2008 April

Christians Attacked, Children Beaten for Distributing Bible Tracts - VOM Sources

On April 2, pastors and members of the Manna Ministry in Krishnapuram, Andhra Pradesh, were beaten by a group of 20 Hindu extremists. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts, "Believers were returning from an evangelistic outreach when their car was stopped by the attackers. One of the ministry's leaders, Pastor Gopal, sustained serious injuries. The militants also tore up the Christians' evangelistic tracts." Ask God to heal Pastor Gopal. Meanwhile, on March 17, school children from Toopran School in Telungana Village, Andhra Pradesh, were threatened and beaten by Hindu extremists while they were distributing Bible tracts in the school compound. VOM contacts report, "A group of Hindu extremists stopped the school children from further distribution of tracts. The extremists beat the children and threatened them." Pray believers in Telungana Village will be encouraged and protected. Pray that Indian Christians will continue to share the gospel with boldness despite increased persecution. Ask God to use their testimonies to draw nonbelievers into fellowship with Him. Acts 4:29-31

Christians Attacked in Andhra Pradesh, India [Christians Unite]
by Staff
April 15, 2008
(christiansunite.com) - Church pastors and members of the Manna Ministry in Krishnapuram, Andhra Pradesh were beaten by a group of 20 Hindu militants on April 2, according to a report from Global Council of Indian Christians on April 8.
The Christians were returning from an evangelistic outreach when their car was stopped by the attackers. One of the ministry's leaders, Pastor Gopal, sustained se rious injuries. The militants also tore up the Christians' evangelistic tracts.
Ask God to heal Pastor Gopal. Pray that Indian Christians will continue to share the gospel with boldness despite their suffering (Acts 4:29-31).

An inconvenient truth in Chennai [The Hindu – Saturday April 18]
Child rag-pickers are robbed of their future in the City’s highly polluted garbage dumps
Children rummage through garbage from dawn to dusk to salvage metal and plastic that will buy them their daily meal.
CHENNAI: For as long as she can remember, little Kannagi has been living among the mountainous heaps of garbage in the Perungudi garbage dump.
Kannagi, who looks seven or eight, cannot count but she knows that the more metal pieces and plastic containers she collects, the more pleased her mother will be. Every day she trudges on hills of garbage, sifting through the waste for material that can be resold.
About 1,500 tonnes of the 3,500 tonnes of garbage generated by Chennai ends up in the Perungudi dump every day. The rest goes to the Kodungaiyur dump yard in north Chennai.
Two weeks ago, the Madras High Court directed the Chennai Corporation to float tenders for an integrated waste management facility in Perungudi. The court also said that all encroachments on the Pallikaranai marsh should be removed.
Even with an integrated waste management facility, life is not likely to change much for children like Kannagi who work as rag-pickers in the dump. At least 30 children can be found among the garbage everyday as they salvage materials for resale.
Most of the children have never been inside a school. The only school bags that they have held are the broken ones they pick up from the trash. A day's labour fetches each of the little rag-pickers Rs. 10-Rs. 20.
The price they pay is much more. Guna, a teenager working in the dump, has a persistent cough due to the exposure to fumes from burning garbage. Another boy has a wound on his leg that has not healed because he has to wade through waste. Used bandages, syringes and old batteries dot the waste heaps.
While children should not be allowed to work, adult ragpickers can be provided with support, says G. Dattatri, a former urban planner with the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. At present, rag-pickers play an informal but significant role in waste management. The Corporation can protect the health of adults by providing masks and gloves, he said.
The city is eight years behind in complying with the Municipal Solid Waste Rules of 2000, which stipulate segregation and processing of waste. Garbage dumping in the Perungudi - Pallikaranai marshland has also harmed the ecology of the wetland and burning of wastes has polluted the air.
Exnora Founder M.B. Nirmal called for decentralised solutions to manage waste. "Rather than end-of-the-pipe solutions, source segregation of garbage must be encouraged to reduce the load on the garbage dumps," he said.
Corporation officials said the source segregation concept has been introduced in 10 of the 155 wards in the city. The drive would be extended in phases to the rest of the city in two years.