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Honour killings: Make the State accountable
Pakistan’s spring of discontent Profile On Record
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Unsafe inside and outside womb
In the grind of a rigorous educational system and in a fiercely competitive environment, the working woman emerges as an achiever. She is convinced that “women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.” She is self-confident, bold and assertive, to the extent of being brash. She knows her mind and excels as a leader of men. Many Indian women have advanced in life by sustained effort and skill. Be it politics, business, education, medicine or even law and the civil and military services, they shine in comparison with their peers. They are well respected in positions of power. Their performance speaks for itself. Unfortunately, the instances of individual success and recognition among women are few. The spectacular success of the career women in various fields contrasts starkly with the poor status enjoyed by women as a whole. The majority of women in India still face great handicaps and oppression. From childhood they are subjugated to traditional male dominance at home. After marriage they are sometimes ill-treated by in-laws. Viewed often as mere objects of ownership, they are denied education and a role in selecting their life partner. Women who dare to seek a career or wish to marry by choice are frequently prevented from doing so. In several states, especially Punjab and Haryana, marriage outside one's community, or social or income group, is frowned upon. Rigid paternal controls are seen to operate even among Indians settled in foreign lands. In some rural areas, archaic social institutions such as khap panchayats routinely subject young women, and their husbands and lovers, who might infringe the local taboo, to heinous punishment, including death. Strangely, some democratically elected state legislators (MLAs and MPs) seem to have endorsed such extra-legal dictates of their lesser leaders. Lamenting the discriminatory attitudes prevailing even abroad in the 20th century, the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw had observed, "Home is the girl's prison, and the woman's workhouse." Science now provides ready instruments that prevent the fair sex from even taking birth. Techniques such as amniocentesis (taking amniotic fluid around the embryo by piercing a needle at an early stage of pregnancy), and ultrasonography (the imaging of the foetus by use of an ultra sound machine) enable doctors to predict the sex of an unborn child, encouraging the abortion of the girl child at the stage of foetus. This grisly practice of female foeticide has now taken root in many parts of India. It is justified by a spurious argument that abortion of a partially developed foetus is more humane than the gruesome act of female infanticide, which, in the past, sometimes visited the birth of unwelcome daughters. Perturbed at the practice, the Government of (then British) India had enacted a specific law to punish infanticide a hundred years ago. For those persons who might be squeamish about resorting to abortion, genetic research now provides a more palatable medical intervention to be carried out at the stage of very conception itself. The technique is called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a method that produces embryos through IVF (as for test tube babies) and implanting only those of the preferred gender into the womb. In India, the enactment, tediously named the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, prohibits all such techniques. Sadly, the law has not been able to prevent desperate couples from establishing a criminal nexus with compliant doctors for testing and abortion, or from travelling abroad (Thailand is a convenient destination!) for undergoing the medical procedures. If technology is becoming sophisticated by the day, transgression of the law is cleverer still. How ineffective the Act has been can be gauged from the findings of a Report of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare tabled in Parliament in September 2010. The report notes that during 2009-10 only 139 cases under the Act were registered in the entire country. The same official document shows that the female: male sex ratio in various states varies between 836 (Punjab) and 964(Kerala). An earlier media report (May 2007) had found that of the total number of 416 cases filed under the Act until 2007, only 15 had resulted in conviction. The report estimated that as many as 50 million female foetuses might have been aborted illegally. Numerous other authentic studies reaffirm that the practice of female foeticide is widespread all over India, the worst states being Punjab and Haryana. They also find that the law has been infringed with impunity. In India's ancient scriptures, Vedas, the Puranas and the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, the female was well respected, was celebrated as the font of creation (the janani) and as an equal half of her husband (ardhangini). Many Hindu deities are worshipped as proud and powerful goddesses (Durga, Kali