SACW | 21 Aug. 2003 [Bangladesh / India]
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at mnet.fr
Thu Aug 21 05:06:40 CDT 2003
South Asia Citizens Wire | 21 August, 2003
[1.] Bangladesh: Brutality Fueling HIV/AIDS (Human Rights Watch)
[2.] India: Storm over move to ban cow killings (Praful Bidwai)
[3.] India: Vital Importance of Coming Elections and future of
Secularism (V.M.Tarkunde)
[4.] India: Metro and Mandir: A Thirst for Quality Development (Dipankar Gupta)
[5.] India/ UK: The Butcher of Gujarat's London Tour:
- Modi's foreign operandi
- Another London Demo Against Narendra Modi
[6.] India: Invitation for a Dharna [Sit-in] for Employment Guarantee
Act in Rajasthan
+ Dharna Notes
[7.] India: Women's Organisations Letter to the Prime Minister
[8.] India: Public Meeting on Sexual Harassment at Work (August 22, Bombay)
--------------
[1.]
Bangladesh: Brutality Fueling HIV/AIDS
(New York, August 20, 2003) - Bangladesh is stoking an emerging AIDS epidemic
with violent police abuse of sex workers, injection drug users and men who have
sex with men, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today.
The 51-page report, "Ravaging the Vulnerable: Abuses Against Persons at High
Risk of HIV Infection in Bangladesh," documents rapes, gang-rapes, beatings and
abductions by both police officers and powerful criminals known as mastans.
Their targets-sex workers, men who have sex with men and injection drug
users-are both at high risk of HIV infection and the people most capable of
bringing AIDS information and services to their peers. In a direct blow to the
fight against AIDS, some of the abuses are committed against AIDS outreach
workers.
"Bangladesh is brutalizing exactly the people it most needs as allies if it is
to avoid a severe AIDS epidemic," said Vivek Maru, researcher with Human Rights
Watch. "Violence against at-risk people traumatizes them and drives
them out of
reach of HIV prevention services, which can increase their risk of infection."
In one region of Bangladesh, HIV prevalence among injection drug users jumped
from 1.7 percent in 2001 to 4 percent in 2002. While HIV prevalence in the
population overall is reportedly still low, the country's poverty, gender
inequality, and proximity to raging epidemics in India and Southeast Asia point
to the possibility of an AIDS explosion.
"This is a critical moment," said Maru. "Strong intervention now could save
countless lives, but time may be running out."
Bangladesh acknowledged in late 2002 that the mastan problem was an enormous
threat to the population at large and that the police were too corrupt and
ineffective to control it. The government's solution was to send the army into
the streets. But "Operation Clean Heart" resulted in its own abuses, including
at least 40 deaths in custody. Now the government is using the paramilitary
"Bangladesh Rifles" to fight crime.
"Military reinforcements are no substitute for systemic reform," said Maru.
"The reforms that can stop the attacks on people vulnerable to AIDS and help
stave off an epidemic are the same reforms the country needs to resolve its
crisis of law and order."
Human Rights Watch urged Bangladesh to institute civilian review of police
officers, to prosecute police and mastans who perpetrate abuses, to bring its
criminal procedures in line with international standards, and to support peer-
driven AIDS prevention services among persons at high risk of HIV.
"Ravaging the Vulnerable: Abuses Against Persons at High Risk of HIV Infection
in Bangladesh," is available at:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/bangladesh0803/
Excerpts of Testimony from "Ravaging the Vulnerable: Abuses Against Persons at
High Risk of HIV Infection in Bangladesh":
_____
[2.]
Asia Times
August 19 2003
COMMENTARY
Storm over move to ban cow killings
By Praful Bidwai
NEW DELHI-Faced with uncertain prospects in elections to five state
legislatures due within three months, India's pro-Hindu coalition is
bringing in a bill in the national parliament to ban the killing of
cows and win the sympathies and votes of Hindus, but this is likely
to stir a hornet's nest.
