Enable the disabled!!!

The Hindu Editorial on the need to enable persons with disability(25-02-2013)

Taking freedom of mobility seriously

There are potentially huge benefits even for the able-bodied population in the Tamil Nadu government’s notification of rules to create special facilities for the disabled in urban local bodies. That makes the case stronger to embrace universal design across all construction activity. All multi-storeyed buildings with more than two floors that the public access on a regular basis are mandated to be equipped with ramps, lifts and other appropriate provisions under the new rules. Lest they should lead to arbitrary interpretation, the rules explicitly mention all educational institutions, health care and banking services, leisure and recreation facilities, shopping malls, industries and much else as falling within their purview. The measure will make a material difference in the lives of large numbers of people with locomotor impairments, for whom the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of mobility has all but remained notional. The commitments made in the relevant 1995 law for persons with disabilities have likewise by and large eluded them. But India’s demographic transition has brought into sharp focus a convergence between the needs of the population aged 60 years and above and those of the disabled. The elderly constitute 10.3 per cent of Tamil Nadu’s population, above the national average of close to 7.5 per cent, according to the 2010 Sample Registration System. The prevalence of age-induced ailments such as arthritis among this segment means the elderly, too, will benefit from the convenience of ramps and not just wheel-chair users.

Clearly, there is a large constituency out there — beyond legal definitions of disabilities — for which freedom of mobility is a real issue. That should once and for all rest the case against claims that the costs of special provisions for the disabled far outweigh the gains. Such an argument is at best a convenient cloak for inaction. It is also obvious that improvements in physical accessibility are only part of the long journey to ensure equality of opportunities for the disabled. Commensurate measures ought to be initiated in the arenas of education and employment. Training skilled personnel for sign-language interpretation for the hearing impaired, developing technologies for people with low-vision and the introduction of reasonable accommodation in the workplace are important among them. In their absence, the right to free and compulsory education would remain a mirage for children with impairments and the wider objective of an inclusive society. Ambitious as they seem, the Tamil Nadu rules stipulate a 180-day deadline for implementation. Other States in the country should follow this lead.

My Letter to The Hindu dated 26-02-2013

This refers to the editorial “Taking freedom of mobility seriously” (Feb. 25). Accessible environment is key to realising a society based on equality. The issue of accessibility and eliminating all types of barriers should be viewed as an issue of human rights of persons with disabilities. In modern societies with developed technologies, access to information and communication is a basic prerequisite. But a majority of information prepared for the public in print is not accessible to persons who have impaired vision because they are not printed in large fonts or in Braille, or they don’t have an audio version. Our education system is also biased as it excludes persons with disabilities from mainstream education. The field of employment is still an enormous barrier for a majority of persons with disabilities. The State should implement the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 fully to uplift the marginalised persons.

Shameless shootings!!

Licence to kill?

The widespread lack of accountability of the security forces either the police or the military    continues the culture of violations and denial of rights. Members of the police or military accused of violations have remained free to commit further violations. Even when    complaints are made, the government and its institutions have either exonerated or defended their men without conducting credible investigations. The cycle of violence and impunity is reinforced by excessive delays in the adjudication of cases against security forces. Even in cases involving the gross abuses of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance and torture, where the perpetrators have been identified and charged in court, the trials do not result in punishment as they do not progress. This is due to a lack of witnesses and evidence, a direct result of the police and prosecutors failure to effectively perform their duties.
The police have no authority to decide that a person's death or the manner he was killed was legitimate or not? The security forces have fundamental obligations to ensure protection of right to life. Deprivation of this right to life perpetrated by security forces is so grave and the government should take measure to prevent arbitrary killing by their own security forces. Concluding and deciding prematurely that the victim's death does not merit further investigation constitutes an excess of the police duty and usurping of the court's judicial power.
In a democracy, people should be treated equally before the law and they must have the same protection of the law, regardless of whether they are criminals, state officials or ordinary citizens. The singling out of any group as unworthy of legal protection is morally and legally illogical. Unfortunately, the notion of equality before the law is not often found in Indian criminal Justice system. While the Indian criminal justice system is meant to impartially hold persons guilty of crimes accountable for their actions, in reality it operates with a lot of prejudice. The government has failed to take effective measures to prevent its officers from the continuing practice of labeling persons and groups as being criminals, terrorists, which is often a precursor to these individuals or groups being the subject of attacks. The deprivation of life by the authorities of the State is a matter of utmost gravity. State should establish effective facilities and procedures to investigate thoroughly cases of biased police actions. The fundamental duty of the police is to effectively and with utmost credibility conduct investigation to any serious allegations involving policemen in killings and rights abuses. It is for the court to decide whether those involved should be held to account or not; or whether the killing is within the lawful premise.

