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RBI keeps its word
A shame for democracy |
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Dowry demands
Waltzing on the edge in Pakistan
The birthday party
Punjab laws to curb migration fraud
Bill proposes to cast a noose on travel agents
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RBI keeps its word
FOR the fifth consecutive time the RBI has maintained a pause in rate cuts after a 0.5 percentage point cut in April. Though pressure for interest rate cuts to spur growth has been mounting on the apex bank, it has again chosen to play cautious since inflation at 7.24 per cent (in November) is still above the comfort level of 5 per cent. At its last monetary policy review on October 30 the RBI had hinted at a rate cut in the January-March quarter, hoping inflation would ease by then. Experts suggest this is an ideal time for locking money in fixed deposits since interest rates are widely expected to start falling in the New Year. Slipping growth, however, remains a concern. The mid-term economic review, released on Monday, has projected a growth rate of 5.7 per cent to 5.9 per cent for the current fiscal. The lower-than-expected sales of consumer durables during this festival season are an indication of slowing demand. If the stock markets are still rising, it is because of expectations of rate cuts and growth revival in the coming year and easing of troubles in western economies. The government’s policy initiatives in September on FDI in retail, aviation, broadcasting, insurance and pension have lifted investor sentiment. The latest industrial data has also contributed to the hope that the worst is over. However, as Chief Economic Adviser Raghuram Rajan has admitted, achieving the fiscal deficit target of 5.3 per cent of the GDP is tough for the government. The soaring subsidies and falling tax revenue are largely to blame. The government did hike the diesel rate and cap the number of gas cylinders, but it was too little, too late. The lukewarm response to the sale of second-generation telecom licences has added to the government’s troubles. The sale of government stakes in public sector undertakings too is uncertain and below expectations despite a bullish stock market. All this leaves the government finances in dire straits. The next year’s budget may be election-oriented and hurt fiscal consolidation efforts.
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A shame for democracy
THE Home Minister has created one more committee headed by the Home Secretary to evaluate what needs to be done for better security of women — in the national Capital. While the female population of the country continues to live in fear and self-doubt about its socio- political significance in the largest democracy of the world, under repeated assaults on their person. Growing number of crimes of such gruesome nature, like the rape of a medical student in a running bus in Delhi, are not only eroding public faith in the law and order machinery, they are also pulling back women from the public sphere, where their presence should matter. For any progressive society these are dangerous trends which may force women to retract from what they achieved through years of struggle. Most parents who raise daughters are beginning to doubt if the freedom accorded to the girls needs to be checked under the shadow of the rising crime graph. The crime of rape, particularly gang rape, is not only about the security of women, it is also about the disturbing fact of an increasing number of males behaving worse than animals. It is sad that when such gruesome crimes take place, both Houses of Parliament make noise about the security of women, and thereafter the victim becomes one more statistical figure, waiting tiresomely for the justice to be delivered. Going by the snail pace of the justice delivery system and an abysmal conviction rate, there is little for female victims of sex crimes to hope for a better world. In a democracy where a community that consists of just 6 per cent can hold the government to ransom to meet its demands, it is shocking that for an entire 50 per cent population there is no pressure group to influence the government to frame rules that will favour women’s place in society. Instead of giving an exemplary punishment to the rapists, in the present system only the victim’s life becomes an exemplary case of warning for other women.
