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Nightmare homes
This above all |
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TOUCHSTONES
GROUND ZERO
PROFILE: Santhi Soundarajan
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Nightmare homes
Life’s simple pleasures are exciting for 12-year-old Sunita (not her real name). Rising early morning, dressing up for school, attending classes, coming home to friends, playing, studying and dinner before she calls it a day — everything is just so exciting. Living the nightmare of Apna Ghar day after day, she had forgotten life is worth living, till she was shifted to a shelter home in Bhiwani. Hailing from Bihar, Sunita is finally beginning to feel “safe”. She says she finally has a home now where she can be herself — innocent, playful and naughty. Like her, other inmates of Rohtak’s Apna Ghar and Gurgaon’s Suparna ka Angan — shelter homes for children that turned hellholes — are beginning life afresh in new homes across Haryana. In the government-run Bal Kunj in Yamunanagar, they play carom board as they casually mention how elder girls were stripped, let out a gory detail of abuse at the hands of the caretaker, and, wide-eyed, even disclose plans they made to get back at the tormentors for the beating they received for so much as playing excitedly. The children barely comprehend the magnitude of the ordeal they have been through. Now in safe environments, they make light of all they have seen. The scars remain, but a new life beckons and the children are game for it.
The second hell The lid first came off the horrendous goings-on at Suparna ka Angan when teachers at Government Girls Primary School in Wazirabad village of Gurgaon district noticed that some girls, lodged at the nearby shelter home, seemed unduly timid. After much persuasion, Nisha Yadav, a teacher, got them to open up, only to find out that they were being sexually exploited by a caretaker at the shelter, and beaten up if they complained. This was not the first time such a complaint had surfaced, and it made Yadav furious. A year back, a girl from the same shelter had come to school with marks on her cheeks. On being asked, she revealed that Rachit, alias Raju, a caretaker at the home run by an NGO, had bitten her. Teachers had then brought the matter to the notice of Suparna Sethi, who ran the NGO. Sethi assured them she would throw Raju out. However, the fresh allegations clearly indicated exploitation was still on. This time, Yadav, along with her colleague Sunil Kumari and some other teachers, lodged a complaint with the Gurgaon police. Taking the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) into the loop, they raided the home. A medical examination of the girls revealed three had been raped, while some others had been subjected to physical torture. Investigations revealed the shelter home was unauthorised. No one at the time knew the worst was yet to come. While some children were handed over to parents, others were sent to alternative shelters in the state — three landed up at the government-aided and “reputed” Apna Ghar. Soon after, the NCPCR was approached for help by an NGO, which had come upon inmates from Apna Ghar who had run away to escape torture at the shelter. On May 9, a three-member team of the NCPCR raided the three-storey building of Apna Ghar, located in Srinagar Colony of Rohtak, and horrifying stories of sexual abuse spilled out. As many as 103 inmates were rescued from the shelter. The government, including its Women and Child Development Department, which also has staff in the districts, was caught napping — unaware, indifferent and disinterested. It was only chance discovery that the sordid saga was uncovered.
The unravelling On July 14, the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the by-now infamous Apna Ghar case, with directions from the high court to complete the probe in two months. Though the Haryana Government had recommended a CBI probe into the allegations of sexual abuse and torture — including by some police personnel — of inmates at the shelter run by NGO Bharat Vikas Sangh, the decision to do so came after the court gave a week’s time to the Centre to decide on handing over the case to the CBI. Initially, a probe was initiated by a police team led by a DSP, but that was handed over to a Special Investigation Team headed by an ADGP. The initial investigation team was said to be dragging its feet as a few local policemen were allegedly party to the sexual abuse of inmates. However, the SIT too failed to do little more than arrest a couple of the suspects. The two homes today stand sealed, and Suparna Sethi, Rachit and Santosh, another worker at Suparna ka Angan, are lodged in jail under judicial custody. Their bail pleas have been turned down. However, even two months after the lodging of the FIR, the police has not been able to present the challan before the court. In the Apna Ghar case, 10 suspects are in police custody. The prime suspect, Jaswanti Devi, who had been manager of the shelter since it was started, was politically well-connected, and had even received the state award for “service to society”. The award was subsequently stripped. She and her daughter Simi were among the first to be arrested — the day the NCPCR team raided Apna Ghar. The other arrested suspects include Jaswanti’s son-in-law Jaibhagwan; brother Jaswant; driver Satish; cousin Sheela; and shelter home counsellor Veena. Bhim Singh Ranga, a sub-inspector (SI) who was close to Jaswanti and was in-charge of the are police post, was also arrested. He was also investigating officer of the case initially, but retired soon after. Two persons identified as Chand and Sonu were arrested along with the SI fpr providing indirect help to some of the accused. All the 10 suspects were sent in judicial custody after they were produced by the CBI. The main accused, including Jaswanti, her son-in-law and the driver, have been charged with sexual and physical abuse under Sections 217, 218, 323, 325, 342, 418, 374, 376, 354, 365, 366, 372, 420, 468, 471, 506, 109, and 34 of the IPC, and Section 16 and 21 of the Labour Bondage Act.
