Why is Congress reinstating tainted officials after their win, asks PUCL Chhattisgarh

January 4, 2019

Chhattisgarh: People’s Union for Civil Liberties – Chhattisgarh Unit has expressed its displeasure at the appointment of some of the police officials in key positions by the State Government whose record at the human rights front has been poor and controversial.

Chhattisgarh: People’s Union for Civil Liberties – Chhattisgarh Unit has expressed its displeasure at the appointment of some of the police officials in key positions by the State Government whose record at the human rights front has been poor and controversial.

PUCL CG expressed surprise at Congress retaining tainted officials after coming to power. “PUCL CG strongly believes that the last fifteen years of BJP rule in the state witnessed the worst violation of human rights; even then the former BJP Government had side-lined these police officials due to reservations expressed against these police officials by the established human rights institutions. Thus, the PUCL-CG is surprised that the newly elected Congress (I) Government is not only reinstating such tainted police officials but sending a wrong message to the world that it has scant regard for human rights and freedom of speech and expression,” it said in a statement.

The civil activists issued a statement against the appointment of these police officials when the news broke. “PUCL-CG has decided to write to the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, providing detailed documentation of the misdeeds of these police officials primarily on the human rights front, including their systematic support to SALWA-JUDUM, which was declared as illegal and unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, criminal intimidation of and filing of false and fabricated cases against human rights defenders, social activists, journalists, lawyers and academics, even using abusive and sexists language, providing patronage and logistic support to the criminal and fascist outfits, demonstrating utter disregard for established parliamentary institutions and judiciary, including the National Human Rights Commission, etc,” they said.

They asked for a detailed inquiry of the officials and requested the state government to keep them out of action and off duty. “Equipped with such a detailed documentation of utter violation of human rights and indulgence in illegal activities of these police officials inclusive of SRP Kalluri, PUCL – CG would approach the State Government to immediately withdraw their postings, order a detailed enquiry by a former judge of the Supreme Court of India and, subsequently, take appropriate action as per its report and recommendations. Till then, these officials must be kept out of action and circulation from duty,” they said.

PUCL – CG has also communicated to the State Government that it would continue to act as a Watchdog on these violations of human rights, would provide constructive criticism to government’s policies and programmes, and continue to mobilize public opinion and people’s struggles to restore democracy, resist corporate agenda, and fight fascist forces in the State.

The new Congress government in Chhattisgarh appointed former Bastar Inspector General of Police SRP Kalluri as the chief of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and Economic Offences Wing. It was shocking news for many as Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who had demanded that Kalluri be thrown in jail, had called him a rapist when he was part of the Opposition. This backtracking by the winning party has thrown state activist into disarray who are afraid that human rights horrors in the state might never cease.

Political activist and an expert of the region, Nandini Sundar told The Quint she was “deeply disappointed with the Congress government.” “There are show-cause notices issued in Kalluri’s name. There are charges of rape and arson. The latest revelations by CBI make clear his involvement in the burning down of three Adivasi villages in Bastar in 2011. The Congress government has given him these posts despite all this. It makes one wonder if rule of law will ever be restored in Chhattisgarh,” she said.

Lack of transparency characterises the appointment of four Central Information Commissioners

January 4, 2019

Text of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) note on the appointment of four information commissioners in the Central Information Commission:

The President has approved the appointment of four information commissioners in the Central Information Commission (CIC) and one of the serving commissioners has been appointed as the Chief Information Commissioner, as per media reports.

The CIC had been functioning with only 3 commissioners and had been without a Chief since November 24, 2018. As per the RTI Act, the CIC is comprised of a Chief and up to 10 information commissioners. A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court in April 2018 regarding the issue of non-appointment of information commissioners in the Central Information Commission (and state information commissions) and the lack of transparency in appointments.

In the last hearing of the case on December 13, 2018, the ASG had informed the Court that the selection of the Chief Information Commissioner had been finalised during the meeting of the Selection Committee held on December 11, 2018 and that the selection of four other information commissioners (for which vacancies were advertised) was underway.

In the hearing held on December 13, the Court was informed about the total lack of transparency in the process of appointment of commissioners in the CIC. The government denied information sought under the RTI Act about: the applications received for the posts of information commissioners; names of short-listed candidates, details of the search committee meetings etc.

Taking serious note of the lack of transparency in the process of appointment, the Supreme Court in its order directed the Central government to:

“…put on the website the names of the Search Committee, the names of the candidates who have been shortlisted as well as the criteria which is followed for selection.”

