The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDITORIALS

Neglect of safety

While only a proper inquiry will establish what caused the fire at Ranbaxy’s factory at Mohali, it is the administrative laxity at the frequent violations of fire safety norms by industrial units that makes such disasters happen. The administration’s policy seems to be: ignore the smoke signals and react only when the fire actually takes place. About a month ago Mohali’s Fire Station Officer had sent an official complaint to the Ropar Deputy Commissioner pointing out a major fire threat emanating from the illegal parking of as many as 27 tankers carrying toxic chemicals outside the Ranbaxy factory. But his plea for action was ignored. And this was not for the first time that such warning signals had been ignored by the district administration, the industrial regulatory authorities and the company management. The Ranbaxy plant had witnessed in 1998 an acid leakage which spread fear among the residents in the area. Again in 2001, the residents had complained about the factory emitting a foul odour at night. How fire-prone industries in Mohali are can be gauged from the fact that in one month alone -- September last year-- five incidents of fire were reported. Such disregard for fire safety norms by industrial managements is not confined to Mohali or Ropar district alone. Incidents of fire and gas leakage are too common in this region to warrant a recount here. And after what had happened at Bhopal, it is but natural for residents to panic and call for safety measures.

While there is the obvious need to implement strictly the rule book on preventing fires and other industrial hazards, there is also the need to question the wisdom of locating cement, fertiliser, drug and other plants dealing with chemicals near residential areas, that too in planned townships like Mohali. There are umpteen reports of industrial emissions polluting air and underground water resources in this region. Yet no governmental action has been visible. That is partly because the industry owners are influential people with political clout. That such a thing can happen in a major company like Ranbaxy, which has all the resources to take preventive measures and which has to keep its image unsullied if it has to do bussiness globally, shows that neither corporates nor the governments have learnt any lessons from Bhopal. That the crisis management system was found wanting is evident from the fact that the anxious relatives of the employees trapped in the factory were not supplied correct information immediately. Rumours spread as the company and the administration failed to present a clear picture of the situation. A thorough time-bound probe is required to fix responsibility and to assess the damage caused to the people and the environment. The company and those charged with the job of ensuring industrial safety must be given exemplary punishment, if found negligent, so that such incidents do not recur.

Winner takes all

The tribal constituencies of Bharmour, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti have religiously voted for the Congress ever since Himachal Pradesh came into existence. But an exception was made in the 1998 elections when these constituencies went to the BJP and its supporter, the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) of Mr Sukh Ram. This switchover happened because of the desire of the residents of the areas to go along with the ruling party. This time it was the Congress which was in power and it has managed to make a clean sweep, winning all the three seats. The results are quite on expected lines, although the victory margin is a surprise. In the case of the Bharmour and Kinnaur seats, the victory margin is almost double that of last time. Lahaul-Spiti has been particularly embarrassing for the BJP. Here Mr Raghbir Singh of the Congress defeated former HVC minister Ram Lal Markanda by a margin of 4,768 votes. Mr Yuv Raj Bodh of the BJP was a poor third, and lost his security deposit in the process. This time, Mr Sukh Ram did no canvassing for his protégé. Elections in these snow-capped areas were held a few months after the rest of the state because these were inaccessible in February-March. A chastened BJP had demanded that the elections there should be held before the general election so that the results of the verdict did not colour the voting pattern in these sensitive areas.

The strength of the Congress in the State Assembly has now risen to 43 in a House of 68. That is a shot in the arm of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh because the three new legislators are his supporters. He is now the unquestioned leader of the party who will find it easier to make sure that his writ runs unchallenged. But the victory should not make him complacent. The anti-incumbency factor is a grim reality if his party does not perform. But this factor comes into play only after a party has ruled for two or three years. The happenings of Himachal Pradesh have been more or less replayed in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress, its poll ally BJP and the Congress have received a jolt at the hands of the ruling CPM, losing the Nabadwip (SC) Lok Sabha and Vidyasagar Assembly seats, again with impressive margins. Since this reverse for the Trinamool Congress comes immediately after the panchayat election drubbing, Ms Mamata Banerjee must be a worried person. While the Nabadwip (SC) parliamentary contituency saw the Trinamool Congress losing the seat to the CPM by 98,800 votes, CPM candidate Anadi Sahu won the Vidyasagar Assembly seat by 22,829 votes. He defeated the Congress's Mahua Mondal, who happens to be the daughter of suspended Trinamool MP Ajit Panja. Ironically, the Trinamool-backed BJP candidate Ashok Sinha lost his deposit.

