Mary and I came across this article as we read the morning paper in Amristar.......
India Tribune Newspaper September 15
INTERNATIONAL SEX RACKET BUSTED
13 Girls, 2 Agents Arrested From 2 Hotels
Amristar, September 15
A Civil Lines police team busted an international sex racket here today.
According to police information, 13 girls in the age group of 18 to 22 were arrested from two city hotels along with two agents.
Declaring themselves as Plaa dancers’ troupe, they were scheduled to fly to Dubai tomorrow from Amristar International Airport.
On a tip-off, the police party, led by ACP (Crime) Avtar Singh and SI Jasvir Singh of Civil Lines police station, raided the hotels in plain clothes and nabbed two persons, Kishore Kuer and Arvind Kumar, originally hailing from Mumbai. They have allegedly engaged these girls from Mumbai, Delhi, Orissa and Punjab and were about to go to Dubai under the garb of dancing group.
“In interrogation, the girls confessed to having been involved in illegal sex trade through their agents with consent. It was found that their agents used to operate from New Delhi Mumbai on regular basis and Amristar was their destination for the first time to catch flight abroad. Their past records revealed that they used to send girls to entertain rich people in India, too, on regular basis,” said Avtar Singh.
“Their passports have been confiscated. The occupation slot mentioned them as ‘artistes’. They would be produced before the court and investigation is on. Though exact amount has not been calculated, yet a huge sum of foreign currency and several mobile phone sets have been confiscated from them.” he added. A case under the Immoral Trafficking Act was registered.
September 23 India Telegraph newspaper - Letter to the Editor
DAUGHTER VANISHES - West Bengal
Human trafficking should be made into a culpable offence, to be condemned alongside such evils as drug peddling, child labour and dowry. The state police recently disclosed that 2,500 teenaged girls have disappeared from Bengal in one year (“Missing: 2500 girls in a year”, Sept 18) This is just the official figure. How many more have vanished is anybody’s guess. Jahura Bibi is an exceptional women since she had the courage to move court after her daughter, Zarina, went missing from Kakdwip in Sougth 24-Parganas. Who will fight for the rest of the girls who disappear?
Impoverishment and illiteracy are the chief reasons why traffickers flourish in rural areas. Non-governmental organizations must play a leading role in combating this social menace. The state government should instruct gram panchayats to always be on the lookout for suspected traffickers and to file periodic reports in local police stations. The Telegraph has done a marvelous job by reporting the case of Zarina, who now has some chance of being rescued and brought back.
Yours faithfully,
Debasish Banerjee, Calcutta
Monday, September 27, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
DARJEELING
9/24 We’re in Darjeeling, famous for its tea. We have changed hotels 3 times in 3 nights, starting out in traditional Tibetan guest house and have ended up in a quiet place with the best views ever. Our room has an incredible panoramic view, high in the clouds(we are at 7000 ft). As the clouds roll in and out, we can see the valley below, and the mountains in the distance. We just had a rare view of Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. Really cool!
Sleeping at night hasn’t been easy. Between the chorus of barking dogs, generators switching on when the electric goes out, the 4 a.m. Muslim call to prayer that blasts over loudspeaker for the entire city to hear. We‘re no longer in Kennett Square.
Dogs roam wildly all over the place here. Good news is, there are no cows here on the streets. That eliminates having to watch every step to avoid the cowpies. The dogs bark all night long and sleep in the streets during the day when their not eating the trash. We saw a woman and baby sitting in the middle of the street yesterday with cars whizzing by, the baby playing with the dogs, while she was on her cell phone. I can’t even begin to imagine the germs! Monkeys roam wild, hanging in the trees, climbing along rooftops.
