Society: Children Reaching Police Stations with Piggy Banks

Today, our world is facing the Coronavirus crisis and Lockdown related economic challenges. In midst of this crisis, we do get many news of personal courage and sacrifices. We keep hearing news where doctors, medical staff, policemen or even common people are shown going out the way to help the needy including stray animals. But there is one news which keeps appearing and I feel displeasure seeing it. It is the news about children going to police stations carrying their ‘gullak’ (piggy banks) and giving away all their savings for the cause of our nation. Many times, parents also accompany them. Such news keep appearing in the news portals and media; for example here. But what objection do I have against such humble gesture?

Every time I see such news, I feel sorry for the “risk” these kids are taking on themselves. Every time they are venturing out of their homes to go to the police station, they are taking a risk of being exposed to the Coronavirus infection. Why do they do it? Why are their parents supporting them in taking this risk? Do they want to make their kids compassionate by helping them in such activities? Or, are parents doing this to get themselves and their kids in the News? Do they plan to frame such newspaper cuttings and hang on the wall? Is this worth taking the risk?

There are alternative ways in which parents can help their kids show compassion and do something for their nation. For example, if kid insists on donating the money, perhaps inspired by the TV news channels or by someone else from neighborhood who did this, parents can get the kid take out the money, count it, then take it and do equal contribution to the PM Cares Fund using digital methods like BHIM UPI or Wallet Apps like Paytm. They can show the kids how money is getting transferred and how they are getting a confirmation or “Thank you” message on the screen and kids would understand that. If there are families who do not have access to digital media, one can simply convince the kids to keep the money counted and to donate the money only when the Lockdown is over.

I seriously think that the risk these parents are taking is not worth it. The Police should also stop posting such news on social media and encouraging more kids from taking such a risk.

I hope we shall see less such news going forward. It is really nice to raise compassionate kids, but it is equally necessary to keep them safe. Remember: “Safety First”.

- Rahul Tiwary

Are Temple Donations Charity?

While visiting temples, I think most of us would be dropping some money or some coins in the hundi or cash collection boxes. We would also offer some coins (dravya) as part of our offering during worshipping the deity. Bigger temples display written notices directing the devotees to drop money only at the designated places. I guess at some point of time all of us would have wondered if such donations to temples are worthwhile. Some of us might be thinking that it is a waste of money and it goes to the overfed priests. I think there can be a serious misconception and lack of awareness if our views are on these lines.

Bigger Hindu temples carry out a lot of social welfare activities. For example, the list of social welfare work being done by the famous Tirupati Mandir consists of:

·         Giving free medical treatment to the poor

·         Maintaining shelters for poor

·         Home for treatment of leprosy patients

·         Free boarding, lodging and education to orphans and destitute

·         Training center for handicapped people

·         Schemes to conserve underground water and rain water

·         Planting saplings and developing forests

·         Protection of cows

·         Preservation of temples and religious symbols

References: [Link1] [Link2] [Link3] [Link4]

Similarly, Mata Amritanandamayi Math carries out a host of social welfare activities including:

·        Homes for the Homeless (Amrita Kuteeram project to build 100,000 homes for the poor)

·         Free monthly pension for the poor

·         Prisoner Welfare

·         Tribal Welfare programs

·         providing free legal services to the poor

·         Mass Marriages of impoverished couples

·         Free food and clothes to the poor

·         Care Homes for the Elderly

·         Running Orphanage

·         Vocational Training & Self Help Groups

Reference: [Link1]

While bigger temples carry out a lot of social work using the money received through donations, a lot of bigger Hindu temples are actually managed by the state governments. In such cases, the money collected in the temples is also spent on developing infrastructure of the cities and areas around it. For example, you can read about how Shirdi Sai Baba Temple funds are being used by the state government for infrastructure development projects like building roads, footpaths, and parking places. [Ref1] Although this is a controversial topic whether state governments should take temple donations to carry out work which they are supposed to do anyway. [Ref2] In my opinion, government’s control over Hindu temples is undesirable and it should be decontrolled over time. (Though the current trend is just the opposite.) Until the decontrol happens, even if the governments take a big portion of temple donations for other work, if there are lesser donations the actual money left with the temples to do social work would be lesser and hence our donations are needed to maintain the current running set of social welfare activities.

