Friday, July 17, 2015

Gujarat fares poorly in child health PM Modi’s home state lags behind national average in immunisation, nutrition, growth

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 16, The Tribune
A government commissioned survey on child health has shown that Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is lagging behind even Bihar on the critical indicator of child immunization. It also reveals that Gujarat has more underweight and stunted children than the national average.
The survey commissioned by Women and Child Development Ministry in the previous UPA regime was conducted with the technical help from Unicef and completed in May 2014. Since then, its findings have not been made public.
One of the findings is —child immunisation rate in Gujarat is 56 per cent as against the national average of 65 per cent and 60 per cent in Bihar, which is normally considered an underperformer on development indicators. Gujarat is placed 21st among the 29 states surveyed for immunisation coverage of 12 to 24 month olds under Universal Immunisation Programme which offers seven vaccines against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, TB, hepatitis B and measles.
Another finding of the report relates to Gujarat’s poor performance on child malnutrition. The survey shows that while 29 per cent children (up to five years of age) are underweight nationally, in Gujarat this figure is 33.5 per cent. For stunting (height for weight), the national average is 40 per cent. In Gujarat, this percentage is 42 per cent. Citing these statistics, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today alleged that the Centre was deliberately suppressing the survey data because it is embarrassing for Narendra Modi, former Chief Minister of Gujarat, who followed the “Modi model of development”.
“We have no problems with the Gujarat model of development but we certainly have problems with the Modi Model of Gujarat Development. The survey is being suppressed because the Centre cannot acknowledge its finding that overall proportion of underweight children in India fell from 42.5 per cent in 2004 to 30 per cent, the period of UPA rule,” Ramesh said asking the Centre to submit the survey to Parliament for discussions.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Indian Penal code on Criminal Defamation is a tool in the hand of Governmant to supress Free Speech - AFDR

{ In 1975 Emergency the Fundemental Rights were crushed  openly . But now the ruling governments are mischeviously and in subtle    ways is attacking fundamental rights . Harasment of Teesta Setalvad a staunch worker for communal harmoney and who did marvilious work on 2002 Gujrat Riots and Green peace workers who expose Carporate loot under the garb of laws is one of many examples of this method where they are blind to many socially demaging acts of their own tribe.

Present Government's submission to Supreme Court in support to retain IPC provisions of criminal defamation is such subtle way to favour supression of free speech . Read this editorial in The Hindu dated July 16 , 2015,  blog editor}


A pernicious law

The Union government’s contention in the Supreme Court that the provisions in the Indian Penal Code on criminal defamation do not have a chilling effect on free speech will disappoint proponents of fundamental freedoms. The zeal to retain a law that the state can use to stifle criticism is at the heart of the government’s position. It also goes against democratic opinion in many jurisdictions that treats defamation essentially as a civil wrong, and not something to be remedied by the use of the state’s coercive police powers. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, the Human Rights Committee of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international bodies have called upon states to abolish criminal defamation, recognising that it intimidates citizens and dissuades them from exposing wrongdoing. The grounds cited by the Centre now to justify the continuance of Sections 499 and 500 of the IPC, which deal with defamation and prescribe a maximum jail term of two years, are specious: that in India, citizens are unlikely to have enough liquidity to pay damages for civil defamation; that online defamation in the Internet age can be effectively countered only by making it a criminal offence, and that the law is part of the state’s “compelling interest” to protect the dignity and reputation of citizens. What it fails to see is that the main feature of criminal defamation is its potential for harassment. It is a tool that can be easily invoked and that enables allegedly defamed persons to drag anyone to courts across the country.
Criminal defamation has a pernicious effect on society: for instance, the state uses it as a means to coerce the media and political opponents into adopting self-censorship and unwarranted self-restraint; groups or sections claiming to have been hurt or insulted, abuse the process by initiating multiple proceedings in different places; and, more importantly, the protracted process itself is a punishment. Further, magistrates tend to mechanically summon defendants without first assessing whether the allegedly offending content comes within one of the many exceptions to defamation found in the statute. Criminal defamation should not be allowed to be an instrument in the hands of the state, especially when the Code of Criminal Procedure gives public servants an unfair advantage by allowing the state’s prosecutors to stand in for them when they claim to have been defamed by the media or political opponents. Thanks to past verdicts of the Supreme Court, the government and its organs can no more file civil suits seeking damages for defamation, yet the pernicious law of criminal defamation is invoked to stifle free speech. Even as the court deliberates the matter, the government ought to reconsider its stand and come out against the criminal defamation law.

ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦੀ ਹੱਕ-ਜਤਾਈ ਨੂੰ ਕੁਚਲਣ ਲਈ ਬਲੀ ਦੇ ਬੱਕਰੇ ਲੱਭ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ

ਅੱਜ ਇਥੇ ਪ੍ਰੈੱਸ ਬਿਆਨ ਜਾਰੀ ਕਰਦਿਆਂ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਅਧਿਕਾਰ ਸਭਾ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਸੂਬਾ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਏ.ਕੇ.ਮਲੇਰੀ ਅਤੇ ਸੂਬਾ ਜਨਰਲ ਸਕੱਤਰ ਜਗਮੋਹਣ ਸਿੰਘ ਨੇ ਸੂਹੀਆਤੰਤਰ ਵਲੋਂ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਵਿਚ ਦਲਿਤਾਂ ਦੇ ਜ਼ਮੀਨਾਂ ਲਈ ਸੰਘਰਸ਼ ਨੂੰ ਮਾਓਵਾਦ-ਨਕਸਲਵਾਦ ਦੇ ਪੈਰ ਪਸਾਰਨ ਦਾ ਨਾਂ ਦੇ ਕੇ ਗ਼ਲਤ ਜਾਣਕਾਰੀ ਫੈਲਾਉਣ ਅਤੇ ਹੁਕਮਰਾਨਾਂ ਦੀ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਹੀ ਬੰਦ ਅੱਖਾਂ ਉਪਰ ਪੱਟੀ ਬੰਨਣ ਦਾ ਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕ ਰੁਝਾਨ ਕਰਾਰ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਹੈ। ਸਭਾ ਦੇ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਨੇ ਕਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਪੰਚਾਇਤੀ ਜ਼ਮੀਨਾਂ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ ਦਲਿਤਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦਾ ਬਣਦਾ ਹੱਕ ਯਕੀਨੀ ਬਣਾਉਣ ਅਤੇ ਖੇਤੀ ਸੰਕਟ, ਬੇਰੋਜ਼ਗਾਰੀ ਅਤੇ ਹੋਰ ਆਰਥਕ ਮਸਲਿਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਹੱਲ ਦੀ ਆਪਣੀ ਜ਼ਿੰਮੇਵਾਰੀ ਨਿਭਾਉਣ ਅਤੇ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਪ੍ਰਤੀ ਜਵਾਬਦੇਹ ਹੋਣ ਦਾ ਸਹੀ ਰਾਹ ਅਖ਼ਤਿਆਰ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਥਾਂ ਬਲੀ ਦੇ ਬੱਕਰੇ ਲੱਭ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੇ ਬਹਾਨੇ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦੀ ਹੱਕ-ਜਤਾਈ ਦੇ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਹੱਕ ਨੂੰ ਬੇਤਹਾਸ਼ਾ ਤਾਕਤ ਨਾਲ ਕੁਚਲਿਆ ਜਾ ਸਕੇ। ਸਰਕਾਰ ਅਜੇ ਵੀ ਕੰਧ 'ਤੇ ਲਿਖਿਆ ਪੜ੍ਹਨ ਲਈ ਤਿਆਰ ਨਹੀਂ। ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਕਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਮਹਿਜ਼ ਦੋ ਮਹੀਨਿਆਂ 'ਚ ਹੀ ਦੋ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹਿਆਂ ਅੰਦਰ 18 ਕਿਸਾਨ-ਮਜ਼ਦੂਰ ਖ਼ੁਦਕੁਸ਼ੀਆਂ ਕਰ ਚੁੱਕੇ ਹਨ। ਘੋਰ ਸੰਕਟ ਦੀ ਹਾਲਤ ਵਿਚ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਵਲੋਂ ਜਵਾਬਦੇਹੀ ਦੀ ਥਾਂ ਕੰਨ ਤੇ ਅੱਖਾਂ ਬੰਦ ਕਰ ਲੈਣ ਕਾਰਨ ਹਰ ਤਬਕੇ 'ਚ ਹਾਹਾਕਾਰ ਮੱਚੀ ਹੋਈ ਹੈ। ਆਵਾਜਾਈ ਕੰਟਰੋਲ ਦੀ ਕੋਈ ਵਿਵਸਥਾ ਨਾ ਹੋਣ ਕਾਰਨ ਰੋਜ਼ ਔਸਤ ਅੱਠ-ਦਸ ਲੋਕ ਸੜਕ ਹਾਦਸਿਆਂ 'ਚ ਜਾਨਾਂ ਗਵਾ ਰਹੇ ਹਨ। ਖ਼ੁਦ ਸੂਬੇ ਦੇ ਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਦੀ ਮਾਲਕੀ ਵਾਲੀਆਂ ਔਰਬਿਟ ਬੱਸਾਂ ਆਏ ਦਿਨ ਨਾਗਰਿਕਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸੜਕਾਂ ਉਪਰ ਕੁਚਲ ਰਹੀਆਂ ਹਨ। ਇਕ ਪਿੱਛੋਂ ਇਕ ਬੰਦਾ ਦਰੜਕੇ ਮਾਰਿਆ ਜਾਣ ਦੇ ਬਾਵਜੂਦ ਉਥੇ ਮੋਟਰ ਵਹੀਕਲਜ਼ ਐਕਟ ਲਾਗੂ ਨਹੀਂ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾ ਰਿਹਾ। ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦੇ ਜਾਨ-ਮਾਲ ਦੀ ਰਾਖੀ ਲਈ ਬਣਾਈ ਜਾਂ ਤਾਂ ਸੱਤਾਧਾਰੀ ਧਿਰ ਨੂੰ ਬੇਕਸੂਰ ਦਿਖਾਉਣ ਦੀ ਰਾਜਭਗਤੀ ਦੇ ਯਤਨ ਕਰ ਰਹੀ ਹੁੰਦੀ ਹੈ (ਜਿਵੇਂ ਕੁਰਾਲੀ ਨੇੜੇ ਬੱਸ ਕਾਂਡ ਸਮੇਂ ਪੁਲਿਸ ਸਬੂਤ ਮਿਟਾਉਣ 'ਚ ਲੱਗੀ ਹੋਈ ਸੀ) ਜਾਂ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਡਾਂਗਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਕੁੱਟ ਰਹੀ ਹੁੰਦੀ ਹੈ (ਜਿਵੇਂ ਬਠਿੰਡਾ ਵਿਚ ਅਧਿਆਪਕਾਂ ਦੀ ਬੇਰਹਿਮੀ ਨਾਲ ਕੁੱਟਮਾਰ ਹੋਈ) । ਰਾਜਤੰਤਰ ਦੀ ਅਜਿਹੀ ਘੋਰ ਸੰਵੇਦਨਹੀਣਤਾ ਦੀ ਸੂਰਤ 'ਚ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਵਲੋਂ ਆਪਣੀ ਜਾਨ-ਮਾਲ ਦੀ ਰਾਖੀ ਜਥੇਬੰਦ ਹੋਕੇ ਕਰਨਾ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦਾ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਹੱਕ ਹੈ ਜਿਸ ਦੀ ਜਾਇਜ਼ ਵਰਤੋਂ ਹਾਕਮਾਂ ਤਕ ਆਪਣੀ ਆਵਾਜ਼ ਪਹੁੰਚਾਉਣ ਲਈ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ ਹਨ। ਸਭਾ ਦੇ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਨੇ ਆਮ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਤਾਕਤਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਇਸ ਤਰਾ੍ਹਂ ਦੇ ਖ਼ਤਰਨਾਕ ਸੰਕੇਤਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਵਧ ਰਹੇ ਜਬਰ ਦਾ ਟਾਕਰਾ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਆਪਣੀ ਜਥੇਬੰਦ ਤਾਕਤ ਨੂੰ ਮਜ਼ਬੂਤ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਸੱਦਾ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਹੈ।

