Washington, D.C., Wednesday, December 21, 2005 - The presence of a young Indian 13-years old Muslim girl from Bihar, Guriya Khatun, at the launching, in London last week, of the annual UNICEF (formerly `United Nation's International Children's Emergency Fund) report titled, 'The State of the World’s Children 2006: Excluded and Invisible', has unwittingly cut through the ongoing false 'India shining' dezinformatsiya, which floods the internet and the media, and has focused our attention on the miserable state of the misruled Indian state, after fifty eight years of socalled 'independence' from British Colonial rule.
According to press reports, when Executive Director Ms. Ann M. Veneman (a former California Secretary of Agricuture) launched the above annual State of the World's Children report-2006, in London last week, she arranged to fly out a young 14 years old dirt-poor Muslim Bihari girl, Guriya Khatun, from India. Guriya Khatuun was being recognized for educating herself, despite being denied schooling by her poor parents at 9. Unicef Director Ms. Ann Veneman seated the Indian child on her right on the stage. Sitting beside the Executive Director, Guriya Khatun, spoke through an interpreter, telling how her impoverished Muslim parents refused to let her study and sent her to work in the fields at age 9. Through her persistence, she recounted, she finally got herself enrolled in school and learned to read and write two years ago, and now has caught up with the seventh grade. "I say to children, no matter how difficult, never give up your dreams to study," said Guriya, speaking in a loud, confident voice.
The Unicef Director Ms. Veneman in her address spoke pf the hundreds of millions of children across the world who are missing from public view. She said that, "They are the world's most vulnerable children, trapped in circumstances that push them to the margins and shadows of society." The Unicef Director cited children whose births are never registered, estimated to number 50 million a year; those cast out after their parents' death; forced into adult roles by poverty; and exploited by the commercial sex industry or forced to engage in labor or serve as soldiers. "Children being trafficked for sex and other forms of exploitation are traded as commodities and subjected to unspeakable abuses, even in developed countries," she said.
"The situation of these children perpetuates poverty, holds back national development and impeded development of the Millennium Development Goals," she said, referring to global poverty eradication targets. Referring to the novels of Charles Dickens that lifted a veil on the suffering of orphans, street children and child laborers in Victorian England, Veneman said children today continue to endure similar plights in modern settings all around the world. "Children are not being protected or given the services they need and in many cases are "denied their very childhood, said Veneman.
According to UNICEF report-2006, every year, over half of all births in the developing world (excluding China) go unregistered, denying more than 50 million children a basic birthright: recognition as a citizen. (How many of India's 26 million annual births are registered?) Children who are not registered at birth do not appear in official statistics and are not acknowledged as members of their society. Without a registered identity, children are not guaranteed an education, good healthcare, and other basic services that impact their childhood and future. For example, unregistered children are denied a place in school when birth certificates are required to gain access. Simply put, children who do not have a formal identity are not counted, and they are not taken into account.
The above points raise the question as to how many children born to India's 200 million 'Untouchables' (and children born to 600 million other dirt-poor lower castes, tribals and minorities who make up the majority of the 26 million born in India every year) are 'excluded and invisible' like the 8/ 9/10 years old 'mundoos' (bonded servant boys) and 'chokkries' (bonded girl servants) who toil like slaves, 24 hours a day, in middle class homes all over India? Millions of poor Indian boys and girls, (some as young as seven) trapped by family poverty and lack of schooling, endure widespread abuses as domestic servants toiling, day in and day out, (working 100 hours per week with no rest break or day off) out of sight in the privacy of their lower and upper midddle class employer’s homes. India’s labour code does not regulate domestic work and labour inspectors are not allowed to enter private homes to investigate labour violations. A vast majority of children working in India are bonded to the textile industry making carpets and the rest are involved in agriculture with some bonded to the brickmakers. Will these children ever get an opportunity that Gudiya Khatun has luckily got per kindness of the UNICEF director? To answer that question we have culled the above 2006 UNICEF report for comparative statistics (see chart below) to see where India stands - its rate of progress - among other nations after a half century of dynastic misrule since the British Colonials quit India in 1947.
