India sex museum makes HIV lessons fun

By Krittivas Mukherjee,Sat Feb 10, 2007

MUMBAI (Reuters Life!) - This is India's version of sex in the city

A rare sex museum in Mumbai, the country's teeming financial capital, is drawing hundreds of prostitutes and their regular clients who say they learn more about HIV/AIDS from its graphic exhibits than staid lectures on safe sex.

Antarang, which means intimate in Hindi, is a one-room exhibition of nude statues, models of the human anatomy and illustrations near a well-known red light district in Mumbai. And it is India's only sex museum, according to its management.

Devoid of the glamour of sex museums of Amsterdam or New York, Antarang greets a visitor with a "lingam", a Hindu phallic-shaped symbol worshipped as one of the representations of Lord Shiva, Kama Sutra verses and wooden and plastic models showing the act of conception, child birth as well as descriptions of various sexual diseases.

"A sex museum is a better place to learn about sex and everything related to it," M.G. Vallecha, the chief of Antarang, entry to which is free, told Reuters.

The museum is run by the state government in an effort to combat HIV and AIDS in India. There are an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country, according to U.N. figures.

Experts say that number could quadruple by 2010 as many people are still reluctant to discuss safe sex openly.

Authorities all over India try various innovative ways, including street plays and "condom parties", to spread awareness about sexual diseases.

Mumbai is not only India's biggest and most cosmopolitan city, but it is also home to millions of migrants who leave their families in villages to search for jobs.

NO CONDOM, NO SEX

Antarang, whose floor tiles are painted to look like sperm, was opened in 2003. It became popular among prostitutes and some of their clients after health workers began taking them there.

"A major bulk of our thousands of visitors every year are sex workers and health volunteers," Vallecha said.

Some sex seekers also visit. In India, many prostitutes act as mistresses for one regular client who pays for her upkeep. They can often develop close relationships and sometimes visit the museum together, officials said.

"At first, sex workers coming to the museum are shy. But slowly they discover new things about something they thought they knew all about," said Manish Pawar, a health worker who has brought hundreds of prostitutes and their clients to the museum.

Many of the sex workers say the museum has changed their lives by teaching them about the need for safe sex.

"When they told us about AIDS and all we didn't understand much, but now after visiting the museum it is much clearer to us," said Jyoti, a middle-aged prostitute who gave only one name.

"Now we tell clients no condom -- no sex."

Authorities said they have few ordinary tourists.

"The area where the museum is located is stigmatised and even if they (tourists) want to come they don't because they don't want to be seen in a red light district," said Nirupa Borges, who helps run Antarang.

"We have some school and college students, but we would like more members of the mainstream society."

Authorities are planning to open another sex museum in a northern suburb, away from the red light district, to attract a wider audience.

"This museum is serving its purpose very well. We need more sex museums like this," Borges said.

Note : There are about 27000 joginis in Andhra Pradesh state, While 95 per cent of the joginis belong to the Scheduled Castes

Caste system is the greater barrier to social harmony in India, BBC Poll

71% say they're proud to be Indians

Rashmee Roshan Lall
5 Feb, 2007 TIMES NEWS NETWORK

LONDON: Nearly two-thirds of all Indians are fiercely proud of 'Mera Bharat Mahaan' but more than half of India believes the caste system is a "barrier to social harmony" and is holding the country back, according to a BBC poll to be published on Monday.

India-watchers expressed surprise at the poll's finding, the first for a nationwide 'attitudes' survey conducted by an international agency, that Indians still seem to have caste firmly on their minds in one way or the other, even though leading sociologists have long argued that urbanisation and industrialisation has helped break down caste-barriers.

The survey aims to itemise exactly how Indians view their own country, at a time when much of the world appears to have a view alternately on "emerging India" or "overheating India". The survey was conducted for the BBC World Service by the international polling firm GlobeScan.

The survey found that 71% are proud to be an Indian; nearly as many (65%) think it is important that India is an economic superpower; 60% think it's important India should be a political power and the same number believe it should be a military superpower. Just under half of all Indians said India's economic growth over the last 10 years had not benefited them and their families. The survey comes as part of BBC's ongoing 'India Rising' week of special programming that charts changes in different sectors of the Indian economy.

