By Sanjeev Pargal

JAMMU, Feb 23: Budget session of the State Legislature today began on a stormy note with Governor NN Vohra’s Address to joint session of the Legislature being disrupted by official four member faction of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and lone member of Jammu State Morcha (JSM) in Central Hall of Legislature while the National Panthers Party (NPP) staging a demonstration outside. The BJP and JSM also held a protest outside the Legislature Hall before the Governor’s Address.However, the major 21 members opposition party, the PDP, maintained silence during the Governor Address. The PDP members led by their Legislature Party leader Mehbooba Mufti listened the Governor’s 48 minutes Address without any disruptions. Seven BJP rebels too kept quiet though their leader Prof Chaman Lal Gupta stood up for a while.After the BJP’s walk-out, the silence in the Central Hall of Legislature was broken

From Fayaz Bukhari

Srinagar Feb 23: An Army officer was among 16 Army personnel killed and 11 injured in avalanches that struck Army facilities at Gurez in North Kashmir district of Bandipora and Sonamarg in Central Kashmir district of Ganderbal last night after heavy snowfall for last few days. The Srinagar based spokesman of the Defence Ministry, Lt Col Jagmohan Singh Brar, said here today that last night at around 10 pm, an avalanche struck the 109 Army Brigade, at Dawar Markote in Gurez sector of North Kashmir district of Bandipora near the Line of Control (LoC).He said that 29 soldiers were trapped under the avalanche that damaged around 25 Army vehicles and 17 Army barracks inside the Brigade workshop. A joint rescue operation was launched by Army, Police and Civil authorities and 13 dead bodies were recovered so far and equal numbers of Army personnel were rescued. The rescuers worked round the clock in inclement weather to look for the survivors.

By Rashmi Saksena
In India, rape is emerging to be far more than what it is generally understood to be. Unfortunately our law and law makers have yet to wake up to this sad fact. While rising crime against women and children continue to make headlines, the sordid trend of digital rape in India remains a hidden headline. Not only is digital rape an indication of the extent of depravation existing in society but also a pointer to a deficiency in the laws relating to rape.
What is digital rape? Three recent instances indicate how men can actually violate a woman or child’s dignity and in reality rape her without doing what is defined as rape by the Supreme Court. In Mumbai, a two year girl was brought bleeding to the hospital. Medical examination indicated that her vagina was ruptured. But there was no indication of “rape” as such. Police investigations were shocking. It was found that the little girl’s father had been for some time penetrating her with his finger. He was arrested but could not be convicted under Section 376 of the IPC which deals with rapists.
The other two cases are from Delhi. A 60 year old woman took a three wheeler scooter to attend wedding related functions at a relative’s place. The scooter driver was in his 30’s and offered to take her to her destination. But after sometime he started to drive in the wrong direction. The woman kept telling him that this was not the right route he did not listen and soon drove her to a lonely spot. There he assaulted her and used an iron rod to penetrate her. The matter was reported to the police and the scooter driver was arrested. But the police knew from the word go that it would be impossible to have the court convict the criminal under the rape law. Few months ago an 18 year old boy was in a Delhi Sessions Court for sexually assaulting an 80 year old woman by penetrating her with a wooden stick. The young man had forcefully dragged the old woman to a secluded place and sexually assaulted her with a stick.
There are few who would not call this a barbarous act. But the offence could not be tried under the law relating to rape as the courts have no right to extend the definition of rape to include any form of penetration other than by a male sexual organ as laid down by the Supreme Court. It is this case that made Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau call for a redefinition of laws relating to rape so that all types and categories of sexual assault could be included. Lau pointed out that such cases should compel Indian legislators take a re-look at the existing definition of rape and formulate a law that would cover all types of sexual assault and also make the law gender neutral. An exhaustive legislation is also required to bring in male rape/anal rape that will deal with sexual assault by men on men.