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The Murderers of Dhananjoy Hazir Ho! Abolish Death Penalty Report by P U D R

PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

The Murderers of Dhananjoy Hazir Ho!
Abolish Death Penalty
                                                                                                                        13th July 2015
The irreversibility of death penalty, and the likelihood of innocents being executed by the Judiciary, is one of the strongest arguments for abolishing capital punishment. Dhananjoy Chatterjee today joins the list of persons where clear evidence exists that they were erroneously handed death penalty by the Indian judicial system. Executed on 14th August 2004, nearly fourteen years after his arrest in May 1990, Dhananjoy was convicted for the brutal murder and sexual assault on 18 year old Hetal Parekh, a resident of the apartment building in which he worked as a guard,  in Kolkatain March 1990. Almost 11 years later to date, a report released by two scholars of Indian Statistical Institute (Kolkata) exposing the shoddy and biased investigation and trial, provides evidence that points towards his innocence and wrongful execution. According to the report by Debashish Sengupta and Prabal Chaudhury titled "Re-Analysis of the case of the murder of Hetal Parekh: And the Judicial Killing of Dhananjay Chatterjee" all the mainstays of the police and prosecution’s story are open to question:
·         Witnesses: The police case was based on certain witness accounts which are suspect. The police claimed that the apartment liftman had left Dhananjoy on the floor of the victim’s apartment. The liftman denied this in court; so much so, that the prosecution had to declare him a hostile witness. The police seizure list was signed as witness by a person who supplies tea to the police station. He didn’t turn up to give evidence during the trial.
·         Recoveries: A necklace recovered at the scene of crime, which the police claimed to be Dhananjoy’s, turned out to belong to another apartment staffer who claimed to have given it to Dhananjoy. Again, police never bothered to tally the number of that watch with the one recovered from Dhananjoy’s village house and which the Parekh family claimed was stolen from their house.
·         Forensic evidence: There were 21 stab wounds on the victim’s body, but no murder weapon was recovered.The victim’s body was lying in a pool of blood, yet no witness claimed that they saw any blood on Dhananjoy’s clothes. While semen traces were found in the victim’s vagina, no DNA test was done to ascertain if it was of the accused.
·         Role of the family: The rape and murder allegedly happened in the very short time between 5:20 PM and 5:50 PM, while the victim’s mother was out of the house. However there was a delay of three hours between the discovery of Hetal’s body by her mother and the calling in of the police, allowing for tampering of evidence. The mother’s immediate naming of Dhananjoy as the culprit, the inconsistencies in the statements of other family members, and the fact that the family wrapped up their flourishing jewelry business in the city within six months of the crime and left Kolkata – all raise questions about the role of the family, and the possibility of an honour killing, especially given that sexual intercourse had preceded the murder.
·         Police’s Complicity:The letter of complaint to the security agency by the victim’s father, alleging that Dhananjoy used to harass Hetal used by the police to establish motive, seems to have been written after the crime in order to manufacture evidence against Dhananjoy. The police overlooked the above mentioned inconsistencies in the family’s story, the corruption of the scene of the crime etc.

Several questions arise:
·         Why was the police investigation so shoddy?
·         How was the death penalty pronounced, given all these gaps in the investigation and the inconsistency of the evidence presented?
·         Why did the trial courts not pay attention and allow legal ‘facts’ to be created?
·         Why did the Supreme Court as well as the President, as it now emerges, unquestioningly accept the ‘facts’ of the case?
·         Why did the courts not consider that he came from a very poor and underprivileged background and couldn’t mount a proper legal defence at the lower courts?
·         Why was it immaterial that at the time of his hanging, Dhananjoy had already lived in the shadow of death for 14 years since his arrest? He was, in fact, punished twice for the same crime - a fact pointed out by those arguing for commutation. The popular frenzy demanding Dhananjoy’s death arising from the facts of the young age of the victim, the brutality of the murder, the alleged sexual violence, and the class divide all decided the outcome.
The erroneous judgment in the execution of Dhananjoy once more demonstrates the inherent class bias against the poor and the privileging of the rich, which takes precedence over proper investigation or an impartial judicial process. The appeals got decided, as they very often do, heeding the “collective conscience” of the privileged opinion makers baying for the blood of the accused.
The report makes clear that Dhananjoy Chatterjee is only the latest addition in the list of wrongful executions in India. In 2012, 14 eminent jurists including Justice PB Sawant, Justices A P Shah, B A Khan, B H Marlapalle, B G Kolse-Patil, Hosbet Suresh, Prabha Sridevan, K P Sivasubramaniam, RS Verma, and P C Jain had appealed for the commutation of death penalty in separate letters to the President in the cases of 13 persons on death row who they claimed were erroneously sentenced to death. They specifically drew attention to the grave miscarriage of justice in the case of Ravji Ram and Surja Ram who were hanged in the late 1990s and who according to the Supreme Court's own acknowledgement were wrongly executed.
While the possibility of miscarriage of justice is ever-present and no form of punishment is reversible, the death penalty forecloses any possibility of reversal. That the so-called safeguards – judicial review before the SC and the mercy petition before the President - are fallible, have been once again illustrated. The trial and death sentence awarded to Dhananjoy, as it turns out, was an act of judicial murder.
Today the least the apex court ought to do is to commute all death sentences and come out with a judicial dictum abolishing Death Penalty. The collective conscience of conscientious Indians asks for nothing less than the abolition of Death Penalty.
Megha Bahl & Sharmila Purkayastha
(Secretaries PUDR)

