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Posts Tagged ‘Children’
Paal Kudam – Cleansing the Mind and Soul
A form of penance that is typically done by children and women, the offering of milk symbolizes the cleansing of mind and soul. However, to have their wishes fulfilled, devotees perform this paal kudam ritual for 3 consecutive years. Children who are not allowed to pierce their bodies before puberty carries the pot of milks in preparation of examinations, ward away evil and keep illness at bay.
Odalan: Bali’s Temple Festivals
With temple festivals being celebrated on a new or full moon or every 210 days on an island with countless numbers of temples, there is literally a festival of some kind every day in Bali. Besides making offerings to the gods and demons, Odalan is a social event that entertains and keeps the community closer together.
all we have is the earth and sky
Over 18 million Indian children life, work, play, sleep, dream on the streets and sidewalks of Indian cities with a steady upward climb with more than 50 children escaping intolerable circumstances at home to begin new lives on their own on the streets. With least access to shelter, nourishment, health care and education, they work long hours and are constantly harassed and exploited.
Children Beggars
9 out of 10 homeless children do NOT beg as a way of life. Children who take to panhandling are usually victims of organised begging rackets, led by gang leaders who often present themselves as ‘benefactors’ and ‘protectors’ of homeless children that comprise of the poor, runaways and disabled. In order to reap bigger profits, thousand of these children are mutilated yearly
Buddha’s Apprentice
The custom of sending the second male child to the monastery prevails in Tibetan influenced parts of India. These children generally fell into 3 categories: pious believers, children of poor serfs and those sent to temples to meet a quota. Although life in the monastery is difficult and dull to many young children, modern day comforts have made their presence.
Addressing India’s School Dropouts
Spending just 3.5% of GDP on education, of India’s 1 million schools, most are state-run and sub-standards. Set against this backdrop, a physically handicapped man funds a private school that dishes out scholarship and subsidised fees for the deserving with hope to provide skills to the improvished and dropouts.
Spastic Children’s Association
Established in February, 1960 in a garage of the Red Cross to address the shortfall in the education system that does not cater to children suffering from cerebral palsy (CP), the Spastic Children Association caters for 300 students to date providing inclusive education aimed at creating self-reliant individuals.
Hashish Children of Kullu
Raking in Rs900 crore p.a., locals alongside a nexus of expats and international smugglers have cashed in on the charas resulting in stronger enforcements from the Indian police and the Narcotics Control Bureau. Those that face the greatest lost are the children in this valley; forced into the cartels’ trap, removed from the officials’ radar.
Chaam – Behind the Scenes
As the chaams is often about the expulsion of negative influences and exorcisms of spirits, the preparation of the chaams is in itself an elaborate ritual of days of recitations of 400 pages long of Buddhist scriptures, countless of prostrations, burning of incenses and circling of the monastery with the accompanying drones secular and religious music.