Volume 15 | Issue 20
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
BRIEFS Stepping down from the fest brought a few voices back,says Sampath Protest can provoke negative as well as positive reactions, said Vikram Sampath, who recently quit as Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) director. Page 2
Relief works disrupted by locals, say volunteers Laxmi Narayani Parvati Benu Volunteers helping the Cuddalore flood victims claim that their vehicles were stopped by a group of people. Some of them said that they were beaten up and suspect political involvement. “First they wanted to stick the ADMK political logos in the relief materials. Our truck was locked and so they tried to break it. After a serious fight, the army people came along that route, checked the issue and chucked them out,” said Vishal (name changed on request), a volunteer from Bangalore. Another volunteer, Manoj, said: “We as a team had sent some relief materials in a truck to the flood affected regions. On the way to Cuddalore, some people attacked our team mates and took our materials. We could not identify the people, but some suspect it to be a political activity.” “We do not have any solid proof that they belong to this party. So now most of
the materials are sent through the Collector,” he added. “The local people tried to stop the vehicle and get the materials out, but we managed to get out of the situation,” said a volunteer, Sathish from Bangalore. A few residents of Cuddalore also told the Observer about similar happenings. One of them said that desperate flood victims were attacking the trucks. Another said that he was informed by a volunteer of relief materials looted by locals who are not affected by flood during distribution. He also said that the locals fought with each other for the materials. A facebook post by Aazhi Senthil Nathan about a similar thing, accusing a political party had gone viral over the social media today. It read, “More than 200 vehicles with various good and other materials were stopped in Panruti and forcefully parked in Annaivelankanni polytechnic. It is by Jayalalitha’s police force. Volunteers losing temper and contacted me. At the same time police officials denied any such happening.
Government depts at odds over child rescue stats No two departments in India who are responsible for the inspection and rescue of children under the National Child labour project are unanimous on their official data Page 3
Employees stumped at being asked to submit original documents Certain Bangalore based companies are retaining original documents of employees against their wishes, claim employees. Page 4
Kashmiri writer Azurdah translates Kalburgi’s work An award-winning writer, who was translating MM Kalburgi’s works into Kashmiri when he was assassinated, said that such murders are common in Kashmir. (Top and left) Relief works in flooded areas of Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu. - Picture courtesy: Abdul Azeez
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2 THE OBSERVER
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Activist offers help to plan post-flood Chennai B Laxmi Narayani An award-winning environmentalist said he will help in planning the city after floods if Chennai authorities want. Arun Krishnamurthy said: “In the last ten years, there has been massive encroachment and that had affected all, including those who haven’t been involved. This time the flood affected more people, mainly because of encroachments of water bodies.” Massive encroachment in a short span of time, led to huge loss of life and property in Chennai, he said. For his work on restoring lakes in Chennai, Krishnamurthy had won the Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2012.
Flood affected people in Chennai, awaiting relief materials Photo Courtesy: Manoj Varma
Arun Krishnamurthy, Environmentalist Photo:Facebook page
“I expect in the future that these people must be shifted to a better and safer place, but I doubt that it can happen before elections,” he added. In context to the political issues, he said, “If the same monsoon had happened in the mid-term of the politician’s
tenure, not even these relief works could have happened. In the future, if the development authority permits we are ready to help them in building and planning the structure of the city.” Indra Kumar, who runs an environmental NGO, said, “We
predicted this kind of loss well before and tried to alarm many people through our classes. Recycling waste and providing sufficient ways for the water bodies could have saved people from major issues. We have enough resources for our living, but most of them are not
managed efficiently. “Three months before the opposition party tried to expand the capacity of Adyar River, but the officials stopped them from doing it. This could have saved a minimum of 20 percent loss. The government officials are well aware of water and waste management, but they opt not to work on it.” According to Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) plans, 7.37 lakh people lived in 1202 slums in Chennai in 1971. To meet demands then and in the future, a massive housing programme had been initiated and 12,000 hectares of land was acquired in ten years. It included 2500 hectares, each in Manali, Avadi, Ambattur and Tambaram, 1500 Hectares in M.M. Nagar, 750 Hectares each in Gummidipoondi and Thiruvallur were developed for housing. In the 2015 floods, these places were among the most affected areas. This year the rainfall records 1487.7mm which is 129 percent more than the normal rainfall in the city for northeast monsoon. The previous highest rainfall record was 1088mm in 1971.
