is a problem faced by millions of Indians every day. Earlier this year, a report by a UN body revealed that more people here had mobile phones than enjoyed access to a toilet. While there were around 563m phone subscribers, only 366m – around a third of the population — could regularly use proper sanitation.
The problems caused by this situation are huge. Men and women alike are forced to defecate in public on scraps of land close to their homes, by railway sidings, on the edge of the road. It is a particular problem for women, who are forced to get up while it is still dark, risking being attacked or bitten by snakes, in order to try and find some privacy. Children, especially girls, are often unwilling to go to school because they know there is no toilet for them to use.  Disease and illnesses spread. It is also utterly undignified.
The Indian government repeatedly claims it is seeking to end so-called “open air defecation”. An Indian minister confidently told a conference I attended in Delhi in November 2007, that the practice would be ended by 2012, such was the investment the authorities were pouring into building public toilets.  Two years from his deadline, the challenge remains as huge as ever.
I should point out that some organisations make a huge effort in this regard. The charity  Sulabh International, founded by the redoubtable Bindeshwar Pathak, has provided thousands of public toilets that use simple composting technology across India and beyond.
Sadly, such efforts have not been matched by successive governments in Delhi who talk so much of helping India’s millions of poor people but who repeatedly let them down. Perhaps the unidentified labourer who decided to squat in the kitchen sink at the athletes’ village was trying to make a point.