The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Way of the gun
Killing panches can fetch no sympathy

The fourth killing of a panchayat member in Baramulla district of Kashmir in six months has rekindled the demand for providing security to the elected village representatives.

Even as investigation is on to find out whether this was a militant killing or the result of personal enmity, it does prove the culture of the gun is still alive in the valley, even if in the hands of criminals or terrorists operating independent of any organisation. On the face of it, it would seem the attacks hit at the very foundation of democracy. However, attacking common villagers — which is what panchayat members really are — can only harm the perpetrator’s interest, whatever it be. They can hope to find little sympathy among villagers, though the latter may be too scared to speak out.

It would be hard for militants to give the panchayats — elected in 2011 with a heavy turnout — a political colour, for most of the members have hardly any political affiliation. They are essentially involved in raising the immediate infrastructural concerns of the villages, which often get ignored in remote areas for want of an effective people-government communication mechanism.

There have been declarations of resignation by around 800 panchayat members, most have not done it on paper. The fact is there are more than 30,000 panchayat members in the state, and credit goes to them for holding on in the face of the threat from militants. While securing each one of them physically would not be possible, the government should ensure those assessed to have a genuine threat are protected. The message must go out that the government is with those who are risking their lives for the cause. Increasing the powers of panchayats — a persistent demand from the members — would help increase villagers’ stake in the matter, which could prove to be the real protection. It would also be good to hear on this matter from the separatist leaders, who have maintained a queer silence. To connect the ‘Kashmir issue’ with villages mending their streets would need a rather stretched imagination.

CJ as head of govt
Towards ending the crisis in Nepal

With Nepal’s political parties agreeing to have the Chief Justice of the country, Khilraj Regmi, as the head of the interim government, the process of holding the much-awaited elections is likely to be set in motion. The polls can now be held in June for a new parliament.

The previous House was dissolved in May last year. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has been running a caretaker government, but it has not been able to discharge its responsibilities properly owing to the lack of cooperation from opposition parties. He could not hold the parliamentary polls because many parties wanted him to resign and a fresh arrangement to be made for this purpose. Now the opposition’s viewpoint has been upheld as Nepal will be going to the polls with the Chief Justice of the Nepal Supreme Court leaving his present job and accepting the responsibility of heading a national unity government. The CPN-Maoists, who feel the latest arrangement may harm the democratic process, need to be convinced of the urgency of having a credible set-up for holding fresh polls.

Nepal needs a democratically elected government as early as possible as it has to get a new constitution written for a democratic system of government in the Himalayan nation. This task was to be accomplished by the Interim Assembly, elected in 2008 after the abolition of the monarchy, but it could not do so even after a few extensions in its tenure. Finally, the assembly got dissolved last May. It is hoped the wheels of governance will now get moving.

The unending political crisis has crippled the Nepalese economy. No investor is prepared to risk his capital in a country where the administration is virtually non-existent. Among these businessmen are also Nepali industrialists who are shifting their units to safer locations outside the country. There are very few job opportunities in Nepal today. Hopes have, however, brightened up for the emergence of an effective administration with the Chief Justice heading it till an elected political dispensation comes into being.

Thought for the Day

A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away. —Phyllis McGinley

ARTICLE

Emerging US policies
The expectations from India
by G. Parthasarathy

One of the key policy initiatives during President Obama's first term was what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described in her article published in October 2011, titled "America's Pacific Century", as a "pivot" the "Indo-Pacific"" region, straddling the Asia-Pacific and the shores of the western Indian Ocean.

This meant that the primary focus of American policies, diplomatically and militarily, would shift to the Pacific Ocean from its Atlantic shores. It was manifested by American participation in the East Asia Summit and a determination not to be excluded from the emerging economic, diplomatic and security architecture in the "Indo-Pacific" area. But the American confusion and uncertainty remain on how to deal with an "assertive" and growingly powerful China, which is not averse to using force to enforcing territorial claims on neighbours ranging from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia.