To start with, it means pandering to a particular religious group-
many but by no means all groups of Hindus consider the cow a sacred
animal-in India's multi-cultural, multi-religious society. Indeed,
the preamble to the bill exhibits a strong religious bias-
unprecedented for parliamentary legislation in India. It says that
"the cow is the embodiment of divine virtues like love, compassion,
benevolence, tolerance and non-violence", and that it commands
reverence and cultural sanctity.
This is not universally true, even of the Hindus, who form a little
over four-fifths of India's billion-strong population. Many Hindus,
who keep cows as milch and draught animals and use bullock power in
agriculture, sell them once their economic life is exhausted. India
has a sixth of the world's cows and 57 percent of the world's
buffaloes. Apart from slaughtering millions of cows and buffaloes for
domestic consumption, India also exports over US$200 million worth of
meat, mainly beef.
Bringing in a national law on a subject that falls within the domain
of India's 32 states and territories is itself a highly questionable
move. More than a quarter of these states, including Kerala in the
south, West Bengal in the east and some Christian-majority states of
the northeast, and Jammu and Kashmir, permit cows to be killed for
their meat.
Some of the states have registered an angry protest against the
proposed bill. For instance, the deputy chief minister of north
Meghalaya says, "A particular diet may be poison to one community,
but food for another, as in the case of hill people in the northeast
whose main diet is beef." Neighboring Mizoram state's chief minister
argues, "If a bill banning cow slaughter is passed, it could set the
ball rolling for efforts to ban the slaughter of pigs. But both beef
and pork are part of the food habits of the people." Kerala
agriculture minister K R Gowri, herself a Hindu, has termed the
proposed bill "detrimental to the interests of Kerala". In Kerala,
beef accounts for an estimated 40 percent of all meat consumed. Some
80 percent of Kerala's people regularly eat beef. They include 72
Hindu communities, besides Muslim, Christian and indigenous people.
Even more undemocratic is the government's crude attempt to regulate,
dictate and censor the dietary habits of Indians. Banning cow
slaughter involves preventing people from choosing what they eat.
Permitting it would not impose a particular diet on an individual or
group.
A blanket ban on the killing of cows, bulls and calves, irrespective
of age, utility or health status, is a draconian measure that will
inflict a heavy burden on the peasant-owners of such animals, besides
increasing the proportion of unhealthy bovines in the total
population. Animal husbandry experts have often warned against the
overpopulation of cattle in India and the emaciated state of a high
proportion of cows. K R Ramaswamy, a former director of the Indian
Institute of Management in Bangalore, has argued that India must cull
half its bovine population, which is extremely unhealthy and cannot
be looked after.
There is yet another economic angle to cow slaughter. Beef in India
costs less than half the price of lamb or chicken. It is the
preferred source of first-class protein for the poor, who constitute
a majority of India's population. The absence of beef will raise the
food bill for the underprivileged. Even more important, surveys of
butchers in different states show that three-fourths of all beef is
consumed by non-Muslims, largely Hindus. A higher proportion of the
sellers of cattle are Hindus. Abstinence from beef-eating is largely
a caste or class question among Hindus. The low castes prefer beef to
other meat for reasons of taste and habit too. Yet, to impose this
ban on cow slaughter, the government, led by the Hindu-chauvinist
Bharatiya Janata Party, has conjured up, of all things, an ecological
and animal rights argument. The bill seeks to shift the
constitutional subject matter from the purview of the states to items
common to both national and state legislatures under measures for
prevention of cruelty against animals. This is patently duplicitous.
If the real objective is to prevent cruelty to animals, then why
single out the cow? Why not extend the law to hundreds of other
animals and birds that are maltreated or vulnerable to abuse?
It is not as if Indian society is particularly caring of animals. One
can see thousands of ill-fed, sick cows roaming the streets of Indian
cities, including the capital. Most are left to forage through
garbage. They end up consuming rotten vegetables, meat, and above
all, an enormous amount of plastic bags. India is notorious for its
overconsumption and unsafe disposal of recycled, ugly plastic
carry-bags, which are not required to be separated from biodegradable
matter. Autopsies on cows turn up literally hundreds of plastic bags
in their stomachs. Indian cows suffer from a range of ailments,
including foot-and-mouth disease. The bill is hypocritical in evading
issues at the center of the professed concern for the welfare of the
cow. The proposed law is open to objection on two other grounds too.
