The Weekly Observer Vol 14 Issue 19

OBSERVER The Weekly

Volume 14 | Issue 19

Thursday, January 29, 2015

6 months for a double murder How goons use the law to escape justice

EXCLUSIVE

of justice and sent her home.

Elizabeth Mani Criminal gangs are exploiting a loophole in the law to literally get away with murder by forcing juveniles to confess to crimes.

In two separate recent incidents in Bangalore, two 17-year-olds confessed to murders and were sent to juvenile jail. Under Indian law, they must be released as soon as they turn 18 and there is no provision to send them to adult prisons to complete their sentences.

In one case, a 17-year-old who confessed to the double murder of two brothers will spend just a few months behind bars. The mother of the victims, who claims six men killed her sons, five of them over the age of 18, has threatened to kill herself inside the local police station unless police trace the adults responsible.

Rakesh(name changed) was murdered at L.R. Nagar, after which three boys under the age of 17 confessed to the crime. One of them, Suresh(name changed), admitted to the Observer that other people were also involved in the murder.

He said, “It wasn’t just me, other local goons were also involved in the murder.”

The victims’ father, Gopal, said: “We complained to HSR police that two of my sons were murdered by six people but the police didn’t take any action against them. The incident happened on 14 February 2014 but the post-mortem report hasn’t come from Victoria hospital.”

Venu and Pavan were allegedly murdered by six people in 2014 Suresh was released after spending three months in the juvenile justice board. Madan is a friend of both Rakesh and Suresh.

He also said that Suresh admitted to him that it was a gang of adult goons who killed Rakesh.

In another similar case, 14-yearold Venu and 13-year-old Pavan were murdered on 14 Feb, 2014 following which 17-year-old Anand confessed that he killed both of them. Anand is now in the Juvenile Justice Board and will be released as soon as he turns 18, as per the law.

Bharthamma, the victims’ mother, believes that her sons were killed by a gang of six members, all

of whom were above 18.

She said, “Anand confessed to the murder because he is 17 years old and will be released when he turns 18.”

When Bharthamma had gone to HSR layout police station, she met Anand’s mother there.

Talking about the turmoil she endured, Bharthamma said: “When I went to HSR layout police station, the police pushed me out. Then I went home, took kerosene, went back to the station and told the police: ‘If I don’t get justice, I will kill myself.’”

Following this, one of the policemen consoled her, assured her

However, the investigating officer for the case, Raghu, said that the post-mortem had been received, and it proved that only one person killed both the victims. He refused to elaborate on how the post mortem report could reveal this.

Speaking about the case, he said: “Pavan’s mother is emotionally blackmailing the police that she will commit suicide in the police station if we don’t find the other criminals.”

B T Venkatesh, public prosecutor of Karnataka, speaking about the loophole, said he was unaware of such cases and added: “If such things happened, people would take advantage of it all the time.”

In most foreign countries, like in the UK, juvenile offenders sentenced for serious offences are moved to adult jails to complete their sentence.

When Venkatesh was askwhether

this should be the law in India, he disagreed. He said that if a person is a juvenile during the time of offence, then the case shouldn’t be transferred.

Debate has been raging over the age of adult criminality since the Delhi gang rape, where a juvenile was one of those involved.

Campaigners on one side are trying to lower the age when juveniles should be tried as adults but many are resisting this, calling it a backward step.

Vikram, a criminal lawyer from Bangalore, agreed that the loophole existed in law, but added that he had never personally been involved in such a case. ”We don’t take judicial cases blindly. We see the documents and the proofs,” he added.

Vikram also blamed poverty as a factor, saying that a poor family might actually encourage their juvenile children to take the blame in return for money. Talking about the law, he said that a proposal was mooted to reduce the maximum age of juveniles to 16.

Lokesh, DCP of Bangalore south division, defended the police, saying, “Police are there to find out the truth. People can’t cheat the police.”

Right to Information all wrong Nikhil M Babu The Right to Information Act is in complete disarray across India with major government departments yet to even register under the act.

Pending RTI requests have risen 240% in the five years between 2008 and 2013. From 3,62,520 in 2008-09, the number has increased to 8,86,681 in 2012-13, the most recently collated data.

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise of good governance, the post of Chief Information Officer has been vacant for more than six months.