Our visit here included a trip to a tea plantation, where we met up with some Aussies we enjoyed being with. It’s great when we find people who speak English! We hiked down a long, rocky hill to get to our destination, very unlike what I thought the entrance to Harrod’s Happy Valley Tea Plantation might be. At the bottom of the steep slope, a Tibetan woman took us into her teahouse, a 1950’s rendition of a mishmash of dirty stuffed animals, a woman nursing a baby, sacks of tea, a boy making momos (a Tibetan staple) and whatever else the tiny crowded room held. We learned about tea, and what makes Darjeeling the top quality tea. We toured the “factory”(all terms are used loosely), as the women pickers napped on the floor on their lunch break. These poor souls are paid 68 rupees($1.48) per day to pick the tea. We tried to imagine their lives as they toil all day in the fields and then go home to care for their children and homes. We have it so good! We had hoped to take a taxi back to the top of the hill and learned that wasn’t an option. As we climbed back up, I thought of the woman doing the same after a long hot day of work, day in, day out.
Carrying the tea in from the field.
We visited the Tibetan Refugee center reached by a very scary drive up a jeep trail like road with hair pin turns that was washed out here and there. We later learned, and saw a picture, women built the road by hand in the early 1960s. At the Center is an orphanage and an old folks home, as well as a craft center where they sell their handicrafts to help support themselves. We could only find a few small things we were interested in- a total of $2 US. We delighted 2 little boys with peppermints! We continue to ponder the plight of the Tibetan people. Now, how do we get back to town? We ask a man standing by the only car in site for a ride. He kindly agrees. On the way down Kema tells us he was 2 years old in 1959 when his parents fled Tibet for India when the Chinese invaded. What journey that must have been walking over the Himalayas wih a 2 year old baby. Kema has lived in the refuge center ever since. Soon we pass the Tenzin rock climbing school, founded by the first person to climb Mt Everest, Norgay Tenzin (with Edmund Hillary) in 1953. Kema tells us Norgay was Tibetan and lived in Darjeeling. In fact we learn that Tenzin lived on the same road, Gandhi Road, as our hotel!
Dogs roam wildly all over the place here. Good news is, there are no cows here on the streets. That eliminates having to watch every step to avoid the cowpies. The dogs bark all night long and sleep in the streets during the day when their not eating the trash. We saw a woman and baby sitting in the middle of the street yesterday with cars whizzing by, the baby playing with the dogs, while she was on her cell phone. I can’t even begin to imagine the germs! Monkeys roam wild, hanging in the trees, climbing along rooftops.
Our visit here included a trip to a tea plantation, where we met up with some Aussies we enjoyed being with. It’s great when we find people who speak English! We hiked down a long, rocky hill to get to our destination, very unlike what I thought the entrance to Harrod’s Happy Valley Tea Plantation might be. At the bottom of the steep slope, a Tibetan woman took us into her teahouse, a 1950’s rendition of a mishmash of dirty stuffed animals, a woman nursing a baby, sacks of tea, a boy making momos (a Tibetan staple) and whatever else the tiny crowded room held. We learned about tea, and what makes Darjeeling the top quality tea. We toured the “factory”(all terms are used loosely), as the women pickers napped on the floor on their lunch break. These poor souls are paid 68 rupees($1.48) per day to pick the tea. We tried to imagine their lives as they toil all day in the fields and then go home to care for their children and homes. We have it so good! We had hoped to take a taxi back to the top of the hill and learned that wasn’t an option. As we climbed back up, I thought of the woman doing the same after a long hot day of work, day in, day out.
