While one incident took place in Rohtas district’s Khaira village, the other was in Aurangabad’s Judahi village.

Savita Kumari from Khaira called off the wedding when she found her groom sloshed to the gills minutes before the ceremony Sunday night. Dressed in traditional red finery, the plucky woman, in her 20s, was informed by her friends that the groom was drunk and refused to marry him.

“I decided not to marry a man who is drunk ahead of wedding. That was an indicator that he was not a responsible man and unfit for me,” she said.

She found full backing from her relatives, family sources said.

“She refused to marry the man who was drunk. I did not force her to marry against her wishes,” her father Devender Ram said.

He approached the police but was advised not to do anything about it. “Police have no role if a woman refuses to marry a drunk groom,” a local police official said.

In the second case the same night, Lalan Singh took an equally courageous stand when he took the call not to get his daughter married to a drunk and asked the ‘baraat’ to return.

“The drunk groom was exposed when he came to our house. He was so drunk that he assaulted some people and threw chairs at women during the pre-wedding rituals,” Lalan Singh was quoted as saying.

The groom’s father Balram Singh said his son’s friends had mixed alcohol in his cold drinks, but Lalan Singh would have none of it.

“I was adamant not to marry my daughter to a man who was drunk on his wedding night,” Lalan Singh said, recalling how he asked them to go back.

The families of two brides represent a welcome trend in Bihar, where such stories were virtually unheard of till a few years ago. The pattern in large swathes of the state, particularly in the villages, was, and still is, the bride being spurned for reasons such as insufficient dowry.

Giving details Shri Pilot said ,as per the cyber crime data maintained by National Crime Records Bureau, a total of 217, 288, 420 and 966 Cyber Crime cases were registered under Information Technology Act, 2000 during 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. Also, a total of 328, 176, 276 and 356 cases were registered under Cyber Crime related Sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) during 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively.

The Minister informed that a total of 154, 178, 288 and 799 persons were arrested under Information Technology Act 2000 during 2007-2010.  A total number of 429, 195, 263 and 294 persons were arrested under Cyber Crime related Sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) during 2007-2010.

The number of Cyber Crimes reported in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangaluru for the years 2009 and 2010 are given in the following table.

The number of Cyber Crimes reported from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangaluru for the year 2011 is not available with National Crime Records Bureau.

He said in order to address the growing threat of Cyber Crimes in the country, the Government has evolved an integrated approach with the following legal, technical and administrative steps :

The Information Technology Act, 2000 as amended by the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 has been enforced on 27.10.2009. The Act provides legal framework to address various types of cyber crimes and prescribes punishment also for such crimes.

A major programme has been initiated on development of cyber forensics specifically cyber forensic tools, setting up of infrastructure for investigation and training of the users, particularly police and judicial officers in use of this tool to collect and analyse the digital evidence and present them in Court.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) are involved in providing basic and advanced training of Law Enforcement Agencies, Forensic labs and judiciary on the procedures and methodology of collecting, analysing and presenting digital evidence.

Cyber forensic training lab has been set up at Training Academy of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to impart basic and advanced training in Cyber Forensics and Investigation of Cyber Crimes to Police Officers associated with CBI. In addition, Government has set up cyber forensic training and investigation labs in Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir.

In collaboration with Data Security Council of India (DSCI), NASSCOM. Cyber Forensic Labs have been se up at Mumbai,Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata. DSCI has organized 112 training programmes on Cyber Crime Investigation and awareness and a total of 3680 Police officials, judiciary and Public prosecutors have been trained through theseprogrammes.  National Law School of India University, Bangalore has also been conducting training on Cyber Law and Cyber Forensics through Judicial officers.

The Government has formulated a set of investigation manuals with procedures for Search, Seizure analysis and presentation of digital evidence in courts.  The manuals have been circulated to Law Enforcement Agencies in all States.  Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts, advisories and guidelines regarding cyber security threats and measures to be taken to prevent cyber incidents and enhance security of Information Technology systems.

It is in this situation, the latest report of ILO on `Global employment trends 2012 has been released. It is titled `Preventing a deeper jobs crisis’. That is accepting that there is a job crisis and trying to prevent a deeper one!

ILO on 31st October, 2011 had released a World of Work Report 2011, with the title `making markets work for jobs’. The latest report confirms the apprehensions of the earlier year in all the aspects of job creation.

Deterioration

The Global Trends for 2012, says that “after 3 years of continuous crisis conditions in global labour markets and against the prospect of a further deterioration of economic activity, there is a backlog of global unemployment of 200 million- an increase of 27 million since the start of the crisis.”

The report also notes that “more than 400 million new jobs will be needed over the next decade to avoid a further increase in unemployment”.

What will happen to this expectation is also put in black and white in the report. It says – “the outlook for global job creation has been worsening.

The baseline projection shows no change in the global unemployment rate between now and 2016 remaining at 6 per cent of global labour force. This would lead to an additional 3 million unemployed in 2012 or a total of 200 million rising to 206 million in 2016”.

The report further warns that if global growth falls to below 2 per cent global unemployment will rise more rapidly to 204 million in 2012 and to 209 million in 2013.

On the other hand, if the most unexpected happens, that is if there is a quick resolution of Euro debt crisis, global unemployment would be around 1 million less than the projected 200 million; in 2012. But the report itself says, that this would not be sufficient to significantly alter the trajectory of global unemployment rate, which is projected to remain stuck at around 6 per cent.

Youth are the worst hit

In 2011, 74.8 million youth aged 15-24 were unemployed. This was an increase of more than 4 million since 2007. The global youth unemployment rate, at 12.7 per cent remains a full percentage higher than the pre-crisis level. Globally, young people are nearly three times as likely as adults to be unemployed, says the report.

The report notes that 6.4 million young people, who have given up hope of getting employed, have dropped out of the labour market!

Quality of employment

Even those who have got employment are finding employment only part time or on temporary contract.

This has resulted in an increase in the number of working poor. The report says that “among 900 million working poor, there were an estimated 456 million workers around the world living in extreme poverty below the US$1.25 a day poverty line in 2011.

This, at the global level is a reduction, because of “rapid economic growth and poverty reduction in China, where the number of poor workers has declined by 158 million since 2000 and by 24 million since 2007.

But for this positive change in China, there would have been an overall higher increase in those of extreme poverty with an income of $1.25 per day and also those below the poverty line of $2 per day. This happens because the number of workers in vulnerable employment is increasing.

There is an increase of 23 million since 2007. In this, share of women in vulnerable employment is 50.5% per cent, compared to 48.2 per cent for men.

Wages and employment

The report says that high unemployment and low wage growth are reducing demand for goods and services and underlines the importance of a fair and just distribution of economic gains.

But, the reality is otherwise is well-known. Reports from various countries confirm our experience of share of wages in value addition coming down and profits increasing.

Indian Situation

Despite the high claims on growth in GDP, NSS data (66th round) show a dramatic deceleration in total employment growth in India, from an annual rate of around 2.7 per cent during 2000-05 to only 0.8 per cent during 2005-10.

Growth in non-agricultural employment fell from 4.65 per cent to 2.53 per cent. This was when the GDP rate was above 8 per cent. With the expected slowdown in GDP growth rate to around 7 per cent in 2011-12, from 8.5 per cent in the previous year, the employment situation in India, will worsen further.

Quality of employment in India

Total employment in the organized sector in India has came down to 27.5 million in 2008 from 28.2 million in 1998. It is also well-known, that even in organized sector, large number of workers are casuals or under contractors (Govt. figures show contract workers as 32 per cent in 2008-09) without any social security including a proper wage system.

CITU has been continuously pointing out that real wages have been constantly coming down in organized sector.

Annual Survey of Industries show that wages in manufacturing enterprises as share of net value added which was close to 30 per cent in 1980s declined to around 20 per cent in 1990s and has gone down to 10 per cent by 2008-09.

In contrast to this, share of profits in net value added which was lower than the share of wages in 1980s and in 1990s has gone up. After the new offensive of liberalization, it went above the share of wages to 30 per cent. By 2008, it had increased to 60 per cent!

It is obvious, India is no exception to the world wide phenomena of jobless growth and whatever job opportunities are created are only vulnerable employments!

The ILO report says that what is most needed now is to target the real economy to support job growth. It also says that weak growth in labour incomes have been at the heart of slow down in global economic activity.

ILO report also in effect supports the demand of the Indian Trade Union movement to link employment protection and increase in employments with stimulus packages.

Indian Trade Unions have also pointed out the funds with the central PSUs should be utilized for more investments, so that the employment opportunities are increased.

But, with the maximization of profits and allowing the high level of exploitation of Indian workers being the policy objectives of Investors and that of the Govt., there is no immediate chance for a change in the policies of the Govt.

It is here the importance of the massive campaigns and struggles of the workers and other effected sections lies and unless if becomes a powerful mass movement, the ruling class will not change its course.

Today, momentum is building around a proposed legislation that will give nearly 80 per cent Indians access to subsidised foodgrains. But here’s a question: Will quantitative expansion alone solve our hunger crisis, or are different quality-driven, community-specific interventions the demand of the times?

Says Dr Kasturi Sen Ray, Professor and Researcher at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), a premier research institute based in Mumbai, “The ‘Right to food’ is a must but a larger variety of food groups needs to be made available within the scheme. The target specific Public Distribution System that supplies rice and wheat at highly subsidised rates these days is reducing energy deficiency but then the distribution of only starchy carbohydrates is also leading to imbalanced energy rich food that is deficient in micronutrients.”

Invisible malnutrition – or insufficiency of essential micronutrients like minerals and vitamins, which is masked by an otherwise normal height-weight ratio – has been showing up frequently in a TISS malnutrition survey that is currently underway in Vidarbha, a region of easternMaharashtrathat is infamous for its farmers’ suicides and malnutrition-related deaths.

The most significant finding of a just-concluded pilot study of this region, according to Dr Sen Ray, is the distinct developmental lag observed among the children in the age group of 1-3 years. Up to the age of one, the sample group closely follows the reference group in physical growth, but then falls sharply below trend in the 1-3 year phase. It catches up in the 3-5 years stage, and again starts falling behind after 5 years of age.

This curious trend is indicative of both the problem and the solution, says Dr Sen Ray. The nutritional downturn begins with the manner in which the infants are weaned from breast milk. “The children are breast fed for as long as possible. There is no concept of weaning foods – often, adult food, like ‘chappati’ with black tea, is given to a child as its first solid food.”  This is typically the food pattern of a child aged 1-3, a critical period when malnutrition can result in severe, irreversible cognitive and physical damage.

“From age three until they turn five, most children in these parts attend anganwadis (nurseries), where they get one supervised, passably nutritious, child-friendly meal in the day, and so their weight catches up to normal. But after the age of five, the same one Mid Day Meal served in school cannot keep pace with the requirements of a fast growing active body. Moreover, absenteeism and distaste – and hence the rejection of the less supervised food distribution to comparatively independent older children in large numbers – results in a relapsed developmental lag,” explains Dr Sen Ray.

It’s not always that food availability is a problem. Under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), the government ofMaharashtradistributes ‘Take Home Ration’ through anganwadis and day care centres, to children aged six months to three years. These are packets of ready-to-eat food are made from semolina, to which the mother only needs to add hot water before feeding to the child. “However, we noticed these packets lying in unused heaps in some homes, as the mushy end product is not to their taste,” reveals the researcher, who has been visiting the region from time to time.

Similarly, even if vegetables are cooked at home, the child is not given any, because the preparation is too spicy. “They do not give vegetables in children’s diets enough importance to cook them in a bland, more child friendly way,” she adds.

Clearly, then, sensitisation and creation of health and nutrition related awareness among the mothers and care-givers is crucial if the nutrition targets are to be achieved. And there is positive evidence in this regard. Just few years ago, in the forested hills of Melghat region, in Maharashtra’sAmravatidistrict, hundreds of children between the ages of 0 and 6 used to succumb to malnutrition. But today the times have changed. Says Dr Sen Ray, “Melghat received a lot of government and NGO attention and the situation has improved significantly due to concerted awareness creation. The mothers now give their children home-prepared weaning foods like gruel and thin pulse soup.”

Besides awareness, adapting the Mid Day Meals and food packets to suit local tastes and food habits as well as paying greater attention to quality issues, may also have a positive effect. Dr Sen Ray has a few other simple, yet effective, suggestions for augmenting daily diets. “The concept of kitchen gardens must be popularised. Households can grow local varieties of fruit and vegetables in their backyards, using water that runs off from the kitchens,” she says.

Child malnutrition apart, there are a few women-related nutrition issues that the Vidarbha study hopes to shed light on. “The women in the poor households here do physically demanding work, both as homemakers, as labourers or on their own land. But when it comes to dividing the food among the family members, the women tend to take the smaller share or deprive themselves in times of scarcity.” The study aims to relate energy expenditure with energy intake among the adult population, and test the gender wise differences in nutritional status.

Nutritional status is also sensitive to seasonal variations, suggest some findings of the pilot study, under which three livelihoods were taken into consideration – agriculture, dairy farming, and manual labour. Of the three, it was found that people who depend on agriculture for their income – and food – are more undernourished.

The Vidarbha study, when completed, promises to throw light on the many regional, social, cultural and economic factors that contribute to malnutrition. But cautions Dr Sen Ray, “The conclusions, of course, will be region specific, and cannot be generalised. Each region affected by malnutrition needs to be similarly scrutinised to identify specific problems and devise specific interventions, because conditions differ from state to state and community to community.”

Dr Sen Ray can say this with confidence because in Jharkhand, where TISS is running a similar study, she foresees a different set of conclusions. “We expect the type of malnutrition and its causes to be different from those in Vidarbha,” she says.

The two studies are spread over several villages, and cover different economic groups, age groups from infants to geriatrics, and both genders. TISS has put trained researchers and nutritionists in the field, who will employ three methods to measure development and nutrition, simultaneously. The first will consist of measuring height, weight and circumference, which will indicate growth status. Specific deficiencies will be checked by the signs and symptoms method where, for example, poor eye condition could be an indicator of vitamin A deficiency, pallor, an indicator of anemia, goitre, an indicator of iodine deficiency, and so on.

There will also be 24-hour recalls over several days of the food ingested during the period. The detailed record of food composition will enable quantification of nutrient intake. Together with observation of other socio-economic and cultural factors, Dr Sen Ray expects to produce an accurate and detailed analysis of malnutrition in the regions under study.

This will, in turn, she hopes, help in developing effective intervention strategies.

(© Women’s Feature Service)

For centuries, the Kalandars, an orthodox community, have been getting sloth bears to ‘dance’ in public to earn a living. Their living conditions were pitiable, with no access to health facilities, clean drinking water, land titles or even basic education. But things started changing when the strict enforcement of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, rendered their trade of bear dancing illegal.

It was at the behest of Wildlife SOS, an animal welfare organisation, that the ban was enforced. Ironically, this move not only proved a blessing for the animal but the gypsy women and girls, too. Before putting the ban into effect, Wildlife SOS knew that to uproot the bear ‘dancing’ trade they would need to rehabilitate the Kalandars. Says Geeta Seshamani, co-founder of Wildlife SOS, “It is very easy to demonise the Kalandar community, blaming them for the brutality on the sloth bears. But one has to keep in mind that they come from a very disadvantaged background. So in order to stop the trade, we had to think of rehabilitating the community.”

While a rehabilitation programme was initiated, wherein a sum of Rs 50,000 (US$1=Rs 49) was given to the owner of the bear upon voluntary surrender, it was increasingly becoming evident that in order to throw a lifeline to the community, it was important to empower its women. So, along with setting up, in 2002, the first bear rescue centre – the Agra Bear Rescue Facility (ABRF) – the Women Empowerment Programme was started as well. According to Baiju Raju MV, manager of the ABRF, who also works with this programme, “The Kalandar community is very conservative and does not allow their women to voice their opinion or venture out. Education for the girls is not countenanced, and they are married off by the age 12 or 13, so that families can rid themselves of this ‘liability’.”

All these taboos made the implementation of the women’s programme a tough task. “We had to break several barriers to make the women understand and realise their potential to live a better life, of the advantages of getting the girl child educated and not having her married so early, of having a second income in the family. Of course, the programme coordinators were all women to facilitate interaction and create a comfort factor,” adds Raju.

It’s been a decade now, and their efforts have indeed proved to be life-changing, especially for young girls and women. Take Aashiya. All of 15, it was truly a landmark moment for her when her parents allowed her to go to the neighbouring school to study, a few years back. Delighted, she even started dreaming of becoming a banker some day. But then one day, when she came back from school, she was in for a rude shock. “My father told me that I had studied enough, and that I was to join my mother in the kitchen, while a groom was being sought for me. I was stunned! I was 14, and while I have seen many girls in my community get married at this age, I thought mine will be a different story,” recalls Aashiya.

She had been working really hard at school and her results had just started improving, when she was told to give it all up. “I cried and pleaded, but no one listened to me,” she adds. That’s when the Wildlife SOS team, which finances the education of Kalandar children, decided to intervene. A programme coordinator paid a visit to her home: “It was very difficult convincing the parents. Their arguments were: When will she learn household work; if she gets ‘too educated’ where would they find a suitable match; and the clincher, what use will her education be if her husband does not allow her to work after marriage’.”

The programme coordinator took a long time to convince Aashiya’s parents, even arguing that education would only enable the teenager to run her family better. When they finally relented, Aashiya went back to her studies with a fiery vigour. “I have been given this second chance and I will not let it go waste. My grades have become better and I have taken up commerce. Now I am confident that I will fulfil my dream one day,” she says.

Unlike Aashiya, Asma’s dreams are not so much for herself but for her children. Says the 30-year-old, “When my husband used to dance the bear, he used to get about Rs 500-600 a day – enough to feed a family of six. However, a greater part of the income used to go into his alcohol and ganja (marijuana) addiction. Moreover, we had to share the bear with his brothers, too, so the money was not even regular.”

Vocational training offered by Wildlife SOS came to her rescue. While Asma wasn’t sure whether learning to stitch could solve her monetary problems she went ahead with it. “I was promised that after I learnt to tailor clothes properly I would be given the sewing machine. I didn’t want to let the opportunity go, so my sister-in-law and I joined the programme.”

Asma is all smiles when she says that it was the best decision she ever made, “I earn about Rs 50 every day. It may not seem much, but it means the world to me. I am no longer dependent on my husband for everything, and buy whatever I want for my children. Both my son and daughter go to school and I am also saving some money for my daughter’s wedding.” Asma’s husband, too, has found alternate employment as an autorickshaw driver in the city.

Anokhi Bibi, Asma’s sister-in-law, adds, “I am a more confident person now. I was married at 13 and was a mother at 14. I did not know of any other life; that was the life my mother and my sisters had led. Until this programme, I had thought of a similar life for my daughters, but not anymore.”

Anokhi has three children – two daughter, seven and 10 years; and a 12-year-old son. “They all go to school. Neither my husband, nor I have gone to school… we have never had lofty dreams. But I will do all I can to let my children live theirs.”

According to Kartick Satyanarayan, founder of Wildlife SOS, over 400 Kalandar women have benefitted under their empowerment programme acrossIndia. While it is difficult to put a number, there are around seven Kalandar settlements, each with 10-12 families, aroundAgraalone. Efforts are also on to start a training centre in every such settlement across the country, since the community does not encourage its women to go out.

Meanwhile, Kalandar boys too are changing their ways. “A number of boys now work as informers for us, keeping us posted on any bear poaching activity or cub selling in their settlement. Of course, what is even more heartening is that a few women are involved in similar work, too,” Satyanarayan says.

Today Kalandar women are definitely scripting new lives for themselves – whether it’s by fighting child marriage and picking up a book instead, or by learning to weave and sew to provide for their families.

(© Women’s Feature Service)

Earlier, despite having a ration card entitling her to subsidised rice at Rs 2 (US$1=Rs 49) a kilo through the PDS, Eswari would be forced to buy rice in the open market at five times this price because local fair price shop claimed that stocks of subsidised rice had not come in. “Every time I went there, the shopkeeper would tell me to come back the next day. Sometimes I would find that someone else had taken my quota of foodgrains, and I didn’t know what to do about it. With this new ration card at least I get what is my due at the subsidised price,” she reveals.

The implementation of the biometric ration card system that is helping to ease Eswari’s life is an initiative of the Odisha state government in collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), undertaken with the view to strengthening the PDS through biometric-based technology in order to contain pilferage and maximise the benefits of the system to those in need. It has been rolled out as a pilot project in Rayagada.

Under this system, the card holder can easily draw his or her quota of rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene by using a coupon. Each ration card carries the beneficiary’s photograph as well as those of family members. In addition, a monthly coupon is given to each beneficiary, attached to which is a strip of special paper bearing the bar code, which is then scanned so that the information is later used to make subsequent allocations to the fair price shops and the beneficiary can access his or her entitlement.

For the Rayagada municipality area, specifically, a smart ration card – a little larger than a PAN card – has been given to each beneficiary. Here the beneficiary hands over the card to the shopkeeper who swipes it on a card reader. The person then places his or her finger on a scanner that has a stored record of authorised users. Once the machine beeps, signalling the establishment of the beneficiary’s identity, the shopkeeper hands over the quota of foodgrains along with an acknowledgement slip stating the quantity of rations drawn. It works just like an ATM card. The transaction data from the Point of Sale device gets uploaded to the MIS portal on daily basis.

But why was Rayagada chosen for this pilot project? Visit the area and the reasons become clear. It is one of the most marginalised and poverty-stricken districts of southern Odisha and falls in the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) region, where about 68.8 per cent of people live below the poverty line. Despite mineral wealth and natural resources, chronic hunger and poverty have forced people here to migrate under conditions of distress and incidents of starvation deaths are frequently reported.

There are a wide range of poverty alleviation schemes and food security policies and programmes for this region, but they seem to have generally failed to make much of a difference, because of various challenges including corruption at the lower levels. Rayagada district collector Dr Nitin Bhanu Das Jawale describes the scenario that existed before the introduction of the biometric based smart card project came into force on August 18, 2010.

He says, “There were loopholes in the traditional PDS. On routine inspections, we found that blank BPL cards were given to panchayats, which would then fill in the names of favoured people. About 30 per cent of the foodgrains were given to the wrong persons or retained by shopkeepers themselves. There were instances when more than one card was issued to somebody and ghost cards were numerous. Rampant pilferage of PDS items was also taking place at each transaction point and those other than the intended beneficiaries ended up using the card.”

The case of Palan Gopi, 46, from Minajhaola village, is fairly typical. His Antodaya card entitled him to 30 kilos of rice at Rs 2, but during a period of drought he reached a point when he couldn’t even afford that minimal amount. So he did what many in this area do. He mortgaged his card to a local money lender who then bought up all the rice that Gopi was entitled to and passed on five kilos to him, or lent Gopi Rs 100, keeping his card until that amount was repaid.

The new system has the potential to check such exploitation by preventing the misuse of the card by a third-party. Says Santosh Mohanty, Rayagada’s Civil Supply Officer, “This project is unique in the sense that for the first time all 13 biometric indicators are used for the database and ghost/bogus cards have been eliminated at the verification stage itself. The technology is also helping to identify and remove duplicate registration, and has eradicated invalid ration cards that have been in circulation and were putting a strain on the system. Every transaction between the beneficiaries and the fair price shops is now available on the government website and the new system has introduced transparency in the working of ration shops.”

The figures bear Mohanty out. According to the district civil supplies department data, Rayagada has 53,673 beneficiaries in the Above Poverty Line (APL) category and 1,30,585 in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. Under the present project, 6,000 village or ward-level biometric enrolment stations have been set up across 2,445 villages in 11 blocks and 41 wards. It has so far identified 10,092 pairs of duplicate families and 12,828 pairs of duplicate individuals. Some 1,89,829 new cards have been issued as against 2,09,351 that were in circulation.

There were a few inadequacies relating to transliteration of writing the names of the beneficiaries both in Oriya (the local language) and English and wrong information for a few families regarding their classification (BPL being classified as APL and vice versa) which got printed on the ration cards. According to sources in the district administration, there are less than five per cent errors in the existing database of about 1.9 lakh odd people, and these are being rectified. For the enrolment of those families that had been left out, two mobile enrolment units have been kept at the disposal of the district administration. At the moment, there are many who have already been issued biometric cards but are yet to get their allotment sanctioned by the government. Once this matter is sorted out can the district administration operationalise the system in full. Poor connectivity, infrastructure, raw and unverified data, inadequately trained staff, resistance of vested interests to change, and lack adequate commitment and ownership at cutting-edge level are also challenges for the smooth implementation of the project.

Once these lags are addressed, however, this could be a model that can be replicated anywhere in the state or country, according to Dr Jawale. The fact is that already 22,000 bogus or ghost cards have been eliminated, which has resulted in saving Rs 3 crore in just one year in this district.

WFP India Representative Mihoko Tamamura puts it this way, “The aim of the project is to ensure that food reaches only those entitled to it, and will produce savings which, I am sure, will enable the state government to reach out to many more vulnerable people who urgently need help.”

The project – until recently considered to be world’s largest multi-modal project covering one million citizens offers many learnings for the computerisation of PDS nationwide.

(© Women’s Feature Service)

Today, India stands at cross roads of history. Recent significant advancements in country’s  economy have taken the country to the centre stage of world attention. Much of this progress  is intrinsically linked to the development of human resources. While on one side, growth of  population has been a cause for concern, the youth, the educated and the employed are  being seen as demographic dividends; especially in times when world population is ageing.  However with increasing disparities, the challenge for the decade to come would be to focus  on the millenium development goals (MDGs) and the sections of society that remain less  privileged in education, health and employment; failing which the dividend may well turn into  a demographic liability. Among the largest peace time operations ever in the world, Census of  India, 2011 is thus uniquely placed to provide comprehensive evidence leading to appropriate  policies that focus on such important goals for the Indian society.

FOR MORE READING. . .

The enumerators collected the information by visiting each and every household and canvassing a written questionnaire called the Houselist and Housing Schedule. In Census 2011, a period of 45 days was allotted for this purpose, between April 2010 to September 2010. Approximately 2.5 million enumerators and 200,000 supervisors were engaged for this operation. What made the exercise even more challenging was the fact that the information was collected on 35 items and 15 million Census Schedules were canvassed in 16 Indian languages.

The Houselisting and Housing Census shows that the census houses increased from 250 million to 330 million. There is an increase of 60 million census houses for residential and partly residential purposes. The data indicates that the housing gap has reduced. There is an improvement in the construction material used for roof, wall and floor. Thus there is a substantial improvement in the quality of housing both in rural and urban areas.

* Amenities available with the households – 87% of households are using tap, tube well, hand pump and covered well as the main source of drinking water while 43.5 percent use tap water. Only 47% of households have source of water within the premises while 36% of households have to fetch water from a source located within 500 m in rural areas/100 m in urban areas and 17% still fetch drinking water from a source located more than 500 m away in rural areas or 100 m in urban area.