In a special message to the BBC's estimated 163 million listeners in 33 languages, President Kalam called for worldwide engagement with his vision of citizenship, notably a "three-dimensional approach involving education with value system; religion transformed to spirituality and economic development for societal transformation of all the nations." Kalam, who called upon BBC's global audiences to flood his website with suggestions and debate, was speaking on a special edition of the BBC's 'Discovery' programme, to be broadcast on Wednesday.

Monday's BBC survey concentrated on asking more than 1,500 Indians a series of questions focusing on social and political issues. It found that Indians overall, seven in 10 exhibited a positive sense of identity by agreeing to the statement, "I am proud to be an Indian." The survey found the view was uniform across all age, income groups, even though it differed among religious groups with Christians (73%) the proudest; Hindus (71%) close behind and Muslim pride in being Indian languishing at 60%.

The poll found that Indians' positive perceptions about their present also extended to the Indian marketplace. A 55% majority said the justice system "treats poor people as fairly as rich people"; 52% said "being a woman is no barrier to success" and just under half of all Indians (48%) declared they would rather "work for a private company than for the government." Interestingly, six in 10, or 58% said they believed India's security is "more in danger from other Indians than from foreigners" and 55% said the "caste system is a barrier to social harmony." 47% said "corruption is a fact of life which we should accept as the price of doing business." But a cheering 45% of 18- to 24-year-old Indians said they were less tolerant of corruption than the older generation.

On religious belief, 50% said "people don't take their religion seriously"; 40% lamented that "young Indians have lost touch with their heritage."

Aishwara Rai faces lawsuit after 'marrying' a tree

Thursday, 01 February 2007
By Peter Foster in New Delhi, The Telegraph UK ,

The Indian film star Aishwarya Rai has been accused of promoting a tradition associated with the caste system and "untouchability" following reports that she had "married a tree" in an ancient Hindu ceremony.

Miss Rai, a former Miss World who is engaged to the Bollywood heart-throb Abhishek Bachchan, is said to have undergone the ritual to overcome astrological differences with her fiancé.

Lawyers representing human rights groups have now filed a civil lawsuit demanding that Miss Rai, 33, and her family offer a public apology for entering into "false marriages".

Over the last six months Miss Rai and Mr Bachchan, 30, have been spotted entering temples in the holy cities of Varanasi and Ayodhya to perform "puja" or prayer ceremonies. Astrologers have said that Miss Rai's astrological chart is "manglik", or Mars-bearing, which, according to Hindu tradition, can have negative consequences for their impending marriage.

Traditionally, "manglik" women are required to go through a ceremony marrying them to a peepal tree, a banana tree or a silver or golden idol of the Hindu god Vishnu in a ceremony known as "kumbh vivah".

According to the litigation, filed in Patna, eastern India, such practices are "derogatory" to women and in violation of Article 17 of the Indian constitution which prohibits untouchability.

Caste discrimination has been illegal in India for many decades. However, the power of caste still persists in ordering society in many parts of rural India.

Untouchables, the lowest caste, are still forbidden to share wells in some villages.

Miss Rai, who was once described as the world's most beautiful woman by the actress Julia Roberts, also featured on the cover of Time magazine in 2003 as one of the most powerful women in Asia.

The Bachchan family has refused to comment on the couple's alleged astrological incompatibility or what, precisely, they might be doing to solve the problem.

GDP walas misleading world : Rise of China used to make India slave of America

October 2006, Dalit Voice

Judging a country’s growth and its “economic development”, based on GDP, may give a fairly accurate picture but in this hierarchically arranged casteist “Hindu India” built on the ascending order of reverence and descending degree of contempt it will present only a misleading if not a totally false picture.

Because India’s upper castes, forming the apex of the caste pyramid (Hinduism), sucking the blood of the entire Bahujan Samaj (85%) have become stinking rich. We know that their filthy wealth triggers stock market boom, lavish lifestyle and unending demand for goods and services. True.

But, please note, those suffering from this bursting wealth are a micro-minority of 15% who are also directly causing the pauperisation of the rest of the population (Bahujans).

This is India and its reality. How then the growing wealth of its ruling class can be called the growth of entire India? The upper caste rich are no doubt galloping but the rest are shrinking — if not collapsing. This is what is happening today.

