Jiyo Parsi

The Jiyo Parsi project is the first secular project in free India concerning the community. No project succeeds by itself. It needs the active support of those whom it affects.
More than 100 years ago the Parsis settled in Rangoon, Colombo, Aden, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kampala, Jinji, Nairobi, Zanzibar, London and Paris. They had fire in the belly to keep our faith going. Today that is not so because we ourselves have diluted the faith.
That we are dying out in India is of our own making. Rigid birth control by those who are healthy and reasonably wealthy explains our decline. Instead of taking Jiyo Parsi to the baugs, we should take it to our own homes and ponder over whether those who can afford to have two children should have just one.
We may take external help, but need to resolve our own crisis. Only self-reliance will ensure our survival. Go back to our hardy roots of self-reliance, produce two children (where affordable) and see our demographic problems melt away.
B. T. DASTUR

Thanks to the initiative of the Government of India to save the community we will not become extinct. But what about the contribution of the Parsis?
DARA KHODAIJI
dara_mk@hotmail.com