Luxury Perfumes Profiting On The Backs Of Indians In Dire Poverty.

The Guardian takes celebrities like Katie Price (aka Jordan) hawking luxury perfumes to task for exploiting poor workers at the bottle making company Pragati Glass in Gujarat, India.

Our question is this – why are Indians exploiting their own people? And who is in charge of punishing these exploiters?

A Pragati worker putting in six days a week at the factory earns the equivalen [sic] of £49 per month. Food costs alone would consume all but £1.22 of that. Dominic Eagleton, policy officer for ActionAid, said: “A bad job is better than no job at all, but by paying such low wages employers are keeping workers trapped in poverty rather than helping them escape it.

“Rather than driving down prices at every opportunity, British companies should pay a fair price to their suppliers in India and should make sure these suppliers pay a decent wage. Anything else is profiting from other people’s dire poverty.”

Rent A Random White Guy As Business Prop.

In today’s edition of WTF – Renting random white folks as business props is not just an Indian thing to do. The Chinese are doing it too.

Should A 66-yr Old Woman Have Kids From IVF?

Batheri Devi is a 66-year old woman from Haryana who gave birth to triplets last month after receiving in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).The same clinic yielded the world’s oldest mother at 70 last year.

“They don’t need children to play with or to have fun. Their only reason is to have someone to carry on the family name to leave their property to,” Dr. Bishnoi who carried out the procedure said.(Full post at the National)

Is anyone watching out for the children’s welfare here?

A Bihar Feel Good Story: Fruit Trees Save A Village Economy And Its Girls’ Lives.

If you read one story today that you want to pass on, let it be this one – the story of the Dharhara village in Bihar and how its traditions look out for its girls from the very day that they are born.

(Full post at the BBC) In Dharhara village, Bhagalpur district, families plant a minimum of 10 trees whenever a girl child is born.

“Today that day has come for which we had planted the trees. We’ve sold off the fruits of the trees for three years in advance and got the money to pay for my daughter’s wedding,” Mr Singh told the BBC.

“The trees are our fixed deposits,” he said.

25 Most Dangerous Cities For Outsourcing List Released.

Speaking of bullshit lists that make news….

Citing violence, terrorism, and poor infrastructure and social improvements, the ‘Black Book Of Outsourcing’ lists these 25 cities as the most dangerous for outsourcing.

No points for guessing that Indian cities made the list. Come to think of it, EVERY city that might be an outsourcing hub in their respective country is on the list. And curiously not a single Western country features on it either. Obviously terrorism and violence don’t exist in Western countries.

And they go further to categorize the top 3 in each category as well.

1. Bogota, Colombia
2. Bangkok, Thailand
3. Johannesburg, South Africa
4. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
5. Kingston, Jamaica
6. Delhi/Noida/Gurgaon, India
7. Manila/Cebu/Makita, Philippines
8. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
9. Mumbai, India
10. Jerusalem, Israel
11. Curitiba, Brazil
12. Dalian, China
13. Juarez, Mexico
14. Brasilia, Brazil
15. Chandigarh, India
16. Colombo, Sri Lanka
17. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
18. Quezon City, Philippines
19. Accra, Ghana
20. Pune, India
21. Chennai, India
22. Hanoi, Vietnam
23. Bangalore, India
24. Hyderabad, India
25. Kolkata, India