RIGHTS&DEVELOPMENT

BULLETIN

Centre for Development

and

Human Rights

VOLUME5,ISSUE 3JuneSeptember,2011

FROMTHEEDITORSDESK

As many of you are aware, the Centre for Development and Human Rights (CDHR), New Delhi, has been
publishingaquarterlybulletinonrightsanddevelopmentsince2007.Ourbulletinisaddressedtohuman
rightsactivists,academics,publicservants,theNGOcommunityandtheinterestedpublic.Itspurposeisto
promoteawarenessofcurrentdevelopmentsintheareaofhumanrightsanddevelopment,withafocuson
rightsbasedapproachestodevelopmentandtheRighttoDevelopment(RTD).Ourbulletinsscopeisbroader
than that of other rightsfocused publications, in that we focus not only on concerns relating to civil and
politicalrights,butalsotoeconomic,socialandculturalrights,andgroupandcollectiverights(inotherwords,
secondandthirdgenerationrights).
Our primary focus is on India, though from time to time, we carry materials with a more regional or global
focus.WhilethebulletinispreparedprimarilybyCDHRsstaffresearchersandinterns,guestcontributionsare
alwayswelcome.Inrecognizingtheimportanceofthenextgenerationinthedevelopmentanddissemination
of the rights discourse, and are thus particularly interested in involving young people at the college and
universitylevelinthewritingandproductionoftheBulletin,aswellasinotheraspectsoftheorganization.
They are, after all, our future. To enquire about guest contributions and internships, please write to
cdhrjournal@gmail.com.
IampleasedtobringyouourthirdissueoftheRights&DevelopmentBulletinfor2011,outonOctober1st,
2011. This issue begins with a summary of the proceedings of a recent workshop organized by CDHR in
partnership with the University of Oslo, Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM), on the
relationship between human rights and extreme poverty, a topic that formed the basis of a fouryear joint
project(HUREP)betweenthetwoinstitutions.Theworkshop,heldonMarch14inNewDelhi,wasdedicated
tothememoryofDr.ArjunK.Sengupta,thefoundingchairmanofCDHR,whopassedawayonSeptember26,
2010.Theworkshopsinauguralcomments,whicharetributestoDr.Sengupta,arepublishedattheendof
thisBulletin.Thesecomments,bythreeofDr.SenguptasintellectualcollaboratorsDr.K.P.Kannan,Dr.Ravi
SrivastavaandDr.BardAndersAndreassen,containimportantinsightsintohisconceptualizationoftheRight
toDevelopmentandpioneeringworkintherightsfield.
In addition to the overview of the HUREP workshop, this issue carries articles on a wide range of topics
relevant to development, human rights and social justice, including the possibility of a World Development
Organization (by guest contributor Stuart Holland), castebased discrimination and access to safe drinking
water,theglobalcontextoftheRighttoFood,anevaluationofnewdevelopmentsinRighttoEducation,the
murder of a journalist, Jyotirmoy Dey, unionbashing at Marutis Manesar plant, an assessment of the
controversialSlutwalkmovementforwomensrights,theimpactoftwentyyearsofliberalizationonpoverty
andinequality,anoverviewofthenewlandacquisitionbill,theRobinHoodTaxcampaign,andmuchmore,
includingtwofilmreviews.Wehopeyouenjoytheissueandreturntouswithcommentsandsuggestionsfor
improvement.
Dr.MituSengupta
EditorinChief,Rights&DevelopmentBulletin

JuneSeptember2011

Page2

INDEX
ACTIVITIES:SynopsisofHUREPWorkshop,March2011

(CDHRStaff,Page4)

GLOBALFOCUS:AnAgendafortheFrenchPresidencyoftheG20

(StuartHolland,Page8)

FOCUS:ATaleofTwoIndiasTwentyYearsofLiberalization

(MituSengupta,Page11)

COMMENTARY:AnUnreasonablePovertyBenchmark

(PhilipVarghese,Page17)

BEHINDTHEHEADLINES:StrikeatMarutisManesarPlant

(PhilipVarghese,Page19)

GLOBALFOCUS:TheRobinHoodTaxCampaign

(HilaryFerguson,Page20)

ANALYSIS:RighttoEducationAreWeThereYet?

(JoanneTan,Page21)

ANALYSIS:RighttoSafeDrinkingWaterandCasteBasedDiscrimination

(PhilipVarghese,Page25)

FOCUS:TheNewLandAcquisitionBill

(PriyankaVarma,Page27)

(PhilipVarghese,Page30)

ANALYSIS:TheCaseagainstCashTransfersintheFoodSecurityDebate

(NehaMahal,Page31)

FOCUS:TheRighttoFoodinGlobalContext

BEHINDTHEHEADLINES:MinoritiesViewonAnnaHazare

(JoanneTan,Page33)

BEHINDTHEHEADLINES:TheSlutwalkMovement

(JoanneTan,Page36)

COMMENTARY:BlamingtheVictiminSexualAssaultCases

(NehaMahal,Page40)

ANALYSIS:ExtendingSCStatustoDalitChristiansandMuslims

(PhilipVarghese,Page41)

BEHINDTHEHEADLINES:TheMurderofJournalistJyotirmoyDey

(NehaMahal,Page44)

GLOBALFOCUS:SouthAfricasTreatmentActionCampaign

(HilaryFerguson,Page45)

COMMENTARY:CrimesagainstWomeninIndia

(ManasiSinha,Page46)

FILMREVIEW:UnnaturalCausesIsInequalityMakingUsSick?

(JessicaThorp,Page48)

FILMREVIEW:BurmaVJReportingFromaCloseCountry

(JessicaThorp,Page50)

INMEMORIAM:ArjunSengupta,MyFather

(MituSengupta,Page51)

INAUGURALADDRESSES:HUREPWorkshop

(K.P.Kannan,RaviSrivastavaandBardAndersAndreassen,Page53)

JuneSeptember2011

Page3

judiciary, institutions of oversight, and donors. Banik

posed a foundational question When are rights
useful?andoutlined,bywayofananswer,somekey
findingsoftheHUREPproject:(a)whenpeoplelivingin
poverty are better identified and targeted by public
policy,(b)whenthereisafocusondailyvulnerabilities,
(c)whenattitudesandpracticesofcivilservantschange
from arrogance to service, (d) when used as a form of
protest from below, additionally supported by
horizontalactorsandthosefromabove,(e)ineveryday
formsofempowermentinclaimingrights,inrelationto
stateprovided services, (f) in challenging oppressive
and/ordiscriminatingsocietalnorms,(f)asanNGOled
campaign, (g) when used by media and opposition
parties to promote increased answerability and
accountability, (h) as a form of donor strategy, and
conditionality, (i) when governments are forced to
prioritise development efforts in, and resource
allocation to, regions irrespective of personal and/or
political ties, (j) when explicitly used by the courts to
holdauthoritiestoaccountforfailingtoprotectrights,
(k) when there is a combination of judicial and non
judicial strategies, (l) when there is an acceptance on
theneedtomovebeyondaonesidedfocusonthelegal
aspect to the social and political frameworks, and (m)
when there is a more nuanced understanding of
empowerment:Forwhom,bywhom?

Insettingthestagefordiscussionandreflectioninthe
March 2011 workshop, Banik highlighted two sets of
interrelated questions central to the HUREP initiative:
(1)whatstrategiesareavailabletothepoorthatenable
themtodemandpoliticalaccountabilityandredressto
thelegalsystemtoseetheirrightsenforced?(2)What
characterises the socioeconomic and political actors
involvedindemanding/resistingtheimplementationof
socioeconomic rights as part of the legal and policy
landscape? In relation to the second question, the
followingwereidentifiedasofinterest:themedia,civil
society organisations, political parties, legislature,

Many of these points were discussed, debated and

reflected upon in the workshop, which represented a
diversity of viewpoints, and featured notable
academics, policymakers, activists and a few graduate
students. The workshop features some thirty
participantsofonlyafewarementionedbelowdueto
constraintsoftimeandspace.Theyare(inalphabetical
order): Dr. Bard Andreassen, Norwegian Centre for
HumanRightsandFacultyofLaw,UniversityofOslo,Dr.
Dan Banik, Centre for Development and the
Environment(SUM),UniversityofOslo,Dr.ErikJensen,
Stanford Law School, Stanford University, Dr. K.P.
Kannan, Director, Centre for Development Studies,

ACTIVITIES
ReportonHUREPWorkshop
The HUREP initiative began in 2007, with the aim of
encouraging and promoting empirical research;
producing and exchanging research on human rights
and poverty and disseminating findings; promoting the
Human Rights and Extreme Poverty (HUREP) network
andinfluencingpolicymaking.Dr.DanBanikdescribed
CDHR as a very important partner together with the
Norwegian Centre for Human Rights and the Centre
for Development and the Environment [at the
University of Oslo]. The initiative resulted in three
majorconferencesandnumerouspublications,withthe
workshopinDelhimarkingtheconcludingphaseofthis
project.

HUREPWorkshopinKolkata,2007

JuneSeptember2011

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Trivandrum, Kerala, Dr. Reetika Khera, Delhi School of
Economics, Dr. Rajeev Malhotra, Ministry of Finance,
and Dr. Ravi Srivastava, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms.
MarenAase,UniversityofOslo,andDr.MituSengupta,
Ryerson University and CDHR, for their work in
organizingtheevent.
Thefollowingthemeswereraisedattheworkshop:
One important and recurring theme was that
justiciability is not a sufficient condition for the
realization of rights. In his opening remarks, Dr. Ravi
Srivastava said that what is also needed is an
accountabilityframeworkwithinwhichrightscouldbe
embedded. Dr. Srivastava said that this was also Dr.
Arjun Senguptas interpretation. Dr. Bard Andreassen
further reiterated this in his opening remarks, saying
that Sengupta did not take a narrow justiciability
approach to human rights, but saw human rights as
socialethicsaswellaslegalstandardsandnorms.
The point received further emphasis from Dr. K.P.
Kannan in his opening remarks. Kannan said: It is not
thejusticiablepartoftheRighttoDevelopmentthatis
more important but the social accountability and the
underlyingmoralsituationinthesocietythatgivesita
much more powerful protection than formal legal
protection. He pointed out that in Kerala, no
government will dare to withdraw the public
distributionsystemevenifitisnotalegalrightyet,
and that no government will do anything that will
reduce the access to schooling of any section of the
population or for that matter access to primary
healthcare because the political and social
consequenceswillbetoohighforthemintheelectoral
democraticframework.Hesaidthatifwecreatethat
kindofconditioneverysocietywillbeforcedtocomply
with such policies. According to Kannan, while it is a
good idea to talk about the concept of the Right to
Development and then how to make it operational in
terms of policymaking, you must have an effective
demand. He later framed this point as a need for
collective action, demand from below. Kannan said
JuneSeptember2011

that when it comes to human rights and extreme

poverty, my own understanding, and maybe I am
wrong, is that the collective action part of it is not
sufficientlystrongonanallIndiabasistodemandthese
things as rights and to get it from the political process
eitheratthesubnationallevel,statelevelorthenation
level. He stressed, however, that it is wrong to say
that there is no collective action. What he was
referring to, however, was not the type of collective
action that people are used to, such as from trade
unions.Wearetalkingaboutthelabouringpoor,he
said,themassofpeoplewhoaredeprivedofsomeof
the things associated with extreme poverty as you
defineditherenotjustincomepoverty,butverylow
levels of human development, which means other
formsofdeprivationplusinonewayoranother,some
kindofsocialexclusion.
Dr. Erik Jensen also spoke to this theme. He said: Dr
Sengupta realizing that justiciability is not a sufficient
conditionforrights[was]absolutelyprescientThereis
a wonderful political scientist at the University of
Chicago,JerryRosenberg,whohasarguedempirically
that the US Supreme Court was not the condition for
either desegregation or even what you call prochoice
advocacy. The courts came in as there was collective
action. The time was right. The court could have
decidedacaselikeBrownvs.BoardofEducationinthe
1920s, why it did not is because very smart advocates
realizedthatthetimewasnotright.Thedesegregation
issue, if they had brought it in the 1920s, they would
havelostforsure.So,therewascollectiveactionovera
numberofyearsandthenthecourtscameinatatime,
and advocates chose the avenue of justiciability, when
they thought they could carry the day because
collective action that preceded it. So, the limits of
legalrightsIthinkaresignificant.Hesaidthatwhere
policymaking meets collective action is where change
occurred, and that it is imperative [for those with a
rightsbasedorientation]tothinkthroughthemoments
that[such]mayarise.
Jensen added, furthermore, that he was fed up with
lawyersthinkingthatcourtsmakeeverythingsomehow

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snap into place, and where courts are viewed as the
default policymaking body. He felt that there are
serious issues as to the extent to which that default
mode is sustainable in India. Dr. Reetika Khera
complementedDr.Jensensobservationatalaterpoint
in the seminar, noting that she is not a big fan of
judicial activism. In particular, she expressed concern
about the capacity of an overburdened judiciary. She
said:IhavebeentosomeofthehearingsoftheRight
toFoodcaseThispoorjudgeissittingthereandheis
listening to land dispute in Rajkot and then a murder
case and then some government who was suspended,
and suddenly he has to read these 20 pages on food
security. [The judicial route] is not impossible, but it is
verydifficult.WhileKherasawthecourtsasplayingan
important role, she also pointed to the limits of this
role.Shesaid:maybethePIL[publicinterestlitigation]
hasnowoutliveditsuse,anditistimetomergeallthe
ordersthatcamefromthatintotheFoodSecurityAct.
In somewhat of a departure from discussions (and
suggestions) of collective action from below, judicial
activism, and legislative action from above, Dr. Rajiv
Malhotra focused on the empirics of policymaking,
andsuggestedthatthiswaswheretheagendashould
rest. He stressed the importance of quantifying the
normativecontentofrights.Hesaidthatonce[such]
quantificationisseenasacceptable,bothtothehuman
rights community as well as the policymaking
community then it becomes so much easier to replace
the set of parameters that you anchor your
policymaking process in. You can just lift those
parameters which are more anchored in the human
rights normative framework and bring them into the
policymakingprocess,therebygettingtobridgethegap
betweenyourhumanrightsgoalsandthestateofplay
at that point of time. Malhotras statements were
challenged with the claim that the evidentiary base
needed for effective policymaking was already there,
buttherewasdisagreementaboutthefacts.Malhotras
response was while disagreement about the way you
interpretnumbersishealthy,itultimatelyboilsdown
to the kitty, which he said was very limited. In
JuneSeptember2011

relation to the Right to Food, Malhotra said: The

question is even if the government wants to make it
universal, does it actually have the wherewithal to
implementauniversalentitlementoftheRighttoFood?
Would it really help or would it be better that you
unfolditinamannersothatyoureachouttotheones
who are most needy, where the arguments are more
genuine. Malhotra also defended the Indian
governments recent recommendation that a cash
transfer mechanism replace the public distribution
system (PDS). Malhotra had to leave the conference
early, but his statements generated discussion
throughouttheprogram.
Many participants concurred with Rajeev Malhotras
core point that the normative content of rights was in
need
of
further
quantification
and
operationalization. Erik Jensen pointed out that
there has been a part of the rightsbased discourse
thathasmadeititsownvictiminasensebynotpaying
attention to essential dimensions of implementation
and practicality. Jensen, along with several other
participants, noted that Arjun Sengupta had always
recognizedtheimportanceofsuchconcerns.
On the theme of empirical research to support the
rightsbased agenda, Reetika Khera argued that more
qualitative studies were needed. You talk about the
PDStoday,nobodywillbeabletotellyouwhicharethe
goodstates,whicharethebadstates;thatsortofbasic,
fundamental research that is not necessarily geared
towards the American Economic Review, but at least
describesthesituationontheground.Kheraalsosaw
the Right to Information Act as a valid tool for
researchtobringgreatertransparencytopolicymaking
procedures. Developing qualitative studies that
documentedrightsviolationswassuggestedasacourse
of action for CDHR by several participants. Further to
the theme of research, K.P. Kannan stressed the
importanceofanalyzingregionalvariation.Hesaid:If
wetakehumandevelopmentindicatorsorwhatwecall
here extreme poverty, including social exclusion, then
weactuallyhavethreeIndias.OneIndiaconsistingof3
or4StatesIcanstretchitto5Statesisverycloseto

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South East Asia in terms of performance, human
development. The bottom 40% of India is very much
like SubSaharan Africa, like Niger or Mozambique,
whiletherestofIndiaisinbetween,alittleaboveSub
SaharanAfricabutfar[below]SouthEastAsia.So,the
regionalpictureisadifferentiatedpictureandnotmany
people really talk about the regional variations. It is a
hugecountry[but]wetalkaboutthenationasawhole.
Thereisarealchallenge.Kannansuggestedthatthere
wasalottolearnfromsuchregionalvariationsforthe
rightsandextremepovertyperspectives.WhileKannan
underlined the need for more empirical (and
quantitative)researchinsomeareas,healsopointedto
the seminal research on poverty and social exclusion
donebytheNCEUSunderArjunSengupta,aswellasa
recent initiative in Oxford on measuring multi
dimensionalpoverty.
On the question of research methodology, Dr. Dan
Banik related an important concern. He noted the
desirebydonorsorevennationalgovernmentstotake
one success from Kerala or somewhere else and try to
transplant it, and wondered whether in that
generalizationprocessalotofitislostintranslation,be
it from global to national, national to regional. He
added:Iwonderifthereisawayin whichonewould
address that not everything needs to be generalized,
that there is something inherently good about
something working in a particular area, and let us just
leave it at that that this does not have to be copied
somewhere else, that there are certain contextual
factorsatwork.
The workshops participants also deliberated at some
lengthontheroleofthemedia.ReetikaKheraspokeat
lengthonthispoint:Themediaitselfhaschangedand
isaverydifferentbasenowandIthinkthemediahasto
be held responsible as well. So, in terms of research
agenda, I think media studies is something that [is
importantinthe]veryspecificcontextofhumanrights.
I think the research has to make linkages with media,
recognizingofcoursethatthemediaitselfisnotabove
corruption, and also with political parties or political
entities,sothatthereisnotonlyaconsensusonthese
JuneSeptember2011

issues but also a political will to take these issues

forwardIfyouwantIcansayalittlebitabouttheuse
of the media and how quickly the UIDAI (Unique
IdentificationAuthorityofIndia)andseveralotherparts
of the government actually have made cash transfers
seemlikeanidea,abigbangidea,gamechanger.The
UIDAIhasdoneverylittleresearchonanyofthesefood
security issues. They know very little. If you read the
documents you will be aghast at how little they know
aboutnoteventhespecifics,justthebasicsofsomeof
these programs and yet because they have a public
relations agency which sends out press releases to all
the newspapers in the country, their point of view is
replicated across the countrySo, the strength of the
media must not be underestimated, and yet they
should be held accountable in whatever channels that
areavailabletous,includingtheRighttoInformation.
Like Khera, Erik Jensen also worried about the
corporatization of the media, and Ravi Srivastava
further underscored the need to use the media
effectively. Reflecting on his work at the NCEUS, he
said:Ithinkmuchmoreneededtobedonebyusand
by othersin disseminating much of this to the
government. I think one of our limitations has been
thatourreportshavenotbeensowidelydisseminated,
notsowidelyinfactdiscussedinthemediaasperhaps
wethinktheydeservetohavebeen.
Anotherimportantthemewasalackofcommitmentby
government, and not just Indias, to propoor policies.
Bard Andreassen said that the HUREP projects
researchinsubSaharanAfricahadrevealedthatthere
is little attachment to [propoor policies] among
governmentsEvenlocalassembliesarenotconcerned
withpropoorpolicies. Headdedthatwehave seen
fromourstudiesandthestudiesofourcolleaguesthat
there is little ownership by national governments to
rights based approaches. It is basically ownership by
international institutions and some international
institutions,notevenall.Severalparticipantsspoketo
what they saw as the Indian governments lack of
commitment. One participant, a former senior civil
servant, said that the government of India has

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internalized most of the rightsbased approaches in a
very superficial manner. While framing a policy some
discussion takes place with NGOs or civil society
organizations,buttheserecommendationsandthoseof
academics are not taken seriously. The government
does whatever it wants to do. The point about
effective demand or collective action from below was
reiterated as a means through which the government
could be made to think seriously about rights based,
propoor policymaking, if only out of sense of political
expediency. Indeed, action out of political expediency
was seen as better than no action at all, though there
was concern that the former would lead to a
cannibalizationoftherightsbasedapproach.
RaviSrivastavaalsobuiltonthistheme,highlightingthe
importanceofacknowledgingideologicaloppositionto
thelanguageofrights.Hesaid:Allsaidanddone,a
casefirstofallneedstobemadethattherightsbased
approachcandeliverindifferent contextswhereother
approaches cannot possibly deliver. Kannan rightly
made the case about Kerala and I have done similar
studies,lookedatthepoliticaleconomyofdevelopment
of States in India. Many of us have done that, and
clearly within the Indian case it is very clear that you
havehadsuccessesindeliveringforthepoor,propoor
development has occurred in cases whereas there has
beenalotofpressurefrombelowsocialmovements,
political movements and so on which have been
internalized by the state. There is a kind of synergetic
development pressure from below, but internalize in
theshapeofpoliciesandprogramsbythestate.[But]
whathappensifthereisadisjuncture?Whathappensif
there is a pressure from below but the state, for
reasons of its own, actually follows a strategy which is
markedly different. In fact, in India this is a case at
present.Hesaidthehumanrightsapproachneededto
beseennotonlyasanormativestrategyandstrategyof
development, but also a political strategy with which
the dominant neoliberal policy regime could be
challenged.

GLOBALFOCUS
AnAgendafortheFrenchPresidencyof
theG20
ByStuartHolland(SpecialtoCDHR)
This article takes account of the call of Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa for a more
plural reserve currency system and a new
institutionalframeworkforglobalcooperation.
It proposes that the G20 should constitute the
governing body of a World Development
Organizationthatcansynergisejointinitiativesand
policiesbylikemindedG20governmentsandliaise
withtheBrettonWoodsandUNinstitutions.
Itproposesalsothatitsdecisionmakingshouldbe
byanenhancedcooperationprocedure,ratherthan
besupranational.Thiswouldnotchallengenational
sovereignty.
Its case for a new institution has precedence in
MarshallAidwhentheUSdidnotcallontherecently
formed IMF and World Bank to manage it, but
createdanewinstitutiontheOEECtodoso,which
itdidwithgreatsuccess.
The proposals in the paper gained from discussion
in NY in the spring of 2009 with the Permanent
Representatives to the UN of China, Japan, India,
SouthAfrica,Brazil,Mexico,theUK,Germany,and
theDeputyPermanentRepresentativeoftheUS.

NotbyBrettonWoodsAlone
1.AreformoftheIMFandtheWorldBankmaybe
meritedbutcouldbehighlycontentious
ThecaseputbyChinaandothersforareformofthe
quota and voting shares in the IMF and the World
Bankismerited.Yettheverymodest2008IMFquota
and vote reform took nearly two years to negotiate
and was cosmetic. China and India between them
gainednotafifthofthevotingshareintheIMF,buta
fifthofthatoftheUSintheIMF.Iftheyweretogain
a share proportional to their global influence this

JuneSeptember2011

Page8


could risk that, by reducing the US voting share and
blockingminority,itcouldberejectedbyCongress.

6. Such a framework should be enabling and not

supranational.

2.TheIMFandtheWorldBanklackresources.

Where China could gain, as could other emerging

economies, and Russia, is from an international
organization which does not claim sovereignty over
its member states, but through which they could
enablejointactionssuchasrecyclingsurpluseswhich
they cannot readily absorb themselves into regional
and global investments whose income and
employment generation which can sustain global
demand.

The IMF and the World Bank alone lack resources

relative to some $3 trillions in the surpluses of the
central banks of emerging economies and the
sovereignwealthfunds.Afterthe2008financialcrisis
Robert Zoellick called for the European Union to do
more to assist central and eastern European
economies because the World Bank lacked the
resourcestodoso.
3. Global Development needs plural development
institutions
UntilrecentlytheIMFandtheWorldBankalsohave
lacked legitimation. The high period of structural
adjustment in the 1980s imposed beggarmy
neighbour deflation and devaluation on SubSaharan
Africawithdisastrousfallsinincomeandinvestment.
PressureforderegulationabettedtheAsianfinancial
crisis. Dominique StraussKahn has gained redress of
thisinanIMFreportthatadmitsasmuch.Butglobal
developmentneedsbothpluralinstitutionsandmore
pluralinstitutionalideologies.
4.Regionaldevelopmentbanksneedtobeincluded
The borrowing and investments of the European
InvestmentBankalreadyaremorethandoublethose
of the World Bank. The Banco Nacional de
Desenvolvimento Econmico e Social or BNDES of
Brazil, also bigger than the World Bank, has joined
forces with the Comunidade Andrina de Fomento to
financeprojectsinadjacentLatinAmericancountries.
Suchregionaldevelopmentbanks,aswellasthoseof
Asia,needtobeincludedinamorepluralframework
forglobaleconomicgovernance.
5.Thesovereignwealthfundsshouldbeinvolved.
ThesovereignwealthfundsofChinaandthe Middle
East already have resources marginalising those of
the IMF. They and others such as that of Norway
should be part of a new global financial framework.
ThreeofChinasfourstateownedbanksnowarethe
biggest in the world. China has sovereign control of
theirsurplusesanddoesnotgainfromcedingittoa
singlesupranationalinstitutionsuchastheIMF.
JuneSeptember2011

ALateralandPluralFramework
There is concern among some of the less and least
developed countries that the G20 could become a
globaldirectorateandsidelinetheUN.
This needs to be addressed, though there is little
prospect of it in the short term. Rather, the risk is
thattheG20mayproveasineffectiveaswastheG20
of finance ministers formed after the Asian financial
crisis, but which could not prevent the next one in
2008.
None of its major member states are going to agree
tocedesovereigntytotheG20.Yetnorneedtheydo
so to be effective in joint actions to their mutual
advantageandthatofthelesserandleastdeveloped
economies.
What both is needed and feasible is a more plural,
lateral and outward reaching framework for global
cooperationwhich:
can give agency to likeminded governments in
the G20 on joint initiatives and policies without
bindingthosewhichdeclinetoparticipateinthem;
canliaisewiththeIMF,theWorldBankandalso
regional investment banks and funds and the
sovereignwealthfunds.
relates more directly to the UN and its
institutions;
canbecentrallyconcernedwithoffsettingglobal
poverty, promoting social inclusion and
safeguardingtheenvironment.

