The Daily Observer Volume 1 Issue 3

The Daily

Observer Volume 14 | Issue 3

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

City cops spark protest over ‘beggars’ raids Elizabeth Mani Sreemoyee Chatterjee Transgenders were arrested from their homes and temples and dumped in Beggars Colony in a late night police purge.

The large scale operation, which saw 43 transgenders arrested, triggered immediate protests outside the city's Town Hall today.

Bangalore Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi was forced to meet with activists to assure them the police had no agenda against the transgendered community.

Reddi said, “We did not have any intention to arrest the transgenders and target them and they were all arrested under the Beggary Act." One activist, on leaving the meet-

ing, said, "The government does nothing for our jobs, education and medical aid but only knows to put innocent transgenders behind bars.”

A senior police officer sent an order across the city to arrest members of the community and take them to Beggar's Colony, the state run secure facility for homeless beggars, according to police.

When ‘The Daily Observer’ visited the colony 43 transgenders were still locked inside.

Manju, 40, a transgender who was arrested from her house, said, “We were having dinner in our house when I got a call from the police who told that there has been a robbery case reported against us and they wanted us to come over and give clarifications regarding it.”

Akkai Padmashali, transgender activist at Town Hall

“Today is my birthday. I wanted to enjoy with my friends but instead I’m in prison."

Manju was taken to the colony when she arrived at the station.

Meera, a transgender beggar, said, “We want to live like others. If the government wants us to stop begging let them give us a permanent job.” "I have to pay Rs 7000 rent for my house. Transgenders don’t have as many options as others. We either have to beg or start doing sex work.

I prefer begging."

“We got a message from control room that transgenders were troubling the public. We didn’t arrest any transgenders, we just shifted them to Beggars Colony as per the control room order,” said BTM Layout police.

"I was thrown out of my home by my parents for being a transgender, I do begging for my living," said Anitha, 20. “Today is my birthday. I wanted to enjoy with my friends but instead I’m in prison."

Sangeetha, who was also arrested, said, “I was drinking tea in a teashop when the police came to arrest me.

When I refused to go, they threatened to beat me up.”

Circle Inspector of Paparapana Agrahara Police Station, Vasu, said “It’s a special raid not only in our station but all over Bangalore.”

Nandhini, another transgender, said, “Two of my friends and I were in Malmaleshwara Temple in Bapu-

jinagar when the police arrested us.”

In retaliation, around 120 transgenders gathered at the Town Hall, Bangalore, at 4pm to protest against the unjust Beggary Act and the arrest of transgenders under the act.

Akkai Padmashali, the wellknown transgender activist, Saumya, another activist, Shuma and Malappa, both members of Karnataka Sexual Minority Forum, and Gautama, a member of the Alternative Law Forum, had an hour long meeting with Police Commissioner, M.N. Reddi and Additional Commissioner of Police, Alok Kumar at 12.40 p.m.

Ranjitha, an activist, said that the Silver Jubilee police station rejected their application of protest at the Town Hall today, but still they continued, claiming, “We don’t care if we are put behind bars for this protest. The government does nothing for our jobs, education and medical aid, but only knows to put innocent transgenders behind bars.”

After the meeting, Alok Kumar

said, “I hope I made them happy in the meeting. Not happy exactly, but yes, they are a bit satisfied now. They will be released by midnight for sure.”

Akkai Padmashali approached the Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy who assured them of their release, but justified their arrest saying that they had been involved in theft.

Soumya, organizer of the Pride Parade, said, “We are going to protest against this along with the people who are released from the Beggars’ Colony.”

During the protest, Akkai said, “This marks our victory against the unconstitutional Karnataka Beggary Act, which should be immediately repealed. All the released transgenders are about to join us in this protest to celebrate this victory.”

“The transgenders were released from Beggars Colonyat 6.30 p.m,” said Savita, treasurer at Payanna, an NGO for transgender.

Protestors designing placards at Town Hall

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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Daily Observer

BJP claim success over membership drive Darshan D. Rane At least 6.2 lakh people signed up as new members of the BJP over the last 13 days, according to the party secretary.

The Bharatiya Janata Party launched a recruitment drive on November 13 as they gear up to challenge the ruling Congress party hold in Karnataka.

