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| Wednesday,
January 24, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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VVIP as a
pilgrim Unsafe
food It is a
crime wave |
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Greying of the Green Revolution-IV
Developing trade ties
with Vietnam
Return
of the aviators
ITPA
loophole lets off ‘real beneficiaries’
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EVERY
action of a politician, particularly of a high profile leader, acquires political overtones because he or she remains a politician 24-hours a day. So has the visit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to Kumbh Mela on Monday. She took a half dip, sought the blessings of a Shankaracharya, met another sant and finally offered ahuti (at a sacrificial fire) at a major and elaborate
havan. This is much more than what an average Hindu can cope with in one day. Above all, she hogged the headlines and picture space in all newspapers, which is an instant reward of her pious deeds. To this extent it is a political act. But her Sangh Parivar critics would make it appear that she is trying to, or maybe has already, stolen their clothes, to go by the harshness of their reaction. It does not take much insight to realise that hardcore Hindutva supporters will not be taken in by her gesture and similarly hardcore opponents of the Hinditva ideology do not need this visit to remain firm in their conviction. But the huge army of middle-roaders will feel pleased that she has gone flat out to do what most Indians would like to do — visit Sangam during these 42 special days. As her party has claimed, she merely wanted to conduct herself as an ordinary Hindu (in the sense of the RSS definition of larger Hindu society) and hoped that it would somewhat blunt the charge of her foreign origin. But there is also the spinoff — in the immediate future the
communal heat generated by the revival of the Ayodhya debate will subside as the focus shifts to her surprise decision. It was in sharp contrast to the several political speeches delivered at the dharam sansad. As one newspaper has pointed out, the VHP organised conclave was more political than the symbolic bathing of Mrs Gandhi. This is the reason why the BJP accusation of politicking sounds less convincing. Mrs Gandhi’s meeting with the Shankaracharya of the Jyotir Math (not Jyotish Math as newspaper reports say) is open to a political interpretation. The swamiji is a bitter opponent of the VHP and its plans to build a grand temple at Ayodhya. Although he supports the idea of a temple, he is caustic of the VHP’s open affiliation with the BJP as part of the Sangh Parivar. He is quietly working to bring all Shankaracharyas together under the auspices of sant sansad and edge out the VHP from the temple project. His plan suits the Congress interests admirably. Even if she did not discuss this issue, her presence and showy religiosity cannot but strengthen the alternate mandir idea. Some thought should be spared for the unobstrusive efficiency of the mela managers. The UP bureaucracy has expertise in managing huge crowds, like in Maha Kumbha which is easily the largest gathering of people anywhere in the world. A few years back it was in Hardwar that they supervised a smaller kumbh but with the same degree of assurance and attention to details. There have been a few controversies like the one about Swiss tents but they are minor ones. In fact, the visit of Mrs Gandhi stoked one: about her security but finally the organisers came up with an imaginative route plan to minimise risk to her and inconvenience to fellow pilgrims. In these days when the bureaucracy attracts much flak, it is nice to see it perform very well, much better than the private sector in a comparable situation. The last time there was a mishap at a kumbh was in 1954 when more than 500 persons died in a stampede at Prayag in Allahabad. Obviously many valuable lessons have been learnt during the intervening years. |
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DO we ever think about the safety aspect of what we eat? Forget about what we call hygiene. Is our food free from adulteration? It is difficult to be sure about its purity today. The problem is on the rise. In fact, it is assuming alarming proportions day by day. Even in a city like Chandigarh, where things appear to be better than anywhere else, food adulteration has reached a dangerous level: nearly 41 per cent. Since the figure has been supplied by an official agency—-the Prevention of Food Adulteration Cell of the Chandigarh Administration’s Health Department — the problem is definitely more serious than it appears. What is more disturbing is that even products carrying reputed brand names are not safe. Another factor reflects the indifference of the authorities responsible for ensuring that no food item sold in the market, loose or packed, is mixed with anything inedible. This is because of the truth that again and again it is mainly milk and milk products and spices which are found to be unsafe for human consumption. The businessmen who