Human Rights Diary April 2014
By vigilindia 21:06 feature , gallery , Vigil Human Rights Diary
What is the point of laws, and judgments to back these laws, when the ground has not changed?
'We pervert reason when we humiliate life man stopped respecting himself when he lost the respect due to his fellow-creatures." - Jose Saramago
Sewage travels across Delhi's 5,600- kilometer sewer lines at the speed of one meter per second. That is a rather leisurely pace of 3.6 km per hour - the time an obese person may take to complete one round of Lodi Gardens. Along this river of filth - the Ganga is just half this length - there are 1.5 lakh manholes servicing the effluents released by the capital's 15 million people. Much of this 'infrastructure' was designed more than 100 years ago. According to an estimate I made in 2007, at least 22,327 men and women die in India every year doing various kinds of sanitation work. Figures are hard to come by, since these concerns the deaths of a section of population that most of India refuses to see. Santosh Choudhary, then chairperson of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, had told me in 2007 that at least "two to three workers must be dying every day inside manholes across India."
On the morning of March 27, Bezwada Wilson of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA) sent a message to his well-wishers about the impending ruling of the Supreme Court in a Public Interest Litigation that had dragged on for 12 years. All that SKA had been seeking was the enforcement of fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution under Articles 14 (Right to Equality), 17 (Abolition of untouchability ), 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) and 47 (Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to. improve public health).
Judgment with a caveat
Later in the day, the three-judge Supreme Court Bench headed by the Chief Justice, P. Sathasivam, issued directions to the state, the railways, and several organizations to implement the provisions of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 - itself a result of SKA's relentless efforts. While everyone congratulated Mr. Wilson and the SKA team, a part of me froze at the sight of a certain clause in the judgment.
After ruling that "entering sewer lines without safety gears should be made a crime even in emergency situations," the Bench added a caveat: "For each such death, compensation of Rs.l0 lakhs should be given to the family of the deceased."
Human Rights Diary March 2014
By vigilindia 21:19 feature , gallery , Vigil Human Rights Diary
NEW YORK, AGENCIES: The recent climate change may be acting to slow down deep ocean currents with potentially serious consequences for the planet's future, a study warns. Deep currents act as conveyer belts, channeling heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients around the globe.
A new study by the University of Pennsylvania's Irina Marinov and Raffaele Bernardello and colleagues from McGill University has found that recent climate change may be acting to slow down one of these conveyer belts - with potentially serious consequences for the future of the planet's climate.
"Our observations are showing us that there is less formation of these deep waters near Antarctica," said Marinov, an assistant professor in the department of earth and environmental science.
"This is worrisome because, if this is the case, we're likely going to see less uptake of human produced, or anthropogenic, heat and carbon dioxide by the ocean, making this a positive feedback loop for climate change," she added.
Oceanographers have noticed that Antarctic Bottom Waters, a massive current of cold, salty and dense water that flows 2,000 metre under the ocean's surface from near the Antarctic coast toward the equator has been shrinking in recent decades.
This is cause for concern as the current is believed to "hide" heat and carbon from the atmosphere. The Southern Ocean takes up approximately 60 per cent of the anthropogenic heat produced on earth and 40 to 50 per cent of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide.
"The Southern Ocean is emerging as being very, very important for regulating climate," Marinov said. Marinov and colleagues used models to discern whether the shrinking of the Antarctic Bottom Waters could be attributed to anthropogenic climate change.
Deccan Herald, March 24, 2014
Human Rights Diary February 2014
By vigilindia 21:28 feature , gallery , Vigil Human Rights Diary
BANGALORE: Traders dealing in food who require obtaining a license by February 4 in order to comply with the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 are up against the "draconian legislation," said Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the apex body representing the interests of retailers.
Speaking to The Hindu before addressing traders gathered under the auspices of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), Mr. Khandelwal said: "The deadline for mandatory licenses for those retailing food is likely to be extended by another year, just as it was in the last two years."
Mr. Khandelwal said the CAIT leadership, during its recent meeting with the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad, had been assured them of a "favourable response."
He said Union Minister for Communications and IT Kapil Sibal, whom he met on Friday, had assured them of a "favourable review" of the implementation of the legislation. "The legislation is not merely impractical but also sinister," Mr. Khandelwal said.