It originates in the mistaken belief that cow slaughter was "brought"
to India by invading Muslims in the Middle Ages, and that Hindu
scriptures unanimously proscribe cow slaughter. In reality, eminent
Indian and European historians have conclusively shown, on the basis
of contemporary accounts, that beef eating was an integral part of
the dietary customs in ancient India.
Animal sacrifice, including the killing of cows, was the prescribed
ritual in many Indian traditions. Non-Hindu cultures, including that
of the indigenous people or even Buddhists, permitted beef-eating.
Rich evidence of this is found in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the
Dharmashastras and other Hindu scriptures. For Vedic Aryans, cows
were an important form of wealth. They were gifted to the priestly
class of Brahmins as fees. Cows were defined as "food" in these
texts. There is evidence that in a later period, many Brahmins
stopped eating beef. But they formed less than 5 percent of the
population. In no major scripture, says Professor D N Jha of Delhi
University and author of The Myth of the Holy Cow, "is killing a cow
described as a grave sin, unlike drinking liquor or killing a
Brahmin". "It is only in the 19th century that the demand for banning
cow slaughter emerged as a tool of mass political mobilization by
right-wing Hindu communalists, out to isolate Muslims by aggressively
challenging their dietary practices as 'alien'," says Jha. (Inter
Press Service)
_____
[3.]
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 12:20:06 +0100
[Justice (retd.) V.M. Tarkunde is 94 and still active. He was the President
of the Indian Radical Humanist Association and Chairman of the Indian
Renaissance Institute for several decades and served also as Editor of the
Radical Humanist for several decades. He also served on the board of the
IHEU, and received the IHEU's International Humanist Award.]
o o o
VITAL IMPORTANCE OF COMING ELECTIONS
V.M.Tarkunde
In a multi-religious country like India, democracy can subsist only
on the basis of secularism. A secular democracy does not require
that the people at large should have no religious faith. What is
requires is that the bulk of the people should agree that religion
should have no bearing on political issues and that therefore there
should be a separation of religion and politics.
Whatever may have been other shortcomings of Jawaharlal Nehru, he
was undoubtedly a staunch secular democrat.Dr Ambedkar was obviously
the main architect of the Indian Constitution, but the contribution
of Jawaharlal Nehru with his huge popularity was indispensable for
the promulgation of secular democratic constitution of India.
Jawaharlal Nehru not only helped materially in framing a secular
democratic constitution for India, he after the promulgation of the
Constitution, established and ran a democratic and secular government
in the country for nearly seventeen years.,
Because of the success of antifascist forces in the last Great
War.India obtained independence without having developed an
adequately strong democratic movement for the replacement of foreign
rule by an independent secular democracy in our country. That is why
religious orthodoxy remained rampant in India even after it obtained
complete independence. Religious orthodoxy, however, did not by
itself imply the promotion of communalism which requires the
prevalence of enmity between two or more religious communities. It
can be stated with confidence that after the acquisition of
independence and in the course of the operation of a secular
democratic state in India for a now long period of nearly 40 years,
there has been a gradual reduction of the religious orthodoxy of the
people and a gradual growth of a democratic culture in India. That
process of a gradual growth of a genuinely democratic culture in
India was, however, interrupted when a coalition government
dominated by a communal organization like the BJP was established in
the country in or about 1998.