Stepping down from the fest brought a few voices back, says Sampath or three people. It was snowballing to something very big. Many others were threatening to boycott. If I hadn’t stepped down at that point, maybe many more must have left,” he said. Sampath had stepped down as the director of the fest, after a few participants decided not to attend it, following his comment on artists returning awards. He had said that artists returning their awards as a protest against intolerance in the country are “hypocritical attempts to claim the moral high ground”. There was rising criticism about Sampath and his comment. He also said that the litera-
ture fest is not limited to people who like him. Sampath said, “I’m Inconsequential in the whole thing. Every shade of opinion has to find a place. It was important to put a platform above an individual.” He also quoted Shashi Deshpande from her session during the fest, “Writers should be talking to each other. Not about each other.” He expressed his grief on stepping down as the festival director. “It is painful to give up a platform that I’ve nurtured. But, it was necessary,” he said. On the other hand, many authors came in support of Sampath through various media.
Source: www.vikramsampath.com By Parvathi Benu Protest can provoke negative as well as positive reactions, said Vikram Sampath, who recently quit as Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) director. He was referring to the situation that led him to quit on November 28. Sampath is now attending the BLF only as a
speaker in two panels. In his interview with The Observer, he also said that the fest was not as he expected it to be. He said: “The fest could have been more inclusive. I feel sorry about this.” He said he has not decided if he will be part of the organising team next year. “It is yet to be decided. Let us see how things
change over time,” he said. Sampath added that he feels bad for a lot of voices that the fest has lost. “The forum is open for every viewpoint,” he said. He said that he stepping down from the fest at least brought a few people back to the festival. “I do not know if the decision is wise or not. The issue was not restricted to two
The fest could have been more inclusive. I feel sorry about this. If I hadn’t stepped down at that point, maybe many more must have left. - Vikram Sampath
Tuesday, December 8, 2015 3
THE OBSERVER
Govt depts at odds over child rescue stats Oindrila Sarkar Government depts across India jointly tasked with rescuing children cannot agree on how many have actually been saved. The Union ministries involved in protecting minors, the Ministry of Labour and Employment(MLE) and the Ministry of Women and Child Development are giving out markedly different figures for work they have jointly undertaken. Data received through RTI from the Department of Labour, Karnataka for inspections conducted by the state reveal the MLE figure as 18070, the Labour Department’s Annual Report figures as 18478, and the RTI figures as 3877. The objective of the NCLP which was set up by the MLE, was to eliminate child labour in hazardous industries by 2010. The target group is children below 14years of age. It seeks to enforce the Child Labour(Prohibition and Regulation)Act,1986. Raid and rescue followed by institutionalization is undertaken to rehabilitate children and bring them back to the mainstream. The ‘raid’ is carried out by the Department of Labour and then the children are promptly institutionalized and become the responsibility of the Women and Child Development Department.
Nishita Khajane, who works with CWC to rescue and rehabilitate children, said, "If data for the same years for the same things are so different it means only two things, either the statistics are fudged or there is no cooperation between the departments working." Rohini from the SMILE foundation said, "This huge disparity just implies that the NCLP is another such project that is not being implemented in spite of the funds and aid that pour in." The CWC filed the RTI to understand how the prohibition and regulation of child labour was being carried out. The Child Labour Act 1986 prohibits children below the age of 14 from being employed. Kavitha, who also works for the CWC, said, "Not only this, if one takes the pain of going through the NSSO, census and RTI data together, they would be more bewildered because there is no sense between them." A report by CWC observed that the inconsistency shows “how the data with the Ministry seems rather haphazardly managed”. The government data for the last 30 years shows a decline in child labour. However, Kavitha said, "All child rights organisations from Child Rights and You( CRY) to Childline India are of the opinion that child labour has increased three times since independence. We don't understand what definition is used by the government census which shows a decline.