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Dowry demands
THE locking of the groom and his family in a marriage palace when they demanded dowry as happened in a case in Bassi Pathana might seem like unwarranted bravado. Some even might view this action by the bride’s family as an extreme case of vigilantism. Yet there is no denying the fact that the menace of dowry is widely prevalent. Not only does the dowry demand continue to undermine the position of women but also it often spells death for them. Even though the Supreme Court has ruled that life sentence should be given to those found guilty of brutally killing their wives for dowry demands, the country reports no less than 20 dowry deaths a day. Dowry is, in fact, the fifth most common motive for murder. Ironically enough, the empowerment of women and the rise in her earning power have not led to any perceptible change in the demand for dowry. Rather over the years, the practice has become more pernicious. With ostentatious weddings becoming a norm, dowry is often erroneously confused for pre-mortem inheritance. Thus, it is conveniently forgotten that dowry is not a substitute for women’s inheritance rights. On the contrary, it is a deeply ingrained malaise that reinforces patriarchal attitudes and perpetuates gender injustice often resulting in violence against the fair sex. However, while the menace of dowry continues to loom large over India, it’s heartening to see that at least some people are standing up against dowry demands. While girls have called off weddings on similar issues earlier too in some parts of the country, men too have put their foot down and vowed to marry without taking dowry. With the recent debates on dowry getting lost in the clamour over Section 498 A of the Indian Penal Code, there is a need to shift the focus back on the virulent dimensions of the social evil itself. While if need be, the law can re-evaluate some of the provisions of ant-dowry Act, it is society alone that can put an end to the abominable practice that intrinsically challenges the dignity of women. In the crusade against dowry, individual examples can certainly be inspirational and motivate others to fight against greedy grooms and their illegal dowry demands.
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What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do. — Aristotle
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Waltzing on the edge in Pakistan A
recent visit to Islamabad suggests that Pakistan remains on the edge. It remains politically and socially divided on fundamental political issues and a prey to self-cultivated terror and mindless violence, with its fragile economy on drip, sustained only by rising overseas remittances. Islamabad resumed economic assistance negotiations with the IMF last month after an 18-month break, following a breach for non-fulfilment of obligations. The talks were preceded by a stern note from the Fund demanding prior actions before any further funds were released. Pakistan had earlier followed profligate policies and reneged on fiscal discipline. It is now being asked to broaden and enhance taxes, avoid fiscal deficits, end subsidies and devalue the rupee in order to restore balance and augment critically low foreign exchange reserves. Federal relations remain strained with a less-than-smooth transition in the devolution of powers and democratic participation to the provinces, and local bodies in turn, as envisaged by the 18th Constitution Amendment and the Seventh National Finance Commission. The concurrent list has been virtually abolished under the 18th Amendment and those powers along with 17 ministries, mostly in the social service sector, transferred to the provinces. Yet eight new federal ministries have been created in order to retain some links with foregone programmes and make space for accommodating coalition partners. Consequent to the 18th Amendment, almost 300 major and minor Acts need to be amended and subordinate legislation reconciled with the new order. Agricultural taxation remains inordinately low while excessive taxation on real estate is leading to the under-valuation of property. The 2011-12 report of the Social Development and Policy Centre, Islamabad, analyses these issues and the tardy progress in secondary devolution from the provinces to local bodies. Though there has been some enhancement in fiscal devolution, spending on the social sector, a prime aim, has been disappointing, leading to "a hiatus" in the local government. In the result, Pakistan remains way behind in its commitment to meet the Millennium Development Goals for providing the poor with basic services by 2015 and is unlikely to attain that goal. The power sector, which is now firmly with the Centre thanks to the 18th Amendment, is in dire straits with the country facing the highest