Government failure Sexual abuse, illegal sale of children, brutal beating, parading them naked, all happened at Apna Ghar right under the nose of the administration of Rohtak district — home to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda — and Suparna ka Angan in Gurgaon, Haryana’s show window. As the children had no one to reach out to, their cries behind the walls of the homes went unheard. No official ever came inquiring after the children’s well being. The homes were nobody’s babies even as under a Central government scheme a programme officer of the Integrated Child Development Services and other staff under the Woman and Child Development Department are in place to monitor such homes. Bosses at the top-heavy department office in Chandigarh too failed to keep a tab on the homes. The primary reason for the senior officers’ disinterest is the department is not considered a “prize posting”. Most of them have their attention focused on getting out rather than perform their duty, as work here rarely gets noticed, an officer in the state government explained. As no one noticed, the NGO running Apna Ghar was able to bag at least four government-funded projects, and never maintained records of the funds. The projects included Nari Sadan (women’s home), a children’s home, a child helpline, and a shelter for runaway couples. It was apparently the only NGO that was ‘enthusiastic’ about work, and always readily accepted any orphan or destitute woman found anywhere in the state. The NCPCR estimates 41 inmates have gone missing from Apna Ghar over the past three years, of which 29 are yet to be traced. The government’s blindness was most evident in the Indira Gandhi Mahila Shakti Puraskar — which carried a citation and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh — awarded to Jaswati Devi on March 23. Till the case blew up, the department was not even aware of the total number of private shelter homes in the state. Immediately afterwards, a survey was carried out, which identified 109 such homes.
The clean-up Under fire from all quarters, the Women and Child Department was shaken into setting its house in order. Dheera Khandelwal, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary of the department, says: “The department has now prepared detailed registration forms for homes to collect all their details. We have also sent out circulars through the police and health departments to identify all such homes in the vicinity of community health centres.” The deadline of July 20 was set for the registration of all homes, mandatory under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, and the Orphanages and Other Charitable Homes (Supervision and Control) Act, 1960. “While some homes have got registered, there are others that are reluctant or do not have the wherewithal to meet the mandatory provisions. However, our effort is not to harass the home owners, but to provide a minimum level of facilities, and even help them fulfil the requirements,” explains Sumita Misra, Director General of the department. “We are hopeful that with a little support from the public, not many homes will have to shut down. Also, we have formed inspection teams and are now training field staff to effectively monitor various schemes and homes,” Misra adds. For now, things seem to be looking up at shelter homes in the state, but only time will tell if the new system is sustained or things relapse into the indifference that let Sunita bear. (With inputs from Bijender Ahlawat
in Rohtak; Sunit Dhawan in Gurgaon; and Raman Mohan in Bhiwani)
Suparna ka Angan (left):
Sexual abuse of minor girls at the shelter in Gurgaon run by an NGO owned by Suparna Sethi came to light on May 4, when one of the victims informed her teacher at school.
