EDITORIAL
Focus on girl child
At least three dastardly
incidents during the last one week have once again
shifted focus on the plight of girl child in the State.
In one a doctor has outraged the modesty of a teenaged
girl patient. The shocking happening has taken place
inside a primary health centre in Handwara in the north
of the Kashmir Valley. The innocent student who was
undergoing treatment was drugged and then physically
exploited. The medical fraternity must have been left
aghast by the misdeed of one of its members. An equally
heinous crime has been witnessed in Bantalab on
Jammu-Akhnoor road at the outskirts of this city. A girl
has been rescued from the confinement of four young
persons after 25 days. The 9th class student had been
kidnapped from her New Plots residence. Her tormentors
had moved her from one hideout to the other and raped
her. Like the doctor in the first instance the quartet
involved in this one has also been arrested. Crime is
always a blot on a place. Its emerging face in our
vicinity is frightening. It is precisely because of these
occurrences that there is a popular belief that a woman
must be in her father's care during childhood, her
husband's in her youth, and her son's in her old age. Why
can't she be just herself? There is yet another bit of
disturbing news. The details in this regard are not
complete. What is clear is that girls are again the
victims. Two of them have been found dead in mysterious
circumstances in Satwari in another corner of the city.
In the past we have seen teachers as playing the
villains. Now we have a doctor exposed to bad light.
Rapists can belong to any segment of male population. The
fault does not lie with one's profession but with a
perverted mindset.
Concerned citizens have
tried to address the phenomenon at various levels. The
Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action adopted at the
Fourth World Conference on Women attended by 189
countries has aptly summed up the milieu: "The girl
child is discriminated against from the earliest stages
of life, through her childhood and into adulthood. In
some areas of the world, men outnumber women by 5 in
every 100. The reasons for this discrepancy include
harmful attitudes and practices, such as female genital
mutilation, son preference, early marriage, violence
against women, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse,
discrimination against girls in food allocation and other
practices related to health and well-being. As a result,
fewer girls than boys survive into adulthood." A
briefing paper to the United Nations Commission on the
Status of Women in early 2007 makes certain telling
points about our country. It quotes two authorities. One
is the National Crime Record Bureau which says that the
sexual abuse of children in India is a growing and
disturbing fact. In response in part to
commercialisation, children especially young girls are
being sold and trafficked across state and trans-national
boundaries for the purpose of prostitution and child
pornography. The other finding is of the United States
Department of State which estimated in 2004 that there
were 500000 commercially sexually exploited children
nationwide in India and at least 2.4 million girls and
women believed to be in the Indian sex industry. Sex
tourism is said to be widespread. The paper notes:
"Patriarchy often dictates the sexual and economic
relationships of a society. This is true in India where
many of the rituals, practices and customs are gender
biased and discriminatory and yet sanctioned by religious
forces and authorities. Many of the harmful religious
traditions place girls and women in a subservient
position, degrade their status, and result in sexual
exploitation."
From time to time we have
highlighted in these columns various dimensions of this
cancer prevailing in our society. It exists across the
globe. The paper mentioned above makes a chilling
comment: "The prostitution of children is
flourishing not only in Asia but all around the world.
Girl children are abducted, sold and coerced into the sex
industry. The commercial sexual abuse of children has
become a highly profitable activity of organised crime
rings." Poverty alone apparently is not the reason
for such murky state of affairs although it is a major
contributory factor. Evidently there is application of
force as well. Breakdown of joint family system has
exacerbated the situation at least in this regard. It has
deprived girls of a conventional safety net. However, it
needs to be appreciated that our laws are heavily in
favour of the girl child. It is societal attitude that is
slow in undergoing a transformation. Still the burden of
stigma in case of a rape is attached to the victim. It is
generally believed that abused girls and their parents
don't come forward to lodge reports with police. This
approach has to undergo a change. It can be achieved
through adequate publicity of available legal devices to
punish the guilty. We should resolutely stand up against
criminals instead of allowing them to go scot-free after
their unpardonable offence. A girl can't be permitted to
suffer in perpetuity.