levels of load-shedding in its history. Federal strains have also arisen over alleged unfair burden-sharing in this regard. System deficiencies, high transmission losses and under-billing are reported with the gas and fertiliser sectors also under pressure. The federal Ministries of Food and Agriculture and Livestock and Dairy Development stand abolished under the 18th Amendment. Water stress is on the increase in Pakistan aggravated by high water use inefficiency, lack of demand management and failure to develop storages. That as much as 93 per cent of Pakistan's water is used for agriculture speaks of scope for modernisation of management and maintenance, levying economic water charges, switching to more scientific cropping patterns and induction of improved on-and-off-farm technology. The current panacea among far too many is to blame India for "stealing water" and turn away from Article VII of the Indus Treaty titled "Future Cooperation" that could optimise system benefits for both Pakistan and India. Dr Manmohan Singh is willing; but fuddy-duddies in Pakistan and even in India fear to tread the path of cooperation. The need is urgent. Revived interest in the construction of the Kalabagh Dam has again got embroiled in acrimony, with the three other smaller provinces opposing Punjab. The 4000 MW, six million acre-feet Basha-Diamer Dam is crawling. The raising of the breached Karakoram Highway to enable construction of that project is moving slowly while the cost of the dam has escalated and China appears unwilling to pick up the higher tab. In short, federal relations remain under transitional stress. Long promised reforms in curricula and textbooks remain mired in gross ideological distortions, hate content and bigotry — especially vented against "Hindu" India. This vital sector now stands devolved to the provinces. Not all scholars are of one mind about language/medium of education policy and the desirability of standardising the national curriculum as this might impinge on the rich regional identities of the provinces and regions. The dominance of Punjab and, derivatively, a predominantly "Punjab Army" and its priorities are resented. The creation of many more states to strengthen federalism and increase federal balance is under debate. Anything from reorganisation of the country from the current four to eight or even 16 states is being mooted. In many ways, Pakistan is debating fundamental social issues and values of nation-building that India addressed and steadily overcame 50 years ago. It still has to determine its identity and prise itself out of the morass and, ultimately, loss of direction by defining itself as being no more than "the Other" to India. Recognition is gradually dawning that Kashmir is not the "core issue" in Indo-Pakistan relations but a territorial fantasy to give notional substance to the Ideology of Pakistan or Nazariya-e-Pakistan. A blunt denunciation of this vicious doctrine appeared in a column in the Daily Times of December 3 that called it an "ill-defined and illogical ideological frontier of Pakistan" which has "poisoned the country with hate and bigotry". A Social and Policy Development Institute survey of Pakistan's officially-produced school textbooks in 2003 found "excessive emphasis on the 'Ideology of Pakistan', which is a post-Independence construction ...." A more recent study on "The Continuing Biases in Our Textbooks" by the Jinnah Institute, Islamabad, in April 2012, lamented the continuing "curriculum of hatred" that creates a mindset of extremism and religious bigotry and inculcates "prejudice against non-Muslims who are depicted as enemies of Pakistan. This breeds jihadis. Today's extremists are yesterday's children who were raised on a diet of these textbooks". The "ubiquitous emphasis on Nazariya-e-Pakistan continues to dominate the tone and the texts and no words are minced in attributing all the ills that ever befell Pakistan to 'Hindus' (and India)." General Kayani has said that Pakistan must know that development must go with defence. He realises that the country's economy is gravely imperilled and that the US and China, though flirtatious for their own reasons, will not bail out Pakistan beyond all reason. A senior Pakistan diplomat told me in Islamabad that unless and until Pakistan realises that India is not a permanent enemy and decides to make up with it, the country will remain engaged in a self-destructive exercise. Rehman Malik was only recently in Delhi to operationalise the visa agreement. Trade is likely to grow. The "peace process" continues. But Pakistan cannot talk peace and at the same time wage war through terror, jihadi rhetoric and bogus issues such as a make-believe Kashmir "dispute" and myths about Indus waters. It is this basic message that India must itself understand and communicate to Pakistan and the
world.