BANNED and DAMNED :: SIMI’s Saga with UAPA Tribunals - A Report by PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS
Release of report entitled, Banned and Damned: SIMI’s Saga with UAPA Tribunals
8th July 2015
Since 2001, the Students Islamic Movement of India, SIMI, has remained banned as an ‘unlawful’ organization under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, UAPA for allegedly pursuing anti-national activities. Significantly, the ban provision under UAPA mandates the setting up of a Tribunal which is expected to adjudicate the government’s notification and also offer the banned organization the chance of challenging its proscription. SIMI has challenged its ban seven times and seven successive Tribunals have upheld the government’s decision. PUDR’s latest report, Banned and Damned: SIMI’s Saga with UAPA Tribunals, presents an analysis of the UAPA Tribunals’ through a detailed study of two recent judgements (2010 and 2012) and argues against the ban provisions and demands the repeal of the Act. Offered below are some of the salient points raised in the report:
1. The context: Historicizing the case of SIMI’s repeated bans, the opening chapter presents the contradiction between Tribunal verdicts and those of trial courts. Unlike the Tribunal judgements which routinely affirm the ban on SIMI, the trial courts have acquitted a large number of SIMI activists in the last fourteen years. (See pp 3-4). This trend of acquittal which has continued in recent times, including the Hubli conspiracy case, begs the question as to why the Tribunals remain unaffected by the trial court verdicts while pronouncing their ban orders. The remainder of the report addresses this question and analyses why the Tribunals function as a rubber stamp for the government’s notification, despite claims to the contrary.
2. Repeated violations: Since 2001, as per law, a single High Court judge has presided over the UAPA Tribunals. However, in 2008 under Justice Gita Mittal, the ban on SIMI was lifted as the judge pointed out that the necessary ‘grounds’ supporting the ban notifications had not been provided by the Government in its submissions before the Tribunal. The three previous Tribunals, of 2001, 2003, 2006, had violated the Act as they merely ratified the Government notification without perusal of the necessary grounds. No action was ever taken against these violations and even the cancellation of ban order was reverted by the Supreme Court which stayed the Tribunal’s judgment for the entire period of two years, till 2010. (pp 7-8)
3. Partisan provisions: The UAPA sections 3-9 deal with the ban provisions meant for unlawful organizations and mandate the procedural safeguards necessary for the functioning of the Tribunal. (pp 19-21). However, a closer look at the repeated phraseology in the judgments, “against public interest”/ “immediate effect”/ “sufficient cause”/ “as far as practicable”/ “so far as may be”, confirm that the fine print of the Act contains several caveats which ensure the dilution of safeguards. This erosion enables the government to implement bans with “immediate effect”, nullifying the need for any check or ratification. Additionally, the prosecution can withhold information before the Tribunal on the grounds of “public interest” and not show concrete evidence. Furthermore, the Tribunal’s pliant judicial character can restrict the grounds to only “one ground” for fulfilling the sufficiency cause and disregard mandated procedures of normal law on the plea of “as far as practicable” or “so far as may be”. (pp 19-25)
4. Prejudiced proceedings: Since the process of adjudication is meant to adhere to those of a civil suit, the Tribunal offers wide latitude to the prosecution in building its case against SIMI. In keeping with the rhetoric of Islamic terrorism, the prosecution demonstrates country-wide “terror plots” hatched by SIMI suspects; denounces several organizations as “front organizations” which work subversively in favour of SIMI; and produces a sweeping range of “banned literature” which are said to circulate in the form of songs, poems, leaflets, receipts, books, CDs, DVDs and emails etc. In short, the prosecution’s case is that despite the ban, SIMI has been working clandestinely and grown through its proximity with Islamic terror organizations. (pp 8-12). Given the Tribunal’s lowered threshold for admitting evidence, the prosecution easily submits decade “old cases” with minor modifications as legitimate ones; furnishes police confessions as testimonies; and, withholds evidence on grounds of “public interest”. (pp 13-18)
5. Unfair judgments: The ban provision along with Section 41 of the Act, which insists that an organization continues despite any “formal act of dissolution”, prevents any possible fair chance for the aggrieved organization. SIMIs claim that it had ceased to function after the ban was never accepted as the prosecution repeatedly rehearses its clandestine activities. Further, the locus standi of the erstwhile SIMI activists who appeared before the 2012 Tribunal as “aggrieved persons” allowed for under Section 6 of the Act was challenged by the government counsel on the grounds that the said the erstwhile activists had to be admitted as “members of a continuing organization”, a claim which was upheld by the Tribunal judge. (pp 24-26). The burden of this consequence, of being damned and banned, is best summarized in Shahid Badr Falihi’s submission before the 2010 Tribunal where he questioned this “unequal, unethical and unjust exercise” (p 6).
6. The intent: Contrary to their role of providing checks and balances, the Tribunal judges’ readily concur with the prosecution’s case and the proceedings offer enough space for admitting personal biases in the name of adjudication. The role of the Tribunal is adjusted to suit the Governments’ needs as it cannot seek authenticity of the documents provided by, or ascertain the nature of the cases presented by the prosecution. Nor can it intervene in the situation of wide-scale arrests that happen with the declaration of bans with “immediate effect”. The procedural laxity of the Tribunal effectively colludes with the powers vested in the Government by the Act to ensure the latter’s continuance. (pp 26-28)
7. Review Committees: While the analysis is restricted to a study of Tribunals meant for ‘unlawful’ organizations, the report urges for a need to challenge the review process meant for ‘terrorist’ organizations. The inherent arbitrariness of the Act is evident in its distinction between ‘unlawful’ and ‘terrorist’ organizations and delegation of a Review Committee instead of a Tribunal for dealing with ‘de-notification’ of terrorist organizations. The Review Committees are but euphemism for Advisory Boards which were rejected by the Supreme Court in the VG Row judgement (1952) and subsequently by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind judgment in 1995. (p 29)  
8. Why UAPA must be repealed: Among the recent amendments of the Act, the enhancement of the ban period from two to five on the suggestion of the 2012 judge has effectively confirmed a permanent ban on SIMI. Yet, the successive Tribunals have admitted that these bans have been ineffective in curbing SIMI. Why then are bans sought, particularly since they engender a culture of proscription and clandestine activities? If the official argument is that bans are meant to curb violent actions and ideologies, then it is legitimate to question why only certain dissenting organizations are targeted in the name of national security. The discriminatory application is compounded by the fact that laws like the UAPA invent new categories of crimes based on intention through which the Government can target organizations and their members. The most routine charges levelled against SIMI is that of membership and of ‘unlawful’ activities and both carry stiff punishment ranging from two years to life imprisonment, including death penalty. The several case studies in the report show the sectarian nature of the Act as it has generated numerous social and economic hardships for Muslim men who stand accused under it. The report calls for the repeal of the Act as it generates sectarian politics, creates new classes of offenders based on their organizational affiliation and attacks them with legislated violence. (pp 29-32)
9. In defense of political freedoms: The report emphasises the need to safeguard the Constitutionally guaranteed political freedoms, of speech, association and assembly, which stand threatened under the Act. Today, more than before there is a greater need to challenge the proviso, “reasonable restrictions” with its infamous history dating back to 1951 as large ambits of our political life are restricted by it. (p 30) The argument that violent acts can be contained by restricting these political freedoms is specious as it is the duty of the State to protect the lives of its citizens and take action against culprits under provisions of existing codes. The report concludes by affirming that it is better to err, if at all, on the side of freedoms than to get trapped in the ‘discrete charm’ of security phobia which thrives on fear and falsifications. (p 33)