However, from a perusal of the website of the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT), it appears that in contravention of the SC order, no information about the search committee, names of short-listed candidates or the short-listing criteria have been uploaded.

Further, no information about the meetings of the selection committee is available on the website. In fact, even the order regarding the selection of the Chief and 4 information commissioners is not available. The website was checked at 12 noon on December 31, 2018.

The rationale for seeking transparency in the process of appointment is to ensure that there is no arbitrariness in the appointment process and the most appropriate candidates from diverse backgrounds, as laid down in the RTI Act, are appointed as information commissioners.
Further, disclosure of information about the short-listed candidates enables members of the public to inform the selection committee of any significant adverse information they may have about them in terms of their appropriateness as commissioners.

If appointments to the CIC have been finalised without proper transparency, the entire purpose of the SC order directing disclosure of information to enable public scrutiny stands defeated.

The violation of the orders of the Supreme Court by the government means that appointments of commissioners to the transparency watchdog have been shrouded in complete secrecy.

The lack of transparency is especially concerning given that the government had issued defective advertisements for inviting applications for the posts of information commissioners and the chief. The advertisements did not specify tenure and salaries of commissioners, even though these are defined in the RTI Act.

Courtesy: https://counterview.org

Rightist Bolsonaro takes office in Brazil, promising populist change to angry voters

January 4, 2019

Brazil’s new president Jair Bolsonaro, who took power on Jan. 1, is often called the “Trump of the Tropics” for his law-and-order rhetoric, racist and sexist remarks, pro-business stances and outsider pledges to upend politics as usual.

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro after his swearing-in on Jan. 1, 2019, in the capital of Brasilia. AP Photo/Andre Penner

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was among the right-wing world leaders who attended his inauguration in Brasilia, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Bolsonaro used a Trump-style populist playbook to win the Brazilian presidency in October with 54 percent of the vote. Spreading angry anti-establishment messages, he persuaded enough disaffected working-class voters to create a victorious if unusual electoral coalition of the working class and the very rich.

Unlike in the United States, however, where Trump targeted rural Americans left behind by economic progress, Bolsonaro’s working-class supporters mostly come from Brazilian cities – particularly the poor urban outskirts.

These areas, the focus of my sociology research on cities and democracy, have been hit hard by the severe crime wave and recession gripping Brazil since 2015, leaving a pool of precarious, disaffected voters ripe for Bolsonaro’s calls for radical change.

Brazil’s ‘new middle class’

Paradoxically, many of the working-class Brazilians who voted for Bolsonaro against his progressive opponent, Fernando Haddad, had seen their quality of life improve dramatically under Haddad’s center-left Workers Party.

The biggest gains occurred under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010. Some 30 million poor Brazilians – 15 percent of the population – were lifted out of poverty during his two terms.

As incomes rose, working-class Brazilians began attending college, flying in airplanes and buying cars – luxuries previously reserved for the rich.

Ambitious slum-upgrading programs added sanitation systems, public transportation and electricity to long-overlooked urban shantytowns. Affordable housing subsidies put more working Brazilians in safe, stable homes.

Rocinha, a large favela in Rio de Janeiro overlooking the wealthy São Conrado neighborhood. AHLN/flickr, CC BY

Brazil was celebrated worldwide as a South American star.

Lula’s anti-poverty achievements earned his Workers Party the fierce loyalty of poorer Brazilians. They voted overwhelmingly for his re-election in 2006 and supported his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, in Brazil’s 2010 and 2014 presidential elections.

But in 2018, Bolsonaro won many working-class urban neighborhoods expected to go to his Workers Party opponent, Fernando Haddad.

In São Paulo’s urban periphery, for example, Bolsonaro won 17 of the 23 electoral zones that voted overwhelmingly for Rousseff in the 2010 election.

How did a far-right candidate attract left-wing voters?

Brazil’s crime wave

New research from Brazil suggests that support for Bolsonaro among poorer Brazilians was driven in large part by high urban crime.

Brazil has had one of the world’s worst homicide rates for over a decade. On average, 175 Brazilians are murdered every day.

Poor urban neighborhoods are hot spots in this national crime wave. Turf wars between rival gangs and police shootouts terrorize Brazilians daily in the slum settlements and shantytowns that surround even Brazil’s richest cities.