State office secretary Keshava Prasad claims 6.2 lakh people have dialled the "missed call" hotline number the party put in place to register membership, despite the total membership for the party prior to the launch of the recruitment drive standing at just 42 lakh.

And he says his party expects to reach a target of 75 lakh members by the end of the drive, next March.

The drive is part of a concerted BJP campaign to wrest control from Congress and a series of marches and protests have been co-ordinated across the state in recent days.

'Black flag' demonstrations were carried out against Congress leaders K..J. George, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Qamar Ul Islam and H..S. Mahadeva Prasad in Mangalore, Bagalkot,

Hubli, Dharwad, Raichur and Chamarajanagar on 22, 23 and 24 November.

“These ministers are involved in crimes including land-scams, money laundering, obstruction of justice and other issues concerning public matters. They use their power and are not convicted. Hence, we are taking these steps. Our people were jailed by the police for protesting against corruption.” said P. Muniraju, BJP Yuva Morcha state executive.

“What are they talking about, scams? It was due to BJP’s Yeddyurappa’s black doings that we are in power in the state. It was their wrongdoing that people found faith in the Congress.

"People are happy with Congress in the state. It is doing well under the guided leadership of our Chief Minister, Shri Siddaramaiah ” said Anilkumar Matikeri, Youth Congress President, Bangalore.“They may show black flags without proof but what about the blackness in their party?"

Attacking Congress, Rao added: “We will give Congress sleepless nights. You will see an aggressive opposition in the coming months, ex-

BJP members held by Police for staging Black Flag protest posing the government and its shortcomings, both inside the assembly and outside.

“Congress has lost in Delhi. It has lost in Maharashtra and Haryana.

It has lost because it has incorporated all the evil qualities. Corruption and dividing the politics through ap-

Speaker Pralhad Joshi (center) and P. Muralidhar Rao (right) address membership questions while B.S. Yeddyurappa (left) takes a quick nap

Picture courtesy: Ravinder Reddy

peasement on the basis of religion and religion is used to divide people to sustain power.”

The Prime Minister had formally launched the Nationwide BJP membership drive in New Delhi on November 1, 2014.

The national party which won a landslide victory in the Lok sabha enjoys little or no presence in the ruling state governments in Eastern and Southern parts of India.

The party had won 5 out of 119 seats in Telangana, in Assembly General elections held in June 2014.

4 out of 174 seats in Seemandhra elections held in June 2014, 40 out of 224 seats in Karnataka elections held in May 2013, zero out of 234 seats in Tamil Nadu elections held in April 2011 and zero out of 140 seats in Kerala elections of April 2011.

"BJP will do all, whatever is needed to regain what we have lost in Karnataka through whatever we have today.” said P. Muralidhar Rao, National General Secretary, Karnataka.

Dr. Vagishwari, Associate Professor, political science department, Christ University, said, “Initially, we thought the entire

BJP campaigning during Lok sabha elections was a media blitz and a massive publicity mechanism. It worked for them.

But 4 months down the line, it has been positive to see the Prime Minister take proactive steps toward rightly concentrated issues of trade networking and foreign relations.

The PM is sending out positive signals and hints of steps toward development are already being seen.

As for BJP in Karnataka state, the leadership is fractured and diffused .Even if they get voted to power in the near future, it will be due to the Central leadership and not State’s.”

Rubbishing BJP’s claims on the member registration figures, Ravi Kumar N, Congress General Secretary, Bangalore division, said, “No. No. No. Such a figure is not possible.

You cannot even assume such a figure. It is ridiculous. They are desperate and hungry for power in the state.”

“Karnataka’s mandate in recently concluded elections is clear proof of support for congress party. BJP’s games of misleading the masses will not work here. Not in Karnataka,” he added.

JDS: Amazon not paying VAT, opposition to blame Tushar Kaushik The Janata Dal Secular party has accused Amazon of using its political connections to avoid paying VAT. Ramesh Babu, spokesperson for JDS, said that Amazon was given special treatment by central government and asked the government to stop this.

He produced a document issued by the Department of Commercial Taxes that states that all commercial dealers with an annual income of over 50 lakhs have to pay VAT. Babu said, "Even after repeated notices sent to Amazon regarding this, they haven’t complied."