The condition of the act at state level is also dire. Pending RTI requests have doubled in Karnataka compared to last year.

“The act was supposed to be perfect but there is something very bad happening,” said Vikram Simha, a Bangalore based RTI activist for more than eight years.

“The mindset of the officers has to be changed.”

Staffing levels is a problem in

other commissions also. The Chief Information Commissioner’s post is vacant in Delhi and Jharkhand Information Commissions. And the Meghalaya State Information Commission has only one member.

In central the number of public authorities who have ‘not submitted’ returns to the CIC has increased by over 90% in 2012-13 compared to 2008-09.

Almost eight years after its inception, CIC is still not sure whether all the public authorities under central government have registered in the commission or not.

Also, the commission in its 2013 report stated that it does not have any data on the public authorities of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Ministry of Panchayati Raj and UT of Lakshadweep. They have continued their defaulting status and haven’t submitted returns to the commission for 2012-13.

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Road & Transport

have also failed to adhere to the RTI rules. The UT of Pondicherry has more than one-third of its public departments not complying with the commission.

The Women & Child Development ministry, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Finance have failed to submit annual reports.

The commission made the following recommendation: “This is a matter of serious concern that the public authorities are defaulting in terms of their statutory obligations to submission of returns to the Commission...”

The working of other state information commissions is also disturbing.

“We have till now not published an annual report from our inception, since it has not been approved by the assembly,” said Dr. Manash Dev, Secretary of Tripura State Information Commission.

In West Bengal 83% of the complaints and 66% of the appeals are pending in 2008-09, which is

the last available data.

“T.K. Mohapatra, Deputy Secretary of CIC said: “There are thousands of public authorities and it’s impossible for the comission to know whether they are registered. Also there is no agency to

check whether all public authorities are registered with the commission or not.”

(Continued on Page 3)

2 The Weekly OBSERVER

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Mushrooming slums house 1.4 million in city These boys from Uttar Pradesh are selling balloons and living in the slum under the City Market flyover.

“We make Rs 200 in a day,” Vikram said. “I came to Bangalore because I wanted to earn enough to buy myself a cycle. I don’t know if that will happen now.”

Saheli Sen Gupta At least 1.4 million people go to sleep in a slum every night in Bangalore, according to a report which has been accused of "grossly underestimating" reality.

With the increase in migration, there is an increase in the number of slums in Bangalore. According to the Karnataka Slum Development Board, the city has at least 600 slums.

However, the Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA) said that the city has over 1,500 non-notified slums which are not counted by the government and said that at least 25% to 35% of the population reside in slums all over Bangalore. That means up to three million people in a city with a

population of 10 million live in slums.

For 14-year-old Vikram and his friends, Bangalore seemed to be the city of dreams when they arrived in 2012 looking for jobs. Two years later, these boys from Uttar Pradesh are still selling balloons and living in the slum under the City Market flyover.

“We make Rs 200 in a day,” he said. “I came to Bangalore because I wanted to earn enough to buy myself a cycle. I don’t know if that will happen now.”

According to ‘How to govern India's megacities: Towards needed transformation’, a study conducted by the Center for Policy Research, Bangalore has the most number of migrants in the country.

Kasiyappa, 56-years old, came to Bangalore from Tamil Nadu 38

years ago. He was found sleeping on the streets by his current employer, Ismail and now works as an unpaid laborer in a recycle shop.

“He gives me two meals a day and a place to sleep and that is enough for me,” he said.

For 28-year-old Bidesh Mohandas from Kerala, an IT recruiter for IBM, Bangalore seemed the ideal destination. “I came to Bangalore in 2009 because it is the IT hub of the country. Now, half a decade later, I am comfortably settled here.”

Taxi driver Manju, a native of Bangalore feels that migrants are taking away job opportunities from the locals. “There are more Biharis in Bangalore than Kannadigas and no one is worried. I understand that jobs will go to the ones who deserve them but these people keep coming and taking away our jobs.”

Engineering graduates Sagar, Deepak and Priyanka came to Bangalore from Rajasthan, Bhopal and Jabalpur respectively and are yet to find jobs. “This city has over 5000 companies and is the center for IT in India. It is only normal that we will come here to work for there are plenty of opportunities for everyone,” said Deepak.

“There are too many people and not enough jobs and with every candidate, the criteria begin to differ and the positions become even harder to achieve,” said Bidesh.