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This above all
ADIL JUSSAWALLA
For a short three-months tenure I joined Santiniketan. I got enamoured of a Parsi girl named Meher. The principal reason for my attachment to her was that neither of us could speak Bengali. I returned to my college in Lahore. We started corresponding with each other. It lasted till she got married and became Meher Jussawalla. During my long tenure of nine years as Editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India I published many poems composed by her son Adil. After schooling in Cathedral School, Bombay, he migrated to London and then to University College, Oxford, and taught English at the International University in London. He returned to Bombay in 1970. He started composing poetry. He has eight collections published so far. I published many of his poems in the journal I edited. When it came to selecting some for my articles, I took the simple method of publishing the first and the last for the simple reason that the first represented the best when the muse of poetry enamoured him and the last when he felt he had achieved his best. I quote that is what I have done reviewing his latest offer “Trying to Say Goodbye” (Almost Island Books 2011). Here they are: I was raised to think I’m no pushover,/ But you see, I am./ All houses you lay to set us up/ Touch our very foundations. Stranger, still looking for home,/ Who watched me for months,/ Pay attention:/ I’m setting you free./ Your future’s got nothing to do with what’s happening to me. Your universe was built to dance on a pin,/ Mine to stay still./ Tel your guru/ Stillness did a house in. Learn balance with nothing to stand on/ Though you’ve lost heart, lost ground,/ Go rootless, homeless, but balance. Snakeskin
In a forest I saw/ a stocking hung on a thorn./ Sometimes it looked like a sleeve/ with its arm gone./ I saw neither snakeskin nor snake./ I lived in the forest for years. Forty years on,/ with the forest gone./ My sight’s improved./ There’s little to do but try/ with the little I see/ to make something new./ Maybe another’s skin,/ remembered and shed,/ finally makes the note come right,/ a sound as uncannily light/ as a lady’s shoe. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Santa found a 100 rupee note in a street. He thought to have maximum utility of purse and have full enjoyment. For this he selected a five-star hotel, for a nice dinner and drink. Got a bill of Rs 4,579. Without reading the bill, he placed the hundred rupee note with the bill and said to waiter, “Ja Kaka! Aish Kar”. The waiter returned with four marshals and threw the note on Santa’s face which he caught very swiftly. By that time Santa became so tight and fully loaded that he could not stand up. He could not be made to wash utensils in lieu of bill. The management called the police and packed him to nearby police station. He paid that note to police. Within an hour Santa was dropped at his house. Santa boasted before Banta, “Vekhi Saadi Financial Management!” Which is the oldest password of the world? Khul Ja Sim-Sim. (Contributed by Madan Gupta
Spatu, Chandigarh)
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TOUCHSTONES
I
think by now we have all resigned ourselves to the fact that this year, the monsoons have failed us. So all those delightful festivals that are traditionally celebrated with what is routinely referred to as ‘traditional gaiety and fervour’ in the press, have been rather subdued. Teej, a North-Indian festival when women put up makeshift swings strung from trees and sing and dance, came and went unnoticed. In Rajasthan, it is celebrated as Gangaur, when Parvati, Shiva’s consort, is taken out in a colourful procession by women. After the searing heat of the summer, the first monsoon showers are welcomed in ways that go back centuries, when pastoral communities marked their yearly calendar by seasons, not months. Before sowing their fields, farmers planted a selection of seeds in front of their household gods to seek their blessing. The ritual also revealed to the farmer which crop is likely to do well that year, as some seeds sprouted and some did not. One of Shiva’s many names is Pashupatinath, the lord of flora and fauna, and in Kumaon — my home — the month of Sravan is dedicated to him. In a delightful ritual, called Parthiv Puja, the entire clan gets together to make a thousand lingams with the earth of their own fields, and Shiva is invited to come and bless the home. The chants of the Rudri path come to a pregnant pause and everyone waits breathlessly for him to descend. Conches are blown to announce his arrival and a fresh round of celebratory chants begins. At the end of several hours of singing and chanting, he is politely requested to go back to Mount Kailash. As the priest once explained to me, Shiva is a whimsical god (which one of our gods is not?) and if he decides to stay on and on, he may one day turn in anger and curse the household that is hosting him now. So, with a loud ‘Brumm, brumm, bhoo!’ he is packed off. As old joint families break up and clan ties get weakened by migrations and inter-caste marriages, such rituals may soon be just a memory. What Ashis Nandy, the well-known sociologist, calls ‘laptop Hinduism’ has altered the spirit of several celebrations. So Diwali is now a cross between Guy Fawkes Day and Christmas, the internet has become a means of sending rakhis to brothers who live abroad and the very iconography of our divine pantheon is being photo-shopped to make our gods and goddesses look like sexy filmstars. Local celebrations that brought a village or community together have almost disappeared as the outer trappings become more important than the spirit of the festival. What is even more startling is how Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s day, Father’s Day have replaced many ‘native’ celebrations. *** A recent film that celebrates the life and times of Mrinalini Sarabhai made me think afresh of several reasons why we must once again be brought to life in this country and made aware of who we are, what makes us Indian. The documentary is made by her daughter and well-known dancer-activisit Mallika Sarabhai and recently premiered in Delhi. Mrinalini, now 94, had lost her sister (the feisty Captain Lakshmi Sehgal) the previous day, and one was not sure whether she would be able to attend the screening. However, not only did she attend it, declaring that the show must go on, she walked ramrod-straight to the stage and answered questions with such aplomb that the entire audience gave her a standing ovation. National treasures like her deserve nothing less. Her life traces the last century’s arc so perfectly that it is worthwhile to pause and reflect on some aspects of it. Born to a prominent Tam-Bram family of