Hello Dhruva I appreciate your concern and probably same question may arise in the minds of many more. So I take this apportunity to explain and probably reiterate what has been achieved in this short span of time. Let me answer your questions one by one.
(1) If you go back to the vision with which this forum was formed and if metrics were to be applied to what have we achieved and to what extent, where do we stand? When we started, it was with lot of emotion. Many youngsters joined, worked hard to organise it, fought with each other, then got busy with their lives. At one point of time, the group was almost on the verge of being disintegrated. At this point of time, some people took over the onus of keeping the group together. It was thought that we must put it on sound footing first. And then let it grow gradually. With this intention, two organisations were registered. (I) In Dec. 2007, an NGO, BHUMI was registered. This was with the intention (1) to facilitate those who were more interested in social work than politics. (2) Those who are keen in the national development, but can not participate in political activity. For example, those in government service. Take the example of reforestation or water management. It can be best done with the involvement of forest department, irrigation department or water boards. And, the officials can be involved in a social activity. (II) A political party, Bharat Uday Mission was registered with the election commission of India in March 2009. With in a short span of time, less than a month, we contested loksabha elections in three constituencies, one from Mumbai, one from Patna and one from Delhi (though taken back due to some unavoidable reasons). You must understand Dhruva, that it takes a lot of ground work to register an NGO, and much more to register a political party. And, all this with in a span of less than two years. (2) The group is restricted to those who are familiar with the internet and hence has yet to reach the grass-roots. Again wrong my dear. We have many members who are working on the ground level. But, they are not net friendly, so we do not know about their activities. It is right that the Internet savvy members are not familiar with those who are not. But then, one should attend the meetings of the group right? . I agree that this is only the beginning. And, in a big country like ours, the growth rate is too small to be visible. Shall we not try to spread it in our own locality? (3) Even amongst the Internet savvy youth the group has not promoted itself well. Facebook any day is more popular! Agreed. But then, the members have to take initiative to make it popular with modern tools. Atleast those who are familiar with these. You mentioned about facebook. Let me ask you. Are you willing to take this responsibility? But, let me tell you, it is the activities, involvement with the activities, which make the group more popular. So let us strive for that. (4) The northern region is inactive on this forum. May be yes, as far as the yahoo group is concerned. For example, Robin and his associates are active in Delhi and area around. Mayank is doing a lot of work in Madhya Pradesh. But, you are right, the efforts are scattered and not known to everybody on the group. This is because those who work on the ground level either do not have access to Internet, or, by the time they get access, it is late to inform. And then, we have to have group activities, which can be distinguished as activities of Bharat Uday Mission. We have to revive the chapter activities. Again, may I ask you? will you be willing to take up this responsibility in your city/region? I may mention here. One of our members, Shivprasadji, has started a residential school for tribal children in a village Karmeli. This is started under the auspices of Bhumi. Most of the school pass outs do not know how to read and write, because it is government policy that the children should be promoted every year. In this place, we see to it that the children learn to read and write. they also get cultural education. They are taken for picnic. We invite people to visit this place and adress our children. Our full timer here, goes around the area to different villages to teach them to read, write and also to take 5th standard classes, as most of the schools in the small villages are up to 4th standard. For this, we have taken spacial permission from Panchayat. This is only a small thing I am telling you. Because the story can be long. (5) We have miles to go. Any ideas?? Yes, miles to go before I sleep. Miles to go before we sleep With warm regards Akalpita
