The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tackling child abuse
New Bill fills the gap in jurisprudence

IT is heartening that the Centre has tabled the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. This was long overdue since child abuse has not only increased in the country over the years but is also having a deleterious impact on child psyche. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau show that the number of cases of sexual offences against children has risen from 2265 in 2001 to 5769 in 2008. The gravity of the problem can be gauged by the fact that two out of every three children are physically abused. The Bill has some unique features to protect children against offences of sexual assault, harassment and pornography. It provides for imprisonment up to seven years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for those found guilty of sexually assaulting children. Sexual assault will also include fondling the child in an inappropriate way, which would invite a punishment of a minimum of three years in jail. The Bill, which will now be sent to the Standing Committee for examination and scrutiny, envisages establishment of special courts for trial of such offences.

Significantly, the Bill provides for treating sexual assault as an “aggravated offence” when it is committed by a person in a position of trust or authority over a child, including public servants. This is a very important provision because studies by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, UNICEF and Save the Children, an NGO, reveal that most of the time the sexual abuse was perpetrated by someone known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility. Not surprisingly, most children did not report the abuse to anyone. Studies reveal that only 53 per cent of children reported having faced some form of sexual abuse.

The Bill is expected to fill the gap in Indian jurisprudence. Though 19 per cent of the world’s children live in India, the country has no special law at present to tackle the menace of child abuse. The Indian Penal Code does not spell out the definition of child abuse as a specific offence. Nor does it offer legal remedy and punishment for the offence. Moreover, the IPC laws are rarely interpreted to cover the range of child sexual abuse. Even the Juvenile Justice Law does not specifically address the issue. Despite all its merits, the Bill would help the country only if it is strictly enforced by the authorities after due enactment by Parliament.

Lawlessness on roads
Chalta hai attitude must change

MORE persons die in road accidents in India than anywhere else in the world. The dubious distinction was snatched from China last year, according to the WHO’s Global Status Report on Road Safety. The number of accidents in India for 1,000 vehicles is 35 compared to four to 10 in developed countries. In more civilised societies such bloodshed on roads would have shaken public conscience and jolted the rulers. Indian patience, however, is phenomenal. Expectedly, the blot has not changed the chalta hai attitude of policymakers and executors.

One does not need experts to pinpoint causes of road mishaps. These are too obvious and known: drunken driving, speeding, laxity in issuing driving licences, low use of helmets and seat belts, pot-holed and unlit roads, and lack of immediate medical help and police action. In Punjab and Chandigarh the authorities have set up liquor shops right on highways in a bid to boost excise revenue. There are not enough policemen to regulate traffic or enforce the rules as a large battalion is deployed on VIP security. Given the frequent congestion and traffic jams on roads, security men make way for VIP vehicles. Since there are special planes and helicopters to ferry VVIPs, they perhaps do not realise the hardships of or risks to the safety of ordinary road users.

Any responsible leadership would have given mass road transport a priority to reduce the use of private vehicles. Every town and city would have got separate lanes for two-wheelers. Chandigarh has made some progress in this direction. Metropolitan cities are turning to rapid mass transport systems to manage local traffic problems. These are some commendable initiatives but the need is to change the official and public mindset and adopt zero tolerance towards lurking dangers to human safety. While creating awareness about the traffic rules among children, there is need to spank hard adults driving recklessly on roads.

Thought for the Day

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable. — Joseph Addison

ARTICLE

Learning from Japanese crisis
But no need for panic reaction
by O.P. Sabherwal

IT would be a “tragedy of errors”, to use a Shakespearean metaphor, if India’s nuclear power programme — an area of advanced science where India is on the forefront world-wide — is slashed in response to the crisis brought about by nature’s fury in Japan. That would be a big blow to Indian economic development, opening power generation to the ravages of crippling environmental pollution from coal-based thermal plants, and still leave a big void in the target that nuclear power generation was expected to provide — a target of 63,000 MWe during the two decades ahead.

That, of course, does not mean that India and the world can minimise the lessons of the nuclear crisis in Japan, unleashed by a monster tsunami in the wake of a massive earthquake. On the contrary, there are vital and very timely lessons that need to be imbibed by all countries — India certainly — that intend to use nuclear energy for economic advance. But in order to avail of these lessons, an objective, knowledge-based approach is required, not panicky knee-jerk responses.