Megha Bahl and Sharmila Purkayastha
Secretaries; www.pudr.org; Phone (Sharmila) +91-9971179595



For full Report click here

A genocide we have collectively allowed, in the name of a swachh Bharat?

The 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which India is a signatory, defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

{ Here is a  report which brings out  a real picture of SAFAI KARAMCHARIS, we can reach mars but fail to provide survival gear . There has been many deaths in Punjab too while bare body cleaning severages. Also see accompanied photo album } afdr edit

In the gutter



Catch News
Bharat Ratnas: the Clean India army every Indian must meet

|13 July 2015


The inhumanity
  • About 21 million people live in Mumbai, generating 7,000 tonnes of daily waste
  • The city has 38,000 'conservancy workers', which is the innocuous term for those employed in waste disposal
  • The municipality engages 4,357 labourers to clean 54,600 manholes and open sewage lines
  • Most of these belong to the Mahar caste of Dalits
  • Across India, there are 12 lakh manual scavengers.
  • Among them, 9,600 deaths are reported each year
· The reaction
  • Photographer Sudharak Olwe has published a photo book on their plight
  • Olwe himself belongs to the Mahar caste, and wants to put the limelight on the plight of the workers


It was a 13 May 2014 article in the Mumbai Mirror that brought a definitive change to Sudharak Olwe's life.
The article, about five sewage workers, described what happened to them when they got into a manhole, at Mumbai's Usha Nagar Culvert on the Eastern Express Highway, to remove gunny bags from 35 feet under the sewage pipeline:

"Sameer, Rajesh and Dhaneshwar were the first to enter the chamber by means of a rope. Ravindra and Panchonan, who followed them, came out citing difficulty in breathing. After waiting for some time, site supervisor Shivanand Chavan called in the cops. By the time the fire brigade personnel entered the chamber, wearing gas masks, Sameer, Rajesh and Dhaneshwar had died."

Olwe was filled with repulsion. Repulsion for the words 'chamber', 'breathing difficulty' and worst of all 'conservancy workers' - the term used for them, all of which reeked with a pungent odour of legitimising what has got to be the shittiest job in the world.

Remember that time when you stepped on a tiny bit of dog poo and grimaced, running to the nearest tap to have it all washed up? The feeling of that stuff touching even the sole of your shoe left you disgusted.