No end to greed
There is no end, no
boundary to human greed. Only yesterday we had discussed
the shortcuts some of us apply to make a fast buck
through illegal means. Now we come across another bizarre
tale. Two boys in Srinagar planned and executed their own
kidnapping to get Rs 5 lakhs as ransom from the father of
one of them. Is the incident not in keeping with our
times? The age of the boy who decided to keep his family
on tenterhooks and deceive its head is just 13 years. His
accomplice is a cousin whose exact age is not known but
again is in his teens. The former knew that his father
would do anything to secure his "release". The
duo involved two more persons in the drama. They placed
their demand rather too high. The poor father settled for
Rs 50000. Eventually, however, he could arrange only Rs
20000. Fortunately for him before he could part with
money the word spread fast about the police having taken
up investigation into kidnappings. Both the boys
apparently developed cold feet. They surfaced and spilled
the beans on being questioned.
Who has gone wrong where
--- the father or the son? Clearly the young boy is at
fault. He strayed into a make-believe world of getting
rich quick. Is this not a typical case of one cutting off
one's nose to spite one's face? Has the son drawn proper
lessons? Can anyone say yes with confidence?
Economic
reforms need a push
By Sisir
Basu
Has economic reform
under the UPA government slowed
down? This question has cropped
up time and again. One may recall
that as the 1980s drew to a
close, the spurt in reforms
during 1985-86 and 1986-87 under
prime minister Rajiv Gandhi
seemed to peter out. Yet, in
1991-92, prime minister Narasimha
Rao and finance minister Manmohan
Singh began to lay down the
foundation of systematic reforms.
They did away with investment
licensing as also with import
licensing on capital goods and
raw materials, substantially
lowered industrial tariffs,
opened most industries to foreign
investment, dramatically reformed
both direct and indirect taxes,
substantially cut fiscal deficit,
considerably liberalised the
financial sector, and made the
rupee convertible on the current
account.
But by mid-1994,
despite clear evidence of
significantly improved economic
performance, reforms came to a
standstill. Congress party lost
elections in May 1996 and a
series of unstable governments
followed. There was some effort
to revive the reforms by these
governments in areas of taxation,
civil aviation,
telecommunications and insurance
but their success was at best
limited.
At this juncture,
prime minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee and finance minister
Yashwant Sinha came to the helm.
Defying the conventional wisdom
of the day that the consensus for
reforms was lacking, they went on
to produce deep and wide-ranging
reforms in virtually all areas
during six years of their rule.
They promulgated the New Telecom
Policy, 1999, and introduced some
of the toughest reforms in the
sector. Those reforms have led to
a sharp rise in the tele-density
from just 2.8 per cent in 1998-99
to approximately 19 per cent
today.
Import licensing on
consumer goods, which the trade
reform of 1991-92 had
ubiquitously left in place, came
to an end in April 2001. The top
industrial tariff rate was
brought down from 45 per cent in
March 1999 to 20 per cent in
January 2004. The indirect tax
system and tax administration
were reformed in a major way. The
government introduced genuine
privatisation with several public
sector enterprises transferred
into private hands. The Urban
Land Ceilings and Regulation Act,
1976 was repealed. The government
successfully embarked upon a
massive programme of highway
construction. A major step
towards the reform of the power
sector was taken through the
Electricity Act, 2003.
On the macroeconomic
front, the Vajpayee-Sinha team
liberalised most interest rates,
introduced greater competition in
the banking sector through more
liberal entry of domestic and
foreign private banks, freed up
several external capital account
transactions and introduced the
Fiscal Responsibility and Budget
Management Act. It opened the
insurance sector to the private
sector with limited foreign
investment permitted.
Vajpayee-Sinha combine also
launched reforms of the civil
service pension system and the
exit policy though they remain
incomplete to-date.
In May 2004, the
Vajpayee government lost election
and the reforms were once again
setback. Outside of international
trade, last three years have seen
very limited progress in opening
up the economy further. Why?
Shifts in the consensus and the
power of vested interests cannot
explain this large shift in the
policy stance. We must seek
explanation elsewhere.