In the last general election, BJP did not get an absolute majority
in the Lok Sabha. But because of the relative unpopularity of the
Congress, the BJP emerged as the largest minority party. Under the
clever leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP announced that in
order to form a coalition government, it would keep under suspension
the more controversial parts of its communal programme, such as the
construction of a Ram temple at the place of the Babri
Masjid,introduction of a common civil code, and the deletion of
Article 370 of the Constitution which grants a special status to
Jammu and Kashmir. On this basis, the BJP invited opposition parties
to join in forming a coalition government, which would lay down an
agreed programme of action. There were a number of opportunist
leaders of comparatively smaller political parties like Mayawati and
Fernandes, who were prepared to pocket their anti-communalism and
join hands with the BJP to form a coalition government., Thus the
BJP, inspite of being a minority party came to power under a
coalition government which took the name National Democratic
Alliance (NDA) and which would function under its domination.
As will be shown below, NDA government under the leadership of the
BJP has caused grave damage to the secular democracy of India. If
after the coming general election, the BJP again emerges as the
largest minority party, it will again be able to form a coalition
government with the help of many unprincipled opportunist leaders,
and in that eventuality, the secular democracy of India may be so
materially damaged as to be on the of path extinction.
We are giving below, in a summary form, a few details of the ways in
which the present BJP coalition government has damaged the secular
democracy in India.
As soon as the BJP coalitin government was formed,the first act of
Vajpayee was to approach the President of India with a request that
he should approve of a programme by which India would have nuclear
weapons. The President gave the required approval and this action
was approved by almost all the opposition parties including the
Congress as well as some of the former Presidents and Prime
Ministers of India. Vajpayee claimed that this step was taken for
ensuring the security of India, but what was actually achieved was
that India not only lost its moral stature as the most important
non-nuclear state, but its insecurity was actually enhanced. With
its very limited nuclear weapons, India is rapidly becoming a puppet
state of the U.S.A. As was to be expected, some other States
including Pakistan acquired nuclear weapons. Pakistan in particular
not only manufactured or acquired some nuclear weapons but it refused
to join India in declaring that will not use its nuclear weapons
unless it was subjected to nuclear attack or had a genuine
apprehension thereof. Pakistan is a much smaller country than India
and has a smaller army. It is bound to be defeated in a war with
India unless it uses a nuclear weapon as a deterrent. There was thus
some justification in Pakistan `s refusal to agree that it will not
have the first nuclear strike. Thus instead of increasing its
security, India `s becoming a nuclear State has increased its
insecurity, besides losing its moral stature as a leading
non-nuclear state. In this process, India has spent huge amounts in
acquiring and maintaining nuclear weapons, so that it has no
adequate resources for reducing mass poverty and increasing
employment among the poor.
Under BJP coalition rule, India `s history has been perverted in
order to show that the Muslim rule in India in the recent past was
much more harmful than what is recorded in history books so far.
Alterations have been accordingly made in history books,
particularly those which are meant to be used in schools and
colleges. another term of BJP`s government will cause further
perversion in teaching history to Indian students.
In many department, such as education, industry ,police, etc
vacancies are being filled up by the appointment of supporters of the
BJP and persons who are inclined to he Hindu communalists. This
process is highly detrimental to the continuation of a secular
democracy in the country. In the course of time, the Indian
government at the centre as well as in the States will cease to be
impartial and in this way the present weak and wobbly secular
democracy of India may be destroyed.
Political opportunism which is the main cause of the increasing
corruption as well as vulgarization of government services has
increased during the rule of BJP-led coalition government. This may
be illustrated by one graphic instance. In order to avoid the
collapse, the Mayawati government had secured the support of 35
unprincipled legislators. This was achieved by appointing every one
these 35 legislators as ministers in the state, with the result that
many of the newly appointed ministers could not get charge of any
portfolio! this unprincipled action was adopted by Mayawati with the
consent of the Prime Minister Vajpayee. When Vajpayee was asked
whether this was morally justified, his answer was that this was
done "only for power." Is it not true that the power politics is the
main cause of opportunism which enhances corruption and political
misrule? This attitude of Vajpayee shows that the BJP rule is even
more opportunistic than what the country had in the past.