He alleged that the provisions are geared to "wipe out" Indian competition to multinationals operating in the food business. "We have urged the government to review the legislation and spend the next year consulting all stakeholders so that we are left with a people friendly legislation."
Even nodal agencies under government control, such as the Food Corporation of India and the Central Warehousing Corporation, are not yet compliant with the legislation, he observed. "At this rate, even the Karnataka Chief Minister's pet scheme, the Anna Bhagya, runs the 'risk of getting derailed," he remarked
Human Rights Diary January 2014
By vigilindia 21:31 feature , gallery , Vigil Human Rights Diary
Supreme Court's guidelines on implementation of the death penalty will go a long way in recognizing the rights of those who are on the death row. While the court's judgment might make executions rarer than in the past, it is high time India enacted a law completely abolishing capital punishment as any civilized society is expected to do. With the landmark judgment of Tuesday, delay in taking a decision on mercy petitions has become a valid ground for commuting death penalty to life imprisonment. Fifteen petitioners have got relief with the ruling but it will also apply to others who are in the same situation, including those who are convicted under the anti-terrorism law. The court has also made it clear that a death sentence cannot be carried out if the convict suffers from mental illness.
The courts have progressively disfavored the death penalty in the last many years. After the law was amended in 1973 mandating that judges should give special reasons for awarding a death sentence, the Supreme Court laid down the 'rarest of rare' doctrine in 1980. It also refused to award the extreme penalty in many recent cases and has now reduced the scope for implementation of the sentence in many cases. Still judicial thinking has not always been consistent. The same court which had last year commuted a death sentence on the ground of delay in disposing of the mercy petition, refused to do so in another petition a few weeks later. The same inconsistency has been seen in the handling of mercy petitions too. Subjective, political or other considerations have influenced such decisions. While former President Pratibha Patil commuted the death sentences of 35 persons in 2012 before demitting office, Pranab Mukherjee rejected the largest number of petitions in a few months after becoming the President.
The court's guidelines will also put an end to solitary confinement and mandate periodical physical and mental health examinations and offer of legal aid to convicts. There should be a minimum 14 days between rejection of the petition and execution, and there should be communication with the family. In most cases, including in Afzal Guru's, many of these fair and just rights had not been respected.
Human Rights Diary - May 2013
By vigilindia 22:43 feature , gallery , Vigil Human Rights Diary
The economic vulnerabilities that confront households in the current sluggish recovery from the global meltdown are aggravating the fight against child labour, says the International Labour Organisation. Its latest report emphasizes the need for universal coverage of at least a minimum level of social security to help some 215 million working children. Half that number is trapped in the worst forms of child labour – work akin to slavery, debt bondage, child prostitution and hazardous occupations harmful to health and safety. To be sure, the number to child workers did drop by some 30 million in the last decade. But job losses in the adult population in the wake of the global financial crisis and shocks related to crop failure and recurrent freak weather patterns are threatening a reversal of recent gains. The report collates findings from various studies that establish a clear correlation between adverse macro-economic indicator and the recourse to child labour. Correspondingly, cash transfers are known to prove effective in reducing child labour in Asia and Latin America, subject to supply-side conditions such as the availability of education facilities. Similarly, in many African countries where parents have been lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, social protection measures such as health insurance, targeted at the elderly, ensure uninterrupted school attendance among children.
It is abundantly clear then that the elimination of child labour is predicated upon making progress on many fronts. Getting kids to go to school, a key priority that drove the abolition campaign a decade ago is obviously a necessary but not sufficient condition for the eradication of child labour. Surely, there has been a surge in enrolments in recent years and there has even been some talk of devising ways to retain wards beyond primary school. But all of this presupposes a sound overall policy framework to be sustained over the long term. A scenario where as much as 75 per cent of the global population (more than 5 billion people) has no access to comprehensive social protection, as per ILO estimates, hardly inspires confidence in the capacity of countries to kick start the lives of millions. To make headway, governments must be prepared to spend more. A hugely influential 2010 study which claimed that public debt ratios in excess of 90 per cent of gross domestic product would automatically lead to a decline in growth has recently been exposed as relying on erroneous calculations, a fact conceded by its authors. Several governments that have so far persisted with crippling austerity measures to cut back on welfare spending, with severe socio-political ramifications, should reconsider their stance. ...............