Road map for violence

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has suffered a major setback with the resort to violence by both sides. But it is Israel which is to blame for the sad occurrence. Reports suggest that the Ariel Sharon government has revised its policy of depending on Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas for dealing with extremist groups like the Hamas. In line with the changed thinking, Israeli troops made an open attempt to assassinate a senior Hamas leader, Mr Abdel Aziz Rantisi, on Tuesday. The seriously injured co-founder of the most dreaded Palestinian militant organisation is second only to Sheikh Yaseen. This explains why the retaliation was swift. On Wednesday a Palestinian suicide squad member blew himself up in a crowded bus in Jerusalem, killing at least 13 persons. This means the situation is almost back to square one. The achievements made at last week’s Aqaba summit in the presence of US President George W. Bush would be lost if he does not put enough pressure on the two sides not to abandon the path shown in the road map for peace.

After the Aqaba talks Israel had begun dismantling some of the settlements in the areas which are supposed to be included in the future state of Palestine. The Palestinian Prime Minister too was getting encouraging response from the extremist outfits in his efforts to persuade them to lay down their arms. An Egyptian expert was already assisting the Palestinians to set up a powerful security force to contain extremist violence. Both sides appeared to be quite sincere this time. One fails to understand why Mr Sharon allowed the missile attack on the Hamas leader when he knows that all the force at his command has failed to prevent suicide bombers from killing innocent people. The argument that he acted on an intelligence report saying that the militant outfits were about to launch attacks is unconvincing. This fear is always there in Israel. One does not have to look for an intelligence warning. President Bush has rightly said that what has happened will “make it difficult for the Palestinian leadership to fight off terrorist attacks. I also don’t believe the attacks helped the Israeli security”. The new development will adversely affect the Palestinian Prime Minister’s endeavour to disarm the militant groups to fulfil a major demand under the Aqaba formula. If Israel does not scrap its policy of directly handling the Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and other extremist outfits, Mr Abbas may fail to deliver the goods. This is what happened earlier with Mr Yasser Arafat. Therefore, Israel should do nothing which weakens Mr Abbas’s position. This is in the interest of peace in the region.

OPINION

Colleges turn youth clubs
Most students not serious about education
Amrik Singh

Within a year or so of my joining Punjabi University as Vice-Chancellor, I discovered one uncomfortable fact. A college located in Rajpura had the reputation of having dismissed a couple of teachers without caring for the due process. In any case, it was functioning in its own lawless way and the teachers were unhappy about it. What was worse, the college was not performing well in any sphere of activity.

To be more specific, attending lectures delivered in the classrooms was never insisted upon. Though the university regulations require each student to attend something like two-thirds of the lectures delivered, the fact was that nobody observed this regulation. It was defied openly and without any questions being asked.

Every college had its own share of such students. Rajpura was no exception. Gradually, I began to discover for myself that, unknown to itself, this college conformed to a pattern, and that pattern lay in the institution being a youth club rather than a centre of serious study.

In the all-India context, something like 50 per cent of those who finish school go to college. Out of them, about one-half are serious as well as academically ambitious. They are keen on joining a professional course and most of them manage to do it, sometimes at the very start and sometimes later. The remaining half of the students continue to plod along in their lacklustre way.

Whoever was reasonably serious and not particularly ambitious managed to go ahead with his study. Some of them got deflected from this path if they fell into the company of the frivolous lot. A few of them were lucky enough to come in contact with some teacher who either came across as a model or influenced them in some other positive way.

What about the remaining 50 per cent who could not join a college? Most of them came from homes where their parents could not afford to keep them at college even when the fees were low. Therefore, they either looked for jobs and some of them got them or a substantial number remained unemployed. One of the problems that the country as a whole has been facing in every part of India is the growing phenomenon of unemployment among the young people. Here a distinction has to be drawn between those who are underemployed because they are not well qualified and others who may be called the educated unemployed.

This phenomenon of idle or unemployed youth was noticed when the Kothari Commission report was being written. Though the report itself did not use the phrase, it became popular around that time and the phenomenon came to be described as “baby sitting’. When a baby is small, he requires to be looked after. He is not old enough to go out to play, but it is important to look after the baby lest he may meet with an accident or do something which can be hurtful or fatal.