Lakshapati, an activist at APSA, said, “Migration is a part of development and the influx of migrants is not only because of opportunities and money.

Laborers from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have always been brought to Bangalore to work at

construction sites.”

He disagreed with Manju and said, “Migration is on the rise as the local laborers cannot meet the demand of the market. Companies outsource work to laborers from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand because there aren’t enough workers here.

Chandreyii, a media professional from West Bengal, came to Bangalore in April 2014 and feels that Bangalore has learned to share opportunities with everyone. “I love the city and the people here have always been nice to me,” she said.

Lakshapati added, “While it is true that Bangalore is growing, there will come a point when the city will not be able to sustain everyone. The city might not be limited but its resources are.

A state of despair: migrants who have come from various parts of the country in search of livelihood and ended up occupying spaces beneath flyovers and roadsides

The Weekly OBSERVER

Thursday, January 29, 2015

3

‘Votes for homes’ deal left us on the streets, say slum dwellers Punita Maheshwari Almost 2000 homes allocated for slum dwellers were given away in return for votes and money, according to locals and a development board official, A blame game between the Slum Development Authority and ousted MLA M. Srinivas is in full swing after 95per cent of homes allocated to slum dwellers were given to people not on the list.

Out of the 2000 flats allocated by the Slum Development Authority to the Jai Bhim slum near Laggere, under the Jahawar Lal Nehru Pariyojana Scheme, only 92 are registered slum dwellers with documentation, according to the residents of the slum.

The residents claim flats were handed over for money and in return for votes without authorization about three years ago. “We will not take any names but when, three years ago, flats were empty, the flats were given to these people. This happened due to lack of authority exercised by the Slum Development Authority,” said, Chinnama, a resident in B block.

However, M. Srinivas, who was the MLA while the allocation process took place, said.

“I was not present at the time of allocation process; I have never been involved in corrupt activities. The officials in the development

Newly constructed building of the Jai Bhim Slum in Laggere Picture Courtesy - Paul Oommen authority played a gimmick to distribute the flats,” he said.

“This incident has affected my political career and people have elected someone else over an honest and hard working man,” he added, in tears.

According to residents, the illegal occupants do not follow the community rules like contributing during festivals or for the community temple.

Ramya, 10, said, “The ‘hidden’ people in the buildings at the backside chose to be

isolated but when it comes to resources like water, electricity, they exercise their authority over us.”

Ravishekhar, 40, said, “The people in those buildings are goons, they drink and howl on the road and we cannot tell them to stop.”

The officials from Slum Development Authority are aware of the discrepancies but there is not much they can do.

“The slum is facing a lot of problem, one of which is illegal occupancy, it is following the vote bank politics and we have tried to

Mohammed Zafrulla, Assistant Engineer, Slum Development Board evacuate the illegal occupants but have largely failed,” said, Mohammad Zafarulla, Assistant Executive Engineer, Slum Development Authority.

“The illegal occupants are notorious and we face a lot of problem, we are hoping that the Muniratnam keeps his promises and throws them out of the slum. We want simple living for ourselves and to avoid any disturbances only the allocated ones should live here,” said, Thambi, leader of the slum.

Right to Ignore or Right to Info?

(Continued from Page 1) Other states like Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Assam have not updated their annual report for the last five years.

With the public information officers and information commissions who should be pro active in the disclosure of information lacking in their duty people are groping in the dark for information.

According to the Right to Information Act 2005, if not satisfied with an RTI reply the applicant can make a complaint to the senior officer of the Public Information Officer called the first appellate and later second appellate to the information commission if still not satisfied.

First appeals in the state have also increased by 66% compared to last year.

“There is a direct connection between the pending requests and

the number of first appeals,” said Dr. Shekhar D Sajjanar, Information officer of Karnataka information Commission.

Also, about two-third of the second appeals were not disposed of by the commission in 2013.

Sajjanar also said that the first appeals are not being heard which compel citizens to make second appeals and in many cases the PIOs are not appearing before the commission, which in turn increases the delay.

In 2013, the commission made the following recommendation: “Commission has observed that some of the controlling officers are

“They are trying not to

give the correct information and thus delay it as much as possible.”