Even in São Paulo, where homicides have actually decreased since 1999, frequent armed robberies, particularly car jackings, have residents feeling perpetually unsafe.

Bolsonaro’s crime-fighting plan is vague but forceful. It includes easing gun restrictions, instructing police to “shoot to kill,” battling gangs and using the military as law enforcement.

Experts say this hard-line approach is unlikely to reduce violence.

Brazilian law enforcement is already extremely aggressive, killing more often than any other police force worldwide. And sending soldiers in to “pacify” Rio de Janeiro’s favelas has actually increased shootings.

Even so, many Brazilians believe this law-and-order message coming from a former army captain like Bolsonaro.

Recession, crisis and a backlash

Economic troubles have also left Brazilian workers feeling endangered.
In 2015, Brazil entered a severe recession. Gross domestic product – which since 2004 had averaged around 3 percent growth every year – shrank by 3.5 percent in both 2015 and 2016.

Unemployment doubled, to over 12 percent. One in 4 working-age Brazilians suddenly became “underemployed.”

The recession, coupled with a nationwide corruption scandal that had implicated many high-ranking government officials, including Lula, created a sense of political chaos. Brazil’s crisis only deepened after the 2016 impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.

Rousseff’s successor – her vice president, Michel Temer – pushed through an austerity budget that gutted the social programs helping poor and working-class Brazilians.

By January 2018, when the Brazilian presidential race began, it was clear that Brazil’s lauded “new middle class” had been hit hardest by the crisis.

Ultra-rightists at a Bolsonaro rally. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Bolsonaro’s big promises

President Bolsonaro, who wants to reduce the government’s role in the Brazilian economy, has few economic promises for the poor – especially compared to the Workers Party’s phenomenal track record of redistributing wealth.

His campaign made up for it with raw anger.

As a candidate, Bolsonaro pushed a narrative that Brazil’s recession was caused by corruption in the Workers Party, and he promised to clean up politics. He said criminals should die, lauded military dictatorships and proposed jailing leftists. He used racist, sexist and homophobic remarks to blame minorities and political correctness for Brazil’s decline.

Nearly 58 million voters – both rich and not-so-rich, black and white, homosexual and heterosexual – thought this bombastic authoritarian strongman might be just the man to get Brazil back on its feet.

Can Bolsonaro help the working class?

Now they’ll find out whether they bet right.

Some political analysts reckon Bolsonaro’s policy agenda will actually hurt Brazil’s working classes.

A plan to auction off Brazil’s state electricity and oil companies to the highest bidder, for example, may give the economy a short-term boost, but economists warn that privatization won’t make these important sectors more efficient or innovative.

Bolsonaro’s promise to shutter the Ministry of Cities, which oversaw Brazil’s federal slum-upgrading investments under Presidents Lula and Rousseff, will hobble poorer cities. Programs for housing, sanitation and transportation are all under threat.

But that doesn’t mean urban working class voters will abandon President Bolsonaro.

After all, Trump’s approval ratings among America’s white working-class base have been relatively durable despite a 2017 tax reform that primarily benefited the rich and tariffs that hurt key sectors of the American economy.

Bolsonaro became Brazil’s president using the tried-and-true playbook of authoritarians worldwide. The resentments he stoked among poorer voters may continue to flourish even if their economic prospects do not.

Benjamin H. Bradlow, PhD candidate, Department of Sociology, Brown University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Leprosy Is Making A Comeback In India, But The Govt Wants to Deny It

January 4, 2019

New Delhi: Leprosy is back in India. Health officials and activists celebrated 13 years ago when India announced that leprosy had been eliminated as a public health concern. Alarm bells rang as the Central Leprosy Division of the health ministry reported that 135,485 new leprosy cases were detected in India in 2017. That meant every four minutes somebody was diagnosed with leprosy in India. This is nowhere close to elimination.

India will eliminate leprosy by 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told parliament in a budget speech on February 1, 2017, in an admission that the disease abounds. Activists working in the field say the target is impossible to achieve.

Of the new cases detected, nearly half (67,160) have been diagnosed at an advanced stage. And the number of new detections is high. For instance, in Telangana’s Adilabad district, a small village called Kushanpally with 250 houses (1,040 people) turned up 19 cases. “Pockets of high endemicity report thousands of new cases every year,” the World Health Organization (WHO) noted in 2016, adding that in 2015, India had accounted for 60% of the global total of new cases.

