PATHETIC:16-year old girl gang-r*ped in SUV for 5 days

A sixteen-year-old girl from the city of Jaipur in India survived a 20-day ordeal where she was repeatedly r*ped by five youths in a forest near a village in Ajmer district. 

 According to a report in The Times of India, the teenager managed to escape and inform her family who then approached the police. 

 During the entire period, the girl was confined in an SUV in which she was allegedly kidnapped. The report says the girl was at her aunt’s house for the summer holidays when she was abducted.

 “She says that she was kept in the car for 20 days and the five youths took turns to rape her. She says she was repeatedly rap*d,” the report quoted a policeman as saying. The victim claimed that she was made to eat and sleep in the car only.

Read More...

Think you've got a bad job? (READ THIS)

If you think your job is the pits then spare a thought for Devi Lal. The 'sewer diver' from Delhi, India, is paid a measly £3.50 a day to wallow in filth unclogging the city's drains.

 Devi, 43, is provided with a bottle of bootleg booze to dull his senses before he begins his odious chore.

 Scandalously the city does not bother to provide protective clothing so Devi and his colleagues are forced to spend hours a day in the filthy water in just their underwear.

According to Harnam Singh, the chairman of the Delhi Safai Karamchari Commision, (Delhi cleaners commission) almost 70 per cent of the manual scavengers die on the job. An estimated 61 sewer divers have died in last six months alone.

Even though India banned the practice in 1993, government agencies still use thousands of manual scavengers to clean drains through out India. 

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. But poverty remains widespread with an estimated 42.5 per cent of the children suffering from malnutrition. 

 According to 2010 data from the United Nations Development Programme, an estimated 37.2 per cent of Indians live below the national poverty line with 68.7 per cent surviving on less than $2 a day. 

 Earlier this week Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced his country will be spending £52 million on a space mission to Mars.

Read More...

Minister tells officials “You are allowed to steal, but not too much"

Corruption really isn’t such a bad thing , if the words of Indian Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav are anything to go by. The minster while speaking to public officials at a gathering.

 “If you work hard, and put your heart and soul into it, then you are allowed to steal some,” Shivpal Singh Yadav was caught on a TV news camera saying. “But don’t be a bandit.” 

 Yadav, a minister in charge of housing and construction in northern Uttar Pradesh state, on Friday sought to do some damage control, blaming the media for taking his comments out of context.

 “In that event the media was not allowed in,” he said at a pres conference he called to explain his comments. “I don’t know how they sneaked in. And if they had sneaked in, the whole discussion should have come out in the press, not just part of it.” 

“I have taken back those words,” he said. “Why are you raking it up? I don’t know why the media is targeting me.” 

The opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) condemned the minister’s statements, saying, “A minister’s statement is like a policy of the government.

 “If he says so then the government is offering a license to steal the public money,” local BJP leader Lalji Tandon said. “It is not appropriate for a minister to talk like this.”

Read More...

Indian village bans love-marriages and mobile phones for women

Unmarried women under the age of 40 can no longer marry for love, visit the market unaccompanied or use mobile phones in a northern Indian village, media reported Friday. Asara village council in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, 70 kilometres from New Delhi introduced the bans to protect “naïve’’ young men and women from corrupting influences, according to the Times of India and other newspapers. 

 The Hindu daily described the ruling as a “Taliban-style diktat’’ in its online edition, adding that Asara was Muslim-dominated. Other minorities were also present when the bans were introduced.

 Keeping young women away from the market would protect them from “roadside Romeos,’’ the Hindu quoted the council, while the ban on mobile phones reportedly came after complaints of “teasing’’ and “harassment’’. 

 But women’s activists criticised the measures. “Why are the restrictions on women only why the panchayat (council) stop men from visiting the weekly market instead of women Shaista Amber, president of the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, was quoted as saying by The Times of India. 

 “If men are kept away, the atmosphere will be equally secure for women at the market,’’ she said. Police in the village said they were not yet aware of the measures, according to daily Hindustan Times.

Read More...

6-Yr Old Boy Sucks Milk From Stray Dog When He’s Hungry

Chotu Kumar is so comfortable with the pack of dogs, he can be seen grabbing at the bitch’s hind legs so he can get a drink. And amazingly the stray dog lets him.Chotu said: “Our family is very poor, sometimes I get hungry. “The dog doesn’t bite me. I like her and she likes me, she treats me like one of her puppies.

 I love to play with the dogs, they’re my friends.” Chotu lives with his mother Shanichari Devi, 37, his grandmother Amiya Devi, 60, and his two brothers Bola, 14, and three-year-old Mahesh in a mud house in Jharkhand, Eastern India. After his father’s death four years ago the family dropped below the poverty line.

 His older brother was forced to go out to work to earn money for the family but he only brings home under £20 a month (1200INR) working at a nearby hotel. Chotu’s mum and gran go out to the forest and collect firewood and try their best to find forest food. But on average their daily meals consist of vegetables and roti, a homemade Indian bread.

According to UNICEF 90 per cent of children under the age of three are malnourished in rural areas of Jharkhand and a further 25,000 children die every year. Chotu started spending all his time with the pack two years ago. He didn’t go to school so he didn’t have any friends – and now he claims the dogs are his only pals. 