For your reading the Article in the Hindu by Teesta Setalvad(20-02-2013)

Shamelessly shooting to kill

In the recent incidents at Dhule and Thangadh, the communal bias of the police was caught on camera and is there for anyone who cares to see

Images of the Delhi police lobbing tear gas shells at and using water canons on protesters at India Gate on a Sunday, December 23, 2012, who were agitating against the gang rape of a young girl are embedded in the nation’s psyche, courtesy of our omnipresent, 24x7 news networks, images sharpened further by the ever-prescient discussions on the 9 p.m. Newshour.

Not 14 days later, also on a Sunday, about a thousand kilometres away, in faraway north Maharashtra, the town of Dhule saw a distinctly more brutal police action; the rapid firing of SLR bullets to kill six young Muslims. It was a case of being caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.

They paid heavily with their young lives. In a similarly brutal and uncalled for police action at Thangadh in Surendranagar district, not far from Ahmedabad, four Gujarat officers using AK-47s had shot dead three Dalits, including a 17-year-old, on the night of September 22-23, 2012.

The tragedies, at Thangadh and Dhule, that had cost these precious lives, were however reduced to media sideshows, though the print editions of English language national dailies did spotlight some issues. The police, in Dhule, were caught on mobile phone videos in shameful acts. Yet, despite the availability of such sensationally thrilling clips, the normally avaricious and greedy eye of the television camera looked away. The shots slipped into late afternoon or midnight bulletins, cleverly bypassing the noisy news hour.

One of the Dhule clips shows a constable taking a self-loading rifle from his senior officer and aiming to shoot high above the waist. Bullet marks have been found in the market place and gullies of Macchipura a kilometre deep into the Muslim area, away from any groups that had gathered. Three such shots fired in quick succession got Imran Ali in his collarbone, eventually leading to his death. Of the 23 other young Muslim men who were critical, one had a bullet fired into his cheek, narrowly missing his eye, another rupturing a liver. Another clip shows a policeman ignoring calls for protection. Yet another shows policemen in uniform looting Muslim establishments that were being destroyed and burnt by some rioters.

In Thangadh, the four policemen later absconded.

Stephen Lawrence case

The murder, in 1993, of a black youth Stephen Lawrence, in the United Kingdom, and the publication, in 1999, of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report led to the critical acknowledgement that hate crimes are committed even by men in uniform and that such deeds demand institutional sensitisation and correction. What emerged was a Hate Crimes Manual that warned what constituted such practice.

Since the late 1980s, when evidence of deviant conduct by men in uniform surfaced from several bouts of targeted violence countrywide (Nellie, Assam, 1983 — 3,000 Muslims massacred; Delhi, 1984 — over 3,000 Sikhs systematically killed; Hashimpura, Uttar Pradesh, 1987 — 51 Muslims shot dead by the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC); Bhagalpur, Bihar, 1989 — a massacre that left thousands dead and evidence buried below a hastily planted cauliflower field; Mumbai, 1992-1993 — over 1,200 dead; Kandhamal, Odisha, 2008 — nearly 100 Christians and Gujarat, 2002 — over 2,000 Muslims massacred), courts and judicial commissions have strongly indicted India’s police for harbouring a distinct anti-minority bias, committing crimes through a manifestation of this hatred and not being punished for it.

