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F O C U S
A Vicious
Circle of Sexism and Deprivation
Gobind Thukral
Indians
are shocked at the heinous and tragic killing of children in Nithari village,
close to a flourishing city of NOIDA. The dreadful scene of mutilated parts of
24 children being fished out of drain near the house of rich man has sent shock
waves. These children, all belonging to the poor families, mostly migrants went
missing over the last two years. Most of the missing children are girls and less
than 12 years accept one. When the hapless parents approached, they were rebuked
and humiliated. Even when the police was forced to take action, it got its palms
greased and let the accused go scot-free. Thanks to the media exposure, some
police persons have now been dismissed or suspended and the case is with the
CBI. All these years, politicians, officers and even the media looked the other
way. Only small isolated reports appeared until the ghastly tragedy caught the
headlines.
 But Nithari
tragedy is not an isolated phenomenon in a country that claims high moral ground
for its spiritual heritage and rich religions. We have reports from Patna of the
same tragedy where young girls and boys were lured by maniac criminals for the
past three years and killed f after sexually abusing them. Nine bodies were
recovered from Patna. This tragedy has now unfolded in Punjab and in the holy
city of Mukatsar. Fiver mutilated bodies of children recovered from the
abandoned rice mill of a politician tell a gory tale of sexual abuse and
ruthless killing. Children are missing in Tarn Taran and many other places in
Punjab. The police has been forced to act after many moths of dilly
dallying and a drug addict married man arrested for the killings in
Mukatsar. Recently bodies of nine labourers were unearthed in
Hyderabad. The labourers had all been sodomised. And, in Kanpur as many as 132
children have gone missing in the past five years and police have failed to
collect any information about them. Same story of the poor people losing
their beloved children to criminals as in Nithari is repeated here. There are
reports from Maharashtra and Karnataka of the same tragic and gory killings. No
place is safe in India.
 Missing of
innocent children, mostly poor and their heartbreaking sexual abuse and killing
is widespread. A Former top-ranking Delhi police official Maxwell Pereira tells
us that nearly millions of children are missing in the country. He puts the
figure at 46 million. It could be true. For instance, close to 150,000 street
children live in New Delhi, of which 7%-10% are runaways. More than 2,500 of
these children live in and around New Delhi railway station where they scavenge
for food in rubbish heaps and sleep between the tracks. Pimps often pick up
runaway girls who show up at the railways stations. All these children are
potential victims of drug peddlers and child traffickers. The same gruesome
story repeats itself all over India. Poverty is one major reason and our
lopsided social and economic system another.
Millions of
children across the country suffer from lack of food, healthcare and education.
Family life is in jeopardy as mothers are forced to live with abusive conditions
at home and discrimination in the workplace and they often neglect children.
According to a new study, “The State of the World's Children 2007” where Ann
Veneman, executive director of the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF,
asserts, "Gender equality and the well-being of children are inextricably
linked." The 148-page study noted that millions of women around the
world are condemned to suffer from physical and sexual violence.
UNICEF
researchers point to a strong correlation between violence against women and
violence against children. Their study shows that every year, as many as 275
million children worldwide are caught in the crossfire of domestic violence.
Children who grow up in violent homes are more likely to suffer abuse themselves
than children who have a peaceful home life. Girls are more vulnerable to
violence at home than boys. They run away from homes or thugs and criminals lure
them.
The statistical
analysis in the report shows that in most places, women work harder and longer,
but earn less than men. It also notes that women continue to lack equal
participation in decision-making at home as well as in the sphere of public
life. The situation becomes worst when it comes to the poor where women have not
only work at homes, but outside also. They cannot take care of children who are
often left to their fate. There begins the tragedy.
Convinced that
gender parity plays a pivotal role in improving economic and social conditions,
researchers warned that continued discrimination against women could jeopardise
efforts for poverty reduction and other development-related issues including
care of children.
United Nations
has set targets for the Millennium Development Goals in 2001 and world leaders
had agreed to include achieving gender parity in primary education by 2015. But
this latest report given the current pace of efforts towards that goal, suggests
no positive sign whatsoever. It notes that in many poor countries, nearly 20
percent of the girls who are enrolled in primary schools eventually fail to
complete their education. Noting that missing out on a primary education
deprives a girl of the opportunity to develop to her full potential, researchers
stress that educated women are more likely to send their children to school and
less likely to die in childbirth.
Normally
whenever there is development, economic progress and technological progress, we
expect there to be progress in other areas. What is unusual here is that
development and progress on other fronts are associated with this terrible,
retrogressive phenomenon of missing children, their sexual abuse and brutal
killings that is actually getting worse.
What is
happening in India? Are children only for killing and objects for the depraved
and maniacs? Are we totally insensitive to the plight of the poor and our police
and justice system is meant for the rich and the powerful? Where do we stand
when it comes to the poor? Poverty seems to the first big crime.