Within days of the commencement of the Obama Administration's second term, an ebullient Vice-President Joe Biden returned from the Munich security conference. He turned the entire Asia-Pacific "pivot" on its head by proclaiming: "President Obama and I continue to believe that Europe is the cornerstone of our engagement with the rest of the world. It's that basic. Nothing has changed. Europe remains America's indispensable partner of first resort." This was an astonishing U-turn from the earlier emphasis on the 21st century being America's "Pacific Century" and its assertion that the global balance of power was shifting to Asia from Europe. President Obama confirmed the US intention to launch talks for a "comprehensive trade and investment partnership" with the European Union in his State of the Union Address.

This comes at a time when the US is confident that it will not only be a net exporter of gas but also the largest producer of oil in the world before the end of this decade. It has also led to the confidence of re-emergence of the US as a growing industrial power, readying to market its gas surpluses across the Atlantic.

Given these developments, it cannot be a mere coincidence that both Senators Kerry and Chuck Hagel, who will steward the State and Defence Departments, favour the establishment of a trans-Atlantic trade and economic zone as the cornerstone of the 2013 agenda. Both are veterans of the Vietnam War and share President Obama's aversion to military involvements abroad. This is evident from Obama's decision on avoiding direct military involvement in the Anglo-French intervention in Libya and his caution in not getting excessively drawn into events in Syria, or the French military intervention in Mali. This same approach will guide the American approach to its "end game" in Afghanistan. The doubt that remains is whether the US will leave adequate forces behind in Afghanistan and how their role will be fashioned. The policy of using drones in a counter-terrorism role against Pakistan-based terrorists operating in Afghanistan is also under review.

Senator Chuck Hagel, labelled as "peacenik" by Republican Party colleagues, has been a critic of the American military policies in Afghanistan. He remarked: "One of the reasons why we're in trouble in Afghanistan is because we went well beyond our mission. Is our mission to eliminate the Taliban? That never was our mission"? Hagel conveniently forgets that even before military operations commenced after 9/11, both the Saudis and the Americans tried to persuade Mullah Omar to hand over Osama bin Laden. The then ISI chief encouraged Mullah Omar to reject the American proposal. Mullah Omar flatly refused to yield. With the help of the Taliban and the ISI, Osama bin Laden was shifted to live comfortably with his many wives and children in the Abbotabad cantonment. Senator Kerry, who agreed in 2011 to a proposal involving the payment of "blood money" to secure the release of CIA operative Raymond Davis from Pakistani custody and was the co-author of the Kerry-Lugar Bill tripling economic assistance to Pakistan, has unique views on Pakistan's support for terrorism. He lauded Pakistan for its "logistical" support, which he claimed led to the American forces getting Osama bin Laden. "Our folks were able to cooperate on the ground with Pakistan. That's one of the reasons we were able to get Osama bin Laden. I don't think the Pakistanis have gotten enough credit for the fact that they were helpful".

Kerry also observed that the Pakistanis "have lost some 6000 people just last year in their efforts to go after terrorists". He pointedly failed to mention that while the Pakistan army targeted its citizens, whom it labelled as terrorists, it was not merely permissive, but colluding with outfits like the Mullah Omar-led Quetta Shura and the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan and their affiliates like the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is now operating on Pakistan's borders with both Afghanistan and India. Moreover, what Kerry has been saying contradicts everything said earlier on Pakistani support for terrorist outfits by President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta and General David Petraeus. It is doubtful if Obama shares the optimism of John Kerry on Pakistan's support for terrorism. The American end-game in Afghanistan under the new dispensation is set to pose formidable challenges to Indian diplomacy in its Af-Pak neighbourhood.