etc.) The Sikh Gurus extolled the ideal of equality between the sexes. The Old Testament of the Bible is revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims. It depicts the woman as equal to man, the “flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone.” By law, oppression exploitation and violence are a crime. By religious belief such acts are regarded as sinful. Why do then these evils continue to pervade society? Answers can be found in the mores accepted by members of various strata of Indian society. A recent news report mentioned certain information on the wealth and property made public by members of the higher judiciary of India. In officially declaring her assets and liabilities, no less a personage than a sitting female Judge of the Supreme Court of India is shown to have included her daughters at the top of the list of her liabilities. The monetary value of gilt-edged securities and bank deposits etc with the Judge, shown in the assets column of her property return, would presumably have offset the burden borne by her in mothering girls. Some obvious conclusions from this morbid news item: that a daughter is deemed a financial setback, if not a disaster for her parents; that if even a venerated Judge is powerless to stand up to vicious and regressive social attitudes, the middle and lower classes could hardly be expected to do so; and that in regard to gender equality any change in the mindset of the population at large is yet to occur. It is universally accepted that females, constituting half the total population of a nation, are intrinsically as productive as males. They can contribute significantly to its economic development. If women in India are presently unable to perform productively and deliver to their true potential, it is for want of adequate social support in terms of facilities for education, health etc. It requires no special economic brilliance to understand the premise that the strength of such a huge section of population needs to be harnessed for a strong, vibrant nation. Despite the government's lofty announcements for ending gender discrimination and consequential legal enactments, the sex ratio in the country continues to plunge. In a recent publication Empower Women (2010), Leena Chawla Rajan brings out some startling conclusions from an analysis of data of UN studies and the Census of India. Analysing the UN data, the author observes that among the world's ten most populated countries, India's sex ratio (at 936) is the second lowest after China (927). The figures for other countries are Russia (1164), Japan (1053) Brazil (1031), USA (1027), Indonesia (1003), Nigeria (995) and Bangladesh (978). Even Pakistan, at 942, ranks above India. From the Census data, Ms Rajan finds that the child sex ratio (age group 0-6 years) has steadily declined from 976 in 1961 to 927 in 2001. The last Census report of 2001 shows that sex selection is more prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas, that educated families are aborting babies at a faster rate than illiterate families and that sex selection occurs across all religions. If these figures are depressing, the Census 2011, currently under progress, could soon give further cause for alarm. As the number of females in proportion to males recedes, the physically weaker sex is likely to be treated as a scarce commodity, the physical acquisition of which could be fuelled in future by baser passions and a jungle law. The implications of the trends can be horrendous — for us as individuals today, for our children and their children to come and for the social fabric as a whole. We can foresee gender-related crime growing; the traditional family structure disturbed; the proliferation of homosexuality and prostitution and crimes against women as well as acceleration in the growth of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS. In short a decadent society, where respect for the woman begins to vanish. Perhaps the gloomy scenario has already begun to unfold. Nobel-winning novelist William Faulkner feared that a hedonistic world would be led by the glands instead of by the heart. The vibrancy and strength of a civilisation is often measured by its aesthetic sensibility, which inspires art and literature. Creativity springs from fine human emotion, usually occasioned by romantic love. “At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet”, wrote philosopher Plato in an age when the Greek civilisation was at its zenith. (It is sometimes thought that the Greek empire declined as its moral fabric degraded). For English poet Wordsworth, the ideal was: “A perfect woman, nobly planned, /To warn, to comfort and command”. Jai Shankar Prasad, the doyen of Hindi poetry, found woman to be the epitome of devotion. "Nari tum kewal shraddha ho!" he wrote. Our literature abounds in stories of romantic love, a passion that elevates, even as it sometimes ends in tragedy. The playfulness and delicate irony of Ghalib's poetry presents the woman in many moods .Many ghazals in Urdu are addressed equally to the beloved and the Almighty God. Khayal gayaki in Indian classical music expresses the yearnings of absent lovers. Woman is frequently the inspiration of great art. A skewed sex ratio could violently disrupt the man-woman relationship, signalling the end of romance. Sentiment could well be replaced by cynicism, leading to a decline of noble cultural traditions. It is not too late to strive to protect the nation's spirit from dehumanisation.n The writer is a former Chief Secretary and Chief Information Commissioner, Punjab