We visited the Tibetan Refugee center reached by a very scary drive up a jeep trail like road with hair pin turns that was washed out here and there. We later learned, and saw a picture, women built the road by hand in the early 1960s. At the Center is an orphanage and an old folks home, as well as a craft center where they sell their handicrafts to help support themselves. We could only find a few small things we were interested in- a total of $2 US. We delighted 2 little boys with peppermints! We continue to ponder the plight of the Tibetan people. Now, how do we get back to town? We ask a man standing by the only car in site for a ride. He kindly agrees. On the way down Kema tells us he was 2 years old in 1959 when his parents fled Tibet for India when the Chinese invaded. What journey that must have been walking over the Himalayas wih a 2 year old baby. Kema has lived in the refuge center ever since. Soon we pass the Tenzin rock climbing school, founded by the first person to climb Mt Everest, Norgay Tenzin (with Edmund Hillary) in 1953. Kema tells us Norgay was Tibetan and lived in Darjeeling. In fact we learn that Tenzin lived on the same road, Gandhi Road, as our hotel!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Tibetan Childrens Village
Saturday Sept 18th
Today we awaken to clear skies, the Himalayans as a backdrop from our patio. We watch as the village awakens, people gather at the well, teeth are being brushed by the villagers, school children hustle off, women brush their daughter’s hair, the old man sits meditating into the sun, the cows moo. We begin the day with our usual routine of finding our man, Manod, or him finding us in the early morning to bring us coffee and tea on the balcony of our room. Not like Starbuck’s, but it works. He serves us bananas and apples, the first fruit since we left Delhi. Mike agrees to peel the apples and eat one. This is an experiment. If he gets sick, no more. If he doesn’t, I’ll have one later.
The view is of an enormous play unfolding with actors performing their small but integral part of the total village scene. Children are dressing and preparing for school, after which they all walk or run down the main village path to the school, women are sweeping the roof or porch, a man sits seemingly staring off into space…is he meditating or something else?, an old man sits on a large pile or rocks and hammers one endlessly to shape it into a square for the new addition to the house. The children are many and the girls each have 2 red ribbons in their hair and wear long white shirts with blue pants and a sash for their uniform. Out on the road 5 men watch one raise the metal roll-up to his shop, an old women chases a cow from the field, another women beats rugs to clean them and hangs them up to dry, at the village water pipe people come and go splashing water on to various body parts to bathe. All of this and much more is going on below the backdrop of the Dargulahur range of the Himalaya. Dense moist clouds roll in and then out, veiling one minute and the next reveling the steep rocky cliffs and green lower slopes.
The electricity goes off, the water stops. What we so take for granted at home. It’s ok here. The sun is warm, so why do we need those things now anyway?
The boy offers to take us on a hike through the village later, up to a waterfall. We will look forward to that.
Tibetan Children's Village.
Our plan today is to walk down the road to the Tibetan Children’s Village. As some may know, this school was created by the Dali Lama shortly after the Chinese forced him and hundreds of thousands of Tibetans into exile from their homeland in 1959. Over one million Tibetan’s were slaughtered then by the Chinese. This event in human history is well known the world over. To be here, to see, and to watch the children and the Buddhist monks and see the primitive (to say the least) living conditions really brings the story to life. Heartbreakingly, parents in Tibet send their children to the Tibetan Children’s Village in India and many never see them again. Why would a parent do this? In Tibet today, the only schools are run by the Chinese that suppress and denigrate Tibetan culture and language. All classes are taught in Chinese and the school system is used to suppress the cultural identity of Tibetan children. The Tibetan culture is being destroyed, while Western consumers continue to support the communist government of China by buying just about everything from that country. The Tibetan Children’s Village is a vast and sprawling complex of buildings cascading across the mountainside. Here there are class rooms, sports fields, living quarters, dining halls and education centers for teachers. If you’d like to learn more go to www.tcv.org.in
On the road to Dharmasala!
Today we awaken to clear skies, the Himalayans as a backdrop from our patio. We watch as the village awakens, people gather at the well, teeth are being brushed by the villagers, school children hustle off, women brush their daughter’s hair, the old man sits meditating into the sun, the cows moo. We begin the day with our usual routine of finding our man, Manod, or him finding us in the early morning to bring us coffee and tea on the balcony of our room. Not like Starbuck’s, but it works. He serves us bananas and apples, the first fruit since we left Delhi. Mike agrees to peel the apples and eat one. This is an experiment. If he gets sick, no more. If he doesn’t, I’ll have one later.