Babu attacked the involvement of the opposition members regarding the issue and called for the central government to find out all the members of the opposition

The JD(S) conference got a wide media coverage

who have a stake in Amazon.

Lalita Patil, a member of JDS and of the Belgaum ladies wing, spoke about the negative effect of Amazon on the smaller e-commerce firms.

She said, "These big firms can afford to price their goods cheaper as they are not paying VAT, so it's not fair to the smaller local firms."

She added that this issue had been discussed within the party many times.

However, she acknowledged that this was probably the first time it had been raised publicly.

Deepak Rangaswamy, who formerly worked as a Process Associate for Amazon, said there was no truth in the allegations.

He said, “Online firms like Flipkart and Snapdeal are Indian firms, and hence they weren’t targeted. JDS has used Amazon to put down the other parties.”

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Daily Observer

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De-addiction center in human rights probe Nikhil M Babu Nearly 50 percent of licensed psychiatric care centers in the city are not inspected and some patients claim they are regularly assaulted.

“They used to strip me and beat me with a PVC pipe,” claims Antony, a former patient of Gurudeva Foundation, a rehabilitation centre in the city. “During my stay, they kicked me on my genitals and I am still undergoing treatment for that.”

Psychiatric care centers include de-addiction centers and mental health institutions. The rules state that each center should have a separate committee of seven 'visitors' comprising of a magistrate and other officials to inspect them once a month.

Seventeen of the 38 centers in the city have no inspections, according to records obtained by ‘The Daily Observer’ from the Karnataka State Mental Health Authority.

“Antony has to undergo a surgery as there is swelling in his scrotum and it will cost more than Rs 10,000,” said Dr Sankhar, Chief Medical Officer at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital Bangalore.

Antony alleges that he was admitted in Gurudeva Foundation in June 2013 when the centre did not have a license. Even though they got a license later the government didn’t appoint any visiting inspection team.

“For the first few days I was kept

The Mental Health Care Bill, which proposes to eliminate the system of ‘visitors’ will be discussed in the winter session of parliament which began on Monday.

“The bill proposes to create a Mental Health Review Commission, which will inspect the psychiatric care centers only when there is a complaint. It also says that in every center patients should have the facility to use phone and internet so that they can make complaints if there are any problems,” said Dr Chandrasekhar, Secretary of Karnataka State Mental Health Authority.

"Many of us preferred the old system of visitors in the psychiatric centers," he added.

Balaji, owner of Gurudeva Foundation in isolation. They used to make us clean toilets and do all sorts jobs at the center,” he claimed.

“They hit him in front of me when I went to visit him one day and I came out as I couldn’t stand it,” said Antony’s wife.

The District Collector, Karnataka State Mental Health Authority and Karnataka Health and Family Welfare are collectively responsible for the psychiatric centers in the city.

"There are around 30-50 illegal rehabilitation centers in the city, but it is the duty of the District Collec-

tor to keep a check on them," said a senior member of KMHA. This is not only the case in Bangalore. According to KMHA, after 2012 they have appointed visitors to new psychiatric care centers only for three districts: Belgaum, Mysore and Gulbarga.

“They used to slap my grandpa and I have fought with them a lot for it,” alleged Kumaran’s granddaughter.

"They didn't give him proper food and used to beat him also," alleged his wife.

Prakash Kariyappa, member of SICHREM, an NGO in the city, said,”The authorities don’t inspect these centers properly and it is a complete mess.

“Last year we along with Human Rights Commission raided an illegal center in Bangalore which was run-

ning in a place which used to be a poultry farm,” he added.

Antony added that he is fighting for justice after his treatment at the center and has taken his fight to a human rights watchdog.

“I sent a complaint to the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission and the Police Commissioner almost a month ago but they haven’t taken any action until now,” he said.

Iranavar, Registrar of the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, confirmed that they have received the complaint, HRC 5027/14 and registered it, but said that it will take another 15 days at least to take any action as the Chairperson is out of station.

The commissioner’s office also confirmed that they have received the complaint and has forwarded it

Prakash Kariyappa, member of SICHREM to Kothanur police station.