" One of the reasons may be because the target year for NCLP was 2010. Even RTIs at the state and government level have failed to express the situation in a cohesive manner. " The 2011 census tells us that the number of working children in Karnataka is 249432. India was the first country in 1992 to join the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour launched by the ILO. To understand the many vulnerabilities surrounding the phenomenon of child labour and to ensure NCLP’s maximum efficiency
UNICEF(United Nation’s Children’s Educatio Fund) is supporting the Central Ministry of Labour and Employment in the development of a child tracking system to monitor the progress of children involved in NCLP. Umesh, who works for the Public Information division in the Karnataka labour department , when asked about the differing RTI and official data presented by the Ministry said, "I need to go through all the data to comment on this." Another CWC RTI, to find out Child Labour Welfare core funds, shows collections running into lakhs from 2012-
2015. Nishita Khajane said, “This has been confirmed by response to our RTI which shows that while districts have fomed the Core Fund and have collections that sometimes go into lakhs for the past four years (2012-2015) the funds dispensed to support children are largely negligible.” The People's Legal Forum, Mysore which had researched on this, published an article, stating "95% of the amount collected from those found guilty of employing children in the state over the past 10 years is lying unutilised in the child labour welfare corpus fund."
Couples prefer girls over boys, despite drop in adoption Akshaya N. Asokan There has been a decrease of almost 40 per cent in adoption rate in Karnataka, this year. Despite the drop, parents prefer adopting girls over boys, according to the Karnataka State Integrated Child Protection Society(KSICPS). Out of 53 adoptions in 2015 till September, 31 are girls as opposed to 22 boys.In the year 2014, 131 girls were adopted against 73 boys. The data provided by KSICPS shows that 63 percent of girls are adopted against 37 percent boys. “Due to more number of girls being abandoned by their parents or unwed mothers, the number, more girls are adopted in the state,” said Shylaja, Project Manager of KSICPS. The police take custody of
lost or abandoned children, who are then produced before the Juvenile Court. According to the criterion set by Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), children have to be claimed within 60 days of the set to trace the parents. If they are not claimed within the period, they are put up for adoption.Tulika Saklani, an administrative officer in a city based school, adopted Keeya when she was six-months-old. Keeya is now in kindergarten. “She was brought home from an orphanage in Hassan. At that time she had a small problem with her heart. We made sure that her health conditions were taken care of before we brought her home,” she said. “The stigma that was once associated with adoption has long gone, now more and more people are coming for-
ward and embracing the idea,” said Dr Ali Khwaja, a life skill coach as well as an adoptive parent. Karnataka has 200 children available for adoption whereas the number of parents registered is 1100. The online procedure for adoption was started in August 2015. It requires the Prospective Adoptive Parents to register with CARA website. Once the centre approves and the credibility is ensured, the receipt is acknowledged. The parents are then required to contact a government recognised adoption agency close by, for home study and are supposed to pay Rs. 5000, for the same. The PAPs (prospective adoptive parents) from Karnataka can list three states from where they want to adopt, based on their priori-
Representational image ties. When the child is handed over to the parents, an amount of Rs 40,000 is again payable to the adoption agency. This is followed by
two years mandatory followup visit by the agency to the homes where the child was adopted, twice a year.
