In 2010, she started collecting donations with an aim to reach every single child require an aid. She said: “My mother used to donate clothes on my birthday to NGOs and it made me wonder why I couldn’t do this all the time. That’s how this idea came to me.”
“We coined the idea of Share At Door Step in 2011. We noticed that we have doorstep services for almost everything, but nothing catering to our pursuit of inner satisfaction, which comes from making other people happy,” Jain said.
Initially, she had to work hard to pick and drop donations by her own. Today she has several volunteers in her team who are equally dedicated. “Initially, I would pick up as many as 200 donation items and would contact those who were in need.”
Share at Door Step
In 2011, she started a group called Share at Door Step with an aim to reach out every single child in need. This group work on three basic principles, first, to meet people who are too busy and unable to go out and donate. Second, there is a big gap between NGOs and people as they don’t know the requirements. Third, there is no easy way to make a monetary donation. That’s why Jain founded her venture, where people simply need to schedule their pickup in advance.
In her group she has more than 150 volunteers most of them are college students and youngsters. “We have some strict standards that donors as well NGOs need to follow. We send a receipt and picture of donation to NGO and person in need.”
How to reach
All one needs to do is contact SADS via mail or on the phone or through Facebook to connect with the volunteers. “As soon as we receive the notification saying you want to make a donation, we contact you and fix an appointment that suits you,” she added, “We have the requirement lists from different partner NGOs. After basic levels of audit and verification, we send the donations to the respective NGOs and credit your account with share points within a week. Also we will mail you the receipt and the snaps in five working days.”
Difficulties
Initially they had to face lot of challenges, but things are improving steadily as she believes. According to her volunteers, people don’t trust at first sight, they usually make them aware about the cause and entire picture. “Whenever we go to the public and ask for some donation, they look at us in a doubt. However, we have all authentic proofs with proper documents with us, people don’t get ready to come forward for donations. To please them and to make them satisfy is a biggest challenge.”
Author: Priyanka
GAG ORDER AT JADAVPUR IS AGAINST BENGAL’S HERITAGE
Will it lead to an uproar?
In defiance, University employees have already made it clear that freedom of speech in the University will not be controlled under any circumstances. A section of JU employees have already decided to protest against the decision by the state government. After all, University is where students go to sharpen their minds, their arguments and debate. By stifling free speech, it will achieve the opposite. The University teachers are taking this gag order seriously.
The Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) held its general body meeting on Friday, where they have been discussing how they should approach this entire issue. Taking a strong objection to the included clauses in the draft statue which has raised fear of gagging any opposition voice in university by the government, JUTA observed that there will be univocal protest against the additions made in draft statue and demand for the withdrawal of those clauses.
The teachers, officers and non-teaching staff, have already declared it as yet another instance of vendetta politics.
The clause states that any employee found guilty of “unethical propagation” of views against the interest of the university and policies of the state government are liable for punishment that may also take his job. What is an ‘unethical propagation’? It seems to be a catch all phrase that the University authorities under the Government direction can use against any form of criticism. Is critical analysis and debate ‘unethical’?
JU teachers see this as a “draconian step” to stifle non-conformist views in the mass media, a step that is likely to be replicated in other state universities as well. The state government had earlier tried a similar restriction on state government college teachers that didn’t work out as planned.
The Mamta government needs to keep in mind that University politics Vermula had led to crisis in Andhra Pradesh, and had also led to severe criticism of then HRD minister Smriti Irani. The Mamta Government should connect with the young voters in her state and not fear their voices. Freedom of expression should be the rule of the state that has traditionally been known for free flowing thought process.
The State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee has promised to look into the matter. But the opposition government has already grabbed the issue and has been highlighting that the state government has imposed a dictatorial rule. They have been supporting the students and the university teachers. CPI (M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said by imposing such order, the democratic environment of the university will be
harmed.
Bengal has been the crucible of ideas in India with great free thinkers like Tagore and Amartya Sen. Mamta Benarjee should defend the great tradition of the state and not stifle it with incoherent words such as ‘unethical propagation’.. She should celebrate Bengal’s heritage of free speech and not gag it.
