CHILDREN

The Karnataka government's negligence toward health schemes for migrants working on Namma Metro construction sites can be blamed for a 55 percent rise in respiratory problems among them since 2009. Worse, a metro contractor at one site is using child labour openly. Migrant workers at the metro construction work in dangerous conditions without safety equipment. Pic: Rupsa Chakraborty. Every month the Victoria Hospital at KR Market registers a minimum of 30 to 45 cases of migrant metro workers complaining of respiratory problems.Madhusudan Das, a medical information officer at the hospital, said this is mainly due to their constant exposure to…

Some conversation... Quite unusual for me to be off for several days, as I subject myself (and the rest of you!) to the discipline of frequent posts. But it was a full weekend...Saturday morning, to Hessarghatta, getting back only by 3pm and then having visitors...Sunday morning, to Valley School, back at 1pm, and then off to JLR Bannerghatta (where neither mobile phones nor 3G seems to work) to volunteer for a nature trail with 49 students of Vidya Niketan, on an overnight camp. Got back yesterday evening, and was rather tired...and today all the home chores demanded attention, so had to…

A playschool is meant for kids under the age of 5 and is primarily aimed at providing quality education for kindergarten kids. So if you love kids then starting a playschool may be a good idea. The staff have to be well trained to take care of children.File pic: Padmalatha Ravi So what is the advantage of starting a play school? You get a high degree of satisfaction working with kids and contributing to their growth and development. You help nurture a positive environment for kids where their physical and mental growth takes place seamlessly. As Anjana Sen, Director of…

At the 7th edition of Samarthanam's Bailley Bengaluru walkathon on Saturday 10, December, nearly five thousand people participated. MLA B N Vijaykumar, and Byrasandra Corporator N Nagaraju, inaugurated the walkathon at the Kittur Rani Chennamma Stadium, Jayanagar. Dr Raksha Jayaram with her students. Pic: Sridhar Comaravalli In his brief speech MLA Vijayakumar, promised to make the stadium disabled friendly. Corporator Nagaraju, hoped to start a sports academy at the stadium that would match international standards. Others present on the occasion were restaurateur Sadananda Maiya, Raj Rajkumar, Director, T E Connectivity, Rev Fr Arul Raj Sampath, Parish Priest, Christha Prabhalaya Church,…

What if our children could cycle safely around the neighbourhood going to schools, classes and doing errands freely?What if we had at least 25% of our office-going crowd ride comfortably from residence to offices thus reducing traffic, pollution and stress?What if we could begin to get in touch with our neighbours, our neighbourhood, our city and its great weather.. and have fun while at it?How would it be if we proved this concept here and then extended this to Bangalore and then India?We have taken on a project to make this a reality starting with our layout and offices close…

When we come across a unique not for profit organisation, social campaign or initiative, we may be interested in knowing more about its regular activities and achievements. But do we try to find out why and how it started? Irrespective of their size and successes, many civil society organisations (CSO's) or non-governmental organisations (NGO's) have a distinct personal story behind them. Some organisations like Sangama (helps sexual minorities) or the Association of People with Disabilities (APD - supports disabled persons) were started to highlight and counter the challenges or discrimination that an individual or a community experiences and assist them.…

  Ladies circle A fun filled day for about 50 children at Kidwai Cancer hospital was organised on 4 November, by Ladies Circle India Area 6 Chapter. Deepa and Arvind Aathreya, of "School of Success" fame, Chennai conducted an interactive & creative session for the children. There was also a puppet show in which the kids participated eagerly. Ladies Circle Area 6 donated fruits and hospital fees for children below poverty line. Ladies Circle India (LC India) is a non political and non sectarian organisation of young women, usually the wives of members of Round Table, aged between 18-40. It…

Sharmila,16, and her five younger sisters were brought to Child Fund Association (CFA), an orphanage home in Puttenahalli, after their mother passed away. Their father, visually challenged, could not take care of them. Sharmila, who is from Kollegal, has been living there for 6 years. "I am lucky to have found a place like this to live," she says. Children playing at the centre. Pic: Yogaraj Mudalgi. Eighty-five children, mostly girls, have found a home in CFA and since its beginning in 1982, close to 750 children have grown up in the home. Most children in the orphanage have a…

Very urgent, just 20 hours to go.... Amit Gupta, an Indian entrepreneur in Newyork, a friend and a kind soul needs a bone marrow match for a Peripheral Blood Stem cells donation and you can help.If you live in Bangalore India, chances are you can help not only Amit, but the many, many other people around the world. South Asians have a dramatically lower chance of finding a match in the worldwide bone marrow registries than other populations. While this is a big and often tragic problem, it's one that can be fixed!So what can you do? Get to the nearest…

 It was a great way to celebrate Children's Day.... When Usha Rajagopalan asked me to take several people around the 1km perimeter of Puttenahalli Lake, I was very happy indeed to conduct the nature trail.We all assembled there at 6am:The sun also decided to come up and join us: There were about 50 people altogether, including old friends like Shashi and Shalini.Obviously, I wasn't able to take too many photographs, but with Poornima and Srini along, we sighted quite a few interesting things, such as thisSPOTTED OWLETon top of a dead palm trunk:and thisPURPLE HERONwhich seems to be a regular resident:It was…