[sacw] sacw dispatch (10. Oct 1999)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
10 October 1999
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#1. The Other Side of Conflict [NGO's under attack in India]
#2. October Issue of 'Akhbar'
#3. Crimes against women [in Pakistan]
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#1.
The Hindu
Sunday, October 10, 1999
http://www.hinduonline.com/today/stories/13100613.htm

The other side of conflict
By KALPANA SHARMA

THE outgoing government's decision to single out certain non-
governmental organisations (NGOs), and in particular those women's
groups that supported an advertisement that exposed the Bharatiya Janata
Party's (BJP) record on women's issues, should worry concerned people on
more than one count.

The ostensible reason for which show-cause notices have been served
on these groups is because they receive foreign funds and are bound by
the law not to use these for political activities. But whether NGOs
work with women, with the urban poor, with children, with tribals, or
dalits, or on environmental issues, they are bound to have a political
perspective which impinges on the issues they choose to pursue. To expect
civil society groups to be apolitical is an unrealistic and rather
ridiculous demand. It also suggests double standards, for many NGOs are
openly close to some parties, including the BJP. Will the same criteria
apply to them as has been applied to the groups that the Government has
picked on this time?

Women's groups, in particular, have something to worry about if the
Government includes parties that have a record of supporting regressive
traditions. To expect them not to speak out on such issues is like
asking groups working to abolish child labour not to criticise a
government or political parties that justify the continuance of child
labour, or to expect human rights groups not to make any statement
about the violation of these rights, particularly if they are being
violated by the State.

Apart from the legal aspects of the issue, the more worrying trend
is that the Government seeks to control and restrict what such groups
can and cannot do. In a country, where millions of people continue to
survive despite the State, rather than because of it, civil society groups
have always played an important role. For instance, many of the laws
that are now deemed to provide some protection for women have their
roots in surveys, agitations and demands by women's groups for new
laws. Similarly, environmental laws have been brought in at the behest
of NGOs working in that field. On its own, it is unlikely that any
government would have taken such steps.

Most important of all, these organisations have managed to bring the
voice of the voiceless into the public arena. These voices otherwise are
either silenced or drowned out. Although the media also plays some role
in this, it is civil society groups that constantly remind the media
and the government that plans and policies are not a game of numbers
but involve the lives of ordinary people.

How easy it is to forget this is evident in the 11-year-old
conflict in Kashmir. Most often the reporting is about numbers. Over
time, one tends to forget that each number represents a person. And
that each person killed, leaves behind a family. And that the fate of
these families will never be known because they are not even statistics
for the government; they are invisible.

A recent report in this paper illustrates the real price of
conflict on the lives of ordinary people. The department of
sociology of Kashmir University has completed a survey of six
districts in the Kashmir Valley. Supported by Save The Children Fund,
an NGO that could be foreign-funded, the researchers contacted 50
women in each district. These are women who have lost their husbands in
the Kashmir conflict.

The survey found that more than one- third of the widows were between
the ages of 19 and 30 years while less than a third were in the older age
group of 31-45. Over half of these women, 53.67 per cent, live on their
own and even though remarriage is not forbidden, only 8.66 per cent
actually married again. In fact, 89 per cent of them said they did not
want to re-marry.

The majority of the women, 72 per cent, lived in villages. The
problems they and their urban counterparts reported included finding
educational facilities for their children, feeling insecure with
their meagre earnings and hating the feeling of being dependent on
others. Many said they have been denied the right to inherit property.
Some of them also reported sexual harassment. Many expressed worry
about the lack of social control on their children.

The survey also covered 300 children affected directly by the
conflict through the loss of one or both parents. Of them just under
one third do not attend school and 19 per cent have dropped out. The
drop-outs have found work which helps to supplement the meagre family
income. But the survey found that 93 per cent actually want to
continue in school.

These women and children are getting minimal support from the
Government or even from NGOs. Although the survey only covered 300
widows, it is estimated that there are at least 9,000 women whose
husbands have died during the conflict. Of these around 20 per cent
have not been able to claim their share of inherited property and more
than half are completely dependent on others.

These facts would not have become known if an organisation that cares
about children had not initiated the survey. Indeed, the tragedy of
Kashmir is that even simple humanitarian work takes on political colours,
thereby enhancing the isolation and neglect of the survivors of the
conflict. Governments usually do not want to face this kind of reality,
where "putting down terrorism" is given an human face.

In this instance, 78 of the 300 husbands of these widows, were killed
by security forces, another 45 died in custody. The others were killed in
cross firing, by militants, in bomb explosions or near the Line of
Control. These are not convenient facts. Thus the results of this
kind of survey cannot be used to make political points. Therefore,
it will be easy to ignore. But if the survey had shown that the
majority of the women had been widowed because their men were killed by
security forces, the NGO that initiated the survey would have been
questioned about its motives.
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#2.
The October issue of Akhbar is online.
(http://members.xoom.com/southasia/)

Contents:

Indian Elections: Brokers' Win
Assault on Culture and Democracy in the Name of Nation: Some reports
Feature: Anil Nauriya on the meaning of Gandhi's assasination
Media: Pamela Philipose writes on the image manipulation of the Hindutva
prime ministerial candidate
Review: Utsa Patnaik offers new perspective on the Western scholarship on
'Famine deaths'
Education: Closure of schools as a result of governmental policy of
disinvestment in public sector units
Images of the month: Choose your mangoes, OR, Aam Chunao
Bazaar: Sahir Ludhianvi and Gurudutt Updated for the Cyber Age

Akhbar can be accessed at http://members.xoom.com/southasia/
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#3.
The News International, Pakistan
6 October 1999
Editorial

Crimes against women

Thirty-two year old Jamila Bibi, who died at the Mayo Hospital, Lahore,
on Wednesday, has become yet another victim of domestic violence which
is so pervasive throughout the country that most of us tend to ignore
it. After a month of excruciating pain, Jamila finally succumbed to her
wounds. She was admitted to the hospital on September 3 by her
neighbours after her husband, two of his brothers and a friend thrashed
Jamila, drenched her in kerosene oil and set her on fire. In her
statement to the police, the dying woman said that her crime was that
she had refused to grant permission to Lal Khan, her husband, to
contract a second marriage.

Add to this the 'honour' killings, stove-explosions and the customary
karokari murders and one gets a staggering picture of a society whose
abuse and violence against women is widespread. The propensity among men
to control the life of all women in the sphere of their influence and
impose their decisions on them is one of the many archaic traits still
embedded deep in society. Even in what are called educated urban
segments, discrimination against women and treating them as lesser
beings is commonplace. This attitude, however, takes a violent turn more
often in the rural areas and among low-income urban dwellers.

The killers of Jamila, who, like the victim, belong to the NWFP, have
not as yet been traced as they have reportedly fled to their safe havens
in the province. The most effective way to root out this savage practice
of killing women who insist on their rights is to punish the culprits
according to the law. Education, social change, public awareness and
steps toward female empowerment play a key role. But unless the law
takes its course, none of these can bring any real change in this
male-chauvinist society.
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