In the fight against AIDS, two dimensions need to be worked upon:

• Acceptance of the HIV positive persons by the society.
• Encouraging the youth to follow safe relevant practices.

Why Stigma & Discrimination:

• HIV/AIDS is often seen from the moralistic lens – The myth is that only people with promiscuous/immoral behaviour get HIV/AIDS while the reality is that now it has taken the form of epidemic and is spreading fast from High risk groups to general population.
• Due to ignorance- There are many myths about routes of HIV transmission.  

Much awareness on this disease has been created, now focus needs to be shifted upon extending support to the HIV positive persons from the society. When a person is tested positive for HIV, other than the fear of suffering from this disease; a feeling of social rejection crops up in the mind of AIDS patient. Despite knowing what causes AIDS, people are not able to accept the sufferer . As a result, the person in question is kept away from all social affairs, making his life a hell.

On this World AIDS Day, take a step forward, embrace an HIV Positive person and spread the word. AIDS DOES NOT SPREAD BY TOUCHING!..

 Visit http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/hiv/en/index.html for more details.

 I now feel that I am finally doing justice to the purpose of my existence on this earth. Life has become much more meaningful. With Fair Trade, everyone can make a difference in the world, however small it may be.

 However, there’s a lot more that needs to be done to bring about a significant sustainable development.

 Majority of my artisan groups reside in the interiors of remote Indian villages, where even the basic necessities like health care, clean drinking water, electricity, higher education facilities, etc are not available.

 The pace of positive change in their lives is very slow. Lack of education, lack of exposure & opportunities, traditional and conservative mindset, unavailability of modern tools & accessories, home based working, etc  are some of the roadblocks to artisans’ success.

Years of exploitation by agents and casual enquiries/sampling by customers have left them bereft & devoid of hope. It now takes them a lot of effort to even trust people who actually want to help them out. Trust building is one of the important factors for a successful relationship for development.

 We often observe a strong resistance to change on their part but if we look at the scenario from their point of view, maybe they are not completely at fault. Artisans are artistic people and need to draw a creative satisfaction from each artifact that they create. It is therefore very important to carefully design products for them with an optimum blend of their traditional art and contemporary touch. Similarly, reducing the amount of art from a product to reduce the cost may be Ok up to a level but more than that it results in loss of creative interest of the artisans. It will not be fair to compare their handcrafted beautiful products to machine made items produced in bulk.

 Artisan development is a comprehensive and sensitive issue and requires utmost dedication and contribution from the society. A lot has been done and a lot needs to be done. Besides helping them with finances, workshops, trainings, design, etc., we need to understand their thoughts, respect their culture & tradition and appreciate the hardships they face while giving beautiful products to us. Have we ever realized that the rural artisans use the most sustainable & eco-friendly processes & raw materials; that they are the ones who respect the environment the most? & that their lifestyle is truly sustainable and they exploit the resources to the bare minimum? Yes, there are lot many things that we too can learn from them!

 Yes, Fair Trade in real sense can be successful and sustainable only if we understand & respect each other and learn from each other! Every small step counts!

Happy Fair Trading!!!

Blog Post by: Rashmi Dhariwal ( Founder and CEO, SETU-The Bridge To Artisans)

The main aim of the visit was to conduct a technical workshop and interact with our women artisans, to know more about them. After the workshop on `Trend & color forecast for next seasons’, I visited `Hittanalli’, a remote village in Karnataka. Hittanalli is a small village which lacks even the basic facilities like electricity and drinking water. Electricity is available for only 3 hrs. in the day time and the area is really hot & sultry.

 25 of our women artisans comes from this village, out of which 6 are physically challenged; suffering from one or other kind of disability. But these women have overcome all their weaknesses and have gained a position & respect for themselves by becoming self sustainable. All these women earns fair wages.  Their stories tell us the real joy of women empowerment!!

Meet `Prema Mahadev’, a 28 year old mother of two, educated till BA 2^nd year, doing embroidery and stitching work. At one sight, looking at her confidence & smile, she appears to be a normal Indian woman managing her work and family. But she has polio in her left leg and walks with difficulty. For years, her husband didn’t allow her to work or earn money. But since last 1-1/2 years, she has been able to persuade him. She now has the permission to work from her home. She is using her stitching & embroidery skills and makes beautiful bags! She now has got her own bank account, earns a decent sum of Rs 70-80 per day, working part time at her home. Now, becoming self sustainable, she is motivating other women to follow her path and has formed a group of 10-15 women. She feels she is an empowered woman now, that she can go out of the house to bank and collect raw material for making bags at home. When asked what she will do with the money she has earned & saved, an ecstatic Prema replied “I will buy beautiful jewellery and sarees for myself. I simply love them & crave for them, the remaining money I will invest in my children’s higher education, if needed”, truly an empowered answer!! At least a woman can now dream of beautiful things and can also think of achieving them.