Human Rights Diary - April 2013
By vigilindia 02:36 feature , Vigil Human Rights Diary
In its latest form, the National Food Security Bill, 2013 promises to address the extreme irony of an ambitious nation holding mountains of food in storage, while masses of its people are under-nourished or even starving. The right to food is finally on the threshold of being legislated. Every step taken to widen the coverage of food security schemes is an advance. Yet, the empirical truth is that incremental measures at targeting the needy are a poor substitute for a cohesive, rights-based universal system of food entitlements. There are, no doubt, many positives to the new legislation, such as coverage of up to 75 per cent of eligible priority households in rural areas, the importance given to women as the head of the household for issue of ration cards, inclusion of pregnant and lactating women for free meals (some in government wanted to take away this entitlement from women who bear more than two children but the idea was sensibly dropped), and setting up of State Food Commissions to investigate violations of entitlements. Under the proposed law, it will be up to the States to frame criteria and choose the priority households for food entitlements, an exercise that will inevitably be accompanied by the well-documented troubles associated with targeting any welfare scheme. Exclusion of any deserving household is unfair and divisive. It poses a challenge to States that wish to provide universal access, an issue that is bound to be felt acutely in urban areas attracting tens of thousands of migrant labourers.
Human Rights Diary - March 2013
By vigilindia 02:32 feature , Vigil Human Rights Diary
Child health is one area where investments in innovation can result in tremendous social and economic returns.
Among countries with comparable development indicators, India has the potential to address many of its challenges with unique homegrown resources. The information technology sector, for example, has transformed the country’s economy and is currently helping expand access to a wide range of quality services for some of the poorest in India. India’s space and atomic energy programmes are outstanding example of indigenous technical ingenuity.
As economic growth continues to decelerate, the government, which has committed to doubling the country’s R& spending by 2017, may consider deferring or delaying planned expansion of scientific capacity. It is critical that we do not forget the important role of indigenous scientific innovation, in particulars, to improve livelihoods and promote wellbeing. To reiterate Jawaharlal Nehru’s words, “It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy.”
Child health is one area where investments in innovation can result in tremendous social and economic returns. India nearly halved child mortality rates between 1990 and 2010. Improved healthcare services and access to simple health interventions, such as oral rehydration therapy to address severe cases of diarrhea, have contributed to this encouraging reduction of child deaths.
However, in 2010, experts estimate that almost 17 lakh children less than five years of age died in India. This is still far too many children. Pneumonia and diarrhea, together, account for a significant proportion of these deaths. There are even more hospitalizations and out patient visits from these two diseases. Because of the tremendous emotional and financial toll that diarrhea takes on Indian families, we need to take these threats to our children seriously.....
Human Rights Diary - February 2013
By vigilindia 01:47 feature , Vigil Human Rights Diary
Juvenile crimes up
With the ongoing debate about the age bar for apprehended juveniles following the barbaric gang-rape in Delhi, many facts have come to fore against them, especially if one goes by the statistics.
Crimes by young offenders rose by a staggering 40 per cent between 2001 and 2010, reveals India’s National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB). Bangalore in 2011 witnessed 49 juvenile crimes, whereas in 2012 the number rose to 84.
The laws pertaining to juveniles have served as a protective wall for the young criminals to commit any kind of crimes. Speaking to City Express, B Dayananda, joint commissioner of crime, east says, “In fact, many gangsters and rowdies in Bangalore have and are planning to involve young children in illegal activities like murder, robbery, abduction since there is no much legal implication for these young ones.”
The NCRB Report 2012 states, crimes involving children have increased from 0.8 per cent in 2001 to 11.8 per cent in 2011 nationwide. In fact, over 33000 juveniles, in the age group of 16 to 18 have been arrested for crimes like rape and murder in 2011 across the country, the highest in last decade.
As far as juvenile crime in Bangalore goes, the primary cases that have come to light are mostly theft, snatching chains, robbery and dacoity. This is followed by murders, rapes and other forms of crimes. Says Dayananda, “we have come across cases where juveniles have been co-participants with rowdy elements as well.” Given the scenario, the demand for a crackdown on juvenile offenders is increasing day-by-day and is purely justified.