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This implies a lateral and plural framework that can
synergise joint initiatives by a plurality of
developmentinstitutionsandfunds.
TheCaseforaWorldDevelopmentOrganization
On such grounds there is a case for the G20 to
constituteaWorldDevelopmentOrganizationwhose
governing body would be composed of its
representatives.
As indicated in Figure 1, the WDO could synergise
joint actions by the Bretton Woods institutions, the
multilateral development banks, the major regional
development banks and the sovereign wealth funds.
Each could be represented on its finance and
development committee and its specialist working
groups.
The G20 member states would not cede
sovereignty to the WDO. It would not have
jurisdictionoverthem.

The WDO therefore would not be a global

government. But it would be a more effective
frameworkforjointglobalgovernanceoffinance,the
economy and development than intermittent
meetingsoftheG20.
SynergieswiththeUN
AsstylisedinFigure2below,theWorldDevelopment
Organization would outreach to and gain input from
themainUNinstitutions onitsowncommitteesand
workinggroups.

Figure2
AWorldDevelopmentOrganizationandtheUN
Institutions

Figure1
InstitutionalFrameworkforaWorldDevelopment
Organisation

UNECsUnitedNationsEconomicCommissions

A representative of the General Secretary of the UN

couldbeamemberofitsgoverningbody.
ParallelingtheWDO

BWIBrettonWoodsInstitutionsRDBFRegionalDevelopment
BanksandFunds

TheWDOwouldparalleltheWTO.Butitwouldbe
basedonjointactionstopromotesustainablegrowth
anddevelopmentratherthanajurisdictional
institution.

SWFSovereignWealthFunds

Itwouldnot excludefuturereformoftheWTOsuch
as increasing its provisions for social or
JuneSeptember2011

Page10


environmental protection. But it would be the
fulcrumforproactiveglobalinitiativesandpolicies.
Itwouldnothaveacourtofappealsince,onthebasis
ofenhancedcooperation,itwouldnotneedone.No
memberofitwouldbeboundbyamajoritydecision
onanimitativeorpolicy.
EnablingDecisionMaking
To be effective such an organization nonetheless
would need to avoid lowest common denominator
outcomes.
Thus its decisionmaking would aim to be
consensual. But it also could adopt an enabling
procedure that does not bind one or more
governments to joint action by others. Such a
procedure would not be the qualified majority
voting of the EU, rather than its principle of
enhanced cooperation by which some
governments may take an initiative on a policy
withoutrequiringunanimityorbindingothers.
Ifadecisionmakingprocedurewereadoptedon
an enhanced cooperation basis, this could by one
member onevote, rather than on the population
weighted basis of qualified majority voting in the
EU. This would avoid the protracted indecision on
the population weighting of voting, which has not
been resolved in the EU since the Nice European
Council, and on which reconsideration has been
postponed until 2014. Such an enabling procedure
could obtain for the board of the World
Development Organization itself and for the
committees and working groups which it chose to
establish, such as for finance or the environment.
Such committees and working groups would
consider recommendations made by the G20 and
the UN, or from regional economic unions, and
couldcooptmembersfromthem.
Substan ve proposals should be considered by
such committees and working groups and any
recommendation to the G20 decided by the board
of the organization. Dissent from some members
of such committees and working groups should be
open at each higher level at which a
recommendationismade.

The secretariat of the WDO could offer an opinion

on such recommendations, and also make them.
But any member could propose a policy or policy
initiative.
A unanimous decision would cons tute a WDO
PolicyoraWDOInitiative.AnenablingWDOPolicy
orInitiativewouldbeinthenameofgovernments
supporting it. As a permanent institution such a
WDOcouldofferbothamoreconsideredresponse
to initiatives than intermittent G20 summits and
enable joint actions rather than only joint
declarations. In ranging wider than the G20 by
liaisingwiththeUNinstitutionsandagenciesitalso
could gain legitimation for both more plural and
effectiveglobalgovernance.
Stuart Holland is Former Shadow Development Minister
intheUKParliamentandcollaboratorofWillyBrandtand
Michael Manley. See. Manley Brandt (1985), Global
Challenge. From Crisis to Cooperation: Breaking the
NorthSouth Stalemate. London: Pan Books and
otherwise Wikipedia. He is currently with the Faculty of
Economics, University of Coimbra, Portugal. A longer
more analytic paper including analysis both of exchange
rate changes and surplus recycling as a means of
balancingglobaltradewasavailabletotheUNPermanent
Representatives NY, is published in Revista Temas de
Integrao,nos2728,andisavailableonrequest.

FOCUS

A Tale of Two Indias: Twenty Years of

Liberalization

ByMituSengupta

Devika Karan moved to India two years ago, when her

husbandsChicagobasedfirmcollapsedinthewake of
thefinancialcrisis.ButDevikaisntsorry.Arunlandeda
wellpaying finance job in Delhi almost immediately,
and the couple moved into a posh, gated residential
communityontheoutskirtsofthecity.

JuneSeptember2011

Page11


InAmerica,Devikaslifewasaswirlofcooking,cleaning
andcarpooling.InIndia,herdaughters,agedsevenand
nine, attend an exclusive private school only a short
walk from home. She has a cook, a nanny, and a
chauffeurfor about $150 per month eachwhich
leaves her plenty of time for boozy lunches with
girlfriends, siestas in the afternoon, and private yoga
lessons. Home is beautiful, she says, and
understandablyso.Thegreenlawnsandairyhousesof
her gated community seem worlds away from the
congestedalleysandheavilybreathedairofthecity.

The most taxing part of Devikas week are the

obligatory visits to her inlaws on Sundays. Driving
anywhere outside the compound is a battle, she tells
me. She must negotiate potholes, bits of road washed
away by rain water, and acres of maddening traffic.
Whats most stressful, however, is her (usually
unsuccessful)efforttoshieldherchildrenfromthesight
of stray dogs, beggars, and street kids. Its just too
traumatic,shesays.

Devika remembers the summer of 1991, when she left

India to be married to Arun, who was finishing an
engineeringdegreeintheUnitedStates.Arunsparents,
midlevel bureaucrats in the Railway Ministry, had
scrimped for years in order to send their son to the
PromisedLand,sherecalls,ratherglumly.Forusgirls,
marriagewastheonlyroute.

Butsomuchhaschangedsincethen,Devikabrightens
up.Indiahasopenedupandwillsoonbeworldclassin
everyway.Mydaughterswonthavetoleave.Theycan
haveagloballiferighthereinDelhi.

TwentyYearsofLiberalization

Devikamaybeontosomething.Gallupdatafrom2010
suggest that only 5 percent of educated Indian adults
would like to leave India permanently if they could.
Whilenocomparablestudyexistsfor1991(orbefore),
anecdotalevidencesuggeststhatfarmoreIndianswere
prepared to bid farewell to their motherland some
twentyyearsago.Thischange,alongwithmanyothers,
is typically attributed to a specific event: the Indian
governments introduction of an ambitious program of
economicliberalizationinJuly1991.

JuneSeptember2011

Though the Indian economy was gradually liberalized

through the 1980s, the 1991 reforms represented a
major rupture with the past. Unlike the incremental
reforms of the 1980s, which concentrated on
deregulating the domestic market, the 1991 reforms
entailed a comprehensive, economywide approach
that focused on integrating India with global markets.
Indeed, the 1991 reforms marked Indias neoliberal
turn and followed, in design and intent, the IMF and
World Banks standard prescriptions for structural
adjustment(programsthroughwhichheavilyindebted
countries were forced to liberalize their economies in
returnforIMFandWorldBankloans).

Onceinitiated,thereformsquicklytookonalifeoftheir
own. Despite multiple changes in government and a
rather ponderous pace, they were carried forward,
widened in scope, and institutionally entrenched. The
result,thoughnotasdramaticasneoliberalideologues
mighthavewanted,isafundamentaltransformationof
the Indian economy, and a total reversal of the long
cherished ideal that the state must serve as Indias
engineofdevelopment.

But have twenty years of neoliberal policy reform

pushed India into a new orbit of prosperity and well
being?

CheeringonLiberalization

DevikaKaransenthusiasmforthenew,openIndiais
sharedbymanywithinthecountrysburgeoningmiddle
class.Likeanywhereelse,thesizeofthiscategoryvaries
accordingtothecriteriausedtodrawitsboundaries.In
India,broaderdefinitionssuggestthatthesizeofIndias
middleclassisapproximately300million.Thatsalotof
cheerleaders.

At the upper end of this category are liberalizations

strongest proponentsthe managerial layer of Indias
globallyconnectedfinancialandcorporatesectors,elite
journalists attached to big media corporations, and
highlevel policy advisors armed with American MBAs
andPhDs.Thelatter,whoareaninfluentialnewbreed,
flit in and out of the revolving doors of government,
policy thinktanks, and international organizations,
issuing buoyant appraisals of reform. Most of the
FinanceMinistrystopadvisershavepreviouslyworked
with the World Bank or IMF, as have the directors of

Page12


many prestigious, governmentfunded research
institutes.

Their triumphalism about Indias achievements and

prospects is certainly not without basis. The economy
has grown at a brisk pace, with annual GDP growth
ratesreaching7to9percentinthelastdecade.Indiais
now the worlds tenth largest economy, and when
figures are adjusted for purchasing power parity, it is
the fourth. It has become a global leader of sorts in
sectors such as information technology (IT) and
pharmaceuticals, which performed remarkably well
even through the years of the global financial crisis of
200809.

The signs of prosperity are everywhere: in opulent

shopping malls that specialize in luxury cars, in
glamorous cocktails parties that are hungrily
photographedbytabloids,andinthepalatialhomesof
Indiasfiftyfiveknowndollarbillionaires(anexampleof
thelatteristhetwentysevenstory,billiondollarhome
ofRelianceIndustrieschiefMukeshAmbani,therichest
maninIndia).

Of course, only a few can aspire to the success of

Mukesh Ambani, whose father, Dhirubhai Ambani,
established Reliance Industries and amassed a vast
personal fortune in the years of the statecontrolled
economy.Thereisnoshortage,however,ofwellheeled
Indians. A recent study by Merril Lynch Wealth
Managementrevealedthereweresome126,700dollar
millionairesinIndiain2009,andthattheirnumbersare
growingquickly.

There are also encouraging signs of meritocratic social

mobility. It is now quite common to hear of humble
origins to riches stories, such as that of IT guru and
multibillionaire N.R. Narayana Murthy, the cofounder
and former chairman of Infosys Technologies. Murthy,
whosefatherisdescribedasapoorschoolteacherby
admiring biographers, is said to have risen in life
through good, honest, hard work and an
entrepreneurial ability to seize the opportunities
thrown up by liberalization. Unlike Dhirubhai Ambani
andotherrobberbaronsofthepast,itissaid,Murthy
didnt have to bend the rules to succeed. Murthys
exampleischerishedbyproponentsofliberalization,as
itsuggeststhatacleanerascenttowealthispossiblein
thenewIndia.
JuneSeptember2011

ARisingTideLiftsAllBoats

Indias new rich may be more deserving than its old

rich, but has their immense wealth trickled down to
thepoor?Hasthekeyneoliberalpromisethatarising
tideliftsallboatsbeenrealized?

Theanswertothisquestionvariesdependingonwhois
doing the counting, and by which complicated
methodology. Overall, however, the news is not good.
There are far too many signs that Indias exemplary
rates of growth have failed to translate into
comparativelyhighratesofgrowthintheexpansionof
wellbeing.

Lets begin with data from the World Bank, an

institutionthathasprovedunwaveringinitssupportfor
the 1991 reforms. It estimates that the proportion of
people living below $1 per day (in 2005 purchasing
power parity) steadily declined in India, from 42.1
percent in 1981 to 24.3 percent in 2005. In absolute
numbers, this is impressivea few hundred million
humanbeingshavebeenliftedoutofwretchedpoverty.

Indias achievement, however, pales in comparison to

Chinas, where (going by World Bank estimates again)
the percentage of people living below $1 per day
declinedmuchmorerapidly,from73.5percentin1981
to 8.1 percent in 2005. When one looks beyond these
World Bank data, moreover, Indias record on poverty
reduction seems even less praiseworthy. The
governments selfassessments are cases in point. In
2009, the governmentappointed Saxena Committee
concluded that 50 percent of Indians are living in
poverty.

Anevenmoredamningappraisalwasissuedbyanother
government body, the National Commission for
Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), also in
2009. The NCEUS reported on many unpleasant facts
about neoliberal reform, including that of jobless
growth.TheNCEUSfoundthatnewemploymentinthe
postreform period had occurred mainly in the
unorganized (informal) sector, which is notorious for
its paltry wages and precarious work conditions. It
revealed, furthermore, that workers in the informal
economy make up almost 93 percent of Indias labor

Page13


force, and of these, only 6 percent are protected by
some(usuallymeager)formofsocialsecurity.

The NCEUSs most controversial finding, however, was

that77percentofthecountryspopulationlivesonless
thantwentyrupees(aboutfiftycents)perday,andthat
alargeproportionoftheworstoffarefromhistorically
marginalized communities, such as Muslims and Dalits
(members of lowranking castes previously known as
untouchables). This spelled bad news for a country
that prides itself on how well it treats its religious
minorities and socially disadvantaged, and for
neoliberal Pollyannas, who claim that liberalization will
lead to a more modern and egalitarian social order
becausemarketsdonotdiscriminatelikepeopledo.

DisplacementandDispossession

The NCEUSs candid reports were exceptionally

courageous for what they weregovernment
publications.Incomparisontoreportsfromcivilsociety,
however,theNCEUSsarequitetame.

The stories that have emerged from activist circles are

gutwrenching. They suggest that the states
expropriation of land and natural resources for export
has caused social dislocations on an unprecedented
scale. Thousands of peasants, fishermen, and
indigenouspeopleshavehadtheirlivesandlivelihoods
disrupted or destroyed. Indeed, the NaxaliteMaoist
insurgency in the countrys south has its roots in the
evictionofindigenouscommunitiesfromtheirland.

Of particular concern to social and human rights

activistsisthedevelopmentofIndiasspecialeconomic
zones (SEZs), the taxexempt industrial areas that are
expected to boost Indias global exports. Their reports
suggest that much of the land for the creation of SEZs
has been acquired coercively, with state officials and
private developers colluding to exploit legal loopholes
and evade fair compensation, and summoning the
police to back up their armtwisting tactics. The result
hasbeenwidespreadruraldistress.

The urban poor have not fared much better, thanks to

the relentless quest to create worldclass and
entrepreneurial cities. Municipal governments
routinely raze slums, obliterating living quarters,
community forums, and homebased enterprises. Also
JuneSeptember2011

common are beautification drives, wherein beggars,

streetvendors,andhomelesspersonsareclearedfrom
public spaces like beaches, parks, and promenades,
which are then spruced up and secured with cameras,
guards, and gates for middleclass use. The 2010
CommonwealthGames,heldinDelhilastOctober,were
markedbymanysuchoperationstobeautifythecity,
and at an outrageous price of $22.5 million, according
to a report released by the Auditor General in early
August.

The displaced poor may have evaded starvation by

clutching on to the lowest rungs of the new urban
economy,butliketheirruralcounterpartswhotoilas
farm hands on daily wagesthey have lost a
considerableamountofautonomyanddignity,andare
often reduced to working long hours under constant
management surveillance, such as in the sweltering
kitchens of fastfood chains, or in cramped
sweatshopsproducinggoodsfortheexportmarket.

MoreCellphonesthanToilets

Lastyear,aUNstudyonsanitationrevealedthatmore
people in India have access to mobile phones (about
half of Indias 1.2 billionstrong population) than to
toilets (about onethird). The governments National
FamilyHealthSurveyindicated,moreover,thatmanyof
Indias health indicators are worse than those of
Bangladesh(inmaternalmortalityandinfantmortality)
and even of SubSaharan Africa (in the percentage of
underweightchildren).

In light of the states record on social spending, such

revelations are unsurprising. In the past decade,
expenditureoneducationhasremainedstuckataround
2.6 percent of GDP, and on health at a little above 1
percent. Expenditure on defense, in contrast, has
increasedsteadily,andiscurrentlyat3percentofGDP.

The governments consistently meager expenditure on

the social sector has been counteracted, to some
extent,byawaveofwelfareprogramsandrightsbased
legislation.ThemostsignificantoftheseistheNational
Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), a job
guarantee scheme enacted by parliament in 2005 and
extended to every district in the country in 2008. The
program assures 100 days of employment to all rural
households that apply. Another milestone is the

Page14


passageoftheRighttoFreeandCompulsoryEducation
Actin2009.

Though commendable, such efforts to expand social

safetynetsandrecognizetheentitlementsofthepoor
are almost entirely the result of pressure from social
movements, like the Right to Food Campaign. There is
good reason, in other words, to remain circumspect
about the political elites willingness to think beyond
thelogic(andmyth)oftrickledown.Whilelegislation
covering the operation of SEZs cleared parliament
relativelyquicklyandwithminimaldebate,thepassage
ofNREGAandtheUnorganizedWorkersSocialSecurity
Actwasmarkedbydelays,expressionsofoutrage,anda
great deal of watering down. And while politicians
repeatedly stress the need for universal access to
food,education,health,andsoon,governmentpolicy
makers and their technocratic advisors consistently
favor privatization, tax cuts, and directing welfare to
only a few, narrowly defined groups in the population
(usually, people living below an abysmally low income
cutoffpoint).

BigMoney,BigCorruption

The governments halfhearted effort to address the

problemofcorruptionalsosuggeststhatitisntserious
enough about helping the poor. Twenty years of
liberalization have not led to lean, effective, and
transparent government in India. This is yet another
neoliberalpromisethatstandsbetrayed.

In 1986, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi stunned the

countrywithhisdeclarationthat,duetocorruptionand
mismanagement,only15percentofeveryrupeespent
on povertyalleviation programs in India actually
reaches the poor. By all indications, not much has
changed since then. According to a 2008 study by
Transparency International, Indias poor have to pay
some $200 million in bribes every year to avail
themselves of the most basic services. This, alongwith
other findings, has led Transparency International to
consistentlydowngradeIndiasrankinginitsCorruption
Perceptions Indexfrom seventysecond in 2009, to
eightyfifth in 2012, to eighty=seventh in 2011. (The
index measures the perceived levels of publicsector
corruptionin178countries.)

JuneSeptember2011

Thereisnodoubtthatcorruptionisdeeplyingrainedin
Indias development machinery, which remains
cumbersome and bureaucratic and continues to allow
state officials enormous powers of discretion. What
needs to be recognized, however, is that liberalization
has made things worse, not better, by prying open a
vastnumberofnewavenuesformakingaquickbuck.

Most cases of flagrant corruption today are spawns of

the liberalization process. The most notorious of these
was the 2G spectrum scam, in which cellphone
licensesweresoldforafractionoftheirvalue,resulting
in the loss of a staggering $39 billion to the national
exchequer. Over a dozen of Indias most powerful
politicians, civil servants, and journalists were
implicated in the imbroglio when it surfaced in
November last year, merely weeks after a series of
corruption scandals bubbled up around the 2010
Commonwealth Games. The Auditor Generals report
on the games has confirmed fears that its organizers
hadcommittednothingshortofdaylightrobbery. The
report revealed, among other things, that many
lucrativecontractsfrombuyingtoiletstobuildingthe
athletes village had been awarded on the basis of
singlebids,tofavoredvendors.

Indeed,theCommonwealthGameswereatestamentto
thescaleofIndiascorruptionproblem,andtothesort
of big money thats up for grabs in the countrys new
economy. These prestige gameswhich organizers
claimed would affirm Indias worldclass statuscost
taxpayers $4.1 billion instead of the $270 million
initiallyprojected,mainlybecausethegovernmentgave
ablankchecktotheorganizingcommitteeinitsrush
tomeetdeadlinesandavertnationalembarrassment.
Some$1.8billionissaidtohavegonemissing,andthe
headoftheorganizingcommitteehasbeeninjailsince
April on corruption charges. Wikileaks head Julian
AssangesallegationthatIndiansnowhavemoreblack
money in Swiss banks than any other nationality is
hardlysurprisinginthiscontext.

The Indian governments response to corruption has

beendisappointingfortworeasons.First,corruptionis
too readily used as an excuse to cut welfare spending
and argue for the privatization of public services. This
punishesthepoorandignoresthefactthatprivatization
and deregulation tend to generate fresh opportunities
for corruption. Second, the government is focused too

Page15


heavily on eliminating personal greed, and not enough
on root causes, such as poorly paid civil servants, or
how, in the race to be world class and achieve the
highest possible growth rates, large swathes of
decisionmaking have been removed from even the
mostelementaryformsofscrutiny(theCommonwealth
Games are a case in point; SEZs are another). The
emphasis on correcting individual behavior has led to
topdown,apoliticalproposalssuchasthecreationofa
highpoweredombudsmansofficeandtheissuingof
biometricidentitycardstothwartfraudulentclaimson
socialservices.Itisunlikelythateitherwillmakemore
thanasmalldentinIndiasmassivecorruptionproblem.

SegregateandInsulate

While educated Indians are proud of Indias stature as

the worlds largest democracy, their social and
political organizationsresidents associations, go
green campaigns, wildlife protection funds, and so
onare primarily concerned with the creation of safe,
clean, and aesthetically pleasing bourgeois utopias.
Theirdesiretosegregateandinsulatethemselvesfrom
the great unwashed is correspondingly stronger.
Cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and even Kolkata (which
was under a Marxist government for years) have
undergone radical spatial reorganization, with old,
mixedclass neighborhoods giving way to private
residentialenclavesencircledbywallsandbarbedwire.
Given how cutoff they are from their fellow citizens,
not to mention the public education and healthcare
systems,itishardlysurprisingthatIndiasrisingmiddle
classes have little interest in supporting universalistic
programsofsocialsecurity.

The Indian elites ambivalence about democracy is by

no means a new development. Nor am I arguing that
elitesinotherpartsoftheworldareverydifferent.Itis
instructive, nonetheless, that globalization and
openness have not resulted in a flowering of liberal
politicalvaluesorafreshloveforhumanrights,asone
might have expected. If anything, whispers that India
would be better off as a dictatorship for the time
being are more audible now, drifting out of private
clubs and parlors and into mainstream public forums,
such as television talk shows. Concern for the poor,
whenarticulatedatall,islimitedtosupportingprivately
funded charitable organizations, and to lauding the
JuneSeptember2011

work of individual benefactors, such as industrialist

AzimPremjiorBollywoodactorAamirKhan.

AsIndiacompletesitssixtyfourthyearofindependence
from British colonial rule on August 15, along with
twenty years of market reform, one must pause to
reflectonthefutureofthisvibrantbuttroublednation.
Indiashighratesofgrowthandconfidentmiddleclass
render it a force to be reckoned with in the global
economicarena.Itremainsabeaconofdemocracyand
pluralismamidSouthAsiasopenlyauthoritarianstates.
Yet the countrys profound disparities of wealth have
undermined many of its achievements. Indias
population is effectively divided into two classes of
citizens,onewithaccesstoafullcomplementofrights
andprivileges,andonewithout.

InevitableCollisions

Whatwillhappenasthesetwoworldscollide?Willwe
seemorecrime,conflict,andplannedactsofterrorism,
such as the one that seared through the heart of
Mumbai in midJuly? It is wellknown that poverty and
social exclusion churn out ready recruits for extremist
organizations. Indias low ranking in the Global Peace
Index fits this gloomy narrative. (Developed by an
Australian thinktank, the GPI is based on more than
twentyindicators,suchasdeathsfromactiveconflicts,
threats of terrorism, numbers of violent
demonstrations, and levels of military expenditure.
Indiaranks135thonalistof153countries.)

OrwillthefrictionbetweenthetwoIndiaschannelinto
something more positive? Will we see a (nonviolent)
revolution that will fundamentally change the order of
things? Given Indias vastness and extraordinary
diversity, a coordinated, countrywide response to
neoliberalism appears unlikely. Vertical ties of caste,
language, religion, and region tend to supersede those
ofclass,makingitdifficultformarginalizedcommunities
to work together and resist systemic subordination.
Social movements such as the National Alliance of
Peoples Movements have found it challenging to
extend the scope of their struggles beyond local and
specific issues. Yet nothing should be considered
unattainable in the land of Mohandas (Mahatma)
Gandhi. Gandhi, after all, inspired a successful mass
movementagainstthecolonialstateatatimewhenthe
latterseemedinvulnerable.