It was argued when the phrase became popular that the young people in their teens are at a somewhat similar stage of development. They need to be looked after lest they do something which they ought not to be doing. Within a few years, they find a perch for themselves. Where or how they eventually fit in or what happens to them is something in which society is not particularly interested.

As would be readily conceded, when some of them get involved in politics, a few of them get involved in activities like the Naxalite movement, the Punjab or Assam type of militancy, VHP activism, and a couple of Muslim organisations about which one has been hearing lately. In short, as the population grows, and it is growing relentlessly, we will hear more and more about the young people getting frustrated and being drawn into one subversive activity or another. The colleges play a role in defusing youthful tensions in the way described above.

Had our rate of economic growth been higher, we would have seen a greater amount of growth and consequent greater diversification of jobs. Something has been happening but not in keeping with the growth of the population. In educational terms, had vocationalisation received the patronage and support that it should have and had our planning been more imaginative and skill-based, the situation would have been distinctly more favourable than it is today. One thing on which we have never placed adequate emphasis was not to impart appropriate skills for the various jobs that young people have to do.

A modest attempt in favour of vocationalisation was launched by the UGC about a decade ago and had some degree of success. But it has been very limited. An important reason for this relative failure is that the teachers themselves do not possess those skills which the students are expected to acquire. Nor is there the right kind of training of the requisite manpower available either from within the school or college or outside which could have been drawn upon when required. To put it bluntly, we have not been innovative or imaginative to the extent that we should have been. There is some evidence of this kind of activity around the country in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, etc. But other states like West Bengal, Orissa, Rajasthan, Kerala, Punjab and Haryana have lagged behind. Unwillingness to work with one’s own hands has been a barrier without question.

It is possible to say more on this theme. After all, I did a whole report on the subject for the Punjab Government. But it is a comment on things that the report was not implemented. Partly, it was lack of political will but, more importantly, it was the unwillingness of the bureaucracy to become more flexible, deviate from rules when required and opt to become inventive or innovative. Lack of training for trainers was also an important handicap. On the whole, the fact remains that Punjab remains today what I encountered in the late seventies. Why blame only Punjab? This is the situation in good many parts of India, more notably in the Hindi heartland as well as some other states.

Why I have chosen to recall my experience of those years is that even though more than two decades have gone by, the situation remains unchanged. Perhaps, it is worse than before! When some of us put forward certain proposals, they are ignored. Maybe some of them do need a greater input of pragmatism. What is, however, required is interaction between the academics and the planners. In the eyes of the bureaucrats, the status quo is the best option. But will that solve the problem?

What we require is a long-term plan. There is some evidence of this kind of a thing in the attempt to commercialise agriculture which has been in evidence for some time. Some change is there but the rate of change is very slow. The job to be done is immense and what is happening is much too strongly influenced by the status quo. What we need is a radical shift, the kind of shift which was represented by the Green Revolution of the late sixties. Something corresponding to that is required even at the educational level.

Most students are faced with the chronic problem of what to do with their energy and time. So, much of Punjab militancy was an outcome of this scenario. Somebody described the eighties as the “lost decade” of Punjab. But have things changed since then? The question has only to be asked and one knows that today things may not be as bloody as they were at one time. But they are certainly wasteful and destructive.

MIDDLE

In the dock
Trilochan Singh Trewn

The largest dockyard at Mumbai employs about 30,000 workers and extends from Colaba to Kurla. In the fifties an expert committee was set up to recommend modernisation of the yard. The dockyard industrial complex repaired large ships and thousands of types of equipment and machinery. The committee went into details of the working of every shop and activity before making recommendations. Nation’s modern industry owes a lot to his report.

Six years ago a senior correspondent of The Guardian met me in Fleet Street, London. He startled me by pulling out the report with some paragraphs marked in red.

The first page dealt with time and motion study of a typical industrial worker when he arrives at road before the main dockyard entrance at about 7.30 and starts playing cards. Dockyard gate opens at 8 a.m. sharp. As dockyard siren is sounded the workers pack up their cards and hundreds of them start rushing towards the narrow gate entrance. This rush creates a bottleneck situation and all are punched in by 8.20.