We contacted the center's owner Balaji to ask about admission to Gurudeva.

“Even though I have stopped Gurudeva, I am still connected to many de-addiction centers in the city,” said Balaji, who was the owner of Gurudeva Foundation at the time of the alleged assault on Antony.

“But we have one at VIjayanagar, Electronic City and if you want Kengeri, I can give you that also,” he added.

When our reporter asked him about the allegations made by the patients, Balaji denied that patients were beaten up.

“If a complaint is there from the patient he can go to the police station and give a complaint against me,” said Balaji. “I will give a complaint against you now that you are mentally harassing me.”

Namma Metro using child labor Punita Maheshwari Children as young as 14 are working to complete Bangalore's delayed metro project - under the noses of city centre cops.

Entire families are being employed on a daily basis at sites like Cubbon Park, right in front of Chinnaswamy Stadium in the heart of the city.

The parents take their children to work as they do not attend school and site foremen pay them for their casual labour on a daily basis.

According to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 employment of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations is prohibited.

One local resident who spotted the minors at work in the city, Mr. Backer, who is also the Managing Director at USI Media, demanded an explanation from the site manager when he spotted the juveniles working on the site.

“While on my way back home, I saw a number of teenagers carrying heavy loads and working near crane machines. I spoke to the person in charge there who refused to give any information about the employment plan,” he said.

The children working at the site do not complain as they get extra in-

Sahile Backer

Child worker at the metro construction site near Cubbon Park come for their family. “We are hired on daily basis and get work according to requirement. It adds to the family income and we don’t sleep with empty stomachs,” said, Ranganathan who is 14-years-old.

“I live with my parents and two

sisters in Magadhi Rd. I studied till sixth grade and left school last year,” he added.

Babu has been working on the site for the last six months. “I get my 17-year-old son with me for assitance and extra money,” he said.

The PWD department of the city is unaware about the situation of construction workers at the metro station. “We never got information about children working there, we will take action when it is reported to us,” said an official from the engi-

neering department.

The government schemes against child labor do not reach the targeted groups because of lack of coordination among departments. Subhramaniyam, the Coordinator of Child helpline in Bangalore said, “There is a lack of coordination between the education department and labour department, thus actions are delayed in such cases.”

“Any kind of work undertaken by a juvenile, whether full time or part time, which contributes to the economy of the country is against the law,” said Nagesh, Head Constable, J.P Nagar Police station.

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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Daily Observer

City lacks proper structure, says Shaw Tweets of the day

Nikunj Ohri Bangalore is slacking over the city's infrastructure and needs to produce better graduates, according to one of India's leading industrialists.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Observer after attending the opening day of the Commonwealth Science Conference, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the 61-year-old founder of Biocon in Bangalore, who has a net worth of $1.2 billion, said: "The metro project is taking so long and the road projects that are started take very long. India faces this challenge that everything that we do is very time consuming.”

"If you look at many parts of the world, these similar projects are undertaken and are completed at much greater speed. Lastly, the way they are financed and managed does not lead to such delays.”

“I don’t think any city will grind to a halt because there are always ways of solving problems.

Bangalore has a huge scope to expand, and we need to work hard and solve the problems like increasing population and migration of people in the city.”

“It is really about the fact that there is this huge increase in population because of the economic activities and it is also about focusing on how to deal with this influx of people.”

“You have deal with how to solve infrastructure challenges and public transportation. All this is being done but it needs to be done faster.”

"I am very upbeat about the future of Bangalore because the city has a very special ecosystem which no other city in India has. There is a huge

@adgpi: "Do not come up, I will handle them"Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, AC (P) #BraveSonsofIndia

Shaw, one of the region’s richest industrialists, is worried about Bangalore’s future amount of citizen engagement, a huge amount of entrepreneurial energy, scientific and intellectual talent, but we need to do things faster and in a planned way - a pragmatic and prospective way rather than in a reactive way."

Speaking about the quality of graduates from Bangalore's various educational establishments, Shaw said: “There are only some educational institutions that are really doing a great job of providing the skilled talent, but they are very few.”

"Average education institutes provide average talent and this is the case in every part of the country. But, I think we have an opportunity to scale up our sectors for excellence that are com-

petitive."