Page16

What is certain, at any rate, is that Indias segmented

worlds cannot survive on separate tracks. In a country
that is as densely populated as India, collisions are
guaranteed, even if they are not of the high velocity
kind that draws attention from the media, or from
thinktanks specializing in the study of peace and
conflict.

Infact,itisthroughtheirlowintensityencounterswith
the rich that the poor may succeed in exacting a
measureofretributionfortheirmarginalization.Devika
Karansworldwillneverbehermeticallysealed.Shewill
have to bump into beggars, prod her maids through
policechecks,andlosesleepoverthepossibleillnesses
her slumdweller chauffeur could transmit to her
cocooned family. Her daughters, however liberal and
cosmopolitantheirprivateschooleducation,couldlose
faith in their ability to change the world around them.
Ashereverydaylifebecomesshutteredandtense,the
worldclass and open India of Devikas imagination
couldseemimpossiblyoutofreach.

(A version of this essay was published in Dissent

Magazine,theUnitedStates).

JuneSeptember2011

ThePlanningCommissionsUnreasonable
BenchmarkforPoverty
ByPhilipVarghese
After facing condemnation in May for claiming that a
personearningRs20perdayinurbanareasandRs15
in rural areas is not poor, Planning Commission on
September 20, 2011 generously touted an affidavit in
the Supreme Court stating that anyone capable of
spendingmorethanRs965amonth(Rs32perday)in
urbanIndiaandRs781(Rs26perday)inruralIndiais
notpoorand,therefore,willnotbeallowedtobenefit
fromCentralandStategovernmentschemesmeantfor
peoplelivingbelowthepovertyline.Thenewtentative
criteriawasworkedoutbytheplanpanelandapproved
by the Prime Minister's Office before the affidavit was
submitted
before
the
Supreme
Court,
(http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/outrageoverrs
32benchmarkforwhosnotpoor135319) this has
dissatisfied & provoked various sections and there has
been violent outrage in both rural and urban quarters
acrossthecountry.
Thisincidentalandsymptomaticmovebygovernmentif
read with the promises of National Food Security Bill,
2011 i.e., access to adequate food at affordable prices
and the proposed Cash Transfer provision as an
alternativeofPDSisinitselfrevealingabouttheintent
of government, which is to ruthlessly cut down on the
beneficiaries.Therefore,thebeliefinpovertyreduction
programmes are thwarted by setting up this
unreasonable BPL benchmark which in short, reduces
the number of poor and their relief measures but not
poverty! The former finance minister charged the
Planning Commission with putting a cap on the BPL
beneficiaries, due to which the real poor were not
getting the benefits of BPL schemes initiated by the
Central and State governments. "In order to keep its
expendituredownandthePlanallocationswithinlimits,
the Planning Commission puts a cap on this. Every

http://vijaynjoshi.files.wordpress.com

COMMENTARY

Page17


districtandstatehasaquotaforthepoor.Evenifyou
identifytherealpoor,theystilldon'tgetBPLbenefitsas
they
don't
come
under
this
quota".
(http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/10120
913.cms)
This benchmark was a result of the assertions of the
SureshTendulkarCommitteereport,whichmeantonly
an exercise to create comparable estimates of poverty
over a length of time and the impact of government
programmesandpoliciesonalleviatingpovertybutthis
estimateswiththehelpofUIDcouldbedetrimentalto
those on the fringes of this mark. The affidavit also
suffersfromthefactthatitdoesnotprovidethecriteria
forwhowillbeentitledtofoodsecuritybenefits,asthis
was a question that had been posed earlier by the
court.(TheIndianExpress)
Otherimplicationsofthisiswhentranslatedintomoney
terms;thenewparametersofpovertywillnotallowthe
notpoor person more than one gram of dal or 160
gramofwheator140gramofriceor90mlofmilkdaily
(Sakal Times), leave alone the other expenses such as
the conveyance, required calorie intake of food and
medical treatments or even any other related
unexpected emergencies in a family. Planning
Commission finds Rs. 39.70 per month is sufficient to
stay healthy and Rs 29.60 per month on education in
citiestodowell.ThemonthlycutoffgivenbyPlanning
Commission before the apex court was broken down
using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of Industrial
Workers for 201011 and the break down given in
Annexure E of the Tendulkar Report of expenditure
calculatedat200405prices.(TimesofIndia,Sept,21st,
2011) As "living wage", at current wage rates declared
under Minimum Wage Act, comes to Rs 247 per day
for unskilled. Rs 32 flaunted by the Planning
Commissionas"belowpovertyline"isseventimesless
than the Minimum Wage which itself is a "subsistence
wage".Thus,MinimumWageisseventimesthatofBPL
rate. What this implies is government is shying away
from their fundamental duty to provide basic
requirement to all citizens of India and robbing their
righttoalifeofdignityandliberty.
JuneSeptember2011

National Advisory Council (NAC) members like Aruna

Roy and Harsh Mander lashed out at the Planning
Commission's new criteria for poverty line and Aruna
Royaddsthisaffidavitreflectsthegovernment'sdeep
lack of empathy for the poor and a perspective
completely divorced from reality and if India cannot
provide its people with adequate resources to meet
theirbasicneeds,itwillcrippletheirfullparticipationin
theeconomy."(ibid)
Indias low ranking in major human development
indices and the fact that an overwhelming majority of
the population continue to be denied this
conceptualization of what would be considered a fair
wage, raises disturbing questions with regard to the
official standpoint on poverty. At this juncture, the
Australianmethodologyisworthstudyingtodrawthese
few points; poverty line should ideally drawn from a
weekly income benchmark and should be periodically
updated using an index of per capita household
disposable income, which should include housing and
other requirements and the poverty line should be
alwayshigherthanthewelfarepaymentsthatthestate
makes
(Deccan
Chronicle;
see
also:
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/editorial/dc
comment/whichworlddoeconomistslive676), and
shouldnotberesortedtoasainstrumenttoartificially
cutdownonnumberofpoorpeopleinsteadofworking
waystodealwithpoverty.
These estimates of poverty are definitely useful as
broadindicatorswhichcanhelpgovernmentsformulate
and monitor policies. This is how they were used in
Indiatillthe1990s,butmarkedwithantipoorapproach
by targeting the underprivileged in the name of
reformsisunethical.Identificationofthepoorinvery
concrete terms with the help of UID and since
henceforth a growing number of poverty alleviation
programmeswouldberestrictedtoonlythoseofficially
recognized as being poor. In the years to follow, all
crucial government programmes like food subsidies,
health, housing, bank loans, pensions, help to children
and adolescent girls will get more restrictive. Thus, it
becomesallthemoreobligatoryforthegovernmentto

Page18


have a transparent and just system of poverty
estimation/identification so as to reassure the public
about the governments role and capacity in general
welfare programmes and also to refrain from drawing
suchlinesofhypocrisy,infuture.

BEHINDTHEHEADLINES
StrikeatMarutisManesarPlant:An
ErosionofWorkersRights
ByPhilipVarghese
In August, the management of one of Indias leading
automobile industry had halted production at its
Manesar(Gurgaon,nearDelhi)plantafterithadasked
the 950 regular workers to sign a good conduct bond
before they could enter the factory. According to
workers, this succeeded the termination of 11 and
suspension of 38 workers on fabricated charges of go
slow in production and also claiming that the workers
were undisciplined. Workers at the Marutis Manesar
plantsustaineda13daylongstrikefrom4June17June
against this and the strike ended when the company
agreedtotakeback11terminatedworkers.Inprinciple
the management also agreed that an independent
plantlevelunioncouldbeallowedaslongasithadno
outsiders. General Secretary of Maruti Suzuki
Employees Union (MSEU), Mr. Shiv Kumar strongly
states that they are doing this to harass workers who
arestrugglingfortheirrighttounion formationandto
curb voices against managements stubborn attitude.
Thus, with the illegal lockout arising out of the good
conduct bond from 29th of August, thousands of
workers are protesting at the gate number 2 of
Manesar factory and reports say four hundred police
menwerepostedinsidethefactoryon28thnightbythe
company to resist. Maruti Suzuki Management and
GovernmentofHaryanaaretryingtoenforcethislock
outwithpoliceforceandmediaisalsoaidingtheminits
shoddy manner, with reports that production restarts
atManesarandlabourunresttakesaviolentturnetc
withoutreportingtherealissue.
JuneSeptember2011

The caption way of life! of Maruti Suzuki has been

explicated by some protesting workers who explains
their working condition; as being stressful and
inhumane because these workers are overloaded with
work of producing 14001470 cars from a unit where
thecapacityis1200carsperday,8workinghourswhich
excludes lunch and tea breaks. They are given a time
outof7minutesbetween2hoursofstrenuousworkfor
refreshments. The electronic attendance machine
installed by the administration marks a worker absent
for half a day and cuts his salary even if he is one
minute late and continues to work through that half
day, There is no provision of casual leave or sick leave
and if a worker goes on holiday for 1 day the amount
deductedisRs.1500,for2daysitisRs.2200,forthree
days it is Rs. 70008000 but if he works overtime on a
holiday then he will be paid Rs. 250 only. All workers
initially have to pass through a 3 year training period
duringwhichnolabourlawsareapplicable.Attheend
of the 3year period they receive uniforms, and are
supposedtobemadepermanent.Insteadofthat,many
of them remain frozen as trainees and their
permanent appointment is delayed. Only if a worker is
admittedtoahospitalfor24hrsonlythenthecompany
reimburses80%oftheexpenditure.Noreimbursements
areofferedformedicalexpenditureonfamilymembers.
Conveyance is a major problem, as the buses though
apparentlyprovidedbythecompany,chargefarefrom
workers and there has been absolute negligence with
regarding safety measures in their units. (Information
fromworkersresponsetoJNUstudentswhowentthere
tosupporttheirprotest)
Workers at the Maruti plant also say the working
conditions between the permanent and contractual
workers differ vastly. Maruti employs close to 2,500
workers, of which 1,100 are permanent and the rest
consist of workers on contract, apprenticeship and
training. There are vivid differences in the working
conditions between these groups, they add. An
unskilledcontractworkerispaidRs5,500amonthand
a skilled contract worker (with an ITI diploma) gets Rs
7,000; a permanent workers pay is around Rs 18,000.
Sinceoutof2500only1100arepermanentandrestare
contract,apprenticeortraineeworkerswhichgivesand
a great deal of autonomy to the company to layoff
workersduringadepressionperiod.(BusinessStandard,
15th September) They amass tremendous profits
throughcontractlabourbycuttingdownonpermanent

Page19


workersanddonotintendtosharetheprofitwiththeir
employeeswithoutevengivingthemtherighttoforma
union,whichisadenialofonesfundamentalright.
However,thishasbeenthewayoflifelatelyatManesar
whichisnotjustaboutabondandanunionbutthis
whole scenario showcases our flexi labour laws, its
implementation lacunas and corporate giants having
strongnexuswithgovernmentagenciestocomedown
heavilyontheworkingclasstofurtherexploitthem.
References:
1. SpeedandControlatManesar:Whyisthe
MarutiSuzukiManagementKeepingWorkers
OutofItsFactory:
http://kafila.org/2011/09/06/speedand
controlatmanesarwhyisthemarutisuzuki
managementkeepingworkersoutofits
factory/
2. http://sanhati.com/articles/4069/
3. Maruti'sstrikinglabourproblem:
http://www.business
standard.com/taketwo/news/marutisstrikinglabour
problem/449167/

http://www.indiancarsbikes.in

ByHilaryFerguson(SpecialtoCDHR)
TheRobinHoodTaxCampaignisaUKbasedmovement
established in February 2010. It advocates for the
worldwide implementation of the Robin Hood Tax,
which involves collecting a small (and as of Summer
2011,ayettobedefined)portionofbanktransactions
as a tax to be redistributed within countries of the
Global North and South in order reduce poverty and
fight climate change (Robin Hood Tax, 2010). The
proposed tax is similar to earlier concepts such as the
Global Resource Dividend (GRD) also known as the
Tobin Tax, which advocates for the collection and
redistribution of a tax levied on the purchase and sale
of various resources and of foreign currency exchange
(SeePogge,2008;2000).TheRobinHoodTax,however,
moves beyond currency exchange to include a wider
range of financial assets such as mutual funds, stocks,
bonds, and derivatives. High degrees of international
cooperation and the universal uptake of the tax would
increase its impact; an outcome that depends on how
successful the campaign is in pressuring national
governments to adopt the tax. Nevertheless, it is
believed that the redistribution of the tax would have
positiveresultsevenifindividualcountriesparticipated
unilaterally or if specific nations collaborated on a
regionalbasis(RobinHoodTax,2010).

The campaign justifies taxing the financial sector for

various reasons. Most simply, as the most profitable
and undertaxed industry worldwide the sector can
afford to contribute to such causes. Furthermore, the

The Robin Hood Tax Campaign: Turning a

GlobalCrisisintoaGlobalOpportunity

Humanrightsareamainfocusofthecampaignwiththe
overall focus being the reduction of inequality. The
movement promotes global justice via the
redistribution of wealth. Specifically, if the Robin Hood

Tax were implemented, the funds reallocated would

worktowardsachievingimprovementsinareassuchas
health, education and environmental sustainability
across the globe. Supporters of the tax include various
NGOs and charitable organizations, trade unions, high
profile politicians, celebrities, businesspeople,
economistsandacademics.

JuneSeptember2011

GLOBALFOCUS

Page20


campaign believes that the banking system has an
obligationtogivebacktocitizensinlightoftherecent
taxpayerfunded bailouts received by the sector in
many industrialized nations. It also recognizes that as
governmentspaybacktheirdebtspostbailout,theywill
havelessmoneytoprovideservicesforcitizensandto
contributetodevelopmentassistance(RobinHoodTax,
2010).
Thecampaignthusurgesgovernments,institutionsand
individuals to pay greater attention to our global
economic order since its design does not yet include
effective redistributive mechanisms (Pogge, 2008).
Because the regulatory system of the current global
order largely benefits nations and citizens in the
developed world, it is in part the responsibility of the
Global North to protect the vulnerable citizens of the
Global South who are most negatively affected by this
unbalanced system (Pogge, 2008). That being said, ad
hoc initiatives such as the Robin Hood Tax and other
forms of development assistance are not complete
solutions; they do not address a multitude of other
problems such as corruption and poor political
commitment,alackofcapacityandresources,andhigh
debt levels, which often exist in the developing world.
However, by considering redistributive policies options
suchastheRobinHoodTax,ourglobaleconomicorder
is reexamined and its reorganization is considered. In
thefuture, thishasthepotential toevolvefurtherand
to include an assessment of other inequitable policies
includingtradeandlabourpolicy,amongothers.
For more information on the Robin Hood Tax visit the
campaignwebsiteathttp://robinhoodtax.org/.
Sources:
Pogge, T. (2008). World Poverty and Human Rights.
Cambridge,MA:Polity.
Pogge, T. (2000). The International Significance of
HumanRights.TheJournalofEthics,4,4569.
Robin Hood Tax. (2010). How It Works: Everything You
Need to Know. Retrieved 18 August, 2011, from
http://robinhoodtax.org/howitworks/everythingyou
needtoknow

Robin Hood Tax Campaigner Photo by Martin Argles, The

Guardian

ANALYSIS
TheRighttoEducation:AreWeThereYet?
ByJoanneTan
Early beginnings the Right to Education in
internationallaw
Since the Right to Education was first enshrined in the
1948UniversalDeclarationofHumanRights,ithasbeen
includedinallthefivemaininternationalhumanrights
treaties the International Convention on the
EliminationofAllFormsofRacialDiscrimination(1969)
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(1976),theInternationalCovenantonEconomic,Social
and Cultural Rights (1976), the Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
women(1981),andtheConventionontheRightsofthe
Child (1990) which attests to its importance as a
fundamentalright.Moresignificantly,thisillustratesthe
special status of the RTE as an enabling right that is
deeply intertwined with other rights, for education
empowers individuals with the necessary tools to
safeguardtheirrightsinotherareas.
UN special rapporteur on education, Katrina
Tomasevski,forthesakeofsimplicity,consolidatedthe

JuneSeptember2011

Page21


plethora of international provisions on the RTE into 4
keycomponents:

Availability:Primaryeducationistobefreeand
compulsory.
Accessibility: Discrimination in terms of access
to education should be eradicated. Particular
attention should be paid to disadvantaged
childreninthisrespect.
Acceptability: Primary school education should
be of good quality and should be pertinent to
the childs needs. This includes ensuring that
education translates to employability and that
themediumofinstructionisappropriate.
Adaptability: Schools must adapt to the needs
ofeachindividualstudent.
(Taken from the Manual on RightsBased
Education:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/00135
1/135168e.pdf)

While the right to education has been persistently

recognizedasafundamentalrightsinceveryearlyonin
internationallaw,notallstateshavebeenpromptin1)
recognizing and 2) realizing the right to education
domestically.Inparticular,India,asignatorytothefive
aforementioned treaties, has faced much difficulty in
translatinginternationalpromisesintonationalaction.
The RTE Bill The belated struggle for the right to
educationinIndia
WhileGandhihimselfhadproclaimedtheimportanceof
universaleducationasearlyas1937,itwasonlyin2002
thattheRighttoEducationwasfinallyincorporatedinto
the Indian Constitution, with the addition of article
21(A)inthe86thconstitutionalamendment,whichread
asfollows,
Thestateshallprovidefreeandcompulsoryeducation
toallchildrenoftheage6to14yearsinsuchmanneras
the state may, by law, determine. (The amendment
may
be
viewed
at:
http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/amend/amend86.htm)
To lend further impetus to the cause, the Right of
Children to Free and Compulsory Education bill (more
popularlyknownastheRTEbill)waspassedin2009in
both houses of parliament. The bill became subject to
enforcement by the Central Government as of April
2010.ThemajorelementsoftheRTEbillincluded:
JuneSeptember2011

The recognition of the right of children aged

between 6 and 14 to free and compulsory
elementaryeducation
The obligation of the government and local
authorities
to
establish
schools
in
neighbourhoodswheretherewerenone
The obligation of private unaided schools to
reserve 25 percent of their seats in class I for
children from disadvantaged groups, and to
provide these children with free elementary
education, with subsequent reimbursement
fromthegovernment
The abolishment of capitation fee or screening
procedurefortheadmissionofclassIchildren
The obligation of private schools to obtain
government recognition; official recognition
became dependent on the schools ability to
fulfil the specific norms and standards laid
downintheact
The establishment of School Management
Committees (SMCs), composed of teachers,
parents and elected local representatives,
charged with monitoring the running of the
school and the preparation of the School
DevelopmentPlans.

Despite these provisions, an amendment bill was

introducedshortlyafterintheRajyaSabha,anditisto
be passed by the Lok Sabha in this years monsoon
parliamentarysession.
In essence, there are 2 key aspects of the amendment
bill:

Firstly the amendment bill seeks to bring children with

disabilitiesundertheorbitoftheRTEact,viaexpanding
the definition of child belonging to disadvantaged
group under section 2(d) to include children with
disability.Thisdefinitionofthisterm,inturn,includes
children who are blind, leprosy cured, locomotors
disabled, mentally ill, children with autism, cerebral
palsy,mentalretardationandmultipledisabilities.Ina
report by the Departmentrelated Parliamentary
StandingCommitteeonHumanResourceDevelopment
Rajya Sabha, it was noted that out of the officially
recognized 30.42 lakh children with disabilities, only
27.8 lakh have access to elementary education.
Furthermore, the report remarked that children with
disabilities continue to experience barriers to the

Page22


enjoyment of basic rights and to their inclusion in the
society and that inclusive education is a very
importantgatewayforthesechildrentobecomepartof
the mainstream and to participate as citizens of the
country. (The full report may be found at:

Child Rights, Kiran Bhatty, acknowledged that the

provisionsofthebillwereverymodestandbasic.

(Thepublicdialogue,heldbytheSchoolChoiceCampaignandIndia
HabitatCentre)

http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/RTE/SCR%20Right%
20of%20Children%20to%20Free%20and%20Compulsory%20E
ducation%20Amendment%20Bill%202010.pdf).

More concretely, the inclusion of children with

disabilities under section 2(d) ensures that these
children,likeotherchildrenfromdisadvantagedgroups,
willbeentitledtoadmissioninSpecialCategorySchools
and Private Unaided Schools under the 25 percent
reservationclause.

Secondly, the amendment bill seeks to safeguard the

rightofminoritiestosetupandadministertotheirown
educational establishments, enshrined under article 30
of the Constitution, by amendment section 21 of the
RTE bill, which would relegate School Management
Committees (SMCs) in minority educational
establishments to an advisory role. This is aimed at
assuaging the worries of minority groups that the
composition of the SMCs even in minorityrun schools
wouldlimittheirsayintheadministrationoftheschool.

Considering the existing provisions already in the RTE

bill and two pending amendments, it seems that the
country looks ready to move towards achieving the
golden 4 As of the right to education, as laid down by
Tomasevski.However,inspiteoftheliberalinspirations
andaspirationsofthelongoverdueRTEbill,ithasbeen,
since its promulgation in 2009, subject to a barrage of
criticismfromallsides.Thecriticismistwofoldfirstly,
with regards to the flawsof the RTE bill on paper,and
secondly,withregardstothefeasibilityofimplementing
thebillinreality.

From the RTE bill to the Right to Education will we

evergetthere?

The shortcomings of the bill on paper have been

frequently pointed out. Indeed, at a recent public
dialogue on the RTE bill, entitled 25% reservation
undertheRTEact:arewegettingitright?organizedby
the School Choice Campaign and the India Habitat
Centre,theNationalCommissionerfortheProtectionof

JuneSeptember2011

(Speakers from left: Sujatha Muthaya, Kiran Bhatty and Gowri

Ishwaran)

Firstly,ithasdrawnflakforitsvaguedefinitionoffree
education,whichistakentomeanthenonpaymentof
school fees, and does not consider the supplementary
expensesincurred,forbooksanduniformsinparticular.
Secondly, the act noticeably precludes children under
theageof6andabovetheageof14,aglaringomission,
particularly since article one on the Convention on the
Rights of the Child explicitly defines a child as every
humanbeingbelowtheageofeighteenyears.Thirdly,
the norms and standards in the schedule of the bill
havebeendeemedinadequate,sincetheyapplyonlyto
private schools, and are largely composed of
infrastructuralrequirementsandstudentteacherratios,
blatantly leaving out learning outcomes. In a recent
interview,SujathaMuthaya,headoftheSchoolChoice
Campaign,noted,

Theproblemisthatgovernmentschoolsshouldalsobe
asked to meet the RTE norms. Currently 53 percent of
government schools do not meet these norms. Also,
quality (in the RTE bill) is defined in terms of
infrastructure, not learning outcomes or teaching
qualityinclassrooms.Infact,studiesprovethattheonly
infrastructures that are important are the presence of
drinking water and separate bathrooms for boys and
girls. The rest of the infrastructures do not have any
correlation(withschoolattendance).

Page23

Fourthly, and rather manifestly, both the central and

state governments, along with the National and State
Commissions for Child Rights are excluded from legal
accountability in the RTE bill under article 37.
Furthermore, under article 36, the prosecution of
anyone found in violation of the RTE act can only be
undertakenwithpriorofficialsanction.Together,these
two provisions essentially constrain the ability of
parents and students to seek judicial recourse should
their rights provided for under the bill be violated.
Lastly,the25percentquotafordisadvantagedchildren
has been arguably the most controversial, with some
arguingthatthequotaistoosmall,andothersarguing
thattheprovision,insteadofencouraginginclusion,will
expose children to cultural shocks and clashes in
schools. Nevertheless, the RTE bill, in sum, though it is
considered a landmark piece of legislation, is not
particularly revolutionary, for its provisions are for the
most part, modest, and as many might argue,
inadequate.

With regards to real implementation of the bill, there

have been complaints about the unfeasibility of the
bills provisions. Some of these were raised at the
recent public dialogue on the RTE bill, with many
lamenting the general decline in standards in
government schools, the insufficiency of government
funds,andwithprivateschoolrepresentativesworrying
that they might never be reimbursed by the state for
theexpensesincurredfromthe25percentreservation
clause. The general sentiment of the dialogue
participants,itseemed,wasthatgainsmadeinrealizing
the right to education have been too few and far
between, and that the RTE bill would not ameliorate
muchinreality.
Inspiteofthesesentimentshowever,theprospectsfor
implementationdonotlooktoodismal.Firstly,itshould
benotedthattheRTEbilldoesgiveaspecifictimeframe
for the implementation of some of its provisions. With
regardstothegovernmentprovisionofneighbourhood
schools, the fulfilment of basic infrastructural
requirements and meeting of the prescribed teacher
pupil ratio, the bill gives a period of 3 years for full
implementation, while with regards to the training of
untrainedteachers,5yearsaregiven.Otherprovisions
are to be implemented with immediate effect.
Considering current statistics, implementation within
JuneSeptember2011

these time frames is not completely unachievable.