India has been
gradually turning to be a lawless land where the powerful and the rich rule the
roost. This has caused anguish among the middle class. But also build cynicism.
This class seems to be losing its moorings and its vanguard role. Poor are too
harassed and busy in earning for the day to understand the system and lead the
march, the rich are amassing wealth, exploiting and getting filthily rich. It is
thus incumbent upon the middle class that has some leisure and time to think and
debate and provide leadership for a just society where children do not suffer
such cruelty.
BACK
Rooting
for the Roots
Sonia G Handa
 TWO
Punjab born Indio Canadian politicians, a matured trade unionist, Harry Bains
member of British Columbia Assembly and Harinder Takhar, a minister in Ontario
province came to look for their roots. Some nostalgia and some nourishment. They
were concerned in their own way about the state of affairs in Punjab. It is
election time here and they are surprised at the kind of money being spent and
also the frog jumping of Congress and Akalis. Some comparison between India and
Canada is not odd particularly about, governance, elections and the party
system.
It is less than
dollar per voter, which a Canadian candidate can spend for election to the
provincial assembly. It varies between $ 80,000 and $1,00,000, depending upon
the number of voters in a particular seats to a provincial assembly. It is true
about federal parliament. Remarkably this law is seldom flouted. Also, there are
no political dynasties and kith and kin are not groomed to be leaders as in
India. No musclemen, no big rallies and no high pitch propaganda. “It is
mostly clean business and door to door campaigning and the personal contact
build over the years that matter. You are judged by what you have done and your
standing built over the years count, says Bains. Bains came to Canada when he
was just 19 in 1979.He has spent years as trade unionist in the lumber industry
like former federal minister Ujjal Dosanjh or legendary communist leader late
Darshan Singh Canadian. He is not someone’s Kakaji.
 In Canada,
elections are fought more on party lines than at the individual level. “Every
cent spent during the elections is accounted for and “winning of nomination as
a candidate from a particular riding is democratic where registered workers of a
party elect their nominee. And a sitting MLA needs no re-nomination,” Takhar
says.
The major
difference, however, is inheritance of political power in India. Takhar
recalled, “It is an unheard phenomenon in Canada that a son is inducted into
politics by his father or mother. In one instance, when a sitting member died,
his brother got the nomination, but he was defeated by a two-thirds majority.”
Bains finds
election time as festival time and involvement of people in politics also
surprises him as does the anti defection law. But absence of ideological debate
and issues is disturbing to him.” Though I have no personal stakes in
Punjab’s electoral politics, still I have an emotional attachment which urges
me to keep abreast with the developments,” says Bains. He has more questions
to ask than to answer.
The major
difference, however, is inheritance of political power in India. “It is an
unheard phenomenon in Canada that a son is inducted into politics by his father
or mother. In one instance, when a sitting member died, his brother got the
nomination, but he was defeated by a two-thirds majority,” recalls Takhar. He
has built his reputation as a successful businessman. He was earlier transport
minister, but had to be shifted to another ministry. Takhar who arrived in
Canada in 1974 was criticized by the province's integrity commissioner for
visiting and helping his family business, which is in a blind trust to avoid the
appearance of conflict of interest, and for having an executive of that business
act as chief financial officer of his riding association.
Touching an
equally fundamental subject during an interview, Bains, one of the 33 members of
NDP in the British Columbia Assembly feels strongly that “The
fruit of privatization are for the rich in British Columbia like Punjab though
economic situation of Punjab and British Columbia are different, they have one
thing in common. The way privatization in every sector is encouraged in Punjab,
it is same in British Columbia. The rich harvest the fruits of privatisation and
poor are deprived of the benefits.” According to him the American model of
economic growth and development is making the rich richer and is encouraging
unemployment among the poor and pushing them further towards poverty. He further
said that the despite economic progress the children below poverty line in
British Columbia is 18% and the count of homeless people have doubled.
Here in
Chandigarh to meet his friends, Bains. Born and brought up in Hardaspur village
in Jalandhar district, he left for Canada at the age of 19 and
earned his living by working in a sawmill. Since 1977 he has been active in
politics.
He feels proud
to be chosen for the same assembly in British Columbia, which passed laws to
deny voting rights and the right to practice medicine for the non-resident
Indians. In this assembly out of 79 members 8 elected members are from Punjab.
Worried by the
use of drugs by the children of Punjabis in British Columbia and Punjabi youths
being killed in drug wars, he says that various organization are taking steps to
overcome this situation. He further says that even if this is a serious problem
but number of Punjabi families in drugs and drugs trafficking is very and most
of the Punjabis have a dignified place in Canadian society.
Bains was
elected as the MLA for Surrey Newton on May 17, 2005. He serves as Opposition
Critic for the Olympics. He has been active in the Surrey community for many
years and has years of experience in education having served on the Kwantlen
College Board of Governors between 1993 and 1999. He has also volunteered with
organizations like Habitat for Humanity.
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