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Honour killings: Make the State accountable
The issue of khap panchayat and honour killing is tricky. What honour and whose
honour? What is the logic and rationale of such acts? It means one thing at one place and quite another elsewhere. The honour killings are not confined to a place. These transcend temporal and spatial dimensions. Whoever is executing honour killings, the khap panchayat in Haryana or a high caste family in Punjab or elsewhere, it is the women who bear the brunt of such sentences. Khap panchayats have generated much furore in the academic, civil and human rights circles. Such decisions taken collectively assume gravity whereas elsewhere these are executed at the family level only. The patriarchal values and practices instigate such phenomena since in a patrilineal society women are gifted in marriage. They leave their home for their family of procreation and sustain the honour of their family of orientation which is why honour killings transcend barriers of caste, class or religion. In Haryana, same caste people are involved in it while in Punjab it is the inter-caste marriage, especially with a boy of lower caste. Interestingly, it is not the honour of the high caste family that is at stake; even the lower caste daughter marrying into a high caste is also not spared. There are different explanations but not a comprehensive one. Very often, honour killing is associated with medieval culture and society and Haryana being a largely rural, traditional agricultural society fits into this argument. Another explanation points finger to the lack of modern education that may enlighten the males and empower women. However, if medieval culture is the cause, why do honour killings take place in places like London and Vancouver? The families there are not supposed to be traditional, yet they execute such acts. They are neither uneducated nor inhabitants of an uneducated milieu. Moreover, they are exposed to the plurality and multiculturalism of the metropolitan culture. But the openness of that world has not influenced the honour killers. If the cultural nut is hard to crack, how 'fractured' education here would solve the problem. It is common knowledge how gangs operating in London, a metropolis that enjoys prestige and status amongst metropolises, take hefty money for providing information to the
'honour retrieving' parents about the hideouts of the runaway couples. Such gangs include both boys and girls since embeddedness is an important part of their strategy winning the confidence of the potential
victim(s). If educating the people solves the problem, as this is the only means of retrieving societies from medievalism, why do the educated living abroad commit such heinous crimes? Moreover, educating a father or a brother not to kill one's daughter or sister sounds ridiculous. Does it mean that uneducated people commit this crime? Do societies hitherto 'uneducated' been committing such crimes? They were not. Modern education as solution to all social problems is a recent assumption. The 'uneducated' primitives have lived all through yet without honour killings. Thus, honour killings become an enigma transcending boundaries across states and societies — developed and underdeveloped, castes, classes and religions of the world. This writer has no clue to the solution except suggesting a probable explanation to avoid Haryana bashing that may be an alternative framework to approach this
issue. Khap as an institution emerged six centuries ago. In the era of regional feudatories and the Mughal empire, clans organised themselves vis-a-vis other communities and the state that remained loosely structured till Akbar consolidated it more for collecting revenue than anything else. The khaps then provided security to its people. Its social solidarity could be ensured with the observance of cultural norms and values. Hence its role was to ensure the safety of community from external threats and internal collapse. Till the modern state was executing its functions of development and progress effectively, at least seemingly so, honour killings were hardly reported, even if these were happening then too, possibly because the khaps were involved in these projects supporting their leaders. Of late, the state seems to be withdrawing from its role and playing hostage to political leaders who are busy managing their power politics. The projects launched are also meant for direct and indirect self promotion. The present-day populist and perverted political culture is not characteristic of this state but all others too. When the modern state is failing, a space is created for the rise and resurgence of traditional institutions like khap