The report cited the case of a worker employed with a “fitters afloat” shop where he reaches by 8.50. He walks leisurely aware that his meter was already down. Arriving in the shop he exchanges greetings with colleagues and replaces his pants and shirt with an old pair. He also replaces his leather shoes with shop-made wooden sandals.

It is now 9. The worker spots one of the “batata wada chai wala” and completes his breakfast. He advances slowly towards lavatories unmindful of handicap imposed upon his gait by heavy wooden sandals. He pick up a one-gallon capacity old used paint tin with a wire handle and fills up the tin full with water. He relieves himself and washes his hands, mouth and feet using liquid soap.

It is 9.30. He now proceeds to have a look at the daily job chart displayed on the shop noticeboard. He notes that on that day he has to carry out repairs to four shipside porthole scuttles on board ship “Jamuna”. He gets hold of his job card.

It is 10 by now and he is nowhere near his job. By 10.20 he reaches where the scuttles are located. He assesses requirement of tools to remove scuttle assembly and returns to his shop. As he tries to cross gangway of ship he sees a heavy engine cylinder head being lifted out by crane from ship to a hand trolley on dockside. He has to wait for 10 minutes before proceeding across to the shop and collect tools.

As he prepares to move towards the ship the siren sounds tea break. After 20 minutes he reaches back to the ship. He removes only one scuttle till the 1 p.m. lunch break.

He is back on the ship by 1.45 after lunch and starts removing the second scuttle. The supervisor grants three-hour overtime. By 6.30 the worker has removed all scuttles. By 7, all four scuttles are placed on a trolley. Each piece does not weigh more than 2 kg while it is a two ton trolley. These pieces could be easily handlifted by two workers. Here the two-ton trolley with steel rim wheels carrying 8 kg of weight is pushed by three men! No wonder the cost of each work order rocketed.

The report avoided any mention of frequent mouthful spitting of tobacco by the workers during the day.

Come to think of it, isn’t every government department functioning exactly according to the leisurely style mentioned in the report?

How Punjabi became the official language
Prabhjot Singh

Dr Parkash Kaur with Nehru and other leaders

“Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script should be made the provincial language and should be given the place which has hitherto been enjoyed by Urdu in the educational institutions and official work.

“Hindi in the Devanagri script as a national language should be started from the fourth (primary) class and be a compulsory language thereafter.

“The result of this would be that in the East Punjab, every child will have to get instructions from the beginning in Punjabi but will have to pass Hindi as a compulsory subject from the fourth (primary) class onwards.

“For the children whose mother tongue is Hindi will have to begin their education in Hindi but will have to begin Punjabi as a compulsory subject from the fourth (primary) class onwards.”

Thus reads the resolution moved by Dr Parkash Kaur, MLA representing the Amritsar denominational constituency reserved for Sikh women in the East Punjab Legislative Assembly at Shimla on March 10, 1949.

This was the first ever resolution moved in the then East Punjab State Legislative Assembly to get Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script the status of a provincial or state language.

Dr Parkash Kaur's resolution had followed a gazette notification issued by the Union Government on August 14, 1948, declaring Hindi in Devanagri script as the federal language and recognized 14 other languages, including Punjabi, as regional languages in their own areas of influence.

She presented her resolution over a period of two days, March 10 and March 31, 1949. Before she concluded her presentation, Dr Gopi Chand Bhargava, the then leader of the House, stood up and made the following statement:

“I assure the honourable members that the government has noted their views and will again welcome the suggestions of those who may like to make these in deciding the question. All these views will be borne in mind at the time of making the decision. I hope that in view of this assurance, Dr Parkash Kaur will not press her resolution and withdraw it.”

In view of the assurance by Dr Bhargava and realising that the point had been driven home and brought on record, she withdrew her resolution. The proposal was later implemented in Punjab in toto.

Dr Parkash Kaur, who earned the distinction of becoming the first woman minister in independent Punjab, was born in Khara village in1914. Her father, Mr Amar Singh Jhabal, was a police inspector. After schooling from Bhai Takhat Singh Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Ferozepore, she completed her studies from Medical College, Amritsar, in 1937 and joined Lady Emerson Red Cross Hospital, Amritsar. The same year she was married to Dr Upkar Singh, a graduate from King Edward Medical College. In 1945-46, she left her medical practice and decided to contest the election as a Congress candidate after Amritsar was reserved for a woman candidate. She won the election with the biggest margin in the whole of Punjab. In1956, the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Pratap Singh Kairon, inducted her in the State Cabinet as Social Welfare and Health Minister. She represented Majitha in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 1960 and again in 1962.