There is no reliable pan-India study or survey on the incidence of leprosy, and activists say the government is reluctant to record new cases for fear of losing its ‘elimination’ status.

Unwanted and neglected
Rachna Kumari was married at 18 and had two children by the time she was 21. Life was good in Munger, Bihar. Her world suddenly collapsed when she was diagnosed with leprosy. Her family disowned her and asked her to leave home.

Heartbroken, she fought with herself to find the courage to battle the disease and reclaim her life, alone. After being cured, she decided to dedicate her life to fighting discrimination in any form. Today, she sits on the panel of the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations that works for leprosy patients. She works with Lepra Society’s Referral Centre in Munger, Bihar. “My dream is for the world to be leprosy-free. I tell every new leprosy patient not to feel ashamed but hold their head high and not have any fear,” she said, “If we all work together with sincerity, we can eradicate leprosy just as we did with polio.”

India has more than three million people with deformities caused by leprosy. They are relegated to the margins of society and feel neglected and unwanted, living mostly in 750-odd leprosy colonies. Society largely treats them as social outcasts.

Being infectious, leprosy can spread easily. If not detected in time, it spreads through skin and peripheral nerves, damaging the nerves of the hands and feet to render them dead to sensation. This naturally leads to disabling injuries. This is why leprosy is feared and stigmatised so much.

Most of us do not contract leprosy as our immune system is strong and we have built a resistance to mycobacterium leprae, the bacterium that causes the disease. It is those with weak immunity that fall prey to it. Invariably, it is the poor who are malnourished and do not have easy access to medical facilities.

Elimination is not eradication
Since India received funding from the WHO to tackle leprosy, it was under pressure to show progress, activists and experts say. The government hurriedly announced in 2005 that leprosy was eliminated–which implies that incidence is one case per 10,000 (0.01%). Some experts questioned the manner in which this elimination was achieved–for instance, by stopping active case-seeking (and counting on self-reporting, which invariably leads to under-reporting), and by not counting single-lesion cases (which are considered less serious).

Thanks to India’s vast population, even fewer than “1 in 10,000 cases” can number in the lakhs overall. Despite achieving elimination of leprosy as a public health problem in 2005, India had the largest number of leprosy patients in the world, the WHO noted in 2016.

Also, the ‘one in 10,000’ figure was arrived at by taking an average of all the states, disregarding the vast variations between states. For instance, large and underdeveloped Uttar Pradesh had a high incidence, while developed states such as Kerala had a low figure. Bunching all these together to achieve elimination status proved a costly mistake.

‘Elimination’ was confused with ‘eradication’–the latter refers to the complete and permanent reduction of new cases to zero–and the threat of leprosy was prematurely considered over. The government machinery that worked for leprosy elimination slackened, and its personnel were transferred to other health departments considered in more urgent need. Front-line workers stopped household visits to identify undetected cases.

Under-reporting of cases
Stoppage of active surveillance after the elimination announcement has led to severe under-reporting of cases in India, studies such as this one from Munger, Bihar, have pointed out.

Finding an increase in ‘heightened disability’ among the new cases detected, a midterm evaluation of the National Leprosy Eradication programme in late 2016 said that this indicated “that the cases are being detected late in the community and there may be several cases which are lying undetected or hidden”. These hidden cases are dangerous because untreated patients are “an active reservoir in the community which transmit the disease to [the] susceptible”, the review said. It also found a large number of children among those detected.

Yet, several activists and researchers who work with leprosy patients told IndiaSpend, while insisting they not be named, that the government is resisting documentation of new cases. They pointed out, for example, that for several years after 2005, the number of new leprosy cases detected hung around the figure of 130,000 annually as it was deliberately kept within the elimination range (0.01% of India’s 1.3 billion population).

The official number of new patients “is largely coming from passive reporting as there is no nationwide move to detect cases”, Ashim Chowla, chief executive of Lepra Society, Secunderabad, told IndiaSpend.

Places such as Delhi, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Odisha, West Bengal and Lakshadweep, which were at the forefront of elimination targets, are now among the worst affected. Kerala, for instance, which has the best health indicators in India and once had the lowest rates of leprosy, now has a large number of leprosy patients–probably because of the high number of migrant labour that comes in from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha, where wages are lower.

Early detection and treatment
In case of leprosy, early detection and treatment before any disability sets in is important, as is rehabilitation of those who have been disabled so that they can live independently and carve out a dignified life. But society is rife with stigma and discrimination. Health activists have to fight numerous myths that have caught on because of poor understanding of the disease. One such myth is of leprosy being divine punishment for past sins.