What does it take to be bare naked and dive into a pit that is two storeys deep and full of sewage waste? What does it feel like for the stinking slush to be entering the pores of your skin, the parting between your lips - no matter now tightly you keep them folded, from entering your nostrils despite holding your breath and from seeping into your tightly shut eyelids and feeling its warm stickiness settle heavily on your hair, submerging you in the dark finality of its hellish void?

Olwe picked up his camera to find out.

A caste fated to live in manholes
It wasn't sympathy that moved Olwe. It was the more burning question of identity. Belonging to the Mahar caste of Maharashtra, a sub-caste of the Dalits just like Sameer, Rajesh and Dhaneshwar and Mumbai's 38,000 conservancy workers, Olwe felt that he missed becoming one of them by a wisp of fate. The feeling was overwhelming. "I had to get to know my brothers," he says.

There are 21 million people living in Mumbai, generating 7,000 tonnes of daily waste. In the western suburbs alone, where Olwe shot most of these photos, this waste comes gushing through 65 kilometres of bignallas, 56 kilometres of small nallas and finally settles into 52 kilometres of box drains, before getting released into the ocean. Some of the drainage lines are deep enough to accommodate a double decker bus.


The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) currently engages 4,357 labourers to clean 54,600 manholes and open sewage lines manually, using iron rods and spliced bamboo sticks.

"Once they descend below they are disconnected from the world above," says Olwe.

In his photo book, "In search of dignity and justice, the untold story of conservancy workers", published last year by Spenta Multimedia and supported by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, he writes:

The workers describe entering a manhole as a descending into hell. Once inside there is nothing but darkness. Anything could happen to the worker. He could slip in the knee-deep water and slime and lose consciousness, or be carried away in the rush of water and waste. And there are poisonous gases - methane, nitrogen, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide - generated by the decaying organic matter. These toxic gases have been the cause of many deaths.

There are two ways the workers check for toxic gases. One is by throwing a lit match stick into the hole. If there are any gases, it will burn and they begin their descend after the fire subsides. The second is by checking for cockroaches, which are not known to die easily. If there are no cockroaches, then they throw in the lit match stick for the gas to escape. Sometimes all tactics fail.

BMC's numbers suggest that in the last six years, 1,386 conservancy workers have lost their lives at work
Recent numbers revealed by the BMC themselves suggest that in last six years, 1,386 conservancy workers have lost their lives at work.

With the growing number of deaths every year, the solid waste management or SWM department of the civic body has now commissioned a study to assess the reasons for it.

According to a 2007 estimate, at least 22,327 men and women die in India every year doing various kinds of sanitation work. The Planning Commission sub-group on Safai Karamcharis says there could be about 12 lakh manual scavengers across India, picking human faeces with their bare hands. Of these 12 lakh manual scavengers, 9,600 deaths are reported each year.

Assuming they don't die in a manhole, death awaits outside in the form of various diseases, the most common being jaundice and tuberculosis from the bacteria they ingest. Then there are also liver related diseases that workers suffer from after years of consuming cheap alcohol before they dive in.


“ How else can such a job be done in your right senses? You have to numb your senses to go down there," says Olwe. It is no surprise then that the average lifespan of a conservancy worker, assuming he does not die at work, is a mere 45 years, by which time the tormented become the tormentors at home. Abusive, full of self-hatred and contempt for life, the bitterness they live with is perhaps more toxic than the sewage they are covered in each day.

When illegal becomes acceptable Isn't this work illegal? According to Olwe, the laws banning such work exist only on paper and seem far removed from the complex reality staring at the face of these workers every day.

Take the case of The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, which was passed in 2013. The Act prohibits any manual handling of human waste before its decomposition. Importantly, the Act includes unsanitary work done in septic tanks, sewage lines, and railways latrines, roping in thousands of sewage workers of the kind Olwe has photographed under the ambit of the Act.
It also instructs every local authority, cantonment board and railway authority to survey insanitary latrines within its jurisdiction and identify manual scavengers. Owners are to be held responsible for the conversion of all dry latrines into sanitary ones.

According to the Act, current sewage workers would have to be assigned other work on the same payment, an uphill task considering the job fetches them at least Rs 15,000 a month.

It also entitles them to livelihood skill training, concessional loans for a new enterprise and to be provided with a residential plot with financial assistance to build a house - all of which, if not done, would mean penalties that could go up to Rs 5 lakh. This way, the Act envisagescurbing open defecation within three years.

Incidentally this is the second attempt at doing away with the shameful practice of manual scavenging. The first, passed in 1993, was called Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act. It was hardly implemented. And like this one, things never changed for the 750,000 families that still work as manual scavengers.

It wasn't sympathy that moved Olwe, but identity. He belongs to the Mahar caste, like Mumbai's 38,000 conservancy workers

At a manhole level, status quo appears far safer than a total ban. Let's get real. Who will give a stinking sewage cleaner any job outside of sewage cleaning? Some workers feel scared that the 2013 ban would eventually snatch away their only hope for a livelihood.