The view is of an enormous play unfolding with actors performing their small but integral part of the total village scene. Children are dressing and preparing for school, after which they all walk or run down the main village path to the school, women are sweeping the roof or porch, a man sits seemingly staring off into space…is he meditating or something else?, an old man sits on a large pile or rocks and hammers one endlessly to shape it into a square for the new addition to the house. The children are many and the girls each have 2 red ribbons in their hair and wear long white shirts with blue pants and a sash for their uniform. Out on the road 5 men watch one raise the metal roll-up to his shop, an old women chases a cow from the field, another women beats rugs to clean them and hangs them up to dry, at the village water pipe people come and go splashing water on to various body parts to bathe. All of this and much more is going on below the backdrop of the Dargulahur range of the Himalaya. Dense moist clouds roll in and then out, veiling one minute and the next reveling the steep rocky cliffs and green lower slopes.
The electricity goes off, the water stops. What we so take for granted at home. It’s ok here. The sun is warm, so why do we need those things now anyway?
The boy offers to take us on a hike through the village later, up to a waterfall. We will look forward to that.
Our "hotel" in Naddi village in the Himalylas.
Our plan today is to walk down the road to the Tibetan Children’s Village. As some may know, this school was created by the Dali Lama shortly after the Chinese forced him and hundreds of thousands of Tibetans into exile from their homeland in 1959. Over one million Tibetan’s were slaughtered then by the Chinese. This event in human history is well known the world over. To be here, to see, and to watch the children and the Buddhist monks and see the primitive (to say the least) living conditions really brings the story to life. Heartbreakingly, parents in Tibet send their children to the Tibetan Children’s Village in India and many never see them again. Why would a parent do this? In Tibet today, the only schools are run by the Chinese that suppress and denigrate Tibetan culture and language. All classes are taught in Chinese and the school system is used to suppress the cultural identity of Tibetan children. The Tibetan culture is being destroyed, while Western consumers continue to support the communist government of China by buying just about everything from that country. The Tibetan Children’s Village is a vast and sprawling complex of buildings cascading across the mountainside. Here there are class rooms, sports fields, living quarters, dining halls and education centers for teachers. If you’d like to learn more go to www.tcv.org.in
Our next door neighbors.
Mary and her new friend at the Shiva waterfall!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
India: Here We Are!
The best news is that we are both healthy, having no ill effects on our first 4 days in India. We are having lots of laughs, some frustrations, missing some things (ice in my Diet Coke!) and happy to have others (coffee every day, so far!).
However we travel, it has proven to be interesting, at best. The 5 ½ hour train from Delhi to Amritsar turned out to be 7 (the engine needed to be replaced), the driving can be terrifying, to say the least. Cars, rickshaws, cows, bikes and whatever else moves on the road- all compete for the same space. Our taxi driver honked constantly to the Pakistani border and back tonight. Just hope we don’t have him tomorrow on the 5 hour taxi to Dharmasala. My prayers are constant while on the road!
We went to the crossing ceremony today at the India/Pakistan border. This big event draws thousands of people daily. It’s all in Hindi, so we were clueless. We know it will be a lifetime memory, as most of us can say we have never been to the Pakistan border. It is a celebration of nationalism, the result of the division of the countries in 1947, each wanting to prove it is better than the other. The Pakistani side was not well attended, possibly due to the floods and other crises in the country.
All of the newspapers have been running articles about violent protests, as a result of the Quran being burned in the US. We have not found anything online indicating the burning actually happened, but know that there have been deaths as a result of rumors.
It’s been fascinating to learn about the many religions of this region. We are in Amristar, where the Golden Temple is. It is an incredibly beautiful place, where Sikh’s worship. 6 million Sikhs left Pakistan in 1947 and came to this region of India. We were taken back by the size, beauty and holiness we experienced as we toured. 60-80,000 people come daily to worship here. Above is a picture of Mike with the required headgear at the Golden Temple. We went to India’s largest mosque, in Delhi, which was interesting, but unlike the temple here. I’m done with temples, as I’m over having to take off my shoes to walk through these places.