Studying police neutrality

In 1995, I had interviewed a senior IPS officer, V.N. Rai, who taken a year’s sabbatical to complete a research study, “Combating communal conflicts: Perception of police neutrality during Hindu-Muslim riots in India.” This interview was published in over 30 Indian publications. Among other things, Rai’s interviews with hundreds of riot victims from across the country (as part of his study) produced the startling finding that in all riot situations, Hindus consider policemen as their friends while, almost without exception, the minorities — Muslims and Sikhs — experience them as their enemy. This piece of work ought to have initiated the kind of self-reflection that the Stephen Lawrence murder had led the British police to. Instead, Rai’s study was ignored by the Indian police establishment. He had to find a private publisher to publish it as a book. What it did do however was lead to the issue being flagged by senior stalwarts. The founder and former chief of the Border Security Force (BSF), K.F. Rustomjee, and DIG Padma Rosha were quick to lend their voice to this issue of crucial concern, stressing that unless the Indian police confronted the issue of deep, communal (and caste) bias, they were sowing the seeds of bitter alienation. If Rai had conducted this study today, perceptions among the minorities would reflect alienation several degrees worse.

My interview covered several sensitive areas. I asked Rai specifically about the police’s criminal dereliction of duty on December 6, 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished as 3,000-4,000 men in uniform watched. His reply was a chilling recall of another fateful Sunday 21 years ago: “The video cassette recording by the Intelligence Bureau clearly documents that not more than 3,000-4,000 ‘kar sevaks’ were within close proximity of the mosque. In such a scenario, could no effective action have been taken? The reason why no action was taken lies elsewhere. The same cassette shows policemen rejoicing, with their hands held high in victory, when the Babri Masjid was destroyed. The district magistrate and other officials were dancing with delight. That is why the ‘kar sevaks’ could not be stopped. There was no desire to do so.” None of these offenders were punished.

Pitching strongly for the application of the principle of command responsibility when large-scale violence results following the failure to prevent or contain communal violence, Rai narrated the quotation “There are no bad soldiers, only bad generals.” So, leadership not only makes a substantial difference, it is the most vital, the most decisive factor in the functioning of a force whether we are talking of the police, the paramilitary or the army.

An officer to the rescue

Two decades after much soul-searching — that followed the cataclysmic events before and after the demolition of a 400-year-old mosque at Ayodhya — we are still only debating (and the establishment resisting) the chain of command responsibility being applied to men in uniform when it comes to serious offences, including sexual violence. Worse, there is a shrill resistance to enact legislative protection against the systematic outbreak of communal and targeted violence through a law that will penalise policemen who fail to preserve the peace.

Rai, in 1987, was the man who filed the First Information Report of the crimes committed by the PAC at Hashimpura. Fifteen years later, in 2002, in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, it was SP Rahul Sharma who charged ahead, firing to disperse a murderous Hindu mob when his men refused to act to prevent them attacking a madrassa. His prompt action saved the lives of 400 Muslim children. Today, he is at the receiving end of blows from a vindictive State government, facing every day harassment, charge sheets and worse.

Rai or Sharma are unlikely heroes for Republic Day bravery medals nor are they the likely face or voice of discussions on television channels. Their raw deeds and searching reflection spotlight a raw nerve, a deep-rooted prejudice that India at 65+ unfortunately lives quite comfortably with.

Another acid attack victim passed away

Condolences to Vidya!!

Incidents of acid attack reminds us of the urgency of strict enactment of Laws to protect women in this nation. Sensitisation camps alone can change the male psyche and perhaps not a ban on sale of acid.  As long as man fails to consider woman as the other half, these incidents will continue to happen and to be ignored.     

For your reading The Hindu Report(25-02-2013):

21-year-old acid attack victim succumbs to injuries

Vidya, the 21-year-old victim of an acid attack, died of injuries on Sunday at Government Kilpauk Hospital. The family donated her corneas to Sankara Nethralaya. Vidya is the second victim in the city to succumb to acid attack injuries in as many weeks. J. Vinodhini (23), a resident of Karaikal, had succumbed to wounds on February 13.

On January 30, Vidya was alone at an internet browsing centre on Tiruvalluvar Main Road in Adambakkam where she was working when S. Vijaya Bhaskar attacked her with a bottle of acid after she turned down his marriage proposal.

The accused, who was working as a catering staff in an IT company at Sholinganallur had hurled the bottle at her face, but she turned her face away.

An enraged Vijaya Bhaskar pushed her down and she fell on the floor where the acid had spilled.