The New Indian Express, February 2, 2013
Human Rights Diary - January 2013
By vigilindia 21:06 feature , Vigil Human Rights Diary
Covert violence against women: Sex selection and foeticide
The horrifying rape and death of the 23-year-old physiotherapist in Delhi was the tipping point that led to nationwide glamour against this social crime that has shown no signs of abatement, even after years of protests from human rights groups, women’s organizations and activists. The existing law does not deter these criminals and shoddy enforcement allows even the most heinous rapists off with shockingly light sentences.
The time is right for tough reform. It is also time to look at the criminal within us and address ‘invisible’ forms of violence against women, beginning with female foeticide. As Indians, our preference for sons has led to the ‘disappearance of daughters’ and a dangerously skewed sex ratio in many states that, it is warned, can be a contributing factor for attacks against women and human trafficking.
The social reasons for sex selection include traditional male preference, burden of dowry, safety concerns for girls and view of women as belonging to the family they marry into. It is compounded by the small family norm that adds pressure to beget a male heir. Female infanticide has now been replaced with female foeticide as a means to achieving this end.
The States with the worst sex ratios are Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi NCR. It is not entirely incidental that these states have the highest record of rape and violence against women. With more than 600 cases of rape reported in New Delhi this year (and only one conviction) it means at least two women are brutally assaulted every day in the national capital.
The 2011 world census revealed that India, with its ration of 914 girls for every 1000 boys is among the lowest ranked in the world. The Indian census 2011 reported 933 girls for every 1000 boys, setting off alarm bells in the health Ministry and political establishment. A fall-out of the skewed ratio is growing numbers of young men, mostly unemployed or low-wage earners who may be deprived of the prospect of a family. Sociologists suggest this can lead to antisocial behavior and violence, threatening the stability of society. A study by Hudson and Den Boer in Asian countries, including India, showed strong correlation between homicidal rates and skewed ratio in individual states across this country, after controlling for con-founders such as urbanization and poverty.
Human Rights Diary - December 2012
By vigilindia 01:26 feature , Vigil Human Rights Diary
Matter of shame
The fact that India is among the world’s 100 most corrupt countries will not cause surprise to those who live in the country, know that there is an illegal and immoral price to be paid for every service that one is legitimately entitled to and are flooded with news of scams and scandals every day. The Transparency International’s annual index of corruption assigns the 94th rank to India among 176 countries surveyed by it. It shares that position with countries like Greece and Colombia. There is a slight improvement in its position relative to last year but this is because of a methodological change in the survey. It may also be because other countries are becoming more corrupt. The reality and extent of corruption in social life remains much the same. The TT’s index measures perceptions of graft rather than actual levels of corruption which should be worse.
The least corrupt are the small and rich countries like Denmark and Finland and the most corrupt are failed states like Sudan and Somalia. Most developing countries are in the lower mid-ranking positions. China and Sri Lanka are at 80 and 79, but Pakistan is worse than India. China’s ranking is worse than last year. It is poor comfort to realize from the rankings that corruption is a worldwide phenomenon. The cost of corruption is high in moral, political and economic terms. That some of the more corrupt countries enjoy a high economic growth is also no consolation. In the longer term corruption can only weaken economies, polities and societies. TI has noted that high levels of corruption have hindered global economic recovery. It has also observed that those stuck at the low levels are those where the political elites are unwilling to address the problem of corruption seriously. This is very true about India.
One encouraging sign is that corruption has started unsettling people all over the world and there are protests in most places, even in authoritarian countries like China. In India while the movements against corruption are gaining increasing recognition, there is also a worrying and contradictory trend of increasing resignation. Those who are accused, an even found guilty of, corruption, are also more nonchalant and defiant. These are not good signs because corruption has to be fought at personal, social and political levels without the least compromise.
Deccan Herald, December 13, 2012
Vigil HR Diary - November 2012
By vigilindia 21:06 feature , Vigil Human Rights Diary
More importantly, the Act provides precise definitions of different forms of sexual abuse, including penetrative and non-penetrative sexual assault, sexual harassment and pornography.
The Act provides for stringent punishment, graded as per the gravity of the offence, with a maximum term of rigorous imprisonment for life for certain offences.
Union Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath told reporters, in keeping with the best international child protection standards, the Act provides for mandatory reporting of sexual offences. It also prescribes punishment for a person if he provides false information with intention to defame any person, including a child. Most importantly, the Act provides for child friendly procedures for reporting of offences, recording of evidence, investigation and trial. Also under Section 45 of the Act, the power to make rules rests with the Central government.
