Art Of Living-Camp at Kakelav

Basic Course of Art of Living was held at Jodhpur from 9 March 2010 to 14 March 2010 by Shri Mahesh Sharma Rajasthan Co-Ordinator.The plesant personality and expertise of Shri Mahesh Sharma made this basic course as one of the most successful courses held at Jodhpur.He was also kind enough to visit Kakelav a village near Jodhpur adopted by Pearl Sansthan and motivate the youth and children of that village.
Jai Gurudev

Youth Leadership Training Program

Join youth from around the world in a fun and challenging opportunity for personal growth and service.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
– Marianne Williamson

Youth Leadership Training Program, or YLTP, is an intensive residential program which gives you an immersion in stress and trauma relief techniques of breathing, meditation and yoga and prepares you to teach those techniques back to the community. A focus on leadership, teamwork and communication skills creates a solidly bonded team of volunteers with an emphasis on service that gives back to communities in need.

In the words of one YLTP graduate,
“Youth Leadership Training was the most memorable and rewarding experience of my life. I can’t wait to go back.”

Discover your Potential
YLTP expands your ability to live a happy, fulfilling and useful life. It breaks the boundaries of what you thought you were capable of, increasing your personal power, energy and focus, as well as leadership, teamwork and communication skills.

It challenges you to learn and embody the Art of Living, discover your potential and be the change you wish to see. Tapping your inner wisdom, you become a model of inner strength, joy and caring for the world. All this is nurtured by a deep connection with a loving and accepting team who dedicate themselves to the challenging and ultimately fulfilling work of personal growth and service.

The recipe for depression is just asking ‘”What about me?”
The antidote to depression is doing some service for someone else.

You Can Make a Real Difference
YLTP’s focus is on providing stress and trauma relief, and returning peace of mind to those who have had their lives radically disrupted by disaster situations such as Hurricane Katrina. Participants are prepared to teach a free trauma and stress relief course, and organize and implement community development projects.

If you are ready to
see what you are really capable of,
if you have a sincere desire to
make a difference in the world,
fill out an application today.

>> Apply Now for YLTP (ages 18+)

Watch the YLTP Intro Video
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Durry Weaving

Durries Handicrafts 

Durries are flat woven rugs or carpets used traditionally in India as floor-coverings.

Durry Weaving

 In recent years there has been a growing demand for durries both in India and abroad. The durry is a cotton spread without piles, which traditionally comes in two varieties: one that is used on the bed instead of a mattress or below a thin cotton mattress and the other which is used as a floor covering. The former variety is smaller in size and is made on a pit-loom while the latter is made on an elementary loom called an adda.The technique of durry weaving can be seen in its most primitive form in the villages of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana where girls are normally put to the task at an early age so that they can prepare rugs that will form part of their trousseau. In contrast, girls in Navalgund, a village in Karnataka that produces a small number of unusual durries, are never taught the craft lest they spread the skill outside the family after marriage. Durries come in numerous designs although the most common are stripes of different colours and geometrical designs. Sometimes animal and bird motifs are also used. Fine durries in brilliant colours made of cotton and silk have become a speciality of Salem (Tamil Nadu) while those made of jute fibre are woven in West Bengal.

The modern Indian housewife often tends to prefer durries to carpets. Durries are lighter and easier to maintain and can usually be washed at home. They are suitable for a hot and dusty environment and being less expensive they can be replaced every few years. This does not mean that durries are not long lasting. People even have durries that have lasted for about twenty years and in spite of several washes still look good.

They have variety of use depending on size,pattern and material.The smallest one is 12″ by 12″ and is used as base cover for telephone stands and flower vases.The ideal size for doing meditation is 24″ by 24″ known as aasan.

The durries used in large political or social gatherings are as big as 20 feet by 20 feet.The durries are easily portable being light in weight and can be folded.They come in variety of color combination and patterns catering to the needs of every taste and occasions.

The durrries have low cost of maintenance as they do not get infected by Silverfish or other bugs responsible for destroying carpets.

Durries can be used for whole year,a cotton durry is warm in winters and cool in summers

Durries are made manually by skilled artisans on a traditional horizontal loom or vertical loom.

In Rajasthan pit looms are also used for weaving in which weaver sits in a pit and feet are used in weaving.The maximum breadth is 24″.

