Full Text of PM’s Remarks at the G-20 Meeting at Pittsburgh: Plenary Session

Following is the text of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s remarks at the Plenary Session of G-20 Meeting at Pittsburgh:

"Mr. President, let me begin by thanking you for the excellent arrangements made for this Summit and for your warm hospitality.

We have discussed the complex challenges posed by the need to revive the global economy. I would like to focus on what this implies for the developing countries.

We all know that these countries were in no way responsible for the crisis, but in many ways, they are the hardest hit. In the seven years before the crisis, the GDP of the developing countries grew at an average of 6.5 per cent per year. In 2009 it will grow by only 1.5 per cent, implying a fall in real per capita income.

Of course, experience varies across countries. Countries in Asia have generally fared much better. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in many other regions have been very badly hit.

India too has been affected but, in common with other Asian countries, we have weathered the crisis relatively well given the circumstances. After growing at 9 per cent per year for four years our economy slowed down to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09. In 2009, despite a drought, which will affect agricultural production, we expect to grow by around 6.3 per cent in 2009-10 and then recover to 7 to 7.5 percent growth next year. This relatively strong performance is partly due to the strong stimulus measures introduced in the second half of 2008-09, which have been continued in the current financial year.

However, the fact that some of us have fared relatively well does not mean that the crisis has not affected the developing world significantly. The fact that the growth of developing countries as a group will fall to 1.5 per cent indicates the extent of the impact.

An estimated 90 million people in the developing world are likely to be pushed below the poverty line. Lower revenues will also lead to lower levels of expenditure on rural infrastructure, health and education. This will not only hurt future growth, but also delay achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Social and political tensions could increase, undermining the national consensus in support of much needed structural reforms and adjustment.

The prospects of convergence, which seemed bright before the crisis, have receded. We must take steps to counter these developments and restore the momentum of growth in the developing world.

First, the problem must be tackled at its root by ensuring the quickest possible return to normalcy in the global economy. This requires a commitment that we will not undertake any premature withdrawal of stimulus. We must certainly plan for an orderly “exit” when the time is right, but that time is not now. The global economy may be bottoming out, but it is not expected to reach 3% growth until the end of 2010.

The depressed state of the global economy translates into a considerable loss of export demand for the developing countries. Exports of non-oil developing countries are expected to decline by about $900 billion in 2009, compared to the previous year. They will remain well below the trajectory earlier projected for several years. This is bound to reduce production, incomes and employment in the developing countries.

The measures taken by the G-20 to increase the flow of assistance will help, and they certainly represent an important achievement in international cooperation. However, the scale of the transfers we have planned will only help the developing countries to manage their balance of payments at depressed levels of economic activity. They cannot counter the effect of the loss of exports.

To resuscitate growth in the developing countries, we have to replace lost export demand by expanding other components of domestic demand. The best option is to expand investment. An obvious area where additional investment is needed in developing countries is infrastructure, including energy, transport and other infrastructure for public services. These investments can be made ahead of requirements and therefore are an ideal form of countercyclical activity.

The World Bank and the other regional development banks can play a major role by financing such investment. They should expand lending for infrastructure development to emerging market countries which have relied on capital markets in more normal times, but will need support in the medium run, till capital markets recover. The poorer, low-income countries had very little access to capital markets. For them, financing on suitable terms may have to be made available for an even longer period.

A strategy of expanding investment demand in developing countries to replace lost export demand will not only help growth in developing countries, it will also contribute to a broader global revival. This is because the import content of investment is typically higher than of exports, which means a significant percentage of the initial increase in demand will spill over into the global economy.

The World Bank has announced that the volume of IBRD lending would be increased to $100 billion over the next three years. This is commendable. However, if the capital base of the IBRD is not expanded, they will have to compress lending at the end of the three year period to less than the pre-crisis level. This is surely not acceptable.

There is, therefore, an overwhelming case for doubling the capital of the IBRD. Similar increases in capital are needed for the other regional development banks also.

I realize there may be hesitation in committing additional public resources for recapitalization. However, we must keep in mind that what is needed for these institutions is small compared to the massive scale of public money used to stabilize the private financial system in industrialized countries. Some additional effort is surely justified to help the developing countries to cope with the spillover effects of a crisis for which they were not responsible.

Finally, Mr. President, a word on trade. The collapse in export markets makes it all the more important that the market access of developing countries is not constrained by protectionism. I recognize that when growth is low, and unemployment is high, it is inevitable that protectionist pressures will arise. It will be a test of the collective political leadership of this Group, whether we are able to resist these pressures in our countries. I am happy to note that the Delhi Ministerial succeeded in reviving momentum for the Doha Round negotiations. I venture to suggest that this is an area where the industrial countries can give a lead to achieve a successful outcome.

We have done a great deal on finance and what remains is easily doable. We need to address the difficult tasks on the trade front which are now more important for the medium term."

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RGGVY – lighting up rural areas

Rural electrification has been regarded as a vital programme for the development of rural areas. It is now well accepted that electricity has become one of the basic human needs and every household must have access to electricity. In rural India, supply of electricity is needed for broad based economic and human development. The National Electricity Policy envisages supply of quality power to rural areas for 24 hours. The Rural Electrification Policy aims at providing access to electricity to all households.

The definition of village electrification has been made stricter to ensure availability of sufficient electricity infrastructure in each village before declaring it as electrified. In accordance with the Census 2001, about 1.2 lakh villages were un-electrified in the country.

Keeping in view the slow pace of rural electrification by the States, the Government of IndiaRajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) as one of its flagship programme in March 2005 with an objective to electrify over one lakh un-electrified villages and to provide free electricity connections to 2.34 Crore rural BPL households. The infrastructure being provided under the scheme is sufficient to provide electricity connections to all households. The APL families are being encouraged to take electricity connections from the distribution utility after fulfilling standard terms and conditions of the utility for the purpose. launched

The Scheme

The scheme provides 90% capital subsidy for the projects and covers following activities: Rural Electricity Distribution Backbone (REDB); Creation of Village Electrification Infrastructure (VEI); Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG) and supply and Rural Household Electrification of Below Poverty Line Households.

Under the scheme, Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG) projects based on new & renewable sources can also be taken up by States, wherever such solution is found more cost effective. The detailed guidelines for setting up DDG projects under RGGVY have been issued.

RGGVY continued in XIth Plan

During the X Plan, 235 projects for 234 districts were sanctioned at an estimated cost of Rs.9732 Crore to electrify 68,763 villages and to provide free electricity connections to 83.1 lakh BPL households. 38,525 villages were electrified by the end of X Plan.

The continuation of RGGVY in the XI Plan was sanctioned by the Government on 3rd January 2008 with a provision of Rs.28,000 Crore capital subsidy. The states having large number of un-electrified villages and households (Assam. Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal) have been given more emphasis under the scheme. Other areas of focus are special category states of north-east, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand, districts having international boundaries and districts affected by naxal activities. Habitations above 100 population are being covered under the scheme.

During XI Plan, 327 projects costing Rs.16,268 Crore have been sanctioned for electrification of 49,383 villages and for providing 162 lakh electricity connections BPL households.

So far, Ministry of Power has sanctioned 562 villages for 534 districts to electrify 118,146 villages and to provide free electricity connections to 2.45 Crore BPL rural households. As on 15th July 2009, 63,040 villages have been electrified and 63.6 lakh free electricity connections have been released to BPL households. It is targeted to complete all the sanctioned projects before March 2012.

Implementation

Rural Electrification Corporation is the nodal agency for implementation of the scheme. Services of power sector CPSUs namely Powergrid, NTPC, NHPC and DVC have been made available to the State Power Utilities for fast implementation of the projects.

For effective and quality implementation of the projects; the Ministry has adopted turnkey mode of implementation, three-tier quality monitoring mechanism and mile stone based project monitoring. The states have been asked to provide minimum 6 to 8 hours of electricity to the villages electrified under the scheme. It has also been made mandatory to establish franchisees in the RGGVY electrified villages for effective distribution management. The franchising of distribution management is creating a good employment opportunity to the rural youth. So far, franchisees have been established in 99,643 villages.

Monitoring

The Ministry has asked the States to constitute State Level Coordination Committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary and hold its regular meetings to resolve inter-departmental issues, which badly affect speedy implementation. The Ministry has also asked the States to constitute District Level Committees with members from all the stake holders including members of Parliament & Legislative Assembly to resolve the local issues and to review the progress of the projects. It has been experienced that the progress was better in those States, where such Committees are active and holding their meetings regularly.

Under the scheme, the Ministry has also undertaken training of C & D employees of the State Power Utilities and franchisees. It is targeted to impart training to 75,000 employees and 40,000 franchisees during the XI Plan. During 2009-10, 2500 employees and 5000 franchisees are planned to be trained.

Under RGGVY, States were asked to notify their Rural Electrification Plans as a commitment for supplying electricity for minimum period of 6 to 8 hours, making arrangement of sufficient power for energizing the lines and suitable transmission and sub-transmission infrastructure to supply power to the distribution infrastructure created under the scheme. 10 states namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, J&K, Karnataka, Kerala, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand are yet to make such commitments by way of notifying their RE Plans.
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India's PDS fails to ensure food for all

The National Food Security Act has failed to reform the discriminatory public distribution system leaving many high and dry. The costly targeted system excludes the genuinely poor and encourages corruption
A concept note on the proposed National Food Security Act circulated to all states continues to push for a targeted public distribution system instead of a universal one, and proposes to reduce the issue of foodgrains to 25 kg per BPL household, completely ignoring the contentious issue of who is poor and what an adequate and nutritious diet consists of.
At a public hearing on the public distribution system (PDS), held before the Justice Wadhwa Committee in Bangalore in December 2008, Sarojamma, a single parent with four children (one of whom is mentally disabled) pleaded for a below the poverty line (BPL) ration card. She had been given an above the poverty line (APL) ration card as she is a garment worker earning Rs 3,500 per month. The APL ration card fetches her only kerosene and no foodgrain in Karnataka.

To be eligible for a BPL card, Sarojamma needs to be earning less than Rs 17,000 per year, or less than Rs 1,500 per month. At today’s prices, the rent alone for a measly 10 x 10 sq ft space in Bangalore is upwards of Rs 1,500 a month. So, to be considered poor, the state expects its citizens to be living on air and to have no other needs such as health and education.

Eeramma, who has been a single parent for 20 years with six children, was seen pleading for an Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) card that would entitle her to 10 kg more foodgrain than her BPL card. Her BPL card gets her a maximum of 25 kg of foodgrain, or around 3.5 kg per person per month for her household of seven.