Within India's
parliamentary democracy, the
leadership at the top plays a
decisive role in shaping the
policy. A leadership committed to
reforms faces resistance from
three quarters: opponents among
the supporters of the government
in parliament, those sitting in
the opposition, and the vested
interests that expect to lose
from the policy change. A
determined leadership can often
overcome resistance from all
three sources.
Those on the ruling
side rarely want to vote
themselves out of power. In the
beginning of its term, when the
present government decided to
raise foreign investment caps in
telecommunications and in civil
aviation, the Left Front parties
eventually dropped their
opposition rather than bring the
government down. They only stood
to lose by voting the government
out. Chances are better than 50
per cent that they will do the
same in the current stand-off on
the nuclear issue.
The power of the
opposition to stop the reform is
even more limited. When
disinvestment minister Arun
Shourie proposed an ambitious
agenda of privatisation in the
early 2000s, the opposition
accused him of corruption to
derail the programme. But a
determined Shourie, backed up by
an equally determined Vajpayee,
could successfully advance his
agenda.
Even vested
interests, frequently credited
with blocking the reforms, have
only a limited standing power. If
the public views the change
favourably, agitators quickly
lose its sympathy. The airport
workers trying to block the
privatisation of Delhi airports
in 2006 faced this situation and
had to quickly give up their
agitation. Indeed, even when the
public views a policy change as
detrimental to its interests, the
free-rider problem in agitation
works in favour of the
government. The cost of the
agitation falls
disproportionately on those
actively participating but the
benefits are diffused. Therefore,
a patient government is often
able to outlast the agitators.
The failure of the public in 2006
to reverse the government's
decision to extend caste-based
quotas for admissions to private
schools and colleges illustrates
this point.
Many observers today
hold the Left Front parties
responsible for the slowdown in
the reforms. While this view has
some merit, the bulk of the
problem resides within the ruling
coalition. While prime minister
Singh would undoubtedly like to
proceed with the reforms, by all
indications, the Congress party
president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi holds
his hand back. Faced with similar
challenges from within the party
during his tenure, prime minister
Vajpayee confronted his opponents
and prevailed, but as a lame duck
prime minister, Manmohan Singh
cannot take bold steps to go
against the wishes of UPA's Left
Front allies who are opposed to
reforms. (INAV)
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 Exorcise
legacy of Zia
By
Amulya Ganguli
Benazir
Bhutto’s
assassination marks yet
another stage in
Pakistan’s decline
into a dysfunctional
state, an earlier
manifestation of which
was her father’s
"judicial
murder". It had
underlined the
judiciary’s
emasculation by the
executive, the customary
first step of a tyrant.
Pakistan’s
tragedy has not only been
its failure to develop
into a democracy, but the
cohabitation of
dictatorship with
religious fundamentalism.
Had it been only a
dictatorship of the kind
favoured by America, such
as Saudi Arabia and Egypt
in today’s world, or
Iran under the Shah and
Chile under Pinochet in
an earlier period, then
Pakistan might have
escaped its present
travails. After all, a
‘pure’
dictatorship does ensure
a kind of stability for
some time, as the
examples of Soviet Union
and its East European
satellites demonstrated.
But
a mixture of autocracy
and bigotry is lethal.
The compulsions of
Pakistan’s myopic
military leaders and
their equally
short-sighted backer in
Washington were obvious
enough. While Islamabad
needed to stoke the fires
of secessionism in
Kashmir with the help of
the fundamentalists, the
US needed these very same
elements to fight its
cold war against the
Soviet bear in
Afghanistan. While
Zia-ul-Huq oversaw the
intermingling of the
military with the
mullahs, Benazir herself
was not blameless, having
facilitated the
installation of none
other than Osama bin
Laden himself in
Jalalabad during her
first stint as prime
minister.