The authorities say that when a drain is blocked, it is only a human being who clears the blockages. No long pole or machine will suffice. With such a law, who will dive in to keep the city's sewer lines unclogged? This is what they ask pointedly.

"We've woken up to this problem late. The existing drainage systems in most metro cities was laid out more than 100 years ago. These drains were designed in a fashion that involved manual cleaning. Changing the sewage system structurally is a mammoth task requiring huge investments that state governments are lethargic to undertake," says Vivek Gupta, a Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal and an activist who worked closely on drafting the 2013 bill banning sewage work.
Gupta says the bill, being the prerogative of the state to implement, requires all states to take certain hard decisions sooner or later for the benefit of society.

The stench isn't easy to get rid of
One morning, when Olwe went to meet the families of conservancy workers at south Mumbai's Antop Hill, he saw a huge mound of debris and spotted a big crowd gathered around it. Someone was calling the police and there was much commotion. Acting on a gut instinct, he pushed his way through the crowd and stood at the foot of the ripe smelling pile of garbage.

What he saw haunted him for many months after. It was a dead baby. Thrown into the garbage just like a used rag cloth. Yes, it was a girl. And from the look of it, she looked like a healthy baby just born earlier in the day and perhaps thrown just a few minutes ago. The police arrived soon and ushered away the baby. She was taken straight to a hospital and pronounced dead.

The photo and several others in his body of work on conservancy workers went on to win National Geographic's All Roads Photographers Award in 2005.

Before Olwe went to the United States to receive the award, he had an overarching discomfort in being its recipient. Won't my photos expose a shameful side of India to the world? That's when he sought advice from senior photographer Raghu Rai, who reminded Olwe that he was an ambassador of the conservancy workers first and not India.

Dead babies, rotting street dogs, road kills, sanitary napkins drenched in blood, glass, needles, medical waste, diapers full of shit - there is nothing that these workers haven't touched with their bare hands and unflinchingly carried over their head to the dumping ground. And Olwe captures it all so vividly that makes one wince.
From a photo of a dead dog being picked up out of a garbage bin to a man neck deep inside a man hole full of sewage to a family of conservancy workers living on a tiny little stairway landing in which they raise their two kids, to the various desperate living and working conditions of these families trapped in this livelihood for generations, Olwe gives the profession the panoramic view it deserves.

So why do they do it?
There is a simple answer. In a country that gives you no choice, you do the work that you are allowed to do.
Babasaheb Ambedkar had preached one way of dissolving the caste system. He told the Dalits to migrate far and wide, inter marry into various castes and get employment in diverse fields of vocations. This way, he envisioned, the Dalits could eventually liberate themselves from the burden of their caste.

When the Mahars of Konkan, sick of cleaning human shit, gathered the guts to move to Mumbai in search of employment, the entire city's sewage was waiting to embrace them.

The jobs in all the various categories of conservancy work across India are reserved for the Scheduled Castes. There is 100% reservation in Mumbai for SCs like the Mahars. The job passes from husband to wife to child, for generations.

In the city of Chennai, 95% of the 10,000-odd conservancy workers hail from one particular caste, the Arunthatiyar caste, and are condemned to manually handle the 5,000 tons of solid waste that is produced by the city every day. The same goes for Delhi, Bangalore and other large cities.

Dr Shailesh Kumar Darokar, Associate Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, says in Olwe's book, "We have not let go of our past but simply re-invented it; we are still guilty of perpetuating caste hierarchies and even making them stronger by having caste-based occupations and that too in the public sector."

In Anand Patwardhan's Jai Bhim Comrade, a worker, ankle-deep in slime in Mumbai's dumping ground, loses an eye when his pitchfork hits him. Forget compensation, even a cap to protect his head from shit isn't part of his contract.

In his photos, Olwe makes you realise how the same hopeless conditions are so completely acceptable to us city dwellers. Nobody realises that cleanliness is happening at the cost of gross human rights violations.

The 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which India is a signatory, defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

Is this not then a genocide we have collectively allowed, in the name of a swachh Bharat?

Pic-1:  Once inside, there is nothing but darkness. The worker could pass out from inhaling some toxic gas, or be carried away in the rush of water and waste




Pic-2: This work requires no special skill, just a pair of arms and legs and the courage to descend into hell



Pic – 3: No human beings should have to work in such dehumanising conditions. 30,000 people do




Pic- 4: Clearing garbage is back-breaking work. There are scars where the pole digs into Jadhav's shoulders


Pic – 5: It's the most despicable kind of reservation: jobs in all categories of 'conservancy' work are reserved for the scheduled castes