panchayats, itself a rudimentary state. They fill the vacuum. When law and order is decreasing, traditional institutions take law into their hands because it poses a threat to their own existence. The state's failings are evident, thanks to the media. It is not the fiction of the Bollywood cinema or framing up of reports of corruption. People know their leaders in Haryana demand Monteros just two years after they were given Toyotas out of the public money. Their counterparts in Punjab ask for Toyotas while the schools and hospitals, the two pillars of a society, are starving of funds. Consequently, it would be appropriate to make the state accountable because it has the responsibility and function of modernising a traditional society. The path of modernisation has to be treaded honestly. The state functionaries have to become modern themselves — a concern for the other — before modernising
society.n The writer is Professor, Department of Sociology & Social Anthropology, and Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Punjabi University, Patiala
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Pakistan’s spring of discontent The entire debate on Raymond Davis case is focused on his status as a diplomat or otherwise, the nature of the crime (cold-blooded murder or an act in
self-defence) and applicability of the Vienna Convention for grant of immunity. There is immense US pressure to get him out of Pakistan at the earliest while the Pakistan government is wary of a possible violent public backlash if it succumbs to this pressure.Pretty little has been said about the clandestine organisation he was representing ( read the CIA ?) and the scope of his activities in Pakistan. The intensity and level of American pressure is unprecedented. So are the threats being held out to compel a sovereign country to submit to the demands.This element of anxiety and urgency on part of top American leadership is mystifying and betrays some other and far more compelling concerns over the case getting prolonged than the mere fate of a low level non-diplomatic technical staffer. The timid attitude of top Pakistani leadership has further intensified this pressure. The leadership wilted and Prime Minister Gilani asked Punjab chief minister to release Davis on the very first day of his arrest. Subsequent nervous messages from the Interior Minister Rehman Malik and his contradictory statements on Davis' status showed the vulnerability of the federal government. Malik reportedly made even the preposterous offer to allow his ministry's immense resources to tamper records in order to facilitate grant of immunity to Davis. The flurry of meetings and telephonic calls in Washington and Islamabad has failed to resolve the matter. Reports about the accompanying threats have been varied and conflicting. These have outraged public opinion. There were direct warnings that the issue would seriously impinge on bilateral relations between the United States and Pakistan and might lead to snapping of high level contacts between the two countries. Defence and economic aid under the Kerry Lugar Bill was in jeopardy. The way the case has moved during investigations and in a Lahore court, makes it clear that the entire issue hinges on the Foreign Ministry's acquiescence to certify that Davis enjoys diplomatic immunity. The police have submitted an interim charge sheet in the court rejecting his plea that he acted in self-defence because both the armed youths wanted either to rob him or even kidnap him. Inspired reports that the two young men who carried pistols and were under-cover agents have been denied. The incident took place in an area close to the headquarters of Jamaat ud Dawat and some sensitive buildings where Davis had taken photographs. In his first statement to police he identified himself as a 'consultant' in the US Consulate in Lahore which meant he did not qualify for diplomatic immunity. This flawed version was duly improved when the US Embassy in Islamabad claimed he belonged to the embassy. Broad hints were dropped that President Zardari's planned official trip to Washington was in jeopardy. The US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton warned Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi she would cancel their scheduled meeting on the sidelines of security talks in Munich during Pak-Afghan-US trilateral meeting. Qureshi refused to budge and even cancelled his visit to Munich. He is reportedly the first casualty of this evolving bilateral crisis and compelled to opt out of the new cabinet instead of agreeing to a change