These instances justify the conclusion that the rule of a
communalist party cannot possibly benefit our country. To save the
secular democracy of India, it is necessary that a BJP government
does not come to power after the next election. It is hoped that
Indian voters in the coming general election will ensure that
communalism does not succeed so as to destroy Indian democracy.
dated 9th August 2003
_____
[4.]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=139786
THE TIMES OF INDIA
AUGUST 21, 2003
Op.-Ed.
Metro and Mandir: A Thirst for Quality Development
DIPANKAR GUPTA
In politics generally all publicity is good publicity. Occasionally,
a public figure can be hurt by hostile reportage, but ideologies
thrive on being discussed, whether positively or negatively.
Therefore, the more the opposition rants against Hindutva, the more
prominence the RSS and allied organisations get.
It is free publicity for them. It is futile to hope that elections
can be won on a negative platform, and even more foolhardy to believe
that the masses can be swayed to your side by asking them to give up
their religious or community identities. Secularism can never win on
this kind of an abnegationist platform. Secularism thrives best when
it makes religious and sectarian passions irrelevant to the political
debate.
Unfortunately, most of our secularists do not quite realise that pure
anti-communalism is not effective secularism. Jawaharlal Nehru
succeeded in getting a secular India off the ground by promising a
resurgent India resplendent with large dams and steel factories
accomplishments his fellow citizens could be proud of. This was
accompanied by land reforms, zamindari abolition, resettlement of
refugees, import substitution and non-alignment. On none of these
issues did the entire saffron spectrum have any expertise.
Why is it that secularists are scared of dreaming of big things
again? True, the Nehruvian vision now lies in ruins. But what have we
done to replace this vision of secularism with another one that is
equally powerful and can light an ideological fire in the country? In
fact, an alternative secularism is staring us in the face. When the
metro was inaugurated in Delhi, the wild enthusiasm with which it was
greeted was almost pathetic. Among other things it demonstrated how
much the people wanted development with quality.
The metro was no ordinary train service, it was a transit system that
was world class. It is this aspect of the metro's glitz and
efficiency that caught the public imagination. It was not a
sub-standard product that was being fobbed off as a people's train.
Given our past record at providing public utilities, the metro was
indeed a breakthrough. Free education has meant inferior education,
free health has degenerated into unhygienic and deplorable public
hospitals, and cheap transport is generally translatable into cattle
cars and trains leaping off tracks.
It is not surprising that such empty socialist ruses have been
exposed and can no longer enthuse the public imagination. What the
recent metro madness demonstrated is that there is a thirst for
quality development. This is development of the kind that does not
just meet felt needs, but "felt aspirations" as well. Expectations,
in this sense, have gone up. Villagers know that no real development
is possible in rural areas. They want to leave the countryside for
the cities as fast as the urban world will absorb them. But this
absorption so far has not been quality absorption.
Is it not possible for secularists to put forward a bold plan that
will take care of this rural exodus and promise a dignified city
life? Oscar Wilde once said that socialism in his country was only
good for keeping the poor alive. Developmental programmes in our
country too, whether initiated by the government or by NGOs, are
primarily aimed at keeping the poor alive on a day-to-day,
hand-to-mouth basis. Such exercises are repeated year after year with
some ancillary economic regeneration programmes that alleviate
desperate poverty at the cottage level.
Over the past two decades, there has been a perceptible ideological
shift in the country. Most Indians are tired of low-level
equilibrium. They want a breakthrough. They don't only have needs,
they have aspirations too. Just like the metro in Delhi was a
breakthrough in transit facilities, they would like spectacular
quality developments in other areas too. The paradigm of being poor
but pure in the village has no takers, least of all in the villages.
A true secular vision for India would be one that promises high
levels of urban life, that provides facilities for quality education
and health, as well as for technological developments in the
countryside such that non-farm employments are not just distress
measures of the abject poor. This is how secularists can help India
make the grade into the 21st century.
An alternative political agenda of this sort would also render the
saffron brigade completely helpless. It is good for Akhand Bharat and
Ram mandirs, but can they handle a thousand metros? In 1945, France
was about 47 per cent rural. But from the late 1970s onwards, only
about three per cent of France live in villages. So it is not as if
quality urbanisation takes forever and cannot be consciously planned
for. In India the rate of migration to towns and cities is very
impressive. Today over 50 per cent of the poor SCs are urban.