* Main source of lighting – 67% households use electricity which shows an increase of 11pt over 2001. The rural-urban gap has reduced by 7 percentage points from 44% in 2001 to 37%.

* 58% of the households have a bathing facility within the premises, showing an increase of 22 pts over 2001.

* Around half the households have drainage connectivity with two-third have the open drainage and one-third have the closed drainage.

* 47% of the households have a latrine within premises, with 36% households having a water closet (WC) and 9% households having a pit latrine. There is an 11 pt decline in households having no latrine from 64% to 53% in 2011.

* 61% households have a kitchen with 55% having the kitchen within the premises and 6% outside. Two-third of the households are using firewood/crop residue, cow dung cake/coal etc. and 3% households use kerosene. There is an increase of 11 pts in use of LPG from 18% in 2001 to 29% in 2011.

* Communication – there is an increase of 16% in television and a corresponding decline of about 15 pt in use of radios/transistors. Less than 1 out of 10 households have a computer/laptop with only 3% having access to internet. The penetration of internet is 8% in urban as compared to less than 1% in rural area. 63% households have a telephone/mobile with 82% in urban and 54% in rural area. The penetration of mobile phone is 59% and landline is 10%.

* Transport – 45% of the household have a bicycle, 21% two wheelers and 5% four wheelers. There is an increase of 9 pt in two wheeler and 2 pt in four wheelers, with bicycle showing increase of 1 pt only. 59% of the households use banking facilities with 68% in urban and 54% in rural areas. The rural urban difference has reduced from 19 to 13 pt.

* 18% of the household do not have any of the specified assets.

FOR MORE AND DETAILED READING . . .

As per information collected under Employment Market Information Programme of Directorate General of Employment & Training, number of persons employed in the organized sector as on 31st March 2005 and 2010 were 26.46 million and 28.71 million respectively.

The maximum and minimum number of employment opportunities in organized sector recorded as on 31st March 2010 over 2005 was 10.31 lakh and about 15,000 in Western Zone and North Eastern Zone, respectively.

The Minister was replying to a written question whether despite increase in annual growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the number of employment opportunities in the organized sector is decreasing; the number of employment opportunities in the organized sector in the years 2005 and 2011 respectively; and the names of the regions where maximum and minimum number of employment opportunities have increased in the above mentioned period.

In a press note issued by the Labour Bureau it has been mentioned that in the recent quarterly survey a total of 2,188 sample units have been covered belonging to eight selected sectors, viz., textiles, leather, metals, automobiles, gems & jewelry, transport, IT/BPO and handloom/powerloom.

The results about effect on employment in the above eight sectors are briefly summarized as below:-

 It may be observed from the enclosed statement that the upward trend in employment has been continuously maintained since July 2009. During the quarter October to December, 2011, employment has increased in respect of all sectors except Leather and Automobiles where there was a marginal fall. The overall employment has increased by 2.26 lakh during the quarter.

 At the sectoral level, the maximum increase of 1.09 lakh in employment during the period December, 2011 over September, 2011 was in IT/BPO sector, followed by increase of 0.78 lakh in Textiles including Apparels, 0.34 lakh in Transport, 0.13 lakh in Handloom/Powerloom, 0.10 lakh in Gems & Jewellery.

 The maximum increase in overall employment by 1.94 lakh is seen in the Direct category of workers as compared to 0.32 lakh in the contract category of workers at overall level during the period December, 2011 over September, 2011(Page 23 of the report).

 In the export-oriented units, the employment at the overall level has increased by 2.67 lakh whereas in the non-exporting units, it has decreased by 0.41 lakh during the period (Page 27 & 31 of the report).

 While comparing the results of the last four quarterly surveys conducted during the calendar year 2010-11, it is observed that the overall employment has increased by 9.29 lakh, with the highest increase recorded in IT/BPO (7.64 lakh) sector followed by 1.07 lakh in Metals, 0.47 lakh in Automobiles, 0.33 lakh in Transport and 0.28 lakh in Gems & Jewellery and 0.05 lakh in Handloom/Powerloom industries. (Page 15 of the report)

 Overall estimated employment in all selected sectors has experienced a net addition of 25.84 lakh during the period from October, 2008 (first survey) to December, 2011 (thirteenth survey).

The methodology for arriving at poverty estimates has been in place for the last several years and various committees in the past have arrived at estimates based upon certain indices of poverty from time to time. These Committees include the Alagh Committee (1977), the Lakdawala Committee (1989) followed by the Tendulkar Committee (2005) which submitted its recommendations in 2009.

The country has made rapid economic progress in the last several years and the sharp edges of poverty have been substantially blunted as a result of various policies and schemes of the Government for empowerment of the poor. At the same time poverty estimates need to be reviewed from time to time with reference to the basic needs of the people. Government fully recognizes that any realistic estimate of poverty must be predicated on earnings that can satisfy the basic human needs to ensure a life of dignity to all.Government had accordingly decided to undertake the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), 2011 based on the recommendations of Saxena and Hashim Committees mandated to capture various kinds of deprivations, which is now on going. The results are expected shortly.

Talking to media, Minister of State for Planning Mr Ashwini Kumar said that the Government had also taken a decision to set up a Technical Group to revise/revisit the methodology for estimating poverty in a manner which is consistent with the current realities. The Technical Group to be constituted will also have the benefit of SECC, 2011 data, based upon a comprehensive census which will enable the Government to purposively revisit poverty estimates and identify the poor.

Certain amendments to Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act are under consideration of the Government.

The Minister was replying to a written question whether the National Advisory Council has recommended abolition of child labour in hazardous or non hazardousjobs under the age 14 and its regulation between the age of 15 and 18; the details thereof; whether in view of the Right to Education law in place, the demand for complete abolition of child labour has great importance; and the steps taken by Government on this issue?

Under National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme and Grant In Aid Scheme (GIA) of Ministry of Labour & Employment, the children withdrawn from work are enrolled in the special schools, where they are provided with bridging education, vocational training, stipend, health care, nutrition, etc. The children who do not have parental support are being taken care of under Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) of Ministry of Women & Child Development. As per the available information 3,76,945 children have been rehabilitated during last three years and current year (upto June, 2011) through NCLP Scheme and 94,310 children have been benefited through ICPS Scheme during  2010-11.

Under Grant in Aid Scheme, funds to the extent of 75% of the project cost are released directly to the NGOs for elimination of the child labour in the districts which are  not covered  under the National Child Labour Project. The details of NGOs  and the funds  allocated  to them  during the last three years is at Annexure-I.

            The Minister was replying to a written question about the details   of   schemes   or programmes of Government for assisting in rehabilitation of child labour; whether Government proposes to rehabilitate children who are rescued as per the Anti-Labour  Act who do not have any parental support; the details thereof; whether financial assistance is being given to special schools run by the NGOs for their rehabilitation; and the details of NGOs and the funds allocated for this purpose during the last three years, year-wise and NGO-wise?

*****

ST/-

Annexure-I

SCHEMES FOR REHABILITAITON OF CHILD LABOUR

Grant released to NGOs in 2010-11

As per data collected under Employment Market Information programme of Directorate General Of Employment & Training, employment in the organized sector, both public and private, increased from 26.4 million in 2004-05 to 28.7 million in 2009-10.

The Minister was replying to a written question whether it is a fact that organisations working in the social sector in the country are continuously increasing the job opportunities; if so, Government’s reaction thereto; whether it is also a fact that job opportunities are not being increased in the corporate sector in comparison to these organisations; and the details thereof and the rate of increase of job opportunities in social and corporate sector in the year 2011?

State-wise details of employment rate on usual status basis are given at Annex.

As per information collected under Labour Market Information Programme of Directorate General of Employment and Training, details of employment in Public and Private Sectors as on 31^st March, 2008, 2009 and 2010 are given below:

Data regarding permanent, contract, casual employment etc. are not maintained centrally.

The Minister was replying to a written question whether Government have the data regarding the growth of employment in the country for the last three years; the State-wise details thereof; and the details regarding Government sector, private sector and the nature of employment like permanent, contract, casual etc. during the said period?

*****

ST/-

     Annex

State-wise employment rate in Rural and Urban areas on usual status basis during 1999-2000,2004-05 and 2009-10

Source: NSSO Reports,1999-2000, 2004-05 & 2009-10.

She said, Government of India provides financial support for land and houses in the rural areas through ‘Indira Awas Yojana’ which is run by the Ministry of Rural Development. Similarly, under Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) and Integrated Housing & Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) schemes, financial support for construction of houses is provided by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme

The level of registration of birth in India is increasing year by year and the level of registration of births has increased to 77.5 percent in 2008 from 56.2 percent in 2000.

The measures being taken to improve the registration system in India are:

• Office of RGI has intensified publicity campaigns on the need and importance of registration of births and deaths through electronic and print-media at the central level.

• Under the scheme of central assistance to States, the financial assistance is provided to States/UTs for –

(i) Publicity and advertisement through Information Education Communication (IEC) activities;

(ii) Training of Registration Functionaries &

(iii) Providing infrastructural support in terms of staff, computers, etc.

• Launched National Campaign for birth registration.

Instructions have been issued to ensure cent per cent registration of institutional events to all States/UTs.

This was stated by Shri Jitendra Singh, Minister of State of Home Affairs in written reply in the Rajya Sabha

The caste system contains both social oppression and classexploitation. The dalits suffer from both types of exploitation in the worst form. 86.25 per cent of the scheduled caste households are landless and 49 per cent of the scheduled castes in the rural areas are agricultural workers. The dalits are subject to untouchability and other forms of discrimination despite these being declared unlawful. According to the 2001 census, scheduled castes comprise 16.2 per cent of the total population of India, that is, they number over 17 crore.

The dalits are subject to untouchability and other forms of discrimination despite these being declared unlawful. The growing consciousness among the dalits for emancipation is sought to be met with brutal oppression and atrocities. The assertion by the dalits has a democratic content reflecting the aspirations of the most oppressed sections of society.

Along with the curse of untouchability, the dalits had no right to have any property. They had to eat the foulest food, including leftovers thrown away by the higher classes; they were not allowed to draw water from the common well; they were prohibited from entering temples; they were barred from the right to education and knowledge; they had to perform menial jobs for the higher castes; they were not allowed to use the common burial ground; they were not allowed to live in the main village inhabited by the upper classes; and they were deprived of ownership rights to land and property, leading to the lack of access to all sources of economic mobility. Thus, dalits were subjected to both social exclusion and economic discrimination over the centuries. In one form or the other, this continues even today in most parts of the country.

The caste system contains both social oppression and class exploitation. The dalits suffer from both types of exploitation in the worst form. 86.25 per cent of the scheduled caste households are landless and 49 per cent of the scheduled castes in the rural areas are agricultural workers.

According to the 2001 census, scheduled castes comprise 16.2 per cent of the total population of India, that is, they number over 17 crore. Scheduled tribes comprise 8.2 per cent of the population, that is, they number over 8 crore. Both together constitute 24.4 per cent of the Indian population, that is, they together number over 25 crore.

The six states that have the highest percentage of scheduled caste population are Punjab (28.9), Himachal Pradesh (24.7), West Bengal (23.0), Uttar Pradesh (21.1), Haryana (19.3) and Tamil Nadu (19.0). The twelve states that have the largest number of scheduled castes are Uttar Pradesh (351.5 lakhs), West Bengal (184.5 lakhs), Bihar (130.5 lakhs), Andhra Pradesh (123.4 lakhs), Tamil Nadu (118.6 lakhs), Maharashtra (98.8 lakhs), Rajasthan (96.9 lakhs), Madhya Pradesh (91.6 lakhs), Karnataka (85.6 lakhs), Punjab (70.3 lakhs), Orissa (60.8 lakhs) and Haryana (40.9 lakhs).

Almost every socio-economic indicator shows that the position of scheduled caste families is awful. In many cases their plight is getting worse. Let us have a look at some of the major indicators.

LAND: In 1991 70% of the total SC households were landless or near landless (owning less than one acre). This increased to 75% in 2000. In 1991, 13% of the rural SC households were landless. However, in 2000 this saw a decline and was 10%. As per the Agricultural Census of 1995-96, the bottom 61.6% of operational holdings accounted for only 17.2% of the total operated land area. As against this, the top 7.3% of operational holdings accounted for 40.1% of the total operated area. This gives an indication of land concentration in the hands of a few.

FIXED CAPITAL ASSETS: In 2000, about 28 % of SC households in rural areas had acquired some access to fixed capital assets (agricultural land and non-land assets). This was only half compared to 56 % for other non-SC/ST households who had some access to fixed capital assets. In the urban areas, the proportion was 27 % for SCs and 35.5 % for others.
AGRICULTURAL LABOUR: In 2000, 49.06 % of the working SC population were agricultural labourers, as compared to 32.69 % for the STs and only 19.66 % for the others. This shows the preponderance of dalits in agricultural labour. Between 1991 and 2001, the number of agricultural labourers in India increased from 7.46 crore to 10.74 crore, and a large proportion of them were dalits. On the other hand, the average number of workdays available to an agricultural labourer slumped from 123 in 1981 to 70 in 2005.

CHILD LABOUR: It is reported that out of the 60 million child labour in India, 40 % come from SC families. Moreover, it is estimated that 80 % of child labour engaged in carpet, matchstick and firecracker industries come from scheduled caste backgrounds. The tanning, colouring and leather processing, lifting dead animals, clearing human excreta, cleaning soiled clothes, collection of waste in slaughter houses and sale of toddy are some of the hereditary jobs generally pursued by Dalit children.

PER CAPITA INCOME: In 2000, as against the national average of Rs. 4485, the per capita income of SCs was Rs. 3,237. The average weekly wage earning of an SC worker was Rs. 174.50 compared to Rs. 197.05 for other non- SC/ST workers.

POVERTY: In 2000, 35.4 % of the SC population was below the poverty line in rural areas as against 21 % among others (‘Others’ everywhere means non-SC/ST); in urban areas the gap was larger – 39 % of SC as against only 15 % among others. The largest incidence of poverty in rural areas was among agricultural labour followed by non-agricultural labour, whereas in urban areas the largest incidence of poverty was among casual labour followed by self-employed households. The monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) for all household types was lower for SCs than others.

EMPLOYMENT: In 2000, the unemployment rate based on current daily status was 5 % for SCs as compared to 3.5 % for others in rural and urban areas. The wage labour households accounted for 61.4 % of all SC households in rural areas and 26 % in urban areas, as compared to 25.5 % and 7.45 % for other households.

RESERVATIONS: 15 % and 7.5 % of central government posts are reserved for SCs and STs respectively. For SCs, in Group A, only 10.15 % posts were filled, in Group B it was 12.67 %, in Group C it was 16.15 % and in Group D it was 21.26 %. The figures for STs were even lower, at 2.89 %, 2.68 %, 5.69 % and 6.48 % for the four groups respectively. Of the 544 judges in the High Courts, only 13 were SC and 4 were ST. Among school teachers all over the country, only 6.7 % were SC/STs, while among college and university teachers, only 2.6 % were SC/STs.

EDUCATION: In 2001, the literacy rate among SCs was 54.7 % and among STs it was 47.1 %, as against 68.8 % for others. Among women, the literacy rate for SCs was 41.9 %, for STs it was 34.8 % and for others it was 58.2 %. School attendance was about 10 % less among SC boys than other boys, and about 5 % less among SC girls than other girls. Several studies have observed discrimination against SCs in schools in various forms.

HEALTH: In 2000, the Infant Mortality Rate (child death before the age of 1) in SCs was 83 per 1000 live births as against 61.8 for the others, and the Child Mortality Rate (child death before the age of 5) was 119.3 for 1000 live births as against 82.6 for the others. These high rates among the SCs are closely linked with poverty, low educational status and discrimination in access to health services. In 1999, at least 75 % of SC women suffered from anaemia and more than 70 % SC womens’ deliveries took place at home. More than 75 % of SC children were anaemic and more than 50 % suffered from various degrees of malnutrition.

WOMEN: While dalit women share common problems of gender discrimination with their high caste counterparts, they also suffer from problems specific to them. Dalit women are the worst affected and suffer the three forms oppression — caste, class and gender. As some of the above figures show, these relate to extremely low literacy and education levels, heavy dependence on wage labour, discrimination in employment and wages, heavy concentration in unskilled, low-paid and hazardous manual jobs, violence and sexual exploitation, being the victims of various forms of superstitions (like the devadasi system) etc.

SANITATION: Only 11 % of SC households and 7 % of ST households had access to sanitary facilities as against the national average of 29 %.

ELECTRICITY: Only 28 % of the SC population and 22 % of the ST population were users of electricity as against the national average of 48 %.

ATROCITIES, UNTOUCHABILITY AND DISCRIMINATION: During 16 years between 1981 to 2000 for which records are available, a total of 3,57,945 cases of crime and atrocities were committed against the SCs. This comes to an annual average of about 22,371 crimes and atrocities per year. The break-up of the atrocities and violence for the year 2000 is as follows: 486 cases of murder, 3298 grievous hurt, 260 of arson, 1034 cases of rape and 18,664 cases of other offences. The practice of untouchability and social discrimination in the matter of use of public water bodies, water taps, temples, tea stalls, restaurants, community bath, roads and other social services continues to be of high magnitude.

With the onset of the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation by our country during the last decade and a half, the problems of dalits, adivasis, other backward castes and the working people as a whole have greatly aggravated. The drive to privatise the public sector has directly hit reservations for the SC/STs. The closure of thousands of mills and factories have rendered lakhs jobless and this has also hit dalits and other backward castes. The ban on recruitment to government and semi-government jobs that has been imposed in several states has also had an adverse effect. The growing commercialisation of education and health has kept innumerable people from both socially and economically backward sections out of these vital sectors.

The most disastrous effects of these policies can be seen in the deep agrarian crisis that has afflicted the rural sector. Rural employment has sharply fallen and this has hit dalits, adivasis and women the most. Mechanisation of agriculture has further compounded the problem. The real wages of agricultural workers, of whom a large proportion are dalits, have fallen in many states. No efforts are made to implement minimum wage legislation even where it exists, and periodic revision of minimum wage is also conspicuous by its absence. The dismantling of the public distribution system has increased hunger to alarming proportions. An overwhelming proportion of the malnutrition-related deaths of thousands of children in several states is from dalit and adivasi families.

To ensure a better life for the crores of dalits in our country following measures are to be taken immediately:

LAND REFORMS: The central and state governments must immediately set in motion a process of land reforms whereby land will be redistributed to the landless agricultural labourers and poor peasants gratis. All loopholes in the present laws must be plugged. All schemes to reverse land reform legislation and give away land to multinational corporations and big business houses should be scrapped forthwith.

RESERVATIONS: All the backlogs in reserved seats and posts and in promotions for SCs, STs and OBCs must be filled forthwith with special recruitment drives. The three Constitutional amendments made to correct the three OMs issued in 1997 diluting reservations for SCs and STs should be implemented. The pre-1997 vacancies based roster should be restored. A comprehensive legislation covering all aspects of reservation for SCs/STs in employment and education both public and private institutions should be enacted.

SPECIAL COMPONENT PLAN: Special Component Plan should be properly implemented in all the states with proper allotment of funds according to the population of dalits. A National Commission should be set up to assess the real position of dalits including reservation. The state level commissions should be set up to oversee the implementation of all schemes connected with the SCs including reservation.

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT: Infrastructure development in the scheduled caste areas like road, water, health, culture and other needs has to be given proper importance. When allotting fund for infrastructure development, a separate allotment for scheduled caste areas should be provided.

A comprehensive National Programme of Minor Irrigation for all irrigable but unirrigated lands of SCs and STs through wells, community wells, bore-wells, community bore-wells and tube-wells, bandheras, check-dams, lift, etc., should be immediately undertaken and implemented.

ROOTING OUT UNTOUCHABILITY: All forms of untouchability must be rooted out of the country by strengthening the relevant laws, ensuring their strict implementation and most importantly, by launching a mass movement of the people.

PROTECTION FROM ATROCITIES: The Central Government should amend and strengthen the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, providing for special courts with judges, investigating officers and public prosecutors unburdened by any other work. Social and economic boycott and blackmail should be included as substantive crimes. Full economic rehabilitation of victims and their survivors must be ensured.

EMPLOYMENT: The privatisation drive should be stopped as it leads to loot of national assets, greater unemployment, a curtailment of reservations and also a spurt in corruption. The Central Government should enact a bill to provide reservations in the private sector, which has been a long-standing demand of SCs and STs. Special schemes to provide self-employment to SC youth should be started. The Right to Work should be incorporated as a fundamental right in the Constitution.

EDUCATION: The commercialisation of education should be stopped since the massive fee and donation structure of private educational managements is something that socially and economically backward students cannot afford. For this, the central government must increase its own outlay on education to 6 % of the GDP. SC/ST students should be given special scholarships to pursue their studies. The stipends in Social Welfare hostels should be raised and the quality of these hostels improved. Steps should be taken to universalise primary education and expand secondary education. Special measures to curb the drop-out rate among SCs should be undertaken.

AGRICULTURAL WORKERS: The Minimum Wages Act for agricultural workers must be stringently implemented throughout the country. A comprehensive bill for agricultural workers is another long-standing demand and it must be enacted without delay. Homestead land must be provided for SCs, STs and agricultural workers.

RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act must be strictly implemented all over the country by involving the people, their mass organisations and the panchayati raj institutions. It should be extended to all districts and also to urban areas of the country.

PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM: The public distribution system must be universalised to ensure food to all. Until this is done, BPL ration cards must be issued to all poor families, many of whom are from SCs and STs. The grain under the BPL scheme should be made available at Antyodaya prices.

CREDIT: Agricultural credit to peasants and agricultural workers must be made available at 4 % rate of interest. For SCs and STs in both rural and urban areas, credit facilities should be expanded and the credit given at concessional interest rates.

BONDED LABOUR AND CHILD LABOUR: The total liberation and full rehabilitation of bonded labourers must be ensured. The pernicious practice of child labour must be abolished and children properly rehabilitated and educated. Similarly, total liberation and full rehabilitation must be ensured for Safaqi Karmacharis who are engaged in scavenging.

SCAVENGERS: Ensure total liberation and full rehabilitation for scavengers (safai karamcharis), ban engagement of contract labour in safai services and other services where SC and ST numerically predominate and instead introduce necessary improvements by involving such Karamcharis; and reactivate the Central Monitoring Committee for Liberation and Rehabilitation of Safai Karamcharis and State, Municipal and District Level communities.

 1.         The Tendulkar poverty line is defined in terms of per capita consumption expenditure on amonthly basis. It can be also converted into a corresponding consumer budget per month for a family of five. On this basis the family based poverty lines per month for the country as a whole are as follows:

            Note: At prices prevailing in2004-05 and 2009-10 respectively.

2.         Several newspapers have reported the consumption data on a per day basis. While this can be done as a pure arithmetical calculation, the official consumption poverty line is not defined on a daily basis. It may be noted that the practice around the world is to define poverty lines in terms of year or month. The NSS surveys, which are the basis of measuring consumption poverty, collecthousehold consumption expenditure data on a monthlybasis.

3.         The main point that emerges from the latest estimates is that the rate of reduction in poverty, using the Tendulkar poverty line, has accelerated considerably after 2004-05 and the rate of reduction in the five years between 2004-05 and 2009-10 is about 1.5 percentage points per year. This is twice as fast as the rate of reduction in the previous eleven years, i.e., 1993-94 to 2004-05. The comparative position for the reduction in urban and rural areas on an annual basis in the two periods is given below:

2004-05 to 2009-10 (per year)

1.6

1.0

1.5

4.         The pace of reduction in poverty varies across States. The rate of reduction was higher than average in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odhisa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The rate of reduction was much lower than the average in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

 5.         The Tendulkar poverty line has been criticised on the grounds that it is too low, and therefore, under-estimates the scale of the population that needs special assistance. Any poverty line is essentially arbitrary and the Planning Commission has only accepted the line recommended by the Tendulkar Committee. Planning commission has  also indicated that the line will be revised from time to time based on the recommendations of experts.

             It is important to emphasise that the Government has already stated that entitlements for food subsidy benefits will not be linked to the number of persons estimated to be below the official poverty line. For the purpose of food security the size of the beneficiary population will be much larger and will be determined as per entitlements stated in the food security bill.

             The real purpose of estimating a population below a fixed poverty line is to judge whether progress is being made over time. For this purpose, the poverty line must be the same over time and updated to reflect price changes on the basis of an established methodology. If a higher poverty line is used, the absolute number of people below the line will obviously be larger. However, the results regarding trends in poverty will not be altered.

Planning Commission Latest Estimates Suggest Faster Reduction in Poverty

Poverty Estimates for 2009-10 : Planning Commission

Fraudulent Poverty Estimates of The Planning Commission

“Cycle is the future in India but the voice has to reach out,” said Pankaj Munjal, president-designate, All India Cycles Manufacturers’ Association.

Every Sunday, Munjal and a group of 150 cyclists from across walks of life assemble at the Lutyen’s Bikers’ Zone between Rashtrapati Bhavan and India Gate in the capital for 45 minutes of vigorous biking and bike-related discussions – which end with a small feast.

“We drive to India Gate at 6 a.m., offload our bikes and cycle on the biker’s tracks,” Munjal, also the managing-director of Hero Cycles, told IANS.

The bikes roll in every category from the regulation black bikes at Rs.10,000 to the designer models priced Rs.1.5- Rs.2 lakh, Munjal said. His company manufactures nearly six million of the nearly 13 million bicycles in India annually.

A new study unveiled March 22 by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says Delhi has to wake up to the mobility crisis with non-conventional, eco-friendly and easier systems of transport.

“Increased use of car in the capital has reduced the carrying capacity of roads and by 2020, if the capital has to meet its target of 80 per cent of public transport share, it will have to spend more on cycling and walking,” the study said.

The report says with the “new biking and walking facilities in some parts of Delhi like the BRT stretch between Ambedkar Nagar and Pragati Maidan, Vikas Marg from ITO to Laxmi Nagar, the Tughlaqabad stretch and the Noida Link Road – built post-Commonwealth Games – cycling is still seen as a streetscraping rather than continuous well-designed usable system”.

“We have political commitment, will and interest, but it is actually work on the ground. We are not looking at cycling and walking as a small solution, but on a scale which actually works on the ground in the capital,” Sunita Narain, director-general of the CSE, said at a forum, “Our Right of Way: Walk and Cycle”.

Citing figures for the capital, Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of the CSE, said “Delhi has one of the highest walk and cycle trips in the country at around 2.8 million”.

“Even on the car-dominated roads like the Outer Ring Road, the share of cycles is quite close to that of autos – 7 and 9 per cent respectively,” she said quoting figures. At least 34 percent Delhi homes own a bicycle and the domestic bike market has expanded by three percent every year,” she said.