Stigma prevents most patients from seeking medical treatment until it is too late, activist Vineeta Shanker, executive director of Sasakawa India Leprosy Foundation, points out. Nerve damage is irreversible and once disabilities set in, social rehabilitation becomes very challenging.
“We have to struggle even with the highly educated as well as opinion makers,” Chowla said. “Fairly recently, the Pope said that child abuse was like ‘leprosy in our house’. Because of the stigma involved, patients try to hide it. Changing attitudes takes time; even the government does not have the wherewithal to deal with something so complicated and produce quick results. This requires involvement of all stakeholders and drivers of change.”

Recently, parliament passed an amendment to remove discrimination against leprosy patients in various laws, especially those governing marriage and divorce, across faiths. There were 119 such laws, which blatantly discriminated against leprosy patients–for instance, by holding leprosy a valid reason for divorce, and considering leprosy an “incurable and virulent” disease. The government is also working on a draft bill to eliminate discrimination against persons affected by leprosy.

There are practical problems in detection, too. All parts of the patient’s body need to be examined, in good light, but most places where patients are examined are poorly lit. Male staff often shy away from asking women, especially in villages, to take off their clothes for examination. Many women refuse to do so. This means small diseased patches, of which even the patient is unaware, go undetected.

Once detected, the government treats leprosy patients for free. Patients are administered a multidrug therapy–a combination of different drugs–which is very effective and usually cures within six to 12 months.

As essential as early detection and treatment is post-treatment follow-up to detect relapse and identify drug-resistant strains.

The success of the anti-tobacco movement gives Chowla hope. “Leprosy needs something similar with corporate, private institutions and NGOs putting their commitment behind eradicating the disease,” he said. Since leprosy mainly affects the poor, it does not get the attention it deserves. The challenge is to end transmission by detecting cases and immediately putting them on multi-drug therapy, which should be made available even in the remotest parts of India. “There is no solid infrastructure at the moment that is geared to either detect and treat or end discrimination against patients,” he said.

Targets Of New Global Strategy For 2020

Zero disabilities among new pediatric patients.
Achieve a disability rate of less than 1 case per 1 million people.
Zero countries with legislation allowing discrimination on basis of leprosy.
Sustained and committed efforts by national programmes along with continued support from national and international partners.
Increased empowerment of people affected by the disease, together with their greater involvement in services and the community bringing us closer to a world without leprosy.

Source: World Health Organization (June 2017)

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court directed states and the central government to roll out awareness programmes about leprosy, something India should have proactively done seven years ago when it became a signatory to the United Nations resolution on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members.

The court said campaigns should not use frightening images of leprosy affected people but utilise positive images and stories of those who had been cured. The judgment came as huge relief by focusing attention on the need to urgently deal with the disease, Nikita Sarah, Head of Advocacy, The Leprosy Mission Trust, India, said.

A good workable strategy in India may be to integrate leprosy care with other areas of healthcare so that the perception of it being a dreadful disease that has to be treated separately disappears.

One of the main challenges in the fight against leprosy is that there is no vaccine against it yet, Mary Verghese, Executive Director, The Leprosy Mission Trust India, told IndiaSpend. The only way to end transmission, she said, is to ensure that people know how to recognise early signs and symptoms of leprosy and come in immediately for treatment. Increased resource allocation towards leprosy control is imperative, she said.

(Ramesh Menon is an author, independent award-winning journalist, documentary film-maker and adjunct professor at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication.)

Courtesy: India Spend

‘Her Castle of Dreams’: Poetry Dedicated to Womanhood and Its Pitfalls

January 4, 2019

Instead of playing with toys during her childhood, Rafia Mukhtar would cook for her family of eight, clean and take care of domestic animals. She spent six important years of her life away from her parents. When she turned 28, she wrote the book, a poetry collection, Her Castle of Dreams.

Her book speaks about the tumultuous journey of a girl until she becomes a woman. Her poems narrate how a society misplaces the worth of a girl’s character, and judges her on the basis of prejudiced and lopsided views. Through her book, she intends to help young girls understand how they can shape their lives, and fulfill their dreams.

Born in a middle-class family in Vessu Qazigund, in Anantnag district, Rafia was admitted in a government girls’ school, a few steps away from her ancestral house.