- Madhu, RTI activists in Kerala.

increase in the number of pending RTI requests They (officials) know in Kerala. The that if one domino number of RTI not falls the entire struc- requests disposed of acture falls.” cording to State Information - Sandeep Shetty, Commission has brother of Satish increased from 1.1% in 2008-09 Shetty to 8.3% in 201011, which is the last available data.

“There is a shift in the attitude not recovering the penalty imposed, nor is the PIO remitting the penalty of government officials in Kerala and all over the country. They are amount.

“Now we have given notices trying not to give the correct inforand it has been informed in the mation and thus delay it as much as high power committee that once the possible,” said Madhu, coordinator commission has directed immedi- of RTI Digital Mission, an organiately the penalty should be deducted zation of RTI activists in Kerala.

“RTI applicants now file appeals from their salary,” he added.

Satish Shetty, an RTI activist to get the information in an increasfrom Maharashtra, was murdered in ing number of cases, but officers broad daylight in 2010 after he filed an RTI to expose a scam.

Satish’s brother Sandeep, who is fighting the case, quit his job last year and says he has lost all faith in the judiciary.

“In large scale corruption, corporates, politicians, bureaucrats and the judiciary will be hand in glove.

They will protect each other,” said Sandeep. “They know that if one domino falls the entire structure falls.”

There has been an eight fold

“

are being penalized for not giving proper information only in very rare cases,” he added.

Rajaram, Secretary of Kerala State Information Commission, said: “There is an increase in the number of appeals and this is causing an increase in the number of pending cases. Also the number of Information Commissioners is less and that further increases the delay.”

During 08-09, 09-10 and 10-11 the commission has mentioned that there was a heavy backlog on the disposal of complaints due to the skeleton structure provided to them but the government didn’t respond to it.

When asked if Sandeep thinks that his brother fought for something that was not worth it, he said, “Nothing like that; it will take time.

“Actually I’m fighting one battle, a big battle to get justice for my brother. I have to do that,” he concluded.

“The mindset of the officers has to be changed.”

- Vikram Simha, a Bangalore based RTI activist for more than eight years.

4 The Weekly OBSERVER

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Online complaint portals failing to launch or settle disputes Soumya Chatterjee Nikunj Ohri Only two out of over 6,200 complaints received by the BBMP in the past two years have been resolved, according to data from the municipal body’s own online complaints database.

Over 1,200 complaints are still active ranging from as early as August, 2012 to as late as October, 2014.

According to the website, “Advantages of using Web based Global Project Management System (BBMP-GPMS) the goal of BBMP was to use technology aided tools to enable efficiency and transparency and bring about accountability in all e-governance services.”

The website further talks about Project VIGEYE (Vigilance Eye) which is a citizen-centric initiative with the Central Vigilance Commission against corruption in India.

It is a platform through which information flows freely

through common public, government agencies and the commission, making it possible to improve the corruption index of the nation.

Contrary to this web portal, there is a similar website which deals with all the civic problems of the city ran by NGO Janagraha with a much better success rate of resolving complaints at 50%.

It works by taking up the problem with the different civic authorities and updating the complainants with the feedback of the specific department concerned.

This portal was launched on July, 2012 just like the BBMP website.

BBMP’s online portal Sahaaya, which was launched for filing civic complaints, was offline for over two days.

Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike launched a portal (http:// bbmp.sahaaya.in/) in the last week of December so that citizens can lodge civic complaints from their computers and mobile phones. The portal went offline earlier this week and ‘the

BBMP has failed to resolve more than 1,200 complaints operation timed out’ message appeared when one tried to access it.

Sheshadri T, Technical Advisor at BBMP, said, “We will have to look at the issue because of which the website isn’t responding and only then we can make an official statement.”

Less than a day after we alerted BBMP officials to the problem, the site was back up and running, albeit temporarily, before it crashed again earlier today.

Political parties shoot down Shiv Sena for commenting against secularism and socialism Vignesh S.G. Two parties normally opposed to each other’s policies have united in condemnation of removal of two words from the preamble.

On January 27, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry issued an advertisement displaying the Preamble of the Constitution without the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ creating an uproar.

Following this, Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena said that secularism and socialism should be taken out of the Indian constitution and that India is a “Hindu Rashtra.”

G.V. Sreeram Reddy, General Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) party of Karnataka, said: “We are strongly opposing this statement. Today, the Communication and Technological Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, has himself said that the nation should decide themselves which means they are indirectly accepting the statement.”