As of now those who indulge in the crime of digital rape as well as male rape are usually convicted under other sections like kidnapping, attempt to murder and unnatural offences. Given what is happening in society this brings to surface a major deficiency in the law. So there is a need for expanding the definition of rape. In India Section 377 of the IPC does cover intercourse committed against the laws of nature, it is felt that its applicability is limited making it difficult to cover cases of digital rape. Countries like the United States, Australia, Scotland and Ireland have already changed their laws so that all forms of sexual assault can be covered.
As cases emerge a sad and unfortunate aspect is that victims of digital rape are usually children and aged women. Obviously our society is getting sick with little regard for senior citizens or the innocents. It is in this context that the recent statistics provided by the National Crime Records Bureau become ever far more important pointers. Delhi records 33.5 per cent of the country’s urban child rapes. Statistics reveal that in 98 per cent of these cases the child is abused by the friendly neighbour or a person known to the victim. But senior policemen sound the alarm bell by saying that there are far more cases unreported than those reported. Even activists claim that figures of child rape and digital rape are grossly underestimated. An activist working with aged people says “most old women remain silent when they are sexually assaulted as they fear no one will believe them. Also there is little awareness of what digital rape is”. But it seems to be on the rise.
All this is a wake up call for our law makers and the sooner they look into the matter the better for society. Laws must undergo change to meet the demands of society. Digital rape is a sad commentary on what is happening to our society but it is best to accept the shameful trend and ensure that offenders do not get away because the law is inadequate to punish them. (IPA)

By Tufail Jarul
No nation, society or community can hold its head high and claim to be the part of civilized world if it condones the practice of discrimination against one half of the community. Continuing preference for boys in society, for the girl child the apathy continues, the child sex ratio in India has dropped to 914 females against 1,000 males, one of the lowest since Independence according to Census 2011.Declining sex ratio is a silent emergency. But the crisis is real, and its persistence has profound and frightening implications for society and the future of humankind.
This article provides an overview on the declining sex ratio in India, reasons behind it and what need to be done to overcome the situation. Every national census has documented a decline in the sex ratio, signalling a ubiquitous trend. Despite a slew of laws to prevent female foeticide and schemes to encourage families to have girl child, the sex ratio continuously declined, it is a matter of grave concern for the India. It showed a continuing preference for male children in the last decade. The low sex ratio is not just confined to the rural belts, the ratio in urban areas is significantly lower than those in rural parts of the country according to 2011 Census. Changing sex ratios among children are going to have a lasting impact on population dynamics in India, as most of today’s births will survive for more than 60 years.
If we have a look of child sex ratio among the different regions of India. North India has 923, Eastern India 942, North East 954, North West 875 and South India has 948 child sex ratio. The sharpest decline in sex ratio of the child population has been observed in north western States followed by Northern States. It indicates the sex ratio continues to plummet in the Bimaru states. The divide between north, northwest India and South India has got even starker with the Jammu and Kashmir child sex ratio falling precipitously to 859 in 2011 census making it the third worst state after Haryana and Punjab. India’s north east seems to have a much healthier attitude to girl children than the rest of the country in 2011 census. The declining sex ratio is warning signal for the nation to wake up. The caution should be taken seriously, we are leading towards a crisis situation.
It is a disgrace for all of us where the birth of girl child considered as a bad investment in future. She is considered to be consumer rather than a producer. Escalating demands of dowry was cited as the main reason behind it. Daughters were unable to provide social security to parents and called for unnecessary investment on themselves, the fruits of which were taken away by the in-laws. It is great fear that the decline in sex ratio might lead to degradation of moral values in the society resulting in polyandry, violence against women, red trafficking etc.
