have little or no influence over the society…
– Mark Twain
Say if you were out with your family or friends for lets say a dinner party, and if on the way to the hotel a person with shattered and tattered clothes reaches you and tries to talk to you, would you tolerate him or her? Won’t you just run away or shoo away that person. Irrespective of who that person maybe…Forget that and think about this now that India is a diverse country, I am sure we all know that. The governance system in this country is divided into 3 parts Judiciary, Executive and Legislative. You all might be wondering as to why am I reciting grade 5 textbook on social studies. This is because I am trying to take you all deeper into our country’s guidelines. Since the midnight of 14th August 1947, our representatives have tried their best to protect the interests of the citizens in the Country a simple example is Laws. Government has put emphasis on compulsory education and food. Did any of us wonder why not on clothing? In a total of 29 States in this Country comprising of almost 4000 sets of laws (without the sub articles), every State has and average of 200 laws but, not a single law that focuses on clothing?? none. Pretty ironical for a Country which considers clothing as a mark of sanity and etiquette. One-Third of the population in India including Women and Children are deprived of clean clothing, which includes sanitary clothing as well. If you thing that this is a hoax www.lawsofindia.org is where you will be able to any of the laws which have been framed till date. You will be surprised to see what shows.
Even I hadn’t though all this until Mr. Anshu Gupta the founder of Goonj (goonj.org) paid us a visit at Lemon and shared with us his concerns about the current scenario. While at Chitnavis Center, A summit was organized for Social Entrepreneurs headed by none other than Anshu sir. The audience was equally moved by his interaction and as we all were. His concluding message was that “There is no point in cribbing, its better to start doing things on our own”. That was where our work began, Lemon has organized a small collection drive. Here, we urge everyone to drop off clean Bead sheets, Jeans, Trousers, Sarees, Coats etc as winter is gearing up. It is a small Goonj initiative called as “Odha Do Zindagi”.It may not be enough for the whole Country but as small step is all it takes to start a change. Anshu sir has taught us that Entrepreneurship is an act. And that it requires great courage for someone to start working upon his/her idea, if they cant then that means they do not have enough faith in it. Now its starting to feel that as things are slowly getting on track all of us are getting closer to someplace. That someplace is going to have a wonderful morrow.
#godspeed
Akash and Persis
Lemon Bloggers…