It has rightly been stated by the Prime Minister in Parliament, and emphasised by top scientists, that the Indian nuclear establishment has all along given primacy to safety parameters — reactor design, double containment construction shielding the reactor vessel, elevating safety features progressively, etc. The result: India’s nuclear power plants have now a passive safety system that shuts down reactor operations automatically even on a single fault. It is also true that the Indian reactors have successfully withstood both the tsunami onslaught in 2004 and the earthquake that devastated Bhuj in Gujarat in 2001. Barring the turbine fire accident at Narora in the first phase of indigenous reactor construction, the Indian reactor operations over three decades have set up a unique safety record.

And yet the nuclear crisis in Japan is a stern warning. All the existing safety parameters have to be re-examined and further strengthened. It must be accepted that Indian nuclear establishment’s safety attainments are not enough. A more stringent approach to all facets of safety of reactor operations is called for. And the lessons from Japan’s nuclear crisis need to be assiduously learnt. Some of these lessons can easily be pin-pointed.

First, the cooling system — the system that failed to perform in the Fukushima reactors, since there was insufficient electricity back-up after the tsunami resulted in botching up electricity availability. The lesson from Japan for India and the world is to insulate the cooling system that has a key role to perform once the reactor shuts down in an exigency. The Indian nuclear establishment has notable attainments of indigenous technology in building coolant channels. They have to extend R & D in this area in order to insulate the cooling system from all possible natural disasters, just as much as operational hick-ups.

Second, the Fukushima site was particularly vulnerable, being in the most dangerous seismic zone. Even if this may not be applicable to India, the site selection committee must apply more stringent criteria for all future nuclear projects. Gujarat’s Kakrapar reactors have been rated (in 1998) among the best in the world. But notwithstanding the fact that they withstood the ravages of the Bhuj earthquake of 2001, future reactor sites must avoid earthquake-prone locations. Another criterion should be to avoid the east coastal zones despite Kalpakkam reactors having withstood the tsunami depredation in 2004. Experience has shown that it is the east coast areas that tsunamis have done the maximum damage.

Third, reactor design selection is of key importance in the safety parameters. The safety features have been progressively enhanced in modern reactor designs. The Indian indigenous PHWR reactors have enhanced safety features. Yet there should be no complacency; the Indian nuclear establishment needs to upgrade safety features of the new 700 MW PHWRs whose construction is being undertaken. Possibly, the Indo-Canadian nuclear cooperation agreement inked recently may enable joint research to this end.

It is equally important that in the selection of reactor designs of imported light water reactors, a very high degree of technological perfection is sought. These reactor designs have to be of proven record, and nothing but the best has to be accepted.

Our sympathies with the Japanese people notwithstanding, it should be accepted that the Japanese nuclear authorities of the Tokyo Electricity utility have been complacent, if not callous, in this regard. The Fukushima reactors were based on 1972 vintage GE boiling water reactor design, and their lifespan was fully exhausted. And yet, early this year before the devastating earthquake struck Japan, the Fukushima reactors’ life-span was extended by another 12 years. And this without any technological upgrading, ignoring the extreme vulnerability of the seismic zone in which these reactors were located, thereby displaying the grip of commercial motives that pervade the Tokyo Electricity utility.

We note that Tarapur 1 and 2 reactors are of a similar GE boiling water design, and of even older vintage. But it must be said to the credit of the Indian nuclear establishment that technological upgrading has all along been injected into the GE design and the consequence is the success story that we have at Tarapur. In fact, Tarapur 1 and 2 reactors are not what the GE left behind and, with American sanctions imposed on Indian nuclear facilities for 30 years, it was Indian nuclear capability alone that kept these reactors functioning so well. However, even Tarapur 1 and 2 have long completed their life-span, and have been given a second five-year extension. For how long? The NPCIL must determine the life-span of these reactors, keeping stringent safety audit in view.