The best litmus test of a country's economic progress is its per capita GNI (Gross Nation Income), and India's GNI (Gross Nation Income) per capita, in 1970 (thirty five years ago) was US$. 245/- as compared to China's US$. 90/-, Lesotho's US$. 131/-, Indonesia's US$. 211/-, Pakistan's US$. 223/-, Sri Lanka's US$. 247/-, Bhutan's US$. 313/-, Egypt's US$. 338/-, Thailand's US$. 487/-, South Korea's US$. 967/- and Malaysia's US$. 1, 001/-. Thirty five years later (in 2004) the GNI per capita of India's unfortunate citizens (despite officials fudging of numbers) is stuck at US$. 620/- as compared to China's US$. 1, 290/-, Lesotho's US$. 740/-, Indonesia's US$. 1, 140/-, Pakistan's US$. 600/-, Sri Lanka's US$. 1, 010/-, Bhutan's US$. 760/- Egypt's US$. 1, 310/-, Thailand's US$. 2, 549/-, S. Korea's US$. 13, 980/- and Malaysia's US$. 4, 650/-. A disgusting performane by India. In the same period of 35 years Phillipines has icreased it GNI per capita from US$. 495 in 1970 to US$. 1, 170 in 2004. Overcrowded Mexico has increased its GNI per capita from US$. 1, 363 to US$. 6, 770/-. Singapore has increased it GNI per capita eight hundred percent from US$. 3, 067 to US$. 24, 220 while the United States 2004 GNI per capita has risen to US$. 41, 140 from US$. 14, 001/- in 1970. It will another take 35 years, one third of a century, (by the year 2, 040) at the current 'Hindu' rate of progress, for India to just reach the level of Thailand's current GNI per capita of US$. 2, 540/-! By that time Thailand's GNI should be around US$. 16, 000. For more details and comparisons see chart or go to the UNCEF link at:
www.unicef.org/sowc06/pdfs/sowc06_fulreport.pdf Looking at India's progress from another angle; India with 51 doctors per 100, 000 in 2004 (as compared to 48 Doctors per 100, 000 Indians in 1993) still has less Doctors today than even Pakistan (66), Maldives (78) and Laos (59). One wonders as to where are the doctors India's medical colleges are producing? In comparioson under-developed and boycotted Cuba has 591 doctors per 100, 000 population, U.S. has 591 doctors per 100, 000 Americans, Egypt has 212, Brazil has 206, Mexico has 171, China has 164, Phillipnes has116 and Iran has 105 doctors. No wonder India's under-5 infant mortality rate, according to the UNICEF, is higher (84 under-5 deaths to 1, 000 live births) than even Bangladesh at 77, Nepal at 76, and Bhutan at 80. The numbers in this category for other countries are: Egypt has 73 under-5 infant mortality deaths, Iran 69, Maldives 46, Brazil 34, Mexico 28, Sri Lanka 14, U.S. has 18 and Singapore has only 4 under-5 infant deaths per 1, 000 live births. A society is judged by the way it treats its children. It is obvious that welfare of infants is not a priority in the world's largest DemoNcracy, India. Please see comparitive chart for more details.
The same sad story - of no progress - repeats itself in the statstics about % of population who are denied use of sanitation facilities in India. In 1993 about 71% of India's population of about 809 million (575 million in number) had no sanitation facilities available to them. Hundreds of millions Indians answered their daily call of nature along the British built railway netweork or behind bushes, bridges and culverts. Ten years later, in 2004, the sanitary situation has worsened with over 70% of India's 2002 population of 1,088 million (now increased to 762 million in number) have no snaitation facilities. To see how this is destroying India read an article in India's leading news magazine Frontline, headlined 'Sanitation emergency' at:
www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2024/stories/20031205002510100.htm The comparitive chart - culled from the latest UNICEF-2006 report should be an eye opener to every Sikh (who has been a captive in the Indian map since August 1947 when the departing British Colonials handed over the instruments of state power to the Brahmin/Bania evil combine) that the Sikh nation has no future in India. In the present captive state even the Chief minister of Punjab, Captain Amrinder Singh, (a member of the ruling Congress party and a scion of the Patiala royal family to boot) was humiliated in front of the Pakistanis and had to 'lose face' when two horses (named 'Sultan' and 'Son of a Gun') gifted by the Pakistani Punjab Chief minister Pervaiz Ilahi were 'murdered' by the Indian Customs during quarantine on the border. Finally the Punjab Chief minister Amrinder Singh had to crawl to Delhi and seek special permission from the Indian Prime minister's office to allow him to receive the third gift horse 'Sunny the Kid' sent by the friendly Pakistani Punjab Chief minister Pervaiz Ilahi. For details of this disgusting episode please click at the Tribune link at:
www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20051218/punjab1.htm#3 As if the above insult was not enough the Indian government, according to a report in the Tribune headlined, 'Punjab Agricultural University refused permission to sign MoU with Pak varsity ' has insulted the Punjab Chief minister Amarinder Singh, nay every Punjabi, one more time. The Tribune report dated December 20, 2005 claims that "the Union Government has refused to allow Punjab Agricultural University to sign a memorandum of understanding with the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan due to security reasons." An agreement between two Agricultural universities? Some security reason! For details please click at:
www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20051220/ldh1.htm#4 One has to come to the conclusion that the only way to get the morally repugnant Brahmin Bania nexus off our backs and put an end to these insulting 'pinpricks', which every Sikh faces daily in India, is to work for the creation of an independent sovereign democratic Buffer state of Khalistan stretching from the Jumna river in the East to the Pakistan border on the West, to Kashmir on the North and China on the North East, which will act as a bridge of peace and commerce between South and Central Asia and beyond.