He added, “This is really RSS agenda. We always knew that if BJP came to power, these things will happen.”

Secular parties have also taken the same stance as the communist parties.

Dinesh Ali, Secretary General and official spokesman of Janata Dal (Secular) party, said: “India is a multi religious, multi culture country. Shiv Sena is always making headlines by throwing these kinds of comments.”

He added, “Even the Supreme Court has said that even if a government wins all the seats of Lok Sabha, it cannot

News Digest Banglore’s football club has seen a sharp increase in the attendance for its home matches, and the reasons are twofold according to Kunal, media manager of Bengaluru FC. Kunal said that Bengaluru FC becoming the champions last season has contributed in pulling more crowds to the stadium.

He said, “The moment you are champions, that’s the best advertisement for the team.” Kunal said that another reason for the increase in attendance is the change of stadium.

The previous stadium had a capacity of only 8,500, and even that did not get full many times.

Shiv Menon, Sunanda Pushkar’s son from her previous marriage has been called for questioning in connection with her murder. A team of Delhi Police probing the murder has questioned at least 15 people in connection with the case.

The search for survivors of flight MH370, the Malaysian Airlines that disappeared in March 2014, has been called off. Authorities have declared this as an ‘accident’.

The AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea on 28 December was under the control of its co-pilot, Frenchman Remi Plesel, when it went down, Indonesian investigators say.

change these secular and socialistic points in our Preamble.”

Harshal Kumar of the Shiv Sena said: “We are not against any ideologies. India is a Hindu country and we just want to put that forward to people.”

He continued, “Wherever and whenever we came to power, we proved our ideology with good governance over and over. Now that we have a Hindu prime minister, we have to implement this as soon as possible.”

Former foreign secretary Sujatha Singh has resigned.

In a farewell email, she stressed the ‘institutional strength” of the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and the importance of institutions over individuals.

S Jaishankar, who is India’s Ambassador to US at present

The Weekly OBSERVER

Thursday, January 29, 2015

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Luxury condo block could hit the buffers after Tweets of builder encroached rail line safety zone the day C. L. Ramakrishnan

@BangalorPulse : #Bangalore Metro stops train to rescue another juvenile kite - http://tinyurl. com/mfrsnv4 Nikhil Thard, ChairmanEdifice Builders A new Rs44 crore apartment block in Yelahanka was constructed illegally and encroached on a railway line’s buffer zone, according to documents obtained by The Weekly Observer.

Now a luxury swimming pool and various other luxury amenities homeowners paid for could be demolished after the railway, Bangalore Development Authority and the BBMP all slapped orders on the builder.

Edifice Builders has encroached a nationally recognised ‘railway buffer zone’ and constructed amenities like the swimming pool and a club house in their Almond Tree Apartments.

“The Swimming pool, club house, multipurpose hall, table tennis hall are illegally constructed… we have sent a notice and the necessary action will be taken… In the map whatever is marked has to be demolished.” reads the BBMP report.

Vasan, a resident said, “I have registered a case against the builders so that they do not cheat anyone in the future and follow rules and regulations while constructing their further projects.”

“No Objection Certificate has not been given to them(builders)” was the reply to an RTI enquiry asking whether Southern Western Railways had given permission to the builders to encroach.

“The BDA has not given any permission to Edifice Builders for constructing anything in the buffer zone. We have sanctioned only multi-story building for construction,” Vishvanath, BDA, RTI department.

Vasan purchased the property in 2011 but only in 2014 he came to know that the property came under the railway buffer zone.

Vasan, said: “The BDA came to inspect the apartment after I filed an RTI regarding the illegal construction. The BDA after inspection found out that the builders have constructed unauthorized amenities like swimming pool, club house, multipurpose hall, table tennis hall and bore well in the Southern West-

Illegal swimming pool built in the railway buffer zone ern Railway Buffer Zone.

“Then the BBMP issued a notice under Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act 1976 which was not replied by Edifice Builders and they slapped a notice for the demolition of the area where the amenities were constructed illegally,” he added.

Vijay Shinde, another resident said, “No, nothing is going to be demolished. I stand with the builder on this issue.”