Her son, Lieut-Col Adish Pal Singh Dhillon, is now settled in Chandigarh.He is in possession of all documents, including her speeches in the Assembly, and the resolution she moved in 1949 to get Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script its due as the official language of Punjab.

After the 1948 Government of India notification on official languages, the Speaker of the East Punjab Legislative Assembly constituted on April 2, 1949, an advisory committee of 36 legislators. According to Dr Upkar Singh Jhabalia, a former Managing Director of the Amritsar Central Cooperative Bank, who wrote a booklet tracing the history of installation of Punjabi as the state language of Punjab, those included in the committee were Ujjal Singh (later elected Speaker of the Lok Sabha ), Swaran Singh (a former Union minister), Kapur Singh (who later became Chairman of the East Punjab Legislature Council), Pratap Singh Kairon, Ishar Singh Majhail, Giani Kartar Singh, Gopi Chand Bhargava, Bhim Sen Sachar, Joginder Singh Mann (father of Mr Simranjit Singh Mann) and Dr Parkash Kaur, besides others. There were 14 Sikh and 22 Hindu members of the committee.

This committee was set up only after Dr Parkash Kaur, realising the sensitivity of the matter relating to the demand for making Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script as the official provincial language, had decided to seek permission to move a resolution in the Legislative Assembly during the Budget session. Initially, the permission was denied. She, however, requested that her request for resolution might be considered for the Budget session of 1949. The request was granted. Thus the first salvo was fired.

“Dr Parkash Kaur knew that whatever she said on her own would be opposed tooth and nail. She evolved a strategy. She decided not to give any argument of her own in support of her resolution. Instead she wanted to confine her arguments to quotations from renowned educationists and national leaders which no Congressman could dare contradict,” writes Mr Jhabalia saying that during her research she came to know that Prof Pritam Singh, who was posted at the Solan campus of Panjab University at that time, possessed a English-Punjabi (in Gurkukhi script) dictionary which was published by the Ludhiana Christian Mission some time in 1856. He also had in his possession a copy of "Punjabi Parkash”, a magazine published from Lahore in 1935. He probably had the only copy of the magazine available at that time.

In that magazine was a piece by Dr Raghuvira, M.A., and PhD, who was a Professor of Hindi at Panjab University, Lahore. It was this article which became very important in the controversy over the Punjabi language as Dr Raghuvira was then a member of the Constitutional Assembly of India and was playing a leading role in the translation of the Constitution in Hindi.

After Dr Parkash Kaur's resolution, the Punjab Government adopted the Sachar Formula, which was based on the recommendations of a four-member committee headed by Mr Bhim Sen Sachar comprising Mr Ujjal Singh, Dr Gopi Chand Bhargava and Giani Kartar Singh.

The basic philosophy of the formula was to divide the state in two parts — Punjabi speaking and Hindi speaking. In the Punjabi speaking areas, Punjabi was made compulsory in all boys and girls schools from primary to matric and Hindi from the last class of primary to matric. In case of the girls students, learning of Hindi was mandatory until the middle level only.

Similarly, in the Hindi speaking areas, Hindi was made compulsory from primary to Matric and Punjabi from the last class of primary section to matric. Teaching of Punjabi to girl students was made mandatory till the middle standard.

On February 29, 1956, the Chief secretary of Punjab, issued a circular about the official languages of the state. According to the circular, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepore, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Ropar and Kharar tehsil, excluding Chandigarh, were included in the Punjabi region while Rohtak, Gurgaon, Karnal and Kangra, besides Jagadhri and Naraingarh tehsils of Ambala and Hisar, excluding Sirsa, comprised the Hindi speaking region.

The circular said that Simla, Ambala tehsil, Chandigarh (capita) and Sirsa tehsil in Hisar shall form part of the bilingual region. Instructions were issued that both Punjabi and Hindi should be given their rightful due in their respective regions.

The Regional Language Formula, as approved by a committee headed by Jawaharlal Nehru and comprising Govind Vallabh Pant, Abulaq Kalam Azad, Master Tara Singh, Hukam Singh, Bhai Jodh Singh, Gian Singh Rarewala and Giani Kartar Singh was presented before the Lok Sabha on April 3, 1957, which again advocated a division of Punjab into Punjabi and Hindi speaking regions.