India not a “nation”: Therefore, GDP will not and cannot present a true picture of India’s growth — if we have to be sincere to ourselves. When over 85% of India’s 1,000 odd million population is in great pain how can it present a picture of health, wealth and happiness?

Our GDPwalas are deliberately misleading the world.

India is not a “nation”. It is a country of several warring “nations”. A small part of this multi-national country comprising the upper castes (Hindus) — who themselves are not a single nation — may be jumping with joy after stealing the wealth and exploiting the innocent “lower castes”.

How can the ill-gotten wealth of this tiny patch of population be taken as the growing affluence of India as a whole?

This GDP is utter humbug.

PM bluffing: There is a mania among Western writers to boast that India is tailing China in economic upsurge and the two Asian giants are rising, the balance of economic power in the world is shifting from West to Asia and the two countries are to be watched. Nonsense.

As India’s original inhabitants and partners in the country’s socio-economic-cultural struggle we don’t agree with this tendency to put India just behind China. We are not able to understand how these economic pundits can club India with China. Yes. China is galloping. And enough has been said in DV itself quoting reliable sources. But what about India?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Chidambaram are bluffing the world by using India’s GDP figures. The GDP calculators, who belong to the (upper caste) Brahminical ruling class, are juggling with figures and thus misleading the world.

Brahminical people packed in the World Bank and IMF are misguiding the Western people to put India immediately behind China in GDP growth.

Can we take GDP as the real, genuine indicator of India’s growth? When over 85% of India continues to be still deprived, how can the skeleton be called a muscleman?

Bulging stomach: Those who depend upon GDP figures have not taken into account the state of the 85% of the country’s deprived population comprising its SC/ST/BCs (65%) and Muslim/Christian/Sikh (20%). Their GDP figures are based on the rising riches of the 15% upper castes whose stomachs are bulging.

Yes. They are drinking more, eating more, dancing more, sleeping more, buying more. They may also constitute a staggering 15-odd crore out of India’s 100-odd crore population. This 15 crore is no ordinary population. It has enormous purchasing capacity. In some cases each upper caste family has more than one car.

This 15% upper caste rulers hide themselves under a confusing name called the “middle class” — though in fact it is the topmost class — the ruling class of India.

The Manmohan Singh-Chidambaram-Ahluwalia ruling trio is boasting about India’s burgeoning GDP without disclosing the fact that the other 85% is sinking in debt and penury. (V.T. Rajshekar, Development Redefined, DSA-2006).

Two reasons for China’s rise: It is this ruling class economists encouraged by the trio are putting India immediately behind China to deceive the outside world that India is also fast catching up with China. There is no bigger falsehood than this.

China galloped for two basic reasons:

(1) It is a communist country which has abolished god and religion while protecting minority religions like Islam and Christianity. But India has 330 million gods and millions of godmen all busy converting “Hindus” into intoxicated monkeys.

(2) In China, there is no right to property which is owned exclusively by the state. India’s reigning Hindu religion gives the highest value to property because its ruling Brahminical castes are the biggest property owners. That is why the govt. in India can take no step towards economic advancement because the right to property blocks the passage.

These are the two basic causes that serve as a grindstone round the neck of Hindu India keeping its population under perpetual superstition, karma theory confusion, endless litigation causing frequent physical violence resulting in huge waste of time in its Hindu religiosity — the sole purpose of which is to keep Muslims and Christians as the target of violence.

How can such a country be put along with China which is a revolutionary country?

India made enemy of China: The bid to put India behind China is done consciously knowing full well that India is rotten to the core but hiding the reality under concocted GDP statistics.

The Western leaders and media know the truth but they are hiding the truth of India’s gloom and doom. (DV Edit April 1, 2006: “Defeated in anti-Islamic war, US shifts focus on China: India joins clash of civilisations?”).

The rise of China has actually helped the West to make India a slave of America and even enemy of China.

GDP-mongers in their enthusiasm to promote their jatwalas have actually harmed the country. We have to pay a heavy price for selling the country to America and converting India as enemy of China.

To repeat, GDP is not a real genuine indicator to decide a county’s health and happiness. Particularly in the case of India. India is already a failed state if social indicators are taken as the deciding factor. In the field of health, infant mortality, education, infrastructure, housing, agriculture, employment China is miles and miles ahead of India. Corruption at the top is rampant. Caste system has made India a sick country. Persecution of Muslims, Christians and Dalits has made it the world’s most violent country.