Fourth, and perhaps the most important factor in the quest for safety, is the need to elevate the status and capability of the Nuclear Regulatory Board. As of now, the AERB is subservient to the AEC whose operations it is supposed to watch — with vigilance and a critical eye. Even though the AERB is an adjunct of the AEC, its status as a watchdog needs to be upgraded. The Indian nuclear regulatory body should function somewhat like its counterparts in France and the United States: equivalent in status to the Atomic Energy Commission. The second requisite for the nuclear watchdog to effectively safeguard nuclear operations from transgression is to add to its knowledge pool by close linkage with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

All said and done, it needs to be recognised that extracting energy by splitting the atom is a knowledge-based technology, which requires constant upgrading. It has both plus and minus points. Radiation is a hazard if allowed to spin out of control. Its strong counter-balancing plus points are: (a) that nuclear energy is perhaps the only large-scale energy source that can fill the void of fast depleting fossil fuels, already being priced out, threatening inflation and the fabric of the economy; (b) it is the only non-pollutant alternative to fossil fuels that threaten catastrophic climate change, posing the biggest challenge to mankind.

It is for these reasons that nuclear energy has become a critical requirement of India’s growth plans. The fact is that India’s growth projections and the corresponding energy needs are unsustainable without large tapping of nuclear energy. The target of 63,000 MWe of nuclear energy capacity by the year 2032 as visualised in the Integrated Energy Policy takes these factors into account. It is a tough goal, but the attainments of India’s nuclear establishment are paving the way for realising this goal.

The writer has authored a book, “India’s Tryst With The Atom”.

MIDDLE

Getting rich quick
by Harish Dhillon

LIKE most school teachers, a major part of my energies have been spent in performing that fine tight rope act, in the management of my finances, between meeting my day-to-day needs and trying to secure a future where there will be no pay and no social security.

I often hated myself for not being able to buy my son the much needed pair of shoes till the following month or my daughter the book that she so desperately wanted to read till the next pay cheque arrived. Under the circumstances it was inevitable that my mind would sometimes turn to get-rich-quick schemes.

A very dear friend brought a stockbroker home to dinner and this gentleman succeeded in convincing me that my days of penury were over. I took a loan and the stockbroker duly invested the money in an impressive portfolio. The only trouble was that every morning, duly armed with a calculator, I would scan the stock figures and calculate my notional losses or gains for the day. If I gained I would sail through the day on a wave of euphoria. But if I had lost my day would be a dark day and I would lose even my joy in my teaching.

I decided that I didn’t want to live with these mood swings and put my shares up for sale. I received some initial payment and was told that the rest would come to me after the closing of the year was over. The year closed and we were well into the New Year but there was still no sign of the money. I made a trip to Delhi, only to find that there was a big padlock on the stockbroker’s office and no one knew where he had gone — not even his wife or his father. There was little consolation in the fact that my friend had been cheated of a much larger sum of money — it took me the major part of two years to pay back my loan.

My second foray into getting rich was in the field of real estate. A “friend” informed me of a beautiful plot on Dehra Dun’s posh Rajpur Road which was up for sale. It was a distress sale and was being offered at a throwaway price. This throwaway price entailed not only taking another loan from my Provident Fund but also borrowing money from my sister. A year later I received a legal notice and realised what the ‘distress’ had been. The plot had been transferred to the seller on the basis of a fake will, the will had been contested and knowing that he would lose the case, he had found a convenient sucker in me.

After this I gave up all efforts to get rich quick and concentrated on performing my tight rope act to the best of my ability. Looking back, now, at the age of 69, I find that I performed rather well.

OPED-defence

Troubled waters cast an ominous net of security issues
As Somali pirates expand their killing fields across vital sea lanes in the Indian Ocean, India views it as an issue of serious concern that infringes upon national security. Internationally, more resources are required to develop workable solutions to prevent criminals from exploiting the vacuum left by severe civil strife in Somalia
Dinesh Kumar

IT started innocuously enough after Somali fishermen in the early 1990s began pushing back foreign trawlers fishing in the area. In time, it evolved into an extortion racket that saw local militias of an impoverished and war-ravaged Somalia extracting money from foreign fishing vessels operating in Somalia's exclusive economic zone. In the noughties it transformed into the world's major piracy centre accounting for 70 per cent of all worldwide attacks and 90 per cent of all hijackings.