indulge in this inhuman practice must be doing so as part of a deal with some irresponsible officials. No one knows for how long they might have been playing with the lives of people. The shady deal could not have been exposed but for a special drive launched by the UT’s Health Department. Thus, when the law finally takes in its grip those found involved in adulterating and selling food items injurious to health, any clue about guilty officials should be thoroughly enquired into so that they too are not spared. That is the only way to instil in one and all the fear of the law, which is fast disappearing. The tragedy, however, is that after the publication of reports in the media about food adulteration and deaths due to it, there is much noise both from the government side and the public for some time. Then an enquiry is instituted ostensibly to get to the bottom of the problem, but ultimately very little happens. All the noise dies down with the enquiry. And the merchants of death and their collaborators are at it again. Remember the dropsy deaths in Delhi following the consumption of adulterated mustard oil. No one knows how many people were put behind bars. There was even political intervention to save the culprits! So, one should not get surprised if such elements feel emboldened. There is no end to the sale of spurious or synthetic milk prepared by using washing soda, caustic soda, urea, etc. There is no chemical similarity between this white fluid and what we call milk. The situation is aggravating because of our system which fails to adequately punish the guilty. The country needs a strong movement to be launched by socially concerned people to deter anyone from even thinking of resorting to such heinous activity as food adulteration. |
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THE law-enforcing agencies in Punjab and Haryana deserve to be rapped on the knuckles for the alarming rise in the incidents of heinous crimes in the two states. While Ludhiana has become the crime capital of Punjab, although the situation in the rest of the state is equally disturbing, Panchkula is not far behind in earning the same dubious status in Haryana. The fact that two “top brass” of the police administration in Punjab and Haryana are facing charges of alleged molestation of girls may have contributed to the crime wave currently sweeping the region. In Ludhiana the sharp rise in cases of abduction of minors has understandably made the people lose whatever little respect they had for the men in uniform. The involvement of Gurmeet Singh, a terrorist-turned policeman, in the cold-blooded murder of Avtar Singh proved to be the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back. But for the street protests the police may have succeeded in shielding the main suspect and his henchmen. Incidents of shootouts among rival gangs in Ludhiana too have become routine affairs. Since the police has failed to check the rise in the cases of heinous crimes in the industrial centre of Punjab rumour-mongers are having a field day causing panic and confusion among the people. Two days ago life virtually came to a standstill as a baseless report of the murder of a gangster in yet another shootout spread in Ludhiana like a bush fire. A day earlier a handful of protesters held the city to ransom by enforcing a bandh against an incident of murder in Chowni Mohalla. The crime wave sweeping Panchkula is as disturbing as the one over which an inept and incompetent police administration seems to have no control in Ludhiana. It has become the most insecure township in Haryana for reasons which the law-enforcing agencies have not even bothered to find out. The latest case of the murder of a senior couple has brought into sharp focus another aspect for which the people themselves will have to share the blame. D. P. Madhok and his wife Rita were evidently killed about 11 days ago, but neither anyone in the neighbourhood nor regular visitors, including the milkman, the newspaper vendor and the dhobi noticed anything unusual. To be more precise, they did notice the newspapers not be picked up for the past 11 days and that no one was answering the call bell to collect milk or to give clothes for ironing to the dhobi, but it evidently never occurred to them to report the strange development to the police. It was on the 11th day after the double murder that the dhobi casually mentioned the fact of the lights in the Madhok house not being switched off which made a resident ring up the police. The Madhok murders should also provide some food for thought to those who have contributed to the destruction of the mohalla system of living. In the good old mohalla every individual was part of a much larger family which extended beyond bonds of flesh and blood. A strange development in any home would invariably attract the attention of the entire neighbourhood. The break-down of the mohalla system has added to the responsibility of the police force. What is needed is community-oriented policing which should include visiting the residents at regular intervals as part of the duty. Had such a practice been in place the police would have come to know about the double murders a day after the commission of the crime. |