“As she writhed in pain, he tried to escape…but her screams attracted people from neighbouring shops. They beat him up and handed him over to the police,” her brother Vijay said.

Vidya’s father Jayaseelan died when she was seven years old.

Her mother Saraswathi is working as a domestic help. Vidya, who had been working at the centre for two years, was earning Rs. 4,000 a month and a major contributor to the family income.

As Vidya’s clothes were damaged a woman from a nearby house covered her with a sari before the victim was rushed to a private hospital and then to Government Kilpauk Hospital.

On Saturday, her condition worsened and doctors put her on ventilator. Her end came around 4.15 a.m. on Sunday, after battling for life for 25 days.

“Poor hospital hygiene”

Family members blamed the poor hospital hygiene for her death. “There is no intensive care unit. She was lying on a cot that was stained in her own pus. We had to buy a new bed sheet for her and sprayed perfume to prevent the stench,” her uncle Rajan alleged.

It was only around 11 a.m. that the post-mortem was done.

As news of her death spread, women groups gathered at the hospital’s mortuary.

The family refused to take possession of the body until government officials spoke to them.

“They have not responded to our appeal aired through media. In the case of the Delhi victim, the girl was taken to Singapore for treatment. Even in the case of Vinodhini, a Minister called on her. Nobody has come to our aid,” he said.

Finally, around 3.30 p.m., the family agreed to shift Vidya’s body to their home in Parameswari Nagar in Adambakkam. Kancheepuram Collector L. Sitherasenan visited the family later in the evening.

Alas! Yet another leaf withered!

Acid Attack Victim Passed Away

It is appalling that the Karaikal acid attack victim Vinodhini passed away. Acid attacks are a reflection of the brutal male chauvinistic mentality. A mixture of psycho-social factors, like negative feelings, mental sickness and peer pressure could be the driving force behind the accused taking such extreme steps. The incident should be taken as a wake-up call for the government and the society. This incident should not be taken in isolation as it reflects the state of crime against women in India. The police should not take this case causally instead complete the investigations without delay and make them foolproof so that the culprits do not escape because of poor investigations. The guilty deserve harshest punishment so that it acts as a deterrent for such incidents in future. As many such cases which are gathering dust in the police stations, there should be speedy trial of such cases so that the culprits do not enjoy because of ineffectiveness of the system. No leniency should be shown to the youth responsible for the incident so that nobody dares repeat such a heinous and inhuman act in future.
Due to increasing immorality and materialistic approach, humans have become beasts who are ready to commit criminal acts whenever they find an opportunity.  Outraging the modesty and integrity of women is more heinous crime than even killing a person. An acid attack is worse than a murder. The open sale of acid needs to be restricted as spending a meager amount on an acid bottle can ruin the life of a person. The victim had to undergo expensive treatment and needed monetary help to get on with her life. She should have been granted justice as well as financial aid. The police failure to effectively tackle such earlier incidents is also responsible for the repeat of such attacks. In such incidents the perpetrators of the crime are indisputably identified and hence they should be given immediate punishment to send the right message across to potential criminals and to cause effective deterrence to them.

The victim could have been anybody’s daughter. The cowardly acid attack proves that for a woman, even walking on the road in the broad daylight is not safe. What message should we convey to the women of our homes? Should we not let them go outside homes? We should not only amend the anti-rape laws, but even make other laws on crime against women such as stalking, eve-teasing, sexual advances and domestic violence more stringent. Women are insecure in the light of the existing laws. The investigation and judiciary norms need to be modified to ascertain the loopholes. I strongly condemn the act and the persons behind this act and condole the death of Vinothini, yet another victim of sexual violence.

News Brief in The Hindu dated 12-02-2013

Vinodhini, Karaikal acid attack victim, dies

Vinodhini, a 23-year-old woman, who suffered grievous burns three months ago in an acid attack by a man whose advances she had rejected, succumbed to the injuries on Tuesday at a private hospital here.

The crime took place in Karaikal, an enclave of the Puducherry Union Territory, on November 14 last year.

Doctors at the hospital said she had suffered a cardiac arrest. Plastic surgeon V. Jayaraman, who was treating her since the attack, said, “We twice tried to revive her heart. We also gave her blood. But the protein levels were low as she did not have enough nourishment.”