Changes in the American policy vis-a-vis the Asia-Pacific in the coming years also appear to be underway. Senator Hagel has noted: "China is going to emerge and grow. We should welcome that. There are going to be competitors like India, Brazil and other nations. They (the Chinese) are a great power today and are going to remain a great power. But we should not cower in the wake of that." There are indications that the new Obama team is going to ask its allies like Japan to avoid actions which displease or provoke China on disputed maritime frontiers. Priority is reportedly being given to "modifying the harder edges of the (Asia-Pacific) pivot and quietly reassuring China".

The outgoing Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs, Kurt Campbell, recently observed: "China is predominant in every aspect of political, financial, economic and security relations in Asia. India is still a nascent player in Asia. I think everyone has high hopes for the role India will play moving forward".

The message is that not much can be expected from a "nascent" India unless it sets its house in order, accelerates economic growth and enhances its defence potential. India's relationship with the US will remain cordial and correct, but largely transactional. We will have to refashion our Af-Pak and Look East policies accordingly.

MIDDLE

Stellar mansions
by S. Raghunath

TUT tut, what’s the country coming to? In Madhya Pradesh an astrologer is being harassed and barred from entering state government offices for five years, forcing him to seek redressal from the Supreme court. Today it is an astrologer who is being mindlessly persecuted by the official machinery. Tomorrow it might be a crystal gazer or a Tarot card reader. No, no, this cannot be allowed to go on.

An official spokesman of the MP Government has a different version though. Briefing newsmen in Bhopal, he said, “The astrologer in question was making wild and disastrously inaccurate predictions based on an out-of-date almanac and ephemerals, and he had wilfully ignored repeated official instructions and memos to buy the latest almanac and tables of planetary movements from the Government Press in Raipur.”

Continuing his briefing, the MP Government spokesman said, “In January last year this astrologer, after studying the Chief Minister’s Sun horoscope, said that the Jupiter was adversely aspected in his ninth stellar mansion and the Mars was debilitating on Mouni Amavasya Day, and predicted that he would face increased dissident and disruptive activities from the Uma Bharti camp. This caused the CM sleepless nights and he had to frequently airdash to Delhi to seek reassurances of the party high command’s continued support, but we all know that it was the Mercury that was adversely aspected in the CM’s third stellar mansion and that the Sun was, in fact, ascending on Mouni Amavasya Day. Because of the patently inaccurate reading of the CM’s horoscope, the government was forced to initiate limited administrative action against him under the Madhya Pradesh Astrologers (Conduct and Cadre) Rules 1791.”

“Earlier this astrologer had predicted that the Deputy Minister for Minor Forest Produce would be dropped from the Cabinet and a vigilance enquiry launched against him because the Saturn was in a malefic aspect in his fourth stellar mansion, but even an amateur astrologer knows that the Saturn is only malefic when it’s aspected in the ‘Rahu’ third stellar mansion. An inter-departmental enquiry concluded that he didn’t know his stars from his planets and recommended that he be barred from entering state government offices for five years lest he undermines the moral authority of the government with his poor knowledge of the effects of planetary movements.”

“Just last week this astrologer made yet another wrong prediction. He said that the Gwalior city unit of the Dalit-Mazdoor-Kisan Party would split and merge with the BJP, boosting the ruling party’s majority in the assembly because the Neptune was transiting through its zodiacal sign. But what happened, in fact, was the DMKP merged not with the BJP but with the MP Vikas Manch.”

“Did the state government contemplate any further action to regulate astrology and astrologers?” a newsman queried.

“Yes”, said the MP government spokesman. “In the winter session of the state assembly, the state government would be moving a Bill to promote healthy and responsible astrology and curb wild, scurrilous and inaccurate predictions.”

OPED Society

Juvenile justice: The urgency for reform
Juvenile homes remain an opaque and closed world, with little accountability and unmonitored performance. Judicial reforms pertaining to these have been relegated to the bottom rung. Is it because children are a non-franchised group and their voices get muzzled easily?
Upneet Lalli

A system designed to serve the children who are in need of care and protection, as also in conflict with law, has failed miserably in India. The Justice Verma panel has severely criticised the lack of reforms and rehabilitation policies in juvenile homes. Initiating reforms is a long-term proposition that is often fragile.