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Greying of the Green Revolution-IV A LITTLE over two years ago (October 23-24, 1998), a two-day brain-storming meeting was organised by Punjab Agricultural University at Ludhiana. The purpose was to discuss the emerging crisis in Punjab agriculture and suggest an appropriate strategy for remedial action. Though many such discussion meetings were also held at regular intervals at other places, the PAU session received more public attention as it was organised at the instance of the state government. Startling revelations were made at the meeting. There was agreement among the participants that (i) profitability in farming had declined sharply; (ii) the extent of degradation of land, water and the environment due to the present production pattern in Punjab had reached levels to threaten the sustainability of its agricultural growth; and (iii) further exploitation of the existing cropping system and technology would be of no help in arresting the deteriorating condition of farmers. The meeting made several recommendations and urged the state government to adopt a time-bound action plan to put Punjab agriculture on a more remunerative and sustainable growth path. Since then the situation has changed for the worse. The foodgrains-based rural economy of Punjab was put to a double-spin last year as the country’s overflowing storage bins prompted deliberate delays in the rabi and kharif procurement operations and made the wheat and rice prices to crash. Poor price realisation made the farmers wonder why in spite of excellent yield and the produce of the best quality, they were no longer lauded for their contribution to the nation’s food security goal, and were forced to sell their stocks at much below the government-announced minimum support prices. Frustration and anger led to widespread unrest and protest demonstrations and even caused some suicidal deaths among the farmers. To quieten the crisis, some knee-jerked solutions were advocated like augmenting foodgrains demand by making free public distribution to BPL people, giving subsidy to the farmers for keeping land fallow during the kharif season, etc. Concessional announcements made by the central and state governments finally helped to tide over the crisis. But the simmering discontent is again going to explode in the coming rabi marketing season. Farmers are in no mood to suffer any more. For redressing their problems, they are now increasingly going to adopt agitational methods. For quite some time, the prestigious Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) at Chandigarh has been cautioning against the outbreak of such disturbing developments in northern India, especially in the Green Revolution belt of Punjab, Haryana and West UP. Led by its Director, CRRID has been continuously monitoring the problems faced by the farmers by conducting field studies and organising interactive meetings with farmers, panchayat members and informed observers of the rural scene in the region. Immediately after the agitation in October last year, it had conducted a sample survey of farmers for assessing their problems. The occasion for the survey was provided by the Vishav Gurmat Roohani Mission where more than a million farmers had congregated at the concluding day of the four-day annual samagam on October 2, 2000. Using the questionnaire method, 492 farmers were extensively interviewed, 89 per cent of whom were from Punjab, 6 per cent from UP, 3 per cent from Haryana, and 2 per cent from Himachal Pradesh. It would be of interest to briefly report here their views and suggestions regarding the state of farmers and farming in this region: 1. Nearly 95 per cent of the farmers reported a substantial decline in their annual income. The main reasons for the decline in the farm income were attributed to the increase in the cost of inputs like fertilisers, pesticides and labour. Added to these were the complaints regarding the supply of substandard seeds, fertilisers and pesticides that had adversely affected the crop yields. Repair and maintenance of farm machineries have also become very costly. 2. Practically all the farmers complained about the erratic supply of power and water. They underlined the need to reconsider the decision of supplying free electricity and suggested that the power and water be supplied at reasonable rates and on a regular basis. 3. Most of the farmers were aware of the long-term adverse effects of paddy-wheat cultivation on soil and crop yields. Unfortunately, they were unable to diversify to other crops due to the lack of suitable crop alternatives and their marketing facilities. 4. Farmers listed several complaints against the prevailing system of marketing the produce such as mandis being far off, inadequate transportation facilities, the delay in acceptance and payments in the markets, the involvement of middlemen (aarhtias) who give less price than the market rates, and the dealings by the officials in the mandis. 