Indeed, the growth of piracy off the coast of Somalia and in the West Indian Ocean region has been remarkable. Although Somali piracy is so far a ransom and hijack business, this combined with the threat it continues to pose to commercial shipping along with a worrying potential of developing an association with Islamist terrorism has put it at the forefront of international maritime policy making.

Source: International Maritime Bureau
Map shows the spread of piracy emanating from Somalia which threatens shipping lanes (marked by grey lines) in the Indian Ocean. The dots denote locations of pirate attack.

piracy figures for 2011 (As of 16 March)
Worldwide Incidents
Total Attacks: 119
Total Hijackings: 15
Incidents for Somalia
Total Incidents: 83
Total Hijackings: 14
Total Hostages: 250
Total Killed: 7
Current vessels held by Somali pirates
Vessels: 28
Hostages: 587

Consider the statistics: From 22 attacks in 2000, Somali pirates carried out 108 attacks in 2008. In 2009, hijackings off the coast of Somalia accounted for 92 per cent of all ship seizures with 49 vessels hijacked and 1,016 crew members taken hostage.

Just how piracy in this region dominates world piracy statistics is evident from the fact that Somali pirates account for 14 out of the 15 hijackings and 83 of the 119 piracy attacks that have occurred worldwide so far this year. As of March 16 this year, there were still 28 vessels and 587 crew members held hostage by Somali pirates. This includes the Ukrainian tanker MV Faina hijacked in 2008 along with its cargo of battle tanks, artillery shells and grenade launchers.

Statistics is but only one aspect to the grim situation prevailing in the region. Of considerable concern is that in addition to 2.8 million sq km Gulf of Aden through which seven per cent of the world's oil supply travels through, Somali pirates have been plunging deeper into the Indian Ocean - up to 1,100 nautical miles from the Somali coast - to catch their prizes making it even more challenging to control. For example, in December 2010, the pirates had reached as far south as the Mozambique Channel, the island country of Madagascar and as far east as 72 degrees East longitude in the Indian Ocean, which is unprecedented.

Not surprisingly therefore Somali pirates continue to attack merchant ships plying the world's most valuable shipping lanes. On 12 February this year, the Maltese-flagged MV Sinin bulk carrier was seized 350 nautical miles east of Oman in the North Arabian Sea which was preceded a few days earlier with Italian-flagged MV Savina Caylyn hijacked 670 nautical miles east of Socotra Island.

The high stakes involved has resulted in several shipping companies directing vulnerable ships around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the strategically important Gulf of Aden area. Maritime risk insurance of ships travelling through the region is in some cases estimated at $ 400 million.

Closer home, the issue is becoming a source of worry for India with Somali pirates operating within 600 nautical miles of the Indian coast. This is less than the distance between the Indian eastern coast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. Only last March 14, the Indian Navy captured 61 pirates and their ship, MV Vega-5, a previously hijacked ship, just 600 nautical miles from Mumbai. In two separate incidents in December 2010, a Panamian-flagged bulk cargo ship MV Renaur and a Bangladeshi vessel MV Jahan Moni were attacked and captured along with their respective crew by Somali pirates just 550 nautical miles off the coast of India.

With Somali operations fast expanding in depth, several international agencies including the European Union Naval Forces (EUNAVFOR) have been persuading India to either contribute to intelligence collected by its own maritime patrol aircraft or permit stationing of foreign maritime patrol aircraft to maintain surveillance on Somali pirates.

Maritime analysts say that the pirates are raising the stakes with greater numbers of weapons and more sophisticated tracking devices aboard both their smaller skiffs and the larger mother ships - often vessels that they have been seized earlier. And Somali pirates have been re-investing their profits to acquire better technology such as satellite phones, global positioning systems, outboard motors and, of course, weaponry.