Insufficient food for the poor

One would have thought one needed at least 15 kg of cereal per person per month to provide 2,400 calories per day merely to exist, let alone eat a balanced diet consisting of pulses, oil, fruit and vegetables that is necessary to grow to one’s full potential and lead a healthy life. The present PDS expects you to become food secure by merely eating an inadequate quantity of cereal!

There were others like Arthiamma and her husband, both blind, and Ritu (name changed) who is HIV+, who had been given APL cards. Their social and physical vulnerability did not make them eligible for special consideration by the state.

"Almost 50% of its children are malnourished and 75% of its women suffer from anaemia; and per capita food availability has actually decreased"
What is incredible about ‘Incredible India is that while it sports a high growth in GDP, it ranks 66th in a list of 88 countries on the World Hunger Index. Almost 50% of its children are malnourished and 75% of its women suffer from anaemia; and per capita food availability has actually decreased between 1991 2004-05.
Food security refers to a situation that exists when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life,” says an FAO report ‘State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2001’.

As reflected in these examples, India’s current public distribution system does not seem to be fulfilling any of the above criteria to ensure the right to food expected of a just and humane society.

Flawed concept note

However, into this gloomy scenario comes the UPA government’s hopeful promise of enacting a National Food Security Act. A concept note on the proposed Act, circulated to all state food secretaries by the food secretary, GoI, cites the above FAO quotation and says: “To ensure food security to all citizens of the country based on a rights approach, there is need for providing a statutory basis to food security.” And, “the nutritional status of individual household members is the ultimate focus,” (emphasis added).Although these pious statements give the impression that here, at last, is an attempt to address shameful deficiencies in the country’s food security situation, the rest of the concept note is more in the manner of a preamble to a National Food Insecurity Act!

While civil society is clamouring that the PDS be universalised, without any distinctions between BPL and APL, so that the poor get self-selected as it was earlier when the country was growing at the Hindu rate of growth of about 3%, the concept note seeks to make the targeted PDS statutory.
"If universalisation of the PDS is not accepted, those earning less than the minimum wage need to be considered poor"
The targeted PDS is costly and gives rise to a lot of corruption in the process of trying to decide who is and who is not poor. This results in the genuinely poor being left out whilst the ineligible get several cards. Economists like Jayati Ghosh say that the cost difference between a universal and targeted PDS is not very great. So what happens to the aim of covering all citizens?

Currently, the limits of annual income required for a household to be declared BPL are illogical. In Karnataka, for instance, the figures are Rs 11,000 and Rs 17,000 in rural and urban areas respectively. That means that a household of five people in Bangalore would have to be living on around Rs 47 per day, or about Rs 10 per person, on which even a beggar would not survive.

Rising hunger and malnutrition problem

In other words, a person would have to be earning less than half the minimum wage of Rs 88 (which itself is inadequate) to be considered poor. If universalisation of the PDS is not accepted, those earning less than the minimum wage need to be considered poor.

The concept note assumes without any justification that the nation may not be able to procure the required amount of foodgrain or bear the cost of a food subsidy. It is therefore proposing to reduce the scale of issue to 25 kg per BPL household, or 5 kg per person. This, despite the Supreme Court ruling that every BPL family shall be given 35 kg, and that no changes shall be effected in any food-related scheme without its permission. This will result in families having to buy 10 kg from the market, paying more for the same amount of food than earlier.

Taking all this into consideration, the Wadhwa Committee recommends that “the income criterion needs to be revisited” and that “estimation of poverty should not be made on a criteria (sic)which is less than the minimum wage fixed by the state for agricultural labourers”. Also, that “the government may also consider using calorie intake per person per day as an indicator of poverty”.

The People’s Health Movement has demanded that every person be given enough foodgrain to ensure 2,400 calories per day. Moreover, the predominance of cereals and lack of adequate pulses, oil, fruit and vegetables in the diet of most Indians is what is causing high levels of malnutrition among them. We need to find ways to get these items to the populace through the PDS, if malnutrition is to be addressed.

The concept note does not mention the word ‘malnutrition’ at all; it completely ignores the contentious issue of defining who is poor and how much and what constitutes ‘adequate and nutritious food’.

It does not recognise anywhere that entitlements should be linked to levels of malnutrition, if food security is to be achieved. It concentrates wholly on how to reduce the number of BPL families, reduce entitlements, and reduce subsidies. A great way indeed to ensure food security and raise India’s position on the World Hunger Index!

Binding clauses
Further, the concept note seeks to take away the freedom enjoyed by the states until now to: (1) fix the numbers of those who are BPL in their respective states; (2) decide the amount of foodgrain to be given to them, and (3) fix the rate at which these shall be provided. As a result of this freedom, the note says, the actual number of BPL ration cards issued by all the states is 10.68 crore while the accepted figure of BPL households by the Centre is 6.52 crore, resulting in an excess of 4.16 crore BPL cards. Tamil Nadu, for instance, has universalised the PDS, while Karnataka has issued BPL cards to 85% of households.

"The Centre is planning to bring in an enforcement mechanism that will monitor the states’ adherence to the Centre’s fiats and penalise those that transgress them"
The Centre is planning to curtail this right and insist that all states abide by the levels of poverty fixed by the Planning Commission, and that the Centre shall decide the numbers of poor that shall be eligible in each state, the amount of foodgrain that shall be given, and the rates at which these shall be issued to families.

To ensure that states do not defy these restrictions and fix their own entitlements, the Centre is planning to bring in an enforcement mechanism under the Food Security Act that will monitor the states’ adherence to the Centre’s fiats and penalise those that transgress them. Here is a blatant attempt not only to centralise decision-making and curtail the freedom of the states in a federal set-up, but also to reduce the basic entitlement to food of a hungry and malnourished nation.

The present allocation under the TDPS to the BPL and AYY categories is 277 lakh tonnes which entails a “huge commitment on the central pool for BPL families,” the concept note adds. The Planning Commission’s latest poverty estimates, according to 2004-05 figures, reveal that the country’s BPL population is only 27.5% whereas it was 36% according to 1993-94 figures.

As per the above, the number of BPL families (including AAY) will come down from 6.52 crore to 5.91 crore, and the number of APL families will go up from 11.52 crore to 15.84 crore. In view of this, based on the current scale of issue, annual allocations of foodgrain for AAY and BPL categories may come down from 277 lakh tonnes to 251 lakh tonnes, and for the APL category it will go up from 162 lakh tonnes to 202 lakh tonnes, the concept note estimates.

However, in view of this increase of 40 lakh tonnes for the APL category, the concept note makes the categorical statement that “the central government will not be able to guarantee distribution/supply of any quantity of foodgrain for the APL category from the central pool,” and that the “APL category may be excluded from TDPS,” except for APL families in some food-deficit and inaccessible states/union territories. This reasoning fails to recognise that there will be a saving of 26 lakh tonnes of foodgrain as a result of the reduction in BPL numbers.

The effective increase in foodgrain allocation to the APL category will thus only be 14 lakh tonnes. To use this reasoning to restrict the PDS only to 27.5% of the population is to deprive the rest of the population, which is unable to meet the requirement of 2,400 calories per day, of the right to food. Researchers like Utsa Patnaik estimate this number to be 70% of the population.

While civil society demands that BPL cards be updated every year in order to capture those who have slid back into poverty due to various exigencies like debt, drought, displacement, etc, the Centre is talking about annual updation only to seek out those who have risen above the poverty line, with the aim of taking away their BPL cards.

The concept note recognises that some households may have more than the average number of persons whereas others may have less than the average. But nowhere does the Centre make a commitment to provide foodgrain to every individual in a family, whether it has five or 10 members. It continues to think in terms of an upper ceiling of five units per household as the maximum that a family can receive. What happens to the guarantee of having the “individual as the focus”?

Schemes/ Yojana's for addressing hunger

Even more worrying seems to be the Centre’s intent to do away with other food-related schemes such as the Annapoorna Yojana for elderly destitutes and supply of foodgrain from the central pool to welfare institutions, hostels, etc, in the name of avoiding multiplicity of schemes, as beneficiaries of these schemes may already be covered under the TDPS.

By mentioning the school midday meal scheme, the ICDS scheme, and the nutrition programme for adolescent girls as schemes that cause multiplicity, the Centre is hinting that these too may be curtailed or done away with altogether. Or, at the very least, that it is keeping its options open. There goes the hope of 50% malnourished children and anaemic adolescent girls of ever leading a full and healthy life. In the same breath, the Centre is proposing that the Antyodaya sub-category within the BPL also be done away with on grounds that sub-categories are unnecessary.

"With this, the government seemingly wishes to wash its hands of any accountability ensuring the right to food to all its citizens"
The Centre doles out a plethora of excuses as to why it may not be able to obtain or sustain current levels of foodgrain procurement at minimum support prices, or sustain their distribution at current levels. And that all this uncertainty could necessitate the import of foodgrain.

The Centre also hints that if the issue price of rice and wheat are fixed at Rs 3 per kg for all BPL families, the annual food subsidy may go up from the current Rs 37,000 crore to Rs 40,380 crore. And that continuing to provide foodgrain for the APL category would further affect this figure. Nowhere is there an acceptance that these costs have to be borne as a matter of course if food security is to be ensured. The possible increase in cost is spoken of more in the nature of a looming threat to the economic health of the nation, which needs to be avoided.

The only good points in the concept note appear to be the government’s commitment to ensuring doorstep delivery of foodgrain to all fair price shops (FPSs), monitoring FPSs and certification of issuance of foodgrain by local vigilance committees, social audit by local bodies, computerisation of operations, effective grievance redressal mechanisms, and the setting up of food security tribunals at the taluka level, and appellate tribunals at the district level.

The piece de resistance of the concept note lies in the statement: “In case a state/UT government is unable to distribute the entitled monthly quantities of foodgrain to eligible BPL families/individuals, such families/individuals will be entitled for payment of a food security allowance.” With this, the government seemingly wishes to wash its hands of any accountability in the matter of ensuring the right to food to all its citizens.

Activists see the proposed Food Security Act as a gimmick to win future votes, just as the NREGA was seen as the reason for the substantial mandate given to the UPA in the last elections. The government will be seen to have done something pro-poor even though it will only be a mask behind which it quietly carries on its real agenda of neo-liberal reforms.