But the cycling lanes have remained discontinuous and the intricate design of the tracks have created barriers for cyclists, Roychowdhury said.

High speed motorised traffic often impede into the cycling lanes and there is no penalty on motor vehicle owners for encroaching on non-motorised roads. Cycling access to metro stations is also poor, he said.

The high rate of fatal accidents in the capital has been a stumbling block to increase in cycling and walking in the capital, and there were no efforts to make the roads safe for anybody, Satyendra Garg, the joint commissioner of police, said.

In 2011, nearly 104 cyclists were killed on the streets of the capital, he said.

“One cannot have proper cycling without the involvement of the city’s governing bodies,” said Rajesh Kalra, the initiator of Pedalyatri, a cycle initiative in the NCR region.

“I am trying to promote the concept of bike sharing in the capital which will allow a commuter or a traveller to rent a bike for Rs.5. But it requires funds and help from the government. The capital region needs more cycling space,” Kalra told IANS.

Kalra said he is starting the “India Cycle Service” – a cycle rental with innovator Prabhat Agarwal, an IIT and IIM alumnus. Cycling enthusiasts and votaries in the capital are trying to emulate the Netherlands model, which promotes bicycles as a replacement for cars.

“The difference between the Netherlands and India is that in the Netherlands cycling is very much another mode of transport while in India it is something for the poor,” Jeroen Buis, of the Dutch Cycling Embassy, told IANS.

But the real point about reducing poverty is the way the Planning Commission has juggled its figures over the years. Their latest announcement tells us that in 2004-05, 37.2% of India was poor, and that fraction has reduced to 29.9% in 2009-10. By any standards, seven percentage points over five years is a substantial decline.

Only, it seems that the Commission hoped that nobody would indulge in a little googling about all this. Because if you do indulge, you’ll come up with some intriguing things indeed.

First, go all the way back to 1998. On the Commission’s website, I found a document titled ‘Agriculture Policy: Vision 2020′. The second paragraph in this document says: “Increased agricultural poverty and rapid industrial growth in the recent years have contributed to a significant reduction in poverty level, from 55% in 1973 to 26% in 1998.” So if the Commission estimated poverty at 26% in 1998, a number widely cheered at the time, how did it increase to 37.2% in 2004-05? What caused that jump in poverty? What do we say of a drop that hasn’t even taken us back to that 1998 level?

For further reading:

Minimum Wages Act Coverage for all Employments

Raising The Wage Ceiling in the Employees Provident Fund, Enhancement of Pension Under Employees’ Pension Scheme 95, Portability of PF Account, Reduction in the Requirement of Minimum Continuous Service, Etc.

Stress on Matching the Large Scale Skilling Targets with Creating Similar Number of Openings in the Area of Employment

Maternity Leave Under the Maternity Benefit Act be Increased from the Present Level of 12 Weeks to 24 Weeks

Union Labour & Employment Minister Shri Mallikarjun Kharge today detailed about the recommendations made during the 44^th  Indian Labour Conference concluded at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Addressing the media persons he said this Session of the Indian Labour Conference had elaborate discussions on three agenda items – (i) Minimum Wages (ii) Social Security and (iii) Employability and Employment.

The Conference was inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.   The Conference was attended by Labour Ministers from 14 State Governments. All the major 12 Central Trade Union Organisations and 6 major employers’organisation participated in the Conference.  Besides, senior officials from 23 Central Ministries and all State Governments/UTs attended the Conference.  The International Labour Organisation Experts based at Delhi were also present.

Shri Kharge referred the Prime Minister inaugural address in which he emphasized the great importance that the UPA Government attaches to the promotion of healthy industrial relations and well being of our workforce.

Shri Kharge said   our huge unorganized sector poses great challenges in ensuring quality employment and extension social security coverage.  Minimum Wages are an important means of protecting the interest of the workers were not in the formal sector.  Our flagship health insurance scheme “Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana” has covered 2.5 crore Below Poverty Line families and this Scheme is being extended to cover other category of workers.

According to the minister the Conference Committee on “Minimum Wages” recommended that the Government may fix minimum wages as per the norms/ criteria recommended by the 15^th ILC (1957) and the directions of the Hon’bleSupreme Court (Repttakos Co. Vs Workers’ Union) 1992.  The Government may take necessary steps accordingly.

Also the Conference Committee on “Social Security” had very focused discussion and came out with specific recommendations in the areas of raising the wage ceiling in the Employees Provident Fund, enhancement of pension under Employees’ Pension Scheme 95, portability of PF Account, reduction in the requirement of minimum continuous service, etc.   The Committee addressed the gender issues by recommending enhancement of maternity leave.  The MSME Sector and unorganized sector workers received special attention of the committee members.  Our Ministry’s RSBY Scheme has achieved a lot of success and various recommendations were received for bringing other category of workers under its coverage and adding other type of benefits in addition to the existing ones.

Moreover, the Conference Committee on “Employability and Employment” recommendations laid stress on matching the large scale skilling targets with creating similar number of openings in the area of employment.  Labour intensive industries need to be promoted and protected.  The forthcoming National Employment Policy should be able to provide enabling framework for facilitating employment generation and decent work in the unorganized sector.  The Labour Market Information System should give real time information about skill requirements and skill availability. Other innovative suggestion were bringing the traditional skills under the certification system and involving MSMEs in skill development.  The road map for skilling 500 million persons by 2022 should be finalized in consultation with the tripartite partners.

Shri Kharge said, this Session of the Conference carried forward the rich tradition of healthy social dialogue, spirit of accommodation and keeping interest of our workforce as the top most priority.   The tripartite partners have shown full concern to the important responsibility we have towards our country’s growth and safeguarding the basic interest of our workers.  We will be very closely following up with the implementation of policy solutions arrived at the Conference and the same will be reviewed in the meeting of the next Standing Labour Committee.

The Recommendations of the Conference Committee on Employability and Employment are:

1.       Employment generation and Employability should be top agenda of the Govt.

2.       Though lot of focus  is  being laid on training of 500 million persons by 2022, there is a need to take appropriate measures for creation of employment opportunities to offer the matching employment.

3.       There is an urgent need to declare the National Employment  Policy in order to provide enabling framework for facilitating employment generation and decent working conditions for all.

4.       Investment in labour intensive industries should be promoted and incentivised.

5.       Labour Market Information System should be established to get skill requirement from the industry and available skills from the institutes. In this regard, employment exchanges may be modernized for providing virtual job market on real time basis.

6.       Skill mapping should be done at the local level  and inventory of skill assets should be created.

7.       ITIs should also focus on sectors beyond manufacturing and should concentrate on service sector. There is urgent need for quality assurance measures in training of ITIs and instructors.

8.       Emphasis should be laid on development of infrastructure including storage, processing and marketing in rural areas and agro-based industries.

9.       ITIs should focus more on popular trades keeping in view the requirement of the local industries.

10.    Institutional arrangements  for providing training in traditional skills should be encouraged and may brought under certification system.

11.    Public awareness programme should be taken up, particularly in rural areas regarding the importance of skill development and certification of traditional skills.

12.    There should be functional and spatial integration of State and Central infrastructure and other available resources for optimal utilization of resources.

13.    MSMEs should be encouraged and supported to participate in the skill development efforts.

14.    Stipend of apprentices under the Apprentices Act should be enhanced.

15.    Existing and new Centres of Excellence/Clusters in traditional crafts should be strengthened and provided support in terms of marketing, credit, new technology, etc. to promote self-employment.

16.    Barriers should be removed from skilling and certification of illiterate and uneducated workers.

17.    Entrepreneurship and self-employment should be encouraged by providing necessary support.

18.    Existing employment in the unorganized sector should be safeguarded by assuring access to natural resources for those sectors dependent on them.  In order to increase their productivity, appropriate advanced tools and technology for traditional producers should be developed.

19.    Skill development should be promoted among the women and differently-abled persons.  To increase participation of women in skill development, special measures should be taken.

20.    Centres of Excellence should be established at the national and State levels  which  will produce world-class technicians.

21.    National level consultation with all the stakeholders should be held immediately to finalize the road-map for preparing skill development plan leading to skilled force of 500 million persons by 2022.

22.    Comprehensive steps should be taken to create environment for employment generation and protection.

23.    Trainers should be trained in large numbers to meet growing requirement.

During the Conference a Committee was constituted to discuss Agenda Item No.(i) concerning Minimum Wages  and related issues. These issues, inter alia, include norms for fixation/revision of minimum rates of wages, Variable Dearness Allowance(VDA),  National Floor Level Minimum Wages etc. On the basis of detailed discussion, the following points emerged.

1.  There was consensus that the Government may fix minimum wages as per the norms/ criteria recommended by the 15^th ILC (1957) and the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court (Repttakos Co. Vs Workers’ Union) 1992.  The Government may take necessary steps accordingly.

2. There was a broad consensus that the Minimum Wages Act should cover all   employments and the existing restriction for its applicability on the scheduled employments only should be deleted. This will also help Indiaratify ILO Convention No.131.

3.  It was broadly agreed that there should be national minimum wages applicable to all employments throughout the country.

4.There was broad agreement on the amendment proposals as listed out in Para 5(iv,  v & x).

5.  In respect of 5 (iv), it was pointed out that the payment  to the apprentices should   be treated differently from the other categories.

6.The Committee noted that at present there are 12 States/UTs who have not adopted  VDA. There was a broad consensus that all States/Uts should adopt VDA.

7. It was also recommended that the payment of minimum wages should be done through Banks/Post Offices etc.

8. As regards 5(vi), it was felt that the enforcing agencies should not be given the power of adjudication and, therefore, this proposal should be re-examined.

9. The proposal of paying different minimum wages in respect of same employment    either in the Centre or in the State should be done away with.

A Conference Committee was also constituted to discuss the agenda item No. (iii) i.e. “Social Security”.  On the basis of detailed discussions, the following points emerged :-

(i)                      There was a broad-based consensus that the wage ceiling for the application of EPF Act be increased from the present level of Rs.6,500/- to Rs.10,000/- or Rs.15,000/- as already applicable for the ESI Corporation.  Similarly, the ceiling for workers covered under EPF Act be reduced from 20 to 10.  However, LaghuUdyog Bharati was not agreeable to this reduction in ceiling of number of workers.

(ii)                    Minimum pension under the EPS 95 be increased to some floor level, which should not be less than Rs.1,000/-,  since a large number of workers receive pension which is less than that provided by the State Governments for elderly people which is normally in the range of Rs.400/- to Rs.1000/-.

(iii)                  The PF Accounts be computerized urgently so that the workers are able to avail the facility of PF transfer and settlement immediately. Smart Cards like RSBY be issued to PF account holders.

(iv)                   Minimum ceiling of 5 years of continuous service be reduced in case of gratuity and gratuity be made transferable in case of change of job by the employee.

(v)                     The maternity leave under the Maternity Benefit Act be increased from the present level of 12 weeks to 24 weeks.  This increased maternity benefits be made available only upto two children, while the lower limit  be continued for more than two children.

(vi)                   Accountability on the part of organizations implementing the social security schemes be fixed in order to ensure that the beneficiaries receive the deliverables in time.  Citizen Charters for these organizations be finalized early.

Although I was born and raised inBangalore, I have lived my working life in Kerala, based inTrivandrum. This life has revolved/evolved around two major movements: the fishworkers’ and the women’s movements. Both have led me through a range of related subjects, understanding myself as a woman and the way I see and do things in relation to the men I work with; the complex relations between human dynamics and the environment in the context of modern science and use of technology; the otherwise unspoken complexities of sexuality and religion and the way they shape our thinking and interactions; besides, of course, the new knowledge of the otherwise forgotten or deliberately suppressed role that women have played in the development of society and how overarching patriarchy has appropriated it all. All these discoveries and experiences have simultaneously filled me with wonder, made me seethe with anger, stimulated me to react and deepen my social involvement, linked me with others whose commitment and vision have inspired me, widened my horizon and, finally, filled me with humility as time keeps advancing, creating a history of which I do not feel a part.

I had already been living and working in the fishing community for over a decade before I became a feminist. It’s not that I wasn’t working with women specifically in the community, helping them organise – working in a mixed team that had helped build a successful cooperative movement among fisherfolk, I was very convinced that women in the community occupied a significant space and needed to be organised as women, as well. There were many firsts in this organising initiative – women on church committees; the local women’s organisation running the village ration shop and controlling cash offerings at the prayer shrine; and women organising to demand the right to travel on state transport buses instead of walking miles to the market with their fish. I didn’t really understand what more there was to ‘women’s empowerment’ as I felt the women we worked with were an integral and important part of the fishing economy and had begun to take matters into their own hands. I also didn’t think it was important to participate in the first meeting of the autonomous women’s organisations as I had questions about the very concept, ‘autonomous’. We were living and working in a mixed team of men and women, building up a process in the fishery where both participated. So what more? Moreover, we were in Kerala, a highly politicised state where autonomous groups and movements were not only almost non-existent but also highly suspect. Better to keep away from such ‘autonomous’ outfits. I did, however, participate in a women’s discussion group called Prachodana in Trivandrum where we read and discussed various books – ‘The Family’ by Engels, ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone de Beauvoir, all of which I found very interesting.

In 1980 I took up a full-time job as a social worker in a high-specialty hospital. This was my first regular job and for the first time I was being confronted by other women and men about my status as a single woman: why didn’t I wear a chain around my neck, why did I walk so fast, didn’t I have parents? – implying that they should have seen to it that I was married off by the ripe old age of thirty-two! These stereotypical questions didn’t put me off; what really shook me were other questions from women activists who met me through my fisheries work: “Why do you think women should not fish?”, “Why do Christians call God Father/Lord?”

It was only in 1985, I think, when I participated in a discussion in Bombay where Chhaya Datar presented the work she had done at the Institute of Social Studies (The Hague), that things changed for me. Presenting her study of the Nippani workers, conceptualising women’s exploitation, she analysed the concept of patriarchy as a category with a material base, operating to the disadvantage of women in all the institutions that make up society. Being analytical myself and having used the Marxist social analysis framework developed by Francoise Houtart and Geneviève Lemercinier, this hit me like a great flash of light.Eureka! I could not stop my mind whirling as I saw all our work in fisheries in a new light – how patriarchy not only controlled women through all the social institutions, but also basically controlled their labour. Yes, it made sense. Though there were a number of blank spaces and doubts, the desire to struggle through them was strong because I had understood the logic. There was no turning back now.

I shared all this with my women colleagues – Aleyamma Vijayan, Mercy Alexander, Vanitha Mukherjee, to name a few – insisting that we orgnaise a discussion in order to understand patriarchy. Though some of them were skeptical, we decided to invite Chhay, Gabriele Dietrich and Nandita Gandhi toTrivandrumto expose the others, including our male friends, to a session on patriarchy. That session changed the thinking of my women colleagues, and from then on we worked with a totally different consciousness, began to engage much more politically in our work with women. Although it took us a while (we kept distinguishing ourselves from liberal feminists), we finally became quite unapologetic about saying, “yes, we are feminist.”…

(Excerpted from ‘Memoirs From The Women’s Movement In India: Making A Difference’, Edited by Ritu Menon; Women Unlimited, 2011/386 pages/Softback; Rs 350)

(© Women’s Feature Service)

]]> http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/india-fishworkers-champion-nalini-nayak-believes-one-never-stops-learning/feed/ 0 http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/only-10-percent-indian-villages-fully-sanitized-jairam/ http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/only-10-percent-indian-villages-fully-sanitized-jairam/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:29:49 +0000 India Current Affairs http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/?p=112868 Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh Monday said that while only 10 percent of Indian villages have full sanitation coverage, the government is dedicated to tackling the issue with both rail and union budgets paying special attention to sanitation.

Speaking at an award function organised by Sulabh International, an organisation working for better sanitation in the country, Ramesh said: “It is sad that out of 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country, only 25,000 are “Nirmal” gram panchayats.”

“Nirmal” gram status is given by the government of India to those villages which have full sanitation coverage and have completely abolished open defecation.

Ramesh presented the Sulabh Sanitation Award of Rs.5 lakh to Anita Bai Narre, a tribal woman from Madhya Pradesh who had revolted against the lack of toilets in her in-laws’ home and returned to her parents, demanding a clean toilet as the condition for her return.

The government has also made Narre a brand ambassador for its sanitation campaign.

Describing Narre’s action as “bold”, Ramesh said that the government is aiming to abolish open defecation completely in 10 years, with “special focus on sanitation and clean toilets, in both rail and union budgets.”

“The government’s target is to ensure that all the village panchayats become Nirmal Gram Panchayats in 10 years,” he said.

Claiming that a behavioural change was needed, Ramesh urged that “(the) women have to play a leading role in this social revolution.”

Sulabh International founder and social activist Bindeshwar Pathak hailed Narre’s action as “brave” and applauded Narre’s husband Shivram and journalist Sanjay Shukla who first broke Narre’s story.

“So far, the government’s sanitation programmes have almost no media coverage except a small ticker on Doordarshan. If Narre’s story gets good coverage, the sanitation programmes can get a huge boost,” Pathak told IANS.

1. Overall employment in September, 2011 over September, 2010 has increased by 9.11 lakh, with the highest increase recorded in IT/BPO (7.96 lakh) sector followed by 1.07 lakh in Metals, 0.71 lakh in Automobiles, 0.08 lakh in Gems & jewellery and 0.07 lakh in Leather industries during the period.

2. An upward trend in employment has been continuously observed since July 2009. During the quarter July to September 2011, employment has increased in respect of all sectors except Leather and Transport where there was a marginal fall. The overall employment has increased by 3.15 lakh during the quarter. At the sectoral level, the maximum increase of 2.04 lakh in employment during the period September, 2011 over June, 2011 was in IT/BPO sector, followed by increase of 0.42 lakh in Textiles including Apparels, 0.38 lakh in Metals, 0.22 lakh in Automobiles, 0.09 lakh in Handloom/Powerloom, 0.07 lakh in Gems & Jewellery.

3. In the export oriented units, the employment at the overall level has increased by 1.96 lakh whereas in the non-exporting units, it has increased by 1.16 lakh during the period September, 2011 over June, 2011.

4. Overall estimated employment in all selected sectors has experienced a net addition of 23.58 lakh during the period October, 2008 (first survey) to September, 2011 (twelfth survey).

The Economic Survey observes that employment growth in the organized sector, public and private combined, has increased by 1.9 % in 2010, which is lower than the annual growth for the previous year. The annual growth rate for the private sector was much higher than that for the public sector. However, in respect of both sectors, annual increase in employment had slowed down in 2010 vis-à-vis 2009. The share of women in organized-sector employment was 20.4 per cent in 2010 March end and has remained nearly constant in recent years.

The Nashik-based Yeshwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) has designed special short-term and long-term courses for working classes like cab and auto drivers, private drivers and even maids to enable them to compete better in the job and money markets.

The special preparatory and degree courses shall be inaugurated Tuesday in Mumbai’s All India Institute of Local Self Government at Andheri by eminent Bollywood actor Kader Khan, according to a YCMOU official.

“Given our social objectives, the courses shall be extremely simple but equip the ‘students’ to handle them without disturbing their crucial work schedules as most are the sole bread-winners of their families,” said Shrinivas Belsare, YCMOU head of corporate communications.

There are an estimated 400,000 cabbies in the city. According to Belsare, around 200,000 cabbies from Mumbai, besides a potential 1.5 million elsewhere in Maharashtra, are expected to benefit from the new course, enrolment for which starts in June 2012.

YCMOU’s format for the experimental course would be unique, using CDs, FM radio programmes and a few books to enable the cabbies to learn while on the go – driving.

It is expected to similarly help housemaids, who number around 800,000 in the city.

Besides, the courses would not burn a hole in the pockets of the ‘students’, considering they are at the bottom rung of the people contributing to the national economy, Belsare said.

“The preparatory course will cost Rs.600, with a 50 percent discount for the target category of cabbies and it is equivalent of HSC. This will be followed by a diploma course, advanced diploma and a degree, each costing Rs.1,500, and recognized everywhere,” Belsare explained.

“Accordingly, if a person completes one year, that is, two modules, he gets a diploma, after two years an advanced diploma and a full-fledged, recognised degree after completing the full three-year course. It means a win-win situation for all, even those who drop out after a year or two,” he added.

The new courses are expected to be a boon for the next generation of cabbies as the state government plans to soon make HSC-level education compulsory before issuing new permits for autos and taxis.

Kader Khan, who himself played a cabby in several movies like “Aa Ab Laut Chalen” and “Naseeb”, was impressed with YCMOU’s new course and readily agreed to inaugurate it, Belsare said.

A graduate, the 65-year-old Khan, after taking a break from his acting-writing career, is now engrossed in designing a new syllabus from nursery to post-graduation in Islamic studies for the benefit of students in thousands of ‘madrassas’ in India.

Given the large, semi-literate migrant population in Mumbai, YCMOU will offer its new course in Hindi, Marathi and English for the cabbies, with the approval of the powerful Bombay Taximen’s Union.

Its existing BA degree course in Urdu have got over 2,000 students on the rolls and proved beneficial to migrants, mostly school dropouts, coming here in search of employment opportunities.

YCMOU has around 400,000 students on its rolls in the state, including 50 percent women, who would otherwise have had no opportunity to educate themselves, he said.

The course modules are comprehensive and wide-ranging including soft skills, road safety, tourism, health, first aid, civic discipline, transport rules, insurance, traffic scenario, networking with courier companies and basic banking.

“This will enable them to get a proper perspective of life and help them consider other lucrative professional options rather than spending their lives driving cabs,” Belsare pointed out.

The YCMOU course is billed as the first of its kind among the 14 open universities around the country which have been silently spurring literacy levels among the most unfortunate sections of Indian society.

The high prevalence of anaemia and malnutrition in Rajasthan – 79 per cent of children between 6 to 35 months are malnourished, while 53.8 per cent ever married and 61 per cent pregnant women suffer from anaemia (as per the National Family Health Survey-3, 2005-2006) – has been an issue of concern. It was in his speech, during the presentation of the state budget in 2010-11, that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot first talked about his government’s intention to move in this direction. Fortification was introduced, as a pilot project in 11 districts in February 2010. Two years later, in February 2012, Rajasthan became the first state inIndiato introduce fortified food items in the open market.

Explains J.C. Mohanty, Principal Secretary of Rajasthan’s Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Department, “The government has entered into a tripartite agreement with Unicef and the Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) to do this. The arrangement is for the technical upgrade of flour mills (we want to have the best mills in the state), quality control, as well as large-scale information, education and communication (IEC) activities. We also want to have an impact evaluation of the intervention through the public distribution system (PDS).”

According to Mohanty, in January 2012, 78,589 metric tonne of wheat was ground into fortified flour in 65 mills across Rajasthan and 7.46 million 10-kilo bags of flour were distributed through fair price shops.

Although he is optimistic about the outcome of this exercise, Mohanty points out that it was a challenging intervention given existing infrastructure. “When we first launched it, we had our share of hesitations. Flour is a perishable food item and we were apprehensive over whether we could make it available in fair price shops before its use-by date expires, and whether people would accept it,” he says.

The Rajasthan State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation (RCSC) was created in December 2010 to outsource the washing, cleaning, grinding and fortification of the wheat to roller mills, and quality control was outsourced to eight National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration (NABTC) laboratories. According to Mohanty, the RCSC has a monthly turnover of Rs 500 million, “The cost of wheat is Rs 6.40 (US$1=Rs 49) per kilo for families above the poverty line (APL), and we are providing them fortified flour in a 10 kg bag for Rs 81. This means, that for less than two rupees a kilo, we are adding micronutrients to the staple.” There are 10.79 million APL card holders and 18,27,152 BPL families under the PDS in the state.

Associated with this intervention is the Jaipur-based IIHMR. “Our brief is to demonstrate the feasibility of providing fortified food through the existing system and then gather evidence to show how it  impacts anaemia levels,” says Dr S.D. Gupta, IIHMR director. IIHMR, he adds, is a research institute, and that is what makes this project unique. “It’s for the first time that a research body has been roped into such a project. We have to also build capacity, train mill owners and their staff and provide them with equipment for fortification and quality assurance. We have given them micro feeders used for mixing the premix into the ground flour, and an entoleter to spin flour at very high speeds to rid it of any impurities,” he elaborates.

According to Dr Dhirendra Kumar, Project Director of IIHMR’s Project Management Unit, fortified flour will be widely available in grocery shops and food superstores in a couple of months. “Over the next year, 200,000 metric tonne of fortified flour will be supplied in the open market and the target is to cover 50 per cent of Rajasthan’s population in five years,” he reveals.

The question often asked is whether fortification is required when supplementary nutrition programmes are already running in the country for many decades. In response Dr Gupta points out that prophylactic oral iron supplementation only maintains the available haemoglobin level, but doesn’t increase it. “Pregnant women are most susceptible to iron deficiency anaemia. In fact, most of them enter into a pregnancy

with high levels of anaemia. Also, going by existing evidence, the iron and folic acid tablets supplied through the anganwadi network are often not taken – only 60-70 per cent women are regular with the pills. In such a context, a food-based, cost-effective approach could be one way forward.”

Food fortification as a strategy to counter nutritional deficiencies has already notched notable success. The universal iodisation of common salt is regarded a successful public health programme, which has gone a long way in addressing iodine deficiency disorders.

The whole idea behind fortifying food commodities like salt and, as in Rajasthan’s case, wheat and oil, is that these foods are universally consumed by all population groups and are therefore the best vehicles for a broad-based intervention.

Fortification has its critics. Ashok Khandelwal, who has been associated with the Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyaan, or Right to Food campaign, in the state, believes fortification will only work when there is already sufficient intake of cereals and pulses. “The question of malnourishment is not a question of lack of micronutrients; it’s related to starvation, a complete lack of adequate food,” observes Khandelwal, who is an advisor to the Supreme Court Commissioners in the Right to Food case.

Professor V.S. Vyas, member of the economic advisory council to the Prime Minister and deputy chairperson of the Rajasthan Planning Board, however, is of the view that fortification is a useful initiative “not only because it enhances nutrition levels but will also check pilferage of foodgrain by fair price shop owners”. Fortification can help check pilferage because unlike PDS wheat, which is often pilfered and diverted to the open market, flour can’t either be diverted (because there’s no demand) or pilfered because it can’t be hoarded (it will perish) to be sold later.

What will be the impact of this ambitious programme? For that we will have to wait a little longer. After a period of one-and-a-half years, the IIHMR is to develop a research model in two village blocks in Pratapgarh district that will compare consumers and non-consumers of fortified food items to see whether the intervention has actually improved haemoglobin levels, reduced low birth weight prevalence, and brought down the disturbingly high number of maternal and newborn deaths in Rajasthan.

(© Women’s Feature Service)

However, the debates around the National Food Security Bill have revolved around who will be in the general or priority category; the quantity of entitlements; or whether it should be in the form of cash or foodgrain. The question that gets lost in the debate is this: Who gets to eat what within the household? The disparities and biases that creep into the distribution of food within the family cannot be wished away given their long-term impacts on health and well-being of society in general and women and girls in particular.