Now by jumping into the American bandwagon, India’s rulers have further harmed the country.

GDP walas are warned.

India's Untouchables turn to Buddhism in protest at discrimination by Hindus

By Justin Huggler in Delhi, Independent UK, 13 October 2006

Across India this month, thousands of Hindus from the former Untouchable castes are converting to Buddhism in protest at the continuing discrimination they face. Mass conversion ceremonies are being held throughout the month, from Delhi in the north, to Hyderabad in the south. Organisers are claiming that more than 100,000 people have already converted.

Conversion is a highly charged political issue. Several states have passed laws this year making it harder to convert, and the mass ceremonies will infuriate Hindu nationalist parties that have been campaigning to stop lower caste Hindus changing their religion.

But for many Dalits, as Untouchables are now known, conversion is the only way to escape the oppression they still face in Hindu society. Untouchability has been illegal in India since independence, but it is still commonly practised. In many villages Dalits are not allowed to drink clean water from a well. In some areas, tea shops keep a different glass for Dalits to use, so higher-caste Hindus are not "polluted" by drinking from the same vessel, even after it has been washed. After the 2004 tsunami, Dalit survivors in Tamil Nadu were prevented from sharing water in relief camps.

Dalits are converting in large numbers this year because it is the 50th anniversary of the conversion of their most important leader of modern times, B R Ambedkar, who first called on Dalits to become Buddhists in order to escape discrimination.

When Mahatma Gandhi was leading non-violent protests against British rule, Ambedkar was using the same methods to demand equal rights for Untouchables. He was critical of Gandhi, and outspoken in his attacks on Hinduism.

"These people are converting as a protest," says Sakya Ponnu Durai, one of the organisers of the mass conversion ceremonies. But Mr Durai, a Dalit who himself converted two years ago, says he has wholeheartedly become a practising Buddhist. "After converting, I have much more satisfaction," he says.

Many of those converting are doing so to escape the menial jobs traditionally assigned to Dalits. Under the rigid rules of the caste system, it is difficult to change to a job reserved for a higher caste. Although this is no longer the case in the cities, in villages it is still practised. Many Dalits are forced to work as scavengers and latrine cleaners.

Mr Durai was more fortunate: his father was in the Indian military and was able to give him a good education in Chennai. But he says he still faced discrimination.

Even at university, Mr Durai says he was badly beaten by higher-caste students enraged that a Dalit had got better marks than them. Today, he is a federal government worker in Delhi. He is fully aware that conversions are a potentially explosive issue. Hindu nationalist parties are unhappy with the large numbers of lower-caste Hindus converting, not only to Buddhism but also Christianity.

This year several states, including Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, have introduced laws that anyone wishing to convert will have to obtain official permission first. Gujarat, home to some of the most hardline Hindu groups, has introduced a more controversial law under which Buddhism is considered part of Hinduism.

In a separate rally this weekend, not connected to the conversion ceremonies, thousands of Dalits plan to burn the new laws.

By a strange irony, as well as the 50th anniversary of Ambedkar's death, the conversions are taking place amid controversy over the funeral of the Dalits' most powerful political leader, Kanshi Ram. Ram had also converted to Buddhism, but some of his relatives objected when his cremation was carried out according to Buddhist rites.

Across India this month, thousands of Hindus from the former Untouchable castes are converting to Buddhism in protest at the continuing discrimination they face. Mass conversion ceremonies are being held throughout the month, from Delhi in the north, to Hyderabad in the south. Organisers are claiming that more than 100,000 people have already converted.

Conversion is a highly charged political issue. Several states have passed laws this year making it harder to convert, and the mass ceremonies will infuriate Hindu nationalist parties that have been campaigning to stop lower caste Hindus changing their religion.

But for many Dalits, as Untouchables are now known, conversion is the only way to escape the oppression they still face in Hindu society. Untouchability has been illegal in India since independence, but it is still commonly practised. In many villages Dalits are not allowed to drink clean water from a well. In some areas, tea shops keep a different glass for Dalits to use, so higher-caste Hindus are not "polluted" by drinking from the same vessel, even after it has been washed. After the 2004 tsunami, Dalit survivors in Tamil Nadu were prevented from sharing water in relief camps.