To monitor the implementation of the regional official language, it was proposed to constitute regional committees. It declared Punjab as a bilingual state and decided that the Sachar Formula would remain in force.

The bilingual formula was given official recognition in 1960 with the enactment of the State Languages Act, 1960, which categorically stated that Punjabi in the Gurmukhi script and Hindi in the Devnagri script shall be the official languages for the Punjabi and Hindi regions, respectively.

Punjab witnessed a long struggle before the reorganisation took place in 1966 and it was declared a Punjabi-speaking state on November 1, 1966. It was then left to Mr Lachhman Singh Gill to get the Official Language Act strictly enforced in the state. During his brief tenure as Chief Minister of Punjab, Mr Gill made sure that Punjabi got its rightful due. On December 29, 1967, he got the State Language Act, declaring Punjabi as the only official language of the state passed by both Houses of the state legislature.

Unfortunately, his successors lacked both the conviction and the will to enforce the provisions of the Act. The result was that when the militants started their “social reform movement” at the peak of their struggle in the early 90s, Punjabi again started getting prominence. But this, like Mr Gill's tenure, was short lived. And since then Punjabi is continuing to get a raw deal in its own homeland.

War’s outcasts
Amar Hasan Arebee

When U.S. forces fought their way into Baghdad two months ago, they “liberated” the al-Rah'ma Orphanage — Mercy Orphanage — thinking the building was a torture centre and its inmates victims of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party.

The orphanage was home to more than 200 children. Most ran away when the institution's gates were blasted open and today only a few dozen remain.

They are cared for by a French charity, Enfants du Monde, and Islamic activists who in many parts of Baghdad are filling the security and administrative vacuums that the US occupation forces have permitted to develop in post-Saddam Iraq.

Life in the Mercy Orphanage was hard. Children who lived there say it was “an orphanage without mercy”: they were kept under very close wraps and punished if undisciplined. Today these children have joined the growing army of street children who scrape and beg for a living in a city that is flooded with weapons but has no government to impose law and order and deliver social services.

Since the old regime fell, and its ban on begging fell with it, children have flocked to Baghdad from all over Iraq - often in the mistaken belief that the Iraqi capital is a paradise.

With the economy at a virtual standstill and government salaries unpaid, some children go out to beg in order to find food for their families. Flocks of children besiege the big hotels where foreign journalists and aid workers stay, often fighting amongst themselves to protect their little patch of turf.

But in a city where few have money, it is almost impossible to make a living on the street and most of the children are barefoot, ragged and often appear to be starving.

“I don’t want money,” said Arkan, a shy 13-year-old. “I just want food. I never eat.”

Street life can also be dangerous. Fifteen-year-old Ali Fares Mohammed was orphaned when he was only 13 and “gave himself up” to the government. He was sent to the Mercy Orphanage, where he spent two years. Since Baghdad fell, he said, “I’m scared”.

Children are not immune to the common crime that has afflicted Baghdad since government collapsed and weapons abandoned by the Iraqi army found their way into civilian hands all over the city. Ahmed Abdel Sada, 14, sustained an injury to his head when he was attacked on the street he had made home.

A friend said he had been trying to prevent a group of drunks from raping a 15-year-old street girl.

Alone and defenceless, some street children are being “befriended” by older youths who say they will protect them — but who instead exploit them, both financially and sexually.

In one area of Baghdad, street children are being controlled by a group of young men, most of them in their 20s, who were released from Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison last October. They were let free under an amnesty Saddam Hussein offered to all common criminals as it became clear that the US planned to topple his regime.

This gang sends the children out begging and then takes their money, saying they will “keep it safe”. Some children run away — only to be beaten up if, as inevitably happens, they attempt to return to their former haunts and friends.

To forget their misery, an increasing number of children are seeking relief by taking drugs or sniffing glue. Fahtin, a 13-year-old girl from Kirkuk, always carries a bottle of pills with her. She says they are for treating flu, but her story suggests they may have another use.

“I came to Baghdad with my sister,” she said. “There are no jobs in Baghdad and so we worked as prostitutes. My sister took all the money and never gave me anything. So I left her and ran away again... I met some guys after a while, and now I live with them in the street.”

— Amar Hasan Arebee studies pharmacology at Baghdad University and contributes to The Iraqi Witness, a weekly newspaper in Baghdad produced by students.
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