Smaller temples depend hugely on donations to maintain themselves and to cover expenses like regular puja, cleanliness, security and infrastructure maintenance. In my opinion, we should donate more at smaller temples than at the bigger temples because of this reason.

If we look at the historical account too, the need for funding our temples is very genuine. For centuries during the Islamic invasion of India, temples of all sizes were destroyed and desecrated by the barbaric forces. Somnath Temple is a classic case, but such cases are scattered all over India, especially the Northern part. Almost all major temples were attacked. The Ram Temple at Ayodhya is a recent example where the court had to rule out the inconvenient fact that there was indeed a Ram Temple at the site of the Babri Masjid. Over a thousand years of foreign rule left our temples in pitiful state. Therefore there was a severe need to start rebuilding our temples post our independence. There have been some extraordinary efforts in this area by the Birlas who built Birla Mandirs in all major cities and institutions like ISKCON who have built world class temple complexes. I think we need more number of grand temples of the scale of Akshardham or Somnath Temples. I think we should therefore definitely fund construction of any new big size temple.

Apart from making new temples, there is a serious need to develop the infrastructure of existing temples. Every year we hear some stampede or calamity at the crowded ancient Temples which were not designed for so much rush. How else will they be able to make better arrangements, than by using our donations?

Now coming to the question if such donations are charity? Why not? Charity is defined as “The voluntary giving of help, typically money, to those in need”, or “benevolence or generosity toward others”. I think without doubt our donations at Hindu temples can be counted as charity. It is a charity towards causes which are both noble and in dire need.

Looking from all positions I think we should continue donating some money at the collection boxes of our temples.

- Rahul

Donating Old Clothes through Goonj

Donating old clothes to the ones who need it but can’t afford, is a noble idea. Many times we donate old clothes to the nearby maids / servants / security guards. But at times, they are not so poor to accept those. Hence, we wonder what to do with the old clothes which get discarded every year. There are some NGOs who can help us in this regard.
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Goonj is one such NGO. It runs a campaign called “Vastra Samman” - which helps the poor with old clothes donated by us. I have donated old clothes through them when I was in Mumbai. So I thought to share this with you too.

You can search the website http://www.goonj.org/collection.html to find out Collection Centers in your city. Or just visit the homepage http://www.goonj.org/ and click on “GOONJ Offices & Dropping Centres” on the left hand side menu.

There are some guidelines for donations, e.g. all donated clothes should have been pre-washed. Please go through the clothes donation Guide Lines and other details about the NGO at: http://www.goonj.org/collection.html

I hope you would make use of this facility.

- Rahul

Corporate Donations to Political Parties

Page 115 of Mahindra and Mahindra Annual Report 2009-2010 makes an interesting disclosure. It tells about the company’s donations to political parties; as under:

(a) Indian National Congress Rs 1 Crore
(b) Bhartiya Janata Party Rs 1 Crore
(c) Shiv Sena Rs 0.50 Crore
(d) Nationalist Congress Party Rs 0.50 Crore
(e) Bihar Pradesh Janata Dal (United) Rs 0.25 Crore

Corporate like Tata have a very transparent policy for political donations. They don't donate any sum exclusively to any one political party. They would donate the same amount to say top 2 or 4 parties. Such donations are not made under the table, or from black money. These donations are accounted for in the balance sheet. So here too, Mahindra has donated the same amount to both BJP and Congress. We also know that such practice is alive in many of the developed nations.

One reason why our politicians are corrupt is also that they need large sum of money to fight and run in elections. Such corporate funding is a very welcome system and we should all welcome and support it.

- Rahul