Using Gandhiji’s principles, this man is transforming a tribal village in Gujarat
PALANPUR: The village of Khati Sitra on the GujaratRajasthan border — in the hilly region of Aravalli mountain range…
The community faced typical problems related to liquor consumption — a norm for the community — ranging from domestic violence to money crunch. Products such as honey were bartered for grains in nearby towns. The community was averse to even interacting with government officials. So the villagers lacked identity documents that could help them avail benefits of various government schemes.
But today a number of these factors have changed, thanks to the relentless efforts of Mustu Khan, 31, a ‘Gram Shilpi,’ who has since 2012 made the village his base for bringing social transformation. Khan said that he believes in Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of strengthening villages to bring about true development of the Indian society.
It took Khan nearly a year to master the dialect known as ‘Dungri’ (of the hills) to earn the trust of the village residents who realized that he was there to stay. He initially started operating from a platform below a neem tree by engaging youth on livelihood, connectivity, and battling addictions.
“Liquor was a major vice. I made a rule not to approach police and instead used social peer pressure,” Khan said. “I promised them to help market their honey at much better prices on two conditions — they would abstain from liquor and they would keep the honey free of any adulterants. The offer worked and today we are producing over 700kg of honey annually.”
Supreme Court rules for baker who refused to create same-sex couple’s wedding cake
A divided Supreme Court on Monday absolved a Colorado baker of discrimination for refusing to create a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the court’s 7-2 decision against the same-sex couple, Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins, departing from his long history of opinions in favor of gay rights dating back a generation. Included among them was the court’s 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide.
“Phillips would not sell to Craig and Mullins, for no reason other than their sexual orientation, a cake of the kind he regularly sold to others,” Ginsburg said. Kennedy reasoned that Phillips, in refusing to create a same-sex wedding cake, had good reason to believe he was within his rights. State law at the time allowed merchants some latitude to decline specific messages, such as those demeaning gay people and gay marriages.
The government cannot impose regulations hostile to citizens’ religious beliefs, the ruling said.