Now,
she has had to pay the
price of that act of
indiscretion with her
life just as the leader
she admired, Indira
Gandhi, did in 1984 for
having tried to use the
militant Bhindranwale to
undercut the Akalis in
Punjab. Those who play
with fire invite their
own deaths. The pity,
however, is that Benazir
had apparently become
wiser after having played
the military’s tune
earlier and is said to
have even promised to
open a new chapter with
India by closing down the
terrorist camps and even
extraditing Dawood
Ibrahim. Unfortunately,
she hadn’t become
wise enough to take
sufficient precautions
against the possibility
of her death at the hands
of the military-mullah
combine.
Since
it is obvious that the
authorities failed to
provide adequate
protection to her in
spite of the earlier
suicide attack on her
procession, it is
difficult to deny the
likelihood of
"rogue"
elements in the army and
the ISI acting in
connivance with the
jehadis to kill her. The
subsequent patently
untenable explanations
given by government
spokesmen about the cause
of her death - that she
banged her head against
the side of the sunroof
of her vehicle - are
likely to confirm the
suspicion that the
authorities have
something to hide or are
simply embarrassed about
the lapses in her
security which allowed
the gun-wielding
assassins and a suicide
bomber to get near to
her.
Her
death has proved,
however, how she was
regarded as a danger by
her opponents.
Notwithstanding her
earlier failures, there
was little doubt that her
party would sweep the
polls if they were free
and fair. This would have
been too much of a risk
for Pervez Musharraf, the
army and the jehadis, for
it was just possible that
she would have lived up
to her promises and
introduced a genuine
democracy. Such a turn of
events would have undone
the double game of
hunting with the American
hounds and running with
the fundamentalist hares
which Musharraf had been
playing since 9/11.
Intriguingly,
Benazir’s death
might achieve her
objective for, if free
and fair elections are
held on January 8, few
would doubt that the PPP
would have little trouble
in winning. India has
already seen how an
emotional response to a
leader’s death can
influence an electoral
outcome. Despite his
tender age, the presence
of Bilawal Bhutto at the
head of his mother’s
and grandfather’s
party is bound to give
the PPP an emphatic
victory even if, as Imran
Khan fears, suicide
bombers make the election
campaigns an extremely
difficult proposition.
But since the PPP will
ride the waves of
emotions, the routine
campaigns may not be
necessary.
Perhaps
sensing that the people
of Pakistan are
resolutely turning away
from dictatorship, Nawaz
Sharif, too, has spoken
in favour of sticking to
the election schedule.
His Muslim League
obviously has a far
better chance of securing
the popular mandate
(perhaps become the
second party) than
Musharraf’s Muslim
League (Quaid-e-Azam),
which was derided
throughout its eight-year
existence as the
"king’s
party". If there are
no more suicide attacks
on prominent
personalities, the
chances are that Pakistan
will head for a democracy
- at least in the short
term. The problem will be
that it will be a
democracy without a
charismatic leader, which
is essential for the
success for this form of
a government in South
Asia. Neither Asif Ali
Zardari nor Makhdoom Amin
Fahim fits the bill. They
will be like caretakers
waiting for Bilawal to
grow up.
For
India, however, all that
it wants is for democracy
to be restored and the
Pakistan army and the ISI
reined in and their
"rogue"
elements eliminated. Only
then will the sinister
legacy of Zia be
exorcised. The PPP can do
it for, of all the
parties, it has suffered
the most at the hands of
the jehadis. (IPA)
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Upgrading
airport infrastructure
By
Devsagar Singh
The
Government of India's
policy on airport
infrastructure says:
"Priority will be
accorded to safety,
passenger facilities,
aircraft and cargo
handling while deciding
the allotment of funds
among different
upgradation and
modernisation
schemes".
What
is happening on the
ground, however, is just
the contrary. On November
26, 2007, for example, an
Air India tractor trolley
hits an Air Deccan Airbus
aircraft at Delhi airport
and the plane is grounded
for major repairs. On
November 19, a Jet
Airways vehicle rams a
stationary Deccan ATR
aircraft at Chennai
airport, damaging the
plane badly. The airline
said the plane will
require expensive repairs
and will be grounded for
six months. Again on
October 22, 2007, an Air
Deccan engineer dies
after being hit at Delhi
airport's apron area, the
second such fatal
accident in Delhi airport
in three months. Only in
July, an Aeroflot driver
was killed by a speeding
minibus (Times of India,
November 30). Aircraft
often screech to a halt
while taxiing in the
chock-a-block Delhi and
Mumbai airport, scaring
passengers.
