I know this has been in place since 2007 but I want to highlight it again because in addition to the extra support for a girl child, the state is also offering a free saree to the mothers!

Women and Child Development minister C C Patil, on Friday, told presspersons that Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa would tour nine districts in the first phase in October to be present in saree distribution programmes. The district administration would make arrangements for bringing the beneficiaries to the headquarters and offer them lunch.

Bhagyalakshmi scheme offers financial benefits to girl child of BPL families. The girl child is entitled to a grant of Rs one lakh after completing the age of 18 years. The child gets regular scholarship to continue education. Even after attaining age of 18, girl child can obtain loan for higher studies by pledging the deposit bond, issued by the government.

As on August 30, this year, 11,39,000 girls were entitled to the scheme. As many as 10,68,296 mothers would get sarees. (About 70,000 mothers have two daughters, benefited by the scheme). The minister said the sarees would be procured from Surat.

The department was contemplating procurement of sarees from Karnataka Handloom Corporation in the second phase of the programme.

Minister for Women and Child Development C C Patil said a team of doctors would conduct health check-up for girl children.

Every child would get a health card valid till she is 18. Children requiring advanced treatment would be referred to district hospitals.

Source

Savitri Bai Phule – the first woman teacher of India

Weak and oppressed! Rise my brother

Come out of living in slavery.

Manu-follower Peshwas are dead and gone

Manu’s the one who barred us from education.

Givers of knowledge –the English have come

Learn, you’ve had no chance in a millennium.

We’ll teach our children and ourselves to learn

Receive knowledge, become wise to discern.

An upsurge of jealousy in my soul

Crying out for knowledge to be whole.

This festering wound, mark of caste

I’ll blot out from my life at last.

In Baliraja’s kingdom, let’s beware

Our glorious mast, unfurl and flare.

Let all say, “Misery go and kingdom come!”

Awake, arise and educate

Smash traditions-liberate!

We’ll come together and learn

Policy-righteousness-religion.

Slumber not but blow the trumpet

O Brahman, dare not you upset.

Give a war cry, rise fast

Rise, to learn and act

Sunil Sardar and Victor Paul have translated this poem along with four other poems for a chapter in a lovely new book titled: A forgotten liberator: The life and struggles of Savitribai Phule. These poems were translated from M.G. Mali’s original marathi collection Savitribai Phule Samagra Wangmaya.

Rise to learn and act

She and her husband declared a war on brahmanic casteist culture and religion.

View more here.

The title means “this country runs on Pulsar”, Pulsar is the brand name of the motorbike.

I am sure this says a lot about Indian politics. I wished I understood that better.

But as a saree picture – this is delightful.

I personally know Sashi Tharoor. I have followed his writing and I have admired his sense of humor and I respect him for being a straight shooter and behaving with highest standard of integrity.

So all this controversy about his involvement in IPL-Kochi and his relationship with Sunanda Pushkar seems kind of odd to me.

If you don’t know, this is the controversy. There is a cricket league in India called IPL. It has several teams in it and each team is worth about $500M to $1B – yes the number is correct, and it is in dollars and nor rupees.

Recently the IPL added a couple of new teams and one of them was a team for Kochi (a second tier town in south India)- the area that Sashi Tharoor represents.

Sashi Tharoor helped in whatever way he could to ensure that Kochi gets a team. It is an economic boom to the region to have a team.

Now the opposition is claiming that he should be fired or should resign, because even though he personally did not take any money to helping Kochi, his close friend Sunanda Pushkar got some equity in the company. Sunanda Pushkar is an accomplished business woman and she did help Kochi put the deal together and yes she is a close friend of Sashi Tharoor. The claim is that she was a “proxy” for Sashi Tharoor.

Sunanda Pushkar hates that claim – she says that she has done a lot to help the team and she is nobody’s proxy. And her closeness to Sashi Tharoor is a private matter.

There are rumors about Sashi and Sundana getting married.

It is being speculated that Shashi Tharoor might be tying the knot, a third time, with Sunanda Pushkar, the owner of a spa. The two have often been spotted together in a manner which suggests more than just social or professional alliances. The two were once seen in a marriage party, with the minister draping an arm about the beautician. In fact, Sunanda Pushkar has often been heard to introduce Shashi Tharoor to certain acquaintances as her fiance. However, the matter has not been commented upon by either camp. In fact, Shashi Tharoor has declined to say anything about the issue at all.

So I see how the contoversy can arise.

But I fully support her because I see this as a saree discrimination – just because somebody wears a saree, that person becomes subservient or something. We got to get over that prejudice.

And of course the second reason I support her is because she has good taste in (men and) sarees.