 The family hadn’t eaten solid foods or milk for days when Shanichari first spotted her son sitting on the floor drinking milk from the dog’s teat. She said: “While he was playing with the dogs outside the house I saw him drinking the bitch's milk. Poverty ... Chotu poses with his mum, Shanichari, and baby brother, Mahesh “I was so shocked, I ran over and pulled him away. But ever since whenever he is hungry he has always slipped back. 

I have let him because I know how hungry he is. “The dog has always been friendly with him and never attacks him. He often rides on her back and then he jumps off and nurses from her along with her pups.” The dog has been known to sit outside Chotu’s mud house and bark for him to come out and play. But when local villagers found out about Chotu and his new friends they began to get angry. 

They were worried other children were at risk and that there would be a rabies outbreak. Shanichari said: “Villagers kept telling us he’d die of some disease if he carried on drinking it and it’d spread to the other children. But Chotu carried on.” Eventually villagers reported Chotu to local officials and they stepped in. 

Chotu was admitted to school where he gets a free lunch and the authorities gave his family a food card, which allowed them to get food aid. But still the dog continues to visit Chotu and it has become a habit for him to drink her milk.

 Chotu said: “I suck her milk three times a day and it tastes sweet like sugar. “Many people in the village don't like my friendship with the dogs but I am happy - if she isn’t near my home I go looking for her outside the village. “She’s always happy to see me and lets me have some milk.” Read 

Read More...

Women in shelter allege abuse and baby selling

Seven people were arrested on allegations of abusing women and selling newborn babies at a destitute shelter they ran in northern India. The arrests were made after a raid last month by India's child rights watchdog at the Apna Ghar (Our Home) shelter, said Dharna Yadav, a deputy superintendent of police in Haryana state. The arrests were made after residents complained, Yadav told CNN. 

 Police found evidence that the owner of the protection house sold newborns mostly to childless couples, said Yadav. More than 100 residents were taken from Apna Ghar after a raid on May 9. Most of them were female residents, ranging in age from newborns to 55 years, Yadav said. Some of them complained to a separate investigation team appointed by a court, that police too were involved in their sexual exploitation at the shelter.

 "We are not ruling out anything, but what we need is strong evidence before we make a further headway in these allegations in the case. There will be no laxity on our part, but these allegations have to be supported by evidence," Yadav said. But court-appointed investigators expressed their shock after interviewing the people taken from the shelter. 

 "I have been doing work related to child welfare for seven to eight years now. But I haven't seen this kind of torture or sexual exploitation anywhere in my life," said Utsav Bains, member of the probe team.

Read More...

The barbaric tradition of ritual baby tossing: Priests hurl children 30ft from temple balcony for 'good luck' (PHOTOS AND VIDEO)

Terrified toddlers scream and sob as they're shaken by men in robes and tossed from a balcony 30ft above the ground. It's not the plot of horror film - but an ages-old annual ritual carried in southern India, meant to bring participating infants good luck, health and prosperity. 

Hard-to-watch footage of the ceremony, held each year in the state of Karnataka, has horrified children's rights groups, who have labeled it 'barbaric' and want it banned by the Indian government. The practice is believed to date back centuries and takes place across India - involving both Hindus and Muslims. 

Video of a ceremony in 2009 shows robed priests shaking frightened babies, before dropping them to the ground below, where locals are waiting with a blanket to catch the traumatised tots. When the children land safely, the crowd celebrates wildly, passing each infant around before returning them to their mothers. 

Local campaigners managed to get the practice banned in 2011, but it returned to Digambeshwara temple in Nagrala village last week - much to the frustration of Lov Verma, from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Mr Verma said: 'I'm absolutely shocked by this. 

It's not simply the government's job. We need to educate all those who take part in this barbaric practice - the temple priests and the community.' But participants argue it's their religious duty to attend the ceremonies. One temple-goer told the Sunday Times: 'Our religious beliefs pull many of us to this ceremony every year.'

Read More...

In the name of Freedom: Tibetan protester sets himself on fire (PHOTOS)

A Tibetan protester has been treated for severe burns after setting himself on fire in a demonstration during the Chinese president's visit to India.

The unidentified male protester sprinted for 50m through New Delhi today engulfed in flames as hundreds demonstrated against China's rule over Tibet.

The protester carried out the self-immolation as he ran near the speakers at a rally near the Indian Parliament in the country's capital.

He collapsed after around 50m as fellow protesters beat out the flames with Tibetan flags they were carrying.

The man was later treated for severe burns at a New Delhi hopital, one Tibetan organiser said.

He made the dramatic protest as Chinese President Hu Jintao prepared to arrive in India later this week for a summit meeting.

Read More...

15 dead after train hits vehicle

The crash happened at an unmanned level crossing near Madu railway station in Hathras early on Tuesday.

The express train rammed into the jeep, which carried 17 passengers, dragging it along the track.

Train accidents are common in India, which has one of the world's busiest rail networks.

Railway officials said Tuesday's incident happened when the jeep tried to cross the track as an express train travelling between Mathura and Kasganj was approaching.

Last July at least 38 people were killed when a train hit a bus carrying wedding guests at a level crossing in Patiyali in Uttar Pradesh.

In May 2010 more than 100 people were killed when a Mumbai-bound express train jumped the tracks into the path of an oncoming goods train in West Bengal. The tracks had been apparently sabotaged by Maoist rebels.

And in July 2010, more than 60 people were killed when a speeding passenger express hit another train waiting at a station in West Bengal.

Read More...