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Green Tribunal Bill has many flaws

India’s National Green Tribunal Bill has evoked much criticism over the issues of accountability, biasness and restricting appeals from rights groups, notes environment and health policy analyst Gopal Krishna. A lot of reform is needed before it is passed by the Parliament, he says.


The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Bill, 2009 that would judge environmental disputes was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Jairam Ramesh, Environment Minister on 31 July, 2009.

The Bill provides "for the establishment of a National Green Tribunal for the effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources ..." The tribunal will have the same powers as a civil court. It will subsume various state-level authorities that address environmental issues, as well as committees created by the Supreme Court for that purpose.

The NGT comes in response to the 186th Report of Law Commission of India on the Proposal to Constitute Environmental Courts in September 2003. This report had noted, "the National Environmental Appellate Authority (NEAA) constituted under the NEAA Act, 1997, for the limited purpose of providing a forum to review the administrative decisions on Environment Impact Assessment, had very little work.

It appears that since the year 2000, no Judicial Member has been appointed [Eds: Numerous articles in India Together have reported on the NEAA's dysfunction]. So far as the National Environmental Tribunal (NET) Act, 1995 is concerned, the legislation has yet to be notified despite the expiry of eight years. Since it was enacted by Parliament, the Tribunal under the Act is yet to be constituted. Thus, these two Tribunals are non-functional and remain only on paper."

The NGT Bill, 2009 is meant to replace NEAA Act of 1997 and NET Act of 1995.
While it seems to be a step in the right direction, the Bill itself includes a number of flawed passages, which would need to be corrected before it is deemed fit for passage from Parliament as an Act.

Broadly, there are four kinds of problems.

Restrictions on who can approach the Tribunal: Judicial and quasi-judicial institutions cannot be strong if only a few people, conveniently selected by the authorities, are allowed to approach them. Moreover, since the courts have recognised that the environment falls within the purview of Article 21, it is clear that all persons have a duty to protect the environment and a corresponding right to question the adverse impact on environment and human health. But the Bill ignores this principle.

Instead, in Section 18 of the Bill, the locus standi of a person to file an application before the Tribunal reads, "any representative body or organisation functioning in the field of environment, with permission of the Tribunal" can file an application for grant of relief or compensation or settlement of dispute to the Tribunal. "There is no reason why only an environmental organisation can file appeals before the Tribunal"
 
This is highly problematic. There is no reason why only an environmental organisation can file appeals before the Tribunal. Why not human rights organisations, or public health institutions, labour groups, or even other plaintiffs. And it's laughable that the 'permission of the Tribunal' is needed to file applications before it.
This portion of the Bill should simply be deleted, before it heads inevitably towards a constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court.

Appointment of experts: The intent of most appointed bodies can be judged from its composition, and on that score the Bill fares poorly. The proposed composition of the Tribunal follows a tried, tested and failed track; anyone who has read the 32-page Bill is bound to wonder if the Tribunal is meant to be a club for retired IAS officers and technocrats.

As it stands, the expert members of the Tribunal would need "administrative experience of fifteen years including experience of five years in dealing with environmental matters in the Central or State Government, or in a reputed National or State level institution". This is undisguised code for the 'jobs for the boys' program that nearly all retired senior bureaucrats join.

It has been a constant concern of the Supreme Court, which has been expressed in several orders that an expert body (the Tribunal, in the present case) should consist of experts in relevant fields and not the bureaucrats.

All earlier attempts in handling the environmental problems through the NEAA and other bodies have failed because their control was left in the hands of bureaucrats. Had such appointees been competent, those government departments or institutions where they served would have surely been instrumental in protecting the environment, which is clearly not the case and which had led to the necessity of the Tribunal. In fact it is the colossal failure of administrators that has created the compelling logic for the Tribunal itself.

"It would be infinitely better for the Tribunal's expert members to be of technical and scientific background" What would be infinitely better is for the Tribunal's expert members to be of technical and scientific background, experts in public health, occupational health, social science with relevant experience in environmental and occupational health, etc. with a minimum experience of 15 years. That would bring forth real experts.
 
Limiting the period of accountability: Section 14 (3) of Chapter III in the Bill deals with Tribunal's jurisdiction, powers and proceedings. It reads, "No application for adjudication of dispute under this section shall be entertained by the Tribunal unless it is made within a period of six months from the date on which the cause of action for such dispute first arose".

It is not clear why there should be such a restriction. Disputes can arise at any time, and it is silly to expect that only those that arise in the first six months should be entertained by the Tribunal. The Bill is also silent on where one should take disputes that rise beyond this window of time!

Similarly, Section 15(3) reads, "No application of grant of any compensation or relief or restitution of property or environment under this section shall be entertained by the Tribunal unless it is made within a period of five years from the date on which the cause of such compensation or relief first arose." The adverse effects of various environmental and public health hazards - silicosis, asbestosis, radiation exposure, chemical exposure, for instance - often take more than five years to manifest themselves.

Therefore, the fixed period of five years should be removed, or, alternately, the Bill should specify who will be liable for adverse effects discovered beyond this time limit.

Section 16 that deals with the appellate jurisdiction of the Tribunal in the matter of "any person aggrieved" by orders or decisions of the Tribunal or National Biodiversity Authority or State Biodiversity Board, under the stipulated provision of the NTG Bill, the person aggrieved can file an appeal "within a period of 30 days from the date on which the order or decision or direction is communicated to him".

The period of filing the appeal is too short, and should be extended to 60 days, as often individuals are prevented by unavoidable situations from filing appeals within 30 days.

Implicit threat to petitioners: Section 22(2) of the Bill reads: "Where the Tribunal holds that that a claim is not maintainable, or false or vexatious, ... the Tribunal may ... make an order to award costs, including lost benefits due to any interim injunction." This provision is quite discouraging. In general, the courts (Tribunal in this case) always have a general right to impose costs of trials and others costs upon petitioners or the accused. There is no need to include this explicitly in Section 22(2) .

This will deter concerned citizens from bringing environmental issues before the Tribunal, fearing the imposition of heavy costs in case their claim is disallowed.

"There is much that needs to be revised in the draft before the law is enacted. Whether the Environment Ministry now takes up such reform will be watched keenly"
 
Moreover, this clause is one-sided; it should be amended, at the very least, to say that costs can be imposed on defendants too, in cases where they are found to have misled the Tribunal through their vexatious actions.
In any event, the correct way to tackle this is for the Tribunal to decide whether, prima facie, the claim made by the petitioner is allowable before it, and also whether any defendants have a fair amount of explaining to do. If that is done, there will be almost no need for imposing any costs of trial and/or punitive costs on either party at the end of the trial.

With all these worries, there is much that needs to be revised in the draft before the law is enacted. Whether the Environment Ministry now takes up such reform will be watched keenly. Many observers have despaired of the Ministry's functioning during the last 10 years, and are hopeful that a new Minister, Jairam Ramesh, will steer a different course than the blatantly pro-industry stances of his immediate predecessors. The final version of the NGT Bill will be an important test of that hope.

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मंदी: साल बाद भी उबर न पाई दुनिया

मंदी: साल बाद भी उबर न पाई दुनिया

लेहमन ब्रदर्स के दिवालिया घोषित होने के बाद अंतरराष्ट्रीय वित्त बाज़ार में भूचाल आ गया
अंतरराष्ट्रीय वित्तीय व्यवस्था में सितंबर 2008 में आए भूचाल को एक साल हो गया है. निर्यात गिरने और विकास दर घटने के बावजूद चाहे भारत पर इसका उतना बुरा असर नहीं पड़ा है लेकिन अंतरराष्ट्रीय वित्तीय व्यवस्था अब भी वित्तीय संकट के असर से उबर नहीं पाई है.

अमरीका से ठीक एक साल पहले शुरु हुए उस वित्तीय भूचाल पर नज़र डाले तो विश्व के अगस्त 2007 से ही नकदी के संकट में फंसते चले जाने के सबूत थे. लेकिन इसने सही मायने में पिछले साल सितंबर में विकराल रूप लिया.


शुरुआत हुई सात सितंबर को होम-लोन का कारोबार करने वाले अमरीकी वित्तीय संस्थानों फ़ेनी मे और फ़्रेडी मैक को सरकारी नियंत्रण में लिए जाने से, और पूरे सप्ताह लेहमन ब्रदर्स के भविष्य को लेकर आशंकाएँ बनी रहीं. अंतत: 14 सितंबर की देर रात लेहमन ब्रदर्स दिवालिया घोषित होने वाली सबसे बड़ी अमरीकी कंपनी बन गई. लेहमन ब्रदर्स के पतन के बाद वैश्विक वित्त व्यवस्था ने एक अनिश्चित राह पकड़ ली, और साल भर बाद भी संकट के बादल नहीं छंटे हैं.

फ़ेडेरल नेशनल मॉरगेज एसोसिएशन यानी फ़ेनी मे और फ़ेडेरल होम लोन मॉरगेज कॉरपोरेशन यानि फ़्रेडी मैक सरकार समर्थित वित्तीय संस्थान है. जिस समय इन पर संकट आया अमरीका के होम-लोन बाज़ार का क़रीब आधा हिस्सा इन दोनों के पास था.

अमरीका में रह रहे अर्थशास्त्री और विश्व बैंक के पूर्व उपाध्यक्ष शाहिद जावेद बर्की ने इनके कामकाज़ के तरीके के बारे में बताया, "ये दोनों संस्थान कॉमर्शियल बैंकों द्वारा वितरित होम-लोन को ख़रीदते हैं. उनको फिर नया रूप देकर बीमा कंपनियों या दीर्घावधि के निवेश में इच्छुक अन्य वित्तीय संस्थानों को आगे बेचते हैं. इस तरह से ये कॉमर्शियल बैंकों के लिए सेंकेंडरी मार्केट उपलब्ध कराते हैं. फ़ेनी मे छोटे होम-लोन को ख़रीद कर उन्हें मिलाकर बड़े निवेश उत्पाद के रूप में बेचता है, जबकि फ़्रेडी मैक बड़े ऋण को लेकर ऐसा ही काम करता है."
सरकारी सहायता

जब अमरीका की हाउसिंग मार्केट में संकट आया और घरों के दाम तेज़ी से गिरने शुरू हुए और बैंकों को नक़दी के संकट का सामना करना पड़ा तो फ़ेनी मे और फ़्रेडी मैक के लिए अपने पैरों पर खड़ा रहना मुश्किल हो गया. दोनों ही बैंक रोज़ाना लाखों डॉलर की दर से धन गंवा रहे थे.