The rules framed under the Act provide for qualifications and experience of interpreters, translators, special educators, and experts; arrangements for the care, protection and emergency medical treatment of the child; compensation payable to a child who has been the victim of a sexual offence; and periodic monitoring of the provision of the Act by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
The rules rely on the structures established under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, to make arrangements for the care and protection of the child and to ensure that the person is not re-victimized in the course of investigation and trial.
The Hindu, November 15, 2012
Human Rights Diary - September 2012
By vigilindia 20:35 feature , Vigil Human Rights Diary
By Vatsala Vedantam
The angry responses to a recent article on euthanasia triggered a new train of thought and this piece of writing. If ending a life plagued with pain and suffering due to some terminal illness is so appalling, why are we not upset when more than 50 per cent of children in this country die of hunger and malnutrition? Where is the anger that millions more should go to sleep famished every night because there was not enough food to go around? Do we not feel revolted to hear that more than 230 million poor persons in India (the highest among countries) die a slow and cruel death due to starvation?
The latest report from the Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranks India 15thamong starving nations. It also points out that the hunger situation in this country has escalated since 1996. These statistics should make us hang our heads in shame. The slow death of a young population by starvation and hungers should have caused more anguish and indignation than the painless termination of an older person’s life where there was no hope of recovery.
The Central government established the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in 1964 to control and distribute food production in the country equitably among all states. Its main responsibility was to provide food security to the nation. Commonsense tells us that this can be achieved only through a proper public distribution system that ensures fair sharing of food grains among all sections of the population. It is also obvious that the same should be stored appropriately under suitable conditions since food is a perishable product whose shelf life is very limited. Even though the FCI was allotted the main task of ensuring proper distribution of food that was generated in the country, it was also entrusted with the task of protecting the interests of the people who generated that food in the first place.
Nothing wrong with that, except the fact that the farmer’s welfare is a subject that can be politicized and exploited for political gains. The farmers’ bobby is also a powerful one for obvious reasons, whereas, the hungry child cannot speak or fight for his/her rights. And, a starving man has no means to project his cause on public platforms. So, it has been argued that the government should ensure fair pricing of the food it distributes in order to enable the consumer to buy it, even as it looks after the interests of the farmers. Where would the farmers be without the consumers of the food that they generate?
Vigil Human Rights Diary - August 2012
By vigilindia 20:20 feature , Vigil Human Rights Diary
While ‘migration’ per se is part of a vastly complex scenario of socio-economic mobility of diverse groups to new areas of work-opportunities to stave off joblessness and hunger, the recent return of thousands of North East people from different cities to Assam, as a fall out of clashes there, has brought out manifold challenges in educating the migrant workers’ children.
The problem is of such gigantic proportions that, despite paucity of authentic data on ‘distress migration’ in India, a conservative estimate is that “around 70 million people migrate every year in search of livelihoods, of whom the number of school-age children (up to 14 years) is about nine million,” emphasizes Smita Agarwal, Director, Education (India), America India Foundation, New Delhi.
These are children accompanying their migrating parents who move in search of work for several months every year. And migration comes in different forms, ranging from thousands of labourers travelling 600 to 800 km by train from tribal districts of western Orissa to work in brick kilns in Andhra Pradesh, people moving into the sugarcane cultivating belt of western Maharashtra that extends up to Surat in Gujarat and Belgaum in Karnataka, tens of thousands of people moving to work in the salt pans of Gujarat, to migrant hands required in other sectors – construction sites being the foremost in our burgeoning cities and towns.
These mobility patterns, accentuated particularly after India embarked on economic liberalization in 1991, have thrown up a monumental task in educating the children of the migrant labour force. The issue has gained more focus with the ‘Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act’ coming into force last year, say policy experts and NGO activists who had gathered at a national seminar on ‘Education of internal migrant children’, organized by Give Life Trust, a Chennai-based NGO active in this area.
Even without scanning the social profile of these ‘Other India’ migrant worker families, the numbers are staggering, though not definitive. While the ‘India Migration Report – 2011’, based on the 2011 Indian Census data is awaited that will throw more light on different facets of Indian migration, the latest 64th round of National Sample Survey (NSS) data is itself a goldmine.