5. The level of indebtedness of the farmers has considerably increased during the past five years because of stagnation or loss in crop yield due to inclement weather, pests and disease attacks and non-remunerative prices while on the other hand the cost of inputs has been on the rise. The indebtedness of the farmers to commission agents (aarhtias) has increased considerably since formal lending agencies are unable to satisfy the demands of the farmers who also avoid these agencies due to several reasons like the delay in getting credit, official hassles, the involvement of middlemen in taking commission and an untimely supply of money. 6. It was most revealing to find that the farmers felt handicapped about the latest technology and information about crop husbandry. Despite illiteracy, farmers were keen to learn all practical aspects of technologies that could improve their crop yields. Farmers were very critical of the poor guidance services provided by the extension agencies of the government and the state agricultural universities. As part of its major research activities, CRRID organised several workshops last year to discuss the problems of farmers of northern India. The picture that has emerged from these meetings is indeed disturbing. The list of problems afflicting the farmers of this region is rather long. There is a slowdown in developmental activities even as dependence on agriculture continues. There is a growing pressure of population on land, and the size of the operational holding is declining. Continued degradation and mismanagement of land, soil, water and power, declining growth in crop yields, narrowing of genetic resource bases, a high cost of production and diminishing economic returns in farming are adversely affecting the farmers of this region. Supplementing the adverse impact of these problems are developments like the disturbing trend of rural indebtedness, an alarming rise in the incidence of indebtedness-related suicides besides growing joblessness among local people due to the influx of cheap migrant labourers in the region. Poorly organised marketing facilities, an absence of modern food processing industries, unfavourable terms of trade, declining public investment in agriculture and growing casualisation of the labour force have made farming no longer an attractive occupation, particularly to the restless unemployed youth of the region. These systemic and technological constraints, aggravated by inequalities in access and entitlements, have made social tensions and class conflicts a fact of everyday life in the region. The role of agriculture in finding an effective and sustainable solution to the region’s economic problems is now seriously questioned. There is now a growing opinion in the country that the problems of Indian farmers in general and those of northern India in particular cannot be solved by looking for solutions in the narrow realm of the farming sector alone. The answer lies in building a vibrant and dynamic rural non-farm sector with strong linkages with the rural farm and the urban formal and informal sectors. The building blocks in this approach should be the construction of village-to-market and market-to-market rural roads and the development of strategically located and comprehensively planned growth centres built around the newly created or remodelled old rural markets. Because of its pervasive role in transmitting economic signals, the market emerges as the logical locus of activities at which to focus government policies designed to encourage production, mobilise and transfer economic resources, and insert a spatial dimension to agricultural development. A rural growth centre can be an effective device to shape the aggregate agricultural production, the agricultural/non-agricultural sectoral interchanges, and the spatial aspects in a constructive, dynamic direction. Three and a half decades ago India adopted the new strategy of agricultural development for attaining the goal of self-efficiency in foodgrains production. Punjab played the lead role in this strategy and made signal contributions to move India from a situation of food shortage and imports to self-sufficiency and exports. Time is now ripe to formulate a similar strategy for rural development. Construction and expansion of rural roads and creation of rural growth centres can play an important role in this strategy. The integrated concept of market planning, embracing input supplies, production sales, credit, extension, industrial and commercial activity and services at one site can be developed into a growth nexus with spread effects, which, if
strategically planned to promote spatial growth objectives, could trigger a growth multiplier. And Punjab, with its strong infrastructural network and high exposure to the outside world, high competitive spirit and innovativeness of its farmers, can again provide an ideal environment for experimentation. The writer, a distinguished economist, is a former Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi. |