The steady decline in the sex ratio suggests that marked improvements in the economy and literacy rates don’t seem to have any impact. In fact, the availability of new technology helped the urban, well off families and educated to misuse it and ultimately it leads to harm the status of the society. Prosperity does not bring good fortune for girl child. It is good time to look who really is responsible for this. According to census 2011, the states with the worst sex child sex ratio are not the most backward, the economically well off states have lowest sex ratio like the prosperous agrarian states of Haryana and Punjab bear the ignominy of low sex ratio. This census shows that high literacy is not a good proxy for the healthy gender balance like Maharashtra with a literacy of 83 percent has 883 child sex ratio, while Chhattisgarh, with just 71 percent overall literacy and 61 percent women literacy, has a Child sex ratio of 964. This indicates that mere education has not been enough to correct a deep societal and cultural bias that the India seems to have against girls.
There are multiple factors behind the trend of declining sex ratio. Sex selection and medical technology is misused in India for detecting the sex of unborn child and ultimately for the sex selection, Female foetuses, thus identified and aborted. Many studies have shown that Pre Natal Sex Determination is the main reason of low sex ratio in India followed by abortion of female foetuses. Besides the misuse of the technology, the patriarchal societies in many parts of India have translated their prejudice and bigotry into a compulsive preference for boys and discriminations against the girl child. Women work is always socially devalued with limited autonomy in decision making. Patriarchy always maintains a strong hold on the gender inequality.
Sex determination tests are seen as providing a ‘reproductive choice’ – a choice to decide to have a boy or a girl. Soon after the sex determining techniques, in 1983 Indian parliament banned the practice of sex determination in all public institutions. But the prime legislation Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques act, passed in 1994, after a long campaign by the civil society and women organisation and certain. The law is enforced at both the national and regional levels. At the same time, many difficulties and loopholes in the provisions of the Act lead to unsatisfactory results like lack of resources to carry out inspection and monitoring, lack of corresponding qualified staff, poor performance of advisory committees at various levels, insufficient understanding of the law and procedural errors.
The surplus of males in a society leads to lack of marriageability, and consequent marginalization in society, may lead to anti social behaviour and violence, threatening societal stability and security.
The suggestive measures which flew unabated from the study included strict implementation of laws banning female foeticide and dowry, providing old age pension for parents who had no son, free and compulsory education for girls, job reservation for women in specific occupations and giving them an equal share in the property, in the true sense of the word. Efforts should be made to implement these laws effectively. Strict punishment should be given to the defaulters. Dowry is the main cause of low sex ratio. The trend of taking and giving of dowry which takes place mostly in educated and upper class homes can be discouraged by laws and awareness among the peoples
Moral education should be imparted in schools. Children should be taught to uphold morals and refrain from practices of dowry, female foeticide, and gender bias. The vulnerable minds of the children should be so influenced that they grow up as adults who consider practicing dowry and female foeticide as immoral. Women should also be socialized from early childhood to consider themselves as equal to men. This would be a positive influence on the coming generations as today’s girl child would be tomorrow’s mother as well as mother in-law.
The study suggests that only the sex ratio as an individual or related to the misuse of medical technology or the legal interventions with laws to end the practice reflect poor understanding of the problem. While strict laws only can control the female infanticide and foeticide, it will not eliminate the problem completely. The major barrier in the way towards the balanced gender structure is gender inequality based on the socio-cultural issues. The systematic discrimination of the females needs to be tackled from our society.
The concerns regarding declining female population in India is to rise above the social domain issue to become a political, economic and reformist issue and the entire society must be sensitised. We are living through a ‘civilization crises’. The challenge can only be met by all on round realisation that even in the patriarchal set up, it is essential to maintain a natural balance between the sexes failing which not only the social system, but also entire economic system would get damaged beyond repair. In order to marshal support of various groups and channelizing the efforts in a focussed manner, government must take a lead in establishing a mission for balancing the sex ratio by the next census operation through a coordinated mix of reinforcement programmes and support mechanism.