ऐसे में अमरीकी सरकार और अमरीकी केंद्रीय बैंक तुरंत हरकत में आए. तत्कालीन वित्त मंत्री हेनरी पॉलसन ने सरकारी खज़ाने से 200 अरब डॉलर की नक़दी दे कर फ़ेनी मे और फ़्रेडी मैक को दिवालिया होने से बचाने की सरकार की मजबूरी के बारे में कहा था, "ये संकट सीधे-सीधे आम अमरीकी परिवार पर बुरा असर डालेगा. परिवार के बजट, घरों की क़ीमत, बच्चों की पढ़ाई और सेवानिवृति के बाद के दिनों के लिए बचा कर रखे गए धन...ये सब प्रभावित होंगे. यदि इन दो बैंकों को बचाया नहीं गया तो आम अमरीकी परिवारों और व्यवसायों को रिण मिलना मुश्किल हो जाएगा. और अंतत: इससे अमरीका का आर्थिक विकास प्रभावित होगा, बेरोज़गारी बढ़ेगी."

दो बड़े बैंकों को सरकारी जीवन-धारा दिए जाने पर अमरीकी बैंकों और वित्तीय संस्थानों ने तो राहत की सांस ली ही, चीन और जापान जैसे देशों ने भी इस त्वरित कार्रवाई के लिए अमरीकी सरकार की तारीफ़ की थी. दरअसल फ़ेनी मे और फ़्रेडी मैक को सरकारी समर्थन मिले होने के कारण इन देशों ने भी इसमें बड़ा निवेश कर रखा था.

वित्त बाज़ार में भूचाल
लेकिन फ़्रेडी मैक और फ़ेनी मे को बचाए जाने के बाद भी वित्तीय संकट की स्थिति और भयानक होती जा रही थी. अमरीका के बड़े निवेश बैंकों में से एक लेहमन ब्रदर्स के पाँव डगमगा रहे थे. लेकिन पूर्व में बेअर स्टर्न्स बैंक को सहारा देने वाली अमरीकी सरकार ने लीमैन ब्रदर्स को सहारा देने से इनकार कर दिया.

अंतत: 15 सितंबर की सुबह लेहमन ब्रदर्स के दिवालिया घोषित होने की ख़बर ने न सिर्फ़ अमरीका बल्कि पूरी दुनिया के वित्तीय बाज़ार में भूचाल ला दिया. ये सिर्फ़ एक प्राइवेट निवेश बैंक की ही नाकामी नहीं थी, बल्कि इसने पूँजीवाद के सात दशकों से प्रचलित स्वरूप पर ही सवालिया निशान लगा दिया.

उसी हफ़्ते मीडिया में सामने आई जानकारी के अनुसार अमरीका सरकार लेहमन ब्रदर्स को बचाना तो चाहती थी, लेकिन पूरे मन से उसने इसकी कोशिश नहीं की. आख़िर पूँजीवाद के एक प्रतीक को क्यों नहीं बचाया जा सका? ब्रिटेन के क्रेनफ़ील्ड स्कूल ऑफ़ मैनेजमेंट के प्रोफ़ेसर सुनील पोशाकवाले ने इस बारे में बताया, "जब लेहमन ब्रदर्स पर संकट आया तो हेनरी पॉल्सन को उम्मीद थी कि पिछली बार बेअर स्टर्न्स को जैसे अमरीकी बैंकों की मदद से बचा लिया गया था, उसी तरह इस निवेश बैंक को भी बचा लिया जाएगा. लेकिन जब उन्हें अहसास हुआ कि ऐसा संभव नहीं है, तो उन्होंने ब्रिटेन के बार्कलेज़ बैंक से संपर्क किया."

"समस्या ये थी कि बार्कलेज़ संपूर्ण लेहमन ब्रदर्स में नहीं बल्कि उसकी अच्छी परिसंपत्तियों मात्र में दिलचस्पी ले रहा था, जबकि पॉल्सन इसके ख़िलाफ़ थे. इसी तरह ब्रिटेन की सरकार और वित्तीय नियामक संस्थाओं की माँग थी कि लीमैन ब्रदर्स का बार्कलेज़ द्वारा अधिग्रहण की बात आगे बढ़े इससे पहले अमरीका सरकार पूरे सौदे को किसी न किसी तरह की गारंटी दे. दोनों ही बातें संभव नहीं हो पाई, और लीमैन ब्रदर्स का दिवाला निकल गया."
निवेश बैंकों की कार्य प्रणाली

बेअर स्टर्न्स और मेरिल लिंच के दूसरे अमरीकी बैंकों के हाथों में चले़ जाने, और लेहमन ब्रदर्स के दिवालिया घोषित होने के साथ ही, पूंजीवाद के पोस्टर-ब्वॉय माने जाने वाले निवेश बैंकों की कार्य-प्रणाली पर ही सवालिया निशान उठने लगा. आख़िर क्यों बिखर गई निवेश बैंकों की दुनिया? लंदन में एबीएन एमरो बैंक से जुड़े निवेश बैंकर रवीन्द्र राठी ने इस बारे में बताया, "निवेश बैंकों का मॉडल काफ़ी जटिल हो गया था. उनकी फ़ाइनेंसिंग की टाइमिंग भी ठीक नहीं थी. वो अल्पावधि की फंडिंग और दीर्घावधि का निवेश कर रहे थे. इसके साथ-साथ बैलेंसशीट से बाहर ऐसे कई तरह के निवेश थे जिनकी बहुत ही जटिल सीडीओ के अंतर्गत ट्रेडिंग होती थी. इसके भी ऊपर सीडीएस जैसे और ज़्यादा ज़ोख़िम वाले उपक्रम थे."

"कई सालों से जारी कम ब्याज़ दर के वातावरण में प्रचूर मात्रा में ऋण उपलब्ध हो गया. जो कर्ज़ चुका पाने की स्थिति में किसी तरह से नहीं थे उन्हें मनचाही मात्रा में ऋण मिल रहा था. हाउसिंग सेक्टर में क़ीमतों में बेतहाशा तेज़ी आती जा रही थी. निवेश बैंक भी इनमें डूबते जा रहे थे. दोष नियामक संस्थाओं का भी था. या तो उनके पास जटिल निवेश उपक्रमों को समझने वाले लोग नहीं थे, या उनके पास इन सबके लिए समय नहीं था."

भारत पर ज़्यादा बुरा असर नहीं
लेहमन ब्रदर्स के दिवालिया घोषित होने से पूरी दुनिया के वित्तीय बाज़ार हिल गए. शेयर सूचकांक गोते लगा रहे थे. कई शेयर बाज़ारों में तो ऐहतियातन कारोबार बंद कर दिया गया. भारत का सेन्सेक्स सूचकांक भी 3.35 प्रतिशत नीचे बंद हुआ. बैंकिंग समेत तमाम सेक्टर के शेयर ज़मीन छूते नज़र आए.

लेकिन अगले कुछ दिनों में भारत की वित्तीय व्यवस्था पर उतना बुरा असर नहीं पड़ा. मुंबई स्थित बैंकिंग क्षेत्र के विशेषज्ञ विनीत गुप्ता के अनुसार ऐसा भारतीय वित्त व्यवस्था के अंतरराष्ट्रीय वित्त व्यवस्था से पूरी तरह जुड़े नहीं होने के कारण ही हो पाया. उन्होंने कहा, "कई अंतरराष्ट्रीय मानकों को पूरा करने के बाद भी भारतीय बैंक कहीं ज़्यादा कड़े नियमों के अधीन काम करते हैं. इस कारण अमरीका, ब्रिटेन या अन्य कई पश्चिमी देशों के बैंकिंग सेक्टर की तरह यहाँ संकट देखने को नहीं मिला."

उन्होंने कहा, "लेहमन ब्रदर्स के दिवालिया घोषित होने के बाद दुनिया के कई देशों में बैंकों के सरकारी शरण में जाने को देखते हुए इतना ज़रूर हुआ कि स्टेट बैंक और आईसीआईसीआई बैंक जैसे भारतीय बैंकों ने अपनी अंतरराष्ट्रीय महत्वाकांक्षा को अभी ठंडे बस्ते में डालना ही उचित समझा है. अब वे बेलगाम विस्तार के बारे में बिल्कुल नहीं सोचेंगे. रिज़र्व ने कुछ नए ऐहतियाती निर्देश जारी किए. ये सब भारत के बैंकिंग सेक्टर के लिए अच्छी बात ही है."

पिछले सप्ताहांत लंदन में ही जी-20 देशों के विदेश मंत्रियों की बैठक में अंतरराष्ट्रीय वित्तीय संकट के एक साल पूरे होने पर स्थिति की समीक्षा की गई. सहमति बनी कि वित्तीय संकट से निपटने के लिए सरकारी हस्तक्षेप की नीति को अभी जारी रखा जाए. मतलब बुरे क़र्ज़ को सरकारी खाते में डालने, बैंकों को धराशाई होने से बचाने और भारी मात्रा में करेंसी छापने जैसे प्रयासों को अभी चालू रखा जाए.

यानी वित्तीय संकट के लगातार कम होते जाने और अर्थव्यवस्था के पटरी पर वापस लौटने के कुछ संकेत दिख रहे हैं, लेकिन मामला पूरी तरह संभले, इसके लिए अभी लंबा इंतजार करना पड़ सकता है.

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e-learning—the challenges ahead


WIDENING REACH: For e-learning to be effective, ensuring that the learning process is right is important.

Classrooms without teachers, no textbooks, and learning that could happen anytime, anywhere — this was the promise e-learning started with. But how much of that has been achieved? Education Plus spoke to experts in the field to understand the current scenario of e-learning in India and what the challenges are in adopting it.

A catch-all phrase that included any form of technology-assisted learning, e-learning was poised to revolutionise the process of education. “After the big bang, people expected the big bang to continue,” says Vipul Rastogi, president, Enterprise Solutions (India), NIIT, which offers e-learning solutions, talking about after the initial buzz on e-learning how the journey was expected to be. In place of the big bang, there is a “silent revolution taking place,” he says.

The sectors which are entering the field of e-learning serve as a testimony to the growth of e-learning. Telecom, banking, finance, and government are rapidly moving towards e-learning, he says, adding that the primary driver is not just to decrease cost but also to increase reach. Universities are also looking at e-learning modules to supplement their regular curriculum courses.