India, so far, is fascinating, overwhelming and unlike anywhere else in the world.
However we travel, it has proven to be interesting, at best. The 5 ½ hour train from Delhi to Amritsar turned out to be 7 (the engine needed to be replaced), the driving can be terrifying, to say the least. Cars, rickshaws, cows, bikes and whatever else moves on the road- all compete for the same space. Our taxi driver honked constantly to the Pakistani border and back tonight. Just hope we don’t have him tomorrow on the 5 hour taxi to Dharmasala. My prayers are constant while on the road!
We went to the crossing ceremony today at the India/Pakistan border. This big event draws thousands of people daily. It’s all in Hindi, so we were clueless. We know it will be a lifetime memory, as most of us can say we have never been to the Pakistan border. It is a celebration of nationalism, the result of the division of the countries in 1947, each wanting to prove it is better than the other. The Pakistani side was not well attended, possibly due to the floods and other crises in the country.
Indian and Pakistani guards at the border: 
Parading the colors
All of the newspapers have been running articles about violent protests, as a result of the Quran being burned in the US. We have not found anything online indicating the burning actually happened, but know that there have been deaths as a result of rumors.
It’s been fascinating to learn about the many religions of this region. We are in Amristar, where the Golden Temple is. It is an incredibly beautiful place, where Sikh’s worship. 6 million Sikhs left Pakistan in 1947 and came to this region of India. We were taken back by the size, beauty and holiness we experienced as we toured. 60-80,000 people come daily to worship here. Above is a picture of Mike with the required headgear at the Golden Temple. We went to India’s largest mosque, in Delhi, which was interesting, but unlike the temple here. I’m done with temples, as I’m over having to take off my shoes to walk through these places.
Mike's Punjabi shoes!
India, so far, is fascinating, overwhelming and unlike anywhere else in the world.
Front Page Interview in Kennett Paper Covers Mary and Mike's Trip
Kennett Paper News
Local couple traveling to India to fight child sex slavery
Published: Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Photo by Fran Maye
Mike Mays and Mary Carins will be departing for India on Sept. 11 for a six-month mission trip.
By Fran Maye
When Mary Cairns discovered that young girls in India rarely get a basic education and many are sold as sex slaves, she knew she wanted to do something about it.
Going to India, she thought would be cost-prohibitive. And what about her interior decorating business in Kennett Square she built up over the years? And she’d have to leave her pets behind.
Cairns decided that with her two kids grown, now was the time. So she leaves for India this Saturday with her boyfriend of more than a year, Mike Mays.
“There are 27 million sex slaves in our world and a lot of them are children,” Cairns said. “Girls are either kidnapped or sold by their families into slavery. Families sell them because they are desperate for money. The atrocity of this issue got me interested in wanting to go to India.
Cairns and Mays will be traveling to the Partdada Pardadi Girls School in Anupshahar, Uttar Pradesh, India, about 80 miles east of Delhi. They will be there for six months and will help teach girls at the school to set them up for success later in life.
The school was established about 10 years ago by Sam Singh, a native of India who headed up DuPont’s headquarters in India. He used his retirement savings to build the school, and his goal was to take one girl from each of the poorest families in the villages and give them basic education and some training.
As an incentive for the girls to go to school, Singh set up a fund to pay them the equivalent of 25 cents a day for each day they attend school. If they go from 5th grade to 12th grade, they can make about $750, which sets them on the road to economic self-sufficiency.
The money can only be taken out when they reach age 21 or when they are married. The money cannot be accessed by a man, even their father.
“Up until now, girls had never gone to school over there,” Mays said. “Girls worked in the field. The Indian government provides basic education, but it’s only the boys who go to school.”
Mays will instruct teachers in English, life skills, and use of computer programs like Microsoft Word and Excel. He will bring standardization to teaching practices, and aid with marketing and fundraising. He had to quit his job a s a software engineer in order to make the trip.