According to UNICEF statistics (available at:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_statistics.ht
ml),thecountrysnetprimaryschoolenrolmentforthe
years20052009stoodat83percent.Also,accordingto
the annual education report by the Ministry of Human
Resource Development (all data may be found at:
http://education.nic.in/AR/AR201011/AR201011.pdf),
99percentofruralpopulation,asof2010,hadaccessto
a primary school within a 1km radius. Furthermore, as
of 2009, the average national teacherstudent ratio
stood at 1:44 and 1:34 for lower and upper primary
levelsrespectively,whiletheRTEbillcallsforaratioof
1:30and1:35.Although thesenationalaveragefigures
definitely mask stark disparities, they do refute the
defeatistassertionthatimplementationisimpossible.In
addition,theCentralGovernmentissettofunnelmore
financial resources towards the implementation of the
RTEact,with2,31,233croretobespentoverthenext5
years for this purpose alone. Also, fears that the State
governments will be left to shoulder the financial
burden of the Central governments promises look set
to be allayed, with the fund sharing ratio between the
CentreandtheStatesrevisedto65:35forthenextfive
years(initially,ithadbeendecidedthatthisratiowould
decreaseovertheperiodofthefiveyearplantoreach
50:50by20142015).Needlesstosay,theremaystillbe
some challenges in the implementation of some
provisions, such as the mass training of untrained
teachers.However,forthemostpart,theprovisionsof
theRTEbillareratherrealizable.
That having been said, the implementation of the RTE
bill does not necessarily equate to a realization of the
Right to Education in India, for it has already been
notedthattheprovisionsinthebillarequitemodest.In
fact, considering the many aforementioned lacunas in
thetextitself,theRTEbill,evenifimplemented,islikely
tobeinadequatetoachievingthislongneglectedright.
IftheRighttoEducationistobefullyactualizedinIndia,
one should not stop at the letter of the law. Rather,
oncethisminimumhasbeenattained,progressbeyond
the legal text should be pursued, in cognisance of the
substantivespiritoftheRTEbill.
FinalThoughts
Theimportanceofrighttoeducationhasbeentirelessly
reiterated, and elementary education is but the most
basic subset of this. On this already reduced scale, the

Page24


RTE bill consists of the bare minimum provisions for
most Indian children to obtain elementary schooling,
suchthatitsimplementationisinnowaysufficientfor
the realization of the right to education in India. It is
hence ironic that some criticize the inadequacy of the
billsprovisions,andyetinthesamebreatharguethat
theyareunfeasible,sincetheydemandtoomuchofthe
governmentsbudget,ofschools(publicandprivate),of
parents, of students etc. Instead, the bill, while an
importantpieceoflegislation,isbutthefirstsmallstep.
For a robust realization of the right to education
requires far more than a watereddown legal text, and
hencedemandsthatwereachbeyondthat.

ANALYSIS
The Right to Safe Drinking Water and
CasteBasedDiscrimination
ByPhilipVarghese
Water is synonymous with life and therefore its the
most integral and inevitable part of each individual.
Thus,righttowaterisabasichumanrightandifviewed
as an economic good or just another commodity then
only those who can afford the price will be able to
access water. Hence, governments must ensure that
every individual gets minimum quantity for his/her
basic needs. Apart from this, caste based
discriminations leading to human rights violation
regarding drinking water also makes it a social issue.
Thus, this paper dwells into three aspects within the
broad theme of right to safe drinking water, such as:
lack and disparity in availability of water,
corporatizationofwaterandsocialissuessuchascaste
based discriminations; followed by judicial
pronouncementsandsomerecommendations.
Presently, about 226 million people lack access to safe
drinking
water
in
South
Asia
(http://www.cess.ac.in/cesshome/wp%5CWater.pdf).
And apart from this, minerals like arsenic and fluoride
arefoundwhicharehazardousandalsothedumpingof
industrial waste and urban sewerage into the surface
JuneSeptember2011

waterrivers,lakesandcanalsareincreasinglypolluting
this limited resource. And hence, water related health
issues are claiming lives of about 1.5 million children
(500,000millionchildrenduetodiarrhoeaalone)under
5years.Waterbornediseasesarecausingmorethan4
millioninfantsandchilddeathseveryyearindeveloping
countries(ibid).
Nothing else could explain the crunch of water better
thanthesightoflongqueuesofcontainersinfrontofa
corporationtapinanurbanslumandwomeninvillages
walking long distances with water filled pots on their
heads which are both the scenarios representing
inequitable distribution of a basic resource and
diminishingaccessofthemarginalizedtocleandrinking
water in India. The Court recently reiterated that the
righttoaccesstocleandrinkingwaterisfundamentalto
lifeandthereisadutyonthestateunderArticle21to
providecleandrinkingwatertoitscitizens.
Drinking water and caste based human rights
violations
Ingeneral,morethan20%ofDalitsdonothaveaccess
tosafedrinkingwaterandonly10%ofDalithouseholds
haveaccesstosanitation,andthevastmajorityofDalits
depend on the goodwill of uppercaste community
members for access to water from public wells
(www.infochangeindia.org). Dalit women stand in
separate queues near the bore well to fetch water till
the non dalits finish fetching water. Dalits are
disentitledanddisallowedtousetapsandwellslocated
in nonDalit area. Dalit Villages are not provided water
for several days in case the Dalits resent to existing
practicesofdiscrimination.

As reported on June 17th, 2011, the National Human

Rights Commission has asked the Tamil Nadu
government to submit a report within four weeks on
the alleged thrashing of a Dalit boy for fetching water
from a public tap. It has also asked the government
what steps are being taken to prevent such acts of
discrimination
against
Dalits
(http://www.newsreporter.in/tag/nationalhuman
rightscommission).Asreportedon17thJune,2011,the
NHRCsaidithastakensuomotocognisanceofamedia
report alleging that the boy, A. Vasantha Kumar, was
notonlystoppedfromtakingwaterfromataplocated
at Karikkilipalayam by three women of another
community but was also abused by caste names.

Page25


When he protested, the three women and one P
Damodaran Chettiyar beat him up. He had to be
admittedinAnnurhospital,whichisabout25kmaway
from Coimbatore. It was also reported that the village
wherethevictimresidesisreelingunderextremewater
scarcity, the Commission said citing the media report
(ibid).

Privatizationofwater
The visible threats from corporatization of drinking
waterwouldbemanysuchaswaterpricehikes,water
mining and bulk exports, monopolistic water markets,
sub standard water quality, community ownership of
water resource is threatened, corruption and lack of
transparency.Asacasestudy,ifwelookintothe1998
Shivanath river project (Chhattisgarh), the first case of
riverprivatizationinIndiawithtotalexpectedcostofRs
256 crore had terrible outcomes such as supplying
water at the rate of Rs.12.60/liter to industries and to
railways, people denied access for fishing and bathing,
newsreportedcaseofthisprivatizedriverslowlydrying
up,amonopolyonthewatersupplyintheradiusof18
km, government announced the scheme is
constitutionally illegal and later they revoked the
contract(http://www.aidindia.org/main).
Here, the crucial decisions about water privatization
betweendonorsandthegovernmentsaremadebehind
closeddoorsandwithouttheknowledgeofthecitizens,
especiallythemarginalizedDalitswhosesmallpiecesof
land with water sources are often appropriated for
constructingnationalhighways,etc.orforcedtobesold
for petty amount to corporate companies. Neither the
donors (the World Bank or the IMF) nor borrowing
governments disclose information about loan
agreements and conditionalities. This is contrary to
Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, (Rio Dec, Principle
10: Environmental issues are best handled with the
participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant
level)thatentitlesindividualstoaccessinformationand
judicial proceedings, as well as the chance to be
involvedindecisionmaking.
Judicialpronouncements

CourtsinIndiahaveinterpretedRighttoclean
drinkingwaterasembodiedinArticle21ofthe
ConstitutionofIndia
(http://www.sustainabledevelopment.in/prese

JuneSeptember2011

ntations/pdf/devaki_panani.pdf;seealso:
http://www.cess.ac.in/cesshome/wp%5CWater
.pdf).
TheNationalCommissionofIndiahas
recommendedthatanewArticlebeaddedin
theConstitutionthatprovideseveryperson
shallhavetherighttosafedrinking
water.(ibid)Rightstoaccesswatermustbe
accompaniedbycorrespondingdutyonthe
Statetoprovidecleandrinkingwatertothe
citizens.
InStateofKarnatakavs.StateofAndhra
Pradesh(2000)theCourtheldthattherightto
waterisarighttolife,andthusafundamental
right.
InNarmadaBachaoAndolanvs.UnionofIndia
(2000)itwasheldthat'wateristhebasicneed
forthesurvivalofhumanbeingsandispartof
therighttolifeandhumanrights'.

GovernmentInterventions
Despitetallclaimsandconcernsabouttheimportance
of providing adequate drinking water to all citizens,
allocations to the urban water and sanitation sector
have never crossed even 2% of the Plan funds of the
GovernmentofIndiasinceindependence.
In April 2002, a new National Water Policy was
announced in India. Each state in India is obliged to
formulateitsownwaterpolicywithintwoyearsofthe
nationalpolicy.
An allocation of Rs 93.50 bn for National Rural
Drinking Water Programme in the budget of 201112
(Budget Analysis 201112, www.moneycontrol.com).
Though this amount of allocation is humungous the
percentage share when compared to other sectors is
very miniscule and reveals the preference set by the
centralgovernmentforthisbasichumanneed.Andalso
when subjected to the social issues such as corruption
and lack of efficient implementation records, this
allocated amount alone wont suffice for this noble
cause.
Righttosafewateracknowledged&promulgated
1. Political declaration: all States have recognized
waterandsanitationasahuman
rightinatleastonepoliticaldeclaration.
2. General Comment No. 15: confirms that the
right to water is contained in the ICESCR (The
human right to water entitles everyone to
sufficient,safe,acceptable,physicallyaccessible

Page26


andaffordablewaterforpersonalanddomestic
uses General Comment No. 15 (2002): The
RighttoWater).
3. TheConventionontheEliminationofAllForms
of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
obliges governments to ensure that rural
womenhaveaccesstosanitation.
4. TheConventionontheRightsoftheChild(CRC)
recognizestherightofall childrentoadequate
standardofliving.
5. TheUNExpertbodyresponsibleformonitoring
the CRC has clarified that this entitlement
includes access to clean drinking water and
latrines.
6. The South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) has recognized the
importance of safe drinking water and
sanitation as mentioned in the SAARC social
charter. Paragraph four of article III of the
SAARCsocialcharterstates:StatesPartiesagree
that access to basic education, adequate
housing,safedrinkingwaterandsanitation,and
primary health care should be guaranteed in
legislation, executive and administrative
provisions, in addition to ensuring adequate
standard of living, including adequate shelter,
food and clothing (http://sdpi.org/sdpi
old/help/research_and_news_bulletin/april_jun
e_10/Panelwriteups/WaterAidWater)

7. Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation

(SACOSAN) held in Delhi in November2008
acknowledgedtherighttowaterandsanitation
as follows: Recognize that access to sanitation
and safe drinking water is a basic right, and
according national priority to sanitation is
imperative(ibid).
There is an urgent need for legislation in all the caste
discriminationpracticessuchasdrinkingwaterissueas
itsalivelihoodrelatedrightsissue.Forthis,adialogue
with governments, relevant UN bodies, the private
sector, local authorities, national human rights
institutions,CSOsandacademicinstitutionsneedstobe
promoted and sustained with a view to identify,
promote and exchange views on best practices related
to access to safe drinking water and sanitation is the
immediate first step necessary. Further, preparing a
publication of best practices including non
discrimination obligations, in relation to access to safe
JuneSeptember2011

drinking water and sanitation should be included. And

most importantly, resolution to amend the SC/ST
(Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 to include
discriminationandviolenceagainstDalitsregardingthe
right to drinking water that all the concerned sections
havesufficientprotectionthroughlaw.
Thus,itishightimetorecognizesafewaterasaprimary
need and it is important for water sector to take a
right's based approach. Also it is important that
governmentsgiveahighprioritytosafewaterandalso
that human rights system redresses the world wide
neglectofwaterandwaterrelatedproblems.

www.farm5.static.flickr.com

FOCUS
Grounded:TheNewLandAcquisitionBill
ByPriyankaVarma
Jantar Mantar (New Delhi): Thousands of farmers
collected in protest of the land acquisition policies
deployed by varying state governments of varying
political hues. There were farmers brought in by the
farmerunionsaffiliatedtotheBJPandactivistsledby
the National Alliance of Peoples Movements, but the
cause of dissent remained unanimous. The event,
however,escapedthelargermediasattention.
Mawal(Punedistrict,Maharashtra):OnThursday,18th
August, Rahul Gandhi made an unscheduled visit to a
group of villages in Mawal, where three farmers had

Page27


earlier been killed in a police firing. The villagers had
beenprotestingagainsttheappropriationoflandfora
proposed pipeline project that was to supply water
from the local Pavna Dam at Mawal to Punes Pimpri
Chinchwadtwintownship.Speakingtoasmallgroupof
villagers and deploring the wrong done by law
enforcement bodies, Rahul Gandhi said that the event
wasuncalledforandthatfiringatfarmerswhowere
opposed to a water pipeline from a local dam was
unwarranted.
Suchanecdotesbringustoanimportantquestion:Does
the proposed Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation &
ResettlementBillof2011addresstheconcernsofthose
whohaveprotestedagainstthelandacquisitionpolicies
ofthegovernment?
TheAct:fromthentillnow
In large measure, India still legislates (on issues
pertaining to land) as per the Land Acquisition Act of
1894 created by the British. According to this act, the
government can seize private land, if needed for the
creation of a public good. Public Good, however,
hasntbeen definedundersection 4ofthisact,the
Governmentisrequiredtomakeapublicnotificationof
the intention to take over the land for a public
purpose, the definition of which under section 3(f) is
inclusive, and is often interpreted to very liberally to
include a wide variety of uses ()(DHRU A Kelly,
AcquisitionoflandfordevelopmentprojectsinIndia:
TheRoadAhead;ResearchFoundationforgovernance
in India 2010.). The land owner has no legal outlet to
resist. And worse still, there is no rehabilitation or
resettlementofthelandlesspromisedbytheact,savea
varyingmonetarycompensation.
Since the last three decades, peoples movements and
socialactivistshavebeendemandinganamendmentor
repealofTheAct.Thepointofcontentionlyinglargely
in the manipulation of the term public good and the
consistent loyalty it shows to the colonial principle of
Eminent Domain, meaning that the State is the super
sovereign and owner of everything land, water,
forests and so onand citizens have only custodial
capacity of them. (VIJAYAN MJ, Small BandAids For
Big Wounds; Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 9, March
05 2008). On July 05, 2011, the Supreme Court ruled
that the state was most responsible for seizing land
fromfarmers,takingawaytheirsourceoflivelihoodand
JuneSeptember2011

sustenance. The state, it further asserted, was taking

advantageofthedraconian(MamataBanerjeeonthe
LAA)LAAbyhelpingthebuilders.Itwasantipeople.
Things, however, seem to have gathered momentum
sincethearrivalofJairamRameshasthenewminister
of Rural Development, after the cabinet reshuffle of
12thJuly.Hisarrivalintothisministryprovedexpedient
on the first day itself as Mr. Ramesh ordered that a
fresh new legislation on land acquisition be drafted
instead of the ongoing efforts to amend an existing
1894 law in this regard. (SINHA Amitabh, Jairam for
new law on land acquisition; Indian Express, July 14
2011). He also insisted on the creation of a singular
draft that incorporates provisions for land acquisition
as well as resettlement and rehabilitation of people
whoselandistakenaway(ibid).
The much awaited oeuvre of the monsoon session of
parliamentthedraftbillisnowinthepublicdomain
for prelegislative suggestions and commentary since
August31st.
AnalysingtheActtobe
The new draft of the Land Acquisition bill is a first in
morewaysthanone.Firstly,itrequireslandacquisition
to be conjoined with resettlement and rehabilitation.
Jairam Ramesh elucidates on the need of this merger:
Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement
(R&R) need to be seen necessarily as two sides of the
same coin. R&R must always, in each instance,
necessarily follow upon acquisition of land. Not
combiningthetwoR&Randlandacquisitionwithin
onelaw,risksneglectofR&R.Thishas,indeed,beenthe
experience thus far (The Draft National Land
Acquisition and Rehabilitation & Resettlement bill,
2011:http://www.rural.nic.in/Final.pdf). The draft
explicitly attempts for a balancing act. It aims at
facilitating land acquisition for various public
infrastructural projects and urbanization, while at the
same time addressing the concerns of farmers and
those whose livelihoods are dependent on the land
being acquired. There is thus, in the bill, a list of the
three exhaustive conditions under which land can be
acquired:
-

Governmentacquireslandforitsownuse,holdand
control

Page28

Government acquires land with the ultimate

purpose to transfer it for the use of private
companies for stated public purpose (including PPP
projectsbutotherthannationalhighwayprojects)

Government acquires land for immediate and

declared use by private companies for public
purpose

*NoteI:Publicpurposefor2.&3.above,oncestated,
cannotbechanged
*NoteII:LandAcquisitionunder2.&3.abovecantake
placeprovided80%oftheprojectaffectedfamiliesgive
consenttotheproposedacquisition.
Theambiguityofpublicpurpose,whichwasasubject
of much manipulation in the past, has been treated. It
hasbeenstreamlinedtoencapsulatepurposesthatare:
Strategic,includingarmedforcesandnationalsecurity;
for Infrastructure and industry where benefits largely
accruetothegeneralpublic;forlandacquiredforR&R
purposes; for village or urban sites for planned
residences for the poor and educational and health
schemes; land for private companies for public
purpose;andthosearisingfromnaturalcalamity.
In my view, public purpose means infrastructure,
railways, roads, highways, bridges, said Mr Ramesh
(LAHIRITripti,JairamSpeaksonLandAcquisitions,The
Wall
Street
Journal.
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/08/04/jairam
rameshspeaksonlandacquisitionbill).
Public
purpose does not mean malls, shopping complexes of
privateenterpriseforprivatepurposes(ibid).
Furthermore, the Bill asserts that multicrop land
cannot be acquired by private companies under any
circumstancesandthegovernmentdoesnotenvisage
doing the same (The Draft National Land Acquisition
and Rehabilitation & Resettlement bill, 2011:
Mr.
Ramesh,
http://www.rural.nic.in/Final.pdf).
however, made it clear that the bill does not preclude
privateenterprisesfromacquiringland;onlythatthere
should be a fair R&R package and that there be no
acquisitionofmulticrop,irrigatedland.
Judiciously,theBillidentifiesthoseaffectedbytheland
acquisition the land owners and livelihood losers.
Livelihoodlosersmaynotbeinpossessionofland,but
their loss in livelihood is also accounted for in the Bill.
These untilnow invisible people, (LAUL Revati, How
JuneSeptember2011

to end a million mutinies,Tehelka Magazine, Vol 8,

Issue32,August132011)whotoilonthefieldsowned
by another are being recognized in the bill. National
AdvisoryCouncil(NAC)councilmembers,HarshMander
and NC Saxena (both involved in drafting the bill) feel
that this is perhaps the single most important
contributionthattheyhavebeenabletomakeensuring
that the government finally acknowledges this groups
right to compensation. They now receive the same
substance allowance being given to land owning
familiesi.e.3000permonthforthefirstyearand2000
permonthinannuityforthenext20years(ibid).
AsminimumR&Rentitlements,thelandowners,would
receive also receive Rs 50, 000 for transportation and
mandatory employment per one member of the
affected family or Rs 2 lakh as compensation. They
would in addition, receive 20 percent of appreciated
valueuponeverytransferofthelandwithin10yearsof
acquisition.Thoselosingtheirlivelihoodwouldreceive
the same benefits as the land owners, save the shares
orcompensationagainstthelandvalueappreciations.
The resettlement areas, as per the bill are required to
meet twentyfive infrastructural amenities. These
include schools and playgrounds, health centres, roads
and electric connections, assured sources of safe
drinkingwateramongstothers.
The bill furthermore enjoys supremacy over the 18
other central laws on land acquisition for defence,
railways,SEZs,highwaysetc.
Overall, the Land Acquisition Draft, comes as a
watershedsuchthatthefarmersfeelasenseofsolace
and the rural would is not forgotten over the urban
but not without the angst of another group: the
buildersandpropertybuyers,whofearaserioushikein
propertyratesafterthepassingofthisact.

Page29

BEHINDTHEHEADLINES
MinoritiesViewonAnnaHazare
ByPhilipVarghese
Though Anna Hazare and his team were successfully
abletostageaprotestbycapitalizingpublicresentment
towards corruption and the recent sequence of scams,
theirprovisionsofthe billweredraconianwithserious
short comings which would have had an outcome of a
parallel nonelected body to disrupt the balance of
governing agencies. Apart from these, the religious
minorities rebuffed Team Annas proposal and their
strategy. The recent drafts such as the Governments,
TeamAnnasandNationalCampaignforPeoplesRight
to Informations does not take into consideration of
rightfulsafeguardsofconstitutionalprovisionsofDalits,
Religious Minorities, Adivasis, and Women both in the
selection committees and also in Lokpal, to whom this
billshouldmatterthemost.
Representativesofminorityandbackwardcommunities
and various NGOs jointly took out a rally at India Gate
protesting against Team Annas Jan Lokpal Bill and
reasserted their demand for considering their
suggestionsfromBahujanLokpalBill,whichforobvious
reasonsgotovershadowed.AndwithLokpaltobetaken
up with parliamentary standing committee, forty
leading Dalit rights organizations marched from
Ambedkar Bhawan to Jantar Mantar to impress their
concerns upon the parliament and to pile pressure on
government with top officials, intellectuals, activists,
employees federations under the banner of Social
Justice Forum on Lokpal, including Indian Social
Institute, Common Concern which is a group of
intellectuals,NationalCampaignforDalitHumanRights,
National Confederation of Dalit Organizations and a
hostofoutfitsfromstates.Thiscampaignculminatedin
apublicmeetingatJantarMantaron5thofSeptember.
(TOI)
They want to redefine corruption and not confine its
scopeinjusteconomiccorruptionandscopeshouldbe
broadened to social and cultural aspects. The central
questionisaboutapplyingtheprincipleofsocialjustice
and to be more inclusive. Within the Lokpal there
shouldbechecksandbalances.Asweareaware,inthis
country caste and religion are important agencies that
aid and abet corruption and also checkmate it. It is,
JuneSeptember2011

therefore, important that the Lokpal should have

members coming from the SC, ST, OBC and Minority
communities to balance it with a Principle of Social
Justice. (Madhu Chanda, All India Christian Council).
They demand Social Justice Principle to be followed
bothinLokpalandaswellasintheselectioncommittee
since in our nation, caste and religious prejudice can
workevenatthelevelofmembersofLokpalagainstthe
weak and vulnerable. The National Chairman of All
India Confederation of SC/ST, Dr. Udit Raj addressed a
pressconferencesayingTherewillnotbemuchimpact
to check graft unless corporate houses, NGOs and
media houses are brought in the ambit of the Bill. The
way the government is considering the features of all
the other Bills, such as Governments version of the
Lokpal Bill, Jan Lokpal Bill and NCPRI Bill, the
suggestions of Bahujan Lokpal Bill must also be
considered.
For the crowd at Ramlila Maidan, voices against Anna
Hazares corruption campaign or difference in opinion
or their strategy used meant to be against corruption
free India itself. In a democratic country, there should
be space to differ. But people assembled got carried
away with the whole situation and the second
independence struggle which the Anna group was
offering.Whenthemarginalizedgroupsfelttheywere
underrepresented and feared the probability of
misusing the provisions of this bill to the disadvantage
ofthemarginalizedcommunities.Thus,theyoptedout
to raise their suggestions to be more inclusive rather
than just another one more humongous bureaucratic
body with immense power set up to perpetuate
prejudice and discrimination backed policies and
actions. The voice of marginalized such as
SC/ST/OBC/Womenandreligiousminoritiesconstitutes
to about 85% of the Indian population and thereby, if
notheardthenbillisinadequateandboundtofailwith
serious irreparable damages grafted on the social and
culturalfabricofournation.Thus,morediscussionsand
debates are a prerequisite and an ear for all the
relevant suggestions and voices before enforcing this
compromisedandconcoctedbilltopavewayforgiving
social justice an esteemed position and to endure and
achievetheinclusivepolicygoals.
References:
1. Demand for SC/ST/OBC and Minority
RepresentativeinLokpalJointPressreleaseby

Page30


Joint Press Statement of Concerned Civil
SocietiesrepresentedbyDr.UditRajNational
Chairman of All India Confederation of SC/ST
Organizations,Prof.KanchaIlaiahDirectorfor
the study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive
Policy,MaulanaAzad NationalUrdu University,
Hyderabad,Dr.JosephD'souzaPresidentofAll
IndiaChristianCouncil,Dr.JohnDayalMember
ofNationalIntegrationCouncil,VidhyaBhushan
Rawat Director of Social Development
Foundation, Sunil Sardar Director of Truth
Seeker International and Madhu Chandra
Spokesperson of North East Support Centre &
Helpline.
2. Dalits,backwardsandminoritiesmustbein
Lokpalpanel:UditRaj,
(Source:indianexpress.com)

3. AndhraHeadlines.com

To surmount such an abject situation where access to

twosquaremealadayseemsacomfortforthemajority
of people, the Indian Government has drafted a
nationalfoodsecuritybill,2011,withthestatedaimto
provideforfoodandnutritionalsecurity,in humanlife
cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate
quantityfoodataffordableprice.
Thecivilsocietyhasanumberofobjectionstothedraft
bill including quantity of food grains decided upon per
family, loopholes in targeting the recipients of this bill
etc. But, one essential point which can make all the
difference to the food security of the people is a
provision of cash transfers for purchase of food grains
which could be introduced in some time in lieu of
entitlements.