 The list doesn’t end here, meet another woman warrior `Bhuwenashwari’, a 26 year old with polio in both legs. She cannot walk at all but can move by dragging her body with her hands. She got her first polio drops at the age of 3yrs; quite late for immunity norms. But the tragedy is that her mother feels that due to these polio drops only, her daughter got struck with polio. She did not give any polio vaccines to her 3 subsequent children. (This is one issue that needs to be addressed and these doubts against vaccines need to be eliminated). Coming back to Bhuwenashwari, she is an icon in herself. She can’t even move due to polio but manages to embroider beautifully. It took her few months to learn the art but the strength with which she does embroidery is simply unbelievable. A third standard dropout, she is almost illiterate, but is so proud that she can sign her own name. Her confidence is amazing! I asked somebody for the name of the village and I tried to repeat the name. She promptly & confidently informed me that I was pronouncing it wrong. My Hindi accent could not pronounce the Kannada name that correctly. She made me repeat the name till I could pronounce it right. Despite all such hardships, she sports a big smile on her face!

The basic reason behind selecting the village `Hittanalli’ for vocational training was due to women like her.

 It was a joy meeting such women. Hats off to them!!

 Blog post by: Rashmi Dhariwal  ( Founder and CEO,  SETU-The Bridge To Artisans)

Child labor is a sensitive issue. It refers to the employment of children as regular and sustained labour. This issue has been a topic of heated debate for a long time. International labor Organization (ILO) defines child labor as work that deprives childrenof their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development .          

It refers to work that:

• is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and
• interferes with their schooling by:
• depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
• obliging them to leave school prematurely; or
• requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with  excessively long and heavy work.

In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age. (Source: ILO)

In India, child labor is a grave problem. According to the government reports, about 20 million children are employed as child labor in India; other agencies put forward the number to be 50 million. Forms of child labor in India includes the use of children as domestic help, in carpet weaving industries, child prostitution, child trafficking, bonded labor to name a few. In India it’s illegal to employ a child below the age of 14 years; it’s a punishable offence under Indian law attracting an imprisonment or fine or both. Also the employer has to pay for the rehabilitation of the child. But the penalty is still isn’t enough!! It appears to be a formality of making a law. Strong laws need to be made to tackle such a grave issue.

Why children are forced to work???  

This very basic question needs to be answered before reaching on any conclusion on child labor. Talking about India, the most basic reason behind this burning issue is poverty. Millions of people living below the poverty line in India force their children to work to earn money. By doing this the adult members of the family shrug off their responsibility of earning bread for the family. Sometimes, the parent being a victim of bad habits like alcoholism, drugs etc. are unable to find any work, in the absence of which children of the family have to go to work.

The other reason is “Bonded child labor” which refers to the phenomenon of children working in conditions of servitude in order to pay off a debt. This debt is incurred on the parents which; in the case of parent not being able to pay it off forces the child to become a slave of the employer until the debt is not paid off completely. For their work, children are not paid anything as bonded labor; also they have to work in very unhygienic & deprived conditions.

Caste system in India is also one of the reasons of child labor. Children belonging to lower casts like dalits and tribals are taken for granted to work by the upper classes as they are poor and not have access to education and it is considered as they are borne to live like this.

Due to extreme poverty; in many cases, parents abandon their children and sell them to factory owners. In other cases, on being estranged, these children get misled and in absence of no other option, work in factories engaged in  cracker making, diamond polishing, glass, brass-ware, carpet weaving, bangle making, lock making and mica cutting and the list is endless. These industries are always in lookout for cheap human labor which they get in form of innocent children. The conditions in which children work here are hazardous posing health risks.

In some cases, children are forced to beg on the streets. Looking at the innocence & pathetic condition of such children, people tend to offer them more alms as compared to adult beggars. 

So what’s the solution?? 

Spread awareness

Many of the people including the parents of child labors and employers are not aware of this grave topic. Some of them practice it in ignorance. Educating them; making them aware of the laws on child labor can bring a great difference. Also spreading awareness on this issue in general is essential to attract the attention of the educated mass on this topic as they are the ones who can do something in this regard.

Provide employment to the parents of child labor

Children are forced to work as child labors due to joblessness of their parents. If the parents are given jobs then the children no more have to work.