To understand this phenomenon a little better let us visit the Kumhar household in Parvati Nagar Kachchi Basti, a Jaipur slum. The young mother of the household, Sarita Kumhar, 26, is a construction worker as is her husband. Kumhar earns Rs 200 (US$1=Rs 49.6) a day – much less than her husband’s wage of Rs 250. More than the quantum of wages, she says the problem is the temporary nature of their work. She takes her two little daughters, aged seven and five, with her to the site where she works. Sarita explains, “My husband and I come back only at 6 pm. The anganwadi closes in the afternoon. Whom can I leave them here with?” she asks. Her nine-year-old son meanwhile goes to a private school and is looked after by his maternal grandmother.

But what about her daughters? They just have to make do with what they get. To make matters worse, the elder of the two, Pooja, suffered an attack of polio four years ago, and Sarita says she and her husband have tried everything to treat it, even borrowing Rs 50,000 to meet the endless medical bills over the last four years. But today they have little hope that her daughter will be able to walk properly. Debt and minimum wages have meant that food for the family remains basic. Kumhar leaves for work by 8 am with her husband and daughters. From 8.30 am till 5 pm – which sometimes stretches to even six in the evening – she and her husband mix cement and carry sand without stop apart from an hour’s break in the afternoon. For lunch, the family shares a few ‘rotis’ and a seasonal vegetable that Kumhar has cooked and packed before leaving for work. The mother’s one consolation is this, “At least one of my children – my son – gets properly taken care of. My mother makes sure he gets milk every day.”

Biases in food distribution over the years have a direct impact on physical development. Sapna Berva is 14, but could easily pass off for someone half her age. The oldest among five siblings – four sisters and a brother – Berva is less than five feet tall and is clearly underweight. Her father works as a helper in a small restaurant in the southern edge of Jaipur, Rajasthan’s capital. Her mother is a peon in small private school.

Their economic means are limited and that is how Berva explains family decisions. “There is not enough milk for everyone so only Chetan gets it – twice a day,” she says, referring to her younger brother who is also the only one to attend private school. But going to a more affordable government school in the neighbourood – although one with poor infrastructure – has brought some benefits to Berva and her three sisters. She is, in fact, quite enthusiastic about the mid-day meal she gets in her school, “We have a ‘parantha’ and tea before leaving home in the morning but in school they serve a full meal – roti, sabzi, dal, sometimes even fruit.”

Dapu Mehra, 32, a domestic worker, who earns Rs 130 a day, has made similar compromises when it comes to distributing food within their seven-member household. Of her three daughters and two sons, only her 14-year old son, the oldest, gets to attend a private school. He and his younger brother who is five are also the ones to drink milk every day; there is none for their sisters who are 12 and 10 years old. “I breastfeed two-year-old Urmila so she gets some milk, but there is not enough money to buy other nutritious food,” says Mehra, referring to her youngest child who has been diagnosed with a vision defect in one eye.

Women in families that are even slightly better-off financially say they try to treat their children equally. Take Arti Devi, a domestic worker. “My children go to the same school and eat the same fruit, vegetable, milk and whatever else we can buy,” she says proudly. She and her husband, a mason, manage to earn Rs 10,000 a month and live in a concrete house they built with a loan last year. They hold an Above Poverty Line (APL) ration card.

Intra-household disparities in food distribution are hard to track and document. The prevailing disparity makes universal access with special emphasis on nutrition for women and for the girl child even more essential. Dipa Sinha, a member of the Right to Food campaign, puts it this way, “There are no recent studies done on what exactly is going on within the home, but these disparities reflect in the results of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The NFHS shows that cereal consumption between men and women is usually at par but there are significant differences in the consumption of things like milk.”

The current National Food Security Bill provides benefits for pregnant and lactating women. It tries to ensure women’s access to food through features such as mandating that ration cards be issued in the name of women who are above 18 years of age in the family. But there is mounting concern that the Bill fails to address the nutrition crisis in its entirety.

Ashok Khandelwal, a labour activist working with the Right to Food campaign in Rajasthan, says, “The Bill is silent on nutrition for adolescent girls. Yes, the ICDS provides for mid-day meals, and so on. But what about girls who have dropped out of school? The government launched the ‘Sabla’ scheme for adolescent girls in 200 districts last year, but why only a scheme, why not provide it as a right by making this a part of the Act?”

These are important questions that will not go away. If the idea of nutrition for all has to have meaning, then it’s time to also bring intra-family biases in food distribution on to the policy table.

(© Women’s Feature Service)

During the blockade of Berlin in 1948, which we survived by being trooped off to a Swedish soup kitchen, my mother decided to take me across the green border, together with another woman with a daughter like me. We had to walk through the forest for five hours without speaking, because “the Soviet army shoots without warning”. I was mortally scared of the Soviet army as we had spent months under its occupation. Nearby, all the young women on the street had been raped. Though, being children, we didn’t know what was happening, my cousin and I could hear the screams in the night. We would feel my mother’s and grandmother’s bodies go stiff when they – children clutched tight – confronted a soldier. Decades later it dawned on me that, in a way, my cousin and I had served as a kind of human shield. Her mother had disappeared in the mines during flight and turned up traumatised after many months. A few years later, mother and daughter emigrated toAmerica. We visited my father in his realm of relative plenty, a village in anorthern province, where he was ‘de-Nazified’ from his SA-membership in order to be able to serve as a minor clerk in the administration again. My mother taught adult education classes, how to recycle old woollens, and also imparted English to people who aimed at migrating to the US or Canada. My grandmother stitched old clothes into new. The blockade and occupation led to the Cold War which culminated in the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961.

My decisive political formation came from the resistance of theWest Berlinpopulation to caving in under threats of blockades and starvation in order to take over their city and made the united East andWest Berlinthe capital of the GDR. A deeply stirring event was the uprising by workers against the Worker’s State, in June 1953, against higher production norms. They marched through the main road where I went to school, onto the Rote Rathaus (the red building of the Eastern Administration), right through the Brandenburg Gate. Onlookers cheered them with cigarettes and foodstuffs, but of course the uprising was extinguished by Soviet tanks. It was in the same year that Stalin died, and his dead body in the black-and-white of the newsreel is etched in my memory forever. I had also seen him decorating ‘deserving mothers’ with twelve children. I somehow believed then that there was less likelihood of war and tyranny now, and that women would be allowed to bear fewer children. The workers’ uprising was an extremely energising ray of hope. Though it was crushed immediately, I happily donated my piggy bank savings to the Hungarian uprising four years later. Our last hope was the students’ revolt of 1968 and the Prague Spring, again crushed by Soviet tanks. Had there been socialist democracy inEastern Europe, had theSoviet Unionnot invadedAfghanistan, had Allende been allowed to stay in power inChile, the world could have looked very different today.

I was deeply inspired at the age of eleven by the diary of Anne Frank who, despite her personal experience, believed in the inherent goodness of human beings. Her dreams of becoming a writer and journalist while watching the chestnut tree blossom in the Prinsengracht (the secret quarters where she and her family were kept in hiding), moved me to tears. It was a fairly gentle and sheltered way to access the history of fascism. In school, we were shown documentaries about concentration camps, fascism, social democracy after World War I, theLeague of Nations– but there were few women in this rendering of history. Somewhere along the way, from an old workers’ song, I realised that there had been a woman called Rosa Luxemburg who, together with Karl Liebknecht, had been shot by the army under social democratic rule between the Wars, their dead bodies thrown into the Landwehr canal. Decades later, I read some of her letters and writings and came across the book by Raya Dunayevskaya, ‘Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation and Marx’s Theory of Revolution’. From there, it was a relatively short distance to the debates on women, the ‘last colony’, and the realisation that women were not really the last colony, that internal colonies were all the time recreated by capitalism, consisting of dalits, adivasis, workers in the unorganised sector, impoverished peasants and tribal populations in the north-eastern states of India.

My mother decided to divorce my father about nine years after his return from the War. It was a classic case of the inability to readjust after nearly ten years of a long-distance marriage due to war and imprisonment. Women had survived flight, migration, civil bombardments, and had reorganised life, removing the debris. Men came from the trenches and prisoners’ camps and found it difficult to restore what they had dreamt of as ‘normalcy’. Many families broke up. My mother, who had worked as a typist after ten years of schooling, took adult education classes and passed a teacher’s training examination. My father tried to deny alimony for me, his only child, but the court decided otherwise. He also underwent some adult education and paid up. My mother dinned it into my head that it was crucial to have a good education and a good job. She was not too clear what this might mean, as she herself never had either of these. Her imagination vacillated between a school teacher (with lots of holidays) and perhaps a film star. She sent me to ballet classes, but when she realised that I took them very seriously and contemplated becoming a classical dancer, she was horrified.

(Excerpted from ‘Memoirs From The Women’s Movement In India: Making A Difference’, Edited by Ritu Menon; Women Unlimited, 2011/386 pages/Softback; Rs 350)

(© Women’s Feature Service)

Although she has been born and brought up in this Santhal-doiminated panchayat, the lack of roads and electricity makes her wary and unsure at times. However, there is one thing that Sunila is sure about – she will stop at nothing to see that every child in the panchayat goes to school. Having gone through a long and difficult struggle to study, Sunila, the daughter of a woodcutter, doesn’t want others to face the obstacles she had to negotiate. Her parents sold firewood to garner resources for her education and allowed her to stay in a hostel 110 kilometres away from home to pursue her dreams. “If I had not studied, I, too, would have been selling firewood. Education has given me a job and an identity,” says Sunila, the first girl in her Santhal community to reach Class 11.

Sunila is today pursuing higher studies and is, at the same time, helping other children of the community access their right to education. It was this zeal that led to her being chosen as a Bal Bandhu under the government’s Bal Bandhu programme. Introduced in December 2010 by the National Commission for Protection of Children (NCPCR), after getting the nod by the Prime Minister’s office, the Bal Bandhu programme aims to protect children’s rights in areas of civil unrest with the help of ‘Bal Bandhus’ chosen from within the community. Two resource persons for each district have also been deputed to facilitate the three-year programme being piloted in 10 districts in nine states impacted by civil unrest. InBihar, four districts, Jamui, Sheohar, Rohtas andEast Champaran, have been selected for its implementation.

In Jamui, the programme is being piloted in Khaira block. Here, the Bal Bandhus are slowly and steadily mobilising the community to take responsibility for upholding the rights of their children and convincing them to send their children to anganwadis and schools not just in Sunila’s Harkar panchyat but in 20 of the 22 panchayats in the block.

What has helped immensely is that of the 20 Bal Bandhus chosen – one for each panchayat – by the two Bal Bandhu Resource Persons (RPs), nine are women. Although the Bal Bandhus hail from different backgrounds, they all share a common passion to do something for their community and a commitment to work for children.

And their hard work has paid off. Since they began work in January 2011, they have, with the help of the two RPs, catalysed change in the block. They have managed to turn around almost half of the non-operational schools. Before the onset of the programme, 48 of the 226 schools in the block were non-functional. By making 23 of the 48 non-functional schools operational again, they have managed to motivate 798 children, who were already enrolled in school but irregular, to attend classes regularly.

But it’s not been an easy ride. To achieve this, they have had to handle delicate situations as well. For instance, in August 2011, when Bal Bandhu Savitri Kumari went to theParatiPrimary Schoolin Arnuwabank panchayat of Khaira block to participate in the flag hoisting ceremony on Independence Day, she found that the villagers were very agitated. They told her that the neighbouring school had been warned by the Naxals not to unfurl the flag. Seeing the uncertainty and fear among the community, teachers and students, Savitri sought the help of her mentor Resource Person, Srinivas Chakli.

After Srinivas reached the school, the duo calmed the villagers down. On inquiring whether or notParatiSchoolhad received a specific warning and finding it had not, they left it to the community to decide what should be done. Considering that their children were looking forward to the event the villagers decided to go ahead. In fact, a village elder was nominated by the community to do the honours in the absence of the principal.

Like Savitri Kumari, Nazrhwa Naz, too, has understood what it means to be a Bal Bandhu. In March 2011, the lives of 553 students in Garhi panchayat had come to a standstill when their middle school was targeted by extremists. A big part of the school was destroyed by a bomb they planted to prevent the government from housing a battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on the premises. The CRPF had moved out in January, two months before the incident, and were expected to return in time for the panchayat elections to be held in the state that month.

According to Nikhat Parveen, the school’s headmistress, the blast created panic and fear within the community, particularly among students and their parents. “I had to go from door to door to convince them to return. But it took a long time to gain their confidence,” she recalls. It was Nazrhwa Naz, who helped Parveen persuade the community to send their daughters back to school. Incidentally, Nazrhwa is Parveen’s daughter.

At 19, Naz has been critical in raising awareness about the importance of education in the Garhi panchayat area. Having grown up in a district where girls are married young, Naz has concentrated on reaching out to the mothers. Simultaneously, she made efforts to form Bal Mitra Sangathans, or child support groups, comprising like-minded boys and girls of her age who have pledged to work for children. These efforts helped her to delay the marriage of a sister of her former schoolmate and get her back to school.

Engaging the local elected representatives has been one of the main strategies that have helped the Bal Bandhus bring girls back to school. Bachchi Devi used to work as a domestic help before she contested from Scheduled Caste seat in Surganhi panchayat, Sheohar, in the 2011 elections. When Bal Bandhu Neetu Kumari, in charge of this panchayat, went to greet her and discuss the programme, Bachchi confessed that since she was uneducated, she did not understand such issues. She took Neetu to the house of her former employer. As Neetu spoke about the programme, Bachchi sat on the floor near her employer’s feet and quietly listened.

Later, when Neetu asked her why she did not sit on the chair, Bachchi revealed that she could not dare to sit with her employer. It took Neetu several interactions with Bachchi to build her confidence and convince her that, as ‘mukhiya’, she was the leader of the panchayat and that she was inferior to none.

Now, not only does Bachchi Devi sit on the chair, she has become actively engaged in upholding child rights. After participating in several awareness meetings on child rights, she organised and led rallies against child labour on International Day against Child Labour.

Whether it is Sunila or Naz or Neetu, the young Bal Bandhus face many challenges. Not only do they have to work amidst conflict and fear, they also have to stand up against bureaucratic delays and corruption. The lack of buildings for schools, no provision of residential schools/hostels, particularly for girls, and the difficult terrain have only added to their problems. But, despite the odds, these young Bal Bandhu carry on, true friends of children living in areas of conflict.

(© Women’s Feature Service)

]]> http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/india-meet-sunila-and-friends-child-rights-defenders-in-the-conflict-zone-swapna-majumdar/feed/ 0 http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/india-nutritious-cuisine-from-the-arid-earth-kitchen-tales-of-bishnoi-women-neena-bhandari/ http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/india-nutritious-cuisine-from-the-arid-earth-kitchen-tales-of-bishnoi-women-neena-bhandari/#comments Mon, 27 Feb 2012 07:13:05 +0000 India Current Affairs http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/?p=111120  Traditional western Rajasthani delicacies are fast becoming a gourmet’s delight inIndiaand abroad. In fact, no Marwari feast is complete without the “exotic” Sangari, cooked as a dry subzi or with gravy. Of course, Sangari, the fruit of the versatile Khejari (Prosopis cineraria) tree, indigenous to the vastThar desert, has provided nutrition and nourishment to the local communities over generations.

As the sun rises on the eastern skyline, Chunni Bishnoi, 65, begins milking her three buffaloes and three cows in the outer courtyard of her ‘pucca’ house, shaded by the thorny Khejari trees that grow thick and green in the villages of Guda Bishnoiyan and Khejarli, 22 kilometres and 26 kilometres, southeast ofJodhpurin Rajasthan. Guda Bishnoiyan, spread over 36578.4 bighas, has a population of 8,434 (2011 Census), while the cattle here number around 6,000.

Interestingly, the Khejari is held sacred by the Bishnois. An extremely drought resistant tree, its long needle-like nutritive fruit, Sangari, is a staple in Chunni’s home, as in every other home here. Moreover, she uses its branches as fuel, the leaves are dried and used as fodder for the cattle, the thorny twigs are used to build fences, and the wood is used to make furniture.

The women of Guda Bishnoiyan and Khejarli have mastered the optimum use of indigenous fruits and other vegetation, which have been traditional sources of survival for generations in this hot and dry land, especially during drought. Sangari is the star in kitchens here. It can be dried and stored for an unlimited period and cooked whenever required.

There’s also Kair (Capparis decidua), an ideal source of nutrition, rich in minerals like calcium, phosphorus, iron, as well as protein and carbohydrates. It is cooked as a fresh vegetable or preserved and stored for use around the year. In fact, Kair has also made it to five-star hotel menus and its pickle is exported all over the world. Kumatiya (Acacia Senegal) is another small circular, flat, black-brown fruit, which is a rich source of fibre and is commonly prepared with Sangari and Kair.

Once cooked, these vegetables can be eaten over days and don’t need refrigeration. Shobha Panwar, 18, knows this well. Compelled to quit school after Class 10, as both her parents work on construction sites, she cooks meals for her family on a wood-fired ‘chullah’ (stove). Unlike the rich folk in her village, their family has only one goat, which yields just enough milk to suffice for tea. They mostly eat ‘bajre ki roti’ (millet flatbread) in winters and ‘gehun ki roti’ (wheat flatbread) during summers with the indigenous Sangari, ‘Kachra mirchi’ (local cucumber cooked with green chillies) or ‘Kande ki sabzi’ (onion vegetable).

In fact, ‘bajre ki roti’, milk, ghee, yogurt and buttermilk (chhach) is the staple diet in these villages, where agriculture and animal husbandry are the chief sources of livelihood. Dr Neelam Wason, Professor of food and nutrition at theJaiNarainVyasUniversityinJodhpur, explains, “The preparation of traditional vegetarian Rajasthani food among the rich and poor in these two villages is almost the same. The difference lies in the consumption of other expensive items like fruit, which the rich bring home while returning from the city. Ghee, milk and milk products form an important part of rich people’s regular diet, but the poor can only afford buttermilk.”

Traditional western Rajasthani cuisine has evolved over centuries to suit the harsh climatic conditions of the region. It is sourced locally, is nutritious and has a long shelf life. Samdhu Bishnoi, 60, who lives in Chhota Guda village and has five cows and five buffaloes, lists their common foods: “Til ke laddoo (Gingelly bound into small balls with ghee and jaggery) and Rabori (Bajra cooked with buttermilk and sun-dried) can last for an entire season. Panchkuta, which includes Sangari, Kair, Kumatiya, red chillies and Goonda (Cordia mixa), can also last for weeks. Since we have plenty of milk and ghee, we make kheer (milk cooked with rice or ‘saboodana’), and ‘aata’ and ‘sooji ka halwa’ (sweet made with wheat flour or semolina).”

Shedding light on the nutritive value of these local preparations, Dr Wason, who has been working inJodhpurfor the past 30 years, says, “Cereals – wheat, pearl millet (Bajra), sorghum (Jowar), and pulses – whole and splitBengalgram (chana), green gram (moong), moth beans (moth) – are rich sources of protein and energy in their diet. Gingelly seeds and methi dana (fenugreek seeds) provide protein, energy and iron. Jaggery is a good source of iron for rural folks, while the local and seasonal vegetables provide vitamins and fibres. Kachra (Cucumis callosus), radish and green chillies, eaten raw, are a source of Vitamin C.” Therefore, it’s important to understand that despite poverty, access to good nutrition is possible if people make the right choices and vice-versa there are low cost but nutritious options available to ensure adequate nutrition. Local cooking and feeding practices also have an important role to play in the same.

To prepare food, most Bishnoi homes use fuelwood (Prosopis juliflora) or dried cattle dung cakes, barring the rich, who have gas stoves. Asha Shravan, 25, of Khejarli village, who has three children studying in a private school, is one of the fortunate ones to own a gas stove. But Baby Kumari, 38, mother of six, walks three hours daily to fetch fuelwood. Her husband works in a kirana (grocery) store and they can’t afford milk sold at Rs 30 a kilo. Even wheat is too expensive for them.

For centuries, the Bishnoi community has warded off starvation by scrupulously preserving the patches of green cover around their settlements. During the mid-15th century, this region had experienced an eight-year-long drought during which many people and cattle perished. A young man of Pipasar village, Jambaji, then realised that in the past his clan had survived drought because of the abundance of trees in the area. But deforestation had destroyed this support system.

Jambaji distilled his thoughts into 29 principles, which he taught to his people: Cut no living tree and kill no animal; grow indigenous trees like the Khejari. Their faith was famously put to the test when Maharaja Abhay Singh ofJodhpurdecided to build a new palace in 1730. The masons needed lime for the construction. There was limestone available but it had to be baked. So they decided to cut down Khejari trees for fuel but the Bishnois strongly objected.

Anxious to protect the trees, a local woman, Amrita Devi, and her three daughters ran out and hugged the trees. The Maharaja’s soldiers hacked them down. Other Bishnois came forward and they too were killed. As many as 363 people from 84 villages died resisting the onslaught. The people’s revolt forced the Maharaja to give in. The repentant king then conferred on the valiant clan the right to prevent felling of trees and killing of wildlife in their area.

The Bishnois formed a jury to oversee issues related to deforestation and hunting. The penalty was mostly paid in grain for the birds or fodder for the cattle and hunters were not allowed to take away the kill, which was buried with full rites. Of course, this was when hunting was still a sport and a royal pastime. But even today, Bishnois uphold their 500-year-old tradition of conservation in Rajasthan, tending groves of tall trees around their villages and protecting animals. Incidentally, theGudaLakenear these villages attracts hundreds of migratory birds every year.

The environment-friendly Bishnoi community can certainly teach the world a thing or two about sustainable living, conservation, and most importantly, how to extract a nutritious meal from arid environs and sandy soils.

BOX:

Local Produce Packed With Goodness

The following table lists the nutritive value of the foods per 100 gram according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

S.No    HINDI NAME  ENGLISH NAME       PROTEIN (G) ENERGY (KCAL)      IRON (mg)

1.         Bajra                Pearl millet                  11.6                 361                              8.0

2.         Gehun             Wheat                          12.1                 341                              4.9

3.         Jowar              Sorghum vulgure        10.4                 349                              4.1

4.         Suji                  Semolina                     10.4                 348                              1.6

5.         Chana             Whole Bengal gram    17.1                 360                              4.6

6.         Moong             Whole green gram      24.0                 334                              4.4

7.         Moth                Moth beans                 23.6                 343                              7.58

8.         Methi dana      Fenugreek seeds        26.2                 333                              6.5

9          Til                    Gingelly seeds            18.3                 563                              9.3

10.       Gwar phalli      Cluster beans              3.2                   16                                1.08

(© Women’s Feature Service)

 It is against this backdrop that the Swatantra Jatiya Shishu Sramik Vidyalaya (SpecialNationalChildLabourSchool) stands out like a beacon of hope. Every morning, Sukanti Mohanto, the school headmistress, is out of her home by 9.30 am. For half an hour before her school begins, she walks the lanes of the Bharatpur slum inBhubaneswarto coax, cajole and even intimidate the children there into attending classes. That’s because most parents are not keen on sending their children to school – they prefer their daughters to stay back and look after the younger siblings, while the boys do some income-generating work. It’s only when Mohanto turns up at their doorstep that they have no option but to let them go.

Hers is a non-formal school catering to working children and dropouts in the 9-14 age group, with the ultimate aim of sending them to regular schools. The school has a small but committed staff of five – a teacher for vocational training, two teachers for the education process, one clerk and one cook – apart from the indefatigable headmistress.

One of the most notable contributions of this school to the slum community is in terms of general nutrition. Good food is clearly an urgent requirement in Bharatpur slum. Crushing poverty, illiteracy and the pressure to earn a livelihood have all impacted on the scrawny bodies of the children here. Mohanto remarks, “Most of the people here are construction workers. Both men and women go out in search of work and there is no one to ensure that the child eats, if at all.”

Children like Trupti Das, Bhola Pradhan, Parvati Maharona and Jili Pradhan, who are now students at Mohanto’s school, would earlier have spent their entire day doing various odd jobs. The boys would go and collect wood from the nearby elephant sanctuary, and the girls would remain caught in a never-ending cycle of domestic work. Some of the children were even sucked into working in the local ‘zari’ unit for a pittance. Both boys and girls here would also rummage through the garbage heaps in search of bottles and plastic to sell, or aluminium wires to burn in order to extract the metal. None of them knew what regular meals were about. Always ravenous, they would eat anything they could lay their hands on, even if it was from a garbage heap. If nothing turned up, they would go hungry.

However, the small, menial jobs they did would fetch them some money. A portion of their earnings would be handed over to the parents, but a little something was always kept back and that was how many got inexorably drawn into gutkha-addiction and gambling. Substance abuse runs high among the children here, playing havoc with their already malnourished bodies.

The Swatantra Jatiya Shishu Sramik Vidyalaya, a part of the District Child Labour Project (Khurda district) of the Orissa government and run by Vishwa Jeevan Seva Sangha, an NGO, has always emphasised the nutritional aspect of its intervention. The mid day meal served here is far more nutritious than anything the children get at home. Every child is allotted 100 grams of rice and 20 grams of dal (pulses) per day. On Mondays and Saturdays, they are served rice and vegetables cooked in dal – the vegetables consisting of potatoes, brinjals and seasonal green vegetables. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the emphasis is on protein with the children being given a curry of soyabean and potatoes with rice. Every child gets 100 grams of soyabean and 20 grams of potatoes. On Wednesdays and Fridays, they used to serve egg curry (one egg each) with rice. But after the authorities of a nearby temple objected to a non-vegetarian item being cooked and served, it was decided that the children be given the eggs to take home with them, while at school they are served vegetables, dal and rice.

The question to ask is what would these children have been eating if they did not have access to this meal? Says Puspa, 11, “When there is no school, I usually have no lunch, although my mother leaves some rice from the previous night for me and my brother. After my parents return home from work, I have dinner with my family.” But even this one family meal is sometimes in jeopardy. As a teacher put it, sometimes Puspa’s father comes in drunk and life suddenly turns very fraught, with her mother inevitably getting beaten, which also means that nothing gets cooked in the house and nobody eats.

Another student, Puja Maharona, declares that the food at school is much tastier than what she has at home. She loves vegetables, but at home the only vegetable she eats is potatoes. According to the headmistress, there is very little awareness about the value of green vegetables among the slum families, and it is not just a question of affordability. In contrast, animal protein, like meat and milk, are universally desired but generally considered as unaffordable.

Along with the food comes another world. During the six hours – from 10 am to 4 pm – that these children are in school, they are happily divorced from their seamy surroundings. They chant prayers, repeat lessons, practice writing and learn vocational skills. In fact, some are engaged enough to revise their lessons at home. “Since all our students are working children, we do not follow formal school courses. We teach through the methods of joyful learning,” explains Mahapatra. “That is what makes lessons so attractive to them.”