And Cairns too made a leap of faith. She’s having friends take care of her business she’s had in the borough for 25 years. Cairns and Mays estimate they are spending about $20,000 each of their own money to make the trip.
Trip, though, isn’t the word Cairns and Mays like to use. It’s more of a mission.
“We can work with the girls there, get them educated, provide them with educational training that will reduce their risk of ending up in slavery,” Cairns said.
Recently a teacher’s colony, complete with a modern building, was built in the area. Cairns and Mays are elated they will at least have electricity (for about six hours a day) and running water.
“We’re leaving our lives behind here,” said Cairns, 53, who previously had done some missionary work in Jamaica. “After 911, we all realize how fragile life is. Most people will never take this risk.
“I love my business, I love doing what I’m doing,” Cairns said. “But I’m hanging window treatments, making people’s houses pretty, but there’s more to life than that. Gratification comes from making a difference in the world.”
Cairns has set up a blog at marymikeindia.blogspot.com and plans to update frequently.
Local couple traveling to India to fight child sex slavery
Published: Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Photo by Fran Maye
Mike Mays and Mary Carins will be departing for India on Sept. 11 for a six-month mission trip.
By Fran Maye
When Mary Cairns discovered that young girls in India rarely get a basic education and many are sold as sex slaves, she knew she wanted to do something about it.
Going to India, she thought would be cost-prohibitive. And what about her interior decorating business in Kennett Square she built up over the years? And she’d have to leave her pets behind.
Cairns decided that with her two kids grown, now was the time. So she leaves for India this Saturday with her boyfriend of more than a year, Mike Mays.
“There are 27 million sex slaves in our world and a lot of them are children,” Cairns said. “Girls are either kidnapped or sold by their families into slavery. Families sell them because they are desperate for money. The atrocity of this issue got me interested in wanting to go to India.
Cairns and Mays will be traveling to the Partdada Pardadi Girls School in Anupshahar, Uttar Pradesh, India, about 80 miles east of Delhi. They will be there for six months and will help teach girls at the school to set them up for success later in life.
The school was established about 10 years ago by Sam Singh, a native of India who headed up DuPont’s headquarters in India. He used his retirement savings to build the school, and his goal was to take one girl from each of the poorest families in the villages and give them basic education and some training.
As an incentive for the girls to go to school, Singh set up a fund to pay them the equivalent of 25 cents a day for each day they attend school. If they go from 5th grade to 12th grade, they can make about $750, which sets them on the road to economic self-sufficiency.
The money can only be taken out when they reach age 21 or when they are married. The money cannot be accessed by a man, even their father.
“Up until now, girls had never gone to school over there,” Mays said. “Girls worked in the field. The Indian government provides basic education, but it’s only the boys who go to school.”
Mays will instruct teachers in English, life skills, and use of computer programs like Microsoft Word and Excel. He will bring standardization to teaching practices, and aid with marketing and fundraising. He had to quit his job a s a software engineer in order to make the trip.
And Cairns too made a leap of faith. She’s having friends take care of her business she’s had in the borough for 25 years. Cairns and Mays estimate they are spending about $20,000 each of their own money to make the trip.
Trip, though, isn’t the word Cairns and Mays like to use. It’s more of a mission.
“We can work with the girls there, get them educated, provide them with educational training that will reduce their risk of ending up in slavery,” Cairns said.
Recently a teacher’s colony, complete with a modern building, was built in the area. Cairns and Mays are elated they will at least have electricity (for about six hours a day) and running water.
“We’re leaving our lives behind here,” said Cairns, 53, who previously had done some missionary work in Jamaica. “After 911, we all realize how fragile life is. Most people will never take this risk.
“I love my business, I love doing what I’m doing,” Cairns said. “But I’m hanging window treatments, making people’s houses pretty, but there’s more to life than that. Gratification comes from making a difference in the world.”
Cairns has set up a blog at marymikeindia.blogspot.com and plans to update frequently.
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