Vasan also affirmed that Almond Tree Owners Welfare Association are also supporting Edifice Builders owner Nikhil Thard as they do not want to lose their amenities for which they have paid, though knowing it was illegally built.

Parashiva, Prosecutor, Hedge Associates Advocates said: “Edifice Builders have violated the sanction plan and the condition imposed by the BDA. On behalf of Shaila Vasan the spouse of AK Vasan we have registered a case against Edifice Builders.

“We have registered the case in the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal also and the builders have only taken status quo order. At the end of day Edifice Builders can’t escape the law. Today or tomorrow the builder Nikhil Thard will be behind bars,” he added.

The chairman of Edifice Builders Nikhil Thard declined all the claims made by Vasan and said that

Picture Courtesy - Parmeshwar Rao

Almond Tree Apartments is a legal construction.

Nikhil said, “There is a case going and the court has already granted us the stay. There is no violation and the person (Vasan) who has contacted you is a crackpot. He is a goonda there.

Vasan has asked me to pay two crores and harassing me to pay the demanded money. That guy is a thug,” he added.

The prosecutor Parashiva has denied the claims of Nikhil. He said, “We are not asking illegal demands, we have sent a legal notice to the

builder for illegally constructing and selling the property. The builder can claim and challenge anything.”

“Other residents are helping the builder but we have all the documents. The builders knew the place belonged to buffer zone and with the intention to fraud the builder sold the property,” he added.

Documents obtained by The Weekly Observer clearly show an encroachment of the area designated as a buffer zone for the railway line. Mr Thard declined to comment on these documents.

@BangaloreBuzz : Power to BBMP office cut due to non-payment http://goo.gl/ IX2cKs @IndianExpress : Bangalore bomb markings same as those in Patna IED pipes: police http://iexp.in/ MKZ138591 @Calvinator_18: “How to beat Bangalore traffic to reach office on time?”

“Start early” “How early?

“Early 1990s”

Almond Tree Apartments

A direction board pointing to the illegally constructed amenities

@gregorylent : It’s quicker to courier a thumb drive to the other side of Bangalore than it is to upload three 1MB photos on airtel, tethered 3G

6 The Weekly OBSERVER

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Sex tourism hits the religious grounds Punita Maheshwari Major religious tourist traps in southern India are thriving on underage sex tourism, according to a hard hitting report.

EQUATIONS in Bangalore in collaboration with ECPAT, End Child Pornography, Child Prostitution and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, has released shocking case studies about prominent pilgrimage places in South India.

According to the records of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, 134,897 foreign tourists and 253, 513 Indian tourists visited Karnataka last year.

The Unholy Nexus, a research report which they shared with The Observer, has case studies detailing the abuses some of these foreign “pilgrims” come to India in search of.

According to the report, most of the children mentioned having sex with tourists for just Rs50 to Rs200.

Tirupati is known for its serenity

and attracts lakhs of tourists every year.

Naga Raju, 10, a child labourer at a hotel in Tirupati, supported his familywith the money he gained from the hotel but he was abducted by a bunch of eunuchs who forced him to watch their sexual activities and finally beat him up to participate, according to the report.

One of the case studies tells that due to his family situation, Suresh stopped studying and started selling photographs in Tirumala Tirupati.

During that time he would meet eunuchs and they would tell him that he could earn lot of money and see many new places following which, at the age of ten, he became involved in prostitution.

But the experience turned out to be so traumatic that he lost trust in people and was afraid to interact with even those in his home and community. He was taken to Mumbai by eunuchs where he stayed and was abused by many. Left with no other option, he has now taken up prostitution as his main source of

Keshav and his friends go rag picking everyday for food

income.

“I benefit from it and have become a full-fledged Kothi. Working in prostitution for past five years, I earned lot of money, got my sister married and saved Rs. 25000 to get operated and become a Nirvan. This they do to keep the Panthis happy, “ he said, according to the report.

The report states that, children spoke about having sex with both domestic and foreign tourists.

The children interviewed by the team from Equation mentioned that building relationships with “foreign tourists was more profitable than with “domestic tourists”, as foreign tourists provide children with toys, chocolates, bicycles, nice clothes and sometimes money to renovate their houses or to build houses.”

According to the Raj, a 15-yearold local in Puri, Odisha, it is routine for him to have sex with foreigners and he has been staying in a house given by a French tourist, Joseph, who visits him regularly. “He often asks me have sex with other children in front of them.