While prison laws remain archaic, the law for juveniles that was welcomed as progressive, has not led to consequent changes. Radical overhaul is lacking in both institutions, though prisons are still far more accountable today. The juvenile homes remain an opaque and closed world, with little accountability and unmonitored performance. Is it because children are a non-franchised group, whose voices get muzzled out easily, that the issue of juvenile justice reforms has been somewhat relegated to the bottom rung?

Lack of implementation

The saga of juvenile justice has been one of broken promises and dashed hopes. The least implemented piece of legislation has been the Juvenile Justice Act 2000. Today, the shrill cry for harsher penalties may be stifling the voices for a reasoned debate. The system is surrounded by misinformation and hyperbole. It's time to pause, reflect and assess the reality based on facts. As a followup, urgent action is needed to implement long-pending improvements. There is little debate about the way the present juvenile justice system operates, and unfortunately, there is no road map about the reform, rehabilitation, and reintegration process for juveniles. Despite the Supreme Court itself monitoring its implementation, the states have been slow in taking necessary action, due to changing financial priorities and lack of will.

While a lot is being debated about the age of criminality and reducing the age of juveniles from 18 to 16 years, there are no definitive answers. The alarmist cry today, is almost akin to public policy panic created, in the US in the 1990s with cry for "adult time for adult crime." Are all juveniles devils or monsters, to be feared and indefinitely locked up? The development of delinquent and criminal behaviour among adolescents as they make a transition to adulthood is a complex issue.

The Juvenile Justice Act 2000 spells out the government response in care, protection, and development of neglected children. It tackles the issues of crime prevention and rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents, by covering two categories of children — juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection. It also adopts a child-friendly approach in the adjudication and disposition of matters in the best interest of the child. A separate infrastructure for its implementation has been created. While the prison system is under the Home Department, the juvenile system comes under the Department of Women and Child Development.

Juveniles and offence

How do we deal with juveniles who have committed an offence? The Act mandates that the Juvenile Justice Board shall obtain a Social Investigation Report on the juvenile and take this into consideration before passing an order under Section 15 of the JJ Act 2000. Admonition, group counselling, community service, probation in care of fit institution and probation in care of parents, guardian are the non-custodial punishments prescribed and for custodial treatment they can be sent to a special home for a period of three years. As many as 4.8 per cent were sent to institutions and 729(21.5 per cent) were sent to special homes. Interviews with juveniles reveal that many do not follow the proceedings of the Board, and are left confused about their case. In many places sittings of the Board still takes place in the court, where they come across adult offenders. Section 8 and 9 of the Juvenile Justice Act, and Rule 40 of the Rules 2007 categorise different types of observation and special homes, their numbers are inadequate in most states. There is no designated place of safety in both Punjab and Haryana.

A system of classification based on physical and mental status, and nature of offence committed is provided under the rules. In practice, there is no classification and categorisation of juveniles. Even with such small numbers, their issues remain neglected. Is it a reflection of society that forgets the offenders once it sends them to confinement? Section 35 provides for an inspection committee for children's homes, and Section 26 provides for social auditing to monitor and evaluate the functioning of these homes. The persons inspecting these may also not be aware of the rules, and the inspections may be cursory.

Standards of care

The purpose of sending juveniles to special homes is that they can learn new skills, resocialise, and come out as better reformed persons. However, what is followed is containment and confinement. Juveniles may just be packed in a room, and spend their time watching TV. Even though the Act specifies creation of separate Juvenile Justice Fund, most states have not done it. Many homes have only contractual provision of food, and the food quality may be very poor. The standards of care for the institutions are provided under the rules.The daily routine, diet scale, medical care, education and vocational training standards are prescribed. Yet, these are breached more than they are observed. Presently, while prisons still have a system of regimental routine for prisoners, no such system exist for juveniles. Most of the times juveniles have little outdoor activities, educational and vocational training programmes. Juvenile institutions are not rehabilitative and may be criminogenic at the worst. This dichotomy between prescribed and prevalent practice is too wide.