The Metro project in Bangalore has suffered serious delays and almost half of the 5.1 million Indian students who graduated in 2012 were from arts streams, according to Knowledgefaber, a Bangalore based research firm.

“Phase two of the metro project started in 2013 and the target is five to six years from now,” said Shrivas Rajgopal, PR Executive, Bangalore Rail Metro Corporation Limited.

"There needs to be strong focus on science and technology and the young people should be excited and inspired by science," said Shaw.

Couple held after maid forced to eat from bin Shruti Suresh A 17-year-old domestic servant who claims her employers beat her and made her eat food from a bin turned up at a city police station begging for help.

The girl showed her heavily bruised arms to officers at Halasuru Gate Traffic Police Station after she escaped from her employer's home last Thursday.

She told officers she had been beaten, starved and made to eat scraps from a bag inside a bin for the past three years.

Her employers, who own and run a gift shop in Cubbonpet, have now been charged by police.

Kavita, 17, said: “I had come to the city with them around three years back. I did chores like cleaning, sweeping, ironing clothes and also used

The 17-year-old maid who escaped

to cook sometimes.”

According to Kavita, the employers were known to her uncle, Ganesh. She used to live in Shivamogga with her mother and five siblings.

According to her mother, Kavita was not interested in studying further. She had studied till the 10th grade. After that, Kavita was sent to the city to work as a domestic help and earn money.

According to the police, the employers of the girl, Sunita and Aravind, are the owners of a gift store in Cubbonpet.

Kavita told police she was not given food in the initial days after she was hired. She was allowed to eat only once a day. After a few days, she was allowed to eat stale leftovers mixed with the food cooked for them to eat.

A police source said: “The leftovers, which were as old as a week, were mixed with the food

they prepared which was left in a bag, which was left in a bin. She was asked to eat the food from that bag.”

Despite doing domestic chores and taking care of their two children, she claims she was beaten up almost every day.

Her employers, who did not pay her for the domestic chores, claimed that they had paid an advance of Rs. 25000 to her parents before bringing her to the city.

Due to her family’s poor economic conditions and her lack of interest in pursuing studied, she dropped out and started working as a domestic help with the family.

After the police interrogated her, an FIR was filed against the employers and they were arrested on Monday. The girl is under the care of the CWC and in the Government home for girls.

The girl at Halasuru Police Station after she recounted her story

@PTI_News: I stepped into office with greetings of the entire world, but what moved me was your personal presence: PM to SAARC leaders.

@ArunodayM: Message to Pak! India to talk to all #SAARC heads in bilateral talks except for #Pakistan.

Informal meeting still cant be ruled out @ibnlive

@RashtrapatiBhvn: #PresidentMukherjee inaugurated the Commonwealth Science Conference 2014 yesterday at Bangalore

@757LiveKE: #Pope demands Europe assist migrants in speech to European Parliament - CTV News

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Daily Observer

Male school staff sacked after CM's ban order Samreen Tungekar Saheli Sengupta One of the leading schools in the city has sacked two male assistants and stopped allowing male staff inside school buildings in the wake of a rape incident.

Orchids International School in Jalahalli fired two office boys after the rape of a six-year-old girl in the school last month - allegedly by an office assistant.

Srinivas, a security guard at the school, said: "We are not allowed to go inside the school buildings. Only the female staff can go in."

Lalita, another security guard, said: "Male staff members have not been allowed inside the school. We had two office boys but after the incident happened, they were removed too."

Monica Ryan D'Souza, Public Relations Officer and a parent of an 8-year-old girl student at Anthony Claret School, said, "It is unjust and against employment rights of an individual. Plus, I don't think it's healthy to have a child think that all men are villains."

She added that this might also lead to girls refusing to enrol themselves in co-educational colleges in their future.

In the second week of November, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that all primary schools with female pupils

should not have any male teachers.

An anonymous source at one of the most prominent private schools of the city confirmed that their school has already started sacking male teachers to avoid further incidents.

Hassan Mohideen, Section Officer of Grant-in-Aid section, Education Department, said that since the Government has not put down any such ground rule, they have not asked schools to do anything.