In this context, it becomes necessary to understand how effective e-learning courses are. Three to five years ago, e-learning was ‘good to have’, rather than ‘must have’ in universities and corporate houses, says Rajesh R. Jumani, chief marketing officer, Tata Interactive Systems, which offers e-learning solutions.

The focus was on the “look and feel” rather than the learning. More simulation-based training based on games are being incorporated in e-learning. And a high level of acumen is required to develop such e-learning modules.

The most difficult question to answer is how effective is a training programme,” says Mr. Jumani. The audience has to be understood, says Mr. Rastogi. There is a difference between the way a 10+2 student understands a concept versus the way a professional working for 10 years understands it, he says. Hence, there are two layers to a successful e-learning programme — the technology component and the learning component.

In India, e-learning courses could be made more popular through availability of broadband connections at competitive rates, regional language-based content for technical subjects, two-way interaction for doubts, and performance feedback with students, says S. Giridharan, CEO, EdServ, a education firm.

The real India, the bottom of the pyramid, still lacks education and guidance to a proper career,” he says.

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A method to overcome drought in India

Food security in India is getting more and more dependent on annual monsoons. In a year of low rainfall, a large section of the people, especially those below the poverty line, have to depend on subsidised government food rations. If this situation continues, the country will be stressed for resources to provide food for the people.
Coping with water shortage from failed monsoons is somewhat similar to coping with an economic crisis by a family where the breadwinners are laid off work. A family that practises saving money for a ‘rainy day’ can coast over the bad times better than one without any savings as a safety net.
India is blessed with better rainfall than many other countries. However, over 95 per cent of water received from rainfall is lost through run-off. The chief obstacle against harnessing rainwater from run-off and to recharge the depleting water table for future agriculture use is the sub-surface hardpan that prevents water percolation down the soil profile.

This hardpan is formed due to ages of primitive farming practices involving shallow ploughing of land for farming. If this obstructive hardpan can be broken up mechanically, water will freely percolate down the soil profile to be stored for use during periods of water shortage.

Method used in breaking up hardpan

Because they are centuries old, the hardpans in India are stone hard and will require mechanical tools to break them up. In developed countries, a tool named ‘chisel’ was developed more than half a century ago. This tool can be easily adapted for use in India, and its effectiveness is already demonstrated in several regions of the country.
Chisels of various lengths from 18” to 48” are commonly used in the west to loosen ground to the various depths required for various crops. 

The chief advantages of chiselling are: 
(a) It enables rainwater to percolate deep into the soil profile, recharging the water table, thus storing water underground for future use by humans and crops. 
(b) It enables plant roots to penetrate deep into the soil profile to exploit both water and nutrients from a larger volume of soil, enhancing crop yields. 
(c) It reduces the problem of siltation of lake and riverbeds. 
(d) It protects soil fertility by retaining topsoil from erosion through run-off. 
(e) It protects the environment by preventing pesticides used in farming operations from contaminating water bodies through surface run-off.

How and when to do chiselling?

Climatically, India has an advantage over western countries in the number of crops grown per year. With good planning a three-crop rotation can be adopted for most areas in India. The rotation may include a cereal crop followed by a pulse or edible oil crop and finally a vegetable crop. The cereal crop will provide the staple food, the pulse and oil crops the protein and oil component of a good balanced diet, and the vegetables vitamins, minerals and fibre, and also good cash flow for the farmer. Besides, this rotation can be used for improving soil fertility through atmospheric nitrogen fixation by the pulse (leguminous) crops.
In the economics of farming, the vegetable crop produces the maximum return for the farmer. Although adopting a three-crop rotation needs good planning, it has been proved very successful, especially when modern crop production technologies are adopted.
Chiselling is done most efficiently several weeks prior to the onset of the monsoon, when the soil conditions are still dry. Where a field is chiselled for the first time, it is found necessary to go for at least two trips across the field with gradual increments of shank depth. The second pass needs to be at a 45 degree angle to the first one.

Forming of bunds

Chiselling may be included as part of land preparation before planting a crop. Normally, 6 to 8 inch high bunds are formed around each field. It is possible to raise the height of these bunds by a few more inches to facilitate capture and for holding rainwater from run-off during heavy rains.
Prior to the chiselling operation, it is necessary to disc the field once and level the ground. After chiselling, it is desirable to level the ground once again. This is a good time for collecting soil samples for analysis. Following application of recommended soil amendments and fertilizers based on soil test results, all materials need to be incorporated in the soil 5 to 6 inches deep by disking. Allow 10 to 15 days for equilibrating the materials with the soil for the best results.
During the monsoon season, when the first rains fall on the ground, the rainwater percolates deep into the soil profile due to breaking of the hardpan by chiselling. During subsequent rains, instead of being lost as surface run-off, more and more water percolates deeper into the soil.

Special soil treatment

The higher bunds around the field will hold more water if a large amount of rainfall hits the ground and will slowly move down the soil profile to build up the water table. During times of excessive rainfall, there may be some overflow of water over the bunds. In order to prevent finer particles of soil being lost through this overflow, special soil treatments can be done before the onset of the monsoon. That will help aggregate the finer clay particles to heavier particles, which will settle to the bottom of the water, preventing loss of the fertile fraction of the soil. Thus only some clear water will flow over the dykes, preventing sedimentation of lake and riverbeds.
Thus if enough effort is made to do these operations right and on time, farmers can enjoy a ‘savings account’ of water that will come handy during times of drought.

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Have we options on AFSPA?

Dr. K.N. Pandita

Once again a row has been kicked up in the legislative assembly over the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA). Acrimony between the ruling and opposition MLAs on the issue showed that more or less both sides were pandering to subjective approach to the matter.

In bringing accusations and counter accusations against one another, the spirit and the purport of invoking the act gets submerged under trivialities. It is rather ludicrous for any political party to change stance on serious national issues when out of power.

The essential question is whether political parties seriously want to address the phenomenon of abnormal conditions created by militancy that have led to immense harm to the state, or are they just trying to politicise it for gaining some sort of political mileage.

What the representatives of the people in the assembly should have done was to initiate a serious debate on the ground situation in the state, the level of infiltration and subversion and the extent to which security forces have been able to restore normalcy. As a precursor, this kind of debate would have facilitated a sensible and pragmatic handling of the matter without acrimony or animus.

Mr. Muzaffar Baig, the PDP MLA initiated a serious debate on the subject by raising the point that since Sheikh Abdullah had not accepted the amendment of 1972 to the AFSPA of 1958 when he returned to power in 1975, therefore, neither the Act nor the amendment was applicable to the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

But instead of debating the constitutionality and the applicability of the Act, the house got embroiled in accusations and counter accusations leaving the contentious issue simmer for another flare up sometime later.

The roots of this Act, known as Armed Forces Special Power Act (Jammu and Kashmir) 1990 are to be found in the history of colonial rule, which had made enactment in 1942 to suppress Gandhi Ji’s Quit India movement. In 1958, it appeared in its present form when armed insurgency surfaced in Assam and Manipur. Later on the Union Government extended the reach of the Act to other North Eastern states where insurgency had spread.

When armed insurgency broke out in Kashmir in early 1990, it was the then Governor Jagmohan who declared Kashmir a disturbed area and imposed AFSPA.

Article 21 of the Indian Constitution states that if the Governor of a State or the Commissioner of a union territory is convinced that there is much disturbance in the state, law and order are threatened and normal administration is likely to be disrupted, he can declare the area as disturbed. The next action to follow is the implementation of the Act.

The purpose is to help restore civilian authority in the disturbed area as soon as possible and withdraw imposition of the Act

It is a fact that when Mufti Muhammad Saeed was the Union Home minister, the AFSPA was enforced in the valley on his recommendation to the Union Cabinet.

It is also a fact that during his party’s three-year term in the office, no attempt was made to raise the question of continuation or otherwise of the AFSPA.

This answers the point raised by Mr. Muzaffar Baig of PDP in the state assembly session.

The crux of the matter is whether the conditions that forced government to declare Kashmir a disturbed region in 1990 have been eradicated or not. If they no more persist then continuation of AFSPA has no justification to be in vogue. In other words, the focus has to be on the nature, viability and intensity of ground situation rather than the Act itself.

Who is to adjudge and pass a verdict on the ground situation in the valley: certainly not the armed forces. It is the people who have been bearing the brunt all these years, who will decide what they want. Since in our democratic dispensation they articulate through their elected representatives, therefore, the local mainstream political parties will have to debate and decide whether ground conditions have changed or not. Obviously, keeping in mind the response of the legislators, we find here is divergence of opinion on the question. As such a decision on the withdrawal of the Act becomes elusive for want of consensus of opinion. Agreeing that consensual politics is nothing less than a wishful thinking, nevertheless the elected representatives have to shun disagreement on the basic pre-requisites of a normal peaceful civilian life in the valley.

If we take the recent pronouncements of the Prime Minister into account, which he said were based on reliable input from various sources including the intelligence agencies, then the inference is that in terms of security the country cannot lower its guard.

Knowing the meticulous planning and extensive networking of terrorists operating in the region, and their avowed thrusts deep in the country, Kashmir situation cannot be dealt with in isolation. In most cases investigated by security agencies so far, Kashmir appears to have been converted into focal point of terrorist planning for strikes at different places in the country. Therefore application of AFSPA has to be viewed in broader perspective than just in the context of Kashmir.

Nevertheless, there are indications that militancy in the valley has come down in terms of internal subversion and suicide bombing. It is possible to move about much more freely in the cities and towns of the valley today. It is also true that ordinary people in the valley are not willing to give shelter to the militants aiming at selective strikes or subversion.

This could surely pass for improved security conditions. The credit has to go to the security forces including the state police. From that point of view AFSPA has been successful to a considerable extent in restoring normalcy in the valley.

However, it is generally believed that AFSPA is a ‘Draconian Law’ or a ‘Black Law’. As a commentator put it, the law makes the Armed Forces much more powerful than the powerful Supreme Court in the country. And when such vast powers are vested in an organization, it can misuse them; in many cases it has misused them leading to violation of human rights. Such wrongdoings cannot be pardoned. No government will be happy with these lapses when they take place.

Many Human Rights organizations like Human Rights Watch have protested against the Act as a license to violation of human rights of the victims. Not only that, even the Commissioner of the UN Human Rights Commission, Mr. Navnetham Pillay asked the Government of India to repeal the Act as it was “a legacy of the colonial rule.”

All these factors prompted Home Minster Chidambaram to remark during his recent visit to the valley that the Act needed to be revised.