Chennai, her mother — the redoubtable Ammu Subramanyam — was an ardent nationalist. After her schooling in Switzerland, Mrinalini spent years in a village with her Bharat Natyam guru and finally landed in Tagore’s Santiniketan, blending Bharat Natyam, Kathakali and Manipuri along with Sri Lankan and Javanese dance forms into the choreography of Tagore’s dance dramas. She then married Vikram Sarabhai, himself a celebrated scientist and a scion of Gujarat’s most prominent industrial family. The Sarabhais are famous patrons of the arts (the Calico Museum and the National Institute of Design are some of their lasting contributions to Ahmedabad), but it is for their work in the social sector that we remember them most. In the course of her conversations that evening, Mrinalini revealed how her concern for the environment, women’s rights and non-violence inspired some of her most memorable dance compositions. She spearheaded the movement to protect the biodiversity of Kerala’s Silent Valley and succeeded in halting the destruction of large swathes of this precious region from being cut down for ‘development’. Unlike so many rich and privileged women, several women of that generation utilised their social position and wealth for the larger good. Just as her sister, Captain Lakshmi, set up a clinic in the industrial city of Kanpur to provide health care to the most disadvantaged, Mrinalini has used her art to sensitise audiences and policy makers to issues that remain on the periphery of political concern. Her zest for life and concern for social issues remains undimmed by time and her energy undiminished by age. As Shakespeare said of Cleopatra, ‘Age cannot wither her nor custom mar her infinite variety.…’ Long may she live!
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GROUND ZERO
MY first impression of Aung San Suu Kyi was that she had amazing grace. Wearing a lilac longyi and matching blouse, she had walked in briskly with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a Yangon hotel to jointly address the media in April this year. She may have looked frail but she was certainly not a shrinking violet. She had a magnetic inner calm. She came across as a self-assured leader who knew what she wanted and where she was headed. Manmohan Singh's visit, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 25 years, happened at a time when Myanmar was poised for a historic transition. Major winds of change were blowing across India's eastern neighbour, signaling the gradual return of democratic forces after a hiatus of two decades with Suu Kyi finding herself once again at the vortex. A month before Suu Kyi met the Indian Prime Minister, she and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), for the first time since 1990 contested a Parliament byelection, winning all 45 seats that had fallen vacant in the 664-strong legislature. She was then permitted to go abroad to receive her Nobel Peace Prize that she had won in 1991. Just four days ago, on July 25, she delivered her first speech in Parliament calling for an end to the discrimination against ethnic communities that has divided Myanmar since its Independence in 1948. All these are dramatic events in a country that has for decades been under repressive military regimes engineered by the Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar's Armed Forces are called. While these are encouraging signs, Suu Kyi, or The Lady as she is fondly referred to, is acutely aware that she is walking the tightrope. Faced with debilitating sanctions from the US and Europe and the prospect of an economic collapse, the coterie of generals that control Myanmar have taken visible steps in recent years towards restoring democracy. These include releasing Suu Kyi two years ago after almost 20 years of intermittent house arrest. Before that though, Myanmar's ruling generals brought in a new constitution in 2008 that guaranteed that the army would have control of a quarter the seats in Parliament. In the 2010 general elections they also ensured that the army's proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), gained control of the majority of Parliament seats. Suu Kyi’s NLD had boycotted the elections. Now the military junta appears to be using Suu Kyi's new found freedoms as a ploy to persuade the West to ease sanctions while retaining full control of the country's power set-up, including a servile bureaucracy. The Lady knows that she has entered the labyrinth of Myanmar's turbulent transition and would encounter many obstacles towards her goal of restoring democracy to her country. Like the late Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto, the 67-year-old Suu Kyi is a daughter of destiny. Her father, General Aung San, was Burma's legendary freedom fighter, who was assassinated in 1947 during the transition period of the country's Independence. Suu Kyi was just two years old then. As a teenager she came to Delhi with her mother, who had been appointed Burmese ambassador to India, and studied in Lady Shri Ram College. Later she went to Oxford University, where she met a British academic, Michael Aris, and married him. She then settled in the UK for many years to raise their two children, Alexander and Kim. In 1988 she returned to Burma to look after her critically ill mother and found herself in the thick of a bloody civil war known as the "8888 Uprising" (so called because nationwide pro-democracy protests broke out on August 8, 1988). Suu Kyi felt impelled to plunge into politics and emerged as the national icon for prodemocracy forces. The uprising was brutally put down by the Tatmadaw, which ushered in military rule headed by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). When elections were held in 1990, Suu Kyi's NLD won 80 per cent of the seats in Parliament. Unnerved, the SLORC refused to relinquish power and put Suu Kyi under house arrest. For the next 20 years she was kept confined to her house and was not even allowed to see her husband, who died of cancer, in 1999 or her children. Suu Kyi saw her sons only when she was released in 2010. Since her release, President Thein Sein has taken a series of cautious steps to restore democracy. The coming months would require all of Suu Kyi's political skills to ensure that the ruling generals do not use her as a front to end Myanmar's international isolation and then quietly slip back to their bad old ways. In her speech on June 16 this year after formally receiving the Nobel award in Oslo, Suu Kyi talked of a Burmese word ‘nyein-chan’ that translates literally as a “beneficial coolness that comes when a fire is extinguished.” Though Suu Kyi does provide the much-needed balm for her troubled country, she knows that the fires of repression are far from extinguished. For her it is just the beginning of the road.