WHAT WILL ERADICATE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE – STRONGER LAWS OR GENDER-NEUTRAL MINDSET?
It had come to the notice that the current legal system is beneficial largely for women, which leaves the abused men without any help from the police and the law. What India need is a strong legal system which is justified and useful for a gender neutral world. Since we live in a massively gender-unequal world, domestic violence is one of the biggest threats restricted to only the women’s lives.
How effective is the Domestic Violence Act: In 2005, The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) was introduced, which takes into account all the types of domestic violence women experience and also empowers judges to implement restraining orders, requires abusers to pay maintenance to the victim and grant property rights to women rights to shared homes.
The progressive move covers couples in live-in relationships, so that women do not get a raw deal. For a long time, live-in relationships in India was considered a taboo and most women failed to get respect in the society and rarely hoped of getting justice if embroiled in a case involving domestic violence. A report in the Indian Journal of Community Medicine’s latest issue highlights that many women face sexual and physical violence from their husbands over disagreements about safe sex. The study, conducted by the departments of obstetrics and gynecology, and family planning at Delhi’s University College of Medical Sciences, also shows that several victims silently tolerate the abuse, believing it’s their destiny. Of the 500 women who participated, about 46 per cent said they could not use condoms because it was their husbands’ decision.
The study found forced sex and sexual violence in 39 per cent of the cases, physical violence in 23 per cent of cases, and verbal abuse in nearly 33 per cent of cases. Physical violence mainly consisted of pushing, slapping, punching, kicking, beating with a weapon, and even inflicting burns. Women in India face a slew of violence, such as sexual and physical abuse, dowry killings, and domestic assault, largely due to deep-rooted patriarchal attitudes.
According to a report published in the Daily Mail, the author of the study, Dr Nilanchali Singh, said wives are not allowed to make independent choices regarding family planning and have no “reproductive autonomy” in India’s male-dominated society. If the society wants to grow, then it needs to work towards formulating legal processes which helps in anyone irrespective of the gender get justice in the legal process.
Salman Khan acquitted in Chinkara poaching case- No one killed the animal
Just like how no-one killed the people sleeping on the pavement of Bandra, nobody seems to have killed the mute Blackbuck in Rajasthan too. Since the court verdict has come in the favour of Salman Khan, now he can breath easy by giving out the message that celebrities indeed are above the law.
Salman Khan will always remember the year 2015-16 as the golden years of his life. This is not just because he had the most successful movies in these years, but, all the long-pending cases against him concluded in his favour.
The Rajasthan High Court in Jodhpur has acquitted Salman Khan in two cases of poaching Chinkara. This has come as a surprise for many as the ruling has overturned a lower court verdict in the case which was pending for the past 17-years. The actor had challenged the lower court’s orders that had handed him one and five years’ imprisonment in the two cases. The High Court on May 13, reserved the decision after completing the hearing in the matter.
The actor had spent eight days in the Jodhpur central jail in 2006 after being found guilty. But, the ruling has clearly acquitted him in the case. The verdict has come as a huge relief after he the court gave a verdict in his favour, last year, in the hit-and-run case.
Chinkaras, or Indian gazelles, are a protected species and hunting these animals is banned. Moreover, in Rajasthan it is one of the revered species and the local tribes in the area were up in the arms when Salman was found shooting the animal. This was in the year 1998, when Salman and seven others from the film fraternity including Neelam, Tabu and Saif Ali Khan were accused of killing a blackbuck and a chinkara in two separate incidents. One of the animals was killed at Bhawad on the outskirts of Jodhpur on September 26, 1998, and the other at Ghoda Farms on September 28, 1998. At that time, all these actors were shooting for Sooraj Barjatya’s family drama, ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’.
The actor was shooting for the film Hum Saath Saath Hain at that time. Two cases against Khan – black-buck hunting and possessing illegal arms – are still being heard by trial courts in the state. But, with this verdict it is clear now that Salman is now a free man.