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Developing trade ties with Vietnam PUBLIC memory is short and politicians are known for their double talk. But the people of Vietnam are different. Years of persecution by their colonial masters and the 20-year ‘‘unofficial war’’ against the USA will not be easily forgotten by them. The ‘‘memories’’ will not fade so easily. And they will not forget so easily the words and actions of those who looked down on their freedom struggle and sided with the American war machine. All this was relevant in view of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s recent state visit to Hanoi. It was the culmination of a policy to ‘‘build bridges’’ with the East because Indian was always known to be keener to ‘‘build bridges’’ with the West. Mr Vajpayee’s visit to Vietnam was of a low-key; it had none of the hoopla over his US trip. Hanoi had no Hindutva-leaning NRIs who organised expensive functions to felicitate the Prime Minister and his Sangh Parivar cronies. Mr Vajpayee went through the routine motions of being welcomed by his Vietnam hosts. Trade, cultural and economic agreements were signed though how many of them would be implemented was open to question. The Prime Minister lauded his hosts. “My generation was consumed by the cause of Vietnam. I vividly recall the expression of spontaneous joy which overflowed onto the streets of the Indian cities over 25 years ago when the Vietnamese people entered Saigon to complete the liberation of South Vietnam from foreign occupation.” Moving words. But then the ‘‘crowds which overflowed onto the streets of the Indian cities’’ did not consist of his party followers. In those days, Mr Vajpayee was a Jana Sangh leader and it did not exhibit any enthusiasm to support the cause of the people of Vietnam. On the contrary, the Sangh and its top leadership were staunch supporters of the American presence and war strategy against Vietnam. Yes, the people of India had supported Vietnam’s liberation struggle. It was heroic, brave and they paid heavily for it. The small nation of Vietnam lost millions of its citizens during the course of the illegal war launched by the USA. Much of its fertile countryside was lost due to the indiscriminate use of defoliants like ‘‘Agent Orange’’. Unable to understand the patriotic fervour of the Vietnamese and humiliated by its stubborn resistance, the USA dropped more bombs on the small country than those used in World War II. Even then they could not break the spirit of the Vietnamese people. In India, it was only the leftist forces which fully backed the brave struggle of the Vietnamese. These included Marxists and left-leaning members of the Congress, which was then ruling the nation. Prime Minister Nehru and then Indira Gandhi backed the small nation in its David vs Goliath struggle. But not the right-wing groups of India, of which the Jana Sangh was a leading member. Thoroughly communal in nature, the Sangh, later the BJP had never been able to look beyond its nose. Its members buried themselves on communal issues and had no clue to what was happening in the rest of the world. Their right-wing approach pleased the USA. Parties like the Jana Sangh and the Swatantra Party feared communism and shared the American apprehension of a communist takeover of South-East Asia by China, with the active help of North Vietnam. The USA did not understand the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial nature of the Vietnam struggle. They had labelled the great nationalist leader, Ho Chi Minh, as yet another ‘‘Commie stooge’’ and were prepared to bomb North Vietnam to extinction to halt the Red menace. India’s Congress governments had always protested against the US approach to Vietnam. This was welcomed by the Marxist forces. But the Jana Sangh was different. It had more affinity with the communist-baiting war machine of the USA and its right-wing policies. The party did not understand the true nature of the Vietnamese war. Very often, the right wing forces and their supporters echoed the American bogey of South Asia coming under the communist yoke, with China and its ‘‘puppet’’ North Vietnam calling all the shots. The North Vietnamese, led by Ho Chi Minh, had just come out of a bloody, successful war against the French, having routed them at the Dien Bien Phu battle in 1954. How could Ho Chi Minh and his followers surrender this hard-earned victory and freedom to become a satellite of China. The North Vietnamese, whose society in the past had been under the control of rich landlords and military leaders, did lean towards a Marxist society which relied more on social justice and equality. That did not mean that they would take orders from China and the Soviet Union, which had supported them during the 20-year old war. The left leadership in India was right in equating Ho Chi Minh with Mahatma Gandhi. Ho and Gandhi pursued the same ideal, freedom, but adopted different means. Under Gandhiji, we fought the British through non-violence. We were prepared to turn the other cheek. By and large, the British were benevolent rulers who built an impressive infrastructure in India. They were not like the French warlords who only looted Vietnam and killed its people. Gandhi’s principle of ‘‘ahimsa’’ would not have made sense to them. The French