Dalits are converting in large numbers this year because it is the 50th anniversary of the conversion of their most important leader of modern times, B R Ambedkar, who first called on Dalits to become Buddhists in order to escape discrimination.

When Mahatma Gandhi was leading non-violent protests against British rule, Ambedkar was using the same methods to demand equal rights for Untouchables. He was critical of Gandhi, and outspoken in his attacks on Hinduism.

"These people are converting as a protest," says Sakya Ponnu Durai, one of the organisers of the mass conversion ceremonies. But Mr Durai, a Dalit who himself converted two years ago, says he has wholeheartedly become a practising Buddhist. "After converting, I have much more satisfaction," he says.

Many of those converting are doing so to escape the menial jobs traditionally assigned to Dalits. Under the rigid rules of the caste system, it is difficult to change to a job reserved for a higher caste. Although this is no longer the case in the cities, in villages it is still practised. Many Dalits are forced to work as scavengers and latrine cleaners.

Mr Durai was more fortunate: his father was in the Indian military and was able to give him a good education in Chennai. But he says he still faced discrimination.

Even at university, Mr Durai says he was badly beaten by higher-caste students enraged that a Dalit had got better marks than them. Today, he is a federal government worker in Delhi. He is fully aware that conversions are a potentially explosive issue. Hindu nationalist parties are unhappy with the large numbers of lower-caste Hindus converting, not only to Buddhism but also Christianity.

This year several states, including Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, have introduced laws that anyone wishing to convert will have to obtain official permission first. Gujarat, home to some of the most hardline Hindu groups, has introduced a more controversial law under which Buddhism is considered part of Hinduism.

In a separate rally this weekend, not connected to the conversion ceremonies, thousands of Dalits plan to burn the new laws.

By a strange irony, as well as the 50th anniversary of Ambedkar's death, the conversions are taking place amid controversy over the funeral of the Dalits' most powerful political leader, Kanshi Ram. Ram had also converted to Buddhism, but some of his relatives objected when his cremation was carried out according to Buddhist rites.

Untouchability’ does not spare IAS officer

Wednesday, 15 March 2006

From Anand V Yamnur DH News Service Gulbarga:

Even when the news of Dalits being denied water from a community tank in a village of Koppal district looms in the minds of the people, a similar case has come to light in a village of Surpur taluk of Gulbarga district.

Even when the news of Dalits being denied water from a community tank in a village of Koppal district looms in the minds of the people, a similar case has come to light in a village of Surpur taluk of Gulbarga district.

A Dalit IAS officer has been denied permission by the forward castes to conduct the marriage of his kin in the community hall of a temple.

Amidst complaints that Dalits are still facing untouchability in their own villages, the latest victim of this practice is none other than Pre-University Examination Board Director Gonal Bheemappa.

Untouchability is apparently still in vogue in Devar Gonal village in Surpur taluk of the district, the native of Mr Gonal Bheemappa. The Mouneshwar temple in the village is a symbol of communal amity with both Hindus and Muslims converging to pray.

However, the managing committee of the temple denied permission to Mr Bheemappa to hold the marriage of his younger brother’s son in the community hall attached to the temple, just because he is a Dalit.

Common practice

When Mr Bheemappa's younger brother Kenchappa Gonal sought his help for conducting his son Hanumantha’s wedding in the temple community hall, the former telephoned temple managing committee members Basavalingayya and Basavanthrai, both teachers by profession, for permission.

It is a common practice in the village to hold marriages in the temple and the feast in the community hall.

However, permission was flatly refused and the marriage was held at Gopalaswami temple at Surpur.

This in spite of Mr Gonal Bheemappa being a donor of the temple, said his brother Kenchappa. Bheemappa is even denied entry into the temple and has to be content praying from outside.

Apart from Dalits being denied entry inside the Mouneshwar temple, separate cups and utensils are kept for Dalits at hotels in the village.

The same practice prevails in about 40 other villages in Surpur taluk.

Kenchappa told Deccan Herald that as he did not wish to make an issue, he did not repeat his request to the temple management or complain to Surpur Tahsildar, who is the Chairman of the temple managing committee. The temple comes under Muzrai department.