India is a democracy and no government can keep the people disgruntled for one reason or the other. As such, it is in fitness of things, that the government re-visits the essential clauses of the Act and examines if a via media can be explored. More offensive and arbitrary clauses should be crippled or made partially ineffective. The objective is to revive peoples’ trust in security forces as guardians of life and property.

We know that the opposition parties made AFSPA an issue following the ugly and unfortunate incident in Shupian. Without condoning acts of highhandedness, if any, of armed forces, we now know that Shupian incident is unrelated to AFSPA. It is not at all in the interests of the people of the state if sporadic incidents happening in the valley are attributed to the armed forces only to incite pent up sentiments of the people. In most cases, enquiries instituted into incidents have revealed that the armed forces were not involved. And if they were, the army authorities have taken proper action.

It is also important to look at the other side of the coin. While the opposition has made AFSPA an issue to indirectly discredit the armed forces, why should not they think it necessary to denounce militancy and militancy related activities. Is it not the duty of political leadership to make peace and tranquilly, law and order as prime issues, which we in the state needs to address? The simple formula is this: if there is no militancy, there is no presence of the army and there is no application of AFSPA or any other ordinance. Militancy will not be prevented or discouraged by letting the security men become the sitting ducks.

In final analysis, we think both pro and anti – AFSPA need to debate the issue with a spirit of seeing that peace and tranquillity are restored in Kashmir. It is not to win mileage over the opponent. While proper and adequate amendment to the AFSPA should be welcome, the parties with smooth relations with separatists and secessionists too need to impress upon them the need to understand that they are gradually loosing the support of the masses. The interests of the people of the state have to be uppermost in handling sensitive issues like this.
(The writer is the former director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University).

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Seventy Years Today Since the British Government Politically Empowered MA Jinnah

by

Subroto Roy

The bloated armies of Indian and Pakistani historians and pseudo-historians have failed to recognize the significance of the precise start of the Second World War upon the fortunes of the subcontinent. Yet, twenty years ago, in the book I and WE James created at an American university, Foundations of Pakistan’s Political Economy: Towards an Agenda for the 1990s, one of our authors, Professor Francis Robinson of the University of London, had set out the principal facts most clearly as to what flowed from the September 4 1939 empowerment of MA Jinnah by the British Government.

Germany invaded Poland on September 1 1939 and Britain declared war on Germany on September 3. The next day, Linlithgow, the British Viceroy in India, started to treat MA Jinnah’s Muslim League on par with the Congress’s nationalist movement led by MK Gandhi. Until September 4 1939, the British “had had little time for Jinnah and his League. The Government’s declaration of war on Germany on 3 September, however, transformed the situation. A large part of the army was Muslim, much of the war effort was likely to rest on the two Muslim majority provinces of Punjab and Bengal. The following day, the Viceroy invited Jinnah for talks on an equal footing with Gandhi” (Robinson, in James & Roy (eds) Foundations of Pakistan’s Political Economy 1989, 1992).

Jinnah himself was amazed by the new British attitude towards him: “suddenly there was a change in the attitude towards me. I was treated on the same basis as Mr Gandhi. I was wonderstruck why all of a sudden I was promoted and given a place side by side with Mr Gandhi.”

Jinnah’s political weakness had been made obvious by the electoral defeats the Muslim League had suffered in the 1937 elections in the very provinces which more or less came to constitute West Pakistan and today constitute modern Pakistan. Britain, at war with Germany and soon Japan, was faced with the intransigence of the Congress leadership. It was unsurprising this would contribute to the British tilt empowering Congress’s declared adversary, Jinnah and the Muslim League, and hence make credible the possibility of the Pakistan that they had demanded:

“As the Congress began to demand immediate independence, the Viceroy took to reassuring Jinnah that Muslim interests would be safeguarded in any constitutional change. Within a few months, he was urging the League to declare a constructive policy for the future, which was of course presented in the Lahore Resolution. In their August 1940 offer, the British confirmed for the benefit of Muslims that power would not be transferred against the will of any significant element in Indian life. And much the same confirmation was given in the Cripps offer nearly two years later…. Throughout the years 1940 to 1945, the British made no attempt to tease out the contradictions between the League’s two-nation theory, which asserted that Hindus and Muslims came from two different civilisations and therefore were two different nations, and the Lahore Resolution, which demanded that ‘Independent States’ should be constituted from the Muslim majority provinces of the NE and NW, thereby suggesting that Indian Muslims formed not just one nation but two. When in 1944 the governors of Punjab and Bengal urged such a move on the Viceroy, Wavell ignored them, pressing ahead instead with his own plan for an all-India conference at Simla. The result was to confirm, as never before in the eyes of leading Muslims in the majority provinces, the standing of Jinnah and the League. Thus, because the British found it convenient to take the League seriously, everyone had to as well—Congressmen, Unionists, Bengalis, and so on….(Robinson in James & Roy (eds) Foundations of Pakistan’s Political Economy, pp. 43-44).

Even British socialists who were sympathetic to Indian aspirations, would grow cold when the Congress seemed to abjectly fail to appreciate Britain’s predicament during war with Germany and Japan (Gandhi, for example, dismissing the 1942 Cripps offer as a “post-dated cheque on a failing bank”).

By the 1946 elections, Muslim mass opinion had changed drastically to seem to be strongly in favour of the creation of a Pakistan. The intervening years were the ones when urban mobs all over India could be found shouting the League’s slogans: Larke lenge Pakistan; Marke lenge Pakistan, Khun se lenge Pakistan; Dena hoga Pakistan; Leke rahenge Pakistan” (We will spill blood to take Pakistan, you will have to yield a Pakistan.)

Events remote from India’s history and geography, namely, the rise of Hitler and the Second World War, had contributed between 1937 and 1947 to the change of fortunes of the Muslim League and hence of all the people of the subcontinent.

The British had long discovered that the mutual antipathy between Muslims and Hindus could be utilised in fashioning their rule; specifically that the organisation and mobilisation of Muslim communal opinion in the subcontinent was a useful counterweight to any pan-Indian nationalism which might emerge to compete with British authority. As early as 1874, well before Allan Octavian Hume, ICS, had conceived the Indian National Congress, John Strachey, ICS, was to observe “The existence side by side of these (Hindu and Muslim) hostile creeds is one of the strong points in our political position in India. The better classes of Mohammedans are a source of strength to us and not of weakness. They constitute a comparatively small but an energetic minority of the population whose political interests are identical with ours.” By 1906, when a deputation of Muslims headed by the Aga Khan first approached the British pleading for communal representation, Minto the Viceroy replied: “I am as firmly convinced as I believe you to be that any electoral representation in India would be doomed to mischievous failure which aimed at granting a personal enfranchisement, regardless of the beliefs and traditions of the communities composing the population of this Continent.” Minto’s wife wrote in her diary that the effect was “nothing less than the pulling back of sixty two millions of (Muslims) from joining the ranks of the seditious opposition.” (The true significance of MAK Azad may have been that he, precisely at the same time, did indeed feel within himself the nationalist’s desire for freedom strongly enough to want to join the ranks of that seditious opposition.)

If a pattern emerges as to the nature of the behaviour of the British political state with respect to the peoples of this or similar regions, it is precisely the economic one of rewarding those loyal to them who had protected or advanced their interests, and penalising those perceived to be acting against their will. It is wishful to think of members of the British political state as benevolent paternalists, who met with matching deeds their often philanthropic words about promoting the general welfare of their colonial wards or subordinate allies. The slogan “If you are not with us you are against us” that has come to be used by many from the Shining Path Maoists of Peru to President George W. Bush, had been widely applied already by the British in India, especially in the form “If you dare not to be with us, we will be certainly with your adversaries”. It came to be used with greatest impact on the subcontinent’s fortunes in 1939 when Britain found itself reluctantly at war with Hitler’s Germany.

British loyalties lay with those who had been loyal to them.

Hence in the “Indian India” of the puppet princes, Hari Singh and other “Native Princes” who had sent troops to fight as part of the British armies would be treated with a pusillanimity and grandeur so as to flatter their vanities, Sheikh Abdullah’s rebellion representing the Muslim masses of the Kashmir Valley would be ignored. And in British India, Jinnah the conservative Anglophile and his elitist Muslim League would be backed, while the radicalised masses of the Gandhi-Bose-Nehru Congress would have to be suppressed as a nuisance.

(Similarly, much later, Pakistan’s bemedalled army generals would be backed by the United States against Mujibur Rehman’s impoverished student-rebels, and India’s support frowned upon regardless of how just the Bangladeshi cause.)

Altruism is a limited quality in all human affairs, never more scarce than in relations between nations. In “Pakistan’s Allies”, I showed how the strategic interests of Britain, and later Britain’s American ally, came to evolve in the Northwest of the subcontinent ever since the 1846 Treaty of Amritsar as long as a Russian and later a Soviet empire had existed. A similar evolution of British domestic interests in India is distinctly observable in British support for the Pakistan Movement itself, leading on August 14 1947 to the creation of the new Dominion of Pakistan.

Sheikh Abdullah’s democratic urges or Nehru’s Indian nationalism or the general welfare of the subcontinent’s people had no appeal as such to the small and brittle administrative machinery in charge of Britain’s Indian Empire — even though individual Britons had come to love, understand and explain India for the permanent benefit of her people. This may help to explain how Britain’s own long democratic traditions at home could often be found so wonderful by Indians yet the actions of the British state abroad so incongruent with them.

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Pakistan policy: Sharm-el-Sheikh and after

It has been clear for some years now that India is unable to fully comprehend or address the complexities of a changing Pakistan. Not surprisingly, New Delhi’s policies have floundered, if not failed. Strident debates in the Indian media — frightening in their Manichaean simplicity — reflect a lack of appreciation of the intricacies of the Gordian knot of bilateral relations.

Unlike much of the establishment, however, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — by pinning Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to a joint statement at Sharm-el-Sheikh and then by warning the Chief Ministers of Indian states of the dangers of a terrorist attack from Pakistan-based groups — may have addressed part of the core problem: there are multiple Pakistans all of which demand Indian attention. Robust if differentiated, focussed but flexible, multitrack responses must now define India’s policy towards Pakistan’s fragile and fragmented political and social structure.

Not only the deep cleavages within Pakistan’s society but also — surprisingly — the overwhelming popular desire now for better relations with India are revealed in two recent surveys of public opinion in that country, conducted by Gallup Pakistan and by the Pew Research Centre’s Global Attitudes Project which included 24 countries (including Pakistan) and the Palestinian territories. The findings should also serve as a warning to New Delhi of the dangers of “outsourcing” its Pakistan policy to Washington.