Edward, a member of the Child Rights Commission of Bangalore, said, " There is no way that this can be implemented without amounting to discrimination. Instead, routine background checks should be done by all schools."

On being asked about the recent safety guidelines to be implemented in schools, he said, "These guidelines are only for eyewash. Only if schools follow these instead of sacking innocent people, things will be fine."

Karnataka Human Rights Commission member, C.G. Hungud, said, "While we cannot question the legality of our Chief Minister's decision, we can examine the tenability or the constitutionality of it."

He added that if this decision is actually implemented by all schools, it will defy a man's constitutional right to be a teacher. "Students should not lose faith in their male

Monica, Public Relations Officer of Anthony Clarets School

Eleven females were rescued from the sex trade after a man tweeted the addresses of two brothels to the city's top cop.

Following the tweet, city cops raided premises to find 11 women being forced to work as prostitutes.

The 'Good Samaritan' on Twitter had even given the names and telephone numbers of the men allegedly running the operations.

The raids took place in residential buildings in the Ejipura area, and cops found that the Kadhamba Shelters building in Ejipura was being used to run a brothel involving the women.

Mr Abhishek Goyal, the DCP of Crime said," We got the information on Twitter that the buildings had

Goons visited the house regularly

women locked up. Our crime branch was sent there to rescue them.

“Two are from Mumbai, two from Kolkatta, two from Karnataka and two from North India. They have been handed to the Welfare Committee who will be rehabilitating them,"he added.

The tweet from a Mr Murugan , was sent at midnight two nights ago and by lunchtime yesterday police

News Digest A surprise inspection was conducted at the BBMP head office today by Upa Lokayukta Justice Shashidhar Bheemrao Majage. The contractors complained about not receiving their last year salaries.

Orchids International School teachers just because of one or two incidents," he added.

In mid-November, the Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi had told Business Standard that CCTV cameras will be installed in Orchids International School within a week.

However, the installed cameras in the school, especially the ones in the pre-primary section are not yet functional.

Lakshmi Kamal, Administration Head of the school, said that the cameras have been installed, but the

wiring is still being worked on and only 60 out of 128 are functioning as of now.

Vijay Kumar, parent of a 6-yearold boy at Orchids, said that he hasn't heard of a single Parent-Teacher meeting since the incident took place.

Lalita, parent of an 8-year-old girl at Orchids, said, "As a mother, I would want my child to grow up in an open and safe environment and I don't think this is the right move."

KG classrooms where CCTV cameras have not been installed

Tweet saves 11 women from brothels Shruti Suresh Ridhi Agrawal

5

had completed raids and rescued the females.

A guard employed at the building, on condition of anonymity, said: "I have been working here for the past six years but I never saw women going in or moving out of the flat. I am supposed to conduct checks on each apartment once every two months.

"Every time I checked the apartment on ground floor there were always two men, and sometimes three," he added.

He identified the two men as Santosh, about 40 and Kumar, about 34.

A local resident, who lives in the building opposite to Kadhamba Shelters, added,“Yesterday six policemen in civil clothes came to the building. "They took away five girls in the police van," he added. The police have now locked the apartment.

Another house at 1st Main, 6th Cross, ST Bedda, which is within Viveknagar Police Station limits, was inspected by the Viveknagar police earlier this morning at 11:30am.

Mr Arun, a driver living opposite, said, "The building is a paying guest house for boys. The owner stays in Whitefield. She comes here once a month to collect the rent."

He added, "The house is maintained by a boy. This morning there were two inspectors, one in uniform and the other in plain clothes, who visited this building. One was the CI of Viveknagar PS. Beyond that I do not know anything."

When our reporters approached the owner of the building, who called herself Mrs Ashu, she said,"I am not aware of any such inspection that took place here. This is a residential building."

The BBMP has proposed the idea of redeveloping 18 markets already owned by the Palike as a joint venture with private realty firms.

The move has created anxiety amongst the traders who are scared of losing their businesses.

Popular Pakistani actress, Veena Malik and her husband, Asad Bashir Khan, have been sentenced to 26 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court for allowing the airing of a blasphemous programme that staged a mock marriage of both, with a religious song played in the background.