TheeffectivenessofthismodeloverPublicDistribution
System (PDS) is still debated and the civil society and
thegovernmentaresharplydividedoverthisprovision.
Though,thismodeldoeshavesomemeritoverPDSasit
4. TimesofIndia(TOI)
will save substantial funds which are currently being
spent over functioning of PDS through procurement,
storage,deliveryandsecuritymechanisms.However,it
should not be glossed over too much without paying
heed to its shortcomings, especially in the Indian
context. The cash transfer scheme may save funds but
cannotguaranteefoodsecuritytothepeopleinawaya
nationpopulatedbyonethirdofworldshungrypeople
urgentlyrequires.

Thepredicamentbeginswiththecoreitselfcash.While
http://static.ctia.in/images
the proponents of food security are pushing for
universal PDS, wherein everyone, except the very rich,
canaccessfoodgrainsatsubsidizedprice,introduction
of cash transfers will result in taking away of this

demand.Since,foodentitlementsthroughPDScanstill

beuniversalbutnotcashtransfers.Hence,thelingering
problem of targeting will still persist. The error of
ANALYSIS
exclusionandinclusioninBelowPovertyLineandAbove
Poverty Line categorization for targeting the
The Case against Cash Transfers in the
beneficiariesoffoodentitlementsarealreadysuchthat
the number of hungry people in India is always more
FoodSecurityDebate
than the number of people below official poverty line.
Whilearound37%ofruralhouseholdswerebelowthe
ByNehaMahal
poverty line in 199394, 80% of households suffered
1/3rd of the worlds hungry live in India and over 20
under nutrition. Now that the funds are directly
crore Indians will sleep
hungry tonight
involvedintheformofcashtransfers,governmentmay
(www.bhookh.com/hunger)
further want to limit households falling under BPL to
JuneSeptember2011

Page31


save funds thus exposing even larger number of poor
peopletohungerandmalnutrition.
Further, fixed cash transfers cannot ensure access to
sufficient food grains in inflation prone open food
market.Undersuchcircumstances,afixedamountthat
was sufficient to purchase food items in normal times
can be less in inflationary times. Government may
adjusttheamountannuallybutfoodmarketfluctuates
everynowandthenandlocalmarketsvarysubstantially
fromeachotherininflation.Also,inthetimesoffiscal
crunch, when the cash transfers will be absolutely
necessary for poor people, the government may even
cutbackonthefundsforcashtransfersormaynotraise
it enough to meet the needs of the beneficiaries. It is
difficulttojustifyreductioninfoodgrainsentitlements
but funds for cash transfers can be cut back relatively
easily on the grounds that not enough funds are
available.
The introduction of cash based model can also have a
spill over effect on farming community. Currently, the
government procures sizeable amounts of food grains
forPDS.Onceitisdoneawaywith,governmentwillno
longer procure large amounts of food grains and
concomitantly, farmers will suffer. The Minimum
Support Price (MSP) government fixes for the farmers
toselltheirproducesothattheydontincurlosseswill
lose its weight. The MSP is enforced only when
governmentprocuresfoodgrainsatthatpriceandsets
theminimumpricelimit.Whenitwillnomorepurchase
food grains, mere announcement of MSP will not give
any price protection to farmers in open market which
decides price on demandsupple principle. As result of
lower price due to increased supply of food grains in
open markets, many farmers may even give up
production of food grains and turn towards profitable
cashcrops.Inthelongrun,itmayevenproducescarcity
of basic food grains, which the poor will buy through
cash transfers, driving up inflation further. Therefore,
inflation,alongwiththe malpracticesofhoarding,can
severelylimitthepeoplesaccesstofoodgrainswitha
limitedamountofmoney.
The woes of the beneficiaries may not end here. The
startingpointoftheirtroublescanbeginwiththeroute
toaccesstheircashtransferinordertobuyfoodgrains.
IfthismodelislinkedwithUniqueidentificationScheme
(UID) and money is transferred through rechargeable
smart cards, even then many problems at the delivery
JuneSeptember2011

end could hamper timely access of money by

beneficiariessuchdelaysinrechargeorevencorruption
atthepointofrecharge,justasthereasinthecaseof
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme where
labourers had to bribe some bank officials in order to
encashtherecheques.
PDS may not be any better, in many areas, for most
beneficiaries at present. In fact, in a survey conducted
in 300 rural and 200 urban districts of Patna, an
overwhelming majority of 94% respondents said that
they would like to participate in pilot programme of
cash transfers due to common cited problems
synonymous with PDS such as they open infrequently,
have long lines, adulteration of food grains etc
(www.indianexpress.com/news/therighttochoose
yourfood/825754/0). on the contrary, in a research
conductedbyagroupofresearchscholarsandstudents
from IIT and Delhi University in 100 randomlyselected
villagesspreadovernineStates(AndhraPradesh,Bihar,
Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa,
Rajasthan,TamilNadu,andUttarPradesh.Theresearch
found that PDS has considerably improved in majority
of these states with the exception of Bihar (hence the
inclination of respondents in Patna towards cash
transfers in study quoted earlier is understandable!).
And, the majority of respondents, especially in well
functioning PDS areas, were reluctant towards cash
transfers
(www.thehindu.com/opinion/op
ed/article2282234.ece). This clarifies the issue that a
well functioning PDS will be preferred more by the
peoplethantodabbleinanewexperimentwithcash.If
the government deliberately kills the PDS and leaves
peoplewithnochoicethantolookuptocashtransfers
astheirsaviourandthenclaimthatpeopleareinfavour
of this model and hence we should go for it, then it is
deceit. This will only come across as the governments
excusetorelinquishitselfofitsdutyoffeedingitspoor
and under nourished people by saying that we have
givenyouthemoneyandnowourresponsibilityisover!
It will not be bothered about whether that money
ensurestheirfoodsecurityornot.
In India, Over 25 lakh Indians die of hunger every year
(www.bhookh.com/hunger_facts.php). With such
wretchedrecordtoourcredit,ourpriorityshouldbeto
ensurethatallthepeopleofthisnationgetstomachfull
of food every day. Therefore, the government should
channel its efforts and ideas in revamping the PDS,
whichhasprovedtoworkwellwhenruntransparently

Page32


and efficiently like in Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh,
ratherthancontemplatingovernewanduntestedideas
whichmaynotguaranteemuchneededfoodsecurityto
thepeople.
After all, Right to food, guaranteed food indeed, is the
basic right upon which depends right to life, right to
educationandproperhealthandemployment.Noone,
of course, can live without adequate and continuous
supplyoffood,nochildcanstudyproperlywhenunder
nourished, and it is lack of food which forces many
personstoundertakeundignifiedworkjusttoreceivea
meal.

between1990and2015,theproportionofpeoplewho
suffer
from
hunger.
(Taken
from:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml)
Morethanadecadeafterthepromulgationoftheright
to food under international law, and after the
declarationoftheloftyMillenniumgoals,itisclearthat
thegainsmadeinattainingtherighttofoodforallhave
been minimal. In fact, according to a 2011 report by
Oxfam, entitled Growing a better future: Food justice
in a resourceconstrained world, it is estimated that
the number of hungry people is set to increase from
925 million to more than 1 billion in this year alone,
undoing the modest improvements made since its last
peakin2009,asshowninthegraphbelow.

FOCUS
TheRighttoFoodinGlobalContext
ByJoanneTan

As early as 1970s, the notion of food security as an

intrinsic component of fundamental human rights was
explicitly recognized, in the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ICESC), ratified by
themembersoftheUNGeneralAssemblyin1976.This
notionwasfurtherdevelopedingeneralcomment12of
the ICESC, adopted in 1999 by the UN committee on
economic, social and cultural rights, who gleaned from
the text the concept of the right to food, which it
definedassuch:
Therighttoadequatefoodisrealizedwheneveryman,
woman and child, alone or in community with others,
has physical and economic access at all times to
adequatefoodormeansforitsprocurement.Theright
toadequatefoodshallthereforenotbeinterpretedina
narrow or restrictive sense which equates it with a
minimum package of calories, proteins and other
specificnutrients.Therighttoadequatefoodwillhave
toberealizedprogressively.
Ayearlater,inabidtosecurethisrighttofoodforthe
worlds population, the UN launched the Millennium
goals, under which countries pledged to halve,
JuneSeptember2011

(Graphtakenfrom2011OxfamreportonGrowingabetterfuture:
Foodjusticeinaresourceconstrainedworld)

Nowhere is the global food crisis starker today than in

theHornofAfrica,blightedbydroughtandsubsequent
crop failure. Already, famine has been declared in
certainregionsofSomalia(asshowninthemapbelow).

(Map
taken
from
the
BBC,
available
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldafrica14211905)

at:

While the UNs famine declaration has generated

publicityandhasinitiatedtheinternationalmobilization
ofhumanitarianaidtotheregion,thereis,unfoldingin
the rest of the world and in Asia in particular, a less
extremebutnolessworryingfoodcrisisthatespecially

Page33


threatens the food security of the poor. Unlike the
situation in the Horn of Africa, this international food
crisishaslesstodowiththeavailabilityoffoodperse
(food shortage), but rather, the affordability of food,
duetothesustainedspikeinfoodpricesinrecentyears.

On the 22nd of June 2011, Agricultural ministers of the

G20metinParisforaninauguralsummitontheissueof
the worrying food price volatility in recent years.
Indeed, since the global spate of food riots in 2007,
concerns over what has been termed the world food
crisis have far from abated, and rightly so, for the
stubbornlyhighfoodpricesputatriskthefoodsecurity
of our worlds inhabitants, of which 1.4 billion live in
extreme poverty (Extreme poverty is defined by the
world bank as those living under $1.25 USD a day in
2005prices.)
Recent statistics published by the UN Food and
AgricultureOrganization,displayedinthegraphbelow,
quantify the severity of this phenomenon. Using 2002
2004foodpricesasthebaselevel,theFAOsfoodprice
Index(FFPI),acompositeindexmeasuringthemonthly
changes in the international prices of a basket if food
commodities, measured 234 points in June this year,
which marked a 39 percent increase from June 2010,
albeit 4 points lower than its all time high in February
2011.

(Graphs and data taken from FAO,

http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs
home/foodpricesindex/en/)

available

at:

ThejumpintheFFPIfrom2010to2011isbutpartofa
systemic rise in food prices over the past decade,
inciting The Economist to herald, in a 2007 report
following the global eruption of food riots, an era of
The end of cheap food (The original article may be
foundat:http://www.economist.com/node/10252015).
Asillustratedinthegraphbelow,therehasbeenaclear
risingtrendinthefoodprices,inbothnominalandreal
terms,from1990tothepresentday.

(Graph
taken
from
FAO,
http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs
home/foodpricesindex/en/)

available

at:

Furthermore, as shown below, according to estimates

by the FAO and the OECD, real commodity prices are
expected to rise further in the period of 20112020,
withthepricesofkeystaplessuchasriceandmaize,in
particular, projected to rise 20 and 16 percent
respectively,comparedtothepreviousdecade.

JuneSeptember2011

Page34

(Graph
taken
from
FAO,
http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs
home/foodpricesindex/en/)

available

at:

Thatthisrisingtrendinfoodpriceshasbeenpersistent
andlookssettocontinueatleastoverthenextdecade
is indicative of significant underlying market dynamics.
WhileagriculturalministersatthelatestG20summitin
Paris were quick to point the finger at commodity
speculators, they were nonetheless compelled to draw
out the more tangible reasons behind this long term
trendinthe2011FAOOECDoutlook.Ontheonehand,
demand side factors have already placed upward
pressure on global food prices. In particular, these
include the rise in per capita and total food
consumptioninemergingeconomiesandtheirgrowing
populations, as well as the push towards biofuels in
some countries that has siphoned off significant
amounts of agricultural crop for energy needs. On the
other hand, while higher agricultural prices would
normally be a welcome incentive for the sector to
increase production, autonomous supply side factors
have hindered its ability to do so. These include,
notably, erratic climate patterns, agricultural land
constraints, rising energy prices that have in turn
increasedagriculturalproductioncosts.Infact,thejoint
report estimates that the average annual growth in
global agricultural production will slow down to 1.7
percent in the coming decade (20112020), compared
tothe2.6percentofthepreviousdecade.Assuch,the
current projections for food prices seem, sadly,
justified.
It is hence against the backdrop of the international
spikeinfoodcommoditypricesthattheupcomingFood
Security Bill is being wrangled out in the monsoon
sessionofParliament.Theadverseimpactofrisingfood
JuneSeptember2011

pricesonfoodsecurityinIndiacannotbeunderstated.
According to data from the World Food Programme,
India is home to 40 percent of the worlds
undernourished children, and has the highest number
ofundernourishedpeopleintheworld.ThatIndiashigh
rate of undernourishment remains this dismal may
seem paradoxical, given the fact that average annual
foodgrainproductioninthepastdecadehasmorethan
tripled since the 1950s (data from Ministry of
Agriculture,GOI),andfoodstockstotaled55.43million
tons in 20102011(Statistics from Does the country
need another green revolution, Business Economics,
vol.17, issue no.9). However, elucidation is offered
when one considers how rising food prices have
loweredthe affordabilityoffood,evenastheabsolute
quantity of food has increased. Indeed, in a country
where 50 percent of consumer expenditure goes to
food
(statistic
from:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op
ed/article1764206.ece) , food price inflation, which in
Indiarecordedayearonyearincreaseof9percentfor
the 6 consecutive weeks from August to September
(statistic
from:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/201109
15/indiasfoodinflationrateexceeds9forsixth
straightweek.html) looks set to hit the pockets of
householdshard.
Thus far, the key provisions of the EGoMs draft bill
includethefollowing:
1) Subsidized food grain for 75 percent and 50
percent of the rural and urban population
respectively under the Targeted Public
DistributionSystem(TPDS)
2) Priority households will receive 7 kg of rice/
wheat/ cereals per person per month, at no
more than 3/2/1 rupees respectively. General
households are to receive 3kg of food grain a
month, at no more than 50 percent of market
prices
3) Womenabove18yearsofagetobemadehead
of households for the purpose of ration card
distribution
4) TheestablishmentofthreelevelsofGrievance
Redressal Mechanisms, namely the District
Grievance Redressal Officer, the State Food
Security Commission and the National Food
SecurityCommission

Page35


WhiletheexactdetailsoftheEGoMdraftbillandhowit
differsfromtheNACspreviouslyproposedbillmaybe
subject to a separate discussion, one key issue that
should be addressed, in the context of this article, is
how the Central government will implement its food
security goals in light of the rising food prices. Indeed,
paradoxically,whilethepromulgationofafoodsecurity
bill is apt at this period of food inflation, soaring food
prices threaten to undermine the GOIs ability to
execute the bill in reality. It is estimated that the
implementationoftheFoodSecurityBillwillchalkupRs
95 000 crore (Figure taken from India Today, available
at:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/food
securitybillclearedbyegomtobetabledinmonsoon
session/1/144450.html) in 20112012 alone, a tab that
is likely to increase annually in tandem with the
projectedlongtermriseinfoodprices.Curiously,atthe
sametime,theGOI hasprojectedafiscaldeficitof 4.6
percentforthisyearsUnionBudget(Datatakenfrom:
http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub201112/bag/bag1.pdf)
which represents a 0.5 percent decrease from that of
financial year 20102011. To some, it may seem that
thereisaninherentcontradictionbetweentheaimsof
widening food subsidies and deficit reduction. In fact,
fiscal conservatives have argued that excessively
generous food subsidies would weigh down on
governments budget, forcing the government to
backtrackonplanstoreducethefiscaldeficit.
However, while this may be a valid concern, the
immediateneedtotacklefoodinsecurityinthecountry
should take precedence, for three reasons. Firstly,
having a duty to safeguard the right to life under the
Constitution (from which the right to food has been
derived), it is not for the government to abdicate its
responsibilitytomeetthebasicnutritionalneedsofits
citizens.Secondly,theimportanceofanimprovedfiscal
position pales in comparison to that of an adequately
fed population, which is essential for a functional
economy and society. Thirdly, Indias strong projected
economic growth (what with real economic growth in
India projected to hit 8.6 percent for the year 2011
2012) may very well mean that while government
spending on improving food security in absolute terms
mayincrease,thiswouldnotentailtheworseningofthe
fiscal deficit (as a percentage of GDP). As such, while
how food security is achieved (i.e. the contents of the
food security bill) may be subject to debate, the need

JuneSeptember2011

forgovernmentactiontoachievefoodsecurity,because
andinspiteofrisingfoodprices,shouldbeevident.
In the wake of the spike in international food prices,
foodsecurityisonceagainontheinternationalagenda.
While the international community has taken up the
task of aiding specific failed states facing famine, it is
the national governments responsibility to safeguard
the right to food of its people, especially if it has the
means to do so. Amidst the internal wrangling in the
IndianParliamentoverthefoodsecuritybill,onewould
do well to remember, after over a decade of stellar
economic growth, what the state owes to the hungry
half of its people, in securing one of their most basic
rights.

BEHINDTHEHEADLINES
The Slutwalk Movement: A Bold Step for
WomensRights?
ByJoanneTan

Thewhat,howandwhyoftheSlutwalkmovement
WhenTorontopoliceofficer,MichaelSanguinettimade
the illchosen comment at a school talk on personal
safety that women should avoid dressing like sluts in
ordernottobevictimised,littlecouldheexpectthatit
would unleash a chain of worldwide protests, which
would be controversially known as the Slutwalk
Movement.BeginninginTorontoinAprilthisyear,the
Slutwalk movement has taken off in major cities
worldwide including Los Angeles, New York, Boston,
LondonandSydney.

Page36


the issue; you can wear anything and still be targeted.
This was why we asked people attending the slut walk
to wear their everyday clothes instead of dressing
skimpily.

(ScenefromtheTorontoSlutwalk.PhotobyLaurenSouch,available
at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurensouch/5587638532/)

Themagnitudeoftheseprotestshasalsobeen,inmost
places,morethanexpected,withthousandsofwomen
(andmen)turninguptoprotestagainsttheculturethat
blamessexualassaultvictimswhilegrantingimpunityto
perpetrators.OrganizershavesonamedtheSlutwalk
ostensiblytoreclaimthewordslutforwomenandin
doingso,allowwomentobesexuallyliberated.Trueto
thenomenclatureoftheevent,womenparticipatingin
theSlutwalkwereunreservedintheirdressing,donning
the likes of fishnet stockings and lingerie with pride, a
feature that no doubt helped the event garner
widespreadpublicity.
As the Slutwalk movement fomented in the West, a
group of young students decided to bring the Slutwalk
movement to New Delhi. In a recent phone interview,
MishikaSingh,oneoftheorganizersoftheevent,gave
herreasonforbringingtheSlutwalktoDelhi,
WediscussedtheideaofaSlutwalkamongstourselves
and we decided to do one in Delhi because Delhi has
generallybeenconsideredunsafeforwomen.
Assuch,onthe31stofJuly,theDelhiSlutwalk,renamed
the Besharmi Morcha (shameless front), was held, to
significant media coverage, albeit the comparatively
modest turnout. Though the conception of the
Besharmi Morcha drew inspiration from its
counterpartsintheWest,itdifferednoticeablyonone
point participants were more soberly dressed. Said
Singh,
In London and Toronto, the way of dressing was an
importantissue.InDelhi,ontheotherhand,dressisnot
JuneSeptember2011

MomentarilyleavingthedifferencesbetweentheDelhi
SlutwalkandthoseoftheWestaside,onecansaythat
the Slutwalk movement in general represents a new,
albeit controversial phase in womens activism. While
some may laud the Slutwalk as a progressive stride in
modern day feminism, others argue that the polemical
movement achieves nothing, and worse, is a step
backwardforwomensrights.
TheSlutwalkAstepforwardforwomensrights?
In assessing the Slutwalk in the context of womens
rights, and whether it is ultimately marks any
advancements in rights for women, one must ask,
firstly, the right to what, exactly?, and secondly, is
the Slutwalk effective in achieving this right?. Also, in
view of the chasm between the West and India with
regards to womens rights, it would be pertinent to
study the relevance of the Slutwalk to the former and
lattercasesseparately.
While the movement was at its beginnings a protest
against the blaming sexual assault victims instead of
their attackers, the actual unraveling of events has led
general confusion as to what the Slutwalk actually is
fighting for. In a recent commentary on the subject of
the Slutwalk, renowned feminist, Germaine Greer,
lauded the initiative, arguing that Slutwalking women
weredemandingtheirrighttobedirty.WroteGreer,
We(women)havetobeabletosay:"Yes,Iamaslut.
Myhousecouldbecleaner.Mysheetscouldbewhiter.I
could be without sexual fantasies too pure as the
untrodden snow but I'm not. I'm a slut and proud."
The rejection by women of compulsory cleansing of
mind, body and soul is a necessary precondition of
liberation. (Her commentary may be found at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/women_shealth/85
10743/Theseslutwalkwomenaresimplyfightingfor
theirrighttobedirty.html)
Certainly, in the Slutwalks held in the West, it is quite
apparent that many interpreted the Slutwalk as just
thattherighttobeaslut.Iftakentobeso,thenthe
general proceedings of the Slutwalks, what with their
scantilyclad participants, seem to have brought home

Page37


the point. However, the emphasis on the right to be
slutty is problematic. Firstly, while the term slut had
asitsoriginalmeaninguntidinessorslovenliness(wrote
Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales, Why is thy lord so
sluttish, I thee pray, and is of power better clothes to
bey), it has gradually (and with increasing exclusivity)
been used to denounce loose women, and it has
todayinherentlymisogynisticconnotationsthatmakeit
difficult for women to claim the word for their own.
Secondly,if onekeytenetoffeminismhasbeen about
liberatingwomenfromsexualobjectification,howdoes
thehighlypublicizeddisplayofscantydressingconform
tothiscause?Thirdly,thefocusontherighttobeaslut
seems to diverge from the initial point of the
movement, by detracting from the essence of the
indignation at Sanguinettis remarks that sexual
assault victims, regardless of what they wear, should
never be blamed for their ordeal. In other words, the
focus of the Slutwalk could have been less on what
women wear per se, and more on the vindication of
sexual assault victims, and the incrimination of
perpetrators. If this view is to be taken then, it is the
rightofwomentobefreefromassault,ratherthanthe
rather more superfluous right to be a slut, that should
takeprecedence.
In view of this then, was the Slutwalk effective as a
means of condemning sexual violence against women?
One can say that while the concrete impact of the
Slutwalks remains to be seen, the concept of the
Slutwalk certainly managed to garner extensive media
coverage, perhaps partly in thanks to its provocative
nomenclature, and hence raised significant public
awarenessandattention.Theproblemthough,lieswith
the focus of this attention, for what with the hype
surrounding the apparel (or lack thereof) of the
participants, attention was diverted from the more
crucialtheme.Assuch,whiletherightofwomentobe
free and protected from sexual assault is an important
cause, the relevance of the method employed the
Slutwalkcanandshouldbequestioned.
While the Slutwalk faces its fair share of detractors in
the West, it faces a whole new barrage of criticism in
India. One of the most common critiques against the
DelhiSlutwalkisthatitonlycaterstothedemandsofa
specific socio economic stratum, that is, the educated
urban middle and upper class, while disregarding the
concerns of working class and rural women. In fact,
some argue that compared to the more fundamental
JuneSeptember2011

pressing issues that are faced by women in the rest of

society dowry deaths, female infanticide and
foeticide, domesticabuse,illiteracy aSlutwalkseems
allmoresuperfluousandirrelevanttothelocalcontext.
In addition, some go so far as to argue that the
ostensibly elitist nature of the Delhi Slutwalk further
accentuates the splits inherent in the Indian feminism,
which is already bisected by lines of caste, class and
geography. To lend support to their arguments,
detractors point to the rather modest turnout at the
event, as a sign that Slutwalk failed to achieve mass
mobilization.
For India, a brave, albeit small step ahead in
condemningsexualviolenceagainstwomen
However,inspiteofthesecriticisms,andinspiteofthe
limitations of the Delhi Slutwalk, the pertinence of the
event cannot be understated, especially in light of the
gravityoftheprobleminIndiaandinparticular,Delhi.