(The author is Research Scholar, School of Social Sciences JNU)

By Tavleen Singh
Last week I drove from Delhi to Moradabad with the specific intention of finding out about the issues that concern Muslims in this most important of elections in Uttar Pradesh. The way that Muslims vote will affect the results that come out on March 6. I took with me an Urdu poet called Zafar Moradabadi, who moved to Delhi many years ago, and whom I know because he taught my son Urdu. Zafar Sahib had suggested that it would be quicker for us to go by train but I was keen to see if the road had improved under Mayawati’s Government so we went by car. It had. The road to Moradabad that once was a strip of broken tarmac is now a four lane highway that takes you past new residential developments with names like Antariksh and Siddharta Vihar. Unfortunately, these have come up without investment in the requisite municipal services so what you also see as soon as you leave the environs of Delhi is rotting garbage on either side of the fine new road.
At the first toll stop in U.P. I bought the three Hindi newspapers that were for sale and in them discovered huge advertisements from the Congress Party with Rahul Gandhi smiling out of them along side these words. ‘Picchley 22 saalon mein Congress ko chhod key sarkarein aayeen aur gayeen. Par mila kya aapko? Kabhi jungle raj, kabhi kushasan. Kya ab bhi yahi sab bardaasht kareingey aap? Sochiye Zara.’ In the past 22 years you have seen non-Congress governments come and go and what did you get? Sometimes jungle law, sometimes bad government. Is this what you want again? Think.’
The truth is that if U.P. continues to remain so backward that, to use Rahul Gandhi’s words, it ‘drags India down’ the Congress Party is as much to blame. In the forty years that Congress chief ministers ruled this state, right up to the late eighties, it was not just backward but hopelessly so. In fairness to Mayawati she has done more to build the state’s infrastructure than almost any other chief minister I have seen since I started covering U.P. elections but she faces not just an anti-incumbency factor but the possibility of losing the Muslim vote. I had heard this in Lucknow the week before.
When we got to Moradabad we drove deep into the heart of the congested inner city. The lanes were narrow, crowded and filthy and even the small green-washed mosques looked as if they could use a coat of fresh paint. We parked in the widest street in the main bazaar next to an open garbage dump in which pigs frolicked. Zafar Sahib explained that the Hindus in the area were mostly Dalit and they bred pigs. He pointed to an ‘idgah’ across the street and said it was there that last year’s riot started. ‘Pigs were released into the idgah as prayers were ending and this started the violence.’ In the old days when Moradabad was one of the state’s most communally sensitive cities the riot could have ended in a massacre. But, as everywhere else in India, 24-hour news channels have made it almost impossible for riots to spread easily so the violence was quickly brought under control and resulted in the death of only one young Muslim boy who was killed by a police bullet.
I followed Zafar sahib into a narrow lane that took us past a noisy ‘English medium’ school into a network of narrower lanes. Open drains ran along them and mounds of smelly garbage lay on their edges. After a short walk we arrived at the home of Javed Rashid ‘Aamir’ a tax lawyer who is also a part time writer and poet. He had gathered together a group of his friends among whom were poets, lawyers and doctors. When I asked what the main issue was for Muslims in this election they said, without hesitation, that it was development. Javed Rashid said, ‘Moradabad has been badly neglected despite earning the Government of India more than Rs 3000 crores in foreign exchange from brass exports. The city pays sales tax of more than Rs 700 crores but look at the state of it. Look at the filthy streets, the absence of proper sewage lines…and electricity. If there is a light on in this room,’ he said pointing to the single light bulb ‘it is because I have an inverter. Everyone has to have one because the electricity comes and goes when it wants.’
The other big issue for Muslims, everyone said, was the neglect of Urdu. When Mulayam Singh was last chief minister he had installed translators in Government offices so that Muslims could fill application forms in Urdu but under Mayawati there had been no implementation of this measure. For Muslims Urdu is very important because there are many poorer Muslims who are forced to send their children to mosque schools where they do not teach the Hindi script. Madrassa education is not a choice for them it is all they can afford. So because Mulayam Singh has been the only chief minister who has understood the importance of promoting Urdu the group of Muslims I met in Moradabad that day said they were inclined to vote for the Samajwadi Party.
