Written by Dishant Dash

2020, When this year was about to be scheduled in the calendar no one had any clue of the miseries that the year was to bring along. It was the month of January, India had no clue of the tragedies that were to fall upon it in the next few months. Initially, when we came across this alien virus, we smiled it off. None of us had any idea of the disaster edged on it. Back then, the discussions among us involved the immune system of Indians being strong enough to counter the virus and the temperature here to be too high for it to sustain. Sadly, all the discussions remained as a mere hope in the very end. 

 It was in the month of March that the entire nation came to a halt. All the assumptions and the ever growing optimism seemed to lose threads. Finally the virus caused Havoc towards the end of March and the entire country was announced to be on lockdown for a week by our Prime minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. The schools, colleges, universities were all shut down immediately. The roads went empty and not a single soul was seen on the roads. This scenario wasn't familiar at all. Humankind was unaccustomed to shutdowns for such a long period. In the beginning, the lockdown was bitter sweet. Bitter for the hard earning daily workers and vendors and sweet for the people with an affirmed job and pay. The real problem which affected everyone was the extension of lockdown. People started realising the tragedy it caused. Everyone started losing jobs and with activities on a halt, salaries couldn't be paid anymore. This not just negatively affected the monetary condition however appallingly influenced the psychological condition of individuals also. 

The lockdown is now a book of untold stories of individuals belonging to different parts of the world. It is perhaps a book of misery, suffering, hardships, heartbreaks and reality. It's about time we take the initiative to cover these stories and bring them out to the people. Few days back I interviewed a very industrious and exceptional individual whom I have known for quite a long time. This is the story of Mr. Bablu Sahani, native of Bihar, famously known as "Bablu Moori Wala". A diligent vendor who has been selling Bhel Moori for over 15 years now, in front of the St. Joseph's Convent school, Sambalpur, a city in the state of Odisha. I have known Mr. Bablu since I was a little school going kid, but now after I interviewed him I realized that I had never really tried to know him. I had an ever smiling image of him printed. It took a global pandemic for my eyes to open wide and clear. I moved toward Mr. Bablu by examining this thought with him and how it could help him and with his assent I requested him to share his lockdown story. 

When asked about his life Mr. Bablu shared that he has been living on rent in the city of Sambalpur by selling Bhel Moori. This has been the only way of income for him and his family of 6 (his wife and 4 children) for over 15 years now. 

We moved to our primary question and asked him about his reaction when he first heard of the lockdown and what shock did it send to him and his family. The answer was always going to be heart-wrenching. To this he replied, with his eyes moist, that in the beginning they were not much worried as they thought it would all get over very soon. They had no idea of the lockdown getting extended any further. He mentioned that they were all only prepared for a week of lockdown and had food that would feed them mostly a week or so. To their surprise and heartbreak, the lockdown got extended and the entire family was left with no further food. Talking about the first seven days of lockdown, Mr Bablu described that they fed upon all the food stuff they had for the business of Moori. And soon they were left with none. An entire month went by and Mr. Bablu went out of all his savings. Since he lived on rent, the houseowner didn't show much of mercy and forgave them only a month's rent. Due to not enough mercy shown, Mr Bablu had to borrow money from people to pay his house rent. With all the doors locked the entire family started to lose hope of survival. This is when our hearts cried and all of a sudden we saluted him while interviewing. Mr Bablu said that, even when the hopes had started to fade, he ensured his family that they were not going to give up easily. He then narrated to us their journey to Bihar. 

The Bihar government had issued the guidelines to bring back the natives staying in other cities to their hometowns. This is when Mr Bablu and family started their walk of struggle. They faced a lot of trouble with the registration process. It was basically a test of patience and temperament. They had to wait for nearly two weeks before their registration process was finally completed. Then the family boarded a bus sent by the Bihar government from Sambalpur to Bhubaneswar. Next they had a train from Bhubaneswar to Bihar. This is when their destination looked nearer. But a greater task awaited them in Bihar. 

The family went into 14 days of quarantine from the day they reached Patna. Mr. Bablu suddenly broke down and mentioned with a shiver down his spine that he had never imagined a situation this tough in his life. From earning rupees fifteen thousand a month in a small city to spending all his life savings to help his family survive, his tears made our hearts heavy. When asked if he had to spend any money while traveling from Sambalpur to Patna, in grief he expressed that he had to carry out all the expenses and the government did provide one time food only after they reached their village. This is where the question pops up. The government should be responsible for each and every citizen. We are the ones voting them to make things better and it is their duty and responsibility to look after us. Mr Bablu having to finance his journey from Sambalpur to Patna in times of misery is a classic example of failure from the government. A man who is already living on loans can in no way finance a journey for a family of six. It will only bury him under additional burdens. But kudos to his spirit and the support that his family extended which has helped him to start his sales again. He proudly stated that he has been able to repay most of the loans that he took from people and is now for the time being running his business much better. But he mentioned the fear that he and his family still face every time they sit together. This is the fear of the pandemic which has ruined all of our lives. A further lockdown would only break his hope but not his spirit. 