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The birthday party I love walking but in recent months, I have been limited to walking up and down the quad in the boys’ department. On one stretch of this walk I face a cemented wall, most of it hidden by the thick foliage of a horse chestnut tree that grows in front of it. This is the house where I have lived for 17 years but looking at it now no memories of the past stirred in my mind, no feelings fluttered through my heart. Then, with the onset of winter, the tree shed its leaves and I saw the number on the building – 31. The memory of the invitation card for a child’s birthday party came back. It was the silhouette of a house bearing the number 31 and with this came the memories of many children’s birthday parties — at least four every year, which had been hosted in this house. Sanawar was not so well connected with the outside world, and things were not so easily available in Garkhal, Dharampur and Kasauli as they are now. Everything had to be done at home, from the invitation cards to the baking of the cake and the Swiss rolls and patties. I remembered, one at a time, all the things that had gone wrong with each of them, disasters then, but only a source of amusement now. I remembered clearly the very first one. It was 1971 and my wife and I had just moved to Sanawar a few months before. It was my daughter’s first birthday, but having lost our first-born earlier in the year, we had decided that we were not going to celebrate. There was a thin drizzle and through the rain we saw Mr B Singh, carefully shielding Meera with a giant umbrella, as she bore a beautiful cake. One by one, all the senior staff came in — the Mukherjees, the Bhaleraos, the Mundkars, Mrs Sehgal, Aunty Tutu and Mr Manley, the headmaster, Mr Pasricha, and his wife, each one bearing a generous supply of delicious food. Later in the evening, the younger members of staff, my peers, came in bearing carefully chosen presents. There was a round of drinks, much laughter and singing. Much, much later, after lights out, a group of senior boys from Himalaya House stole in with an enormous doll’s house which had been bought during the founder’s holidays and carefully concealed in the clothing room. That impromptu birthday party, with all the kindness that had been showered upon us, had dissipated our sense of loss and in its place there was gratitude and joy for the beautiful little baby girl that God had gifted us. I realised that it was not fair to use her birthday to mourn my son. Now when the evening shadows lengthen and darkness closes in, my heart fills with warm happiness at the memory of that long ago party. I offer up a silent prayer of gratitude for having lived through those blessed times and for having known all those kind, generous, caring
people.
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Punjab laws to curb migration fraud THE Hindu Marriage Act (HMA), 1955, leaves it open for every state government to enact compulsory provisions for registration of marriages. The Supreme Court in 2006 in the ‘Seema vs Ashwani Kumar’ case issued a mandate to all states to make registration of marriage compulsory by enacting legislations. This led to the Punjab Compulsory Registration of Marriages Bill, 2012, providing for compulsory registration of marriages solemnised under any law, irrespective of religion, caste, creed or nationality. Any marriage solemnised in Punjab is proposed to be compulsorily registrable and even marriages solemnised outside the state can be registered at a place where parties have their temporary residence in Punjab. However, if a marriage is already registered elsewhere, it would not be registered again in Punjab.
NRIs defined The law that provides for registration of every marriage between Indian nationals or NRIs or foreign nationals solemnised in Punjab would require the NRI or foreign national to disclose in writing his/her passport number, country of its issue, period of validity, besides permanent residential and official address overseas, with social security number or any such permanent identification proof issued by that country. This information will be entered in the marriage certificate and the marriage register. Marriage would mean and include marriages solemnised or performed under Hindu laws, the Anand Marriage Act, Muslim personal law or under the Indian Christian Marriage Act, besides any other custom or personal law relating to marriages governing the parties.
Registration regime The proposed law will notify chief, district and additional registrars of marriages or other officers to be registrar of marriages for easy accessibility in cities and towns. These registrars would upon scrutiny verify that the marriage between the parties has been performed in accordance with the relevant personal law to confirm their marital status and identities. A memorandum of marriage signed by the parties and their priest would be presented to the Registrar concerned within three months of the marriage in the jurisdiction where it was solemnised or where parties have temporary residence if they were married outside Punjab. Refusal to register would be appealable and the Registrar may also suo motu, or on notice, call the parties and register any marriage performed in his jurisdiction. Any erroneous or fraudulent entry in a marriage register may be corrected or cancelled after giving a hearing to the persons concerned.
A shortcoming The proposed law states that no marriage would be deemed to be invalid solely for the reason that it was not registered. This shortcoming is attributed to codified personal marriage laws in India by which performance of essential ceremonies, and not registration, validates a marriage. Hence, a state enactment cannot undo a law made by Parliament prescribing only ceremonies for recognition of a valid marriage. Consequently, resorting to compulsory registration may have to develop more as an accepted societal norm and practice for the law to gain recognition. The fact remains that Punjab has taken the lead in registering NRI marriages, which will help in curbing matrimonial fraud and ameliorate the plight of the “nowhere holiday wives”. Punjab would do equally well if it were to constitute family courts in every district in under the existing Family Courts Act, 1984, to provide speedy justice to abandoned spouses and deserted children as well. Prevention is better than cure, but redress of issues arising out of a broken or limping matrimonial relationship must be available at the same time. (The writer practises law at the Punjab and Haryana High Court and, as a member of the Punjab Governance Reforms Commission, has assisted in the drafting of the two Bills.)