Three findings from both surveys stand out. First, as expected, is the high level of anti-Americanism among the Pakistanis. In the Pew survey, 68 per cent of the respondents have expressed a negative opinion of the U.S. Only 16 per cent have a positive view, and 64 per cent consider the U.S. more an enemy than a friend. American President Barack Obama receives the lowest ratings in Pakistan among all 25 nations surveyed as part of the Pew project. The Gallup Poll too reveals the all pervasive nature of Pakistani sentiment against the U.S. Fifty-nine per cent consider the U.S. the greatest threat to the country. Not surprisingly, American policy in Afghanistan receives very little support.

Secondly, both surveys suggest that there is a strong public desire for better relations with India even among those sections which consider their eastern neighbour a major threat. The Gallup Survey suggests that only 18 per cent consider India the greatest threat, and interestingly the figure is the highest among those likely to vote for either the MQM or the ANP and lowest among Sindhi speakers. Women are more likely to be anti-American than anti-India. According to the Pew survey, 69 per cent of the respondents do consider India a major threat, but two-thirds believe it is important for relations between Islamabad and New Delhi to improve. Over a third of those polled believe that having good relations with India is very important. Apprehensions about India are the highest in Punjab, where 70 per cent cite India as the greatest threat to the country, while a majority in Sindh and the NWFP consider the Taliban a bigger threat.

Finally, it seems that there is a process of deep churning within Pakistan’s multiple “societies,” which seems to translate, at the moment, into almost schizophrenic responses on key issues of identity. This is most clearly reflected in attitudes towards the al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and “severe laws” associated with these groups.

instance, in the Pew survey, there is little support for the Taliban and the al-Qaeda. Fifty-seven per cent consider the Taliban and 41 per cent consider the al-Qaeda a serious threat to the country. Forty one per cent in the Gallup poll support military action against the Taliban. And yet there is also considerable support for the harsh punishments imposed by these extremist groups. Seventy-eight per cent favour death for those who leave Islam; 80 per cent support whipping and cutting hands for theft and robbery; and 83 per cent favour stoning adulterers. And yet, 87 per cent of Pakistanis believe that it is equally important for boys and girls to be educated, in contrast to the Taliban’s thinking.

The poll finds that support for suicide bombing remains very low. In terms of credibility of institutions, the army, the media and the judiciary receive high approval while the Inter-Services Intelligence, the police and the national government get much less support.

These findings need to be studied carefully but if they are indeed reflective of real trends, they suggest what has always been intuitively obvious: India’s Pakistan policy has not succeeded because, while remaining a prisoner of past dogmas, it has been unable to respond to the multiple political and social forces in Pakistan that need to be understood and addressed.

The strategic community in India has traditionally been overwhelmingly in support of a policy of aggressively countering Pakistan. These are the Subedars. Only a minority, the Saudagars, has wanted to ignore and benignly neglect Islamabad or integrate it economically. A microscopic few, however, want New Delhi to be proactive in promoting peace, even to the extent of making unilateral concessions. These are the Sufis.

But these strands cannot afford today to remain in opposition to one another. The need of the hour is for the Subedars, the Saudagars and the Sufis to come together and shape a new Pakistan policy. At a time when it has become risky to invoke Mohammad Ali Jinnah, it is still important to recall his original design for the state: Muslim, Moderate and Modern. It is this Pakistan that an Indian strategy must systematically work towards constructing. In the present scenario, Indian policy must have at least the following strands.

First, India needs to build strong defensive and offensive capabilities to deter “asymmetric” attacks by non-state actors which may have the backing of elements of the Pakistani establishment. Nuclear weapons, at the end of the day, will only deter nuclear weapons and, at best, a full-scale conventional war. Doctrines like Cold Start will, however, remain in cold storage until they are able to explicitly demonstrate that diplomatic, political and military benefits outweigh the costs.

Secondly, India must reach out and strengthen all those who have a stake in better India-Pakistan relations and an interest in regional stability through unilateral gestures that do not demand reciprocity. These would include specific initiatives for civil society actors, as well as many others within the business and political community. For instance, New Delhi should consider constructing a preferential trading regime that offers Pakistan’s handicrafts and other local products almost unfettered access to the Indian market. Such a gesture, with some short-term costs, could have far-reaching long-term benefits for India and the region. Similarly, New Delhi could begin by offering a thousand scholarships to young men and women in Pakistan willing to study the humanities or social sciences in India at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Thirdly, India must systematically seek to weaken, delegitimise and isolate those who are enemies of a moderate Pakistan and, by implication, of a stable subcontinent. This can be done unilaterally or in conjunction with allies. It is unfortunate that sub-continental Islam, built on an ethos of multiculturalism and tolerance, has not been projected with the robustness needed in these difficult times. This “soft power” of South Asian Sufi Islam remains the best weapon against extremism.

Fourthly, Indian policies must be carefully distanced from the present American role in Pakistan or the larger U.S. Af-Pak policy. In the Pew survey, more Pakistanis expressed a willingness to trust Osama bin Laden rather than Mr. Obama to do the right thing in world affairs. Ultimately, we need to understand that India-Pakistan relationship, over the last 62 years, has been about almost everything that matters: history, memory, prejudice, identity, religion, sovereignty, ideology, insecurity, betrayal and much, much more. Ironically, a troubled Pakistan, confused about its identity and its place in the world, may offer a real chance to move beyond conflict and towards real reconciliation. It is an opportunity to finally cut the Gordian knot; a chance India cannot afford to miss.

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Dowry system in India

(A) DOWRY: Dowry by Whartons law dictionary: otherwise called maritagium, or marriage goods, that which the wife brings the husband in marriage.

There is hardly any malaise predominant in the society which can be termed as a stigma on the dignity of the womanhood in India than dowry. The newly wedded girl is treated as a gold mine and failing of which leads the in-laws treat her as combustible material and resultant is the commitment of suicide by the bride.

To start with even modern, well-educated families start saving up money for their daughter's dowry as soon as she is born so what can one expect from the uneducated masses, whose only form of education is tradition? Come festivals like Diwali or Holi, and the parents of the daughter flood her in-laws with gifts. If gifts are expected - your daughter is married into the wrong family. If such giving is self-inflicted, you're making a mistake. Give a token present to your daughter. If you want to give her something more, do so, but don't feel pressured to give anything more than you receive to her in-laws.

The societal perception of the society is that women are less strong as compared to men। This manifests in what she calls "Zero-political Status", and denial of basic civil rights to them।[2] This gender inequality and discrimination are so deeply rooted that at places where wife earns also she is confronted with such evils। Hence, dowry is so strongly prevalent not because of the mismatch of the demand of the gifts and the presents received but as women lacks political status and role in their own family. It’s evident that even if demand for dowry is being satisfied the evil will not be abolished and women will continue to face exploitation because of the custom-sanctioned inferiority that robs them of the basic human rights. As she

doesn’t possess a political and significant stand in the family is left with either one of the options

1। She succumbs and procures the demanded goods from her parents after initially deflecting some of the burdening demands and by tolerating the physical brutality herself। 2। Secondly she does not comply at a great personal risk, and high emotional cost, and often sustain resistance for dowry। Dowry in the society is deep rooted due to social, economical, biological an even legal loopholes। It’s the society and its acceptance by many has created a hindrance in uprooting this social evil। Many legislations and acts were being passed by states to curb the problem but due to improper implementation and lack of effectiveness were not able to cease the problem. There are many other crimes associated with dowry i.e. dowry deaths, murders, suicide, misappropriation of property.

Moreover the mental set up of Indian women do not let them accept the failure of the marriage nor let them break the same for shame or for the dignity of her parents and end up killing themselves. This is constant erosion of basic human values, dignity, tolerance and spirit of live and let live.

(B) DEFINITIONS OF DOWRY: • According to the dowry prohibition act, 1961 the term dowry means: Any property or valuable security given or agreed to be either directly or indirectly – (a) by one party to a marriage to the other party to marriage (b) by the parents of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person। At or before connection with the marriage of the said parties, buy does not include dower or

Mahr in the case of persons to whom Muslim personal law (shariat) law applies.

In simple words it means the consideration given by the brides father to the groom for marrying her. It is symbol of social injustice and is a result of growing disparities.[3]

Origin of the Dowry System

The Vedic phase was a golden period for the women. Marriage was considered sacred and was more of a necessity than a social contract. Wife was considered as ‘ardhangini’. In Hindu customs and during vedic period the brides are given to the grooms known as ‘kanyadan’ along with some gifts. ‘Kanya’ means the gal and ‘Dana’ means the gift. According to Rig Veda it was believed that without presenting ‘Dakshina’ to the bride the custom of ‘Kanyadan’ is incomplete. Hence ‘Kanyadan’ and ‘Varadakshina’ became intimately associated. This was a voluntary tradition out of love and affection of the parents of the bride but during the course of time a coercive element has crept in. It has taken deep roots not only in the marriage but also post-marriage relationship. The decent ritual of ‘Dakshina’ to the bridegroom has assumed the nomenclature of “dowry”. The Atharva Veda refers to a royal bride bringing dowry of 100 cows. (Domestic violence act, Preeti Mishra 120) it is said that Rishi Karav gave a number of gifts to his daughter, Shakuntala when she married King Dushayant.

During the Smriti period women were exploited the most and that is why this period was termed as Dark Age for women. When British took over around the 19th century dowry had grown up to become a big evil difficult to uproot from the society.

Present aspect

Status of women in present society

Today women are the marginalised sections of the society. The increasing crime rate toward women had lead to decline in the status of women and symbolises the powerless position in the society. In the terms of the typical society it’s the marital status which provides identity to the women. Though much legislation and measures have been taken to abolish dowry prevalent in the society it’s still predominant in the society in some or the other form. Nowadays, weddings are expected to be lavish even if the bride’s parents cannot afford it. Before the marriage itself everything to be given and gifted is being decided between the parties. At times marriage depends upon the amount the bride’s parents are ready to spend on her wedding. This is exploitation of women and a form of dowry at present. The legislation passed by the govt. has many loopholes and provides with many ways and means to take dowry without even falling in the ambit of the act. Indian Parliament has criminalised domestic violence. The Parliament amended the Penal Code in 1986 to explicitly provide that dowry deaths are punishable with imprisonment between seven years and life. Moreover Code of criminal procedure also establishes need of investigating into any suspicious death or suicide of any women within a period less than 7years as of marriage. Finally, in addition to criminal laws, the Parliament amended the Indian Evidence Act, which now creates a presumption of dowry death whenever a woman is subjected to dowry-related cruelty or harassment soon before her death.