When asked if anyone from the family was infected by the virus, Mr Bablu with a gleeful smile replied that he and his family have been absolutely safe and have been taking all the necessary precautions to fight the virus. Speaking about his children, he first broke down and then suddenly with a bright smile expressed in front of us the love they share among themselves. He made it quite clear that he has always prioritised his children's education and that he only works to provide them a great future. With this aim he started working again when the lockdown was lifted. He started working for extra hours and managed to earn well. When we finally asked him if he has planned for future lockdowns or worse case scenarios, he stunned us with this one line "We are the people who dig wells daily to drink water." This one sentence was an eye opener. He sighed that he only prays for the situation to get back to normalcy and admitted that though he was back to work, the earnings weren't that big. When asked about how much he wants to earn in the future, in a voice filled with faith and aspiration he exclaimed that he wants to earn so big that he repays all the money borrowed and buys a house for his family and provides the best education for his children.

The motive behind interviewing Mr Bablu was to not just present his story in front of the world but to unite us all to cover more such stories. Sharing this in the media is a help which has no guarantee. We need to come up with innovative ideas such as contributions of any amount or anything that people need. The initiative needs to be taken to witness the ever shining results.

Let us all take a step forward and start with helping someone even in the tiniest of ways. "Blessings don't shower upon people who wait for miracles to happen, but upon those who create them.

Image from aa.com

Written by Aarti Shrivastava

Pandemic is what happened to us while we were planning 2020. At the start of March 2020, everything seemed fine. Corona was a foreign enemy in a faraway land. And suddenly within a span of 20 days it had come next to us and asking for a fourth seat in the Mumbai local. Then what happened changed things drastically for the whole nation. 

Lockdown trial on a Sunday seemed like a fun experiment. A one-day thing. Who knew this experiment would come and haunt us for another 5 months of complete lockdown. On March 24, the first lockdown of 21 days was announced. This too seemed like a phase, which would get over in 3 weeks. However, adjusting to this new trapped life was a challenge we did not see coming. 

Staying home for 24 hours meant major change in lifestyle. Obviously, it was not easy for the person who used to wake up checking M-indicator and making crucial decisions like which train to board while in the washroom. Suddenly the worry became attending a scheduled meeting on an app that was just an icon in the mobile menu to date. For housewives, who usually had the house to themselves it felt like a mealtime throughout the day. 

For the kid who was supposed to join school, it was a vacation like never before. A vacation with no fixed last day. Firstly, the playground came home and then the school. For students who had just given their board exams, it was the most horrible vacation and transition phase to college days. 

The day would pass by checking news updates and filling worksheets just to prove you have ‘worked from home.’ The Working-class saw it all from the introduction of Work from home to complaining about it and to finally adopting it. Going out to get some essentials seemed like going to a war zone. Masks and sanitizers became our forever outdoor partners.

However, there was a brighter side to this lifestyle as well. People started valuing family time. Everyone enjoyed each other’s company and was proudly showing it off on social media sites as well. Suddenly all lessons learned online. Want yoga? Attend a class. Diet plans were fingertips away. Workout patterns from home became the new gym routine. 

To sum it all. 2020 was indeed a year to remember and will leave a permanent mark in all our lives.

JM Finn Twitter handle

Written by Aarti Shrivastava

A total of 3,17,439 cyber crime cases along with 5,771 FIRs were registered online through a centralised portal in the last 18 months. According to information supplied by Lok Sabha, a sizeable amount of it registered in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. 

Union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy said the ministry of home affairs operationalized the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal on August 30, 2019 to provide a centralised mechanism to the citizens for online reporting of all types of cybercrime incidents, with a special focus on cyber crimes against women and children. 

 With the whole world going digital because of the lockdown, there was a huge rise in cyber crime. One major reason for it was the unmonitored browsing by children due to online schooling. There were also a notable amount of cases of online transaction frauds. 

"As per the data maintained, since its inception 3,17,439 cybercrime incidents and 5,771 FIRs have been registered up to February 28, 2021, in the country which includes, 21562 cybercrime incident and 87 FIRs in Karnataka and 50,806 cybercrime incidents and 534 FIRs in Maharashtra," Mr Reddy said in a written reply to a question. The minister also assured that the incidents reported on this portal, their conversion into FIRs, and subsequent action are handled by the stare and Union Territory law enforcement agency concerned as per the provisions of the law.

Education Minister Official Twitter Handle

Written by Aarti Shrivastava

On March 15, Education Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that 27 lakh teachers were trained during the COVID-19 pandemic. Replying to a supplementary question in Lok Sabha during the Question Hour, Mr. Nishank also added that around 30 lakh teachers from India had registered for the training programme conducted by the government. 

Replying to another supplementary question, Mr. Nishank also raised concerns over the falling standards of B.Ed exams in India. It is also noted that there were many complaints on the same. He reacted to it by saying that the government is taking action against such colleges that fail to fulfill the criteria for the course. Mr. Nishank also added that in recent years, more than 1 Crore 60 Lakh teachers have been trained and the Government disbursed 2,500 crore rupees for the programme. 