Despite the big difference this school has brought about in the lives of the children, challenges remain and nobody knows them better than Mohanty. For one, parents are, by and large, still extremely reluctant to send their wards to school, preferring that they work and bring home some money. Construction workers earn around Rs 175-200 (US$1=Rs 49) and usually both husband and wife go to the site, so it is not as if the small income the children make is essential to keep the family from starving. However, what generally happens is that this money keeps getting frittered away. “A lot of the money goes into alcohol and gambling – and that means the household budget for food shrinks,” observes Mohanty.

The impact of alcoholism and drug abuse on the nutrition levels of the children in the family has never been seriously studied nor has the issue made it into any policy framework or interventions on the ground. Added to this is the social dimension of over-worked working mothers not being able to spare appropriate time for child feeding, caring and rearing practices. This would also require a policy intervention if the nutritional status ofIndia’s children is to be improved. But there can be no denying that in the Bharatpur slum, poor nutrition levels among children are very closely linked to broader life patterns, dependencies and addictions.

 Mohanty, despite her best efforts, sometimes feels despondent. But she hopes for the best. “We can give the children one meal a day, but through it we try to deliver a lifeline,” she says.

 (© Women’s Feature Service)

Union Labour & Employment Minister Shri Mallikarjun Kharge today detailed about the recommendations made during the 44^th  Indian Labour Conference concluded at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Addressing the media persons he said this Session of the Indian Labour Conference had elaborate discussions on three agenda items – (i) Minimum Wages (ii) Social Security and (iii) Employability and Employment.

The Conference was inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.   The Conference was attended by Labour Ministers from 14 State Governments. All the major 12 Central Trade Union Organisations and 6 major employers’ organisation participated in the Conference.  Besides, senior officials from 23 Central Ministries and all State Governments/UTs attended the Conference.  The International Labour Organisation Experts based atDelhi were also present.

Shri Kharge referred the Prime Minister inaugural address in which he emphasized the great importance that the UPA Government attaches to the promotion of healthy industrial relations and well being of our workforce.

Shri Kharge said   our huge unorganized sector poses great challenges in ensuring quality employment and extension social security coverage.  Minimum Wages are an important means of protecting the interest of the workers were not in the formal sector.  Our flagship health insurance scheme “Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana” has covered 2.5 crore Below Poverty Line families and this Scheme is being extended to cover other category of workers.

According to the minister the Conference Committee on “Minimum Wages” recommended that the Minimum Wages Act should cover all employments and thus facilitate India’s ratification of ILO’s Convention No.131.  There was convergence of views towards making National Minimum Wages and make it applicable to any employment irrespective of the number of workers engaged.  Objective suggestions were made for linking minimum wages with NSSO Consumer Expenditure Survey and inflation.

Also the Conference Committee on “Social Security” had very focused discussion and came out with specific recommendations in the areas of raising the wage ceiling in the Employees Provident Fund, enhancement of pension under Employees Pension Scheme 95, portability of PF Account, reduction in the requirement of minimum continuous service, etc.   The Committee addressed the gender issues by recommending enhancement of maternity leave.  The MSME Sector and unorganized sector workers received special attention of the committee members.  Our Ministry’s RSBY Scheme has achieved a lot of success and various recommendations were received for bringing other category of workers under its coverage and adding other type of benefits in addition to the existing ones.

Moreover, the Conference Committee on “Employability and Employment” recommendations laid stress on matching the large scale skilling targets with creating similar number of openings in the area of employment. Labour intensive industries need to be promoted and protected.  The forthcoming National Employment Policy should be able to provide enabling framework for facilitating employment generation and decent work in the unorganized sector.  The Labour Market Information System should give real time information about skill requirements and skill availability. Other innovative suggestion were bringing the traditional skills under the certification system and involving MSMEs in skill development.  The road map for skilling 500 million persons by 2022 should be finalized in consultation with the tripartite partners.

Shri Kharge said, this Session of the Conference carried forward the rich tradition of healthy social dialogue, spirit of accommodation and keeping interest of our workforce as the top most priority.   The tripartite partners have shown full concern to the important responsibility we have towards our country’s growth and safeguarding the basic interest of our workers.  We will be very closely following up with the implementation of policy solutions arrived at the Conference and the same will be reviewed in the meeting of the next Standing Labour Committee.

                The Recommendations of the Conference Committee on Employability and Employment are:

1.       Employment generation and Employability should be top agenda of the Govt.

2.       Though lot of focus  is  being laid on training of 500 million persons by 2022, there is a need to take appropriate measures for creation of employment opportunities to offer the matching employment.

3.       There is an urgent need to declare the National Employment  Policy in order to provide enabling framework for facilitating employment generation and decent working conditions for all.

4.       Investment in labour intensive industries should be promoted and incentivised.

5.       Labour Market Information System should be established to get skill requirement from the industry and available skills from the institutes. In this regard, employment exchanges may be modernized for providing virtual job market on real time basis.

6.       Skill mapping should be done at the local level  and inventory of skill assets should be created.

7.       ITIs should also focus on sectors beyond manufacturing and should concentrate on service sector. There is urgent need for quality assurance measures in training of ITIs and instructors.

8.       Emphasis should be laid on development of infrastructure including storage, processing and marketing in rural areas and agro-based industries.

9.       ITIs should focus more on popular trades keeping in view the requirement of the local industries.

10.    Institutional arrangements  for providing training in traditional skills should be encouraged and may  brought under certification system.

11.    Public awareness programme should be taken up, particularly in rural areas regarding the importance of skill development and certification of traditional skills.

12.    There should be functional and spatial integration of State and Central infrastructure and other available resources for optimal utilization of resources.

13.    MSMEs should be encouraged and supported to participate in the skill development efforts.

14.    Stipend of apprentices under the Apprentices Act should be enhanced.

15.    Existing and new Centres of Excellence/Clusters in traditional crafts should be strengthened and provided support in terms of marketing, credit, new technology, etc. to promote self-employment.

16.    Barriers should be removed from skilling and certification of illiterate and uneducated workers.

17.    Entrepreneurship and self-employment should be encouraged by providing necessary support.

18.    Existing employment in the unorganized sector should be safeguarded by assuring access to natural resources for those sectors dependent on them.  In order to increase their productivity, appropriate advanced tools and technology for traditional producers should be developed.

19.    Skill development should be promoted among the women and differently-abled persons.  To increase participation of women in skill development, special measures should be taken.

20.    Centres of Excellence should be established at the national and State levels  which  will produce world-class technicians.

21.    National level consultation with all the stakeholders should be held immediately to finalize the road-map for preparing skill development plan leading to skilled force of 500 million persons by 2022.

22.    Comprehensive steps should be taken to create environment for employment generation and protection.

23.    Trainers should be trained in large numbers to meet growing requirement.

                During the Conference a Committee was constituted to discuss Agenda Item No.(i) concerningMinimum Wages  and related issues. These issues, inter alia, include norms for fixation/revision of minimum rates of wages, Variable Dearness Allowance(VDA),  National Floor Level Minimum Wages etc. On the basis of detailed discussion, the following points emerged.

1.  There was consensus that the Government may fix minimum wages as per the norms/ criteria recommended by the 15^th ILC (1957) and the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court (Repttakos Co. Vs Workers’ Union) 1992.  The Government may take necessary steps accordingly.

2. There was a broad consensus that the Minimum Wages Act should cover all   employments and the existing restriction for its applicability on the scheduled employments only should be deleted. This will also help India ratify ILO Convention No.131.

3.  It was broadly agreed that there should be national minimum wages applicable to all employments throughout the country.

 4.There was broad agreement on the amendment proposals as listed out in Para 5(iv,  v & x).

    5.  In respect of 5 (iv), it was pointed out that the payment  to the apprentices should   be treated differently from the other categories.

    6.The Committee noted that at present there are 12 States/UTs who have not adopted  VDA. There was a broad consensus that all States/Uts should adopt VDA.

    7. It was also recommended that the payment of minimum wages should be done through Banks/Post Offices etc.

    8. As regards 5(vi), it was felt that the enforcing agencies should not be given the power of adjudication and, therefore, this proposal should be re-examined.

    9. The proposal of paying different minimum wages in respect of same employment    either in the Centre or in the State should be done away with.

          A Conference Committee was also constituted to discuss the agenda item No. (iii) i.e. “Social Security”. On the basis of detailed discussions, the following points emerged :-

(i)                      There was a broad-based consensus that the wage ceiling for the application of EPF Act be increased from the present level of Rs.6,500/- to Rs.10,000/- or Rs.15,000/- as already applicable for the ESI Corporation.  Similarly, the ceiling for workers covered under EPF Act be reduced from 20 to 10. However, Laghu Udyog Bharati was not agreeable to this reduction in ceiling of number of workers.

(ii)                    Minimum pension under the EPS 95 be increased to some floor level, which should not be less than Rs.1,000/-,  since a large number of workers receive pension which is less than that provided by the State Governments for elderly people which is normally in the range of Rs.400/- to Rs.1000/-.

(iii)                  The PF Accounts be computerized urgently so that the workers are able to avail the facility of PF transfer and settlement immediately. Smart Cards like RSBY be issued to PF account holders.

(iv)                   Minimum ceiling of 5 years of continuous service be reduced in case of gratuity and gratuity be made transferable in case of change of job by the employee.

(v)                     The maternity leave under the Maternity Benefit Act be increased from the present level of 12 weeks to 24 weeks.  This increased maternity benefits be made available only upto two children, while the lower limit  be continued for more than two children.

(vi)                   Accountability on the part of organizations implementing the social security schemes befixed in order to ensure that the beneficiaries receive the deliverables in time.  Citizen Charters for these organizations be finalized early.

As India develops and living standards improve there is going to be an increase in demand for food grains and other items of consumption. We have seen the consequences of this phenomenon particularly in the past two years.

Sustained high economic growth in recent past has led to improvements in purchasing power in both rural and urban areas. The 12th Plan Approach Paper says that average real wage rate between 2007 and 2010 has increased by 16 per cent at the all India level. The growth was fastest in Andhra Pradesh, 42 per cent and Odhisa, 33 per cent. Even in States like Bihar and UP the real farm wages went up by 19 and 20 per cent respectively over this period. This has increased demand for certain goods and services, which has translated into persistent high inflationary pressures for those goods in the economy. The supply response has been inadequate and along with weather induced shortages in the food economy, have resulted in significant challenges for inflation management. Hopefully we are now out of this high inflationary phase, assisted by what appear to be two back-to-back bumper agricultural harvests.

A country with growing population and a sustained growth momentum, food security challenge is also a challenge of improving agriculture productivity. For a country of 1.2 billion people it is imperative to build certain self-sufficiency in meeting our basic needs. It has been rightly pointed out that we need to increase production in the regions where acreage and productivity have lagged behind so far. We did achieve our self-sufficiency in food by the Green Revolution, but we now need that second revolution that will take us to a new trajectory where we can feed all and feed them with a view to ensure nutrition balance as well. The Government has initiated a programme to take the green revolution to the eastern part of the country. More investment in agricultural infrastructure is required, which over the last few years has already seen a turnaround in its declining trend. Power, water, rural roads, national highways, storage, warehousing and cold chains have to be the focus areas for productivity improvement in the agriculture economy of the country. We also need more support in R&D and extension technology in agriculture from both private and public institutions.

Improved production of foodgrains has to be backed by our capacity to procure more foodgrains. The willingness of State Governments and their efforts to enhance institutional capacity as well as tying up finances required for procurement— both will be required. You need to ensure that farmer gets the MSP directly in his bank account. We have built a rural banking network that is robust and growing. But operational issues in popularizing banking amongst the rural masses remain and have to be fully addressed. The financial strength of the farmer increases his negotiating strength with buyers and indeed it enhances the returns he can get from his efforts. The debt cycle has been blamed for a number of ills in the agrarian sector in this country, and procurement is an important tool that can be used to eliminate that scourge.

The main challenge before the Public Distribution System today is reaching the foodgrains to the actual beneficiaries without leakages and diversion on the route to grass-root level. For this a massive modernization drive is required. Digitizing the data base of beneficiaries and computerization of the entire food supply chain will remain the main stepping stones on which we can make the PDS successful. These efforts would make the schemes transparent, help eliminate leakages and corruption and empower the beneficiaries to get what is indeed their right.

Modernization of TPDS is the foremost priority of Government of India. It is a complex and challenging task as PDS operates in 35 States and UTs through more than 5 lakh Fair Price Shops across diverse operating environments. PDS faces challenges like leakages and diversion of foodgrains, inclusion/exclusion errors; fake and bogus ration cards; lack of transparency; weak grievance redressal and social audit mechanisms, viability of Fair Price Shops, etc. I hope in this conference, you will discuss these issues and come up with a time bound action plan to achieve the targets.

The National Food Security Bill 2011 specifically refers to the need for TPDS reforms to leverage Aadhaar for unique identification, with authentication of entitled beneficiaries for proper targeting of benefits under the Act. Recognizing the immense scale of such a platform, and the complexity of implementation across multiple levels of Government, the Task Force on Direct Transfer of Subsidies has recommended the creation of a National Information Utility for the computerization of PDS – the Public Distribution System Network (PDSN).

Leveraging Adadhaar is one of the critical components in reforming the PDS. The beneficiaries of PDS can be enrolled into the Aadhaar system. The use of the Aadhaar number in PDS will reduce “duplicates”, “fakes” and “ghost beneficiaries” in PDS databases which will result in reducing wastage and diversion in the system.

Portability of benefits in PDS is of critical importance due to the migrant nature of India’s poor population who are the most important targets of the food security Act. An Aadhaar enabled system makes access to PDS benefits portable across a State and also the country. This would empower the PDS beneficiary due to portability of benefits and choice of the PDS shop. The bargaining power will shift from the supplier to the beneficiary which will support empowerment and bring about improved accountability.

Strengthening of PDS not only requires computerisation of operations but also an active involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions and local community through transparent and open processes. A strong community ownership would require the setting up of a responsive grievance redressal mechanism. While, the use of ICT based technologies will help, there should not be any duplication of efforts and agencies involved. The Common Service Centres set up in various States should be optimally used and the support of multi-lateral organizations like World Food Programme (WFP) could be taken for capacity building and spreading of awareness among the stake holders. It is our responsibility that the legal entitlement made to deserving beneficiaries is honoured and efficiently delivered. All States and UTs should undertake modernization of PDS in a time bound manner.

Source: Speech delivered by Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee at aPublic Distribution System (PDS) Conference.

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited- Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, RINL-VSP – The focus areas of RINL’s CSR activities include Peripheral Development, Education, Medical & Health, People care, Sports & Cultural Efflorescence and Help during Natural calamities.

The first amongst these efforts is the development of a model steel village in Visakhapatnam District, with steel intensive buildings for community halls, Panchayatoffice, solar lighting facilities etc. These villages developed with the objective of propagating the use of steel in rural areas, has been developed by the RINL-VSP steel plant and handed over to District authorities. Moving further in the same direction, the company has taken up construction of steel bus shelters and distributed steel bullock carts to farmers.

RINL has implemented innovative schemes like – ‘Jaladhara’ to supply drinking water to tribal belts of Visakhapatnam district.

RINL has taken up construction of School buildings, made provision of school furniture, play equipment and provided computers etc in high schools, schools in SC/ST colonies & tribal ashram schools. RINL-VSP has been conducting various medical camps, De-addiction programmes, Child immunization, AIDS awareness campaigns, providing medical help during natural calamities and disasters etc.

The company has also supported M/s Vijaya Foundation, Kadapa, in completing construction of its School building. A Hostel Block was constructed by RIBL for 21^st Century Gurukulam under Andhra University at Visakhapatnam in addition to this support was extended to “Sankar Foundation”, for conducting free cataract operations for the benefit of the marginalized sections.

In the year 2011, RINL for the first time started CSR Projects in the areas of Girl Child Education, Health, Social Empowerment etc in states where mining leases have been applied for.

Giving an added thrust to the CSR activities in the region RINL has dedicated “Sanjeevini” Mobile Cancer detection unit to society and constructed “ArunodayaSpecial School” for around 200 differently-abled children for providing education uptoclass “X”.

In the year 2011, RINL crossed the 5000 mark in free cataract surgeries for the underprivileged people. About Rs.12 Crores. Has been committed by RINL for expenditure towards CSR during in 2011. Till date, Rs.100 Crores have been provided for CSR activities by VSP.

Some weeks ago an English translation of the Royal Chronicles of Manipur, “The Cheitharol Kumbaba”, was released in Delhi by the author, Nepram Bihari, a retired Meitei official from Imphal after patient translation from the old Meitei script as a labour of love. This is the unbroken chronicle of 76 Manipur kings from 33 A.D until Maharaja Bodhchandra, who acceded to India in 1949, passed away in 1955.

This makes Manipur one of the oldest kingdoms in India with a rich history and culture, a state that waxed and waned in size, subduing hill tribes like the Thangkuls, often partially conquering or being conquered by Ava (Burma) and receiving and sending embassies from and to Ava, China, Cambodia, Assam, Tripura and elsewhere. Vaishnavite missionaries from Nawadwip in Bengal converted the Meiteis from their ancient Sanamahi faith and Pamheiba, who adopted the name of Garibniwaz (1709-48) became the kingdom’s first Hindu ruler. Thereafter there were pilgrimages to and visits from Nawadwip and to “the Ganga” for holy baths. Manipuri culture flourished and the Lai Haroba and Ras Lila form the core of Manipuri dancing that constitutes one of the rich classical dance traditions of India to this day. All this was centred on Kangla, the palace, temple, theatre, library and fortress complex in central Imphal which the British occupied in 1893 and the Indian security forces followed suit, callously, for strategic reasons, until a few years ago. The Kangla is now being restored to its old glory.

FOR FURTHER READING:

If the jails cannot be freed from the drug menace, how can society be? Or have the jail authorities given up on drug smuggling in the belief that the prisoners cannot be prevented? To be fair, the jail authorities in Punjab also try reforms by making prisoners dance to popular Punjabi tunes and organise musical concerts to exibit their talent. Some try yoga to make inmates’ bodies a little less rigid and less dependent on drugs, while others organise sports events and teach them self-employment skills to cope with life beyond jail.

FOR FURTHER READING:

The Government has taken the following initiatives for unorganised workers, including landless agricultural workers.

The “Aam Admi Bima Yojana” providing for death and disability cover to rural landless households between the age group of the 18 to 59 years, with effect from 02.10.2007.

The Rashtriya Bima Yojana for BPL families (a unit of five) in unorganized sector on 01.10.2007. The scheme providing for smart card based cashless health insurance cover of Rs. 30,000/- per family per annum on a family floater basis became operational from 01.04.2008.

Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme provides for old age pension of Rs. 200/- per month to persons above the age of 60 years and for the persons above the age of 80 years the amount of pension has been raised to Rs. 500/- per month.

Raising concerns over declining sex ratio in the country, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath called for more steps to prevent the issues related with girl child and women. 

The government needs to work on better policies in collaboration with other public and private institutions, Tirath said while speaking on the occasion of the National Girl Child Day celebrations here on Tuesday.

Declining sex ratio has become a major issue in India as in the last decade 27 states have seen a decline in child sex ratio, she said.

“We have to take steps towards preventing lingering issues related with girl child and women across states. Sex select abortions and dowry cases are not the only issues aggravating these problems.

FOR MORE READING. . .

Done at the Centre for Development Studies here, this is fifth in the series of comprehensive studies on international and internal migration from Kerala since 1998.

According to the study, the number of Kerala migrants living abroad in 2011 was estimated at 2.28 million, up from 2.19 million in 2008, 1.84 million in 2003 and 1.36 million in 1998.

The report said the total remittances in Kerala in 2011 were worth about Rs.49,695 crore compared to Rs.43,288 crore in 2008.

The proportion of Hindus among the non-resident Keralites also has shot up — it was 37.5 per cent in 2011, but only 29.9 per cent in 1998.

However, the vast majority of the migrants from Kerala in 2011 were Muslims (about 45 per cent), although the community’s share in the total population of the state was only about 26 per cent.

On the other hand, though the Hindus formed about 56 per cent of the total population, their share among migrants was only 37.5 percent.

The 2011 study is based on primary data collected from 15,000 households selected through random sampling covering all the 63 taluks or sub-districts in the state.

According to the study, conducted by researchers K.C. Zachariah and S. Irudayarajan, the main countries of destination for Kerala migrants have remained more or less unchanged over these years – 90 per cent of the state’s migrants going to the Gulf countries.

Nearly 40 per cent of Kerala’s migrants live in the UAE and 25 per cent in Saudi Arabia.

At the time of presentation of the budget for the year 2010-11, the Government had announced its decision to introduce a special scheme to address the development of 33 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts.   It was inter-alia, stated that the Planning Commission would prepare an Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for the affected areas and that adequate funds would be made available to support the action plan. The 33 districts (later expanded to 34) referred to in the Finance Minister’s announcement were a sub-set of the 83 LWE affected districts identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs for coverage under its Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme.  This sub-set consisted of those districts where more than 20% of the Police Stations experienced some incidents of naxal violence.  Subsequently, West Medinipur district of West Bengal was added to the list due to the situation prevailing there, taking the total to 35 districts.

Implementation of IAP

            IAP was formulated as an additional central assistance scheme on 100% grant basis in November 2010.  To begin with, the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for 60 tribal and backward districts was to  be implemented with a block grant of Rs.25 crore and Rs.30 crore per district during 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively for which the funds were to be placed at the disposal of the Committee headed by the District Collector and consisting of the Superintendent of Police of the district and the District Forest Officer.

The district level committee will have flexibility to spend the amount for development schemes according to need, as assessed by it.  The Committee would draw up a Plan consisting of concrete proposals for public infrastructure and services such as School Buildings, Anganwadi Centres, Primary Health Centres, Drinking Water Supply, Village Roads, Electric Lights in public places such as PHCs and Schools etc. The concerned Development Commissioner/ equivalent officer in charge of development in the State shall be responsible for scrutiny of expenditure and monitoring of IAP.

The Planning Commission will undertake macro level monitoring of the scheme and implementation of the scheme will be reviewed and suitable decisions taken on the modalities for implementation of the scheme as a part of the 12^th Five Year Plan.

Salient features of the scheme

            The salient features of the guidelines are:

(i)                 The district level committee should draw up a plan consisting of concrete proposals for public infrastructure and services such as school buildings, Anganwadi centres, Drinking Water supply, Village Roads, electric lights in public places such as PHCs and schools etc. The schemes so selected should show results in the short term.

(ii)               A suitable form of consultation is to be ensured with the local Members of Parliament on the schemes to be taken up the under the IAP.

(iii)             The expenditure on the projects should be over and above the expenditure being incurred for the regular State/Central/Centrally Sponsored Schemes.   The district level committee should ensure that there is no duplication of expenditure on the same project.

(iv)             The State Government will release the funds directly into the bank account opened for this purpose by the District Collector or District Magistrate. The State Government will ensure that funds are transferred to this bank account within 15 days of the release of the funds to the Consolidated Fund of the State Government failing which the State Government should transfer to the district penal interest at RBI rate.

Achievements Under IAP

            The implementation of the scheme commenced in the year 2010-11 and Rs.25 crore per district i.e. total Rs.1500 crore for the year 2010-11 was released in December, 2010.  The districts immediately finalized the works to be taken up, completed the tender processes wherever required and the works on the ground commenced immediately in all the 60 districts.  Currently, the implementation of IAP in the districts is in full swing. The total funds released so far for the year 2011-12 is Rs.1090 crore and the total funds released so far since the commencement of the Scheme is Rs.2590 crore.  Against the total amount of Rs.2590 crores released so far to the 9 States, the expenditure as on 27.12.2011 is Rs.1468.83 crore i.e. 56.71% of the funds released.

            Under the IAP, so far 62327 projects for an amount of Rs. 3230.02 crore have been taken up in the 9 States.  These include construction of School Buildings/School Furniture, Anganwadi Centres, Drinking Water facilities, Rural roads, Panchyat Bhawan/Community Halls, Godowns/PDS shops, livelihood activities, skill development/trainings, minor irrigation works, electric lighting, health centres/facilities, Ashram Schools, construction of toilets, construction of multi-purpose chabutra, construction of passenger waiting hall, special coaching classes for students, construction of ANM centres, development of play grounds etc. 44.42% of projects taken up so far have been completed i.e., 27687 projects have been completed so far.   State-wise details of physical progress as on 27.12.2011 vis-à-vis projects sanctioned are: Andhra Pradesh- 702 (1140), Bihar – 2367 (12889), Chhattisgarh – 6115 (14718), Jharkhand- 5621 (11769), Madhya Pradesh – 1446 (5352), Maharashtra – 2667 (4398), Orissa – 6829 (15087), Uttar Pradesh – 1337 (1548) and West Bengal - 603 (1272).

Parameters to Qualify under IAP

While formulating the scheme, the Planning Commission considered that the scheme should not be limited only to the severely LWE affected districts.  It was proposed by them that the scheme should cover other tribal and backward districts also and the following criteria was adopted to identify districts for inclusion in the scheme:

(a)                Whether the district is included in the list of 83 SRE districts identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs;

(b)               Whether the tribal population exceeds 25%;

(c)                Whether the forest area exceeds 30%;

(d)               Whether the poverty ratio in the district exceeds 50%; and

(e)                Whether the district is covered under the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF).

Districts meeting four of the above-mentioned five criteria and forming a contiguous block were selected for coverage under the proposed scheme.  Thus, with this criteria, a total of 60 districts were selected for coverage under the scheme.

Districts Covered

The 60 districts comprised 48 districts covered under the SRE scheme and 12 other districts not falling under the SRE scheme.  The 60 districts thus selected are : Adiliabad and Khammam (2 districts) in Andhra Pradesh; Arwal, Aurangabad, Gaya, Jamui, Jehanabad, Nawada and Rohtas (7 districts), in Bihar; Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Jashpur, Kanker, Kawardha, Koriya, Narayanpur, Rajnandgaon and Surguja (10 districts) of Chhattisgarh; Bokaro, Chatra, Garwha, Gumla, Hazaribagh, Kodarma, Latehar, Lohardaga, Paschim Singhbhum, Palamu, Purbi Singhbhum, Ramgarh, Saraikela and Simdega (14 districts) of Jharkhand; Anuppur, Balagahat, Dindori, Mandla, Seoni, Shahdol, Sidhi and Umaria (8 districts)  in Madhya Pradesh; Gadchiroli and Gondiya (2 districts); Balangir, Debagarh/Deogarh, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Kandhamal/Phulbani, Kendujhar/Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabrangpur, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Sonapur and Sundargarh (15 districts) of  Orissa; Sonbhadra (1 district), Uttar Pradesh; Paschim Medinipur (1 district) in West Bengal.