Vinodhini, a B.Tech graduate, was employed in a private company in the city and lived in a working women’s hostel in Saidapet. Her father, Jayapal, is a watchman in a private school in Karaikal. The assailant, Suresh, alias Appu, was a family acquaintance. Suresh was a construction labourer who had befriended Jayapal and over a period of time had also loaned him money.

On November 14, Vinodhini was walking with her father to the Karaikal bus terminus after visiting her parents for Deepavali. Before she could board a bus to Chennai, Suresh accosted them and threw nitric acid at her. Vinodhini and her father Jayapal suffered injuries.

“Though Vinodhini’s father had returned the money, Suresh kept pestering him and once we even lodged a complaint with the police. He was reprimanded but he continued taunting the father every time he got an opportunity. But we never thought he would attack Vinodhini. He had even sought her hand in marriage, but Jayapal had pointed out that she was highly qualified and advised him to give up such thoughts,” Vinodhini’s uncle Ramesh said.

After the attack, she was rushed to a private hospital in Karaikal, where first aid was administered. She was then referred to JIPMER, Puducherry. On November 15, she was transferred to the Government Kilpauk Hospital, Chennai, which has a burns ward that specialises in treating acid attack victims. But the injuries were extensive, with her nose, eyes and ears, suffering irreversible damage. After Dr. Jayaraman retired from KMC, she sought to be moved to a private hospital where he could treat her.

For several weeks doctors continued dressing her wounds and waited for the acid reaction to subside so that they could assess the damage. But within a week it became apparent that she had lost sight in both eyes.

Abolish death penalty!!!

The Hindu deserves our attention for its sincere cry for moratorium on Death sentence.

The Hindu Editorial-10-02-2013

Vengeance isn’t justice

Eight years ago, the Supreme Court condemned Muhammad Afzal Guru to be hanged for his role in the 2001 attack on Parliament House, saying, astonishingly, that “the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if the capital punishment is awarded to the offender.” Guru was walked to the gallows Saturday morning at the end of the macabre rite governments enact from time to time to propitiate that most angry of gods, a vengeful public. Through this grim, secret ceremony, however, India has been gravely diminished. The reasons for this are not just the obvious ones — among them, that Guru was a bit-actor in the attack on Parliament, and his trial marred by procedural and substantive errors. These arguments were examined by the highest court in the country and found wanting. There is one argument, though, that wasn't ever examined — which is precisely why Guru, like scores of other Indians, ended up on death row in the first place. The answer has a great deal to do with expedience, and nothing to do with justice.

The hideous truth is this: judicial executions in India have all the rationality of the roulette table. Last month, Justices P Sathasivam and Fakkir Kalifullah commuted the death penalty given to Mohinder Singh for killing both his daughter and wife -- this while out of prison on parole where he was serving time for earlier raping the girl. The judges argued that the death penalty ought only be considered when a perpetrator posed “a menace and threat to the harmonious and peaceful coexistence of the society.” One week later, Justices Sathasivam and Jagdish Khehar upheld death for Sundararajan, who kidnapped and then killed a seven year old boy. The judges noted, among other things the “agony for parents for the loss of their male child, who would have carried further the family lineage.” Besides the obvious imprint of gender values on judicial reasoning, it is the arbitrariness of outcome in cases that are similar which tells us something is seriously wrong. In a signal article published recently in this newspaper. V. Venkatesan noted how the Supreme Court has itself admitted that many of those on death row are there because of“erroneous legal precedents set by itself.” (December 10, 2012) Yet, both the judiciary and the government have been reluctant to announce a moratorium on executions until a thoroughgoing review is carried out. This ought not to surprise us: in case after case, the course of criminal justice has been shaped by public anger and special-interest lobbying. Indians must remember the foundational principle of our Republic, the guardian of all our rights and freedoms, isn't popular sentiment: it is justice, which in turn is based on the consistent application of principles. For one overriding reason, Guru’s hanging ought to concern even those unmoved by his particular case, or the growing ethics-based global consensus against the death penalty. There is no principle underpinning the death penalty in India today except vengeance. And vengeance is no principle at all.

Ordinance skips all vital recommendations of Justice Verma Panel

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