of portfolio. American impatience to secure release of Davis is thus evident. It wants to short-cut any awkward revelations about his actual identity and deep connections to a clandestine outfit which has vastly spread its tentacles in Pakistan. It gives credence to reports that Davis had fallen foul of the Pakistani security agencies who wanted to curtail his activities and even drastically cut the presence of other agents like him. A contemporary daily recently claimed it has a list of over 400 US agents with passport numbers and other details. The source of this leakage is obvious and indicates emergence of sub-terranean turf war in the offing. The American undercover agents are reportedly operating under a secret protocol signed by former military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf in 2006 whose details are not available except a reference in the Kerry Lugar Bill as one of the three such accords protected by the legislation without giving details. The dictator had clearly sold the country and the soul of this nation to advance his personal interests. The more the Americans exert their pressure, greater would be the intensity of popular reaction and indignation. The government has to provide leadership and draw a middle course to get out of the present dilemma. Simultaneously it must undertake
a deep review of the secret accords signed by a military dictator which impinge on national sovereignty
and dignity.n
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Profile
Those who have met or interacted with M.N. Buch, recipient of this year’s Padma Bhushan, cannot ignore his zest for life and his forthrightness. He has plenty of anecdotes to keep the audience spell-bound, ever willing to share his ideas. I have known Buch Sahib since the 1960s. His areas of interest include urban planning, governance and environment. He is still remembered by Delhi-ites as the head of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) even though he was there only for 18 months. In the introduction to his book “Once Upon a Lifetime”, he has listed the experience of his short stint at DDA. It was March, 1980. He had been out of a posting for almost six months, having been moved out of DDA. One evening he took a scooter rickshaw. Buch wrote, narrating the story of the rickshaw driver, who had a problem about some land that DDA had taken over seven years ago. The driver told Buch: “Repeated trips to Vikas Minar brought me no solution. Every time I had to bribe my way past guards and bear the humiliation of being shunted around from desk to desk. On my last visit I found a tremendous change. There were no guards and no one stopped me. With trepidation I went to the 5th floor where the Vice-Chairman sits. There I asked the orderly how I could meet the Vice-Chairman and he told me to walk right in”. “You were sitting behind your table, writing something and seeing me you asked me to take a seat. I am only a poor scooter-driver and I could not sit in your presence, but, you insisted that I sit. Five minutes later you heard me, summoned an officer, gave him instruction and sent me with him. Two hours later I walked out with the compensation amount that had been denied to me for seven years. I cannot take money from you, who have honoured me by sitting in my scooter”. Buch, who quit the coveted IAS in 1984, is known as the architect of new Bhopal, which became the capital of the newly created state of Madhya Pradesh following the states’ reorganisation. He came in the limelight for introducing the urban planning concept. He also contested the 1984 Lok Sabha election as an independent but lost by a narrow margin. He joined the IAS in 1957, precisely at the time when the new state of Madhya Pradesh was created and starting as the District Collector, worked in many capacities. Notable among them were environment, sections of departments, including Town and Country Planning, and DDA. He was also the Director General of the National Institute of Urban Affairs and Vice-Chairman of the National Commission on Urbanisation. Currently he runs in Bhopal the National Centre for Human Settlement and Environment, a think tank on urban planning and environment. Buch Sahib holds the view that the business of planning of old cities grew organically. The way cities like Mohenjadro were planned are an example of finest planned cities of the world. Even at that time people realised the importance of planning cities as that city did not have straight streets so as to obstruct the hot breezes, which kept the temperature under control. He has also definite views on governance and officers’ conduct. He has been quoted as saying “a public servant can function without fear or favour as long as he is on the right side of the law. But not everybody can do that for the fear of annoying the political masters. So a central authority may help”. According to him, honest civil servants are often sidelined by their political bosses. “Politicians want pliant officers who can do the dirty work for them. They promote these mediocre people while shunting out strong and independent-minded officers”. Buch Sahib feels that a new Bill — The Civil Services Performance Standards and Accountability Bill — proposing a set of reforms will hopefully usher in a bureaucracy that is not only more independent but also responsible to the needs of the citizens. He feels the Bill should have “interlocking accountability” provision where the bureaucracy’s “chain of command” can be hauled up for any wrong doing by a junior officer. “This will result in the fast decisions and efficient officers will come to the fore”. Buch Sahib has a long service background. His father was in the ICS and that too in the most coveted of provinces, Punjab. He joined the IAS in 1957 even though he stood second in merit. He says: “I thank my lucky stars that I opted for the IAS instead of the IFS, for which there was a pressure on me or the Tata Service, for which I was interviewed in London”.n