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PROFILE: Santhi Soundarajan Once she raised her hands in triumph, now, as she says, they “ache and burn all the time. The skin has peeled off, there are boils all over”. Contrast this with Caster Semenya of South Africa, also a middle-distance runner, who lost the gold she won in the Berlin World Championship 2009 after she failed a similar gender test. The 21-year-old is her country’s flag-bearer at the London Olympics. That is because her outraged nation rallied around her to safeguard her dignity and position. Last year, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) revoked the ban on her. Santhi’s fate now appears to be taking a turn, however, following her plight being highlighted in the media. Sports Minister Ajay Makan has declared the government is keen on restoring her honour, just as South Africa did for Semenya. Maken called from London to express shock. “To set things right, I would want Santhi’s gender rechecked. I have come to know that there are far more acceptable methods of testing one’s gender, and we will employ them,” he said, adding if Santhi cleared the test, the government would support her fight to get her medals back. If she is keen on getting back to athletics, the government would help with that too. In any case, irrespective of the outcome of the tests, Santhi will be offered a seat in the NIS coaching course. While sex tests are not compulsory for competitors, the IAAF can request contenders to take such tests at any time. According to Santhi’s coach, P. Nagarajan, her upbringing in impoverished rural India, where she reportedly started eating proper meals only in 2004, could be a reason behind the test result. Excessive running may have also affected her hormone balance. But the Sports Authority of India has completely banned her from all sports. Following the ignominy of a gender test, the manner in which Santhi’s name and achievements were erased from athletics records nearly drove her to suicide. “I have been on this job three months now (brick-kiln). In the initial days, I could do nothing with my hands after work. I could neither eat nor use my fingers to grasp anything. It is better now,” she said. Santhi was unemployed since 2010, when she resigned from the job of a coach that paid her Rs 5,000. A modestly successful coach, athletes she trained won national medals at the Chennai marathon. But the Tamil Nadu Government’s refusal to confirm her employment — she was on contract — made her realise she had to look elsewhere for a job. She met the District Collector, but it was of no help.
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THE TERRIBLE TWO
Apna Ghar (right): Similar abuse of girls at this shelter in Rohtak — run by Jaswanti Devi’s NGO Bharat Vikas Sangh — was exposed on May 9 after three girls (shifted there from Suparna ka Angan) run away from the home and are found by an NGO, which reports it to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
I
often look over 98 years of my life and repent over the time I wasted in solving crossword puzzles. I subscribe to five dailies, all of which have crossword puzzles. After skipping over news headlines, I get down to solve these puzzles. That wastes all my morning till noontime, at which I have my mid-day meal. I often start this time-wasting pastime after my siesta. I feel by now I must have wasted many years of my life in indulging myself in a pastime which has done me no good. I have no excuse to offer. I am a silly old man who does not understand the real purpose of life. All I can do now is to warn my readers not to follow my example. Life must not be thrown away in a futile pastime.
FROM a medal winning athlete to a brick-kiln worker has been the fate of Santhi Soundarajan. She won the silver medal for 800m at the Doha Asian Games in 2006, and then lost it after she failed a gender test. She was now forced to work as a daily-wager at a brick-kiln, slogging eight hours under the scorching sun to earn Rs 200 a day — the wage paid to a woman labourer!