In addition, in a majority of states, non-farm rural income is well
over 25 per cent. And yet, what do we have by way of a non-agrarian
alternative? What plans do we have to upgrade urban facilities from
housing, to education, to transport, to occupations? So if there were
to be an electoral competition today between mandir and metro, the
Ram Bhakts would be in for a very unpleasant surprise. Let this be an
inspiration for an alternative developmental paradigm that seeks to
address the long felt aspirations for quality development in the
country.
_____
[5.]
Modi's foreign operandi
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/210803/detEDI02.shtml
o o o
The Times of India, August 20, 2003
Modi faces protests in London
PTI[ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2003 06:40:32 PM ]
LONDON: A group of people, including women, held a demonstration
against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as he visited the office
of Gujarat Samachar, a bilingual weekly, to inaugurate its Shakti
hall on Wednesday.
The demonstrators shouted anti-Modi slogans holding him responsible
for the deaths of large number of Muslims in the state during the
post-Godhra riots.
Numbering over a dozen, the protesters represented various voluntary
organisations -- the South Asia Solidarity Group, Council of Indian
Muslims, Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Awaaz, and Asian Women Unite.
They also raised slogans against C B Patel, editor of the weekly, for
inviting Modi and urged its followers to boycott Gujarat Samachar and
its sister weekly Asian Voice.
At the end of his four-day visit, Modi will leave for Zurich,
Switzerland on Thursday.
_____
[6.]
Invitation for a Dharna for Employment Guarantee Act in Rajasthan
From 16 August, 2003 at Statue Circle, Jaipur
The Akal Sangharsh Samiti, a network of about 70 organisations and
movement groups of Rajasthan, has been struggling with drought
related issues in the State for the last three years. The demand for
an Employment Guarantee Act emerged as a consequence of this
struggle. The Akal Sangharsh Samiti as well as the National Right to
Food Campaign has made this demand in a sustained manner in many
diverse ways. However, despite having made several pronouncements in
favour of such an Act, the Rajasthan Government has not taken any
concrete measures towards its enactment. With the Rajasthan State
Assembly due to begin its final session on 21 August, urgent
attention needs to be directed towards this issue. The Samiti has
therefore decided to sit on a dharna for the implementation of the
Act in Rajasthan.
The significance for an Employment Guarantee Act cannot be emphasised
enough. It has been widely acknowledged that an Employment Guarantee
would be one of the most effective measures to provide a
minimum level of security to the poor in the State. After four years
of continuous drought there has been good rain this year, but it is
still not enough to ensure food security for all. Even in a good
year, some part of Rajasthan continues to face drought-like
conditions. Assured minimum employment therefore continues to be an
important need of the people. Research studies have shown that a
legal employment guarantee plays an important role in improving the
bargaining power of those demanding work and reduces the need for
seasonal migration. As a legally enforceable right, the Act provides
security to people's lives. In contrast, when it operates as a scheme
people depend on the whims of the government and bureaucracy.
While the demand for an Employment Guarantee Act will be primary,
other important issues concerning people's democratic rights will
also be taken up. Some of these issues are:
Amendments that need to be made to the Right to Information Act: In
solidarity with Anna Hazare's fast for an effective Right to
Information Act in Maharashtra, the first two days of the dharna will
focus primarily on the shortcomings of the Right to Information Act
in Rajasthan. A public hearing on the issue will be convened on 17
August. People from various parts of the state will share their
experiences regarding the content and implementation of the Right to
Information Act including problems with getting the information
sought, inaction on part of the government when corruption has been
found, etc. After due deliberations, the dharna participants will
demand amendments and improvements in the Rajasthan Right to
Information Act to be made during this session of the Assembly.