Make stringent laws

Child labor is a sensitive issue and requires adequate attention. The laws at present are not sufficient, more stringent action needs to be taken so that no one can escape by making any loopholes in the law.  Severe penalties need to be enforced.

Encourage Fair Trade Practices

Fair trade advocates against child labor. In Fair Trade practices around the world children are not put to work as it is one of the Principles of Fair Trade. This concept can prove to be a milestone in stopping child labor.

Have your say in stopping child labor!

Every individual can contribute towards stopping child labor by sponsoring education and /or bringing up of a child as most of the child labors are not having an access to even primary education. This step, if taken by a large number of people can prove to be a stepping stone in stopping child labor.

Develop backward Communities

 Children belonging to the backward or minority groups start working much early than other children, measures should be taken to end discrimination and  increase the facilities to such communities.

Promote girl child education

Gender discrimination is also one of the reasons of child labor. In many parts of the world where girls attend school for fewer years than boys and have to start working at a younger age than boys, it becomes extremely important to end this gender discrimination and promote girl child education.

 Eradicate poverty, eradicate child labor

Poverty is the most prevalent cause of child labor. Nations should focus on eradicating poverty. This will automatically decrease the number of child laborers.

Today, on the occasion of the “World Day against Child Labor” take a pledge to alleviate this evil practice from its roots so that it will not be able to haunt a child any more!!!

 Net surfers have a hand in global warming!!! General computer users may or may not realize this fact but they are becoming contributors to the global warming issue and affect of indiscriminate browsing adds to this burning problem manifold.

 How??? Let’s know:

•  Surfing of general websites results in emission of 20 mg CO2 per second approximately. Complicated websites such as video, animation, applications etc. emit per second 300 mg CO2 approximately.
•  Each google search (as per Dr. Allex Visnor Gross) results in approximately 7 gm of CO2 emission with 11 watts/ hr electricity expenditure.
•  Your slowest computer (in running condition) produces 40-80 gm CO2 emission per hour.
• According to ‘Big Switches’ writer Mr. Nicholas Car, the virtual reality game websites such as ‘second life’ (which contains awtar as its graphic replica) may consume approximately 1752 kw/ hr electricity.
• In switch-on condition, your computer consumes approximately 175 watts electricity.
• In switch-on but inactive condition, your computer consumes 60 to 250 watts of electricity, when monitor is switched off.

            What’s the solution?

•  If you are not going to use computer for more than 20 minutes, then switch off your monitor.
•  If you are off the computer for more than 2 hrs, then switch off monitors, CPU, Broadband connection, printer, and scanner. These consume electricity and produce heat in the environment.
• Switch off the broadband connection in other than working hours. Many a time in absence of your knowledge so many internet activities keep continuing, which consume energy and inflate your internet bill too.
•  Viewing the websites having darker screen consumes less electricity. Hence, if you wish to search google, then use, (http://www.blackle.com) or (http://www.darkoogle.com), which produces same results as google servers, but due to darker screen consumes less electricity.
•  Do not keep websites open unnecessarily, specifically video, audio, graphics, animation based websites.
•  Refrain from unnecessary downloading. Contents worth downloading should be arranged organized by in specific folders, so  that contents present in computer need not to be downloaded time again.

  For more such green tips visit our Green living tips  page.

In India, we decided to mark this day in a very simple and meaningful way. After a lot of mind boggling ideas, we concluded on doing something to create awareness among the `youth’ about Fair Trade. Now, the question arises why only youth? It is because most of  the subsequent change & development lies in the hands of today’s youth and therefore it is very important for them to be aware of a wonderful and practical concept as Fair Trade. Most of them are unaware of it. Also in today’s times of recession, when the number of job cuts is more than the number of recruitments in case of Corporate sector, the young people would be more keen to look for alternate streams. And, Fair trade offers huge opportunities for growth. There are many areas in which an exciting career can be made like community development, sustainable development in rural areas, working for NGOs and Cooperatives or starting other mission-based activities. Young educated youth can join these groups & communities and can help them achieve their objectives by working with them at the grass root level. Also they can help promote SHGs, cooperatives or start their own Fair Trade businesses. The young catalysts of change can reinforce the underprivileged communities by their knowledge & vigour. Generally the artisan or farmer groups are not well exposed / educated and therefore fall short on various dimensions like marketing of products, knowing the latest trends & technologies in the market. etc. Their problem can be solved to a great extent if the young educated folks help them in this regard.

Keeping all these things in mind, SETU is organizing a workshop in a leading Management Institute in Gwalior on this WFTD. Continue visiting our Face book Page for more details.