Elaborating on the same he said, each teacher is expected to participate in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for minimum of 50 hours in a year. The programme aims at capacity building of Teachers, Head of Schools and Key Resource Persons (KRPs) from all parts of the country including remote areas, rural areas and backward villages. With the current Covid-19 pandemic, this training program has been made 100 percent online as per the requirements of learning and teaching.

Since Independence Twitter handle

Written by Aarti Shrivastava

 A membership enrollment drive was started by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Sunday where people are given an option to do the process offline as well as online. The online portal allows you to choose between English and Marathi languages. 

This step has been taken in view of the 2022 Mumbai civic polls. On the inauguration day, MNS chief Raj Thackeray and his wife Sharmila arrive at Shivaji Park to get themselves enrolled. However, due to technical issues, they had to do the process offline. “In the first two hours, more than 300,000 citizens joined the MNS and the response was fabulous,” said Thackeray. “Professional and experts from various fields, come and join the political arena,” he said in a tweet. 

The drive expected to be held till March 24. The membership form will also ask declaration that you are not a part of any other political party and pledge that you will follow the rules, regulations, policies, and discipline of MNS.

Unicef Maharashtra along with partner NGOs conduct WASH and Toilet Management awareness program through #flushthevirus campaign.

The distressing situation in the slum settlements of Mumbai due to the increasing graph in number of COVID-19 patients with community toilets becoming the core place of the transmission left a key concern.

Triratna Prerana Manda (TPM), a community based NGO along with Citizens Association for Child Rights (CACR) partnered with UNICEF Maharashtra and crafted a unique campaign “Flush the Virus”. They conducted a baseline survey, the campaign extensively focused on 134 Community toilets and 16 BMC schools used as quarantine centres across the three Covid19 active hotspots of Mumbai, G/North (Dharavi), M/East, and H/East Wards and later moved to other MCGM wards as per the need.

The campaign 'flushthevirus' is in direct association with the slum communities and CBOs, the last component of civil service organisations at the grass-roots level who are working in their own communities with welfare activities for the community people. Thus, the campaign was to empower the CBOs with their toilet caretaker, MCGM schools on WASH and Toilet management in amid and post Covid19 pandemic.

The campaign helped to create a key behavioural change in the toilet users on respiratory hygiene, use of a mask and importantly the precautions taken while using the community toilets. The adequate support on disinfectants, cleaning materials and HWS helped sustaining the toilet in comparison to the pre-campaign position as per the baseline survey.

Through this campaign with different interventions like HWS installation at 134 CBO we were able to reach minimum 1,84,183 individuals. Through 187 CBOs we managed to reach minimum 2,15,183 individuals and under megaphone activity done at 100 CBOs we were able to reach 8,38,400 individuals.

Photo Credit - Chicago Tribune

Trial by Media', this term has been thrown around a lot in recent days. Since its introduction, media has been responsible for bringing forth issues pertaining to the public eye for better or for the worse. While some issues are deemed necessary, others are just bloated up to increase viewership of their respective channels.

The media shenanigans involving the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput panned out into a long overstretched drama for the entertainment of the public in the name of justice. What started with the investigation into the death of an actor turned into a Bollywood drug bust.

While the media trial of drugs in the Bollywood industry is not inherently a bad thing, it is the frightening pace with which media changes topics and finds a new scapegoat to sacrifice just for the sake of viewership which is appalling.

The media's utter disregard for mental health showed just how flawed the fourth pillar of democracy could be. Of course, it's no help when people sit at home and cook up their theories, thereby giving fuel to the media fire.

News coverage is now more of a rat race rather than a quest for truth. That is how the television media channels function. It is a race for whoever gets the best bites and the best footage.

One victim of this media witch-hunt is Rhea Chakraborty. There is not a single line that the media has not crossed while trying to villainize her. While she alone wasn't responsible for the mess that was created, she alone is facing the consequences. The media has conveniently ignored others with an apparently higher standing just because they don't suit their narrative.

The events that unfurled after Sushant Singh Rajput's death bear a similar resemblance to the media trial that was conducted after Sridevi's death. There were so many theories that were created just because the people were unwilling to believe that she had died an accidental death. And the media flew in like vultures to devour on the disbelief of the people.

Another thing worth noting can be the ferocity with which some media houses chose to ignore other vital issues plaguing the country in the face of news that sells.

Trial by media can be a virtue only if it is undertaken as a quest for truth rather than a witch-hunt. If it is the latter, then it turns into a vice as it tends to destroy people's life. There have been quite some examples like the Jessica Lal case and the Priyadarshini Mattoo case wherein the media played an important role in not allowing the criminals to go unpunished.

On the other hand, cases like the Aarushi Talwar murder case come across as harrowing encounters of media trial wherein the verdict was out even before the trial had begun. The lack of apathy by media was severely criticised and rightfully so.

Just like a coin, trial by media has two sides. But the negative side has the potential to do more damage than its counterpart.

(DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed over here are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of the company.)