Lately, we have witnessed PM’s continuous efforts to crescendo the chronic problems of our judiciary. And well it is worth it. With over 37 lakh cases pending in the high courts across the country and over 50,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court, the problem is worth catching eyeballs and raising eyebrows.
Effective and efficient judiciary empowers the minorities. Keeping in view the diverse portfolio of people that our country embraces, a whole lot of social evils and crimes orchestrated towards minorities and political hooligans who try to usurp the little available space to the minorities (like the one during the Orissa riots), it is very important to streamline the system to reinstate the faith of the people in it. Expectedly, the conviction rate for cases of atrocities against SCs and STs is less than 30% as against the national average of 42%.
A commission headed by former Supreme Court judge has attributed the arrears to long vacations in the judiciary. The Supreme Court works only 190 days a year, that’s just a little over six months, in sharp contrast with the government offices that work 245 days. It is an outdated, heavily borrowed British legacy that should have been done away with 60 years back.
Fast track judiciary not only lends space to the minorities but also voice; and empowers them. Henceforth, apart from curtailing the number of holidays, an example worth emulating is Kiran Bedi’s Aap Ki Kachheri. We are a highly litigious society, too ready to take disputes to court. Bodies like Aap Ki Kachheri should proliferate so that they can resolve disputes at their level. This could also decrease the burden on high courts and Supreme Court. With the appointment of reputed bureaucrats and retired judges as judges, people would have no problem taking their disagreements to these bodies first, having known that litigating to a high court their cases would take very long before it comes up for hearing. On the other hand, the way Kiran Bedi delivers justice within half an hour is commendable.
So beacons like Kiran Bedi are already there, we only need to emulate!
Friday, September 11, 2009
SILENT REVOLUTION IN MAHARASHTRA
The country and it’s many states may be busy finding out solutions for it’s rickety education system. Truant teachers, poor infrastructure... the problems are many. All of these lead to high drop-out rates which triggers the vicious circle of unemployability and poverty. Family pressures, meagre resources and the tendency to switch the children from learning to earning mode at an early age- all lead to high drop-out rates again leading to poor literacy rates. The anomaly is that literacy and employability have little relevance. A Class 7 pass out is no different from a Class 10 pass out for poor parents.
While some states may still be in the hibernation mode and others in the pondering mode to redress the anomalies, a silent revolution is already brewing in Maharashtra’s labour market. The state’s network of 750 Industrial Training Institutes, the country’s largest, which teach highly specialised vocational trades such as welding and auto mechanics, has tied up over the past two years with more than 100 firms such as Bharat Forge and Indian Hotels. These companies are helping train the youngsters, many of who are school drop-outs, and employ them. A Confederation of Indian Industry survey estimates that at the current economic growth rate, Maharashtra will need 40 lakh industrial skilled employees by 2010. But the state’s ITIs produce less than 5 lakhs every year. And the need for skilled manpower is only going to escalate as the country progresses. Most of the students in these ITIs are school drop-outs at different levels but now foresee jobs awaiting them that will pay them more than anyone in their family has ever earned.
It seems the Maharashtra government has found the elixir for the drop-outs who even after dropping out could still have their dreams twinkling in their eyes!
While some states may still be in the hibernation mode and others in the pondering mode to redress the anomalies, a silent revolution is already brewing in Maharashtra’s labour market. The state’s network of 750 Industrial Training Institutes, the country’s largest, which teach highly specialised vocational trades such as welding and auto mechanics, has tied up over the past two years with more than 100 firms such as Bharat Forge and Indian Hotels. These companies are helping train the youngsters, many of who are school drop-outs, and employ them. A Confederation of Indian Industry survey estimates that at the current economic growth rate, Maharashtra will need 40 lakh industrial skilled employees by 2010. But the state’s ITIs produce less than 5 lakhs every year. And the need for skilled manpower is only going to escalate as the country progresses. Most of the students in these ITIs are school drop-outs at different levels but now foresee jobs awaiting them that will pay them more than anyone in their family has ever earned.
It seems the Maharashtra government has found the elixir for the drop-outs who even after dropping out could still have their dreams twinkling in their eyes!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
WHAT'S YOUR BLOODY PROBLEM MEN?
I get filled with intense hatred towards the society whenever I am confronted with its realities and paradoxes.
A nationwide opinion poll conducted for Hindustan Times and CNN-IBN threw up surprises. A staggering 70% people supported the decision of educational institutes banning students(girls) from wearing jeans and other western dresses. A whooping 80% thought that the incidents of rape and sexual harassment have increased because of the way women dress? Excuse me!
Were not the women raped during 1980s, 1960s, 1940s and even before? They were raped even in sarees and salwar suits. The point is that just because in those times the knowledge of these incidents was limited to local ambits because of no/insufficient media to cover them does not mean there were no crimes at all. Moreover, these incidents were suppressed to escape the scourge of society because rape was such a crime where the victim was harassed and perpetrators were let-off. But today, a local event becomes a national news and rape victims have started claiming justice.