Monitoring

            The Development Commissioner of the State/equivalent officer incharge of development in the State is responsible for scrutiny of expenditure and monitoring of the IAP in the State.  In order to facilitate the monitoring, the States are required to send district-wise monthly progress reports in the prescribed format and also upload the information on the Management Information System(MIS) along with photographs of the works.

Regular monitoring of the IAP is being carried out by the Member-Secretary, Planning Commission through video conferences with the District Collectors/District Magistrates and Development Commissioner of the States concerned.  So far 14 such video conferences/meetings have been held including the Video Conference meetings held by the Union Home Minister, Union Minister of Rural Development and MoS (Independent charge) for Environment and Forests. In addition, the Review Group headed by the Cabinet Secretary also reviewed the progress of implementation of IAP with the Chief Secretaries of 9 States through video conference meeting.

Provisions for change in IAP

            The Ministry of Home Affairs has also constituted an Empowered Group of Officers with Member-Secretary, Planning Commission as its Chairperson.   The Empowered Group, inter-alia, has overriding powers to modify existing norms/guidelines on implementation of various development programmes and flagship schemes in consultation with the Ministries/Departments concerned.

States’ Response to IAP

            The implementation of IAP has been successful and the scheme has had a very good response.  A number of requests had been received from the Chief Ministers, Members of Parliament and State Governments for inclusion of more districts under the IAP.  On the basis of requests received from the State Govts., the Govt. of India has decided on 07.12.2011 to include additional 18 LWE affected districts under IAP from the financial year 2011-12 onwards and to provide block grant of Rs.30 crore to each of these districts during the current financial year.

Conclusion:    The Government’s approach is to deal with Left Wing Extremism activities in a holistic manner, in the areas of security, development, rights of local communities, administration and public perception.  In dealing with this decades old problem, it has been felt appropriate, after various high-level deliberations and interactions with the State Governments concerned that an integrated approach aimed at the relatively more affected areas would deliver results.  With this in view, a detailed analysis of the spread and trends in respect of LWE violence has been made and 83

affected districts in nine States have been taken up for special attention on planning, implementation and monitoring of security situation and development schemes.

There are nearly 16 crore children in India below the age of six years. According to Singh, the health of the economy and society lies in the health of “this generation”.

“In the years to come, these children will join our workforce as scientists, farmers, teachers, data operators, artisans and service providers. We cannot hope for a healthy future for our country with a large number of malnourished children,” Singh said.

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“Isko to ECG ke liye yahan bhijaye hai. Tum isko ultrasound ke liye kyon le gaye? (He has been sent here for an ECG, why did you take him for an ultrasound?)” asked the RMO, poring over the convict’s medical records, very angry.

FOR MORE READING. . .

(Uma Sudhir is Resident Editor, NDTV, based at Hyderabad and a documentary filmmaker)

INCREASED TARGETING

While experience has shown that targeting policies for food security are counter-productive, the present bill adds new categories of targeting. Indeed the bill is a classic example of the absurd levels to which policies of targeting can reach and the extent of social cruelty embedded in a targeted framework.

So far there have been three categories for targeting for food access in the PDS, namely the APL, BPL and Antodaya. The last category was carved out from the BPL population with an added price advantage of 35 kg of rice at two rupees a kilo. The present bill eliminates the Antodaya category. Henceforth all the 2.5 crore Antodaya families will come under the BPL category and will have to pay one rupee a kilo more for rice which has been pegged in the new bill at three rupees. Thus for these 2.5 crore families the present version of food security means an added cost of 35 rupees a kilo per month. 

ARBITRARY CATEGORISATION

The bill has the following categories:

(1) BPL: The first category is the BPL category renamed as the “priority sections.” These sections are eligible for 7 kg of foodgrains per person (it is not clear whether a child is considered a person under this definition), if it is rice it will cost three rupees a kilo and wheat at two rupees a kilo, millets or coarse grains at one rupee a kilo.

The number of BPL households at the national level is declared in the law to constitute 46 per cent of the population in rural India and 28 per cent in urban India with state-wise variations which will be decided by the centre. Since several states are giving rice at two rupees a kilo today, BPL sections in those states will also be paying one rupee a kilo more for rice.

(2)   APL: The second category is the APL category renamed the “general sections.” The Bill declares these sections to constitute 29 per cent in rural areas and 22 per cent in urban areas. This is less than the number of APL cardholders today. Therefore a substantial  section of APL cardholders will be excluded by law. Those who manage to retain their APL cards will get only 3 kg of foodgrains per person. Assuming a family of five members, the bill provides a maximum of only 15 kg of foodgrains which is less than what the APL sections are getting now. The price will be 50 per cent of what the minimum support price (MSP) is at any given time. Since MSP increases every year because of the increase in the prices of farm inputs, APL sections will lose the advantage of the fixed price they have today and will have to contend with an increased price every year. Therefore, in terms of numbers, price benefit and amount of grain, APL sections stand to lose their present entitlements. There is another highly objectionable new provision, which will be dealt with later in this analysis — namely, even the reduced entitlements of the APL sections are linked to the implementation of reforms.

(3) Excluded Sections: There is a third category which has been introduced, for the first time, in the public distribution system. The Bill mandates the exclusion of 25 per cent of the population of rural India and fifty per cent of the population of urban India from the benefits of the bill. The guidelines for exclusion are to be decided by the central government from time to time. This is a new contribution of the UPA government to the concept of food security — legally sanctioned automatic exclusion.

(4) BPL Census Automatic Exclusions Category: However, there is yet another exclusion, the fourth exclusion, which may occur. The questionnaire of the BPL census has already defined the categories of those sections which would lead to an automatic exclusion. The questions themselves are highly problematic. But assume that the numbers reached through this exercise do not add up to 50 per cent of the population in urban areas or even 25 per cent in rural areas, which is what is required in the Food Security Act. Then what will occur is a fourth exclusion category to make up the gap between the two, the arbitrary exclusion percentage requirement of the Bill on the one hand, and the actual numbers identified through the BPL census on the other.

Apart from the ethical issues arising out of arbitrary exclusions from what should be recognised as the universal right of food security, even from a purely economic and administrative point of view, the multiple levels of categorisations will lead to added expenditures, guaranteed leakages and increased corruption.

ABSURDITIES IN DEFINITIONS

The definitions section in the bill further expose the folly of targeting . In the section on “special groups” there are provisions for further affirmative action for some sections. But how are these defined? Persons living in starvation are to get two free meals a day once they are so identified by the state government. Starvation has been defined in Chapter 1 Clause 2 (24) as “prolonged involuntary deprivation of food that threatens the very survival of the person.” But who will decide when survival is threatened? At present, even after a person has died due to starvation, official medical teams prompted by governments declare the person had died due to some other ailment. There is rarely an acknowledgement of a starvation death. Then again, what will happen to the semi-starving? Will they have to wait till they come into the category of starvation to get the benefit? Another example is that of “destitution.” In the bill in Ch III Clause 8 (a)  a destitute person “shall be entitled to at least one meal every day” — so there is a differentiation being made in the benefits for those in starvation and those in destitution. While the former is entitled to two free meals, the latter gets only one. This absurdity is taken further in the definition of a destitute person. In Ch 1, Clause 2 (3) destitute persons are those who “have no resources, means and support required for food and nutrition enabling their survival, to the extent that makes them vulnerable to live or die of starvation.” Can any sane person find any difference between a person in starvation whose life is threatened by food deprivation and a destitute  who is vulnerable to death by starvation? But World Bank trained or indoctrinated economists can find the subtle differences between equally hungry people to decide who will get two free meals and who will get only one. These abhorrent differentiations between equally poor and deprived sections are fundamental to the ideology of neo-liberalism and targeting. The logical corollary of targeting — we can now have inspectors to confirm how often people eat, whether they are destitute or starving or whether they are cheating the treasury by eating two free meals when they deserve only one.

In the 1930s when the capitalist crisis had created “the Great Depression,” free soup kitchens were run in the United States. But at that time no one needed a card to prove that they were hungry, it was assumed that only those in need would stand in the queue for free food. Even that sensitivity gets eliminated in the present dominant philosophy of neo-liberalism where targeting and cuts in subsidies in welfare schemes has become the mantra of governments.

In a country with the highest malnourished population in the world, free meals to a small number are an inadequate response. What is required to prevent starvation and hunger is universal access to cheap foodgrains and a basket of essential commodities. The Food Security Bill, however, does the opposite.

LINKING ENTITLEMENTS TO REFORMS

The Food Security Bill has an additional provision which was not there in the earlier drafts. Even the reduced entitlements for APL sections have been made conditional to the reform process. Ch II Clause 3(3) states, “Provided that the entitlements of those belonging to the general households shall be linked to such reforms in the public distribution system and from such date as may be prescribed by the central government.” In a new chapter VII entitled ‘Reforms in the Public Distribution System,’ the central government details eight reforms of which the most toxic are the “introduction of schemes such as cash transfer, food coupons or other schemes for targeted beneficiaries in lieu of foodgrains;” and “use of aadhar for unique identification with biometric information for proper targeting.” Thus contentious policy measures which are against the interests of the people are sought to be legalised on the back of the Food Security Bill. This is a highly objectionable strategy which amounts to using the Food Security Bill to blackmail states to accept the so-called reforms or else be held responsible and guilty of depriving the APL households of their entitlements.

LEGAL SANCTION FOR BOGUS POVERTY ESTIMATES

In any case, how has the government arrived at the percentages of BPL and APL that it wants included as the law? Contrary to media hype, there is no change in government policy regarding estimations of poverty, nor is there any delinking between the Planning Commission’s bogus estimates and poverty “quotas” given to the states as promised by the prime minister in response to the public outrage against the government affidavit in the Supreme Court case. Chapter V1 Clause 15(1) states, “The central government may from time to time prescribe the guidelines for identification for priority households, general households and exclusion criteria for the purposes of entitlements under this Act and notify such guidelines in the official gazette.” The next provision 15 (2) gives responsibility to the state governments to identify these sections “in accordance with the guidelines” but here again the central linkage is made “provided that no household falling under the exclusion criteria to be prescribed by the central government, shall be included either in the priority households or general households.” Further, in Clause 17, in case the state government wants to update the lists it has no right to do so and such updating can only be done “in a manner prescribed by the central government.”

Thus the present highly objectionable method used by government to distribute poverty quotas to the states is sanctioned by the law itself. The notorious 26 rupees a day destitution line used for calculating BPL in rural India and 32 rupees for urban India remains as the anchor for the various categories, with the government arbitrarily increasing it by a certain percentage as a “compromise.”

ENCROACHMENTS ON STATES’ RIGHTS

If the government has learnt any lessons from it’s attempts to steamroller the rights of states in the Lokpal Bill, then it should revise the even more blatant encroachments it has made in the food security bill. Under the Food Security Bill the central government has appropriated all rights in deciding a slew of issues in violation of the federal structure. In as many as 20 clauses the words “…..as may be prescribed by the central government have been used.”  Everything, from deciding poverty quotas, to the amount of food security allowance, to the qualifications of even the district level griveance officer working under the state government, to when and how wheat flour can be given instead of grain, all is to be decided by the central government. The centralised thrust of the bill is illustrated well in Ch XV titled Miscellaneous in Clause 46 which states.” The central government may from time to time give such directions as it may consider necessary, to the state governments for the effective implementation of the provisions of the Act and the state governments will comply with such directions.”…..Such is the commitment of this government to push through reforms that it does not maintain  even the pretence of consultations with the states, many of whom are running much  better food security programmes than those envisaged in this Act.

ISSUE OF EXPENDITURES

Equally objectionable, as far as rights of states are concerned, the bill has no provision for consultation with the states as far as cost sharing is concerned. The expenditures for the states are going to be quite substantial. But even as far as foodgrains supplies are concerned, while the state governments are mandated by the bill to pay the food allowance the bill includes a provision in Ch X clause 31 which allows the centre to substitute food grains supplies with payment to the states. This means that the state would have the responsibility to purchase the foodgrains but there is no guarantee in the bill that the central government would meet the full cost. The states are mandated to fulfil all the schemes including the supply of free meals or rations to special groups. However, the centre according the Clause 30(4) in Ch X will charge the states prices equivalent to the price given for BPL grain. In both these provisions the state governments are expected to subsidise the central scheme from their funds.

As a postscript, the bill has a special “gift” tucked away in the last section under Clause 52. This provision states that if there is a natural calamity which leads to failure of supply of foodgrains then neither the central government nor the state government, as the case may be, can be held liable. The list of conditions where there is no liability includes floods and drought. Since large parts of India are perennially affected by conditions of  floods or drought or sometimes both in different regions of the same state, the law  to ensure food security will be suspended precisely at the time when people will need it the most, when blackmarketeers and profiteers are out to make profits from the vulnerability of the affected population. The government has no liability in these conditions,  and in the non-secular language of the bill, any other “acts of God.”

CONCLUSION

The Congress spin masters have propagated the bill as the “pet bill” of the UPA chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi. If indeed it is so, it only shows that contrary to media creations, the UPA chairperson is very much in sync with the neo-liberal framework of the Manmohan Singh government, which is why such a deeply flawed bill should be flaunted with her stamp of approval. The bill in its present form is unacceptable. Concrete amendments should be moved before the standing committee and a widespread campaign launched to explain to the people the fraud being perpetrated on them in the name of food security.

Sexual Harassment at the workplace is a violation of women’s right to equality, life and liberty. It vitiates the work environment and serves to discourage women from participating in work, gravely affecting women’s social and economic empowerment.

In 1997, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that sexual harassment at the workplace is a form of discrimination against women and that it violates the constitutional right to equality. Despite its direction to the government to enact a suitable legislation for prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace, it took more than 13 years for the government of India to introduce the Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill in the Lok Sabha on 7 December 2010. This, despite the repeated demands for such a legislation by trade unions, women’s organisations and other sections, since the incidents of sexual harassment at the workplace have increased at a rapid pace, often with tragic consequences.

The Bill introduced in the Parliament has several shortcomings which tend to defeat its very purpose. Several changes need to be incorporated to make it effective in achieving its objectives.

The workplace should include all premises where women are employed, including houses and homes where women domestic workers work. But, the draft bill specifically excludes domestic workers, thereby leaving out a huge number of working women who comprise around 30% of the female workforce in the service sector. These women are especially vulnerable for abuse since they work in a private, restricted space as has been evidenced by many recent cases highlighted by the media, in India and abroad. Their economic compulsions often force them to work in difficult conditions, at odd hours, in the solitary company of males, and there are many reported cases of sexual abuse and harassment of domestic workers in this sector. Domestic workers should be included in the ambit of this legislation.

The first part of section 14 (1) woman will prevent women from lodging a complaint, since the situation is often one in which a subordinate has to muster up the courage to complain against her superior in the workplace, and also has to face social stigma from the others in her workplace. Hence it should be deleted. The section also goes against the Supreme Court judgement which had stated clearly that no action should be taken against a woman for making a complaint. If any complaint by a woman is found to be false or malicious, then it can be dealt with as per the service rules prevailing in that workplace. This need not be incorporated in the Bill.

The Bill should specify the nature and range of punishment for different forms of sexual harassment– from minimum to maximum, commensurate with the degree of gravity of the offence.

Further, the Bill should specifically incorporate a provision that if the moral character of the complainant is challenged there should be strong punishment for the respondent.

The process of conciliation, if requested by the aggrieved woman, should be a part of the enquiry proceedings of the Internal Complaints Committee/Local Complaints Committee, with a record maintained by it of all such proceedings. In case of violation of the settlement, the complainant should have the right to reopen the complaint.

The compensation should be determined not only on the basis of compensating the victim on the counts mentioned, but should be a heavy fine which can act as a deterrent.

Since the Bill states that every employer shall provide a safe working environment at the workplace which shall include safety from the persons coming into contact at the workplace, punishment should be prescribed for employers/administrative heads that do not form the redressal mechanism at the workplace. Punitive measures and penalty should also be imposed on those employers/administrative heads/district officers who try to shield or defend perpetrators of sexual harassment and those who take vindictive action against complainants.

The aggrieved woman should be allowed the option to have someone to assist her in the conduct of the enquiry by the Internal Complaints Committee/Local Complaints Committee, in case she is in need of such help and requests it.

Time limits should be set for imposition of the punitive measures on the perpetrator/s and delivery of the compensation to the victim. The mechanism for recovery of the compensation should be specified.

Trade unions, as representatives of workers and committed to the protection of workers’ rights, have an important role to play on the entire issue of sexual harassment at the workplace. Trade unions should be involved at every stage in the effort to prevent sexual harassment at workplace and provide a safe and democratic work environment to working women – in the formulation of policies, in their implementation and in monitoring their implementation. However, where no trade unions exist, NGOs that have experience/expertise in dealing with cases of sexual harassment may be associated with complaints committees. Sensitisation on the issue and creating awareness among the workers/employees and employers, both men and women, is of crucial importance in preventing sexual harassment.

The New Pension Scheme notified in December 2003 envisaged a contribution of 10% of wages by the employees with a matching contribution from the central government as employer which together will form the pension account for the concerned employee. The Fund will be managed and handled by fund managers appointed by the PFRDA and the employees will get pension by the end of their service life and the pension amount will be determined by the return on investment of their pension fund made by the appointed fund manager. Originally government employees used to get pension at 50% of their last drawn pay and the pension amount used to get revised with the changes in price indices. It was an assured amount. To get this system of assured pension system in place, the government employees had to forego their right to contributory provident fund, i.e., employer’s matching contribution to PF. In lieu of that surrender of right, assured pension was granted to them to be paid from the consolidated fund of India. This system of assured pensionary benefit is called “defined benefit” pension system.

The New Pension Scheme brought about a paradigm shift in the entire concept of pension as a social security measure. Now the pension will be based on “defined contribution” meaning thereby that the pension amount will be governed by what the employee’s “pension fund account” can earn from investment in the market. The NPS does not ensure any assured amount of pension to the employee despite his life-long contribution to his own pension fund. Both the Pension Scheme notified by the government and the PFRDA Bill (both 2005 and 2011) mentioned in clear terms that “ There shall be no implicit or explicit assurance of benefits except market based guaranteed mechanism to be purchased by the subscriber”. (Sec 20(2)(g) of the PFRDA Bill)

Can market ever guarantee any assured return on investments ? In the present day market situation with extreme volatility in both the money market and the share market, the return on investment of public funds like pension-funds is destined to be uncertain and low. Moreover, the Fund managers appointed by the PFRDA will handle the fund not for charity but for their own profit. Hence whatever return on pension fund investment that will reach the pensioner will be the net amount after ensuring profit of the fund managers as well. In the context of natural uncertainty of the market, fund managers are naturally expected to neutralize their risk first and then take care of the risk of the pensioners who actually supply capital to the fund managers through their life time savings in pension fund. Therefore the PFRDA Bill has paved the new regime of replacing assured pension by a pension system governed by the market forces playing with the employees’ life time savings. Thus PFRDA Bill and the pension system it enforces is an onslaught on the social security right of the government employees, a loot on their pension fund.

But the situation under which the PFRDA Bill 2011 has been put in place has opened another dangerous dimension. It is no more limited to the pension earnings of the central government employees alone or the state government employees in the states where state governments have also adopted the new pension scheme. The bill empowers the government to extend the ambit to all the existing pension schemes. But most alarmingly, through PFRDA Bill the government now plans to attract the savings of the 46 crore unorganized sector workers for investment in the stock market on the same scheme of market based uncertain returns.

The government has introduced New Pension Scheme, now named as “National Pension System” for unorganized sector workers. As per the scheme, which is now known as “Swabalamban” and being advertised a lot, the workers will have to contribute to pension fund minimum Rs. 1000/- per year and maximum Rs 12000/-. After making contribution for 30 years or so, at the age of 60 years the worker will be eligible to get 60 per cent of his contribution as lump sum and a pension of not less than Rs 1000 per month provided rest of his fund can ensure such return from the market. If his fund earns less, then the portion of lump sum receipt after retirement will go down and if his/her entire fund(100% of his/her contribution) fails to earn the minimum stipulated amount of pension (Rs 1000/-) he/she has to make more contribution to be eligible for getting the minimum pension. To allure people towards this scheme, the government has announced that it will contribute Rs 1000/- per year for five years till 2015-16, for those who joined the scheme in 2011-12.

Already, government started making aggressive effort to enrol workers in the Swabalamban Scheme. Anganwadi employees who have been struggling since long for pensionary benefit are now being pressurised in many states to accept “Swabalamban” by the respective state governments.

How far the unorganized sector workers are going to be benefited by this scheme ? As they do not have any pension benefit at present, it is but natural that a good section of them will be attracted towards the scheme. Will they get any assured pensionary benefit after making contribution for the scheme ? No.

The Scheme is silent if there is a break in continuity of contribution which is but natural for the unorganized sector workers, frequently losing jobs and changing employment. What will happen if he contributes for five years thereafter for one year he fails to make contribution or after making contribution for say ten years became incapacitated to earn say at forty years of age and could not continue contribution. Will he have to wait up to sixty years either to claim pension or lump sum payment. All these possibilities are not exceptional cases but a natural phenomenon in the life of the unorganized sector workers.

As per calculation,a worker after making contribution for 30 years at the rate of Rs 100 per month(Rs 1200 per year) will accumulate Rs 1,49,035/- which, if fully invested at 8 per cent return can ensure a monthly return of Rs 993/- to him. Now as per the scheme, if he is to get the minimum stipulated pension amount of Rs 1000, he will not get any thing as lump sum. And there is no guarantee whether the investment of his fund will continue to fetch him 8 per cent return at all points of time. If it does not earn 8 per cent in any year, what will happen to his pension earning, the scheme is not clear about such happenings.

The whole game-plan is altogether different. The share market needs a continuous flow of liquidity to keep up its temperature for the speculators and brokers earnings. Pension fund can be one such source for such liquidity as it belongs to none but the poor workers which can be risked for speculative purposes. In the name of providing pension to unorganized sector workers who do not have any social security benefits, the present scheme of Swabalamban has got a prospect of attracting crores of hapless workers to contribute for their old age security cutting their stomach at present. It has a propensity to garner lakhs of crore of rupees from a market in which 46 crore unorganized sector workers will be the customers. Obligation for paying pension will come after twenty or thirty years. The PFRDA Bill has already provided for the exit route for the fund managers and aggregators by section 20(2)(g) as quoted in the foregoing paragraph and also giving wide arbitrary power to PFRDA to decide and also denying the trade unions to have their say on the investment and delivery of the benefit to the workers as is the practice in case of Employees Provident Fund.

The Union Cabinet has given the final nod to this retrograde PFRDA Bill 2011 in its meeting held on 16th November 2011 after taking into consideration the 40th Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on the same. The Union Cabinet practically brushed aside all the pro-employee positive recimmendations of the Standing Committee in the framing of which, the members of the ruling UPA combine were also a party.

The Standing Committee recommended ensuring assured return on the pension fund of the employees in the form of pension. The Standing Committee also recommended greater flexibility for the subscribers to the pension fund for premature withdrawal from pension fund in case of exigencies. The Manmohan Singh Cabinet rejected both the recommendations. It rather decided to further tighten the facilities for premature withdrawal which tantamount to further cut on the rights of the subscribers to access their own savings at the time of exigencies. And the most dangerous is that the PFRDA Bill 2011 did not mention anything about the ceiling of FDI in the pension fund management business. The intention of the Govt to allow unhindered access of the foreign companies to the pension fund generated by the country’s workers to be done through executive order. The Union Cabinet decided for the time being to allow FDI up to 26% in pension sector but consciously kept such decision out of the domain of the Bill so that they can raise the ceiling of FDI further whenever they feel through executive order avoiding the parliament.

Pension will no more remain a secure social security, it will become a funding source for unscrupulous investors, both domestic and foreign, which will be used through speculative share market. The Government in order to please the foreign pension fund operators, in USA, has kept the avenue fully open for FDI investment. With this bill, if passed, the hard earned money of crores of unorganized sector will be utilized for speculation. Can the working class and the country as a whole tolerate such open and shameless fraud in the name of social security of millions ?

If anyone uses a word or phrase from the department’s list, American spies might read the posts, investigate the online account and even attempt to identify the person from it, the Daily Mail reported.

Some words which reportedly attract attention are outbreak, drill, strain, illegal immigrant, virus, recovery, deaths, collapse and trojan, according to a report filed by a private group — the Electronic Privacy Information Centre.

It was not clear how this information was being used.

The group said the US government has used scans of social media earlier to analyse specific events — such as the 2010 BP oil spill.

]]> http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/russian-court-rejects-ban-gita-plea/feed/ 0 http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/anna-supporters-in-chennai-disappointed/ http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/anna-supporters-in-chennai-disappointed/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:12:21 +0000 India Current Affairs http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/anna-supporters-in-chennai-disappointed/ Chennai, Dec 28 (IANS) The general mood of India Against Corruption (IAC) members here supporting Anna Hazare’s demand for a strong anti-graft law was of disappointment after the Lok Sabha passed the Lokpal Bill Tuesday night but they were determined to take their protest to the next level, said an activist Wednesday.

‘We didn’t get what we expected. Now we have to see what is going to happen in the Rajya Sabha. We don’t want this bill to be passed,’ C. Mohan, a civil engineer on fast here, told IANS.

‘There is a sense of betrayal as well as renewed vigour to take the protest to the next level,’ Banu Gomes, media coordinator for IAC, told IANS.

She said a total of 26 people are on fast and 200 on relay fast.

Around 400 people visited the fast venue Wednesday to express their solidarity with the IAC activists.

She said the condition of Chandra Mohan, a protester on fast who was hospitalised Tuesday, is stable now.

Refuting that the response to the protest was poor, Gomes said the venue for the fast was finalised Dec 26 and there was not much time to publicise the event.

‘Despite that, the response is good with 400 people visiting the venue Wednesday,’ she said.

Jan 21: Life term upheld for Australian Graham Staines’ killers Ravinder Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh and Mahender Hambram in Odisha.

March 3: Appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner P.J. Thomas struck down.

March 7: Court rules Aruna Shanbaug to live but permits passive euthanasia (passive mercy killing) under certain circumstances.

March 7: Nod for common MBBS entrance test.

April 15: Rights activist Binayak Sen granted bail.

April 19: Diktat by khap panchayats ordering coercion held illegal.

May 12: Apex court orders CBI probe in rural job scheme implementation in Odisha.

May 13: Insecticide endosulfan banned.

July 4: Probe team set up on money laundering during the hearing on black money case.

July 5: Court stops Chhattisgarh from using tribals in fight against the Maoists.

July 6: Land acquisition in Greater Noida quashed.

July 6: Court allows French firm to mine in Meghalaya.

Aug 9 : Students allowed to inspect their evaluated answer sheets.

Nov 23: Court says bail should be the rule and jail an exception for accused.