Every day, she would first help her mother in preparing breakfast, and would later go out to get bread from Kandur (bakery shop), and then leave for school. This was her daily routine.

By the time she was studying in grade V, Rafia’s father Mukhtar Ahmad Ganaie was not able to work due to health issues. A year later, her family, including her father, mother Misra Akhtar, and elder brother decided to move to the Anantnag town to start a business.

All of them moved to Anantnag, except for Rafia, who was asked to stay back, and live with her uncle Nazir Ahmad Ganaie, a 60 years old retired transport officer. This left her very confused.

“I was thinking if everyone is leaving why I am not going with them. However, I could not do anything but listen to them,” says Rafia.

With the passage of time, Rafia’s responsibilities increased. Her morning would start with offering prayers. She would then cook breakfast and lunch for her uncle’s family, clean the two-storeyed mud-brick house, feed the cattle, and then would quickly prepare herself for school.

Rafia would rush to the school, as she loved to study, but was not able to give much time due to the household responsibilities.

“I used to be surprised when my classmates would talk about their aims and dreams. I had no idea what these two words meant,” recalls Rafia.

Once back from school, she would head straight to the cowshed, and feed the cattle. Next job was to wash the dishes. She would get barely half an hour with her books.

It continued for the next four years, and finally, when she was in standard X, her family asked Rafia to go, and live with them.

“I was upset with them. I didn’t want to go back. They had abandoned me to live away from them, and without their love and guidance. No doubt my uncle loved me a lot, but they never helped me with my education,” says Rafia.

Finally, she moved to Anantnag town where her family was living in a rented house, and her father was running a general store nearby.

Rafia was admitted to a new school, Rani Bagh Higher Secondary, where she studied for her standard X examination. Meanwhile, her mother’s health started to deteriorate. Misra was diagnosed with diabetes among other issues. Rafia had to again shoulder a bunch of responsibilities.

She did what was required at home, took care of her mother, and also managed her studies. Rafia would have to skip school several times to take care of her mother.

Every day, her father would give her Rs 20, which she would save.

Spending time away from the family had changed Rafia completely. She would stay in her room alone after serving her family. Her education continued to suffer due to the financial crisis as well as due to the burden of domestic work.

In the meantime, the family bought a house in New Qazi Bagh, Anantnag.

Rafia continued her higher studies in the same school after standard X, opting for humanities. Her family and relatives would constantly try to prepare her as a girl who has to be more patient, as she has to eventually go to “paraya ghar (in-laws’ house)”. Rafia, however, remained reluctant.

She secured admission for Bachelors in Arts at Government Women’s College, Anantnag. The financial condition of her family wasn’t that good, but her savings came to her rescue.

Now she was a college student, she realised that she had become perceptive and observant. After spending time in college and with her family, she would rush to her room, and pen her thoughts and observations. Her quotes were more related to the state of women in her surroundings, nature, and of course about her struggle.

In 2014, when she finished her bachelor’s degree, the first question that crossed her mind was ‘what next’. “I was confused about what I should do. I had no aim, no dreams. My family had always taught me how to serve and live for others,” says Rafia.

Her batchmates decided to go for B Ed, but the fees for the course were high. She turned to her father, who gave her half the required amount. Her maternal uncle gave some, and she added the rest from her savings. Finally, she took admission in Rehmat Aalam College in 2014. Along with her regular studies, she kept jotting her thoughts down.

She would keenly observe the treatment of women in society and how women suffer and struggle to keep their identity alive.

In 2016, Rafia finished her college, and decided to earn for her family and herself. Everyone in the family first objected to her decision, but she resisted, and got herself a teaching job. In the meantime, she joined the Indira Gandhi National Open University, and started studying economics.

She had many options, but she decided to teach in Himalayan Bells Preparatory School, which was located at her birthplace Qazigund, for a salary of Rs 6,000. She was an assistant to a “mother teacher”. Most of what she earned was spent on needs at home.

“I chose this school because I was aware of the state of education system in a village, and quality teaching would help the students in the villages to build their perspective,” says Rafia.

During the prolonged strikes and the curfew for six months in Kashmir after the killing of armed resistance movement outfit Hizbul Mujahedeen’s Commander Burhan Wani in 2016, Rafia started taking tuitions free of cost for the students who lived near her home.
She started tuition with the aim of educating students in order to help them make a better future. Rafia taught with love and dedication, and guided each student, which was something she had lacked in her childhood.