Causes

Women have been subjected to such social as well as economical deprivation that there is a lack of awareness for crimes against them. Women are reared in the environment where they slowly though positively starts feeling inferior to man. The mentality of the women changes so drastically that they don’t find anything wrong in the crimes and cruelty committed against her. The main factors are: • Lack of awareness of the seriousness of the evil and the general mentality and acceptance of women’s inferiority to men. • Denial of violence by women due to there upbringing and cultural conditions and social attitudes. • Indian society is male dominated and women are brought up to be submissive and never to oppose the authority. Religion has restricted instead of improving the status and rights of the women. The factor of egoism in men to be superior also plays a chief role in degrading status of women in the society. • Lack of education is the main cause of the depth of this social evil. Once economic independence comes in women the evil of dowry will naturally die. • Lack of proper legal system and ambiguity in the legislations is one of the causes why dowry is still prevalent so strongly in Indian society. • The modern system of dowry is a problem of conformist culture which makes its almost impossible to uproot the evil. • Parents provide with dowry with a view of helping the newly wedded in establishment of the new household.

Dowry-related legislations

Enactments related to dowry

As a woman had no right to inherit a share of the ancestral property ‘streedhan’ was seen as a way by which the family ensured that she had access to some of its wealth. The law of ‘Streedhan’ (‘Stree’ means women and ‘Dhan’ means wealth) was originally formulated for the protection of women in the society and lays down that the property given by the parents to the bride absolutely belongs to the women but as time passed this safety net eroded to become the price tag for the groom and consequently the noose for the bride. Many reformers had taken initiatives to overcome the evil of dowry. A good example of it can be “Sind Deti Leti Act , 1939” which aimed at abolition of evils related to dowry but it neither had impact nor created the desired effect. The next step was perceived in clause (1) of section 93 of Hindu Code Bill where it declared dowry shall deemed to be the property of the bride, and person who receives it should hold it in trust. Bihar and AP enacted ‘Bihar dowry restraint act’ and ‘AP dowry restraint act’ but both these enactments failed. After the enactment of the Hindu succession act 1956 the govt., felt that a separate legislation to prohibit dowry was not a matter of urgency, but due to the increase in the crime related to dowry and under both political and social obligations govt. decided to pass a legislation the dowry prohibition Act was introduced.

Dowry is the most prominent cause of domestic violence. It is being referred to as social cancer, a cruel custom and an insult to the dignity of the woman. It’s a general conception that evil of dowry is prevalent in the Hindu community but it is not true. Dowry prevails equally in almost all communities including Christians and Muslims. Muslim practice of “salami” after Nikah ceremony is the form of dowry.Most important hurdle in curbing the problem is that dowry is not being defined satisfactorily. There is fine distinction between voluntary gifts and extorted cash but if it’s demanded it takes a form of dowry. It has been crystallized in our society and despite of much legislation the no. of cases dealing with dowry is increasing day by day.

Under article sec 14 of Hindu Succession Act, 1956 it is provided that the property of the female is her absolute property.[10] Hence, the fundamental of dowry as in the ancient times cannot be applied today, but there is an ever growing demand both at the time of marriage as well as after the marriage which gravely affects the status of women.

Various indirect and sophisticated methods have been used to demand dowry and to avoid application of the act. To increase its effectiveness, the government has twice amended the Act, in 1984 and 1986. The amendment done laid down the necessity and role of magistrate and the police to investigate into any unnatural death of a woman married less than 7yrs.

According to the dowry act 1961, dowry is a bailable and non-cognizable offence and ceases to be recognized if demand is are made or met one year after the marriage.[11] Most of such crimes occur within the in-laws house and with conspiracy of the family members and hence unwilling to provide with the evidences which ultimate leads to the in ability to convict for lack of proof.

Provisions related to dowry

• Dowry prohibition act, 1961: prohibits the giving and taking of dowry – the act extends to the whole of India except the state of Jammu or Kashmir। • Section 304-B of Indian penal code “introduced in the IPC by the dowry prohibition act, 1986: to punish dowry deaths (ESP to curb the evil of bride burning) • Section 113-B of Indian Evidence Act: Raises, in certain circumstances, a presumption of dowry death of women. • Section 498-A of IPC: punishes cruelty and harassment, by husband or his relatives, of a married woman. • Section 113-A of the Evidence Act: Raises, in certain circumstances, a presumption that the commission of suicide by a married woman has been abetted by the husband or his relatives. • Section 174(3) of CPC : the section which refers to the enquiry and report by police n case of suicide or death in abnormal circumstances which includes crimes related to women like suicide and death of women within 7yrs. • Section 176 of CPC: This section refers inquiry by a magistrate into a cause of death, compels the magistrate to hold an inquiry into the cause of death either instead of, or in addition to the investigation of the police officer, and to secure for post-mortem in all cases where a woman has, within 7 years of her marriage.

[edit] Exceptions to dowry

• The dower or Mahr given during marriage under the Shariat (Muslim Personal) Law. • Gifts that are given to the bride or the bridegroom at the time of the marriage (without any demand being made) will not amount to dowry, if such presents are entered in a list in the following manner The bride as well as the bridegroom shall maintain the list of presents along with a brief description of the presents and the presenter with their signs given to the bride and it should be in writing at the time of marriage (III) CASES: (A) CASES RELATED TO DOWRY: Dowry harassment cases have eroded the entire base of womanhood in India. Suicides and deaths are a part of tragic drama of domestic violence enacted everyday in some or the other part of the country. At the modest estimates figure of deaths in India that occur due to non payment or partial payment of dowry is unnerving.

The right to life is a fundamental right to everyone. What does this mean that the women trapped in marriages that are so demanding are sure of death and they have no right to live in the society?

One of the famous case is Sunil Bajaj v. State of M.P[12] which points out the drawback of the section 304-B in the sense of its misinterpretation of the act against the innocent person. In most of the cases the motive behind the death is not seen. The proof may have disappeared with the death of the wife. For the reasons of self-condemning proof, she may have chosen to keep it secret, where the husband or his relatives may not be in a position to lead the evidence to it.

Misuse of the legislation

The observation of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Balbir Singh v. State of Punjab[13] is very relevant regarding the misuse of the provisions. One more point to be noticed is that in many cases relating to dying declarations the victim can conspire to convict the in-laws which is misuse of the law. Sometimes when dying declarations is given is without any foul play but after she consults her parents she alleges a foul play and demands a change in her declaration.There is no provision in the existing law, which may act as a safeguard against these types of practices.

Chief reasons of ineffective implementation of legislations

Statutory language is too vague to be effectively implemented. dowry prohibition act doest not cover every aspect in which the crime can be evaded. Even if laws are made stringent it need to be taken care that enforcement is strict and consistent. Most of the domestic violence cases go unrecorded as they are termed as “kitchen accidents”. Investigations take years and hence it takes years to file a charge sheet and till then evidences available disappears. Moreover often relatives are reticent to get involved. The cultural attitude towards women in India serves as a hindrance in strict enforcement of the laws. Hindu customs and Social mores dictates that a wife should never go against the husband and broken marriage it viewed as a disgrace to her honour. As no law guarantees women equal employment opportunities it prevents women from becoming economically independent, Indian society compels them to remain in abusive relationships, even if their husbands have tried to murder them.

Measures to be taken

(1) Shifting from our ancient value based society to a society in which women were respected as equally as men and to achieve the lost dignity, women should be economically independent as in western countries (2) In any case involving dowry crime should be investigated promptly। More women police officers should be involved for proper investigation of crime against women. (3) Pendency of the cases should be disposed when it’s fresh in the minds of the public so that it can act as a deterrent for the society. An example of this can be lichhamadevi case v. state of rajastan[14] where death sentence was inflicted on the mother-in-law for burning her daughter-in-law but then it was converted to life imprisonment. Moreover, code of criminal procedure was being amended to increase in no. of judicial officers appointed in metropolitan and setting up of fast track court. Registration of marriage and the gifts presented on or after that should me made stringent. While no time limit is being prescribed to deal with the cases related to dowry both govt and judiciary should take measures towards it. (4) Dowry is a social scourge and public opinion has to be mobilized against this cancerous evils. The memorable words of Mahatma Gandhi, Acceptance of dowry is a disgrace for the young man who accepts it as well as perhaps a dishonor for the woman folk should ring in the ears of every unmarried young man or woman. (5) A legal literacy programme should also be started to make the women of the downtrodden class aware of their legal rights. In all this voluntary organizations can play an important role. There are no flashy solutions of this deep-seated social malaise. (6) Women in India are nor coparceners with men. They should be provided with a part of the property of the in-laws after the marriage so that she is given a status of son of her father-in-law. (7) Moreover many Hindu customs gives right only to sons. For e.g. light the pyre. Women should be given equal status and should be allowed to perform the rituals thereby giving women back there dignity and respect. (8) Mental set up of the parents and the girl who considers themselves inferior to them and keep silence as to the fear of loosing the groom or the offer of marriage should be changed.


Conclusion

Dowry leads to the decline of general status of women; female children are undesired and hence are ill treated. It also led to breakage of family and matrimonial relationship. It is to be noted that it is not totally fair to expect police, judiciary nag govt. to take steps to eradicate social problems alone. This mentality of doing nothing but expecting from the govt need to be changed as tacit problem like dowry cannot be tackled by law alone till the time it has a social sanction behind it. First of all the discriminatory practices in marriage which are product of patriarchal norms should be eliminated. It’s utter shame that a women or a girl is considered a burden and a liability in the family as well as in the society as a whole and are termed as “weaker sex”. Moreover, Smritis picturized women as inferior and subordinate to men. Moreover, most of the cases are given a shape of kitchen accidents or suicides and at times the family hesitates to any action due to fear of loss of dignity or due a dominant position of the in-laws. Hence the dowry system can be abolished when the members of the society themselves takes initiatives to change the mentality towards females rather than depending on the government to legislate. In a nutshell we[who?] need to respect human life and its dignity which is gradually being snatched coercively from the women। Customs, norms and values can not be changes in a blink of an eye but effective implementation of the legislations is the need of the hour. Providing your daughter with a solid education, and encouraging her to pursue a career of her choice is the best dowry any parent can ever give their daughter.

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