would have met any non violent protests with violence. So, Ho Chi Minh and his people had to fight for long years. India, of course, had clearly shown that its sympathies lay with the liberation struggle of the Vietnamese people. It raised the issue at the UN and several other international forums. The USA, of course, did not like it one bit. Blinded by a feeling of humiliation, it was determined to teach the Vietnamese a lesson they would not forget. And this policy found support with the right-wing groups in India. It is time for the BJP-led government to make up for the shocking attitude towards the fallen heroes of Vietnam. But I doubt if this change of heart will be forthcoming easily. Our obsession is towards the West; we are keen to get Good Conduct Certificates from the USA and ignore developing good relations with our Asian neighbours. Several nations in this region still remember Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi for their sympathy and support for their nationalistic causes. I am sure there are people, at least historians, who had not forgotten the role of the right-wing forces in India during the Vietnamese war. This past should be wiped out. India and Vietnam should come together in areas of trade and commerce. There is much in common between our cultures. Instead of relying on worn cliches and signing documents which are forgotten before the ink on them dries, India should take firm steps towards strengthening its ties with Vietnam. |
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AVIATORS in goggles and dashing silk scarves will return to the skies in just over a month when a collection of aircraft, all light and some of them vintage, roars into the wide blue yonder for the Great Air Race from London to Australia. For the third time in 80 years a racing field of, this time at least 40,planes, ranging from a vintage Tiger Moth to an assortment of helicopters and contemporary private aircraft, will take off on March 11 from historic Biggin Hill airfield, on the outskirts of London, at the start of an epic journey that will end on April 7 at Sydney’s Bankstown aerodrome. In the intervening 28 days they will cross Europe, the Middle East, India and south-east Asia the way it used to be done, low and slow and using a lots of “white knuckle” piloting skills. Ironically, unlike the two previous races — in 1919 and 1934 — one of the major hazards that the daring men and women and their flying machines of 2001 will have to contend with will be mass air transport, which their intrepid predecessors helped to pioneer. The 1919 “race” was for a prize of £ 10,000 — a king’s ransom in those days — for the first successful flight from England to Australia. There was no starting gun. After setting out competitors had to finish in less than 720 hours, or 30 days, including rest stops. The winners were the Australian pioneer aviators, brothers Ross and Keith Smith, Jim Bennett and Wally Shiers. Setting off from a strip in the London suburb of Hounslow (now home to London’s Heathrow airport) in a Vickers Vimy World War 1 bomber they took 28 days to reach Darwin on December 10, 1919. The only other finishers, fellow Australians Ray Parer and John McIntosh, arrived nine months later, long after the “race” had slipped from public attention. The spread of radio networks made the 1934 race a sensational breaking story around the world, seizing the public imagination in a similar fashion to the Apollo Moon missions over 30 years later. The overall winners were English flying aces C. W. Scott and Campbell Black in a sleek twin-engined Comet, who took a mere 71 hours and were greeted by 50,000 cheering spectators on touch down. Ted Radford, the director of the 2001 race — part of Australia’s celebration of the centenary of federation — says that a major headache has been keeping competitors separated from what their predecessors would see as “monsters of the air”. The motley collection of vintage and later civilian or military aircraft will have to mix it with air traffic control systems and congestion that did not exist in the light the fires, chocks aways days of aviation adventure. Some stopovers, like the airports at Cairo, Delhi, Calcutta and Singapore, are not small plane friendly. (Observer) New imaging technique Chemical biologists have pioneered a new imaging technique that offers researchers a new way to observe the working of therapeutic drugs within single cancer cells. The technique, a form of ion microscopy, called SIMS (dynamic secondary ion mass spectrometry) promises to open new avenues of cancer research as it offers a high sensitivity for detecting isotopes of elements —atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons. Leading a team of chemical biologists, Subhash Chandra, a senior research associate with Cornell’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, studied the subcellular location of transported ions inside normal and cancer cells with ion microscopy by placing a stable or nonradioactive isotope into a laboratory rat’s blood stream thereby allowing the imaging of cells of the target organ with the transported isotope.