4 THE OBSERVER
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Kashmiri writer Azurdah translates Kalburgi’s work Parvathi Benu An award-winning Kashmiri writer has revealed he was translating the works of MM Kalburgi into Kashmiri when he heard that the Kannada author had been short dead on his own doorstep. Professor Mohammed Zaman Azurdah was in the city for the two-day Bangalore Literary Festival. While he expressed grief over the murder, he said that Kalburgi himself was not very tolerant at times. “You have to be tolerant in all sides. It is
Professor. Mohommed Zaman Azurdah, a Kashmiri writer Photo credit: BLF website
not that others should be tolerant. It applies to you too,” he said. He said that Kalburgi was thrilled when he heard that he was translating his works. He was happy that his message could be carried in Kashmiri. Azurdah said that Kashmir and Kashmiris have been tortured for the past 700 years and the media was biased towards them. He said: “Kashmir is the sellable commodity everywhere. Rajasthan art, Himachal apples, Iranian saffron and even girls in brothels are sold in its name. But Kashmiris do not have an idea of what is happening with them.” Being a Sahitya Akademi award recipient, he said that for him to return his award at this point of time would be unfair. He said: “It would have been unfair to return the award in this situation, when thousands of Kashmiris faced injustice over the years. I could have given my award back then.” He said that Kashmir, like every other Indian state is separate, but none can exist without each other. “Every individual is different. No other person is born as a prototype of someone else. Then how
Kalburgi was thrilled when he heard that I’m translating his works into Kashmiri.He was happy that his message could be carried in Kashmir. - Prof. Mohammed Zaman Azurdah
@ayeshaarvind BombayHC says #Salman Khan's bodyguard Ravindra Patil isn't a wholly reliable witness and what he says must be corroborated @HTMumbai
Professor Mohammed Zaman Azurdah along with Professor Kalburgi in a photograph taken in March can two communities be similar?” he asked. “Kashmir is like a beautiful young girl. Everyone wants her. India, Pakistan and if
America had a chance, even they would take it,” he said. He added that every world leader has Kashmir in their mind.
Employees stumped at being asked to submit original documents Rajarshi Das Certain Bangalore based companies are retaining original documents of employees against their wishes, claim employees. Pousam Ghosh, a graduate in textile engineering, approached Apsara Silks last week. “I was asked to submit my original 10+2 mark sheets. I told them that I’ll hand over the photocopied ones. I even went to the extent of telling them that I’ll get them attested. They refused to budge and I was left with no other opportunity but to leave the interview”, he said. According to Section 368 of the Indian Penal Code, if any individual or institute holds
back any document and forces a person to perform any act against his wishes, it is illegal. The law further states that under such circumstances, the minimum punishment is imprisonment for two years. A Supreme Court judgment in April 2013 clearly stated that no employee can be employed against his will even if he has signed a contract. Mr. Hemant Kumar who has been working in a company in Whitefield which he refuses to name said, “When I was called for the interview, I was asked to submit my original board exam mark sheets. I needed the job and I gave my mark sheets for a period of one year. I want to leave this company, but I’m not able to since they are not willing to give back my
@malviyamit Simple question: would you allow a man more than 20yrs older to you, a former Minister to carry your slippers? Rahul did. #RahulInsultsDalit
certificates. I’m messed up and thinking of seeking legal advice.” Mrs.Vijaya, HR of Apsara Silks said, “We need the docu-
Pousam Ghosh, a B.Tech who was refused a job because he did not submit his original marksheet
ments for security purpose and as long as one works, the documents will remain with us.” Mr. Rajiv Kumar Utsav, who works as a software analyst at Infinera India Pvt. Ltd. said, “I’ve been working in the IT industry for the last two years. There have been instances where I was asked to submit original documents, only to find out that these companies lack confidence in them. However, this is not the case with all.” Rohit Dalmia, an advocate based in Mumbaisaid, “These are pressure tactics employed by some companies and the employees end up getting blackmailed. They are unable to leave the company even when there’s no contract just because they can’t get their certificates back.”
@AlArabiya U.S. senators want 100,000 foreign troops to fight ISIS in Syria @timesofindia International flight operations begin at #Chennai airport. @XitijNanavaty #Shikhar Dhawan is reported for suspected Bowling Action.it's a big setback as Ind may lose a Match winning bowler before major tournaments ! @ReutersIndia Afghan, Pakistan leaders maintain unyielding positions at summit http://reut.rs/1YXTSG2 @timesofindia I thought it was my responsibility that he has come to my state and should not get injured: Ex-Union minister on holding slippers for Rahul
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