Land rights of Adivasis: Adivasis in the country today are facing an
unprecedented threat to their livelihoods due to extensive evictions
by state authorities who are labelling them as 'encroachers' on
forest land. Despite orders not to evict anyone who has tilled land
before 1980, the Forest Department in Rajasthan is issuing blanket
eviction notices, without any verification process.
Attack on spaces for democratic protest: In recent months, democratic
spaces have been shrinking. The Supreme Court has issued a ban on
government employees to go on a strike, and the Rajasthan government
has tried to reclaim public spaces, which have been used for
democratic protest, such as the Statue Circle in Jaipur.
The dharna will include participants from different parts of
Rajasthan. It will be in place for the duration of the Assembly
session. We hope that you will participate and support the issues
that the dharna is attempting to raise in every possible way.
o o o
DHARNA NOTES 1 (19 August)
DHARNA FOR THE RIGHT TO WORK IN JAIPUR
A dharna for the right to work and related demands began in Jaipur on
16 August. The dharna is led by Akal Sangharsh Samiti, a network of
70 Rajasthan-based organisations. The main demand is an Employment
Guarantee Act for Rajasthan. However, the dharna has also taken up
related issues such as: (1) tribal evictions from forest land; (2)
continuation of relief works until the next harvest; (3) an improved
right to information law; (4) a fair and transparent procedure to
update and correct electoral rolls; (5) shrinking of city space for
democratic protest.
On the first day of the dharna, a number of participants fasted in
solidarity with Anna Hazare, who was on an indefinite fast in Mumbai
at that time. Anna Hazare was fasting for the enactment and
improvement of Maharashtra's "right to information act". The fast was
a success and Maharashtra now has one of the best right to
information acts in the country. The right to information issue also
figures prominently in the Jaipur dharna, and was even the object of
a full public hearing on 18 August.
Also on the first day of the dharna, a delegation met Mr. Ashok
Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Regarding tribal evictions, the
Chief Minister told the delegation that eviction notices would be
withdrawn and that no eviction notice would be issued without a full
verification of the facts. He also addressed the other demands and
assured the delegation that he would pursue these matters.
On the issue of employment guarantee, the Chief Minister said that he
was himself keen on the idea, provided that the central government
supplied free grain for it. He mentioned that he had pleaded the case
for an employment guarantee with the central government. Indeed, he
felt that it was the only lasting solution to poverty and hunger. The
delegation tried to persuade him that the state government should
take the first step in introducing an employment guarantee, and that
what was needed was a legal guarantee and not just a scheme.
The dharna continues and will be in place until the end of the
forthcoming Assembly session, which starts on 21 August.
_____
[7.]
To
The Prime Minister,
August 20, 2003
Government of India
Dear Pradhan mantri ji,
We write to you in connection with
the alternative proposal of double member constituencies in place of
the Women's Reservation Bill mentioned by you both in the
parliamentary debate on the no-confidence motion as well as in your
Independence Day address to the nation.. We would like to inform you
that not a single women's organisation that has been involved for at
least the last decade in the struggle to increase women's
representation in decision making bodies supports the double member
constituency proposal as an alternative to the one third reservation
of seats provided for in the present Women's Reservation Bill. On the
contrary this proposal is insulting to women.
From what we understand from the statements made by the leaders of
the ruling party, all the 180 seats to be reserved for women will be
converted into double member constituencies. Thus no woman elected on
such a reserved seat will have the right to represent her
constituency independently, she will have to do so along with another
member. However all the other unreserved seats will be single member.
This is rank discrimination against women. Instead of addressing the
discrimination against women in the political sphere, this proposal
will add another dimension to it.
The proposal will create two classes within MPs. One class who will
have the privilege of representing their constituencies independently
and the under class who will not have the right to do so. Since only
women reserved seats will be double member, more women will be denied
of the right to independently represent their constituencies than men.
If 180 seats are made double member than the number of men will
increase while women will get only 25 per cent as opposed to the
present Bill that gives women thirty three percent.
When there will be two members from the same constituency, there are
bound to be differences in the approach of how to deal with the
problems of constituents, including expenditures of the MP funds.