Then, we set off deeper into the city into alleys, that became so narrow that two vehicles could not pass each other, to meet the Imam of one of Moradabad’s more important mosques. He repeated what I had already heard that development and Urdu were the most important issues where Muslims were concerned. It was only when I asked if the Babri Masjid was still an issue that he said, ‘Of course it is. We will not rest until that mosque is rebuilt. It will always be an important issue for Muslims.’
Before leaving for Delhi we went back to Javed Rashid’s home to eat a delicious meal of Moradabadi kebabs, rumali rotis, biryani and chicken curry and our conversation continued. It was at this point that someone mentioned that the MP from Moradabad is the cricketer, Mohammed Azharuddin. When I asked why he had not done more for Moradabad out of his constituency allowance which could well have taken care of improving conditions in the inner city they laughed. ‘Would you believe us,’ one of my lunch companions said ‘if we told you that Azharuddin has never been to Moradabad. Not even during the election that made him our MP did we see him once.’

Charity begins at home. Thus goes the axiom. The General Administrative Department, which deals with manpower and services, is headed by the Chief Minister himself. So he has begun the exercise of cleaning the administration with speed and determination. A few days ago, a list of 13 Government officials/officers was announced who had been sent on forced retirement. Commentators were quick to find loopholes in the process. Their argument was that only officials of lower ranks were shunted out and officers of senior rank with political clout were not touched. This bordered on favouritism. But the reports are that a fresh list of 41 state employees is under the scanner and it includes officers of higher rank as well as from police department. Anti-corruption agencies, departmental heads and the Vigilance Organization have been told to speed up investigation into these cases so that GAD takes a final decision. These steps are welcome because after all the people have been demanding accountability for the acts of omission and commission on the part of state employees. It is said that the government is reaching the higher ranks of officers without discrimination and many among them are likely to be booked. However, according to sources, the hurdle in the way of the GAD and the Chief Minister is that in many cases the legal procedures need to be completed before letters of retirement are handed over. One hurdle is the service rule condition that a Government employee can be asked to go on forced retirement only if he or she has completed 23 years of service. Among the 41 cases now under scanner there are some who have not completed 23 years as yet. The Government wants to make sure that all rules and regulations applying to such cases as could be considered for premature retirement need to be fulfilled before any punitive action is taken. That is the humane face of the Government. Nobody wants any injustice done to an employee even if there is a case of corruption against him or her. This is called the rule of law and even handed justice.

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 23: Special Municipal Magistrate Jammu, V S Bhou today directed Special Public Prosecutor Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi to produce case diary of Amandeep murder case in sealed cover for perusal of the Court.
The directions were passed in a complaint filed by Choudhary Nagar Singh against then SSP Jammu, Basant Rath, SP Mubassir Latifi, Abdul Rouf Lone, Kamaljeet Singh and Hardeep Singh Gill about unprecedented torture at Gandhi Nagar Police Station.
After hearing Advocate Rajesh Kotwal along with Advocate Mandeep Singh for Choudhary Nagar Singh, Special Municipal Magistrate observed, “CPO has filed a compliance report by DIG Jammu-Kathua range pursuant to the directions issued on February 17, 2012. The report reveals that communication was made to the Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi by the DIG vide letter dated February 18, 2012 for providing CD file in the case for production of the same”.
“However, Special PP in his reference dated February 20, 2012 has refused to handover the CD file on reason quoted in his communication. In this back-ground, it is observed that compliance report and communication of Special PP dated February 20, 2012 suffer from mistaken and misconceived understanding of law and can be construed as obstruction in the administration of criminal justice”, the Court said.
With these observations, the Court sounded a note of caution to DIG for evasive approach and directed Special PP to produce case diary of Amandeep murder case in sealed cover.