In the process, the court also broke many a new ground, saying there were no limitations to its monitoring the work of central probe agencies and that bail in a case should be the rule and jail an exception. Another landmark ruling laid down guidelines paving the way for passive euthanasia.

Transparent governance remained centric to the decisions of the Supreme Court, which March 3 quashed the appointment of then central vigilance commission P.J. Thomas as ‘non-est’, meaning not existing in law.

Unhappy over the central government’s probe into black money, the apex court June 4 set up a special investigation team headed by former apex court judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy to investigate the stashing away of the ill-gotten money in tax heavens abroad.

In the 2G scam case, central government counsel P.P. Rao’s remark that there was a ‘Lakshman Rekha’ of court monitoring Sep 22 evoked a tough response from a bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly.

The court referred to the epic ‘Ramayana’ and told Rao that Ravana would not have been killed if Sita had not crossed the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ — a veiled reference that the truth in the 2G scam would not have seen the light of the day if the court had not decided to monitor the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.

In the same case, the court granted bail to five corporate executives Nov 23. ‘It is not in the interest of justice that the accused should be in jail for an indefinite period’, said a bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice H.L. Dattu, holding that bail should be the rule and jail an exception.

Besides taking up cases of corruption in high places and police high-handedness, the court also dealt with environmental issues including imposing interim ban on insecticide endosulfan May 13 and mining in iron ore-rich districts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh Aug 26.

‘Our republic cannot bear the stain to kill its own children,’ said the court earlier this month on a plea seeking a CBI probe into the alleged staged killing of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and his colleague Hem Chandra Pandey in 2010.

Bringing transparency in the country’s examination system, the Supreme Court Aug 9 held that under the Right to Information Act, students could inspect and take photocopies of their answer sheets after their evaluation.

Another key judgment in the education sector was delivered March 7 when the court paved the way for implementing the Medical Council of India notification providing for common a entrance test for undergraduate medical courses.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati received a setback when the apex court July 6 quashed the acquisition of land in and around Greater Noida for constructing residential complexes.

On a plea related to bed-ridden Mumbai hospital nurse Aruna Shanbaug, the apex court March 7 laid down guidelines paving the way for passive euthanasia.

Taking up issues related to women, the court, in a verdict Aug 24, formulated a rehabilitations and resettlement of sex worker who are willing to abandon their way of life.

Showing concern for the poor during the hearing on a case involving Delhi Jal Board and its sewerage workers, the court July 12 said: ‘We are praised when we rule for the rich, slammed when we uphold rights of poor.’

The Planning Commission sparked a public outcry when in September it told the apex court that the poverty line in urban and rural areas was Rs.32 per capita per day and Rs.26 per capita per day, respectively.

Justice Dalveer Bhandari kept up the pressure on the central and state governments for removing the religious structures from public places. On July 6, the court ordered the cataloguing and securing of the crores of rupees worth treasure of the Sri Padmaswamy Temple in Kerala.

Faced with public outcry over its observation in Australian missionary Graham Staines’ killing, the apex court Jan 25 recalled its judgment upholding the life sentence of Dara Singh and his associate and expunged a controversial portion of the verdict related to alleged conversion of tribals.

Apex court judges cautioned law enforcement agencies against using excessive force. It took suo motu cognizance June 6 of Delhi Police action past midnight June 4 for evicting yoga guru Baba Ramdev and his followers from Ramlila ground in Delhi.

Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia also had some advice for his colleagues on Law Day in November, saying: ‘The judiciary needs to work in the area demarcated by the constitution.’

(Parmod Kumar can be contacted at parmod.k@ians.in)

The Siberian court is scheduled to hear the views of the Russian human rights ombudsman on the Bhagavad Gita and upholding the rights of minority Hindus, before it delivers its verdict, Hindu petitioners told IANS over phone from Tomsk city in Russia.

The court had posted the hearing for Wednesday in its earlier sitting Dec 19 after Hindus pleaded with the judge that the human rights panel of the nation be heard first.

It also simultaneously introduced a constitution amendment bill that seeks to amend the procedures for appointment of judges and provide for the retirement age of high court judges to be increased from 62 to 65.

Introducing the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010, and Constitutional 114th Amendment Bill, 2010, Law Minister Salman Khurshid appealed to the Lok Sabha members to give their nod to the important legislation that will enable setting of new probity standards in the Indian judiciary.

The judiciary related bill lays down judicial standards and provides for accountability of judges, and, to establish credible and expedient mechanism for investigating into individual complaints for misbehaviour or incapacity of a judge of the Supreme Court or of a high court.

It also provides to regulate the procedure for such investigation; and for the presentation of an address by parliament to the president in relation to proceeding for removal of a judge and for matters connected with such matters.

The judicial accountability bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha last year and was then sent to the parliamentary standing committee on personnel, law and justice, which made a crucial recommendation that seeks to ‘restrain’ judges from making ‘unwarranted comments’ against other constitutional bodies or persons.

In Tokyo, several Indians and India Against Corruption (IAC) volunteers submitted a memorandum to the Indian ambassador, demanding a strong Lokpal bill, activists informed IANS by email.

‘We pointed out that the constitution begins with the phrase ‘We The People Of India’ and not ‘We the elected people Of India’. Hence it is our request that objections raised by the civil society activists to the proposed (Lokpal) bill should be given due consideration,’ said activist Rohan Agrawal.

Sameer Haldavanekar, another activist, said corruption impaired the aspect of social and economic justice and expressed regret that the government was more concerned with short-term political goals rather than addressing the disease of corruption.

Their colleague, Swapnali Puradkar, expressed the hope that ‘dilutions or diversions’ would be rectified in the final bill.

She urged the government to keep peoples’ interest above its political ambitions and empower Indians with a strong tool to tackle corruption.

Puradkar said Hazare supporters from Japan had come to Mumbai to show solidarity.

‘From Friday (Dec 30), we will start calling our local MPs and the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) from Japan,’ Agrawal said.

On the US west coast, many Indians in different cities also come out in support of Hazare’s latest agitation in Mumbai, according to IAC.

They held meetings expressing favour for a strong Lokpal bill which would root out the evil of corruption from India, one of the co-ordinators Bhairavi Doshi said in an email.

‘As in the past, we plan to have similar programmes, garner support through social networking sites, emails, personal contacts and other forms to lend support to Hazare,’ she said.

‘Without highly contentious legal reforms, an extremely powerful agency, which the Jan Lokpal Bill (advocated by Hazare and his team) promises to establish, can at best marginally improve investigation rates and filing of chargesheet in corruption cases without securing more convictions,’ they assert.

The scholars also fault the Jan Lokpal bill as well as the central government’s Lokpal bill that is being debated in the Lok Sabha, for not taking into account the experience of Lokayuktas (state ombudsmen).

‘We conclude that a bill that does not assimilate the experience of existing anti-corruption agencies in states like Karnataka is doomed to fail,’ A. Narayana, Sudhir Krishnaswamy and Vikas Kumar of Law, Governance and Development Initiative of Bangalore-based Azim Premji University said in their recently released study.

‘The presumption of a criminal conviction model is at the core of the Lokpal bill, which means that it will come up against the same environmental limits – the efficacy of the criminal justice system – that the Lokayukta in Karnataka confronts.

‘The proposal for the Lokpal at the moment fails to address this core problem and for that reason is bound to fail to achieve its primary purpose: the criminal conviction of corrupt officials,’ the study said.

Narayana has a Ph.D. from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Krishnaswamy a D.Phil in Law from Oxford and Kumar was a doctoral fellow in economics at university of Hamburg.

Their findings are based on a study of the debate that has been raging for several months on the Jan Lokpal bill as proposed by Hazare and his team and the working of the Karnataka Lokayukta, the most active state ombudsman in India.

The Karnataka Lokayutka was the first in India to be set up in 1986 but became highly active only since 2001 and made history in July this year by indicting the then chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa for corruption in illegal mining scandal.

Yeddyurappa, the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister in south India, was forced to quit July 31 following the indictment.

Noting that while there was ‘agreement on the core moral imperative to tackle corruption seriously’, the study said the debate ‘has quickly moved from this agreed premise to the questionable conclusion that we need a powerful national institution to prosecute and convict the corrupt under the criminal law.

‘To our knowledge the choice of appropriate legal instruments to deal with corruption has not been debated,’ it pointed out.

The study said: ‘There has been no systematic effort to evaluate or assess the experience of existing anti-corruption agencies in the states.’

‘Our analysis suggests that the policy debate on the Lokpal has focused on issues that have been anticipated and largely resolved by existing legislation and institutional design of the Lokayukta in, say, Karnataka and has ignored critical issues that may have little or nothing to do with the design of the Lokpal itself but affect its performance,’ it said.

The study said the Karnataka experience showed that sanction of prosecution and completion of investigation were not an issue at all as both were done in overwhelming majority of the cases handled by the state Lokayukta.

‘The Indian public debate on the Lokpal has focused extensively on the need to equip the institution with extraordinary powers of investigation. Our analysis leads to the conclusion that much of the Indian debate has sought to extinguish a problem that does not have a very significant impact on the effectiveness of anti-corruption agency,’ the study said.

However, it noted, that ‘the story changes after chargesheets are filed’, that is at the trial end.

It said the average time taken for the trial to be completed was over five years and conviction rate was very low.

‘The Indian debate on the Lokpal has focussed extensively on the remedying institutional inefficiencies at the complaint and investigation stage in the Lokpal. No matter how successful these innovations are, they will not tackle the core problem with a criminal trial in India: the trial stage,’ the study said.

‘If we use criminal conviction as the measure of success then the best Lokayukta in the country (that is Karnataka Lokayukta) is undoubtedly a failure. But a caveat is in order: the Lokayukta does not administratively control the criminal court. Hence, we should attribute this failure to the choice of a criminal conviction model as the centrepiece of our anti-corruption strategy,’ the study advocated.

It noted that between 1995 and 2011, Karnataka Lokayukta carried out only 357 raids on its own – the power to conduct raids on its own was given only early this year – against individual officials but received and responded to over 2,159 complaints against 2,681 officials.

‘Interestingly, institutional leadership (a reference to the head of the Lokayukta panel) is seen to have a significant impact on the agency’s performance. For instance, in Karnataka more than 66 percent of the raid cases by the Lokayukta were initiated between 2006 and 2011, when Justice N. Santosh Hegde was the Lokayukta.’

The five-year term of Hegde, a former Supreme Court judge, ended Aug 2.

Delivering the second K.P. Singh Memorial Lecture on ‘People, Development and Globalisation’ at the Aligarh Muslim University, she said topics like Sensex and GDP had overshadowed the more important issue of development of the common man.

She said the right to livelihood is not guaranteed since liberalisation and globalisation had halted the people’s movement.

Patkar added that besides the poverty line, there is a need to demarcate the ‘amiri rekha’ (rich line) as well.

The high court, which had stayed the order of the lower court Dec 16, cancelled the bail on the ground that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was investigating his role in the scam.

Justice N.R.L. Nageswara Rao pronounced the order on a petition by the CBI challenging the verdict of the special court.

Rajagopal, a former vice chairman and managing director of the state-owned Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC), allegedly played a key role in granting iron ore mining leases to OMC.

The investigating agency had sought the cancellation of bail, saying the investigations were at a crucial stage. It also argued that if released on bail, the accused could influence and threaten the witnesses.

The CBI counsel had argued that the grant of bail to the accused would jeopardise the ongoing investigation. He told the court that CBI was yet to recover ill-gotten wealth running into thousands of crores of rupees.

The special court Dec 15 had granted bail to Rajagopal, but within three hours stayed the implementation of the order till Dec 19 on a petition by the CBI.

The next day, CBI moved the high court challenging the bail order.

Meanwhile, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Y. Srilakshmi Monday filed a counter to the CBI petition in the high court.

Srilakshmi was released on bail Dec 2, four days after the CBI arrested her on charges of approving mining leases in violation of rules.

The high court is to hear Dec 28 the CBI petition, challenging the special court’s order.

Janardhana Reddy, his brother-in-law and OMC Managing Director B.V. Srinivasa Reddy and Rajagopal are currently lodged in Chanchalgida central jail here.

The special court, which has rejected three bail petitions of Janardhana Reddy and Srinivasa Reddy, has reserved its orders on the fourth. The orders are scheduled to be pronounced Dec 28.

The charge sheet, which also names Lashkar founder Haafiz Sayeed, was filed in a special NIA court here.

The Patiala House court will rule Jan 7 whether or not to accept the charges for which the probe agency had filed a first information report (FIR) in November 2009.

‘The matter is listed for Jan 7 for further consideration,’ special Judge H.S. Sharma said.

Headley, who is undergoing trial in a US court, has entered into a plea bargain with the American judicial authorities under which he cannot be extradited to any country, including India.

Also named in the charges are alleged Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Al Qaeda operative Illyas Kashmiri, Headley’s accomplice Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana, Rehman Hashmi, formerly with the Pakistan Army, and Major Iqbal and Major Samir — believed to be working for Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

They have been charged for waging war against India.

Those named in the charge sheet are alleged to have conspired in a ‘Karachi Project’ to strike at select Indian targets. Indian security agencies allege the project was sponsored by the ISI.

Lakhvi is in a Pakistani jail undergoing trial for the terror attack that killed 166 people, including foreigners, when a band of 10 Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai Nov 26, 2008, and went on a rampage. Over 300 innocent people were injured.

The government Wednesday gave the go-ahead to the NIA, which was formed in the aftermath of the Mumbai mayhem, to file charges against the accused.

However, sources say the case in an Indian court may not be of any significance because it would not lead to the deportation of Headley, who has confessed to having surveyed potential targets in India for the Lashkar.

The NIA has based its charges on inputs from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the interrogation of Headley by a team of Indian investigators in the US earlier this year.

Administrative civil judge Mukesh Kumar ordered all the websites to file a compliance report by Feb 6, affirming that they have removed the derogatory content from their sites.

If they fail, the websites will face contempt charges, the court said, hearing the petition of Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi, who objected to images hurting religious sentiments posted on these websites.

Appearing before the court, the representative of two websites companies, Yahoo India Pvt Ltd and Microsoft, told the court that they have not been provided copies of the complaint.

They said they have come to know of the case after reading media reports and sought to be provided with the copies of the complaint.

Qasmi’s advocate Santosh Pandey told the court that he would provide the copies of the complaint with related document to all the companies concerned.

The court said on Tuesday: ‘The defendants are directed to remove the (offending) photographs from their social networking sites.’

The court ruling came after Qasmi produced some pictures which the court said had ‘content of defamation and derogation against the sentiments of every community’.

In a similar matter, another court, of Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar, had on Friday issued summons to 21 websites, including social networking site Facebook, search engine Google, Yahoo and video sharing website YouTube for allegedly hosting obscene and derogatory content.

The magistrate had observed that the material submitted by the complainant contained obscene pictures and derogatory articles pertaining to various Hindu gods, Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ.

Internet world was in an uproar in December after a report said Communication and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal had asked social networking sites like Facebook and Google, which operate the social video platform Youtube, to censor content which were offensive to religious sentiments and degrading some individuals.

‘I have asked them to give us suggestions…the reach of the social media is enormous but the people using them are limited. It should not be, what we are fed is an elitist point of view or represents the point of view of a certain section of the society,’ Sibal said after the meeting the representatives of social networking sites on Dec 15.

Sibal met the representative of social networking sites to evolve mutually agreeable guidelines to ensure that such content do not go on their platforms.

In earlier interactions with the media, the minister had said he was compelled to think of guidelines for barring objectionable content on social networking sites after they declined to do anything about the issue.

The court ordered all the websites to file a compliance report by Feb 6, stating they have removed the derogatory content from their sites.

If they fail, the websites will face contempt charges, the court said.

Administrative civil judge Mukesh Kumar passed the order on a petition of Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi, who objected to images hurting religious sentiments posted on these websites.

The court said on Tuesday: ‘The defendants are directed to remove the (offending) photographs from their social networking sites.’

The court ruling came after Qasmi produced some pictures which the court said had ‘content of defamation and derogation against the sentiments of every community’.

In a similar matter, another court, of Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar, had on Friday issued summons to 21 websites, including social networking site Facebook, search engine Google, Yahoo and video sharing website YouTube for allegedly hosting obscene and derogatory content.

The magistrate had observed that the material submitted by the complainant contained obscene pictures and derogatory articles pertaining to various Hindu gods, Prophet Muhammad and Jesus Christ.

The magistrate had directed the central government to take immediate appropriate steps on the objectionable contents of the sites, and file its report by Jan 13.

The court ordered all the websites to file a compliance report by Feb 6, stating they have removed the derogatory content from their sites.

The order said the websites will face contempt charges if they fail to remove the objectionable content.

]]> http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/remove-derogatory-content-by-feb-6-court-tells-webites/feed/ 0 http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/plea-against-indian-science-congress-thrown-out/ http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/plea-against-indian-science-congress-thrown-out/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:31:26 +0000 India Current Affairs http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/plea-against-indian-science-congress-thrown-out/ Bhubaneswar, Dec 24 (IANS) The Orissa High Court has dismissed a petition filed by a man seeking cancellation of the 99th Indian Science Congress (ISC), the largest national science event, to be held here next month, or shifting of its venue, a lawyer said Saturday.

Quashing the petition filed by Manoj Das as ‘frivolous’, Justice B.P. Das and Justice B.K. Nayaka of a division bench of the court at Cuttack, about 26 km from here, Friday observed that the petition has been filed with an ulterior motive without any public interest, the lawyer told IANS.

The five-day mega event, in which over 15,000 delegates, including 500 foreign scientists and 20 Nobel laureates, are to participate, is scheduled to be held at the KIIT University complex here Jan 3-7. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is slated to inaugurate it.

Manoj Das recently moved the court for cancelling the science meet or shifting its venue on the ground that the place is unsafe and high-tension power lines passing through the area might pose threat to the lives of the delegates.

The KIIT and the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) are jointly hosting the 99th edition of the ISC.

A court in the capital Minsk sentenced Nov 30 two men to death for carrying out a bomb attack that killed 15 people and injured 200 in the Minsk metro.

Belarus is the only European country still with the death penalty. Sentences are carried out by a shot in the neck.

Human rights activists have urged Belarus not to apply the death penalty in the case.

‘The relevance of the death penalty has not declined today in Belarus,’ Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The European Union has called on Belarus to join the rest of Europe in prohibiting capital punishment.

‘When I was accused by the EU, I advise them to look at the other side of the ocean. Let the US abolish the death penalty, we’ll be next,’ Lukashenko said.

Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton, said: ‘We believe that the death penalty is a cruel and inhuman punishment that does not allow any reversal, and it fails to provide a deterrence to any criminal behaviour and is an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity.’

Lukashenko said double standards were being used on the issue of death penalty.

‘If the majority of people in our country are for abolition of the death penalty, I will abide by that decision,’ he said.

Granting bail to accused Om Prakash, Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said: ?No doubt, the allegations made against the accused if proved are serious but misuse and abuse of the special legislation by Jai Kishan is correct.?

Complainant Jai Kishan had alleged that Om Prakash had caused injury and insulted him. He alleged the accused committed the offence which was punishable for acts done with intent to cause injury, insult or annoyance to any member of Scheduled Caste, or Scheduled Tribe.

Jai Kishan falls under category of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe.

ASJ Lau said that it is a serious matter. The complainant, a democratically elected representative of people is ‘misusing and abusing the provisions of the Special Enactment to score a point over his political rivals’.

The court observation came after the defence counsel told court that Jai Kishan is a habitual litigant who often abuses and misuses provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 for his personal benefit.

The court observed a copy of one FIR filed in an earlier case placed before it by the defence counsel. The allegation made in the document were virtually identical to the ones made in the present case.

?I have also gone through the complaint and the contents of the present FIR. I have perused the complainant Jai Kishan reflecting abrasion over right elbow and right knee and bruise over right thigh,? ASJ said.

ASJ added that the Investigating Officer had failed to get the opinion of the doctor on the complainant’s injury.

?Without going into the merits of the allegations involved or expressing any opinion on the aforesaid and also keeping in view the age of the accused, he is granted bail,? ASJ said.

The court allowed bail to 54-year-old Om Prakash on furnishing personal bond to the tune of Rs.10,000 with one local surety of the like amount.

The accused Om Prakash was facing the case for causing insult or annoyance to a member of a Scheduled Caste, or a Scheduled Tribe.

A Delhi-based lawyer, Shanmuga Patro approached the Delhi High Court after being refused by CIC to initiate a criminal complaint against the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, its aides and affiliates, who, according to him, misled CIC by filing forged and fabricated documents in evidence and succeeded before CIC.

Justice V.K. Shali hearing the matter sought response from DOPT before the next date of hearing March 16, 2012.

Through the petition, Patro raised the issue as to whether the CIC could be treated as a court for prosecuting persons for the offence of perjury or not.

Patro, the petitioner, argued: ?If a person or entity is permitted to give false documents and evidence before CIC with impunity, then how can CIC be expected to enforce Right to Information??

The petitioner said that in June 2011, he approached CIC to institute proceedings under Section 340 of CrPC and sought initiation of criminal case against the foundation, its aides and affiliates for filing forged and fabricated documents in evidence before the panel.

In December 2011, CIC had refused to initiate prosecution for the offence of perjury against foundation and ordered that ?it has no powers to take action for perjury under Section 340 of CrPC?.

Based on the information and reports filed by Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, the CIC had in October 2010 declared that Rajiv Gandhi Foundation is not a `Public authority? in terms of RTI Act and is not bound to provide information under Right to Information Act.

Patro, however, alleged: ?While Rajiv Gandhi Foundation informed CIC that only about 4 percent of its revenue is received from Government, in reality it receives a greater percentage of its revenue from Government.?

Being aggrieved with CIC?s order of expressing inability to examine whether Rajiv Gandhi Foundation committed perjury or not, Shanmuga Patro approached the Delhi High Court.

?Outcome of this case will decide CIC?s powers to commence criminal cases against parties who have been committing perjury, offences against public justice and offences relating to documents given in evidence before CIC,? said Patro.

The petitioner in his petition also raised the question whether the Information Commissioners, including the CIC, could be treated as ‘public servants’ within the definition of section 195 of the CrPC.

Taking cognizance of the case on a private criminal complaint filed by journalist Vinay Rai, Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar observed that the material submitted by the complainant contained obscene picture and derogatory articles pertaining to various Hindu gods, Prophet Mohammad and Jesus Christ.

The magistrate directed the central government to take immediate appropriate step on the objectionable contents of the sites, and file its report by Jan 13.

‘It appears from a bare perusal of the documents that prima facie the accused are selling, publicly exhibiting and have put into circulation obscene, lascivious content which also appears to the prurient interests and tends to deprave and corrupt the persons who are likely to read, see or hear the same,’ the court said.

‘It is also evident that such contents are continuously openly and freely available to everyone who is using the said network irrespective of their age and even the persons under the age of 18 years have full and uncensored access to such obscene contents,’ it said.

The magistrate has summoned the accused companies to face trial for allegedly committing the offence punishable under section 292 (sale of obscene books etc), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person etc) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

On Monday, a civil court of Delhi had ordered these sites to remove objectionable images.

‘We are afraid that such issues cannot be decided by the court. This court cannot come to the conclusion as to whether this agitation is in public interest or politically motivated,’ a division bench of Justices P.B. Majmudar and Mridula Bhatkar observed.

The court also rejected the petition on the ground that the petitioner’s organisation – Jagrut Nagrik Manch – was not a registered social organisation, a mandatory requirement for seeking concession from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

‘It cannot be said that the petitioners have undertaken a national event for the MMRDA to exempt them from rent for the ground,’ Justice Majmudar observed.

The court observed that if Team Anna wanted to agitate, they must pay the hire charges for the venue.

‘We cannot allow parallel canvassing when parliament is seized with debate on the Lokpal bill. You can propagate the bill sitting at home. Till now the bill has not been passed. No one knows what form and what features it will have. Is public debate permissible at this stage,’ the court questioned.

Team Anna members had filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court Thursday demanding the MMRDA grounds free of cost since the proposed agitation was in public interest.

‘How is country’s interest involved? We are a democratic set up. We have elected a government. Wouldn’t your agitation interfere in the functioning of Parliament? The bill will be debated in parliament where our elected representatives will plead our case,’ Majmudar said.

The bench, however, said that a fresh application from a registered social organisat

‘He is a created false witness and this is my ultimate case,? Raja’s counsel and senior advocate Sushil Kumar told special CBI Judge O.P. Saini.

He asked Achary if he had received any threat before he was discovered by the CBI as witness in March 2011.

Testifying as a CBI witness, Achary replied: ‘I had a perception of threat, but no specific incident warranting any action had occurred before.’

He said he reported the incident (of the threat) to the CBI.

Kumar argued that Achary’s statement Thursday was planted to influence bail of Raja’s ex-private secretary R.K. Chandolia. Chandolia’s bail plea is scheduled for hearing in the Supreme Court Jan 2.

‘Achary was repeatedly saying that the man (accused for threatening Achary) was sitting with Chandolia,’ the lawyer said, adding that this could influence Chandolia’s bail plea pending in the Supreme Court.

To this, Judge Saini said had Achary made the disclosure earlier, many of the accused in the case would not have been granted bail.

However, Achary denied the allegation and said he was not aware of Chandolia’s bail. He stressed that it was incorrect to say Thursday’s statement was planned by him in collusion with the investigating agency.

‘It is incorrect to say that yesterday’s disclosure by me about that person was pre-planned,? Achary said.

Drama ensued in the court Thursday when Achary told the court that a threat to his life was given and the person who had threatened him was sitting in the room.

When Achary said this, a man ran out of the court but was immediately overpowered by the police.

During his cross-examination, Achary said he knew of Janata Party president Subramaniam Swamy though he did not know him personally.

He said he had visited Swamy’s house off and on, but did not know about the book he had written on the scam.

‘I am not acquainted with the book titled as ’2G spectrum scam’ written by Swamy. I do not know the name written in the book as ‘Ashirvatham Achary’ refers to me,’ Achary said.

Speaking about his responsibilities as Raja’s aide, Achary said if anybody wanted to meet Raja, then he would bring it to the notice of the minister and fix an appointments.

He also used to oversee the three charts — daily engagements, tour programme, monthly programme — prepared at the camp office of the minister.

According to the government auditor, the 2G scam allegedly masterminded by Raja pertained to a biased distribution of mobile airwaves and operating licences, in lieu of kickbacks, to telecom firms that could have cost the treasury up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore in lost revenue.

The number of individuals accused in the case now stands at 19, while the companies against which charges have been framed add up to six.

Except for Raja and former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, all other arrested accused have been freed on bail.

‘All of us have biases and these can’t really be removed, so creating acceptance is the better objective than trying to remove everyone’s biases,’ Pramada Menon, a prominent LGBT rights activist, researcher and consultant, told IANS.