Madhya Pradesh durries are known for their sturdy character and delightful colours. Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh,make distinctive type of durries.In some part of these states the durries make a part of dowry given at the time of daughters marriage.

Durries made in Rajasthan at Salawas are known as Panja durries and are exported on large scale.

 

About one million people are directly or indirectly involved in durrieis weaving cottage industry.Pearl Sansthan is marketing durries.

 

 

Durries marketed by Pearl Sansthan

National Rural Employment Gaurantee Act

Workers at Narega site

NAREGA

THE National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) guarantees 100 days of employment at the rate of Rs 60 a day. According to the website of the Union ministry of labour, the minimum wage is pegged at Rs 66 per day. In dollar terms this comes to about $8.5 per week, assuming a six-day week. In America, the minimum wage is roughly $5.5 per hour before deduction of payroll taxes. Assuming a 40-hour week, this amounts to $220 a week. The cost of living is much lower in India, the differences being adjusted through purchasing power parity (PPP). According to the World Bank, the rupee equivalent of a dollar can buy goods and services valued at about five times what a dollar can in America. Therefore a weekly wage of $8.5 in India is equivalent to $42.5 in America. Ceterisparibus, the minimum wage in America is five times higher than what it is in India. Theoretically speaking, since capital is scarce and labour abundant and less productive, wages are relatively lower in India. But minimum wages are not market clearing wages. They are regulatory wages to ensure that market wages do not fall below subsistence. They are expected to cover the essential current costs of accommodation, food and clothing (roti, ka-pada aurmakaan} of a small family. Let us consider the monthly expenses of a family of four living in the American Midwest. The family spends $520 on rent for a two-bedroom apartment, $150 on utilities, $250 on food and clothes, $100 on petrol, and $200 on family health insurance, or $1,220 in all. A minimum wage of $220 a week yields a net monthly income of $820 after tax. Payroll taxes smoothen the consumption curve during spells of unemployment and in old age. This leaves an uncovered monthly shortfall of $400 a month, which could be covered by two hours overtime (at 150% of the minimum wage) five days a week, or by three hours part-time work, possibly by the spouse.therefore, the minimum wage captures the market value of food, accommodation, utilities, transportation, healthcare and social security at subsistence levels for small nuclear families. The rise in single parent families and health insurance costs distort but do not entirely alter this picture, especially since private charities and public support and emergency systems constitute effective back-ups. The Indian minimum wage of Rs 3,500 per month (with the spouse working full time), in comparison, would at best cover the cost of subsistence sourced from informal markets for an equivalent family of four. Whereas the poor in America purchase standardised food products and clothes from discount supermarkets, in India these are purchased from roadside sellers peddling dubious quality. Most daily wagers reside on encroached public land controlled by land mafias. Since slums are adjacent to workplaces, transportation costs are minimal. Utilities such as power and water are also sourced from informal markets, usually controlled by the same land mafias who steal power and water from publicly ‘extra-legal’ control of assets into capital. Howsoever seductive this argument, the assertion that this would solve the problem of poverty and development in backward societies is moot. Modernisation and globalisation have everywhere spelt the doom of petty production. Destruction of traditional (artisanal) industries and depeasantisation are necessary concomitants of the modernisation process based on economies of scale. The crisis in our small-scale industrial and agricultural sectors is ample proof of this. Viewed from this perspective, the NREGS can be seen as acknowledgement of the crisis and collapse of petty production. There is also a lurking danger in the Soto solution, especially when the underlying governance environment is weak. Often when extra-legal assets are transferred as legal property rights and hence potential collateral for capital, the recipients are either so destitute or more likely so uninformed that they then formally transfer away those rights for a value well under market. This could actually legalise the hold infrastructural mafias have over the marginalised. Under prevailing circumstances raising the regulatory minimum wage may only compound the gap between the minimum wage and the market clearing wage, and also hit the country’s cost competitiveness in manufacturing. Big-ticket public and private investment based on their respective comparative advantage (public and private goods respectively), expansion of wage labour, higher incomes through enhanced labour productivity, and improved governance are imperative to address these problems. Such big-ticket investment would also remove supply constraints in the ready availability and affordability of standardised mass produced goods and services. A comprehensive social security net would ease the transition from an informal economy based on petty production and services to a modem one. All NGOs are requested to cotact and decide a way of pressurising government to revise its minimum wage structure. contact