This will adversely affect the interests of the constituents.
As is well known in the General Elections in 1952 and 1957
approximately one fifth of the seats which had been reserved for
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes were made into double member
constituencies. The arguments advanced to make SC and ST seats double
member then were perhaps not very dissimiliar from those being
advanced today to make only women reserved seats as double member. In
both cases existing monopolies felt threatened. In any case for a
variety of reasons, in 1961 through an act of Parliament, all double
member constituencies were abolished. Today no Government would dare
to declare any SC or SC seat double member. To resurrect this form of
representation that has through experience been found to be flawed,
and then to apply it to women, is harmful both for women and for
democratic processes and institutions.
The double member constituency will also give an advantage to the
Party that may be dominant in that seat, in that the party will get
two members in the place of one. This will be particularly unfair to
regional parties. It has been shown through various studies of voting
patterns that in most cases in double member constituencies, voters
cast their vote for the same symbol in both cases. Thus in a closely
fought national election, one particular party or alliance may get
undue advantage if those seats are declared double member where they
have more influence. Thus the double member constituency may become a
useful method to create majorities and form Governments.
All the above objections are equally valid for the State Assemblies,
perhaps even more so since the Assembly constituencies are smaller in
size and therefore the problems will be all the more acute.
The double member constituency can be acceptable only if ALL seats in
Parliament and State Assemblies are declared to be double member. In
that case there will be no discrimination, nor will there be two
classes of MPs and nor will any one party get the advantage of
getting two members elected in place of one.
It is for all these reasons that we strongly oppose the proposal of
double member constituencies.
We once again appeal to you to place the Women's Reservation Bill for
vote in this session of Parliament. We would like to remind you that
this Bill has been through the process of approval by a Select
Committee of Parliament. It has the required number of votes in
support to ensure its passage, provided of course that the ruling
party itself votes for its own Bill.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Brinda Karat (AIDWA) Vina Mazumdar (CWDS) Mohini Giri (GOS)Jyotsna
Chatterjee (JWP) Syeda Hameed (MWF) Sehba Farooqui (NFIW) Mary
Khemchand (YWCA of India) Bulu Sareen (Forces) Suman Krishna Kant
(MDS) Ranjana Kumari (JAFW) Aparna Basu (AIWC)
_____
[8.]
Dear Friends,
INDIA CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND LAW INVITES YOU TO A PRESS AND PUBLIC MEETING
ON
SEXUAL HARASSMENT - HOW TO MAKE WORK PLACES SAFER FOR WOMEN
Followed by
Release of a study done by the students of Sophia College on
Perceptions and Experiences of Working Women on Sexual Harassment in
the Workplace
And release of the Women’s Rights special issue of Combat Law (the
Human Rights Magazine)
On 13th August 1997, the Supreme Court of India passed a landmark
judgement (called Vishaka guidelines) on the issue of sexual
harassment at workplace. The court defines sexual harassment and
gives certain mandatory and binding guidelines to be followed by
every workplace in India. Six years down the line, the implementation
scenario is mixed. While some workplaces have taken the initiative to
implement the guidelines, others remain indifferent and most working
women are oblivious to the judgement, which protects their rights.
This meeting is an attempt to facilitate an open discussion and
information sharing on an issue which has always been swept under the
carpet.
Open Discussion and sharing of personal experiences and cases of
sexual harassment in Mumbai
DATE: AUGUST 22ND, 2003
TIME: 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
VENUE: YMCA, OPP REGAL CINEMA,
N. PAREKH MARG, COLABA, MUMBAI
Please do invite other concerned citizens, working women, legal
professionals and social activists. For further details please
contact Renuka or Prachi: 23439651/ 23436692
Sincerely,
Neeta Raymond
Renuka Mukadam
Prachi Patwardhan
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on matters of peace
and democratisation in South Asia. SACW is an independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run since 1998 by South Asia
Citizens Web (www.mnet.fr/aiindex).
The complete SACW archive is available at: http://sacw.insaf.net
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