CM Siddaramaiah attended a medal ceremony today to honour the valor cops with medals. He was caught taking a nap halfway through the ceremony.

Schools have been given a deadline of December 15 by the transport department to implement the safety guidelines in their buses.

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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Daily Observer

Paintings are not vegetables, says artist Sharangee Dutta Artists claim that social stigma still holds them back when it comes to choosing art as a career.

In a joint art exhibition organized by Doris Decor and Art IndiaCeePee.com held at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad, namely ‘Varna Sagara’, 27 artists from across India met to showcase their talents.

The artists mainly belonged to five states Chennai, Goa, Kerala, Gujarat and Kolkata.

Agil Pa, founder of Doris Decor, said, “The main agenda of this exhibition is to promote real art."

He said that due to the emergence of the digital age, real art is dying. "This is the age of Adobe. People are leaving the paint brush to go digital. Our main goal is to promote art on canvas," he added.

Subrata Ghosh, an artist from Kolkata, said: “People compare paintings like vegetables.

They choose the cheaper ones over costlier because they don’t understand real art. They don’t feel the passion engaged behind it.”

He added: "Everyone thinks that artists don’t have any future. They will not be able to earn enough when compared to doctor, engineer, etc. This is because the Indian mentality is still not developed to understand art, yet creative people continue to practice it. " Doris Décor, a home decorating company was established two and a half years ago.

Doris Décor also organized another show last year on September namely “European Master’s Reproduction” in Bangalore.

Babu Hussain, C.P, director of Art IndiaCeePee.com said, “I'm passionate about art and I wanted to promote it. Hence, I started the company.” Art IndiaCeePee.com was set up eight months ago. It conducted its first show at Lalit Kala Academy in Chennai where

64 artists from across India participated.

Apart from being the director of the company, Hussain is currently a final year student of B.FA (Bachelor in Fine Arts), Mysore University.

He added that 100 artists are registered with Art IndiaCeePee.com from around India.

This is the first joint show organized by Doris Decor and Art IndiaCeePee.com.

He added that artists from north India and north-east India mostly draw paintings of human figures while artists from South India tend to mix it up.

“They might have a fetish with human bodies,” he added while talking about the artists from north and north-east India.

Vigyan Vrat, 60, an artist from Meerut, U.P who is based in Delhi said, “Artists are original and originality always struggles.” He has exhibited in at least 50 shows in and outside India.

On asking what differentiates Karnataka’s art from other states, he added: “The state has a rich culture and tradition and they bring that out in their art. Tradition is the mother of all sources of art. It inspires every artist. I really like the richness of the tradition in the state.”

He added: “In order to excel in this field you need resources. I had it so I could make it out of India as well. It's very sad to see that so many good artists die out in India because of our poor economy. Artists in other countries are very well off."

Subrata Ghosh, who is participating in a separate show called ‘Bengal and Bengaluru’ said: “People tend to confuse creativity with money. They don't see the passion behind an art.”

He added, “Foreigners come to India because they love our culture whereas we are not able to respect it. They praise our art and value it but we don’t have the sense to do it. We are that behind from everyone else.”

Subrata Karmakar stands before his sculpture, ‘Meditation’, that is made of fiber

Subrata Ghosh, who believes India needs to grow ‘mentally’ to understand art (Painting in the picture: ‘Matangi’ by Ghosh) Rajib Sur Roy, Dhiren Shasmal, Subrata Karmakar, Utpal Ghosh and Subrata Ghosh came from Kolkata to participate in the “Bengal and Bengaluru” art exhibition. This is their fifth show in the city. The most recent show was done two years ago at Renaissance Gallery.

Subrata Karmakar, a sculptor participating in the same show said: “You need a creative eye to enjoy real art. Not everyone has that.”

Dhiren Shasmal said, “We are reflecting different forms of art in the exhibition such as landscape, folk-tales, sculpture and human figures.”

He informed that the group is scheduled to do another group exhibition in Mumbai on April, 2015. Babu Hussain. C. P., said, “I hope Varna Sagara encourages more artists to come forward and continue with their art.”

‘Waiting’, made of bronze is another sculpture by Karmakar. He says it takes at least a month to create a sculpture

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