(PTI) Heart pump in place
of transplants Surgeons have developed a miniature artificial heart that would, in the long term, make heart transplants obsolete. Developed by surgeons from Oxford, southern England, and Texas, USA, the artificial heart can pump upto 10 litres of blood a minute and operates indefinitely without the need for lubrication. The turbine helps the device, called the Jarvik 2000 after its US inventor Rob Jarvik, pump freshly oxygenated blood into the aorta, the massive blood vessel that supplies the whole body. It is powered by a cable that passes through the patient’s scalp to a small rechargeable battery behind the ear. The artificial heart has been successfully implanted as a temporary measure in a US patient. The tiny turbine was inserted into the left ventricle of the heart, responsible for 80 per cent of the pumping function.
(PTI) |
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ITPA loophole lets off ‘real beneficiaries’ THE year was 1996.The Chandigarh police had escorted decoy customers along with stamped currency to nab call girls indulging in prostitution. The acting was successful and they arrested 11 persons of which 10 were women. The police registered three cases against them under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA). The sole man, Deepak, involved in the “racket”, as the police puts it was eventually sentenced to three years and his accomplices Rekha and Renu to six months’ Rigorous Imprisonment by the CJM, Mr Darshan Singh. He also imposed fine of Rs 3,000 and Rs 200 each on the accused. The remaining eight suspects were given the benefit of doubt and let off. Obviously the Chandigarh police must have patted itself and followed yet another drive more enthusiastically in 1997. It put on the act once again and arrested two persons and registered a case against them under the same Act. This time both the persons arrested were women and the CJM Mr Sant Prakash, held Surinder Kaur and Sukhwinder Kaur guilty and sentenced them to three years and six months and three months RI respectively, besides a fine of Rs 500 each. A study of these two cases raises the same old universally unanswered question, who came first — Adam or Eve? Of the total 72 arrested under ITPA in the past five years 63 have been women. Not a single user of these women has been put in the dock. Whether women turned prostitutes first or whether the demand for them came first? This question not only remains unanswered but also untracked in the eyes of law. However, the fact that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession is certainly a universal truth. But we human beings don’t want to admit it. So like other parts of this universe, we Indians, too, made laws to ban this profession. Was it the futility of such laws made by humans that made Sadat Hasan Manto write stories on the realities of prostitutes? Manto created a “Nagarpalika” ordering removal of a “vitiating red-light area” beyond the city periphery only to eventually discover another city of “puremen” nestling around the new red-light area along with their families. For ages circumstances have pushed many a women in most vulnerable situations to turn to prostitution. This profession continues to retain its confusion about acceptance by society and handling by archaic laws. The fallout of the “presumptuous” puritan’s imposition is the interpretation of the word “prostitute” which qualifies only women. That men-prostitutes also exist, like women, has not been accepted till date either by society nor by the laws in the outdated ITPA, formulated in 1956. The ITPA is ridden with a mind-set and the presumption that only women can be prostitutes, besides other questionable dimensions. For instance, it says: “A magistrate on receiving information that any person residing or frequenting in his area of jurisdiction is a prostitute, may record the substance of the information and issue notice requiring her to appear before the magistrate and show cause why she should not be removed from the place and be prohibited from re-entering it in the interest of the general public”. The Act further describes prostitution as, “the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes and the expression ‘prostitute’ shall be construed accordingly.” The stress of the ITPA appears to be that it is the woman who is the criminal in the exercise of prostitution. It is she who perpetuates “prostitution and exploits and abuses persons for commercial gains”: the truth is to the contrary. A majority of women are driven to prostitution by sheer circumstances. These include utter poverty, unjustified needs of alcoholic fathers, husbands and brothers, lack of education and ignorance, non-awareness of laws like ITPA , repercussions of diseases like AIDS, HIV, STD, etc. A large section of prostitutes falls in this category. Not only do they suffer a demeaning existence but are also an exploited lot. The law has not only failed