Menon, who has been associated with several women’s and gay rights groups in past two decades, was speaking at the ‘Charcha, Chai and Coffee’ initiative by the American Center here.

According to Menon, even after two years of decriminalisation of homosexuality, there still persists a significant fear in the gay community to come out of the closet in front of their families, friends and at workplaces.

‘If the people come out to themselves and are happy about it, eventually the society’s acceptance would grow.’

On the question of whether the wider aspect of suppression of sexuality was a bigger issue than that of the LGBT community, she replied that both the issues are important and need simultaneous efforts to remove them.

‘While the issue of suppression of sexuality needs a lot of work, we have to keep creating places where the LGBT can have their voice,’ she said.

Menon’s views were corroborated by Lydia Barraza of American Center, who said that the US is committed to LGBT rights.

‘Hillary Clinton’s Dec 7 speech, proclaiming the fight of LGBT rights as the new frontier of the fight for human rights, is a bold statement for the cause,’ she said.

IAC member Mayank Gandhi said that following the court?s order, the IAC would now re-apply through another registered organization to book the venue for the agitation scheduled Dec 27-31.

Gandhi said the MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) has also agreed to give concessional rates for the venue whereby the organizers will pay to MMRDA around Rs.6,80,000 instead of Rs.11,80,000, plus heavy deposits, for the venue.

Achary, a key witness in the case, had Thursday said in the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court that there was a threat to his life.

Raja’s counsel Sushil Kumar told special CBI judge O.P. Saini that the drama created by Achary was meant to impact the hearing on the bail plea of Raja’s ex-private secretary R.K. Chandolia.

Chandolia’s bail plea is scheduled for hearing in the Supreme Court Jan 2.

To this, Saini said if Achary would have made the disclosure earlier, many of the accused in the case would not have been granted bail.

Chinese prosecutors from January to November launched investigations into a total of 31,616 criminal cases involving 43,265 such suspects, Xinhua reported citing the figures provided at a national meeting of procurators.

Prosecutors across China approved the arrests of a total of 837,736 suspects and prosecuted nearly 1.07 million people.

Among them were 1,801 people involved in the manufacture and sale of poisonous or harmful food products.

At least 120 government employees have been investigated for food-related graft and dereliction of duty this year.

Indu Mills’ 12.5 acres premises in central Mumbai is located adjacent to Chaityabhoomi where Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar’s mortal remains were cremated.

The activists were demanding that the central government allot land at Indu Mills to the state government free of cost for the construction of Ambedkar’s international memorial.

‘We shall make efforts to solve the issue and get the activists to vacate the mill premises voluntarily within a week. If the government does not succeed, then they would be evicted forcibly within three days after that,’ Additional Government Pleader G.W. Mattos told the division bench of Justice D.K. Deshmukh and Justice A.V. Mohta.

The petition was filed by the National Textiles Corporation seeking directions to police to evict the Republic Sena activists.

‘You should remove them by force. Would you have negotiated with the terrorists who entered the Taj Hotel? The mob has entered, illegally, land which belongs to the government of India,’ the court said.

On Dec 6, a large number of Republican Sena activists broke into the mill premises and refused to move out till the land was allotted for the memorial.

This week, the Maharashtra legislature adopted a unanimous resolution moved by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, demanding that the land be handed over free of cost to the state government to construct a memorial at its own cost.

The board and Noor Charitable Society countered by saying they had complied with the court’s order.

‘Order of closing of the Sundram Hall is hereby set aside,’ Additional Session Judge V.K. Bansal said Tuesday on a plea filed by a functionary of Gurdwara Baba Banda Bahadur at Bhai Parmanand Colony.

The European Court of Justice has banned their deportation back to Greece, a key entry point for illegal immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East heading for Britain.

However, it is now feared the ruling could lead to an explosion in ‘asylum shopping’, the Daily Express reported.

The row erupted Wednesday when the Luxembourg court – the EU’s highest legal authority – upheld claims of asylum seekers in Britain and Ireland.

Tory MP Priti Patel said: ‘This decision is an absolute disgrace that flies in the face of common sense. Once again, European judges are making a mockery of human rights.’

Thousands crossing the Turkish frontier into Greece are held in often degrading conditions in camps while claims are processed, the newspaper said.

Officials feared the Home Office could face a string of costly legal claims if they pressed ahead with deportations to Greece, it said.

‘It (Lokpal) is a very dangerous bill…The removal, suspension and selection of the Lokpal will be decided by the government,’ Kejriwal said addressing a press conference here.

‘We reject the Lokpal bill and demand the entire bill is taken back and redrafted in the right manner. Those who drafted the bill seem to be either incompetent in law or want to promote corruption through the Lokpal bill,’ he said.

The bill aimed at crushing the rights of people, Kejriwal said.

‘Through this bill, the government wants to act like a big brother. While 90 percent of the politicians are out of the ambit of the Lokpal, temples, churches, schools and other public institutions are under the ambit of this dangerous Lokpal,’ he said.

‘Even doctors and priests will be deemed to be public servants. The government considers that all the citizens are corrupt but the leaders and (its) employees are clean,’ he said.

Kejriwal said this Lokpal was the handmaiden of the government.

He expressed fear over the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) being rendered ineffective if the government’s Lokpal bill was passed in parliament.

‘Through this bill, the CBI will be made ineffective as its right of preliminary inquiry will be snatched,’ said the activist.

At a press meet here by five organisers of the rail roko agitation Dec 3 to mark the 27th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, the people also alleged that the 14 arrested were not told about their charges, nor given food or access to their lawyers and families.

‘My father, grandfather and myself fought for the freedom of country to bring democracy, but this government has ended democratic rule,’ said Mufti Abdul Razzak, whose relative is among those held.

Satinath Sarangi of Bhopal Group for Action and Information said: ‘Among the 14 arrested, six were not even present on the spot.’

Activists also alleged that women demonstartors were beaten up and cases have been slapped against an 80-year-old woman Rampyari Bai and others.

While District Collector Nikunj Srivastava could not be contacted for comment, Senior Superintendent of Police Yogesh Choudhary told IANS: ‘We have kept some arrested persons with us for some more time for investigation, but it does not mean they were tortured. And whoever have been arrested, it has been on concrete evidence. Else, we would have arrested 500 people.’

On registering a case against an elderly women, he said: ‘The case may have been registered but it is not necessary that they will be arrested.’

He was testifying as a witness before special CBI judge O.P. Saini.

The court of administrative civil judge Mukesh Kumar was hearing a petition filed by Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasmi who objected to images hurting religious sentiments.

The court said: ‘The defendants are directed to remove the photographs from their social networking sites’.

The court ruling came after viewing photographs shown by Qasmi, which the court said had ‘content of defamation and derogation against the sentiments of every community.’

A day after several BJP leaders said they will protest the bill and called it ‘cheating the people’, party leader S.S. Ahluwalia said no statement could be made without seeing the bill.

‘Even a full stop or a comma changes the meaning of a sentence… we will see the bill and only then give any comment,’ Ahluwalia said.

‘Why should we take up the gun, without even knowing what is there in the bill,’ he said.

Special Judge S.M. Modak of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court extended her judicial custody, Vora’s lawyer Jayesh Vithlani told IANS.

Working as a deputy bureau chief with a Mumbai daily, Vora was arrested Nov 25 by the Crime Branch in connection with the June 11 killing of Dey, the editor (special investigations) at Mid-Day.

According to police, Vora had provided Dey’s mobile number and his exact location to absconding mafia don Chhota Rajan.

Dey was gunned down near his residence in Powai, central Mumbai, by motorcycle borne assailants.

‘The respective chief secretaries of these states have been issued notices and asked to reply within six weeks,’ a NHRC statement said Tuesday.

According to the media reports, 680 farmers committed suicide in six districts of Maharashtra in 2011 and 90 farmers took the extreme step in six districts of Andhra Pradesh in October-November 2011.

Wayanad district in Kerala has witnessed eight cases of farmer suicides in November this year.

The Commission has observed that the contents of the media report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of the poor farmers in these three states.

]]> http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/court-declares-five-haryana-lawmakers-as-unattached/feed/ 0 http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/non-baptised-sikhs-can-vote-in-sgpc-polls-court/ http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/non-baptised-sikhs-can-vote-in-sgpc-polls-court/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:50:34 +0000 India Current Affairs http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/non-baptised-sikhs-can-vote-in-sgpc-polls-court/ Chandigarh, Dec 20 (IANS) Quashing an October 2003 central government notification, the Punjab and Haryana High Court Tuesday allowed voting rights to Sehajdhari or non-baptised Sikhs in elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the mini-parliament of the religion.

The bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice M. Jeyapaul, quashed the Oct 8, 2003 notification of the central government under which the Sehajdhari Sikhs were barred from voting in the SGPC polls.

Sehajdhari Sikhs are those who cut or trim their beards and hair in violation of the Sikh religious tenets. Otherwise, such Sikhs follow the religion, its gurus and the Sikh holy book, Granth Sahib.

The Sehajdhari Sikh Federation, a registered political party, had filed a petition before the high court seeking voting rights for such Sikhs in the SGPC polls.

The number of IPR infringement cases heard by the courts nationwide has risen significantly since China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, from 5,265 in 2001 to 42,931 in 2010, with an annual increase of 26 percent, Sun Jungong, SPC spokesperson, said at a press conference Tuesday.

‘China has made great progress in the protection of intellectual property during the past 10 years,’ Xinhua quoted Sun as saying.

‘As the status of intellectual property has increased in national development, its judicial protection has become an indispensable part in the national development strategy,’ Sun added.

‘We pledged to process the Parent and Grandparent Super Visa in less than eight weeks,’ Jason Kenney, minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, said in a statement.

‘We’ve issued the first of the Super Visas in just two weeks and we remain committed to reuniting families through the Super Visa in a timely manner.’

The Parent and Grandparent Super Visa allows parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents to visit their families in Canada for as long as 10 years, reported Xinhua.

The visas need to be renewed every two years.

Until the Super Visa was launched Dec 1, 2011, visitors to Canada usually could only visit for six months at a time and visitors who wished to stay longer had to apply for extensions and pay a new fee every six months.

Super Visa seekers use the same application form as applicants for the standard six-month visitor visa. They must also submit proof that the host child or grandchild meets a minimum income, demonstrate that they have purchased comprehensive Canadian medical insurance and undergo the immigration medical examination.

The first Super Visa was issued at the Canadian mission in Manila Dec 14, two weeks after the Citizenship and Immigration Canada began accepting applications, Kenney said.

‘With the Super Visa, we have taken a common sense approach that allows parents and grandparents to spend extended periods of time with their loved ones in Canada, while at the same time, acting responsibly in protecting Canadian taxpayers,’ Kenney added.

‘I’m pleased that the response to this program has been so positive.’

The new visa is part of the Conservative government’s plan to battle an enormous backlog of about 165,000 parents and grandparents who are trying to join family in Canada.

Earlier this year, Kenney told a parliamentary committee that the new system will help many families to be re-united. He said the requirement that visa holder buy health insurance will prevent them from abusing Canada’s medicare system.

‘The department informs me that they’re confident that the approval rate for these parent Super Visas will actually be very high,’ Kenney told the committee.

‘One of the reasons we are requiring that people demonstrate they have health insurance when they come into Canada, is to add greater certainty for our visa officers that admitting people is not going to end up representing a net cost to Canadian taxpayers,’ he said.

The minister told the Rajya Sabha in reply to a written question that till Oct 31, 2011, a total of 56,383 cases were pending in the Supreme Court. As on Sep 30, 2010, the number of cases pending in high courts was 4,217,903.

The minister identified granting of excessive adjournments, indiscriminate closure of courts and the lack of priority to disposal of old cases as other reasons for the case backlog.

Other factors preventing quick disposal of cases included disproportionate concentration of work among some members of the bar and long arguments by counsel, he said, adding that staff attached to courts was also inadequate.

The minister said the time taken for the disposal of pending cases was exclusively within the domain of the judiciary.

He said the government had taken a number of measures under the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms to reduce the backlog. A drive launched by the department of justice for the purpose in July was continuing in December.

Chief justices of high courts had been asked to initiate a ‘campaign mode’ approach towards clearing petty and long pending cases, he said.

During the campaign, cases related to women, senior citizens and other marginalised groups would be given priority for disposal, the minister said.

The court, while accepting a re-investigation report by the CBI, asked Vijayan and the other accused to appear before it on April 10. The probe agency has exonerated senior Congress leader and present speaker of the Kerala assembly G. Karthikeyan in the case.

In June 2009, the CBI filed charge sheets against nine accused in the Rs.374 crore scam related to the company SNC Lavalin.

Vijayan, as the state power minister, had inked the final agreement in 1997 for renovating three power plants in the state which, according to the accountant general, was a failed project.

The other accused in the case include six former officials of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB); Canada based SNC Lavalin and Claus Trendl, former vice-president of SNC Lavalin.

The CBI court Monday directed that summons be issued to the Canadian company and also ordered an arrest warrant to be issued against Trendl who, according to the court, was the main conspirator in the flawed deal.

It was Karthikeyan who had signed the MoU with Lavalin company and Vijayan took it forward and inked the contract with the Canadian company. The CBI found that Karthikeyan had no role in the actual implementation of the renovation project of the three power plants.

Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, in his address on law day last month, put the figure of the pending cases in high courts and subordinate courts at 3.19 crore. Of these, 74 percent were less than five years old and the rest were pending for more than five years.

The apex court has held that astronomical delays in disposal of cases impinge upon the right of the accused to speedy trial and were violative of Article 21 and 14 of the constitution that deal with the protection of life and liberty and equality before law.

Senior counsel Ranjit Kumar blames ‘lack of infrastructure, woefully low judge-population ratio, frequent adjournments and the absence of deterrents against those seeking adjournment’ for the delays.

The existing judge-population ratio was poor and a large number of vacancies made it worse, he said.

Of the total sanctioned strength of 895 high court judges, there were 268 vacancies. The Allahabad High Court with a sanctioned strength of 160 judges was working at half its strength with 81 vacancies, he said, quoting a Supreme Court report.

According to a Law Commission of India report, the gravity of the situation could be gauged from the Allahabad High Court where more than 8.5 lakh cases were pending. Criminal appeals of 1980-82 and criminal revisions of the year 1990-95 were still pending.

Of the 17,151 subordinate courts in the country, only 13,981 are functioning as the rest do not have judges.

The Law Commission in its 120th report recommended an increase in the strength of judges from 10.5 to 50 judges per 10 lakh population.

Former Delhi High Court judge Rupinder Singh Sodhi said: ‘Arrears of pending cases are mounting due to indecision – meaning judges not taking decisions promptly. This leads to adjournments and also gives an impression that the courts are not completely in control of the cases.’

It was for the judges and the prosecution to ensure that cases were tried at a reasonable pace and concluded well in time, said the former judge.

Besides the low judge-population ratio, frequent transfer of cases from one court to another also compounded delays, said Sodhi.

Making a strong case for increasing the strength of the judiciary, Sodhi said the lack of governance too was resulting in unnecessary litigation and multiplication of cases.

The long trial of the 1975 bomb attack on then railway minister Lalit Narain Mishra, has now caught the attention of the apex court, which has asked who is responsible for it.

In the last over three decades, the Mishra trial travelled to 22 different judges. During this period, 31 witnesses and four defence counsel have died.

Accused Ranjan Dwivedi was 27 years old when he allegedly threw a bomb at the dais where Mishra was addressing a public meeting in Samastipur in Bihar Jan 2, 1975. Today, he is 64 and the trial is far from over. He has now pleaded for quashing of charges and criminal proceedings.

Senior counsel M.L. Lahoty, who appeared for Dwivedi, said delay in the case was on account of the fact that after years of trial against three original accused, they were eventually discharged as investigators.

He said after the Janata Party headed by late prime minister Morarji Desai came to power, the trial was shifted from Bihar to Delhi. The recording of evidence took 10 years from 1994 to 2004 and thereafter the Central Bureau of Investigation said they wanted to bring more evidence on record.

The man’s body was recovered from the Gadloch, a fresh water lake situated at the edge of Lenzie town in East Dunbartonshire, following an extensive search involving divers and a police helicopter, the Daily Mail reported police as saying.

Police said investigations are continuing but they believe it was an accident and there were no suspicious circumstances.

The incident in central Scotland came as thermometers hit -5C in Eskdalemuir village,10 miles north-east of Lockerbie, Saturday.

They underlined the twin needs for raising social awareness on the issue and strictly implementing the laws against sex determination and female foeticide.

The occasion was a one-day state-level media workshop on the subject organised by the Shikshit Rojgar Kendra Prabandhak Samiti (SRKPS), a voluntary organisation working on development issues for the last 23 years, under the project ‘Let Girl Be Born’ launched with the support of Plan India.

Media persons who attended the workshop in large numbers were informed that Jaipur has emerged as the foremost place in Rajasthan denying the girls the right to be born.

Over 250 small sonography centres in Jaipur alone are reportedly indulging in sex determination tests of foetuses and aborting the female unborn children.

‘Jaipur has the highest number of sonography and abortion centres and the laws against sex selection and female foeticide are being flouted with impunity at these places,’ SRKPS secretary Rajan Choudhary said.

According to the 2011 Census figures, the number of girls per 1,000 boys in Rajasthan is still less than 900.

Choudhary said about 300 female foetuses are aborted every day in Rajasthan after the sex determination test and this abhorrent practice is making a serious impact on the sex ratio in 0-6 years.

During April 2010-March 2011, a total of 13,36,505 children were born in Rajasthan and they included 7,08,383 males and 6,28,122 females, revealing the sex ratio of 887.

While affirming that the main cause for the decline in sex ratio was the sex determination tests, Choudhary said over 1,800 sonography centres are functioning in Rajasthan and of them, 1,000 regularly violate the Pre conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex selection) Act (PCPNDT Act).

‘Jaipur is the biggest ‘mandi’ (market) in Rajasthan for sex determination and murder of female foetuses in the womb,’ he said.

It was pointed out at the workshop that 50 percent of the 600 sonography centres in the Rajasthan capital had never been inspected by the authorised officers.

The three, originally from Lebanon and Somalia, are believed to have planned to shoot as many soldiers as possible until they were shot dead themselves, at Holsworthy Army Base in Sydney between February and August 2009, Xinhua reported.

A jury had found Wissam Fattal, 35; Nayef El Sayed, 28; and Saney Edow Aweys, 27, guilty of terrorism offences after a six-week trial in the Victorian Supreme Court.

The court this Friday sentenced the three to 18 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 13-and-a half years.

Justice Betty King during his judgement said it would have been totally terror act if their planning had ever come to pass and all three should hang their heads in shame for planning an attack on a country that embraced them.

Justice King said all three showed no remorse and had not renounced their extremist beliefs.

The trio were against the Australian troops’ presence in Afghanistan, believing it was oppressing innocent Muslims.

Deposing in support of his contention of Chidambaram’s alleged complicity in the 2G spectrum scam, Swamy said: ‘Former telecom minister A. Raja could not be guilty of this charge alone but committed the offence in active connivance with Chidambaram, presently home minister.’

‘The prime minister’s speech delivered on the floor of parliament in February clearly proves that the pricing of the spectrum was taken on the basis of cabinet decisions of 2003, which specifically left the issue to be determined by the finance minister and DoT (department of telecommunications),’ Swamy told Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge O.P. Saini.

Chidambaram was the finance minister in the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from 2004-09 when the spectrum saga began.

‘Former telecom minister A. Raja could not be guilty of this charge alone but committed the offence with active connivance with Chidambaram, presently home minister,’ Swamy said.

Swamy sought to make Chidambaram a party in the case, saying the decision on spectrum pricing was taken in 2008 jointly by him and Raja, now lodged in Tihar Jail since Feb 2.

‘Chidambaram and Raja were empowered by the 2003 cabinet decision to determine the spectrum price jointly,’ said Swamy.

‘Chidambaram was aware at least one day before what Raja was planning to do in selling the spectrum,’ he added.

He told the court that Chidambaram informed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the finance ministry and DoT would discuss and finalise the spectrum pricing formula.

Chidambaram and Raja met on four occasions. The two met the prime minister July 4, 2008, and conveyed to him the message of agreement on the price fixed for spectrum and other aspects, including entry fee charges of spectrum and revenue shares.

He said Chidambaram and Raja were equally guilty of recommending spectrum prices based on 2001 rates.

Swamy alleged that despite being ineligible, Unitech Wireless and Swan Telecom were awarded licences.

‘Swan and Unitech were allowed to offload their shares to Etisalat and Telenor, respectively, even before the roll-out, selling their shares at several times of what they paid to the government for the licence,’ said Swamy.

Swamy submitted three documents for seeking prosecution of Chidambaram. These included evidence extracted from a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report and other sources.

As Swamy sought some time to bring more documents related to the scam, the court adjourned the matter till Jan 7, 2012.

Raja was the first one to be arrested in the scam. The DMK leader is among the 14 people, including corporate honchos, who have been arrested in the scam. Kanimozhi, a DMK Rajya Sabha MP and daughter of former Tamil Nadu chief minister K. Karunanidhi, was also arrested in connection with the scandal.

The Janata Party president also sought to examine CBI officials ‘to establish the nexus of accused persons with others who have intentionally not been made accused by the prosecuting agency’.

On Oct 10, the Supreme Court reserved its order on a plea for a probe into Chidambaram’s alleged role in the scam.

The quantum of punishment will be announced Dec 19 by Judge V. R. Revankar of the fast track court here.

The convicted are Mohammed Riaz-ur-Rehman of Andhra Pradesh, Afzar Pasha, Mehboob Ibrahim Saab Chopdar, Noorulla Khan, Mohammed Irfan (28) and Nazim Uddin alias Munna, all from Karnataka.

Revankar acquitted the seventh accused, Chandh Pasha of Bangalore.

The six were found guilty of the first major terror attack in Bangalore. In the attack on the evening of Dec 28, 2005, delegates coming out of an international conference at the famed institute in north Bangalore were fired on, leading to the death of M.C. Puri, a retired professor of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and injuries to four people.

The seven were arrested Jan 14, 2006, and charged with sedition, terrorism and religious disharmony.

All the seven were in central prison at Parappana Agrahara in east Bangalore.

The final pronouncement in the case will come two days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his Dec 15-17 official visit for a bilateral summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev consolidated bilateral trade and strategic ties and personal friendship.

The case, which has been going on in Tomsk court since June, seeks ban on a Russian translation of ‘Bhagavad Gita As It Is’ written by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

It also wants the Hindu religious text banned in Russia and declared as a literature spreading ‘social discord’, its distribution on Russian soil rendered illegal.

In view of the case, Indians settled in Moscow, numbering about 15,000, and followers of the ISKCON religious movement here have appealed to Manmohan Singh and his government to intervene diplomatically to resolve the issue in favour of the scripture, an important part of Indian epic Mahabharata written by sage Ved Vyas.

The ISKCON followers in Russia have also written a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi, calling for immediate intervention, lest the religious freedom of Hindus living here be compromised.

‘The case is coming up for a final verdict on Monday in Tomsk court. We want all efforts from the Indian government to protect the religious rights of Hindus in Russia,’ Sadhu Priya Das of ISKCON and a devotee of a 40-year-old Krishna temple in central Moscow, told IANS.

The court, which took up the case filed by the state prosecutors, had referred the book to the Tomsk State University for ‘an expert’ examination Oct 25.

But Hindu groups in Russia, particularly followers of ISKCON, say the university was not qualified as it lacked Indologists who study the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent.

The Hindus pleaded with the court that the case was inspired by religious bias and intolerance from a ‘majority religious group in Russia’, and have sought that their rights to practice their religious beliefs be upheld.

The prosecutor’s case also seeks to ban the preachings of Prabhupada and ISKCON’s religious beliefs, claiming these were ‘extremist’ in nature and preached ‘hatred’ of other religious beliefs.

‘They have not just tried to get the Bhagavad Gita banned, but also brand our religious beliefs and preachings as extremist,’ Das said.

The ISKCON devotees have taken up the matter with the Indian embassy in Moscow too for an early diplomatic intervention before things get worse and the court passes an adverse verdict banning the Bhagavad Gita and Krishna consciousness teachings.

In the Nov 1 letter addressed to Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji, ISKCON’s New Delhi branch Governing Body Commissioner Gopal Krishna Goswami, said the prosecutor’s affidavit claims Lord Krishna ‘is evil and not conforming to Christian religious view’.

Goswami also urged Manmohan Singh to accord priority to the matter during his Moscow stay and take it up with the Russian authorities.

Indian diplomatic corps officials at the embassy here, who were unwilling to be named, told IANS that they have been following up the case since the time it was brought to their notice earlier this year.

They had also taken up the matter at the appropriate levels in the Russian government to get the case either withdrawn or get the defence to fight the case to obtain a favourable verdict.

Officials at the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, who were part of the Indian delegation accompanying Manmohan Singh, confirmed to IANS the case and the letter they received from ISKCON in this regard.

‘This matter is receiving the highest attention and the Indian embassy officials in Moscow have been instructed to follow up the case with the Russian authorities,’ they said.

(N.C. Bipindra can be contacted at ncbipindra@gmail.com)

Swamy told Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special Judge O.P. Saini: ‘The prime minister’s speech delivered on the floor of parliament in February clearly proves that the pricing of the spectrum was taken on basis of cabinet decisions of 2003, which specifically left the issue to be determined by the finance minister and DoT (Department of Telecom).’

Chidambaram was the finance minister in the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA-I) government when the spectrum saga began.

Swamy has sought to make Chidambaram a party in the spectrum case, saying the decision on spectrum pricing was taken in 2008 jointly by him and then communications minister A. Raja, who is lodged in Tihar Jail since Feb 2.

‘Chidambaram and Raja were empowered by the 2003 cabinet decision to determine the spectrum price jointly,’ said Swamy.

‘Chidambaram was aware at least one day before what Raja was planning to do in selling the spectrum,’ he added.

As Swamy sought some time to bring more documents related to the scam, the court adjourned the matter till Jan 7, 2012.

According to prosecutor-general Askhat Daulbayev, the violent clashes broke out in the central square when a group of men attacked police officers, burned nearby buildings and several cars, Xinhua reported.

‘The police demanded to stop the riots, but the hooligans assaulted officers and tried to seize their weapons. They were using cold steel and firearms,’ the prosecutor-general said.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev sent a task force led by the interior minister to stop the riots, to put to justice their organisers and to restore law and order in the city, he added.

The attackers were employees of the state-run energy company, who have staged strikes for about six months seeking better salaries, local media reported.

Justice R.C. Mishra also slapped a fine of Rs.10,000 on the petitioner saying that it was a frivolous plea with no substantial evidence to prove the allegations, the minister’s advocate, Mrigendra Singh, said.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Manoj Kumar Agrawal had challenged Chitnis’ election, alleging that she had won using the religious card as well as misusing government machinery in gross violation of the model code of conduct and hence her election should be set aside.