Bill highlights
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Bill proposes to cast a noose on travel agents THE human smuggling racket has been thriving in Punjab at the cost of gullible youth with dollar dreams because of the fact that smuggled migrants are vulnerable to exploitation and their lives are often put at risk. They have suffocated in containers, perished in deserts, died at sea or have been used as bonded labour. While smugglers of humans conduct their activities brazenly with no regard for life, Punjab could be the first state to combat the menace if it is able to push through the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Bill, 2012. This legislation is designed to provide for the regulation of travel agents to curb their fraudulent activities, as also the malpractices of people involved in organised human smuggling and related matters. Central law Piecemeal state legislations with limited ambit of application will restrict the scope to the state. A Central law can be a composite solution. State legislations on the subject, however, are a welcome starting point, and that is what the Punjab government is doing. The Emigration Act, 1983, provides for checks and balances by enacting a licensing regime for “recruiting agents” for “emigration” purposes, which have been defined in the Act. The Central law also creates a “Protector of Emigrants” for providing emigration clearance to ensure that conditions of employment of Indian citizens are not discriminatory, exploitative, unlawful, against public policy, or violative of human dignity. The ambit of the Act extends to Indian citizens only and exempts control of recruiting in India for service of foreign States. The Act provides legislation to reign in Indian recruiting agents operating in India. The Punjab Bill The Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Bill, 2012, enacted to provide a licensing regime for travel agents with penal provisions has similar regulatory functions. “Travel agent” is defined in the Bill as a person in a profession that involves arranging, managing or conducting affairs related to sending people abroad. It includes consultancy for permanent emigration, obtaining education, work, travel for tourism, cultural entertainment or musical shows, medical treatment, spreading or preaching religion, participation in sports tournaments, issuing advertisements for travel, holding seminars and lectures to promote emigration, arranging matrimonial alliances for purposes of emigration, and arranging overseas travel for any purpose. Dishonest misrepresentation with intention to have wrongful gain from above activities is punishable. If any travel agent wants to advertise or hold seminars, he will have to notify the competent authority in writing. Under the proposed Punjab law, “human smuggling” would include illegally exporting, sending or transporting persons out of India by receiving money from them or their parents, relatives or any other person interested in their welfare, by inducing, alluring, deceiving or cheating. The Bill says that “cheating” would have the same meaning as assigned to it in Sections 415 and 416 of the Indian Penal Code. Therefore, the Punjab Human Smuggling Bill looks at the menace of human smuggling by defining it as an offence and creates a process for its regulatory enforcement by compulsory registration and imposition of punishment upon violations through a legal process. The Central and Punjab laws will serve complimentary purposes, as they are neither inconsistent nor repugnant to each other. They provide similar objectives and functions for recruiting and travel agents. — Anil Malhotra Codifying emigration business Among the noteworthy features of the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Bill, 2012, are: |
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A prominent feature of the proposed law is the definition of a “non-resident Indian” to mean a person of Indian origin who is either permanently or temporarily settled outside India for employment, business, vocation or any other purpose, indicating an uncertain or determined period of overseas stay. Likewise, a “foreign national” has been defined as a person who is not a citizen of India, and includes Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI), who are defined under the Citizenship Act, 1955, and means foreign nationals of Indian origin who have earlier been Indian citizens or qualify for Indian citizenship.
Smuggling of migrants is a highly profitable business with a low risk of detection. For criminals, it is increasingly attractive to deal in humans and this business of death is becoming more and more organised, involving networks transcending borders. India, as a nation, therefore has a dire need to check the global menace. However, the Emigration Act, 1983, meant to consolidate and amend the laws relating to emigration of citizens of India, neither defines human smuggling nor even looks at the related problems. Thus, there is a need for Parliament to legislate an Indian human smuggling law.