to help such women extricate themselves from this profession but, on the contrary, has rubbed salt into their wounds. Once arrested and punished under ITPA, the tag of a prostitute is firmly placed on their foreheads with no chance of rehabilitation. The most ironic outcome of this Act is that the users of these women are, by and large, never caught and punished. It is only the pimps who have been nabbed but never the “real users”. Their alcoholic husbands, fathers and brothers mostly feeder the income of prostitutes. Yet they are never held guilty and punished despite legal provisions. The ITPA has a clause, which reads: “Any adult person who knowingly lives wholly or in part on the earnings of the prostitute shall be punishable with fine as well as imprisonment up to two years. In case the earnings are that of a child or a minor prostitute the crime is punishable with imprisonment from 7 years to 10 years.” But the police has never arrested alcoholic fathers or husbands for pushing their daughters and wives into this profession. It is common knowledge with the police that women from jhuggis and the lower middle class often have alcoholic husbands, fathers and brothers whose demands have to be met, besides other members for whom they end up selling their bodies. But the ITPA clause has never been applied in their case. In the past decade trends in prostitution have assumed a larger dimension. Today women from the middle and upper classes have entered this profession. The Chandigarh police in its latest two drives have nabbed girls who have been modelling participating in fashion shows. Similarly, the Delhi police recently arrested girls from exclusive areas who themselves belonged to upper middle class families. It was their misplaced aspirations to enjoy a life that did not match their budgets that led them to become call-girls! Commenting on the new trends the city SSP, Parag Jain, observed; “There is a speedy erosion of moral values. Hence the unquenchable yearning for a luxurious life that these girls end up in this profession. Easy providers are the men from the neo-rich class who have the capacity to allure them. But, by and large, women in this line are more like victims who are made out to be accused. Most of the women that we have arrested are pathetic in physical appearance, pale and starved, exploited, and look down upon themselves. They have reasons for their vulnerability at home which make them easy prey for pimps.” IPS officer Sagarpreet Hooda feels that the blind aping of western culture with frivolous life, devoid of any aims and objectives, has pushed girls from the middle class into fashion shows and modelling which has only few economic opportunities to offer. The Chandigarh police in recent raids on call-girls had arrested a model from Panchkula who had claimed to have danced at Hrithik Roshan’s wedding. |
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Day after day, O Lord of my life, shall I stand before Thee face to face? With folded hands, O, Lord of all worlds, shall I stand before Thee face to face? ***** Under the great sky in solitude and silence, with humble heart shall I stand before Thee face to face. ***** And when my work shall be done in this world, O King of kings, alone and speechless shall I stand before Thee face to face. — Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, no. 76 ***** To lead man's soul towards Truth and God we are born, To draw the chequered scheme of mortal life. Into some semblance of the immortal's plan, To shape it closer to an image of God, A little nearer to the Idea Divine. — Sri Aurohinbdo Ghosh, Savitri ***** Nanak lay in the open under sky. A kind-hearted householder suggested to him, "There is a beautiful dharmasala nearby. Why not go there?" Nanak replied: "The whole earth is my dharmasala and the sky is its roof". ***** St. Catherine of Italy had no money with her. She had only a cloak which she was wearing. A destitute asked for it and she gave it away. Someone, thereupon, asked her: "How you will go about now?" She replied:
"The raiment of love will cover me far more securely than the cloak." — From The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 81 One day, Keshab Chandra Sen came to Sri Ramakrshna in the temple of Dakshineshwar and asked him, "How is it that even learned people remain so profoundly ignorant of things that truly matter in spiritual life, although they have read a whole library of religious books? The Master replied, "The kite and the vulture soar high up in the air, but all the time their eyes remain fixed in search of putrie carcasses; similarly the minds of the so-called learned men are attached to the things of the world, to lust and wealth, in spite of their erudition in sacred lore, and hence they cannot attain true knowledge. — Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, "Bondage of Book-Learning", chapter V. |
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