Once life returned to normalcy in the valley, she joined the school again. Her dedication and work eventually got awarded in 2017. She was promoted to the post of mother teacher, and her salary was increased to Rs 7,000. However, in 2018 something else awaited her.
By this time, Rafia’s family had started receiving marriage proposal for her, and they asked her to give it a serious thought.

“It was tiring for me to think about marriage. First, they kept me away from themselves during the most important stage of my life, and now this. I didn’t accept it,” said Rafia. She started getting nightmares about her marriage which would disturb her sleep. With these thoughts, she spent many sleepless months which she utilised writing fervently.

Finally, in May, one of Rafia’s friends asked her to meet Professor Syeda Afshana at Kashmir University, and show her poems and quotes to her.

Syeda asked Rafia to give it a theme, as she had written about nature and women. She started working on her poems after school, almost through the night. She wrote everything in her diary, and in October, she was ready to show it to Syeda.

Syeda was impressed with her work, and asked her to format it for printing. However, she was confused about how to go about it. She remembered she was connected on Facebook with another female author Insha Khawaja, the author of Finding the Lost You.

Rafia texted Insha, who suggested that she write a preface and dedication of her book, type it and design it.

After Rafia wrote preface of her book, her new challenge was to type it as she had no laptop. Using her small android phone within three days, she typed and designed her complete book. She decided to title her book Her Castle of Dream and got it published on December 11, 2018.

Her book reflects the pain she witnessed, recalling how at the young age she learned cooking.

“How early my little hands can cook,” she says in one of the poems.

And adds: “I was born to giggle and fun”, “Don’t force me to wear the meaningless crown”.

She refers to how a girl is treated, and how she is only taught and prepared to settle in her in-laws’ house. In her poem, I’m not a burden, she says, “I’m not a burden but a gift of nature”, and “Nurture me well I’m not a stranger”.

Her book ends with a poem “Fairy Ma’am” which was a gift to Rafia from grade II students on Teachers’ Day. The poem says, “Early morning birds call us sweetly, Rafia ma’am teaches us nicely.”

First published in Newsclick.

Sambit Speaking… Not Anymore?

January 4, 2019

The BJP spokesperson who had been overdoing his gimmicks on TV, is now apparently being pulled down by the BJP.

In this episode of ‘Bol ke Lab Azad Hain Tere’, Abhisar Sharma talks about Sambit Patra. The BJP spokesperson who had been overdoing his gimmicks on TV, is now apparently being pulled down by the BJP. He was also censured for his over-the-top behaviour in the TV studios by the BJP top leadership. The question remains: are the rest of the BJP spokespersons any better?

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Remembering anti-caste social reformer Savitri Bai Phule on her birth anniversary

January 4, 2019

Today marks the 188^th birth anniversary of Savitri Bai Phule regarded as an icon in the field of education for girls in India. Born in 1831 in Naigaon, Maharashtra, she was married off to Jyothi Rao Phule at the age of 9.

Jyothiba taught her at home and later on the couple began to teach other girls for which they faced stiff opposition from the dominant castes of the Hindu Society because learning was a taboo for women then. The couple began their first school with support from Fatima Sheikh and her brother Usman Sheikh who gave them a place to stay.

Thus the first school for girls was started in their home and Savitri Bai was its first teacher. Apart from teaching she fought against other social evils such as Sati, Child marriages, infanticide, killing widows (Sati) and caste based discrimination.
The home of Jyothiba and Savitri Bai was not just for learning but also a refuge for rape survivors, sexually exploited widows, unwanted babies born out of wedlock and abandoned and so on.

Savitri Bai Phule is among the pioneers who fought patriarchy and set a trial for other men and women who are continuing their fight against the patriarchal structure that is deeply rooted in our society.

Jyotiba and Savitri Bai together started 18 schools, a care centre for pregnant rape victims called “Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha” which helped the women deliver their children.

She wrote many poems on caste based discrimination asking the people to educate themselves as that is the only way to fight the caste oppression.

She died on 10^th March 1897 after contracting plague from one of the patients she was taking care of in the clinic set up by Yashwant her adopted son.

The India Post has honoured Savitri Bai Phule by releasing a postage stamp in her name on 10^th March 1998, marking her birth centenary.

The University of Pune has been re named to Savitri Bai Phule University in 2015. And Google, the search engine has dedicated their google doodle to her in 2017.

