The International Weekly Newspaper founded in 1970.
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INDIA ABROAD (ISSN 0046 8932) is published every Friday by India Abroad
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Copyright (c) 2006, India Abroad Publications, Inc.
A senseless
death
Ajit Balakrishnan
Chairman and Publisher
Nikhil Lakshman
Editor-in-Chief
Rajeev Bhambri
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The recent death of Lyvita
Gomes, an immigrant from
India, in Chicago, in tragic
circumstances while endur-
ing unjust treatment from
the county sheriff’s office
should be an eye-opener to
us all (India Abroad, January
27).
It is hard to believe that the
sheriff’s office treated her
harshly for simply not
responding to a jury sum-
mons sent to her in error and
which she never opened
because she was too dep-
ressed to open any mail.
Because she believed she
was being treated unfairly
she went on hunger strike in
jail, and her condition deteri-
orated. But the authorities
made no effort to save her life
by forcefeeding her — stan-
dard procedure elsewhere.
This is an abominable per-
version of the justice system. The officials let Gomes die of
starvation without trying to find out if she actually did any-
thing wrong.
What is most unfortunate is that no one in the large Indian-
American community, the many community organizations in
Chicago and the Indian consulate there paid any attention to
Gomes’s tragic circumstances. In fact, even after her death
became a big news in Chicago, no one from the Indian con-
sulate bothered to attend a memorial service held for her.
Gomes’s tragic death caused revulsion in the Chicago com-
munity and about 500 people came to the service. But only a
few Indian Americans showed up, none of them representa-
tives of any Indian-American community organization.
Our organizations and the Indian consulates in the US pay
a lot of attention to visiting dignitaries from India and to
other celebratory events, but when a despondent Indian
Lyvita Gomes
American needs help that does not even call for a lot of
expense, all of us turn away from.
We should be aware that about 10 percent people in the
Indian-American community in the US barely make ends
meet and survive under harsh circumstances. It becomes the
responsibility of the Indian-American associations, represen-
tatives of the Indian government and the rest of us to pay
attention to them and help resolve their plight. Extending
such help does not cost much but goes a long way in demon-
strating that so far from our motherland we do care for fellow
Indians.
Kaleem Kawaja
by e-mail
CHICAGO BRANCH TEAM
Sunita Easwaran Advertising media consultant
Toll Free: 800-514.8183 (Illinois)
Call: 773-338-1118
;Page A3
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Anjali S Maniam Associate Vice President, Marketing & Special Events
For those like Fatima
THE INDIA BUSINESS TEAM
Nikita Pai, Deputy Chief Manager. Call: 91-22-24449144, extension 320
THE INDIA EDITORIAL TEAM
Saisuresh Sivaswamy, Editorial Director
Sheela Bhatt, Editorial Director, News
Ivan Crasto, Associate Editorial Director, Sports. Shishir Bhate, Associate
Editorial Director, News & Business.
Shobha Warrier Senior Managing Editor
Prithviraj Hegde, Managing Editor, News, Nandita Malik, Associate Managing
Editor, Business
Savera R Someshwar, Archana Masih, Syed Firdaus Ashraf, Associate Managing
Editors
Rajesh Karkera, Deputy Managing Editor, Design, Joint Creative Head
Indrani Roy Mitra, Seema Pant, Ronjita Kulkarni, Swarupa Dutt, Deputy Managing
Editors
A Ganesh Nadar, Rupali S Nimkar, Senior Assistant Managing Editors
Onkar Singh, Prasanna D Zore, Vikash Nanjappa Assistant Managing Editors
N V Reuben, Senior Art Director
Uday Kuckian Art Director
Georgina Umdor, Sanaya Dalal, Puja Banta, Chief Features Editors
Vipin Vijayan, Sanchari Bhattacharya, News Editors
Patcy Nair, Senior Associate Editor, Entertainment
Harish Kotian, Bikash Mohapatra, Senior Associate Editors, Sports
Abhishek Mande, Assistant Editor
Rajorshi Sanyal, Chief Copy Editor
Aslam Hunani, Mahipal Soni, Associate Directors, Operations (Editorial)
Ashish Narsale, Chief Operations Manager (Editorial)
Rajesh Alva, Systems Administrator, Editorial
Anant Salvi, Assistant Visuals Coordinator
India Abroad Publications, Inc
A subsidiary of Rediff.com India Ltd.
Ajit Balakrishnan
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
EDITORIAL & CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS
In ‘Helping Fatima’ (India Abroad,
February 10), Lakshmi Soma-
sundaram writes: ‘While there is a dire
need for trainedprofessionals, institu-
tions, and government programs to
integrate autistics in society, two seg-
ments of the Indian society that can
have a dramatic impact on creating
much-needed societal awareness and
integration are media and private
entrepreneurship’ (italics mine).
Lakshmi reached this correct conclu-
sion after meeting with an autistic
little girl Fatima at Anbalayam, a
home for abandoned mentally chal-
lenged children in rural Tamil Nadu.
Anbalayam is one of the beneficiar-
ies of the Indian American
Education Foundation, a Seattle-
based non-profit organization dedi-
cated to empowering disabled chil-
dren in India through education.
IAEF had long recognized the need
for trained teachers of special educa-
tion with its training program, Voice
and Vision, for the teachers of deaf
and blind children at Helen Keller
Institute for the Deaf and Deaf-Blind
(Mumbai). In 2006, we collaborated
with Hope Center (at William
Beaumont Hospital in Detroit, MI),
which provides Hands-On
Education to families of children
with autism spectrum disorders and
other developmental disabilities, to
sponsor teachers from India to be
trained at the Center. Our first
teacher came from Ummeed Child
Development Center, a non-profit
organization (Mumbai) set up with
the objective of helping children with
developmental disabilities.
Prem Kumar
Executive Director
Indian American Education
Foundation
PO Box 4305, Seattle, WA 98194,
USA
(425) 830-8158
http://www.iaefseattle.org