(ScenefromDelhiSlutwalk. PhotobyMakepeace_Sitlhou,available
at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/makepeacesitlhou/6035348783/sizes
/m/in/faves66962969@N07/)

The statistics are alltootelling. According to data

collectedbytheNationalCrimeRecordsBureau(NCRB),
the incidence of rapes in India has increased by an
alarming 760.4 percent since 1971 (data taken from:
http://ncrb.nic.in/CII2009NEW/cii2009/Snapshots
5309.pdf
), when the agency began recording rape cases.
Similarly, the incidence of sexual harassment in India

Page38


has more than doubled since 1995, while molestation
cases have increased by 144 percent in the same time
period (data taken from: http://ncrb.nic.in/CII2009
NEW/cii2009/19532009.pdf). Already faced with the
dismalstatistics,oneshouldalsonotethatthesereflect
onlyreportedcases,andmayonlyrepresentthetipof
the iceberg in reality. In Delhi, such crimes against
women are particularly acute. While eve teasing has
alreadybeenanecdotallyrecognizedasendemictothe
capital,statisticsquantifythegravityoftheproblem.In
2009, the rate of crime against women in Delhi was
23.9, surpassing the national average of 17.4 (rate of
crime against women is taken to mean number of
crimes against women per 100,000 people).
Furthermore, of the 35 megacities in India, Delhi
accounted for 23.8 percent of rape cases and 14.1
percent of molestation cases (data taken from:
http://ncrb.nic.in/CII2009NEW/cii
2009/Chapter%205.pdf).
Indeed, the reality is such that any woman, regardless
of her attire, can fall victim to these crimes, so
commonplacethattheyareeuphemisticallyreducedto
thetermeveteasing.Bygettingparticipantstowear
whattheywouldnormally,theDelhiSlutwalkreclaimed
the fundamental meaning of the event to protest
againstthecultureofimpunitythatblameswomenfor
the crimes committed against them. In so doing, the
Delhi Slutwalk directly addressed a crucial issue for
womensrightsinIndia.
Furthermore, while many have argued that the Delhi
Slutwalkonlycateredtothedemandsoftheelite,even
ifthismayhavebeenthecase,itshouldnotnullifythe
events attempt to contribute to the cause of Indian
women. After all, the rights of elite, educated, urban
womenandtherightsofworkingclassorruralwomen
arenotnecessarilyengagedinazerosumgame.Thatis
to say, the agitation of the Delhi Slutwalk participants
fortheirrightsdoesnotinevitablyjeopardizetherights
agitations of other segments of women, and gains in
rights by the former do not necessitate the losses for
the rights of the latter. On the contrary, any headway
made in dealing with sexual violence against women,
evenifsuchheadwayisachievedbytheactionsofthe
urbanelite,isagainforwomenatlarge,sincethisisa
problemthataffectsallclassesofwomen.Whileissues
such as female infanticide and feticide, illiteracy, child
marriagesanddomesticabusearecrucial,theexistence
JuneSeptember2011

of these other problems does not negate the

importanceoftheconcernsraisedbyDelhiSlutwalkers.
Lastly, while the concrete accomplishments of the
Slutwalk may be limited, it nonetheless raised public
awareness and debate, and encouraged public
condemnation of all facets of eve teasing. This is
significant,particularlysincetherecognitionofthisasa
seriousproblemhasbeenratherlacking.SaidSingh,
TheideawastogetpeopleinDelhitalkingYouneed
to recognize societal problems like staring and eve
teasing. Girls tend to accept this as normal behaviour.
Theideaistoletpeopleknowthatthisisnotokay.
While public recognition does not in itself suffice to
eradicate sexual harassment and assault, it is the first
essentialstep,andtheorganisersoftheDelhiSlutwalk
havebeenbravetoinitiatethismove.
FinalThoughts
To be sure, the international Slutwalk movement has
faced its fair share of controversy and critique. While
thechoiceofthisparticularmethodofprotesthasbeen
deemedbysometobeunjustifiedanduncalledfor,the
need for protest, nonetheless, at the culture of
impunity that surrounds sexual violence against
women, as epitomized by the infamous words of one
Canadian policeman, is unquestionable. In India, the
concerns raised by the Besharmi Morcha are all the
morepertinentgiventhelocalcontext,andtheeventis
but the first bold step, on the long road to the full
realizationoftherightsofIndianwomen.
InterviewwithMishikaSingh:
Qn:Tellusabitaboutyourself
Singh: Im studied journalism at Delhi University, and Im
currentlypursuingadegreeinlaw.
Qn: What was it that inspired you to bring the slut walk to
Delhi?
Singh:Wediscussedtheideaofaslutwalkamongstourselves
and we decided to do one in Delhi because Delhi has
generallybeenconsideredunsafeforwomen.
Qn:WhatweretheaimsoftheBesharmiMorcha?
Singh:TheDelhislutwalkbasicallyaimedtorecognizeother
forms of violence against women apart from rape and

Page39


molestation. We also wanted to initiate dialogue amongst
peopleandtoletpeopleknowtheproblemsthatexistatthe
basiclevel.

Qn:Now thatthe slut walkmovement isover, what else do

you think should/ can be done to improve the safety of
womeninDelhi,orinIndiaforthatmatter?

Qn: Compared to the other slut walks held in other cities

(London,Toronto),howdoestheDelhislutwalkdiffer?What
weretheattemptsmadetoindigenizetheSlutwalkinDelhi?

Singh:Infact,thelegislativerules(toprotectwomen)areall
there. You need to start from society itself. You need to
recognizesocietalproblemslikestaringandeveteasing.Girls
tend to accept this as normal behaviour. The idea is to let
peopleknowthatthisisnotokay.

Singh:ThebasicideaoftheDelhiSlutwalkremainsthesame
(asthoseheldinothercities),andthatistodrawattentionto
violence against women. However, in London and Toronto,
thewayofdressingwasanimportantissue.InDelhi,onthe
otherhand,dressisnottheissue;youcanwearanythingand
stillbetargeted.Thiswaswhyweaskedpeopleattendingthe
slut walk to wear their everyday clothes instead of dressing
skimpily.
Qn:AndwouldyousaythattheoverallaimsoftheDelhiSlut
walkhavebeenmet?HasitleftanimpactonDelhiSociety?
Singh: The idea was to get people in Delhi talking. So yes, I
wouldsaythattheaimshavebeenmet.Westarteddialogue
ontheissueinDelhi.Infacttheorganizingcommitteewillbe
havingameetingsoon.
Qn:Soistheorganizingcommitteeplanninganothereventin
thefuture?
Singh:Yes,wellprobablybecontinuingwiththeslutwalkin
thefuture,andwellbetalkingtowomeninpublicspaceson
theseissues.
Qn: There are some that argue that the Besharmi Morcha
caterstothedemandsoftheeducatedwesternizedelite,and
is irrelevant to the needs/ situation of lower class women.
Whatisyourresponse?
Singh: Actually we tried to make the Besharmi Morcha an
inclusive event. We knew that village women outside Delhi
would not come to the event, so we spent time going to
these village women, talking to them about the walk, and
puttinguptheplaysforthem,sowedidmakeeffortsthem.
Anyway,foralmostanymovement,itismostlytheyouthand
theurbanelitethatcount,sincetheyreusuallymoreaware
oftheseevents.Thesamesituationisgenerallyfoundinany
movement.
Qn: And what do you think has been the impact of the
internationalslutwalksontheinternationalwomensrights
movementasawhole?
Singh: Well the slut walk has already happened in a lot of
cities.Peoplearerealizingthattheycannotviolatetherights
of women and get away with it. Theres been so much
agitation about the issue worldwide, and its been a very
inclusiveworkthathasspread.
JuneSeptember2011

COMMENTARY
BlamingtheVictiminSexualAssaultCases
ByNehaMahal
The month of June saw a flurry of cases of sexual
assaultbeingreportedfromthestateofUttarPradesh.
Duringthecourseofaweek,eightcasescametolightin
themedia.Amongthose,arethecasesofone35year
old woman who was raped and burnt alive by the
influentialyouthsofhervillageinEtah;aDalitgirlwho
was stabbed in her both eyes when she resisted an
attempt to rape by two men in Kannauj. In another
case,an18yearoldDalitgirlwasallegedlyrapedatgun
pointinbastianda16yearoldDalitgirlwasrapedand
murderedinGonda!(www.rediff.com,June20,2011)
It is astonishing to see such a large number of sexual
crimesperpetratedinaspanoffewdaysonly.Itwillbe
toooptimistictothinkthattheactualcasesequalthose
reportedbecausetherealfiguresincasessuchasrapes
could go as high as 1520 times of the reported ones
(Violence against women, Ram Ahuja, Rawat
Publications,1998).
Sexualassaultisacrimewherethevictim,awoman,is
usually blamed more than the assaulter for the crime
sincetraditionallywomenaretheoneunilaterallymade
to be the torch bearer of the family honour which is
considered to be shattered with this crime. In the
majorityofcases,victimsandtheirfamilieskeepsilent
over such incidents to avoid bringing more shame to
the family and this attitude helps in making sexual
assaultthesafestcrimetocommit.

Page40


Theoverridingconceptofhonourinincidentsofsexual
assault is also pointed towards in a UN report on
women which states that when rape is perceived as a
crimeagainstthehonourormorality,shamecommonly
ensues for the victim, who is often viewed by the
community as dirty or spoiled. Consequently, many
womenwillneitherreportnordiscusstheviolencethat
hasbeenperpetratedagainstthem.Thenatureofrape
and the silence that tends to surround it makes it a
particularly difficult human rights violation to
investigate (Report by United Nations Special
RapporteuronViolenceagainstWomen,itscausesand
consequences). That is the raison d'tre for rape being
one of the ten fastest growing crimes in India and the
mostunderreportedtoo!(www.ncrb.nic.in)
Dr. Rajat Mitra, Director, Swanchetan (an organization
inDelhiworkingwiththevictimsofsexualassault)also
stressed the fact that In India, women are considered
more to be the objects of family honour and sexual
gratification than a human. Her individual identity is
nonexistent in our patriarchal society and thats the
reasonwhysheissovulnerabletobeexploitedbecause
she doesnt matter and the outrage over her
exploitation is extended only to the aspect of family
honour.That'swhy;itisnotawomanwhoisconsidered
tobeviolatedbutthefamilyname.
This grassroots level stark reality is in contrast to the
various women centric legislations we have in this
country. It is notable that, despite the enormity of the
problem,theconvictionrateinrapecaseswasonly4to
5percent(GMAkbarAli,Judge,MadrasHighCoursaid
at a Programme on Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill,
2010 and the sexual Offences (Special Courts) Bill,
2010). Nevertheless, after 17 years of lobbying by
activists,thecriminallawamendmentbill,2010,which
has extensive procedural amendments to cover every
kind of sexual assault, has been prepared. It will be
turningpointifthisprogressivepieceoflegislationcan
bebroughtintoforce.

JuneSeptember2011

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

ANALYSIS
ADemandforSubstantiveEquality:
TowardsExtendingScheduledCaste
PrivilegestoDalitChristiansandDalit
Muslims

ByPhilipVarghese

Recently, the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches

(APFC) had urged the Union Cabinet to immediately
decide for extending the Scheduled Caste privileges to
DalitChristiansandDalitMuslims.TheGeneralBodyof
APFCwhichmethereon4thMarchmadethedemand
(TCNNews).SCstatusislimitedtoDalitsamongHindus,
Sikhs (1956 amendment) and Buddhists (1990
amendment). APFC has also demanded the Central
Governmenttogiveanappropriateanswertothequery
of the Supreme Court to the writ petitions demanding
the deletion of the third paragraph of the Constitution
Scheduled Castes Order 1950 1 in order to extend SC
status to Christians and Muslims of Scheduled Caste
origin.

Themultiethnic,multireligious,multilinguistic,multi
cultural fabric of India was intended to be spun
efficiently and this diversity and composite culture
couldbeinitself,thesoulofIndia.Butunfortunately,in

Page41


minorities,apprehensionsovertheiridentityareonthe
rise, and this rise is sharper in outcastes among
minorities, who fall victim to default discrimination
(resultant discrimination by the dominant caste groups
on the dalits which need not be based on provocation
andconspiratorialtacticsalwaysbutitistheoutcomeof
a natural way of thinking which the community has
developedtowardsdalits)fromtheirownreligion,state
and society. Despite the fact that untouchability was
abolished under Indian Constitution, segregation and
exploitation on the basis of birth in particular caste
remains a crucial social problem even today in rural
India. The religious institutions also have hierarchies
within themselves so that converts are further looked
downupon within their newreligion.i.e.;forexample,
separate churches for the new converts etc. However,
twenty first century India lives in an illusion of having
done away with caste and its heinous practices but
existential reality shows otherwise in urban areas too
andthusitbeckonstheframeworkandtoolsofHuman
Rightstodealwiththisissue.

Today, caste affects onesixth of Indias population,

constituting 200 million people (Census, 2011). They
are eschewed by society and live with insecurity. The
crux of the problem here is the basis of denial of
affirmative action or protective discrimination to
Christian Dalits and Muslim Dalits. The Presidential
OrderofGovernmentofIndia,1950effectivelyprevents
those practicing religions other than Hinduism to be
deniedofScheduleCastestatus.Thisisfundamentallya
clear violation of right to equality principle (religion
based violation) i.e.; Articles 14, 15, 16 and 25 of the
constitution.Inthisway,thisdenialofjusticeisagainst
the letter and spirit of our constitution and the Indian
constitution pledging secularism has been confronted
with a serious blot and a paradox to its secularist &
egalitarian principle. The demand is to move beyond
this formal equality principle to substantive equality
measures for Dalits irrespective of their religion.
Substantive equality encourages state to move beyond
andtoaddressissuesofoutcomesandanyimpactsthat
could perpetuate disadvantage. State should run more
ontheprinciplesofnondiscriminationandprogressive
realizationwhichwouldaidaccelerationofsubstantive
equality to ensure other human rights so as to make
equality an inherent dimension of rights based
approachtoallaspectsofdevelopment.
Therelentlesspracticeofuntouchability,whichimposes
JuneSeptember2011

socialdisabilitiesonpersonsforreasonsofhavingbeen
born to a particular caste, still persists against Dalits,
cuttingacrossreligiouslines.Untouchablesmaynotuse
thesamewells,sametemple,drinkfromthesamecups
in tea stalls (double tumbler system), or lay claim to
land which is legally theirs. The Dalits are downgraded
withthemostmenialtasksofmanualscavenging,street
sweepers, leather workers, cobblers and removers of
human waste. Dalit children are also seen with disgust
andmostlysoldofftodominantcastegroupstogetrid
off their debts. And lastly, Dalit girls face the brunt of
triple burden such as oppression and humiliation of
caste,classandgender.Theseatrocitiesareoftendone
with the help of state, who pay loyalty to the upper
caste groups. And another important feature of such
discrimination is that it is not religion based, this cuts
acrosstheentireDalitcommunity.

Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians are Dalits first and

Muslims and Christians only second (S. Japhet & Y.
MossesTheUnendingStruggleofDalitChristiansand
Dalit Muslims for Equality published in Kafila.org, July
28th, 2011). Thus, they are no exception to being
victimizedbythiscrime.Itshouldalsoberemembered
that in several cases of atrocities committed against
Dalits,majorityofthevictimswereDalitChristiansasin
the case of Kandamal, Karamchedu and Tsundur
massacres. (In Tsundur, eight Dalits were hacked to
deathinbroaddaylightonAugust6th,1991,withover
400peoplechasingthem.SpecialCourtassembled,and
felt this is not the rarest of the rare cases, which
attracted death penality and 21 of them got life
imprisonment for this massacre) These victims were
attackednotbecausetheywereChristiansbutbecause
theywereuntouchables.Thereforetheproblemismore
a social problem than a religious one. Despite their
conversion their socioeconomic status has not altered
or changed. Rather, it has worsened their condition
without constitutional legal support and religious
institutions exerting their own institutional hierarchies
and discriminatory practices. Thus when we talk about
rights, only civil, political and economic rights come in
forefront but its high time to look into social and
cultural rights also. Caste based discrimination is
definitelymoreofasocialissueandgovernmentshould
bring in legislations and policies which ensure the
essence of these rights as well. Therefore the struggle
of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims is a rightful
demandforsubstantiveequalrightsandfullcitizenship.

Page42


TheDalitChristiansandDalitMuslimstriedthejudicial
process,therewerewritpetitionschallengingthe1950
Presidential Order in Supreme Court. Governments,
year after year, have been following evasive methods
andtacticsofconstitutingcommissionsandcommittees
todealwiththeissue.Hence,JusticeRanganathMishra
Commission
was
set
up
in
2005
(http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1977.html)
and submitted its report in 2007; thereafter it was
further referred to the National Commission of
Scheduled Castes. These reports were tabled in
parliament in December 2009; both the commissions
were in favour of extending constitutional protection
andsafeguardstoDalitChristiansandDalitMuslimsas
available to their counterparts professing Hinduism,
Sikhism and Buddhism. Apart from these, the
Chinnappa Reddy Commission Report, the Mandal
Commission, the Sachchar Commission Report and
other studies have highlighted the marginalisation of
Dalit communities irrespective of religion. But despite
allthese,governmentskeepmullingoverthesereports
forever and have not shown the confidence and
sincerity to step up and implement the
recommendationsthroughanamendment.Theydonot
wishtomakethemajorityunhappysincetheyfeelthis
extensionofsupportwouldeatintotheirapplecart.But
now it is high time that a secular state stops giving
preferences to few religions primarily weighing their
returns in terms of vote banks and entrust the
marginalizedgroupsandalsoaddressthisasanissueat
internationalsphere.

EffortsofDalithumanrightsorganizationsandactivists
havemadeUnitedNationstotakecognizanceandthus
recognize caste as an issue very recently, although the
caste based discrimination has been there forever; it
was just ten years ago that U.N started with
mechanisms to tackle it. Though in 1996, the
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD) was concerned about the violence against SCs
and STs, it made its first reference to caste
discriminationanduntouchabilityonlyin2002afterthe
World Conference Against Racism (The committee
affirmsthatthesituationofSCandtheSTfallwithinthe
scopeofthisconvention).

Since then Dalit Human Rights organizations have

advocated for this to be addressed at the UN level,
significant achievements have been made (Referred
JuneSeptember2011

from N. Paul Divakar & Hannah Johns: Identities and

Human Rights in the context of Religion and Culture
written for National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights,
NCDHR, New Delhi). Some of them are: General
Recommendation 29 of the Committee on the
EliminationofRacialDiscrimination(CERD)addressed
Discrimination based on Work and Descent and Caste
baseddiscrimination;OtherTreatyBodiesincluding,the
CommitteeontheEliminationofDiscriminationAgainst
Women and the Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights have also addressed Discrimination
based on Work and Descent (DWD) while examining
country reports; and Special Rapporteur on DWD,
whichsuggestclearpolicies,draftedPrinciplesand
Guidelines for the Effective Elimination of
DiscriminationBasedonWorkandDescentandactions
havebeensubmittedtotheHumanRightsCouncil;and
Castediscriminationissueshavebeenaddressedinthe
reports of Special Procedures mandate holders
(including the Independent Expert on minority issues
and the Special Rapporteur on racism) and mandates
have conducted country visits to caste affected
countries.8

Hence, it is time to address the problem as a human

rights issue for Indian government and to press for
politicalexpediencytowardstheirinclusionintheSClist
because after all they are just asking only for their
fundamental right to strengthen Dalit unity and to
increase their assertiveness. Government should take
up both protection and promotion of their rights. This
calls for more inclusive policies. And in no way, this
compensatory reservation demand is to be seen as a
pleabutitistheconstitutionalobligationonthepartof
governmenttofulfil.

www.asianews.it/files/img/INDIA

Page43

COMMENTARY
TheMurderofJournalistJyotirmoyDey
ByNehaMahal
The murder of Journalist Jyotirmoy Dey in broad
daylight on June 11, 2011 was a cruel reminder of the
dangers journalists face in the pursuit of their
professioninthiscountry.JDey,acrimereporterwith
theMiddaynewspaperinMumbaiforlastseveralyears,
was known for his hardline coverage of the
underworld.Inrecenttimes,hehadwrittenextensively
on the operations of the oil mafias and was also
planningtoinvestigatethesandalwoodmafiaoperating
in Maharashtra. Perhaps, this could be the motive
behind his assassination. The unfortunate death of
Jyotirmoy Dey is preceded by one more such
assassinationofajournalistthisyear.
In January this year, Umesh Rajput, a reporter with
Hindi language newspaper Nai Duniya, was killed
allegedlybecauseofhiswritings.Twoweeksbeforehe
waskilledhehadwrittenaboutapersondevelopingan
eyeinfectionafteranoperationandsoonafterthat,he
had started receiving death threats. A note was also
foundnearhisbodysayingifhedidnotstopwriting,he
would be killed. In another appalling incident in Uttar
Pradesh, the niece (mistook as the daughter) of a
journalist was kidnapped and gang raped for 3 days to
deterhimfromtestifyinginacriminalcase.
Such horrific instances where journalists have to pay
either with their lives or with harm to their family
membersforspeakingupthetruthfearlesslypresenta
grim scenario where they are being audaciously and
criminally harmed to subdue their freedom of speech
and expression. It is an annihilation of their basic
human right which allows them to hold opinions
without interference and to impart information and
ideas through any media as provided by the Article 19
of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This abuse
fliesinthefaceofourclaimofbeingafreenation.
Accordingtothenonprofitorganization,Committeeto
ProtectJournalists(CPJ),39journalistshavebeenkilled
across India (excluding Assam) since 1992 because of
theirwritings.InAssamalone,over20journalistshave
been slaughtered in last two decades by the militants!
Murder is routinely being used as a weapon to silence
JuneSeptember2011

thejournalistsforcriticizingthesemilitantgroups.What
isevenmoreabysmalisthatnotinasinglecasehasthe
culprit been brought to justice. No wonder, India
appears in the impunity index of CPJ which ranks
countries where journalists are slain and the killers go
free.Indiaoccupiesthelastplaceinthelistof13such
countries.
Thepresenceofthelargestdemocracyoftheworldin
such a list, alongside the conflict ridden and war torn
nationssuchasAfghanistan,Pakistan,IraqandSomalia
etcspeaksinabundanceaboutthestateoffreedomof
expression and safety of journalists in our nation. The
situationcannotbeexpectedtoimproveanytimesoon
since it is not just the underworld or mafias which the
journalist has to fear, the state itself is indulging in
gagging the freedom of speech of the journalists
throughliberaluseofcoloniallawsofseditionandfiling
false cases against them. In Orissa, a province on the
south east of India, four journalists have been charged
withseditionsinceJuly2010[1].Inthefirstfourmonths
of 2011 there have been six reported instances of
intimidation of journalists and writers. A major reason
behindthespurtinattacksonmediapersonsinOrissais
thestategovernmentsgrowingintoleranceofanyview
thatdoesnottoethegovernmentlineoncorporateand
mining interests particularly those dealing in precious
metals like iron ore and bauxite. These companies,
people are told, will usher in rapid development,
create enormous employment opportunities and make
Orissa a land of milk and honey. There is a concerted
efforttomanufactureconsensusontheneedtorollout
theredcarpettothesecompaniesandturnablindeye
to their flagrant violation of all laws and norms of
civilized corporate behaviour. When media persons
refusetobuythislineandraisequestionsontheactsof
omission and commission by the government and the
corporates,thewrathofthegovernmentfallsonthem
likeatonofbricks.
The urge of the state to control freedom of journalists
wasalsoreflectedwhenaftertheprotestsbythemedia
fraternity to constitute laws to protect them in the
wake of the killing of journalist J Dey, Maharashtra
Governmentcameupwithadraftlegislationforsafety
ofjournalistsbutwitharider.Thedraftcontainscode
ofethicsforjournaliststoo.Insteadofprovidingutmost
protectionandsafeguardsforjournalistsinviewofthe
ever increasing number of attacks on them, the
governmenttriedtousethisasaplatformtotightenits

Page44


grip over the media. This highlights the lack of
enthusiasminthepoliticalclasstolaydownstrongand
well meaning laws to protect the journalists and allow
freeandfearlessflowofnewswhichunearthsthetruth
and exposes the illegal activities. This situation is aptly
reflected in the lines of Hannah Arendt: Is it the
essence of truth to be powerless and of power to be
deceitful?Thisexplainstheongoingstrugglewherethe
all too powerful entities (whether the state, mafias or
militants, sometimes in collusion with each other)
muzzle the truth uncomfortable to its ears and eyes
throughthebrutaluseofitscloutandthehelplesstruth
tellersareleftinthelurchtopaythepriceforspeaking
up.Hence,wecannot callourselvesafree,democratic
andfastdevelopingcountryunlessweensurethesafety
of our journalists for talking freely to our people
throughexchangingideasandrevealingthetruthabout
thewrongdoingsintheircountry.
We must take a cue from other countries such as
Norway,Finland,Ireland andSwedenwhichhavebeen
able to provide the highest level of freedom of speech
and expression as well as protection to their media.
Theyhavebeenabletothisbecausetheyattachvalue
to an individuals right to expression and have
enthusiastically provided laws to shield the reporters
from any infringement of this right. Freedom of
expression is the basic tenet of a democratic society.
Hence, a less than free media and highly unsafe
messengers is not supposed to be an element of the
largestdemocracyoftheworld.Wecanonlyhopethat
the government takes some moral responsibility and
bringsintoactionafirmsetoflaws,deservedbyarisky
profession like reporting, which safeguards the
journalists against any kind of violence in future for
standing up for their due right of freedom of speech
andexpression.