The
airport infrastructure
policy, similarly, says:
"the short- term
objective will be to
clear incoming
international passengers
within 45 minutes of
arrival and clear
departing passengers in
60 minutes, including
check-in time. Similar
targets of 30 and 45
minutes, respectively,
will be laid down for
domestic flights".
Quite
the contrary seems to be
happening. Fight delays
are a routine affair with
airports like Delhi and
Mumbai, the two busiest
ones in the country. This
has a countrywide impact
because the same aircraft
are used in so many
destinations across the
country. The situation is
particularly bad in
winter months
(December-January) when
dense fog envelops Delhi
international airport and
other airports in north
India. Airline pilots
often complain about
malfunctioning of the
instrument landing system
(ILS) installed at Delhi
airport.
Indeed,
airport infrastructure in
the country is ailing and
warrants massive
upgradation and
modernisation.
"While traffic is
growing at 25 to 30 per
cent annually,
modernisation and
upgradation has not kept
pace with it. The result
is virtual chaos,
particularly in Delhi and
Mumbai airports which
handle 50 per cent of the
country's traffic",
a senior retired official
of the civil aviation
ministry said.
Delhi
airport's rated passenger
handling capacity was
upto 8.4 million annually
till 2005-06. It,
however, handled 10.5
million passengers that
year. According to DGCA
sources, the capacity has
now been increased to
handle upto 12 million
passenger annually.
Official figures of the
civil aviation ministry
show that Delhi airport
actually handled 20.44
million passengers during
2006-07.
Similarly,
Mumbai airport's capacity
has been raised from 10
million passengers upto
2005-06 to almost 12
million now, according to
official sources.
Official statistics,
however, show that Mumbai
airport handled 20.29
million passengers from
April 2006 to February
2007. The result is,
obviously, chaos.
"The
all important air traffic
control (ATC) is often
overworked and have to
work under pressure.
Flights have increased
massively, but
infrastructure has lagged
behind. We work to our
best but end up getting
flak from pilots," a
Delhi airport ATC
official said requesting
anonymity.
On
December 8, 2007,
afternoon (around 3.30 pm
according to reports) the
Delhi ATC's main radar
developed snags for a
while causing panic.
According to media
reports, a number of
flights were delayed upto
two hours as a result.
The normal functioning
was, however restored
within 15 minutes.
According
to an aviation analyst,
future projections
suggest that by 2020,
India will have to deal
with 100 million air
passengers per annum.
"To deal with such a
situation, India will
have to spend massive
resources to create
additional infrastructure
and there is no room for
any delay," the
analyst said.
Indeed,
the Government has
started modernising Delhi
and Mumbai airports at an
estimated cost of Rs
15,000 crore. Efforts are
on to start modernisation
of Kolkata and Chennai
airports at an estimated
cost of Rs 5000 crore.
Similarly, new airports
are being built at
Bangalore and Hyderabad
in Southern India. Both
airports are expected to
be opened for traffic
next year.
The
AAI has under its control
127 airports in the
country, including 15
international airports.
"During the Eleventh
Plan, AAI would be
undertaking development
of 35 non-metro airports
and 13 other airports,
development of Chennai
and Kolkata airports,
construction of new
greenfield
airports," says the
11th five-year plan
document finalised on
December 19.
The
11th plan document
further says:
"Airports Economic
Regulatory Authority
(AERA) is being
established in order to
create a level playing
field and healthy
competition amongst all
major airports (handling
more than 1.5 million
passengers per annum),
encourage investment in
airport facilities,
regulate tariffs of
aeronautical services,
protect reasonable
interest of users, and
operate efficient,
economic and viable
airports." A model
concession agreement is
also being evolved to
help attract private
investment in air
transport projects, the
plan document further
says. (IPA)
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