All those who attribute increasing rapes to the way girls dress have an illusion. They think that girls who do not have any problem showing their belly-button or their skin are ‘open’ to it. And it is implicit that they are ‘inviting’ it. No, it is not implicit. They need to understand that rape is not sex. In fact this pretext is also used by the accused to get away with conviction. There have been prosecutions where the perpetrators claimed that they should be let-off because the girl was of loose moral character(which was judged by her clothes). So? Even if the girl is of loose characters, rape is rape. Rape is simply sex without consent, even if the girl is wearing her skirt upto her neck. Which part of that is difficult to understand?
My point is: please dissociate crimes with the freedom of girls. This tendency to attribute the behaviour of girls to increasing crimes and cover up the administrative lapses is disgusting!
But why do they link womans’ freedom to crimes at all? Maybe because the people want the girls to get back to what they were. Yes, the way and pace with which girls have adopted liberal behaviour in dressing and carrying themselves seem to threaten the reactionaries and the self-appointed moral custodians. These people who oppose social changes fear that if this ’phenomenon’ takes up unrelenting dimensions then their wives, daughters and daughters-in-law may stop being their servile servants. What if they start questioning the preposterous rules and orders imposed on them? What if they encroach in our area of authority, the authority which in our Indian society is the exclusive provision of males, and start taking their decisions themselves? What if they never asked for our consent? The most painful thing, right?
The paradox is some rules were made only for women. Until men went to pubs there was no problem at all with the society. It was absolutely normal and ok. But when women started doing the same, Mangalore pub incidents came up. And what an irony. These self-appointed moral custodians approve of their hooligan behaviour. I have seen men who, when get a glance of a girl smoking, making absurd statements like “It is wrong”. But a simple question is enough to make them numb. Just ask them: “What is wrong: Smoking cigarette or a girl smoking cigarette?”. I can bet that more than 95% of the boys have had the smoking experience at least once in their lives. Accept it or not but these non-uniform societal laws were made only to curb the freedom of women. And now when women have started defying them, there's only fear left for men!
A nationwide opinion poll conducted for Hindustan Times and CNN-IBN threw up surprises. A staggering 70% people supported the decision of educational institutes banning students(girls) from wearing jeans and other western dresses. A whooping 80% thought that the incidents of rape and sexual harassment have increased because of the way women dress? Excuse me!
Were not the women raped during 1980s, 1960s, 1940s and even before? They were raped even in sarees and salwar suits. The point is that just because in those times the knowledge of these incidents was limited to local ambits because of no/insufficient media to cover them does not mean there were no crimes at all. Moreover, these incidents were suppressed to escape the scourge of society because rape was such a crime where the victim was harassed and perpetrators were let-off. But today, a local event becomes a national news and rape victims have started claiming justice.
All those who attribute increasing rapes to the way girls dress have an illusion. They think that girls who do not have any problem showing their belly-button or their skin are ‘open’ to it. And it is implicit that they are ‘inviting’ it. No, it is not implicit. They need to understand that rape is not sex. In fact this pretext is also used by the accused to get away with conviction. There have been prosecutions where the perpetrators claimed that they should be let-off because the girl was of loose moral character(which was judged by her clothes). So? Even if the girl is of loose characters, rape is rape. Rape is simply sex without consent, even if the girl is wearing her skirt upto her neck. Which part of that is difficult to understand?
My point is: please dissociate crimes with the freedom of girls. This tendency to attribute the behaviour of girls to increasing crimes and cover up the administrative lapses is disgusting!
But why do they link womans’ freedom to crimes at all? Maybe because the people want the girls to get back to what they were. Yes, the way and pace with which girls have adopted liberal behaviour in dressing and carrying themselves seem to threaten the reactionaries and the self-appointed moral custodians. These people who oppose social changes fear that if this ’phenomenon’ takes up unrelenting dimensions then their wives, daughters and daughters-in-law may stop being their servile servants. What if they start questioning the preposterous rules and orders imposed on them? What if they encroach in our area of authority, the authority which in our Indian society is the exclusive provision of males, and start taking their decisions themselves? What if they never asked for our consent? The most painful thing, right?
The paradox is some rules were made only for women. Until men went to pubs there was no problem at all with the society. It was absolutely normal and ok. But when women started doing the same, Mangalore pub incidents came up. And what an irony. These self-appointed moral custodians approve of their hooligan behaviour. I have seen men who, when get a glance of a girl smoking, making absurd statements like “It is wrong”. But a simple question is enough to make them numb. Just ask them: “What is wrong: Smoking cigarette or a girl smoking cigarette?”. I can bet that more than 95% of the boys have had the smoking experience at least once in their lives. Accept it or not but these non-uniform societal laws were made only to curb the freedom of women. And now when women have started defying them, there's only fear left for men!
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