Young offenders

After meeting different juveniles lodged in special homes and even in prisons, as they have been shown as adults, what I have observed is that juveniles will accept their guilt more readily than adults. This is actually, the starting point for change. Acknowledging the wrong done, and making amends is easier for children. Yet, there are no programmes to help them to lead a law-abiding life after their release. Though the juvenile justice system provides for aftercare yet there is no such follow-up by probation officers for the released juveniles. The probation system itself has collapsed in most states. Dealing with persistent and violent young offenders requires strategies that address the root cause. They also require a more intensive, individualised treatment.

The staff turnover is high, is poorly trained, with little incentive as most of them are contractual employees and may have no orientation towards the philosophy of the Act. They are poor role models for the juveniles. Time and again one reads about juveniles escaping from the home. Incidence of assault and beatings are common in juvenile homes. There may be hue and cry on the escape from these homes, but then it is back to square one. Some of the observation homes may be more akin to gulags, where children may end up with horrifying experiences of abuse, beating and exploitation. In many cases children who have already encountered violence in their immediate social environment as either witnesses or victims of violent acts, later on become young offenders. Children have to be cared for, and provided the means to realise their potential and given their childhood back. Successful transition from adolescent to adulthood requires educational skills, self-discipline and autonomy.

Multiple stakeholders

Genuine reforms for the juvenile justice system require broad commitment from multiple stakeholders. Any legislation to be effective requires a clear commitment to financial and human resources. It also requires people who are responsible for implementation to be sincere and honest while doing their job. Do the implementers of child rights have the pre-requisite skill and commitment? Will the newly established Child Protection Commissions make any difference to the status of these children? The state governments have to seriously examine whether they are committed to child rights or political interests, and whose interests they seek — best interests of the child or something else?

To a large extent juvenile crime can be prevented rather than accepted as fait accompli. Family, as the primary institution of socialisation, plays an important role in its prevention. Multi-sectoral prevention initiatives need to be designed and implemented by the community at large. In particular, we need to build on the strengths and interests of youth rather than focusing only on their problems or deficits. Confining offenders within the walls is not a solution to crime control. Society may feel safe for the time being by locking up offenders of all ages. But be warned, research indicates that forgetting the key can take a serious toll.

The extent of juvenile crime in India
What is the extent and nature of juvenile delinquency in India? As per National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) statistics, a total of 33,887 juveniles were apprehended during 2011. Out of these 31,909 were boys and 1978 were girls. As many as 30,766(90.7 per cent) were arrested under IPC crimes, while 3,121 juveniles were apprehended under Special and Local laws(SLL) crimes. The maximum number of juveniles (9,886) were apprehended for theft and burglary. As many as 1,231 juveniles were apprehended for rape. The IPC crimes committed by juveniles to total IPC crimes has increased marginally to 1.1per cent in 2011. There were 25,125 juvenile IPC crimes registered in 2011 compared to 22,740 IPC crimes during 2010.

A view of the Observation-Cum-Special Home for Juveniles in Sector 25, Chandigarh. Photo: Manoj Mahajan

While the incidence of crimes under SLL were 2,837 in 2011, the highest numbers apprehended were under the Gambling Act, Prohibition Act and Excise Act. The juvenile crime rate was 2.1per cent. The bulk of juveniles (64 per cent) apprehended were in the age group of 16 to 18 years. The most significant factor is that 55.8 per cent total of juveniles were either illiterate or had education up to the primary level only. More than half of juveniles belong to poor families whose annual income is about Rs 25,500. High-rise malls alongside slums, luxury brands and enticing images — need we be surprised by their desire for instant gratification? Research has shown that poverty, social disadvantage, constricted opportunities, structural inequalities contribute to increasing crime.

— The writer is Deputy Director, Institute of Correctional Administration, Chandigarh