“Initially it was very painful and I used to cry a lot but as Joseph has promised me and my family to take along with him at a ‘better place’, I am ready to do it. My family knows about this and they are not in a position to save me as we get money in return,” the case study mentioned.

The report claims that there are lodges and motels specifically booked for foreigners where the hotel managers have informal links with travel agencies to facilitate the inhumane deed.

The height of acceptance of prostitution as a rewarding profession by the locals can be conveyed by the ease of words the victims have used for whatever has happened to them.

Gajendra, a 15-year-old, boy who lives in Puri, Odisha, was sexually assaulted by his uncle and forced to have sex with his friend who visited the temple. He now teaches computers and is a prostitute as his ‘part-time job’, states the report.

Laxmi, 10, is happy to perform in front of commuters in the trains.

Picture Courtesy- Elizabeth Mani According to the report, the locals have told the group of researchers that they prefer giving their boys to this ‘profession’ than girls.

Another face of exploitation is child labor at tourist attractions.

Children working in hotels are a common site in such places. Keshav, who works as a waiter in a restaurant in Badami, Karnataka, is not satisfied with the income he earns after working in the hotel. “I work here at lunch and dinner hours apart from which I do rag picking for food and cloths. I left school last year following financial problems at home,” he said.

Laxmi, a five year old finds herself delighted doing ring acts and juggling to please the commuters in trains for some money.

“There are laws in the process like appointing tourism police by the central government but there are no official authority to curb exploitation of children under the tourism industry, “said, P.K Kunhan, Tourism Information Officer, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

However, the law is to curb child exploitation in India is to its maximum applied in Goa under Goa Children’s Act, which was the first one in India to recognize exploitation of children in tourism and work towards protection of children.

Exploitation of the vulnerable is often an ignored term in the field of tourism. “The incentive for us is to work towards the protection of children from exploitation in tourism,” said, Babu from EQUATIONS.

Government aid to NGOs: A promise only on paper Natasha Singh Recognised NGOs have been denied concession or revenue, as promised in the schemes funded by the central government.

The Central government has set up a lot of schemes to aid voluntary organizations. Under these schemes, the government sets up a budget to be distributed over a period of 4-5 years.

According to the procedure, NGOs apply to the state government for NGO-partnership system

(NGO-PS) and the state government then sends the list to the central government.

Tameer, an NGO based in Bangalore, has not received any revenue till date. It was started in 2005 and works for promoting education, literacy and creating empowerment and awareness among women.

Professor Nazni Begum, the Secretary of Tameer said, “We are not even aware of any such prevalent scheme. Our NGO is recognised by the State government but never have they mentioned the

scheme to us in the past ten years.”

Savari Raj of Sacred Heart Brothers, another NGO based in Bangalore for the upliftment of children belonging to poor backgrounds, said, “We are aware of the schemes but we are also aware that we will never receive any funds. So we stopped expecting.”

In the financial year 2013-14, the government allocated 3 crores and 12 crores were allocated for the 12th Five Year plan under the grant-in-aid scheme which caters to NGOs working for Women and

Children awareness.

Under the Support to Training and Employment Plan for Women (STEP scheme), 90% of the project cost is to be borne by the government and 10% by the organization.

Allocation for this scheme in the year 2013-14 is 20 crores. In the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the government has allocated Rs 200 crores for the same. The aim of this scheme is to provide gender sensitization, health and rights awareness.

There are eight such schemes under the department of Women

and Child development itself. These are Innovative Project, Grant-InAid for Research, Rajiv Gnadhi National Creche Scheme for the Children of Working Mothers, Scheme for Welfare of Working Children, Scheme of Assistance for the Construction/Expansion of Hostel Building for Working Women with a Day Care Centre, STEP, Swadhar and Ujjawala.

The total allocation for the 12th Financial Year for all these projects is Rs1514 crores.

OBSERVER TEAM: Editor - Elizabeth Mani, Chief Sub Editor - Tushar Kaushik, Sub Editors - Saheli Sen Gupta, Nikhil M Babu, News Editor - Punita Maheshwari, News Desk - Vignesh S. G, Layout Head - Natasha Singh, Layout Desk - C.L. Ramakrishnan, Picture Editor - Ridhi Agrawal