South Africa'sTreatmentAction Campaign

(TAC)
ByHilaryFerguson(SpecialtoCDHR)
TheTreatmentActionCampaign(TAC)isaSouthAfrican
nonprofitorganizationestablishedin1998.TACusesa
human rightsbased approach to development to
advocate mainly for the provision of affordable,
comprehensive treatment for people living with
HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The organization recognizes
that:Thedismantlingoftheapartheidregimehasnot
yet brought the dismantling of the structures of
oppression and inequality of South Africa, and
persistent social inequality is no doubt the primary
reason that HIV has spread so rapidly in subSaharan
Africaswealthiestnation(Farmer,2005,p.45).
Workingwithinthiscontextofsocioeconomicandracial
inequality,TACstrivestoimprovethelivesofallcitizens
affected by HIV/AIDS. The organization demands
enhancedaccesstomedicationandaimstoprotectHIV
positive individuals from discrimination by challenging
WTOtraderulesandpatentrestrictions,byattempting
to influence the activity of pharmaceutical companies,
andbyadvocatingforenhancedfundingfromtheSouth
African government and other donors (Nelson &
Dorsey,2008).Theorganizationalsoprovideseducation
and outreach to prevent future infections (TAC, n.d.).
Furthermore, it has criticized the South African
governmentforperpetuatingAIDSdenialism(TAC,n.d.).
Through its rightsbased approach, TAC promotes
freedom from discrimination, the right to life, and the
righttohealth.Byapplyingthesekeyrightstosupport
its agenda, the organization has successfully pressured
andmobilizedtheSouthAfricangovernmenttoprovide
universal treatment for individuals infected with HIV.
Furthermore,infightingforsecondgenerationsocio
economic rights such as the right to access to health
care,TAChasdefendedandextendedfirstgeneration
political right such as the right to freedom of speech
and opinion and the right to peaceful demonstration
(Mbali,2004,p.4).
TheachievementsofTACillustratethattherightsbased
approach to development has the potential to reform
policy. TAC has reached many of its goals by applying

JuneSeptember2011

GLOBALFOCUS

Page45


various advocacy tools to support its agenda. These
tactics include litigation, research and education,
lobbying, and citizen mobilization, among others (TAC,
n.d.). Furthermore, beyond its success in South Africa,
TAC has influenced similar organizations in other
nations and holds the support of many international
NGOsanddonors.

advocacy,
visit
their
http://www.tac.org.za/community/

website

at

Sources
Farmer, P. (2005). Pathologies of Power. Berkeley, CA:
UniversityofCaliforniaPress.
Mbali, M. (2004). The Treatment Action Campaign and the
History of RightsBased, PatientDriven HIV/AIDS Activism in
SouthAfrica[ResearchReportNo.29],UniversityofKwaZulu
Natal Centre for Civil Society. Retrieved 10 August, 2011,
fromhttp://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/files/RReport_29.pdf
Nelson, P. and Dorsey, E. (2008). New Rights Advocacy:
Changing Strategies of Development and Human Rights
NGOs.Washington,D.C.:GeorgetownUniversityPress.
TreatmentActionCampaign(TAC).(2011a).AddressingtheTB
crisis in South Africa. Retrieved 10 August, 2011, from
http://www.tac.org.za/community/node/3109#_ftn1

Photo:2003SouthAfricaTreatmentActionCampaign(TAC)

TAC is active in its advocacy role. Recently, in August

2010, TAC collaborated with various NGOs, health
practitioners, scientists, activists, and government
officialstodiscussSouthAfricastuberculosiscrisis(TB)
in connection with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The aim of
the meeting was to identify health interventions to
address the coepidemics by garner the support of
activists, politicians and health professionals (TAV,
2011).Theprioritiesestablishedweresubmittedtothe
South African National AIDS Council to help set new
policystrategiesandcommontargetsonthetreatment
andpreventionofbothHIVandTB.Furthermore,inJuly
2011,TACparticipatedintheInternationalAIDSSociety
Conference in Rome. The organization formally
advocated for South African antiretroviral therapy
(ART) eligibility criteria to be aligned with the
internationally recognized criteria set by the World
HealthOrganization(WHO).TACseesthecurrentSouth
African ART eligibility criteria as a violation of basic
humanrightsthatpreventsillindividualsfromaccessing
their right to health. The organization continues to
campaign for this change and relies on international
research and standards to support the cause (TAC,
2011b).
For more information and current updates on TACs
JuneSeptember2011

TAC.(2011b).Preventnewinfectionsandprotectouthealth:
HIVtreatmentguidelinesmusturgentlybeupdated.Retrieved
10August,2011,from
http://www.tac.org.za/community/node/3101
TAC. (n.d.). About the TAC. Retrieved 10 August, 2011, from
http://www.tac.org.za/community/about

COMMENTARY
CrimesagainstWomen
ByManasiSinha(SpecialtoCDHR)
Rape, dowry death, cruelty by husband and relatives,
molestation,sexualharassmentandimportationofgirls
are frequently covered in the media and newspapers.
As per the figures compiled by the National Crime
Records Bureau (NCRB), "Among 35 cities in this
country, Delhi leads in almost all categories of violent
crimes like rape, abduction and even dowry deaths
reportedin2009.Accordingtothereport,asmanyas
1,379 cases of abduction were reported in Delhi as
opposed to a paltry two in Bengaluru and 434 in

Page46


Mumbai.Bengaluruhasreportedthehighestincidence
ofIPCcrimesduring2009.Crimeheadwiseanalysisof
districts revealed that Patna reported the highest
numberofcasesunderMurder(314)andDowryDeath
(95). Murshidabad in West Bengal has reported the
highest number of cases under Attempt to Commit
Murder(607),Rape(568)andCrueltybyHusbandand
Relatives (3,035). North 24 Parganas in West Bengal
has reported the highest incidence of Culpable
HomicidenotamountingtoMurder(241).Ghaziabadin
Uttar Pradesh reported the highest incidence of
Kidnapping and Abduction (491) (NCRB Crime Report,
2009).
Number of cases reported against kidnapping and
abductionofwomenandgirlsamounted25741whichis
1.2% of total IPC crimes in India; molestation reported
around 38711 contributing 1.8% of IPC crime; sexual
harassment 11009 (0.5%), Cruelty by Husband and
relatives numbered 89546(4.2%); importation of girls
numbered 48 and total crime against women in 2009
amounted to 203804 which is 9.6% of the total IPC
crimeinIndia.Itwasfoundthat35percentofwomen
inIndiahavereportedtobevictimsofphysicalviolence
by their intimate partners, while 10 per cent of them
were victims of sexual violence by their intimate
partnersand39percentwomenthoughtitwasallright
togetbeatenbyapartner.(NCRBCrimeReport,2009:
FiguresataGlance).
Female feticide remains a grave concern for India.
Although Indias population hits 1.21 billion in 2011
female feticide remains high in India. The census
revealedthatalthoughsexselectiveabortionbasedon
ultrasound scans is illegal, there is a continuing
preference for boys and the gender imbalance has
widenedsinceindependence.Sexselectiveabortionhas
increasedsubstantiallyinIndia.Between4.2millionand
12.1 million girls were aborted during the last three
decades in India (Center for Global Health Research in
Toronto,Canada,2011).Accordingtothe2011census,
914girlswerebornforevery1,000boysundertheage
of six, compared with 927 for every 1,000 boys in the
2001 census. The preference for a son cuts across all
sectionsofIndiansociety.ManyIndiansviewdaughters
as burdens for various social and economic reasons
leading to high rates of female feticide and infanticide
(http://womennewsnetwork.net/2011/07/14/gender
femicideprominentindia/). However female feticide is
not restricted to any single social or economic group,
JuneSeptember2011

according to the Ministry of Women and Child

Development. The preference for boys exists across
societyandabortionsare morelikelytobe carried out
bywealthierandmoreeducatedparents,whoaremore
awareofultrasoundtechnologythatcancheckthesex
oftheirbabiesandcanaffordabortionsiftheyaregirls
(CenterforGlobalHealthResearch). A2011reportona
studyconductedjointlybytheIndianCouncilofMedical
Research and the Harvard School of Public Health
confirmedthatgirlsunder5yearsinIndiaweredyingat
an abnormally high rate because they were being
subjecttoinhumaneviolenceathomebytheirfamilies.
Thestudyobservedthatgirlswere21%morelikelythan
boys to die before their 5th birthday because of
violence. Shockingly this violence does not pose a
threattoyourlifeifyouareluckyenoughtobeborna
boy (http://genderbytes.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/we
areanationofdaughterkillersaffirmsindia%e2%80%99s
2011census/). Census 2011 shows that almost 40

millionIndianwomenweremissingin2011,largelydue
to girl killings, and poor nutrition and health care for
younggirlscomparedtomaleequivalents.
The governments legal, social, political initiative to
protect and safeguard women does not yield good
result. In a survey compiled by Thomson Reuters
Foundation, India is listed along with Afghanistan, the
DemocraticRepublicofCongo,PakistanandSomaliaas
thetopfivecountriesintheworldwhereitisnotsafeto
be a woman. The report says: "India ranks high on the
list because of the high levels of female feticide and
infanticide.Thisreportcomesontheheelsofthe2011
census released in India, which showed that the child
sexratiohasdeclinedtoanalltimelowof914girlsfor
every1,000boys.Thereportalsosaidthataccordingto
theUNPopulationFund, approximately50milliongirls
have gone missing over the past century because of
female infanticide and feticide. These figures show the
deeply rooted patriarchal structure of Indian society
undermines the progress made by India on all fronts
(http://twocircles.net/2011jun16/new_report_shows_l
ow_status_women_india_ngo.html).
Honour killings also pose a great threat to womens
lives in India. Honour killings of women and girls
dominatethenewsduring2010,mostlyinthenorthern
states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. Khap
panchayats (unofficialvillagecouncils)seemedtoissue
edicts condemning couples for marrying outside their
casteorreligionandcensuredmarriageswithinagotra

Page47


(kinshipgroup)asincestuouseventhoughtherewasno
biological connection. However to enforce these
decrees,familymembersalsoresortedtounethicaland
heinous crimes and killed spouses to protect the
family's "honour." Many such killings, which go by the
namehonourkillings,happenwithregularityinPunjab,
Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. Such honour
killingsexistevenamongMuslimswhodonotaccepta
Muslim girl marrying a nonMuslim boy. Moreover
somelocalpoliticiansandofficialsbecomesympathetic
tothecouncils'edictsandthusimplicitlysupportingthe
violence. However, India still lacks comprehensive
legislationonsexualviolenceandchildsexualabuse.
AlthoughtheIndianlegislaturehasconstantlysoughtto
enact laws in order to safeguard the concerned sex,
crimes against women have been mushrooming on a
large scale in India and thus boosting up a culture of
objectifyingwomenandtheirlives.Allthesafeguarded
measures for women since Independence yielded no
satisfactory transformative phase in Indian society.
Thereisstillastarkgapbetweenrhetoricandrealityin
the status of women in society. The Dowry Prohibition
Act, 1961, Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005,
ProtectionofWomenfromDomesticViolenceActIndia,
2006etc.havejustbeenpiledupononeanotherwith
time but no corresponding respect and regard is yet
giventowomen.TherecentinitiationofProtectionof
Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill
may or may not be successfully passed in the
parliament but it will surely be a new feather in the
wing of crime abatement agent to minimally root out
the evil aspirations from social economic and political
spaces of society and make women face the challenge
withmorecourage.

Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us

Sick?
ByJessicaThorp(SpecialtoCDHR)
(SanFrancisco,California:CaliforniaNewsreelandVital
PicturesInc.,2008.DVD,4hrs.specialfeaturesinclude
Menus,AudioandSubtitlesinEnglishandSpanish,links
tocompanionwebsite.)
Thissevenpartdocumentaryserieslooksatthewaysin
whichphysicalandmentalhealtharebothconnectedto
economic status. Each segment in the series has a
particular focus, ranging from a general overview of
how upbringing, education, race and class can affect
health, to population specific overviews of wellbeing
and quality of life. Though five out of the seven
segments are looking predominantly at life in the
United States, their focuses are primarily on
marginalized populations and visible minorities. The
projectwasfundedinby,andpresentedinconjunction
with the National Minority Consortia, representing
programming geared towards the interests of African
Americans,NativeAmericans,Latinos,AsianAmericans,
andPacificIslanders.Iftheoverallmessageoftheseries
couldbeboileddownintoonetheme,itwouldbethat
in the American context wealth, social class, and
educationarethelargestdeterminantsofhealth.There
are some interesting and noted exceptions for specific
groups (for example, black women and newly arrived
Latino immigrants dont always fit the pattern) but
overall, the richer you are, generally the healthier you
are.Assuch,thereisahierarchyofhealthandwellness
that seems to correspond along the lines of income
linesandthecontrolanindividualhasovertheirlife.A
perceivedlackofcontroloveroneslifeandexposureto
constant stressors, such as the conditions of poverty,
manifests in chronic worry to the breakdown of the
bodysabilitiestofightoffdiseaseandtohealitself.
Compelling evidence and expert opinion shown
throughouttheseriesdemonstratesthateducationand
income are fairly good predictors of life expectancy.
Those in the highest income bracket in the United
States tend to live the longest, and life expectancy
decreases down a slope right along income lines.
Throughout the entirety of the series, health policies

JuneSeptember2011

FILMREVIEW

Page48


andanymeasurethatimproveoverallqualityoflifeare
framed as human rights issues. On the subject of
minimizing economic based disparities in health and
longevity,Dr.AdewaleTroutman,MD,DirectorofPublic
Health in Louisville, Kentucky puts it quite simply in
saying Its about human rights. Its about addressing
the social determinants of health in order to make a
difference. Its about fairness. Its about health equity
and social justice (California Newsreel, 2008). Various
public health officials and researchers interviewed
throughouttheseriesalldrawthesameconclusionfor
improvinghealthreductionofstress.Livinginpoverty
and having low job stability leads to higher rates of
illness, because when we feel stressed there are real
biological reactions, the adrenal glands release stress
hormones which weaken the immune system, raises
heartrates,bloodpressureandcanleadtoanumberof
other serious health problems. In a world where
economic inequality is so prevalent, this has serious
implications for the lives of the poorest and most
vulnerablepopulations.
UnnaturalCauseslooksatthewaysinwhichsocialand
economic inequities have profoundly affected the lives
of visible minorities in the United States, and in one
American controlled territory. The segment entitled
Bad Sugar looks at the social, economic, political
structures that are powerful determinants of systemic
health disadvantages for indigenous groups. The Pima
and Tohono Oodham Native Americans of southern
Arizonahavearguablythehighestdiabetesratesinthe
worldhalfofalladultsareafflicted.Lookingatthelast
century in these peoples histories, it is evident that
health problems reflect a legacy of colonization,
genocideandfamine.OverhalfofthePimaandTohono
Oodhampeoplescurrentlyliveatorbelowthepoverty
line. Their traditional ways of life and masterful
methods of desert irrigation were disrupted for over a
centurybydamsconstructedinthelater19thandearly
20th centuries, which diverted waters away from their
crops. Drought and famine followed and the Pima and
Tohono Oodham became dependent on US military
supplied dried and canned foods. This created a
generationlongdependencyonlownutrient,sugarrich
andhighlyprocessedfoods.Thedecisiontodamthese
rivers benefited the new inhabitants of European
descent moving into the Phoenix area but ultimately
destroyedtheculture,identityandentirewayoflifefor
theindigenousgroups.
JuneSeptember2011

A similar legacy of health and economic status

connection for indigenous peoples is documented in
part6oftheseries,entitledCollateralDamagewhich
looks at the life on the island of Ebeye in the Marshall
Islands.Thistinyislandisamilelongand1/8ofamile
wide and yet 10,000 people live there, making it more
densely populated than Manhattan. The crowded
conditions, rapid urbanization and rampant poverty
make tuberculosis rampant. The conditions on Ebeye
were not always so cramped, but the nations long
relationship with the United States, who maintains a
militarybaseonnearbyisland,Kwajalein,hasdisrupted
thesocialorderoftheirsociety.TheAmericandefense
contractors and their families who exclusively live on
Kwajalein(Marshallesearenotpermittedtodoso)live
in middle class suburban setting. A mere 3 miles away
byboat,theresidentsofEbeyeliveinslumsandaresick
with the diseases of poverty (for example, TB and
malnutrition)anddonothaveenoughcleanwater.

Thesetwosegments,alongwithalloftheothersinthe
Unnatural Causes series challenge traditional medical
understandings of wellness in that they propose that
space, life experience and economic factors are the
greatest determinants of health. Social policies which
aimtoimprovequalityoflifebeitthroughavailabilityof
healthy food choices, improving air quality, access to
education, cultural and community building all of
theseelementsplayafactorinthesustainedhealthofa
population. From a human rights perspective, we can
then consider that social determinants of health will
never completely disappear, but it is possible to
minimize their negative impact by bridging the gaps
between the haves and havenots. This documentary
series sheds light on just some of ways in which class,
race,socialstatus,andspaceinteractwithoneanother
to determine health. In doing so, there is a call for
smarter social policies, which empower both
communities, and individuals to take hold of their
health. Overall, Unnatural Causes demonstrates the
ways in which social and economic elements can
adverselyaffect the mostbasichumanright theright
tolife.

Page49


Joshua (the name given to the narrator of the
documentary), recounts how his network of VJs
broadcasted their pirate content from television
headquarters in Oslo, Norway, back into Burma via
satellite to counter the regime's propaganda and
misinformation. The footage the VJs shot was used on
CNN, BBC and other world news outlets. The military
government ran attack campaigns on the state
sponsoredmediaoutletstellingpeoplethatDVBreports
arefalseandconstructedtomakethejuntaslookbad.
Evidentlythisfailedtoconvincemany,asover100,000
still demonstrated in the streets, including a group of
several thousand Buddhist monks in defiance of
proclamations banning public assembly of more than
fivepeopletogether.

FILMREVIEW
BurmaVJ:ReportingfromaClosedCountry
ByJessicaThorp(SpecialtoCDHR)
(Toronto, Ontario: Kinosmith, Magic Hour Films, in co
production with WG Film, Oscilloscope Laboratories and
Mediamente, 2010. DVD, 89 min., special features include
interviews, audio commentary and In English and Burmese,
withoptionalEnglishandFrenchsubtitles.)

BurmaVJisarivetingdocumentaryaboutthe2007civil
uprising within Myanmar, as documented by a
collective of independent journalists, the Democratic
Voice of Burma (DVB). In the late summer of 2007,
politicaltensionswithinwerepalpableasthecountrys
oppressive military junta removed fuel subsidies,
causingwidespreadfuelshortagesandpricesofnatural
gasandpetroltoincreasedramatically.Civilunrestwas
ata20yearhighandthepoliticalclimateseemedright
forpeopletotaketothestreetandforcitizenstovoice
peaceful dissent. The small group of approximately 30
videojournalists(VJs)filmedtheuprisingandsmuggled
thefootageoutofthecountry,eitherbytrustedcourier
or via satellite feed. This footage was the rest of the
worlds eyes into the situation, as foreign journalists
were barred from entry into the country and the
Internet was shut down. The cameras used were small
personal camcorders which would be concealed within
a bag, as being caught with a camera would mean
severepunishmentandimprisonment.
JuneSeptember2011

As an infamously oppressive regime, the military and

statepoliceinMyanmarwillarrestanyonewhoopenly
speaks out against the government, and
demonstrations of any size are rare. The governments
most vocal critic, opposition party leader and Nobel
laureateAungSanSuuKyihasbeenunderhousearrest
mostofthesince1989.Despitethefactthatherparty,
the National League for Democracy, won a majority of
theseatsinthe1990generalelectionthemilitaryjuntas
did not allow her party to come to power. Despite
efforts to squash support for Aung Sans party within
the country, international support for her methods
began torise.AungSanwasawardedtheNobelPeace
Prizein1991forcontinuedhernonviolentstrugglefor
democracyandhumansrightsinBurma.
Joshuarecountsthathefeltachangeintheair,andhe
expresseshopethatAungSanmaybereleasedandthe
buildingpoliticalmomentumandtheBurmesepeoples
desire for change would be enough to renew the
revolution movement. The last serious attempt at a
revolution was almost 20 year prior in 1988. The
previous attempt at revolution was squashed when
some 3,000 protestor were killed by the juntas. As
political dissent stemming from fuel prices within
Burma begins to grow, Joshua sees a small
demonstration in a marketplace. He records the
demonstration, but is caught by the secret police and
taken in for questioning. He feigns innocence that he
justhappenedtobethereatthetime,andisreleased,
but his equipment is confiscated. At this point Joshya
decides that he was only released in order so that the
policecouldtrackhisconversationsandmovements.He
decides that he must go to Thailand for a month and

Page50


staytheretoavoiddetentionandtoensurethesecurity
oftheVJcollective.Hebelieveshecouldbemorehelp
to his network there, than on the ground in Burma,
where he is certain he will be followed and likely
detained.ThroughouttherestofthefootageofJoshua
we see (with his face obscured), he is working on
coordinating theVJsonthephoneandviaGoogleTalk
instantmessaging.
One of the high points of the civil uprising depicted in
thefilmiswhentheBuddhistmonksdecidedthatthey
neededtobecomeinvolvedintheprotestbecausethe
suffering of the Burmese people was too grave to
ignore any longer. The monks are a highly influential
group within Burmese society. Though the monks
typically obtain from political matters, but their
involvement in leading of peaceful demonstration lent
legitimacy to the cause and inspired a sense of moral
dimension within the protests. At one point Joshua
explains that the military would not dare to harm the
monks, as to do so is contrary to Buddhist teachings.
Though the monks continued to lead nonviolent
demonstrations for as long as possible, the military
responds with violence. Monks are beaten, imprisoned
andsomearekilled. Thismarkedaturningpoint,after
whichtheuprisingbegantofallapart.
Though the antigovernment protests in 2007 did not
bringaboutthedemiseofthejuntas,itdidbringlightto
ways in which a relatively small number of citizen
journalists can undermine the credibility of the states
official media outlets and propaganda. Significant
internationalattentionwasbroughttothediresituation
inMyanmarthroughthefootagecapturedbytheDVB.
BurmaVJisapoignantreminderthateveninoppressive
regimesthereareconcretethingsthatcitizenscandoto
try to bring attention to their plight. Burma VJ offers
hope in the more oppressive regimes, it is possible to
effectively challenge the status quo without the use of
violence. The film also emphasizes the increasing
importance of grassroots citizen journalism to
documenthumanrightsviolations.

INMEMORIAM:ARJUNSENGUPTA,
FOUNDINGCHAIRMANOFCDHR
ArjunSengupta,MyFather
ByMituSengupta
My beloved father passed away one year ago,
onSunday,September26,2010.
He was born inKolkata, in 1937, into a funloving but
eruditemiddleclassjointfamily.Abrilliantstudentand
star debater at the PresidencyCollege, my father went
ontoearnaPh.D.inEconomicsfromMITattheageof
27.
His eclectic but uniformly impressive career included
eminent posts such as Special Secretary to Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi (19811984), Executive Director
and Special Advisor to the Managing Director of the
IMF(19851990),AmbassadorofIndiatotheEuropean
Union(19901993), Member Secretary of the Planning
Commission (19931998), and Member of Parliament,
RajyaSabha,from2005untilhisdeath.
Hewasmostfulfilled,however,byhistermasChairman
of the National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganised Sector (20052009), when his team
producedagroundbreakingreportwhichrevealedthat,
despite many years of stellar economic growth, 77
percent of Indias population lives on less than Rs. 20
perday.

JuneSeptember2011

Page51


Hisintentionwasnottodenythevalueofmarketsand
economic liberalization, but to question our blind faith
in them. Though he was among Indias first market
reformers heading a landmark committee on public
enterprise reform in the 1980s he believed that in a
country with as much deprivation as ours, the state
mustnotwithdrawfromitsobligationtohelpthepoor
andvulnerable.
In the last five years, my father also attained a major
presenceontheglobalstage,astheUNsIndependent
Expert on the Right to Development.In this forum, he
framed poverty and the violation of human rights as
global rather than purely national problems, and
offered an empowering message to the worlds
downtrodden: that they are entitled, as a matter of
justice,toafairshareoftheirsocietieswealth.
Yet despite his firm views, my father was generous
towards his adversaries, and a born contrarian. He
loved playing devils advocate, and genuinely admired
anyone who could engage him in verbal battle. When
knockedbackindebateorlife,hewasdiscouragedfor
only moments. He couldnt wait to jump back in the
ring,andhaveanothergoatpersuadinghisopponents.

Butwhatismostremarkableaboutmyfatheristhathis
finestworkistheoutcomeofaperiodofdeepanxiety
and affliction. His death was the result of a long
struggle with prostate cancer, diagnosed in 2005. An
eternal optimist but intensely private man, he fought
his illness valiantly, but quietly, allowing only my
motherandIawindowintohissuffering.
In what we saw, however, there was no bitterness.
Towards the end, when pain had darkened his best
hours,hewouldsitonourverandah,watchingtherain.
He said the unusually heavy Delhi monsoon reminded
him of his youth in Kolkata, when, drenched by a
sudden downpour, he would rush into the College
Street coffee house, the days thoroughlyread
newspaper covering his head, for hot tea, mishti and
adda.
Lifeisbeautiful,hesaid,Iwillmissit.

Indeed,myfatherwasconvincedthatintellectualmerit
and our innate, human concern for justice would
ultimately triumph over narrow political play. I often
told him he would get much further were he more
politicallyastute.Towhichhesaid,withaheartylaugh,
Ihavealreadycomequitefar.Ihavenoregrets.
It is a testament to his buoyant spirit and ethical
approach to living that he easily acquired admirers,
fromeveryideologicalcornerandwalkoflife.Herewas
amanwhocouldbeneitherbulliednorbought.Itwas
difficulttonotnoticehim.
I shall remember my father as a strong, principled and
selfmademan;avisionaryandtrueegalitarian.Though
heindulgedmewithhislove,hetaughtmethevalueof
earned achievement, and forbade me, very
categorically, from using his position and privilege for
personal advantage. This was infuriating at times, like
when he was at the PMO, and insisted that I ride the
ricketybustoschoollikeeveryoneelse.Itisonlylater
that I understood the beauty and freedom of being
confidentinonesskin,indebtedtonone.