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On Record
Liver transplant is gradually becoming popular in the country. The West Bengal Liver Foundation, an NGO, which has Nobel laureate Amartya Sen as its principal adviser, has conducted some rare cases of liver transplant that brought lives to dying persons, including two babies. The Tribune in Kolkata spoke to the Foundation’s secretary, Dr Abhijit Chowdhury, who studied in Chandigarh’s Government Medical College and is now the Associate Professor and Head, School of Digestive and Liver Diseases at the Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research, SSKM Hospital, Kolkata. He speaks about the Foundation’s activities and achievements in the field of liver transplant. Excerpts: Q: Congratulations for the miracle you have done in transplanting liver amputated from the father’s body to his newly born baby! A: Thanks. But there was no miracle as such. It was medically possible and we did it. Of course, it was very difficult, risky and challenging. A team of doctors associated with our Foundation has done the job. The credit should go to the SSKM hospital doctors as well. We worked
in tandem. Q: Will you please elaborate about some rare cases? A: Recently, Roshan Ali, a mason, came with his seven-month-old baby who was critically ill. They were from a remote village in North 24-parganas. We discovered he was suffering from biliary atresia, a rare and somewhat incurable liver disease. We kept him in our hospital for observation for a few days. We gave him some traditional medicines but his condition was deteriorating day by day. We at the Foundation consulted medical journals and sought expert opinion. Finally we decided to go in for liver transplantation. But then, the problem was about the availability of the liver. The baby’s father readily chipped in. By surgery, a portion of Roshan Ali’s liver was transplanted into the baby. For three days, both he and the little one were virtually in coma. There was enormous tension and stress, but finally we won. Both regained consciousness. The baby was, perhaps, the youngest in the world to have undergone the liver transplant, that too, from his father as donor. Q: Have you treated any more such cases? A: Yes, we have done almost a similar liver transplant to another baby, Subhajit Pal. We have transplanted liver to one Jayanti Chatterjee with Jaydev Pal’s liver. Jaydev, the country’s first cadaver donor, died at SSKM hospital on February 4, 2010. We could persuade his relatives and friends to donate his liver to Jayanti Chatterjee who was then in coma at the hospital’s ICU. On February 5, she was successfully transplanted liver from Jaydev’s body. Q: Now please tell us about your Foundation’s activities. A: Of all organs, liver has been given less attention. As a result, chances of people surviving from acute liver diseases are becoming less these days. Most patients knock at the doors of doctors in critical stages. Apparently, they don’t understand the intricacies of liver diseases. Most liver diseases can be cured if the patients come to the doctors and get treated at the right time. We have noticed that while people are concerned about their hearts, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, eyes and other organs, they are not serious about their livers. If the people are educated through mass campaign, seminars and other modes of learning, the liver diseases can be cured. It is this concern that led to the setting up of the Foundation on June 30, 2006. Q: How is Dr Amartya Sen contributing to your cause? A: He has been taking a lot of interest in our activities. Whenever he is in India, he finds some time to inquire about our activities and extends help. The Foundation has been working in close collaboration with his Pratichi Trust in organising campaigns for educating and guiding the people about preventing liver diseases. Q: We often hear about kidney transplant, but little about liver transplant. Why? A: Liver transplant is not very common since people don’t donate liver as they do in case of cornea and kidney. Moreover, in our country, the practice of utilising cadaver liver has not been popularised. Our Foundation has been spreading awareness on liver donation and the utility of the cadaver liver from the dead persons to the patients needing liver transplant. Problems in this regard can be solved when the system of using cadaver liver to patients becomes popular in the country.n
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Despite numerous odds, women in India today are visibly successful in many professions. Today's art, literature, drama and films highlight the struggle of the Indian woman against traditional male dominance. Both the print and electronic media have created a new image of the Indian woman, especially the liberated, educated female in an urban milieu. Depicted here is a woman who is no longer timid, shy, withdrawn or subservient. For her “Man to command and woman to obey” is no longer an accepted dictum. 
