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After Roti Bank, a ‘Kapda Bank’ opened in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad
Aurangabad:After launching a ‘Roti Bank’ here last month, the Haron Mukati Islamic Centre on Tuesday inaugurated a ‘Kapda Bank’ intended to provides clothes to the poorest of poor.
HMIC founder Yusuf Mukati said that while the ‘roti bank’ is flourishing with food donations, he had observed that many poor people who came to pick up their food packets barely had enough clothes.
“In fact, I saw many people, especially elders and children, shivering in the biting cold as they were wearing torn or insufficient clothes. This gave me an idea to do something about the problem,” Mukati told IANS.
He passed the word around the communities to come forward and donate whatever extra clothes people could manage.
The response was most encouraging, he said.
“The only condition was that though the clothes may be used, they should not be torn or worn out, so we can directly donate them to the poor people. I was surprised when within two days, I got a ‘deposit’ of around 600 full sets of clothes and we could open the ‘Kapda Bank’ on the auspicious Republic Day,” Mukati said.
All clothes are carefully examined for any wear/tears, missing buttons, hooks, loose stiching, segregated according to size and gender, then sent for dry-cleaning and ironing before they are given in transparent plastic bags to the beneficiaries.
The first day saw a large number of poor men, women and children, mostly slumdwellers, trooping down to collect the clothes.
Mukati’s team of volunteers checked out their ‘yellow ration cards’ indicating they fall in the below poverty line (BPL) category and gave them one set of clothes each after noting down their names, addresses, etc.
“This is to ensure that people don’t come repeatedly for more clothes and we can cast the net wide for beneficiaries. We want them to wear and use the clothes and not give them away or even sell them cheap. We want everbody to appear dignified with decent clothes,” said Mukati.
Now, people are encouraged to donate their extra or unused shoes, slippers, sweaters, bedsheets, rugs, pillows, mattresses, etc, which can be given to the poor through the Kapda Bank.
This is the second major initiative by HMIC after launching the Roti Bank on December 5 last year, which has elicited response from social organizations and groups across India.
Advised and inspired by Mukati, the Badavara Bandhu Charitable Trust, Mysuru started a Roti Bank which was inaugurated on Tuesday by Rajmata Pramodadevi Wodeyar at Mahaveera Nagar in the erstwhile royal kingdom.
Mukati said that inspired by the HMIC initiative, around 250 organisations from all over India are in touch with him and want to launch similar roti banks in their areas.
Besides the Roti Bank and the Kapda Bank, the HMIC contributes to women’s uplift with an academic centre for 2,000 girls in which they impart regular spiritual and vocational education in 15 different vocations, including yoga, fashion designing and computers.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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