JuneSeptember2011

PhotoByGeirOveFonn,Oslo,Norway,2009.

(Anearlierversionofthisarticlewasfirstpublishedin
theAsianAgeonOctober15th,2010)

Page52

INAUGURALADDRESSES:HUREP
WORKSHOP
Dr. Ravi Srivastava (Professor, Jawaharlal
NehruUniversity)
[Please note that the following are derived from the
transcriptsoftheworkshop,andhavebeeneditedtothe
best of our abilities. They are meant as spoken not
writtenwords.]
Professor Arjun Senguptas work on human rights
internationallyandhisworkintheNationalCommission
for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS)
intersected in more ways than one. I think what
happenedinthatperiod[whenhewasChairmanofthe
NCEUS]isthathisworkintheNCEUSbegantoinfluence
hisworkonhumanrights,andhisworkonhumanrights
quitenaturallyinfluencedtheworkhedidintheNCEUS
and both these pieces worked together his work on
human rights internationally as the independent
rapporteur on right to development and then
subsequently,onextremepoverty,andtheworkonthe
NCEUS.Ireallybelievethatinsomesense,notonlyfor
me, but for the rights movement in India, it is a very
importanttouchstone,andasIspeak,Iwilltrytofocus
on two or three issues where I think his contribution
wasimportant,andwhichIthinkweneedtofocuson,
andnotonlyduringthecourseofthisseminar(whenI
say we, I mean the large number of people who work
withtherightsmovementinthiscountry).
I came into association with Professor Sengupta when
he formed CDHR and had started working on the right
todevelopment.Hehadaskedmetocontributeonthe
right to education as part of that project. Those were
thedaysIsuspectthatKannanalsoprobablycameinto
association with Professor Sengupta then and we kept
on interacting intermittently, but as members of the
NCEUSweinteractedforseveralhourseachday.Imust
say that in more ways than one, one will miss his
presencetoday.

JuneSeptember2011

It is difficult for me to conceive of a debate or a

discussion on issue such as this without Professor
Sengupta sitting around. But more than that the way
hispresencewouldtransformanydebate,thedialectics
ofadebate,becausehewasforeversoprovocative,he
wasforevertheotherinhisdebate.Oneveryissuethat
wehad,andIalwaysstatethis:everyissuethatwetook
up in the Commission, he was the Devils Advocate,
forcing us to actually clarify our first principles,
questioningonthose(tillweactuallywere)asagroup,
as a Commission, we were absolutely certain of the
bedrock on which we stood. The way he was always
able to come into these arguments reminded one
always of the Calcutta Addas. But of course he went
much beyond that because of the way he was able to
formulateandquestionhisownpositionandeverybody
elsespositionaroundhim.Idonotknowwhetherwe
willeverbeabletoinagrouplikethis.Ihopeweare
abletoachievewithaninformalorsmallgroup,butthis
is the way he always was able to clarify his own
position.
His work on extreme poverty, to my mind, is very
significant. When Professor Sengupta worked on the
righttodevelopment,heestablishedaverystrongcase
for positive rights and collective rights. Professor
Amartya Sen had talked about positive rights, others
had talked about positive rights, but in my view his
contribution was really to make a case for collective
rights and the role of a developmental strategy; a
developmental framework based on participation and
equityandhumanrights.This,tomymind,wasavalue
addition of his work. That framework the right to
development and the human rights framework
establishedacaseforuniversalrights.
His work on extreme poverty kept influenced his work
in the Commission. Although he talked about how
extremepovertyaffectedindividualsandthereforeone
could argue that this was in the realm of individual
rights, he made out a case for why extreme poverty
could be viewed as a denial of human rights and not
merely as a condition arising out of denial of existing
human rights. I think that of course was a very

Page53


importantpartofthecase.Buttheotherthingwasthat
he,intalkingaboutextremepovertywhichhesaidwas
anintersectionofincomepoverty,humandevelopment
poverty and social exclusion, what he was also doing
was in the language of universal rights while at the
sametimebringingplaytheRawlsianprincipleofjustice
and saying that this is consistent with focusing on the
mostvulnerable.So,theideathatwithinaframework
embeddedinthelanguageofuniversalrightsyoucould
speak of focusing on the most vulnerable and, of
course, as he made out the case, was that extreme
povertyitselfwasadenialofhumanrights.Therefore,
you had two things. You could speak in terms of the
universallanguagebutatthesametimesaythatthisis
completelyconsistentwiththisfocus.
As I said, when you speak of extreme poverty you are
speaking in terms of a denial of human rights to an
individualorasetofindividuals,soyoucouldtalkofthis
inthecontextofindividualrights.Butagain,ifyoulook
at Dr. Senguptas treatment of the subject, his focus
wasontheneedforadevelopmentalstrategy.Because
whenhefocusedonhumanpoverty,hewasspeakingat
oneendofsocietiesliketheUSAhewroteareporton
theextremepovertyintheUSAhewastalkingabout
Europe, he was talking about Africa, he was talking
aboutAsia,andthereweredifferentsocietalcontextsin
whichpolicydevelopmenttookplaceinthesedifferent
countries. So, he made the case for a development
strategy and a development framework rather more
carefully when he talked about extreme poverty. But
nonetheless at the back of his mind you could always
see that he felt that obligation of the state could be
fulfilledthroughacertainkindofdevelopmentstrategy
and a framework and that in some sense united his
workontherighttodevelopmentwith,inmyview,his
workonextremepoverty.

JuneSeptember2011

The third strand of his work, of course, arose earlier

when he was independent rapporteur to the right to
development, but also continued in his work on
extreme poverty, was ofcourse this whole question of
justiciability.FollowingSen,hearguedthatjusticiability
wasnotsufficientconditionforrightsandthatwhatyou
could have also is an accountability framework within
which rights could be embedded. So, you needed to
talkaboutrightsinabroaderframework,notjustwithin
aframeworkofjusticiability.These threeissueswhich
heposed,andIamonlyfocusingonthesethreeissues,
in mind, are extremely significant for the stage of the
rights movements in which we are in this country at
present.
Let me again enunciate these three issues because to
my mind they are extremely important touchstones
whichIhavederivedfromhiswork.Thefirst,asIsaid,
isthattheyneednotalwaysbejusticiablerights.What
is important to have is an accountability framework
which could be linked to sanctions and penalties. So,
the kind of work, you are for instance doing at the
moment, which is looking at accountability framework
and outcomes, was something which was very central
tothewayhelookedatrights.Ofcourse,justiciability
wherever it could be brought in was in some sense
superior but it was not necessarily the only thing
associatedwithrights.Thisisthefirstthing.

Page54


Secondly, as I said, his focus on attributes of a
developmentstrategythatattheendofthedayitwas
the way a development strategy could work itself out
which could make the difference between whether
progressively were being realized or not. So, the
question of positive rights being realized progressively
was very much a question of how the development
strategyitselfworkeditselfout,whatwereitsattributes
and so on and so forth. I my personal opinion if you
look at his work and [Amartya] Sens work, Sen has
neveremphasizedtheneed,perse,ofadevelopmental
frameworkwhereasArjunalwaysemphasizedtheneed
for a strategy at least in the context of a country like
Indiaandinthecontextofhisworkonextremepoverty
he took the case of employment. He took the case of
employment precisely because in the NCEUS he was
lookingverycloselyattheissueofemploymentstrategy
to say how a developmental strategy could work itself
out in ensuring dignified quality employment which
couldaffectextremepovertyinIndiaorincountrieslike
India.
So,hetookthatcasetomakethispointandfinally,asI
said, a very important issue that although all this was
presentedinvokingtheuniversallanguageofrights,but
thatneverpreventedhimfromsayingthatpoliciesneed
to be targeted, that they need to prioritize, they need
tofocus,theyneedtofocusfirstonthemostvulnerable
groupsandIthinkallthesethreewaysinwhichIthink
he looked at the rights based issues, all of which was
partly derived also by hiswork firstly on RTD and then
astheindependentrapporteurontheextremepoverty
issue,butwhichplayedbackwardsfromhisworkinthe
NCEUS, particularly looking at the unorganized sector
and right to employment. There are lessons to be
learntfortherightsmovementinIndiaandperhapsin
otherplacesalso.

JuneSeptember2011

Dr. Brd Anders Andreassen (Norwegian

Centre for Human Rights and Faculty of
Law,UniversityofOslo)
Ihavebeenaskedtogivealittlebitbackgroundtohow
Arjun came to work together with his Norwegian
partners. I have been part of that history throughout
becauseArjuncametoOsloforthefirsttimeIamnot
sureitwasthefirsttime,butatleastinhisfunctionasa
human rights activist and an academic in 1999, just
afterhehadbeenappointedindependentexpertonthe
righttodevelopment.IwonderedwhyhecametoOslo
at that particular time. I think it was because in my
centreforhumanrightsattheUniversityofOslowehad
for quite some time been very interested in economic,
social and cultural rights and at that time this was not
sowelldevelopedintheacademiccommunity.Wehad
been doing research since the early 1980s, particularly
on the right to adequate food and trying to
operationalizethatparticularrightintoframeworksthat
both could lead to implementation of the state
obligationsofdifferenttypes,aswellasproducingfood
security systems. The first Director of the Centre had
been very active in developing this framework
internationallyintheSubCommissiononHumanRights
in the United Nations and Arjun came to get in touch
withusonthatparticulardimensionofhiswork.
Lateron,certainlyhebroadenedthescope:hewasnot
just talking about economic, social and cultural rights
butalsotheinterlinkageswithotherrightsasyouhave
referred to. That was his starting when he came to
Oslo. We followed him and he came to Oslo, gave
severalseminarsafter1999andupto2004.In2003we
organized together a major conference in Oslo where
Amartya Sen was one of the keynote speakers, a so
calledNobelSymposiumonHumanRightsandtheRight
to Development which produced a volume which has
then been published a couple of times. Arjun and
Stephen Marks (of Harvard University) and I were sort
of the total team of all the presentations in the
conference. That was I think a major contribution.
Arjun was not dogmatic on Right to Development.

Page55


Arjun was also interested in the human rights based
approach development as a slightly different way of
thinking about development and human rights and he
wasabletocaptureboth thesetrends inhumanrights
research.

PhotoByMituSengupta

I remember Arjun as a very generous mentor and as a

verygenerousandwarmhumanbeingaswellasbeinga
prolific intellectual academic. So, we appreciated very
much that he came and really brought in perspectives
as you have been referring to. The Right to
Developmenthasbeenkindofcontestedinthehuman
rights fraternity and in human rights research. What I
feel Arjun was doing, he was combining a kind of
intellectual curiosity of developing this conceptually
further, and at the same time he was also concerned
abouttheusesitcouldbeputto,whatkindofusescan
onehaveofthis?So,inawayhehadakindofamoral
imperative of not just doing the conceptual work, but
alsothinkabouthowyoucanputthisintopracticeand
that was particularly appealing to us, and you can see
that it is probably quite telling that his main
contributions in a way, as I see it, has been done
through the working out of international reports, not
necessarily long volumes and journal articles but
practicallyappliedreportsintheUnitedNationsandin
India,andthatinawaybringsoutthismoralimperative
thatwasimportanttohiminamorepracticalsense.
JuneSeptember2011

Lastly, he was very active in the Commission for the

LegalEmpowermentofthePoorandIthinkthatthelast
Commissionwasveryimportant.Hewasmakingavery
important contribution here because the legal
empowerment discourse, as we will probably refer to
later today, was in a bit quite constrained as it started
out by the Centres rather narrow views of property
rights.IthinkArjun,andIwastogetherwithhiminthe
ministry when he accepted to be a member of that
Committee,hesaidwehavetodosomethingaboutthis
mandate if it is going to work out, and he was one of
those who really was able to broaden the mandate of
the Commission to make it more inclusive of human
rights in particular; to make it inclusive of the rule of
law as another dimension and not just talk about
traditional property rights because he had probably a
moregroundedapproachtopovertyeradicationandto
property rights when he was approaching that work in
theCommission.So,myunderstandingisthathemade
veryimportantcontributionstotheCommissionforthe
Legal Empowerment of the Poor and he made that a
much more coherent and important document than it
otherwisewouldhavebeen.
You are all well familiar with Right to Development
conceptionsthathehadbeendeveloping.Ifullyagree
withwhathasbeensaidherethathedidnotjusttakea
narrowjusticiabilityapproachtoit.Helookedathuman
rightsasmorelikeAmartyaSenwouldbesayingasocial
ethics as well as legal standards and norms. He was
againinasenseopenmindedtowardsdevelopingnew
rights, little bit inspired I think by Henry Shue talking
abouthumanrightsasresponsestostandardthreatsin
society societal threats and he would approach
poverty as one of our times most serious threats to
humandignityanddecentliving.Hewasbroaderinthis
conception.
On the other hand, towards the end of his life, the
question he was concerned about when he worked in
the openended Working Group on the Right to
Development was, is it possible to make the Right to
Development a justiciable right? Is it possible to
develop a Convention on the Right to Development?

Page56


Thisisanissueasyouprobablyknowwhichisveryhotly
debatedstill.Therearedifferentpositionsonthatand
thereisamovetotrytodevelopaconventionbutithas
not really come to the implementation stage yet.
Another part of that work, however, he was again
important in setting this up, was the High Level Task
Force that was set up as a facilitating entity for the
openended Working Group in order to try to test out
and develop indicators on the Right to Development;
test that out on international development policies.
That work as you might know has really reached some
interest in international institutions. So, when you go
to the openended Working Group in Geneva you will
find that the major development institutions really
attend, and the audience is packed with all sorts of
peopleandgovernments.So,thisisnotsomethingvery
marginal. This is something which has been given
interest,takenitsinterestandverymuchthathastodo
with the ground breaking conceptual work that Arjun
wasdoingintheearly2000swithhisfivereportsonthe
RighttoDevelopment.
He is not any longer with us, but his work is living on
andIthinkthathehasinawaylaidthefoundationfor
much research and more practical work in the years
ahead.Idonotthinkthisdebatewillgoaway.Ithinkit
will actually be continuing over the next years. There
areyoungresearcherstotakeupthechallengeoftrying
tomakethisoperationalandtodevelopcasestudieson
the Right to Development; they are producing books
and PhDs on the Right to Development perspectives.
This is really something that is a cutting edge area of
humanrightsresearch.Itunderlinestheimportanceof
collectiverightsbuttheRighttoDevelopmentalsohas
itsimportantindividualcomponents,inthesensethatit
makes the individual both the subject and object of
development. The whole debate on the Right to
Development changed from a much more politically
doctrinal approach in the late 1970s and early 1980s
into something more conducive to the general human
rights principles of individual human rights. Certainly
one of the important contributions of Arjun is to
emphasizetheaccountabilityofgovernmentsinputting
JuneSeptember2011

inplaceprocessesorprogressiverealizationofallrights
inacoherentway,andtoseethisassomethingthatis,
as he called it, a composite right. Rights are
interrelatedandweneedtospelloutinempiricaldetail
how they are interrelated and that was what he was
concernedwith.
Iwouldliketoendonthisnote.Iamverygratefulfor
theworkhehasbeenworkdoingandfortheinspiration
hehasgivingtomyresearchcommunity.Weendedup
with having a research project together, The Human
Rights and Extreme Poverty project (HUREP) as it was
with Dan Banik and Arjun and I as the main
coordinators. It is a tribute to Arjun that we hold this
conference towards the end of the project and
posthumously we have published works by him in a
journal from previous conferences that we will later.
So,inaway,hislatestwritingshavejustbeenpublished
and it concerned the issues that we are discussing
today.

Dr. K.P. Kannan (Professor and Director,

Centre for Development Studies,
Trivandrum,Kerala)
My association with Professor Sengupta personally
started only after he came back to India after his
European Union ambassadorship and he started the
CDHR.IremembervisitingtheHauzKhasresidenceand
officeandthefirstthingheaskedmetodowastogive
a lecture on the so called Kerala Model of
Development. Of course he knew me and my Centre
very well because he was in the Delhi School of
EconomicsandProfessorK.N.Rajatthattimewasthe
Director of the DSE. They had a great intellectual
relationshipandhehadgreatadmirationforProfessor
Raj.ThedifficultsubjectsImaybeabletocommenton
lateron,butletmetakeafewminutesonthispersonal
note. That also shows he could easily carry several
thingsatthesametimeor,letussay,putseveralhatsat
thesametimeandbalanceallofthem.WhenIcameto
know him more closely in the Commission I knew that
he was a policymaker, very concerned about the

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feasibility of policies. In the discussions he will always
askushowtomakeitacceptable,howtoreallymakeit
feasible,youhavetothinkaboutitbeforeyoufinalize.
Buthewasalso,asyousaid,averyseriousthinkerand
academicandveryoftenhetookleavefromhisofficial
positions and went to teaching in Oxford and London
andinvariousotherplacesandhewasuptodatewith
what is happening in development literature. We had
wonderful discussions with him. When he was in the
Planning Commission, apart from doing planning I
suppose, he also floated a scheme to create chairs in
developments economics in six different centres. Dr
Kurian might know that, and one of that Centres
happened to be in Trivandrum and he had visited us.
When I met him, I was holding that Chair, Planning
Commission Chair. When I told him I am holding this
chair, he said, do not you know I created it. Yes, of
course,IknowbutyoudidnotknowthatIamholding
that.Wehadgreatmemoriesofthatkind.
He was a great conversationalist and he could handle
subjects varying from policies to economics to
philosophywhichIfoundlater.Hewasalsoassociated
withProfessorBPChattopadhyayinthatseriesofworks
andthethingswereamazing.Butthispracticalaspect
of his was always there and what could be done in a
givensituationandasBrdwassayingthathepressed
foranacademically,logicallyconsistentideaofRightto
Development and at the same time how to make it an
operational concept he was trying to marry the two,
at the same time. We had very many discussions on
that and I remember in one of the discussions he said
we have to learn a lot and India has to a long way in
marryingRightswithDevelopment.Isaid,yes,Indiahas
to learn from its Kerala. Then he smiled at me,
mischievousoneatthat.Butlaterourdiscussionstook
a very serious turn and I told him about the Kerala
experience with which I was more associated in terms
of understanding. I said all that you said happened in
this place without using the discourse of rights and
noneoftheRighttoDevelopmentthathappenedinthe
StateofKerala,Isaid,happenedwithoutpressurefrom
below. So, while it is a good idea to talk about the
JuneSeptember2011

conceptofRighttoDevelopmentandthenhowtomake
itoperationalintermsofpolicymaking,youmusthave
an effective demand. He said, what is that effective
demand?Isaid,inKeynesianeconomicswetalkabout
effective demand in terms of purchasing power. Here
we need to talk about a political effective demand
coming from people that this is what they are looking
for.Hesaidthatisanidea:Ithinkweshouldtalkabout
it.ThisismuchbeforeIjoinedtheNCEUSofwhichhe
wastheChairman.Hetheninvitedme,recommended
my name for a workshop in IIC, organized by UNESCO.
They were interested in the Right to Development
discourse at that time. I wrote a paper on Kerala
Development Experience: A Rights Based Perspective
andthenIarguedtherethatevenifyoudonotusethe
wordrightsyougaincertainthingsasaresultofwhat
Amartya Sen calls in a very broad way but does not
really elaborate, into public action, which is basically
the political effective demand. When such political
effective demand generates pressures in a democratic
polity, many entitlements become as if rights, even if
theynotlegalrights.SchoolingisnotlegalrightinIndia
(at the time of this meeting) and so in Kerala. It is not
thejusticeabilepartoftheRighttoDevelopmentthatis
more important but the social accountability and the
underlyingmoralsituationinthesocietythatgivesita
much more powerful protection than formal legal
protection. So, in the Kerala context no government
will dare to withdraw public distribution system. It is
not a legal right yet. But no government will dare to
withdrawthat.Nogovernmentwilldoanythingwhich
willreducetheaccesstoschoolingofanysectionofthe
population or for that matter access to primary
healthcare because the political and social
consequences will be too high for them in terms of
electoral outcomes. So, if we can create that kind of
condition,thenitiscertainlyfeasibletohavetheRight
toDevelopment.
In a very interesting way, if I may say so, without any
disrespecttoanyrulingregimesinotherpartsinIndia,
we had a visit to West Bengal. I had compiled a
statisticsonthatandIsaid,WestBengalisourpolitical

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cousin but it has a totally different performance. He
thought over for a while and he argued with me, as
usual, and he was a Devils Advocate, but I knew what
he will do and when we went and met the Chief
Minister and the Finance Minister and the Industry
Minister there, he gave a very tough time to them
quotingaccesstoschooling,thepovertyincidence,the
wage levels and all that. They had no answer. The
FinanceMinisterAshimDasGuptatoldhimyoumustbe
careful with your data, are you? He said, I work with
data every day unlike you as Finance Minister and we
are more careful, and he said, you do not understand
thelocalsituationhere. Arjunsaid,I amasmuch ofa
Bengali as you are whether I live here or not. I know
what is happening. These were very interesting
experiencesforus,butbehindthatwasaverygenuine
concernandhewaseverwillingtolearnfromwhatever
that you could give him and convince him of an
argumentandthishadhappenedseveraltimes.

Oncewhenadraftreportwasfinalized,henoticedthat
Iusedsomeverystrongwordsandlanguage.Ithought
allofmycolleaguesaregoingtoreviseit.Wehadlotof
discussions. At the end of it he stood 100 percent by
thatandofcourseitbecameverycontroversial,buthe
knew what he was doing and I think we was willing to
stickhisneckoutwhensomefundamentalissueswere
involved. I think it is that memory and it is that
approach to the subject and with a genuine social
concern,hehadseveralhatsandheusedtotellmethat
JuneSeptember2011

inpracticallifewehavetodomanythingsbutwealso
havetoseethattherearecertainlimitsuptowhichwe
cango.
OnthebasisofthedetailedworkthatweintheNCEUS
carriedoutontheinformaleconomy,itsworkersandits
close linkage with poverty and vulnerability as well as
socialidentity,wehadgivenaclearstatisticalpictureof
two Indias: the shining one and the suffering one. So,
towards the end he was planning to write a book on
Other India. Some of the work we did jointly was
published in the Economic and Political Weekly. It was
titledasIndiasCommonPeopleWhoarethey?How
many are they? And how do they live? In that article
we refrained from giving our personal opinion or
interpretation. What we did was to present a series of
statistical calculations on informality of work, poverty
andvulnerabilitysothatanybodycanlookatthemand
recalculatethemifnecessaryandthenbringoutcertain
uncomfortable social truth. For example, the whole
idea of social exclusion is much more embedded than
we seem to think or what we would like to think and
some of these were very uncomfortable findings. But
hecametotakethatveryseriouslyandinourownway
I am trying to continue some of the things that he left
because he had told me especially that we have done
onlysomeofthesecalculationsforIndiaasawholeand
youalwaystalkaboutStatelevelpicturesbecausethey
are so different from each other. We must do a very
detailedregionallevelanalysisofwhatishappeningand
IthinkthatwasagreatsuggestionwhichIamtryingto
see whether we can follow through and also derive
from this whole idea of Right to Development. In his
Presidential Address to the Indian Society of Labour
Economics in 2009 he talked about the theme of
Towards full Employment. He talked about it and
believed in full employment and how can we achieve
fullemployment.Heoftentoldmethatweshouldwork
out such a way because now what is happening is you
put growth first and then everything else you work it
backwards. But see what we have got. Put
employment first and then you work your growth
backwards, see if you satisfy the requirement of

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employment which is a basic requirement of inclusion
andthenseewhatkindofgrowththatyouwillgetand
then you build all other things around that. So, just
reverse the strategy, and I think that also is a great
agendathathehasleftandthesearethethingswhichI
think we need to study further because if you want to
confront an enemy it is not enough to shout at the
enemy,youhavetohaveyourweaponssharpenedand
I think there is a need to sharpen the weapon in India
against a very predatory neoliberal economic policy
regime.Theyjustdonotcarewhatothersthinkorsay.
But I think it needs to be countered in a more
intellectuallyconvincingandpracticalway.

BOARDMEMBERSOFCDHR

JayshreeSengupta
Chairperson,CDHR

RohitSarkar
SpecialConsultant,PlanningCommission

PronabSen
ViceChairman,CDHR
ChiefStatisticianofIndiaandSecretary,Ministryof
StatisticsandProgrammeImplementation

PulinNayak
Professor,DelhiSchoolofEconomics

AmitabhMattoo
Professor,JawaharlalNehruUniversity

N.J.Kurian
Director,CouncilforSocialDevelopment

S.P.Pal
FormerAdviser,PlanningCommission

RajeevMalhotra
AdditionalEconomicAdvisor,
MinistryofFinance

VikramGupta
CharteredAccountant
SecretaryandTreasurer,CDHR

MituSengupta
AssociateProfessor,
DepartmentofPolitics,RyersonUniversity,Toronto
EditorofR&DBulletin

ADVISORSTOCDHR

ProfessorAmartyaSen
NobelLaureateandProfessor,HarvardUniversity

ProfessorStephenMarks
Professor,HarvardSchoolofPublicHealth,Harvard
University

ProfessorGeorgeWaardenburg
ProfessorEmeritus,ErasmusUniversity,Rotterdam

JuneSeptember2011

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