Courtesy: Two Circles

Bulandshahr violence: Main accused Bajrang Dal activist Yogesh Raj arrested

January 3, 2019

Yogesh Raj had eluded the police for 30 days and even sent videos from hiding. Reports suggest he was arrested only after the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu right-wing outfit, turned him in.

Bulandshar: Bajrang Dal activist Yogesh Raj, the prime accused in the killing of Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh in Buladshahr was arrested by the police, a month after violence gripped the district in Uttar Pradesh. Raj, who was on a run since the violence broke out, was arrested late last night from a college in Bulandshahr.

Yogesh Raj had eluded the police for 30 days and even sent videos from hiding. Reports suggest he was arrested only after the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu right-wing outfit, turned him in. The police claimed in a press release that an informer alerted them to Yogesh Raj’s plan to go to Khurja, about 20 km from Bulandshahr, last night. The police say they laid a trap and caught him near a popular college.

Raj confessed to being a part of the mob and indulging in stone pelting. In a video released last month, he had denied being present at the site and said the people are “portraying me as if I am a history-sheeter.” He has contradicted many statements he made in the video and gave a different story each time he was asked about his whereabouts.

“Yes, Yogesh Raj has been arrested. He is undergoing a medical examination and would be produced in the local court later today for legal proceedings,” Circle Officer (Siyana) Raghvendra Kumar Mishra told PTI Thursday morning.

Subodh Kumar Singh, the station house officer of Siyana, and a local youth, Sumit Kumar, were killed on December 3 in mob violence near Siyana village during protests against alleged cow slaughter. Raj, with his associates, had lodged an FIR claiming that they saw “seven people slaughtering cows” when they were roaming in the fields. The FIR was lodged against seven people, including minors, under IPC section 295 at Siyana police station.

Singh was chased, cornered in a field and shot dead by the mob of 400 which allegedly included activists of the Bajrang Dal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and a youth wing member of the ruling BJP.

With Raj’s arrest, the number of those taken into custody in connection with the crime is 31 so far.

Last week, the police arrested a key accused, Kalua, who allegedly attacked Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh with an axe. The police also recovered the axe allegedly used in the attack, from his possession.

A Delhi taxi driver, Prashant Natt, was also held for allegedly shooting Singh. Police claimed Natt took Singh’s revolver and shot him in the head. Natt (30), who was not named in the FIR registered, was arrested after he was seen in videos of the incident, which was corroborated with testimonies of other accused and technical evidence.

Five Muslim men arrested on the basis of Yogesh Raj’s complaint were held for two weeks and eventually let off for lack of evidence.

Read Also:
Bulandshahr violence: Was Inspector Subodh Singh targeted?
Bulandshahr violence: Cow vigilantes kill policeman in lawless UP
Bulandshahr Violence: This is how cow vigilantes hatched the plot to kill a policeman

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Remembering anti-caste social reformer Savitri Bai Phule on her birth anniversary

Today marks the 188^th birth anniversary of Savitri Bai Phule regarded as an icon in the field of education for girls in India. Born in 1831 in Naigaon, Maharashtra, she was married off to Jyothi Rao Phule at the age of 9.

Bulandshahr violence: Main accused Bajrang Dal activist Yogesh Raj arrested

Yogesh Raj had eluded the police for 30 days and even sent videos from hiding. Reports suggest he was arrested only after the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu right-wing outfit, turned him in.

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Chhattisgarh: People’s Union for Civil Liberties – Chhattisgarh Unit has expressed its displeasure at the appointment of some of the police officials in key positions by the State Government whose record at the human rights front has been poor and controversial.

Brazil’s ‘new middle class’

Brazil’s crime wave

Recession, crisis and a backlash

Bolsonaro’s big promises

Can Bolsonaro help the working class?

The BJP spokesperson who had been overdoing his gimmicks on TV, is now apparently being pulled down by the BJP.

Today marks the 188th birth anniversary of Savitri Bai Phule regarded as an icon in the field of education for girls in India. Born in 1831 in Naigaon, Maharashtra, she was married off to Jyothi Rao Phule at the age of 9.

Yogesh Raj had eluded the police for 30 days and even sent videos from hiding. Reports suggest he was arrested only after the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu right-wing outfit, turned him in.

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

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Important Links

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Today marks the 188^th birth anniversary of Savitri Bai Phule regarded as an icon in the field of education for girls in India. Born in 1831 in Naigaon, Maharashtra, she was married off to Jyothi Rao Phule at the age of 9.