We did some thorough and detailed background check to assess the requirements of the family and understand how we can best send the girl back to school. A couple of young men who are originally from Dehradun and are currently working in Delhi/NCR have offered to come on board and sponsor rations for Malti and her family so that she in turn can afford to attend school. We are sharing these details to propose an idea based on the arrangement of providing rations, which Shaila calls Rationalized Rations!
On one hand, there are many other children and families in need of support like this. On the other, there is the desire among affluent people to give, (whether this is a means of either earning a spot in the Gods’ good books or curbing our troublesome conscience, I will not dwell on).
The latter generally translates into begging adults and children receiving a few coins or second-hand clothes. Let us face facts: such giving is getting nobody any brownie points from the Gods and is also not making the din from our conscience any quieter.
The idea is to give in a more rationalized way and to add some time and thought to the resources that we “give” , so that we really enable the marginalized sections to work towards better opportunities. Such a commitment would mean the donor assessing and understanding the needs of the receiving family/individual and also monitoring the use of resources that donor gives. Such a method, then is not charity. It goes beyond the redundant concept of “sewa” and “charity” and instead, moves into the domain of real and meaningful support. Such a method would build successful families as opposed to begging families.
The report that we have prepared for the sponsors of Malti is available for viewing here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/56234648/Report-on-Malti
It is imperative that we either not give at all or if we do, put some real effort and thought into it. Otherwise, in our baseless assumption of “giving is good”, we are actually creating beggars and addicts (read this) who are becoming victims of our ridiculous notions of getting into heaven.