So far Somali piracy is a ransom and hijack business. The problem has been serious enough to warrant six resolutions passed by the UN Security Council (UNSC) between 2008 and 2010, of which four were passed in 2008 alone. On ground, there are three sets of maritime forces conducting anti-piracy operations - the Combined Maritime Force's Task Force 151 or CTF-15 established in January 2009 to "deter, disrupt and criminally prosecute those involved in piracy"; Operation Allied Provider by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to protect World Food Programme aid delivery and to counter piracy; and Operation Atlanta by EUNAVFOR to ensure delivery to Somalia by World Food Programme vessels. The largest grouping is the International Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), created in January 2009 pursuant to UNSC Resolution 1851, with participation by nearly 60 countries and several international organisations that includes the African Union, the Arab League, the NATO and various UN departments and agencies. In addition, India along with China and Russia are among a few countries which conduct independent patrols. For India, these waters are valuable considering that India's imports and exports by sea are valued at $ 50 billion and $ 60 billion, respectively. About 24 Indian-flagged merchant ships pass through the Gulf of Aden every month while India's sea faring community accounts for six per cent of the world's seafarers.

At the heart of the problem lies the ongoing almost two-decade long civil strife in Somalia which is ridden by poverty, displacement, civil war, violence and an abject failure of domestic and international efforts to create an effective central government.

"It is vital that governments and the United Nations devote resources to developing workable administrative infrastructures to prevent criminals from exploiting the vacuum left from years of failed local government. All measures taken at sea to limit the activities of the pirates are undermined because of a lack of responsible authority back in Somalia from where the pirates begin their voyages and return with hijacked vessels," says Captain Pottengal Mukundan, Director of the International Maritime Bureau, which maintains a 24-hour piracy information centre.

The Navy sails into sub-conventional warfare
Vijay Mohan

Regular anti-piracy operations on the high seas by the Indian Navy had added a new dimension to its role. Tasked with protecting India's sea-lanes of communication (SLOC), encounters with pirates, especially on the western seaboard, are steadily increasing. In addition to its strategic role, this has now led to a bigger "police role" by protecting and liberating unarmed merchant vessels from civilian sea faring outlaws. Here, some sort of a parallel can be drawn with the army's long drawn anti-terrorist operations and combating proxy war, which fall in the domain of sub-conventional warfare or war by other means. Piracy and terrorism directly affect civilians and peacetime economic activity. They also have a bearing on foreign relations and trans-national organised crime, which in turn have a correlation with national security.

As per the International Maritime Bureau, which recently commended the Indian Navy for its anti-piracy operations, 174 ships have been hijacked between January 14, 2008 and March 11, 2011. The Indian Navy began deployment of warships on regular anti-piracy missions along India's SLOC in the Arabian Sea in October 2008. It has since escorted over 1,500 merchant ships and has had close to 20 confrontations with armed pirates in which five pirate vessels have been reportedly sunk and about 120 pirates arrested. As many as 25 Indian warships have rotationally patrolled the 490 nautical mile Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor from the Gulf of Aden eastwards.

Citing increased incidence of piracy in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) as an "issue of serious concern", the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has proposed a proactive role for the Indian armed forces under the United Nations flag to tackle the threat to maritime traffic from piracy.

"India is in favour of strengthening multilateral cooperation under a UN framework to meet the complex challenges of maritime security," says MoD's report for 2010-11, laid before the Parliament last week.

Stating that the threat of piracy and terrorism to international trade and safety of SLOC has emerged as a major problem, the report points out that piracy emerging from Somalian waters continues to endanger the safety of the sea lanes and is a matter of concern for the international community.

"The presence of Somali pirates in the waters around our western island territories has been an unwelcome development which requires heightened vigil," the report says. "The linkages between terrorists based in Somalia and transnational organised crime is also a cause of major concern globally," it adds. New Delhi is engaged in enhancing cooperative interactions and exchanges with various countries in the IOR to tackle common security challenges.

The Straits of Malacca in south east Asia, through which the trade routes to Japan, Korea and China lie, are also prone to piracy. More worrisome are reports of pirates operating off-the shores of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The India Ocean Region "is central" to India's maritime interests and security concerns as India's economic development is crucially dependent on SLOC because of the criticality of sea-borne trade in an increasingly inter-linked world, as well as because of the potential of vast economic resources of the oceans. Bulk of India's trade and energy requirements are met through the sea route.

The Indian Navy is the dominating maritime force in the IOR with an ever-expanding security role and responsibility in the emerging security paradigm. Its counter-piracy role is an opportunity to make its presence felt in international waters that are in close proximity to areas seeped in violence and instability and also to work alongside some foreign navies. Moreover, it provides for some realistic training ground in unconventional operations, an arena in which the navy's involvement may see an upward trend.